The Cinematheque

Free Admission

Since his groundbreaking work as filmmaker-in-residence at the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, New York-based film and video artist Charles Atlas (b. 1949) has been one of the leading interpreters of performance for camera, known for his relentlessly innovative engagements with genre, technology, and style. 

This program features three early works produced by Atlas in collaboration with dancers, each reflecting the exuberant spirit, canny camerawork, and anti-documentary approach that defines this period in his practice. Blue Studio: Five Segments uses nascent chroma key technology to multiply the choreography of legendary dance artist Merce Cunningham across a series of outdoor landscapes for New York public television station WNET. From an Island Summer follows renowned ​“punk ballerina” Karole Armitage and her dancers along the boardwalk of Coney Island and through the streets of Times Square, capturing the garish magic of a 1980s New York summer. And Because We Must continues Atlas’s long-term collaboration with Scottish dancer and choreographer Michael Clark, adapting one of the enfant terrible’s dazzlingly irreverent stageworks for the screen.

Merce by Merce by Paik Part One: Blue Studio: Five Segments
USA 1975–76
16 min. Digital

From an Island Summer
USA 1983–84
16 min. Digital

Because We Must
USA 1989
52 min. Digital

This program is co-presented with the Contemporary Art Gallery and screens alongside Atlas’s landmark film Hail the New Puritan (1985–86) on view at CAG through February 28, 2026.

Please note: Unclaimed tickets for complimentary screenings at The Cinematheque will be released 15 minutes before showtime. Please arrive early to guarantee your seat.