Manual Cinema Makes BAM Debut with Genre-Defying MEMENTOS MORI Tonight

Acclaimed Chicago troupe Manual Cinema will make their BAM debut with the genre-defying Mementos Mori, a whimsical take on immortality, running tonight, October 18, through October 21, 2017.

The work of Chicago-based performance collective Manual Cinema defies genre. Part theater, movie, puppetry, shadow play, live music, and show-and-tell, their pieces expose illusion-making to the audience without diminishing any of the illusion's wonder.

The company makes its BAM debut with Mementos Mori, its most ambitious show to date, with six puppeteers, hundreds of paper puppets, seven overhead projectors, two cameras, three screens, four musicians, and live sound effects. In Manual Cinema's magical telling, when Death takes an unexpected holiday, an elderly film projectionist finds a new lease on life; a ghost explores the afterlife with her iPhone; and a seven-year-old girl discovers her own mortality.

To date, Manual Cinema has created five original feature-length live cinematic shadow puppet shows (Lula Del Ray, ADA/ AVA, Mementos Mori, My Soul's Shadow, The Magic City); a live cinematic contemporary dance show for family audiences in collaboration with Hubbard Street Dance and the choreographer Robyn Mineko Williams (Mariko's Magical Mix); a site-specific installation (La Celestina); an adaptation of Hansel & Gretel created for the Belgian Royal Opera; music videos for Sony Masterworks, Gabriel Kahane, three time Grammy Award-winning eighth blackbird, and The New York Times best selling author Reif Larson; a live non-fiction piece for Pop-Up Magazine; videos for The New York Times (The Forger), NPR's Invisibilia, and a self-produced work (CHICAGOLAND); a museum exhibit created in collaboration with the Chicago History Museum (The Secret Lives of Objects) a collection of cinematic shorts in collaboration with poet Zachary Schomburg and string quartet Chicago Q Ensemble (FJORDS); and live cinematic puppet adaptations of StoryCorps stories (Show & Tell).

IF YOU GO:

Mementos Mori
Created by Manual Cinema

Directed by Julia Miller
Puppet design by Drew Dir
Choreography by Sarah Fornace
Music and sound design by Kyle Vegter
Costume design by Marisa Chilberg

At BAM Fisher (Fishman Space), 321 Ashland Pl
Oct 18-21 at 7:30pm, Oct 20 at 10pm
Limited commercial parking lots are located near BAM.

Tickets: $25
For ticket information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafe? are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn's only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafe?, operated by Great Performances, offers a dinner menu prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances.

Photo Credit: Marc Perlish