The Dryden will screen River of Fundament (Matthew Barney, U.S. 2014, 315 min. [two intermissions], DCP).

Directed by renowned multimedia artist Matthew Barney (of Cremaster fame) and set across the American landscape, River of Fundament is an epic story of regeneration and rebirth. Loosely based on the 1983 Norman Mailer novel Ancient Evenings, with an ancient Egyptian protagonist who sought reincarnation three times in the hope of achieving immortality, River of Fundament borrows its structure from Mailer's text, corresponding to the seven stages the Egyptian soul undergoes in its journey toward new life. Conceived as a nontraditional opera written with longtime collaborator Jonathan Bepler, the film combines documentary footage of three live acts performed outdoors in Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York with live-action cinema largely set in a careful re-creation of Mailer's Brooklyn brownstone apartment, where the late author's wake is underway. Imagined as a lavish dinner party attended by New York's literati, the wake takes place inside the Mailer apartment as it is ferried down the river.

[source: George Eastman Museum website, 2016-Apr-18]