Jem Cohen

This film festival hit paints a lively portrait of a queer performer who isn't shy about standing out from the crowd. (imdb)

As regional character disappears and corporate culture homogenizes our surroundings, it's increasingly hard to tell where you are. Actual malls, theme parks, hotels and corporate centers worldwide are joined into one "superlandscape" which shapes the lives of two women caught within it. One is a corporate executive, the other a young drifter.

The documentary about legendary rock band, Fugazi. Taking footage from their first ten years of existence, Instrument is about who Fugazi was and who their fans were.

Jem Cohen short film

A short film featuring Elliott Smith performing three songs acoustically and live, "Between the Bars", "Thirteen", and "Angeles". Is basically a montage with some "stock footage" linking the scenes together.

When a Vienna museum guard befriends an enigmatic visitor, the grand Kunsthistorisches Art Museum becomes a mysterious crossroads which sparks explorations of their lives, the city, and the ways artworks reflect and shape the world... (mubi.com)

In his New York City landscape, Cohen finds inspiration in disturbance. Looking to life for rhythm and to architecture for state of mind, he locates simple mysteries. Just Hold Still is comprised of an interconnected series of short works and collaborations that explore the gray area between documentary, narrative, and experimental genres. (worldscinema.org)

Fifteen distinct but interconnected chapters, shot in locations from Russia to New York City to Istanbul. Together, these build to a reckoning at the intersection of city symphony, diary, and essay film. Perhaps the most personal of Cohen's documentary works, Counting measures street life, light, and time; noting not only surveillance and over-development but resistance and its phantoms as manifested in music, animals and everyday magic. (Gravity Hill)

In A TALE OF TWO CITIES, Jem Cohen, who for more than twenty years has been building a steadily growing archive of various city views, street scenes and portraits, has connected images from his hometown of New York and of Vienna. (rateyourmusic)

A portrait of an unnamed city in Italy. Sidestepping the tourist attractions that make the city famous, the film/video posits an almost-imaginary place that draws closer to the reality of its inhabitants. Using a voiceover narration that collages direct observation, literary texts, historical fact, local folklore, and a bit of sheer fabrication, the film/video melds documentary and narrative, past and present.

A portrait of artist Anne Truitt made primarily in and around her studio at the Yaddo artists' community.

A lyrical vision of friendship, hidden secrets, and desires. Cohen uses several types of film image to add texture to the layered composition. Beautiful shades of grey, silver, black and blue echo the water, reminiscent of early photography and silverprints. (mubi)

This silent, black-and-white short offers an eerie look at the sculptures on display and the visitors that explore the untitled location. Cohen focuses specifically on the eyes of the pieces, and the blurry outlook creates a sense that they're staring right through us. (mubi)