October 8, 2002
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@ sa.ucsb.edu

Filmmaker Alix Lambert presents her film
The Mark of Cain at UCSB Isla Vista Theater

Summary Facts:

• Screening of The Mark of Cain with filmmaker Alix Lambert
• Lambert is an acclaimed filmmaker, photographer, and performance and mixed media artist
• The film is a searing documentary about tattoo culture in Russian prisons
• Wednesday, November 6
• 5 pm / UCSB Isla Vista Theater
• Free event
• Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535

Director Alix Lambert, named one of “30 people under 30 who will change the culture in the next 30 years” by The New York Times, will present her film The Mark of Cain on Wednesday, November 6 at 5 pm in UCSB Isla Vista Theater and answer questions after the screening. This is a free event.

The Mark of Cain (2000) is a revealing documentary exploring the tattoo culture that has developed inside the burgeoning Russian prison system. Director Alix Lambert earns the trust of these prisoners and gets them to open up in intimate interviews that illuminate the tensions between prisoners of different generations and different socio-economic levels. The prisoners’ bodies become canvasses for art that expresses their pain, hopes and fierce resistance. The film was praised on the festival circuit and excerpted for a segment on ABC’s Nightline. The online journal Nitrate claims, “The Mark of Cain is one of those gut-wrenching, mesmerizing documentaries that makes most crime-themed feature films look cartoonish, contrived and insincere by comparison. Lambert’s unique vision acts as testimony that even under the most wretched of settings, human expression finds a way to bloom.”

Alix Lambert’s conceptual work uses the mediums of film, photography, video and performance art to examine how and why we develop social and sexual rules and codes. In her work Male Pattern Baldness she shaved the top of her head and assumed the role of a middle-aged basketball coach. The resulting video has been screened in exhibits at both the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. For her 1993 work Wedding Project she married and divorced three men and one woman in the space of six months. Two weddings took place in a New York City courthouse, one at a drive-thru in Las Vegas, and another in Hungary. For the gallery show commenting on this work, she displayed all the wedding certificates, divorce documents and wedding portraits. The installation also included traditional wedding gifts like toasters, as well as moving boxes and two videos. In 1996, Lambert created Platipussy, an all-girl punk band for which she was the drummer, and made a fictional film of its life and hard times.

Lambert studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York, the Royal College of Art in London and the Parsons School of Design in New York. She has taught at CalArts and the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work has been displayed at major galleries throughout the United States and Europe. Mirabella has credited Lambert with “a rare gift for tickling taboos with intelligence and humor.”

This event is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, the Department of Art Studio and the College of Creative Studies as part of the UCSB Art Symposium.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.