Mourner’s Bench (2022)
bree gant
Mourner’s Bench, bree gant, USA, digital, 2 min, 2022
Mourner’s Bench is from the 1947 solo by choreographer Talley Beatty. It refers to a prayer bench in churches where people go to grieve, and the inseparable relationship between hope and grief. Set at a Detroit bus stop, this work considers grief in relation to place and mobility. Conceived, directed, and edited by bree gant, in collaboration with choreographer Celia Benvenutti and cinematographer Devin Drake.
Streaming Details
This film is available to stream globally.
Program Partners
This film is co-presented with College for Creative Studies and Arts Council Windsor and Region.
Image credits: all artworks, portraits, and stills courtesy of the artist © bree gant.
About the artist
bree gant (USA) is a multidisciplinary artist born in Detroit in 1989. They work across and between disciplines, rooted in a legacy of Black queer feminist performance, employing figure and movement to study relationships between narrative, ritual, and temporality. They received a BA from Howard University (2011). Their work in photography, video, film, dance, installation, and performance—including the films Masquerade (2014), muva / On the River (2015), on vessels (2014), If we’re made of salt and memories, then so is the sea (2018), Core (2019), and on spirit (2020)—have been exhibited at festivals, museums, and galleries including BlackStar Film Festival, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, African American Art and Culture Complex, Detroit Historical Museum, and Detroit Science Lab Gallery. They are the recipient of awards, grants, and residencies, including a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Arts Grant (2016), a Detroit Narrative Agency Fellowship (2017), an Art Matters Fellowship (2019), a Kresge Arts Fellowship (2020), a Red Bull Artist Residency (2012), and a Surf Point Foundation Artist Residency (2022). They are a founding member of CeBen Dance Collective (2021). They live and work between Detroit and Chicago, where they are pursuing an MFA at Northwestern University.