21c and LFS Monthly Film Series:
Until I Am Naked, a documentary about James Baker Hall

Tuesday, August 18, 7 & 9 pm
Gallery 2, off the Atrium
Free and open to the public
Cash Bar


Until I Am Naked, 2009
Running time 45 minutes
HDV and digitized 8mm

Join us this month for the premiere of Until I Am Naked, a documentary about James Baker Hall coinciding with the final days of his exhibition at 21c Museum. The 70 images in Photo/Synthesis are a survey of over 30 years of work that reflect Hall's fascination and experimentation with photography.

The film Until I Am Naked is a non-fiction film that explores James Baker Hall's work as a writer, photographer, filmmaker, and educator. Extensive interviews with Hall, excerpts of his own filmmaking from the early '80s, his photographs, and his poetry lead the viewer toward the inextricability of Hall's life and his work. He relentlessly contends in the film, as he did in the classroom, that this entanglement, at times frightening, at times relieving, is vital to both living and making.

Hall (1935-2009) was the director of the creative writing program at the University of Kentucky for thirty years and was named Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 2001. He was also known widely through the state for his photographs of KY literati, deconstructed family photographs and portraiture, and abstracted Kentucky landscapes.

About the Filmmakers

Produced by Griffin VanMeter
Directed by Whitney Baker
Shot, Mixed & Edited by Sarah Wylie Ammerman and Whitney Baker

Baker is a painter, poet, landscape designer & non-fiction writer from Southeast Kentucky, now living in Lexington. Mr. Hall was a crucial guide to Mr. Baker in all things artistic beginning in 1994. This is Mr. Baker's first film. Ammerman has been studying film for over ten years. For the majority of these years, her sensibilities were guided by Hall as mentor, critic, and advisor. VanMeter is engaged in incubation of creative economies in Lexington, KY. He found kinship with Mr. Hall's commitment to encouraging the arts and artists.

Works by James Baker Hall

  • Pleasure, Scroll Press, 2007.
  • The Total Light Process: New and Selected Poems, University Press of Kentucky, 2004.
  • Praeder’s Letters, Sarabande Books, 2002.
  • The Mother on the Other Side of the World, Sarabande Books, 1999.
  • Fast Signing Mute, Larkspur Press, 1992.
  • Stopping on the Edge to Wave, Wesleyan University Press, 1988.
  • Her Name, Pentagram Press, 1982.
  • Music for a Broken Piano, Fiction Collective, 1982.
  • Getting it On Up to the Brag, Larkspur Press, 1975.
  • Yates Paul, His Grand Flights, His Tootings, World Publishing Co., 1963; Cassell & Co., 1964; University Press of Kentucky, 2002.

About LFS

21c is proud to partner with the Louisville Film Society in the continuing Monthly Film Series since August of 2007. LFS is a publicly supported non-profit organization. Support comes from memberships, event admission, advertisement, contributions, donated materials, and services. For more information about the LFS, please visit visit www.louisvillefilm.org.

21c Monthly Film Series is funded by: