The enthusiastic audience regularly broke into applause, as when performance artist/musician Kembra Pfahler, covered in yellow body paint, explained that she and her companions were "womanizers" for "bringing woman" wherever they went. When filmmaker Ira Sachs, moderator of the post-screening Q&A, described the artists as "two very sensitive men," Antony -- leaning against the screen in a black sweater and khakis -- smushed together his lips, zagged his head downwards, and mimicked a game-show buzzer. (He later apologized, explaining that he didn't identify as a man.) The singer remained vague in describing what the film was about: "[M]y idea was everything moving towards the feminine. It's been a theme in my life and in my work for a long time."
Atlas, in a pale goatee, orange sneakers, and a Rorschach-blot-like shirt, had even less to say. "I sort of entered into a world of beauty," he announced, but declined to elaborate. "I don't know how to say it exactly, but straight beauty. So direct. In that way, it was a challenge for me to do something so...direct. That's the only word I can use."
Afterward, the audience was invited to an after-party at Bowery Electric DJed by Turning model Johanna Constantine. Her fellow cast member Nomi Ruiz (of Hercules & Love Affair) performed soulful torch songs accompanied by electric guitar. "This is one I wrote around the same time we were turning," she said with a laugh before starting her final song, based around a refrain of "I'm still a girl."
Click here to see Antony's artwork in the story "Sound and Vision" from our November issue, featuring pieces by artist/musicians.
Click here to see Antony's artwork in the story "Sound and Vision" from our November issue, featuring pieces by artist/musicians.
Turning opens Friday at the IFC Center, 323 Sixth Avenue.