Film: In Their Room – The Pixelated Diaries of Sadie Benning

“With an absolute economy of means, Benning constructed a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dyke such as we’ve never seen before.” – B. Ruby Rich, 1992

Encountering the intimate works of artist Sadie Benning (b. 1973) can evoke the same sensation as thumbing through a stranger’s diary, a feeling that inspires a glance over the shoulder, heavy with the guilt of peeping. The subject of a retrospective at MoMA when they were just 18 years old and a founding member of the revered dance-punk band Le Tigre, Benning’s early artistic expressions included turning their Fisher-Price PXL 2000 camera on themselves and their immediate surroundings, capturing matter-of-fact confessionals that rebelled against established modes of experimental filmmaking. Using a lightweight camcorder originally marketed to tweens and available for just $100, the medium of Benning’s videos is truly their message as each piece deconstructs the barriers inherent to experimental filmmaking practices. Straddling the worlds of performance art and experimental film, and infused with the energy inherent to the 1990’s New Queer Cinema boom, Benning’s short-form visual diaries are one refreshing entry point into the at-times impenetrable world of artist-made films.

All films directed by Sadie Benning. All films courtesy of Video Databank.
Total program runtime: 65 min.

If Every Girl Had a Diary
1990. 8 min. USA. B&W. English. Pixelvision video.

Living Inside
1989. 5 min. USA. B&W. English. Pixelvision video.

Me and Ruby Fruit
1990. 6 min. USA. B&W. English. Pixelvision video.

Jollies
1990. 11 min. USA. B&W. English. Pixelvision video.

New Year
1989. 6 min. USA. B&W. English. Pixelvision video.

A Place Called Lovely
1991. 14 min. USA. B&W. English. Pixelvision video.

Girl Power
1992. 15 min. USA. B&W. English. Pixelvision video.