BFMAF Focus Programme looking at the work of photographer and filmmaker Marion Scemema, through the lens of her close friendship with artist David Wojnarowicz. 

The programme features several of Scemema’s short works, including a newly re-edited version of RELAX BE CRUEL – a seminal document of the Pier 34 warehouse project in 1980s New York, home to a thriving countercultural arts scene whose legacy runs parallel to the emergent AIDS crisis and the phenomenon of expanding gentrification.

RELAX BE CRUEL | 41’ 

When I Put My Hands on Your Body | 6’  

If I Had a Dollar to Spend | 4’ 

Summer 89’ | 26’

RELAX BE CRUEL – Shot in 1983, RELAX BE CRUEL stands as a seminal document of the Pier 34 warehouse project in New York. Demolished shortly after filming, the space became emblematic of the liberatory promise of the countercultural arts scene of 80s NYC, whose legacy ran parallel to the emergent AIDS crisis and the phenomenon of expanding gentrification. This newly retrieved and re-edited hybrid fiction follows a punk artist in need of housing as she cruises the dilapidated space, encountering art and sexuality through holes in the walls and cascading beams of light and shadow. 

RELAX BE CRUEL – Dir. Marion Scemama | France | 2024 | 40’ | English with English Subtitles