Lynne Sachs

Lynne Sachs (born August 10, 1961 in Memphis, Tennessee) is a media artist who makes films, collages, installations and web projects exploring the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences. She is known for weaving together poetry, painting, politics and layered sound design. After graduating from Brown University, she moved to San Francisco where she was deeply inspired by the collages of Bruce Conner, who would later become her mentor, and by the ciné poems of Maya Deren. Sachs received Masters degrees from San Francisco State University and the San Francisco Art Institute. She studied with Trinh T. Minh-ha, George Kuchar and Barbara Hammer. As seen in “Your Day is My Night” and “Tip of My Tongue”, Sachs’s films embrace a collage sensibility to their very core. They weave together a fascination with form, performance and non-fiction. In the words of NYC artist Kelly Spivey, “Lynne allows her ‘characters’ to explore storytelling from various subjectivities, opening up a more authentic portrayal of being alive during a specific time, situation or place. We learn that to burrow down into our ability to imagine another’s pain or joy, and then to perform these as part of our own exploration for the camera, yields a deeper connection than if we’d simply ‘told the truth.’ Lynne’s work can best be epitomized by her interests in intimacy, collaboration and space.” Sachs’s work has been supported by the Guggenheim, Rockefeller and Jerome Foundations, NYSCA, Experimental Television Center and MacDowell Colony. Her films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern, Sundance Film Festival and New York Film Festival. Sachs teaches in the Art Department at Princeton University and lives in Brooklyn with filmmaker Mark Street. She is the sister of filmmaker Ira Sachs and author Dana Sachs.

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