Photographer Sharon Lockhart is better known for her still images, which she stages as meticulously as a filmmaker might set up a shoot. Rather than capturing the moment, her work creates the moment, igniting different stories for each viewer. Likewise, her films ride this tension between truth and fiction, even when she’s in documentary mode. Lockhart filmed Pine Flat over three years in a small town in the Sierra Nevadas of California, tracking the rhythms of life through the eyes of its youth. Through the editing she creates a certain storyline, but the personalities and lives of her subjects ultimately trump her directorial vision. After all, the typical teenager’s life is stranger than the fiction of most scriptwriters. When Lockhart stands back and lets the camera watch, her characters take over the show. The full two-hour film will receive several screenings during the run of an exhibition of Lockhart’s work in the Walker’s galleries. There, Pine Flat will be deconstructed and shown as short film-loop portraits of individual teens, along with photographs of them shot in a local barn-cum-studio. The Walker will also screen four of Lockhart’s shorter films on April 28 and 29. 612-375-7600; www.walkerart.org
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