Shirley Clarke

Dancer, bride, runaway wife, radical filmmaker and pioneer — Shirley Clarke is one of the great undertold stories of American independent cinema. - Manohla Dargis, New York Times

A short season of films by the unique American filmmaker.

The Connection was Shirley Clarke’s first feature and was based on a play of the same name by Jack Gelber about a young filmmaker who attempts to film junkies waiting for their dealer to arrive. The fantastic jazz soundtrack used in The Connection makes it a natural partner to Ornette: Made in America, Clarke’s critically acclaimed 1985 documentary about Jazz great Ornette Coleman who sadly passed away in June.

Covering roughly three decades of Coleman’s life, Clarke’s film not only provides rare insights into one of the founding fathers of free jazz but also an incredibly thorough overview of the history of jazz and the rich creative landscape of 1960s and 1970s America.