SISTER SHARK

SISTER SHARK from Jessica Posner on Vimeo.

SISTER SHARK
2019
12:12 mins

Edited by Jessica Posner
Sound by Joanna Spitzner in collaboration with John Williams and Stephen Spielberg

Posner edits out all of the men from Stephen Spielberg’s JAWS in search of her mother’s five sisters–most of whom she’s never met and all of whom are in the movie. JAWS was shot in the summer of 1974 in the working class resort town of Martha’s Vineyard, MA, where the artist’s maternal grandmother owned a family home. The artist’s mother once met Bruce the mechanical shark and remarked, “thing was huge, but didn’t work well.”

This video was created in tandem with the “SISTER SHARK” performance lecture, first performed at Honey’s, Brooklyn, NY in January 2019. The performance lecture weaves together Lady Gaga Karaoke, the #metoomovement, Lady Gaga’s career, Posner’s theory about monsters (based on Gaga’s fans and Bruce the Mechanical Shark from Jaws), Posner’s intergenerational traumas and life story, and Posner’s re-edit of the movie Jaws. It is about 40 minutes long, and can be easily performed within a lecture format! It is perfect for your lecture series.