Film Forum

An eye-opening self-portrait by Narcissister, the Brooklyn-based performance artist whose work explores race, sexuality, and body image with infinite candor and grace. A former dancer, Narcissister’s live shows amuse, shock, confound, and enchant in equal measure. With familial roots that are Moroccan, Jewish, and African-American, she explores the intimacies of her relationship with a mother whose influence and support were critical in shaping the artist she is today. The double-ness of Narcissister’s stage personality (mostly naked, but with her face fully or partially masked) has its origins in the intensity of her identification with her mother. Smartly edited by Taryn Gould, the film has as much to say about self-love as self-loathing in women’s lives.

Presented with support from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Fund

USA     2018     91 MINS.     FILM MOVEMENT

Listen to Narcissister's opening night Q&A moderated by gallerist Jeffrey Deitch below.

Reviews

“A fascinating avant-garde home-movie documentary psychodrama. She’s a prankish gender outlaw whose work is at once witty, shocking, disturbing, and supremely expressive of her feminine mystique. Narcissister is literally a one-woman head trip.”
– Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“Not only illuminates [Narcissister’s] art, but also furthers her family’s story… An enigmatic performance (and performer) that thrives in absurdity yet isn’t afraid to play with sentimentality.”
– Beth Sullivan, Austin Chronicle

“A hybrid of performance art film and personal documentary on her relationship with her family.”
– Filmmaker Magazine

“Narcissister’s work is subversive, funny, and beautiful, in part, because of the clever intricacy of her physical acrobatics and her DIY sensibility. Focused on the female body, particularly its orifices and internal passageways, her work explores how this messy viscerality coexists alongside the various signifiers of conventional feminine allure - blond hair, lipstick, pearls, high heels, long legs, sexy lingerie… The film, shrewdly edited by Taryn Gould, juxtaposes tape of Narcissister’s shocking performances with the very raw, personal story of her all-encompassing relationship with her mother… Especially heartbreaking and beautiful in its final section, the doc is an important reminder in this Trump era of just how diverse and uncategorizable so many American families are.”
– Tim Murphy, Vulture