Merce Cunningham “Assemblage” (1968) Film Screening | Ghirardelli Sq.

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Join us for a special presentation in the outdoor Carillon pavilion in Ghirardelli Square, facing the Ruth Asawa fountain.

“Assemblage” will once again be reintegrated with its site, a testament to Cunningham’s groundbreaking and collaborative investigation of dance and movement within both actual and virtual space.

In the fall sunshine of 1968, Merce Cunningham and his early dance company invaded the plazas, stairs, and rooves of Ghirardelli Square in an event that would become “Assemblage.” Staged for the camera, the performance was filmed and produced by KQED-TV for broadcast and represents a radical collaboration between director and editor Richard Moore; a soundtrack by John Cage, David Tudor and Gordon Mumma; the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and the built environment of San Francisco. Dancer Carolyn Brown remembers the three weeks in October and early November: “Prancing around Ghirardelli Square like giddy grade-school kids let loose in a playground, we were euphoric.” In the final film, Richard Moore and film editor Bill Yahraus’s prismatic special effects unite Cunningham’s company with Ghirardelli’s former factory buildings: a mesmerizing collage of the joy, upheaval, and possibility of 1968. Rediscovered after Cunningham’s death, “Assemblage” was transferred from 16mm and colorized by artist and filmmaker Charles Atlas.

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