Courtesy of Derrick Beckles

Screening
TV Carnage: A Rich Tradition of Magic

Part of No Joke: Absurd Comedy as Political Reality
Sunday, October 27, 2019, 2:00 p.m.
Museum of the Moving Image - Bartos Screening Room
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Dir. Derrick Beckles. 1998, 73 mins. Digital projection. TV Carnage is a series of provocative feature-length media collages produced by Ontario artist Derrick Beckles that began in the mid 1990s. Stitched together from infomercials, celebrity workout videos, and made-for-TV travesties, TV Carnage presents a vomitous response to the everyday deluge of media to which we have all grown far too accustomed. Yet Beckles never loses his keen eye for finding the political in the mundane. The wide influence of TV Carnage—its quirky editing style, its VHS aesthetic, its downright bizarreness—can be seen most squarely in the recent work of comedy duo Tim & Eric and many of their Adult Swim colleagues. Shown here is the second entry in Beckles’ series, A Rich Tradition of Magic. 

Preceded by Peggy and Fred in Hell: The Prologue (Dir. Leslie Thornton, 1984, 19 mins.), a dystopian experiment which focuses on two kids in a room whose existences consist of the consumption and regurgitation of television and media. 

Tickets: $15 ($11 seniors and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / free for children under 3 and Museum members at the Film Lover and Kids Premium levels and above). Order tickets online.(Members may contact [email protected] with questions regarding online reservations.)

Ticket purchase includes same-day admission to the Museum (see gallery hours). View the Museum’s ticketing policy here. For more information on membership and to join online, visit our membership page.