Cinema in Conversation: Heart of a Dog
With an introduction and presentation from Dr. Kate Altizer!
Anyone who knows the work of artist, musician, and filmmaker Laurie Anderson has heard of Heart of a Dog—and for those who haven't heard of this beautiful film, bring some tissues. Created after a thirty-year filmmaking hiatus, the collage-like film serves as a video eulogy of sorts for her late piano-playing rat terrier Lolabelle. As Anderson recounts the life of Lolabelle and her internet stardom, the scope of her reflections expands to the mysteries of life, the absurdities of the modern world, philosophical observations of a veteran artist, and what might await us after death. An absolutely unmissable experience, Heart of a Dog is, "that rarest of pieces, an unabashedly experimental work that's as inviting as a visit with an old friend, one who may not always make sense, who's sometimes goofy, but has been through a lot lately and treasures the opportunity to artfully unload"—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times.
Before the film, Dr. Kate Altizer, Applied Music Instructor and Collaborative Pianist at Colby College. will explore questions Heart of a Dog raises about animals, media, and music, encounter historical piano-playing dogs, discuss Laurie Anderson's promotion of Heart of a Dog with concerts for dogs in city squares and on late-night television, and discover how and why Lolabelle learned to play.
WATCH TRAILER >
Anyone who knows the work of artist, musician, and filmmaker Laurie Anderson has heard of Heart of a Dog—and for those who haven't heard of this beautiful film, bring some tissues. Created after a thirty-year filmmaking hiatus, the collage-like film serves as a video eulogy of sorts for her late piano-playing rat terrier Lolabelle. As Anderson recounts the life of Lolabelle and her internet stardom, the scope of her reflections expands to the mysteries of life, the absurdities of the modern world, philosophical observations of a veteran artist, and what might await us after death. An absolutely unmissable experience, Heart of a Dog is, "that rarest of pieces, an unabashedly experimental work that's as inviting as a visit with an old friend, one who may not always make sense, who's sometimes goofy, but has been through a lot lately and treasures the opportunity to artfully unload"—Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times.
Before the film, Dr. Kate Altizer, Applied Music Instructor and Collaborative Pianist at Colby College. will explore questions Heart of a Dog raises about animals, media, and music, encounter historical piano-playing dogs, discuss Laurie Anderson's promotion of Heart of a Dog with concerts for dogs in city squares and on late-night television, and discover how and why Lolabelle learned to play.
WATCH TRAILER >