Turning with Antony and the Johnsons
A new film chronicles the transgender artist's meditation on what it means to be a woman.
BY Neal Broverman
November 16 2012 11:18 AM ET
http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/film/2012/11/16/turning-antony-and-johnsonsThe voice of Antony Hegarty (pictured on stage, below), the force behind the experimental musical act Antony and the Johnsons, is so distinctive and beautiful that it can astonish and quiet a drunken crowd of Gen Yers at the Coachella festival (believe me, I witnessed it). So when that voice is paired with gorgeous images of 13 distinctive women in a delicately-lit, intimate setting, the experience becomes transcendent, contemplative, and cathartic.
As part of the 2004 Whitney biennial, Hegarty joined forces with Charles Atlas, the filmmaker behind The Legend of Leigh Bowery, to make Turning, a stage show that featured Hegarty singing, while various women, many androgynous and transgender, like Hegarty himself, climbed on stage. The women stood on moving platforms as video cameras, guided by Atlas, captured close-ups of their faces and projected them on giant screens. Hegarty describes it as a "hypnotic journey through this panorama of different meditations on feminine presence." After bringing Turning around Europe and Hegarty's homebase of New York in 2004 and 2006, a film version debuts Friday night at Manhattan's IFC Center for a week long run.
