Handlung

It's A to Z: The ART OF ARLEEN SCHLOSS is a feature-length documentary about Arleen Schloss, an underground artist, director, and curator who became an influential figure in the downtown New York art scene from the 1970s through the 1990s

It's A to Z: The ART OF ARLEEN SCHLOSS explores Schloss's creative work and evolution and how it changed over time. A highly original cross-disciplinary artist, Schloss was known for her boundary-pushing, idiosyncratic performance art, video, and installations.

Through exclusive never-before-seen archival footage shot by Schloss herself and mixed with commentary from people from the scene, we trace Schloss's story and see, from her point of view, the texture of New York City's downtown art scene from the 1970s through the 1990s.

Known as an "artist's artist," Schloss became influential through A's, her loft space that was a hub for genre-defying music, gallery shows, performance art, films, and other happenings. A hotbed of experimentation, A's featured the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Eric Bogosian, Glenn Branca, Kim Gordon, Shirin Neshat, Thurston Moore, Alan Suiclde, Ai Wei Wei, and John Zorn, among others.

In addition to the shows she curated at A's and elsewhere, Schloss gained notice as a critically acclaimed performance artist in the 1970s. A New York Times critic once described her multimedia productions as "much superior to most performance art." Her shows, along with A's, established Schloss as a prolific connector who brought people together from both the underground and more mainstream creative communities.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Schloss became one of the first artists to integrate technology and lasers into her performance art. Schloss was frequently one of the first in a group of artists to integrate new technologies, including digital video into her projects. She evolved into a successful video artist and made inroads into other forms of digital media during the dotcom boom of the 1990s and early aughts.

Continually challenging herself to create no matter the prevailing conditions, Schloss remains a transformative figure and an inspiring force in the lives of many artists and creatives. She mentored and supported up-and-coming artists from all over the world through the 2010s.