MEKAS, Jonas (ed.)
Film Culture 80. The Legend of Barbara Rubin

Barbara Rubin (1945-1980) entered the New York underground in the 1960s while still a teenager, and quickly made herself a name with her pioneering 1963 double-projection film Christmas on Earth, featuring painted and masked performers engaging in a variety of gay and straight sexual acts. She was introduced to Jonas Mekas by his uncle, and by Mekas to the The Film-Makers’ Cooperative where she befriended many avant-garde filmmakers such as Ken Jacobs, Ron Rice, Andy Warhol, Jack Smith. During her life she wrote passionate letters about film and the underground to her mentor and friend.

This special eightieth issue of Film Culture magazine (started by the brothers Jonas and Adolfas Mekas in 1954) features previously unpublished letters, conversations, poems, film stills, and Rubin's Christmas on Earth Continued, the script for a planned sequel to her notorious film. It was published in conjunction with the exhibition and festival Edit Film Culture!, Berlin, 6–22 July, 2018.

Editor in-chief: Jonas Mekas. Edited by Chuck Smith, Charity Coleman, Christian Hiller, Anne König, Sebastian Mekas, Sarai Meyron, Marc Siegel. With contributions by John Cavanaugh, Richard Foreman, Christian Hiller, Jonas Mekas, Ara Osterweil, Barbara Rubin, Marc Siegel, Chuck Smith, Amy Taubin.

Published by Spector Books, 2018
Design by Franziska Bauer & Tania Prill
Monographs / Film & Video / Conversations / Biographies