Yarn the Movie

The raffia bag is finished, except for FO photos. Remiss of me, I know, but I've been in an uncharacteristic hurry to finish the bag and take it on adventures. It went on its first adventure on Friday, to see the movie Yarn at the IFC Theater in NYC. Here's the official trailer:



I arrived a little early, so had plenty of time to take the semi-obligatory photo of the theater marquee. The theater is in NYC's Greenwich Village – if gentle readers recognize the location, you know how hard it was to get such an unobstructed shot.



That accomplished, I rambled off to Washington Square Park to enjoy the nice summer afternoon. The light was lovely on the Arch, and the park was full of – dare one say thronged with? – people chilling and doing their respective things. ^ Being arch.



Whilst I was drinking in the atmosphere, a mini Pride march went by in advance of the main event Sunday. However small it was in numbers, nonetheless it was complete with signs, banners, flags, chanting, musical instruments, singing, marchers of all shapes, sizes, and ages, and even a serendipitous rainbow in the fountain. It was fabulous. I love NYC.



I love the movie too. It's an enjoyable summer flick – light, diverting, even film-festival-y. It features self-consciously poetic narration by Barbara Kingsolver and equally lyrical images of mostly crochet works by artist-activists Tinna Thorudottir Thorvaldar, Olek, Tilde Björfors, and Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam. Next to seeing the various artworks and the reactions to them, I especially enjoyed seeing the various processes of construction and installation and how one large installation was frogged (zip!). I was pleased to see how generous one of the artists was in encouraging her collaborators to speak. There was scant exploration of various assertions about the boundaries between art and craft and between artistic and utilitarian, the value or devaluing of women's work, and misogyny in the world of commercial fine arts – or rather, they were presented as self-evident yet radical truths. So film-festival-y.

The Friday evening screening included Q&A with director Una Lorenzen moderated by Vogue Knitting editor Trisha Malcolm (on the left and the right in the photo below – sorry about the blur and the giant head).



The session was enlivened by a disruptive appearance from the audience by Olek, who declined an invitation to come forward to speak and who (eventually) said she liked the movie. Dunno what that was about, but a whiff of controversy is so very film-festival-y! Una mentioned she'd like to make more movies about yarn artists, a wish that was warmly received. Trisha promised to post additional information on the VK Facebook page.

Overall, I'm glad I saw the movie and would recommend it. Plus it was nice to be with and to chat amiably with fellow crafters. The current screening schedule is online – hope you can make one.