IN CINEMA

Mission Drift
Thursday, July 20 at 7PM
Tickets: $15 General Admission/$7 Reduced Price 

Charles de Agustin, 2023

Mission Drift follows a nonprofit art gallery worker who tries to stay afloat when a horny sadomasochistic philanthropist infiltrates the organization. An experimental essay film tinged with noir and fantasy, the work is driven by research into the sparse history of federal US arts funding since the 1930s and more recent universal basic income trials. Mission Drift links the insufficiencies across commercial, nonprofit, academic, and DIY institutions to the broader American disdain for public services, with relevance far beyond the US. The film’s tragic narrative takes aim at how seductive philanthropy can be and points toward the need to constantly reinvent strategies against mechanisms of capture.

Its medium described as “video and discussion,” Mission Drift may only be publicly presented if it is followed by a robust audience discussion on the issues at hand. All guests will be essential parts of the conversation with artist Charles de Agustin, programmer Emily Apter, and additional special guests to be announced, rooted in all of our experiences of working in the arts alongside the hosting institution’s specific context. The aim is to expose untapped potential for organizing through the arts, considering what relationship art should have with the state, philanthropy, labor, and social justice today. 

The screening will be followed by an extended collective discussion led by Charles de Agustin and Chris Myers around the nonprofitization of social justice movements and labor in the arts/nonprofit sector.

*Please note that the discussion audio will be recorded, though only an anonymized (i.e. names and other identifying details deleted) text transcript will be used for the artist’s future research purposes.

*The film has integrated audio description and open captions. An ASL interpreter will be present for the post-screening conversation.
For any accessibility questions/concerns or to request an anonymized text transcript at a later date, please email accessibility@maysles.org

Charles de Agustin is an artist based in Brooklyn who makes films, performances, and texts that scavenge in the ruins of critique and complicity. de Agustin earned a BFA in filmmaking and philosophy at Rutgers University and an MFA in studio art at the University of Oxford, where he received the Mansfield-Ruddock Art Prize in 2021. Presentations have included New Contemporaries, Kassel Dokfest, Rhode Island School of Design, Alternative Film/Video Belgrade, ISFF Nijmegen, Bodega Film Festival, Alliances & Commonalities Stockholm, Athens Film + Video Festival, and Brooklyn College. His work as an educator, curator, and gallery manager supports his practice, both financially and conceptually.

Chris Myers is an actor, writer, and cultural worker, born and based in New York City. His performance work has been featured at leading cultural institutions, networks, and streaming platforms. As an organizer and popular educator, he teaches class politics to artists as a founding member of Anticapitalism for Artists. He is the recipient of two Obie Awards—one for acting and one for his organizing work—as well as a CUNY Segal Center Award for Civic Engagement in the Arts. Education: Juilliard. @chrismyersinc (IG) / @lilmaterialist (Twitter) / chrismyersinc.com / anticapitalismforartists.com