VIA PRESS RELEASE | On Friday, November 10, New York City’s Roxy Cinema will host An Evening Of Film And Music With Jonah Freeman And Harper Simon, a film screening and Q&A around their collaborative short film Meditations on Crime. (TVD’s interview with Harper Simon is here. —Ed.)
An ambitious multi-media project that also includes a book and an album of the same name, the film was co-directed by author Harper Simon and Jonah Freeman of the acclaimed Freeman and Lowe. This event will also include a screening of Freeman and Lowe’s 2016 short film Mercury City, a Q&A session moderated by Adam Green of The Moldy Peaches, a special musical performance with Meditations on Crime friends and collaborators, and a book signing. More information about the event is available here.
The Meditations on Crime short film was produced to coincide with the release of the project’s book/album package, available now via Hat & Beard. It uses Simon’s music and excerpts from an essay by Booker Prize winning author Ben Okri as an armature for Freeman’s kaleidoscopic cinematic collage of found and original footage. Acclaimed actress Katherine Waterston (Babylon, Logan Lucky, Alien: Covenant, Inherent Vice) narrates the film which, while touching upon a broad spectrum of crime, finds its focus in the prison system and all its contradictions.
The book, which is co-edited by Jonah Freeman and Harper Simon, features essays by such notables as Miranda July, Hooman Majd, and Jerry Stahl, alongside artwork from giants like Cindy Sherman, Nate Lowman, Chase Hall, Julian Schnabel, Tracy Emin, and Raymond Pettibon. The album produced by Simon features musical collaborations with a sweeping range of contributors, including Julia Holter, Gang Gang Dance, King Khan, Ian Svenonius, and the Sun Ra Arkestra.
The book is available in three different versions: a softcover with 352 pages containing 339 artworks by 18 visual artists and 11 essays/interviews, a limited edition 13 in. x 13 in. clamshell in a custom clothbound box that includes both the book and a vinyl LP of the Meditation on Crime album, and a limited number of signed clamshell editions signed by Harper Simon and Jonah Freeman.
