BUNKER: Screening & Conversation with Filmmaker Jenny Perlin and Lightbox Film Center's Jesse Pires

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

7:00 p.m.

VCAM Screening Room 001

Haverford College

DCP, color, sound, 92 minutes, 2021

Programmed by Jesse Pires, Executive & Artistic Director, Lightbox Film Center

Conversation with filmmaker Jenny Perlin to follow the screening. 

Free and open to the public!

More and more American men are deciding to live alone in decommissioned military bunkers and nuclear missile silos, even as an upscale industry begins to cater to “preppers,” people who fear the imminent breakdown of society and the destruction of the United States. In Bunker, filmmaker Jenny Perlin journeys by herself into the middle of America to meet such men, and the builders and salesmen who cater to them. The film, shot in verité and slow cinema style, follows a uniquely American path, going from undisclosed location to undisclosed location, from the headquarters of a bunker construction firm to the homes of men who have cut themselves off from society, and then to a newly constructed isolated retreat and an upscale nuclear missile silo where developers claim they can re-create New York City life hundreds of feet underground. Investigating toxic American myths, including self-reliance, masculinity, home safety and security, and family life in a time of climate crisis, economic upheaval, and political strife, Bunker reveals pathological inner workings of an American phenomenon on the rise.  

Jenny Perlin makes 16mm films, videos, and animations. Her films work with and against the documentary tradition, incorporating innovative stylistic techniques to emphasize issues of truth, misunderstanding, and personal history. Her projects look closely at ways in which social machinations are reflected in the fragments of daily life. Perlin’s work has been shown in numerous exhibitions and film festivals, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival, the Rotterdam Film Festival, and others.

Organized by VCAM and Visual Studies Director John Muse. Sponsored by the VCAM Media and Makers Series, Visual Studies, and Lightbox Film Center.