Everyday reality slips into surrealist reverie in the uncanny visions of Sara Driver, whose films possess the hallucinatory textures and hypnotic rhythms of a waking dream. A central but often overlooked linchpin of the 1980s downtown New York arts scene, Driver made her directorial debut with YOU ARE NOT I, a mesmerizingly eerie adaptation of a Paul Bowles story that was thought lost for decades until it reemerged to take its place as one of the key independent films of the era. In subsequent features SLEEPWALK and WHEN PIGS FLY, Driver delved further into the fantastical, crafting modern-day fairy tales whose trancelike spells linger long after the last reel.
This interview with filmmaker Sara Driver was conducted by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum in 2004.
Directed by Sara Driver • 1981 • United States
Starring Suzanne Fletcher, Melody Schneider, Bea Boyle
A legendary, once-lost landmark of American underground cinema, Sara Driver’s first film was rediscovered in 2008 and has since taken its place as one of the key works of the No Wave filmmaking ...
Directed by Sara Driver • 1986 • United States, West Germay
Starring Suzanne Fletcher, Ann Magnuson, Dexter Lee
Sara Driver’s first feature is a tantalizingly enigmatic, surrealist fantasia rooted in the grit and anything-goes energy of the 1980s New York night world. When Nicole (Suzanne Fletch...
Directed by Sara Driver • 1993 • Germany, United States
Starring Alfred Molina, Marianne Faithfull, Rachael Bella
A down-and-out jazz musician (Alfred Molina) is launched on a road to redemption when he comes into possession of a rocking chair haunted by two benign ghosts: a formidable middle-ag...
Directed by Sara Driver • 1994 • United States
Produced for the French television series POSTCARDS FROM NEW YORK, this short documentary captures the poetry of the city’s storied skid row before its gentrification.
