roberta-allenIn this dream-like video essay, the viewer travels from New York City’s ghostly Ansonia Hotel to the vital, boundless expanses of South America, Northern Africa and Belize. Roberta Allen, a prominent New York author and visual artist, travels back to her early years growing up the daughter of a mafia-connected gambler and a repressed over-anxious mother on New York’s eclectic Upper Westside. With a disarming frankness, she discusses her father’s suicide and her continual search for him, both in her extensive world travels and her experimental fiction, in particular her seminal novel The Dreaming Girl. Memorable images, thought-provoking commentary, and original music by The Fun Years and Animal Hospital chart Allen’s evolution from fear-ridden child to brave writer, visual artist and dedicated teacher.

Roberta Allen: Layers & Lines