Laura Poitras

O'Say Can You See

September 1 - October 2, 2011

Drawing upon images and sounds recorded in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, O'Say Can You See evokes the experience of disorientation and loss that continues to haunt the nation. Poitras' video installation pairs images filmed by the artist at Ground Zero in September of 2001 with the looped and deconstructed sounds of the National Anthem recorded on October 20, 2001 at the Yankees' come-back victory for World Series Game 4. Together, these elements mine the anger, despair and jubilation left in the wake of two such disparate moments.

Laura Poitras is currently working on a trilogy of documentaries about post-9/11 America. The first film of the trilogy, My Country, My Country, was nominated for an Academy Award. The second film,The Oath, received the Cinematography award at Sundance, a Gotham Award, and the Directing award at Cinema Eye. She is currently filming the third part of the trilogy. Poitras is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and USA Rockefeller Fellowship, and has attended the Sundance Labs as a Fellow and a creative advisor. Her work has been shown at Sundance, Berlin Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Before making films she worked as a professional chef.

This project is made possible by Creative Capital, a USA Rockefeller Fellowship, and the MacDowell Colony.

Presented in conjunction with the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's TBA:11 Festival