As a cinema studies minor, I took a lot of classes in the visual arts college at my university. All of these classes involved doing nothing more than watching movies. Some professors showed us classics. Others showed us great noir films, or at least films that had some sort of narrative structure. The last group showed us “artists” splattering the lens with paint, filming their child through a lens smeared with placenta or two hours of a guy in a hat falling asleep in a chair. This is the kind of stuff they show at Void. And, honestly, this is where these art films belong. Who wants to sit in a theater for three hours watching the same wheelbarrow crash over and over again into a wall? Well, nobody who isn’t completely high. Luckily, Void is not only an artsy showroom for bizarro film, it’s a bar! Yes, this is the atmosphere in which messed up films are supposed to be viewed–in the background with a beer in your hand. Granted, it all feels a bit pretentious (beret anyone?), but it certainly gives you some cool visuals when the conversation drags. The music accompanying your experience is anything but stimulating, but we assume this ambient music trend has got to end soon. [MF]
16 Mercer St.
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