SELECTED PUBLICATIONS & CURATORIAL WORK
Books
No Future Now: A Nomdadology of Resistance and Subversion. Atropos Press: New York, 2012. Print.
"Less interested in tracing a chronological history of punk and no-wave, than in interrogating its place in artistic and intellectual history, Denah Johnston's NO FUTURE NOW throws us into a rich cultural stew. There are wonderful extended discussions here of Vivienne Dick, Derek Jarman, and Marie Menken, as well as of Jack Smith, Andy Warhol, the Kuchars. Johnston's genius here is in seeing punk and no wave both as part of a larger artistic picture and as a movement in its own right. Which doesn't mean that this is a purely academic treatise. In a way the book embodies the punk aesthetic it describes. Sampling and "cutting-up" ideas taken from Nietzsche, Burroughs, Dostoevsky, Avital Ronell, Nick Zedd, and Lester Bangs, the book reproduces the intelligence of punk, at the same time that it analyzes its cultural significance."
- Joan Hawkins author of Art-Horror and the Horrific Avant-Garde
No Future Now offers a panorama of semiotics, in every sense of the word. Not only are subversive punk “signs and symbols,” their relation to themselves and each other and the world at large looked at, Ms. Johnston also examines the core of artistic rebellion, its antecedents and descendants, to paraphrase the Encarta World English Dictionary, “identifying the ways that various symptoms indicate the diseases that underlie them.” As William Burroughs famously said in The Ticket That Exploded, “From symbiosis to parasitism is a short step. The word is now a virus.” Not only are the words that swarm all over her pages like the most contagious viruses (as she describes and catalogs famous and infamous personalities, the subjects of her study), but so, too, the music, films and art these personalities make and have made. These referenced works remain dangerous contaminants.
- Chris D. (The Flesh Eaters and Divine Horsemen, author of GUN AND SWORD: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films 1955-1980), Singapore Review of Books
No Future Now: A Nomdadology of Resistance and Subversion. Atropos Press: New York, 2012. Print.
"Less interested in tracing a chronological history of punk and no-wave, than in interrogating its place in artistic and intellectual history, Denah Johnston's NO FUTURE NOW throws us into a rich cultural stew. There are wonderful extended discussions here of Vivienne Dick, Derek Jarman, and Marie Menken, as well as of Jack Smith, Andy Warhol, the Kuchars. Johnston's genius here is in seeing punk and no wave both as part of a larger artistic picture and as a movement in its own right. Which doesn't mean that this is a purely academic treatise. In a way the book embodies the punk aesthetic it describes. Sampling and "cutting-up" ideas taken from Nietzsche, Burroughs, Dostoevsky, Avital Ronell, Nick Zedd, and Lester Bangs, the book reproduces the intelligence of punk, at the same time that it analyzes its cultural significance."
- Joan Hawkins author of Art-Horror and the Horrific Avant-Garde
No Future Now offers a panorama of semiotics, in every sense of the word. Not only are subversive punk “signs and symbols,” their relation to themselves and each other and the world at large looked at, Ms. Johnston also examines the core of artistic rebellion, its antecedents and descendants, to paraphrase the Encarta World English Dictionary, “identifying the ways that various symptoms indicate the diseases that underlie them.” As William Burroughs famously said in The Ticket That Exploded, “From symbiosis to parasitism is a short step. The word is now a virus.” Not only are the words that swarm all over her pages like the most contagious viruses (as she describes and catalogs famous and infamous personalities, the subjects of her study), but so, too, the music, films and art these personalities make and have made. These referenced works remain dangerous contaminants.
- Chris D. (The Flesh Eaters and Divine Horsemen, author of GUN AND SWORD: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films 1955-1980), Singapore Review of Books
Refereed Articles
"It's a beautiful day." "It is a beautiful day." On Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here. Essay for Umbrella Films' Blu-Ray release of You Were Never Really Here. 2024. Print.
“The Devil Made Me Do It. The Innovation and Influence of Benjamin Christensen's Häxan.” Abraxas Special Issue #2: Luminous Screen The Influence of the Esoteric in Cinema.. Ed. Jack Sargeant. Fulgur: London, 2014. Print.
Information Articles
“Communal Filmmaking: Bruce Baillie’s Work Still Inspires.” Aaron Cutler. Fandor Keyframe. April 16, 2016. Web.
“Bruce Baillie & Canyon Cinema.” La Furia Umana 26. December 15, 2015. Web.
“Lynne Ramsay: Outsider Auteur.” SCAN Journal of Media Arts Culture Special REVcon Issue. Eds. Jack Sargeant and Alex Munt. Macquire University, Australia. Vol. 10 No. 1, January 2013. Web.
Interviews
Interview with Animator, Director and Performance Artist Nancy Andrews. agnès films. January 27, 2017. Web.
Interview with Leah Meyerhoff Writer and Director of I Believe in Unicorns. agnès films. August 9, 2015. Web.
Reviews
"Review of Leah Meyerhoff's I Believe in Unicorns." agnès films. August 12, 2015. Web.
"Review of Ruth Novaczek's The New World." agnès films. June 22, 2014. Web.
"Review of Sini Anderson's The Punk Singer." agnès films. December 17, 2013. Web.
"Review of Sally Potter's Ginger & Rosa." agnès films. October 9, 2013. Web.
“The Incredible Melancholia of Lars von Trier.” Peripheral Offerings. 2012. Web.
Press
"Women of Canyon Cinema." Sarah Fensom. Screen Slate. 2024. Web.
"Canyon Cinema: Radicalizing Representation in Women's Cinema." Kate Robertson. Realtime. 2017. Web.
Revelation Film Festival: Denah Johnston Interview on RTR FM 92.1 Arts Beat. July 7, 2017. Radio.
Program Notes
36th San Francisco LGBT International Film Festival program. What's in a Name. Frameline: San Francisco, 2012. Print.
33rd San Francisco LGBT International Film Festival program (catalog pieces and program notes). Frameline Award - George and Mike Kuchar, Queer Notes from Underground Cinema 1960s-1970s, It Came From Kuchar, Thundercrack!, Canyon Cinema’s Queer Underground. Frameline: San Francisco. 2009. Print.
32nd San Francisco LGBT International Film Festival program. A Horse is Not a Metaphor, Vital Signs, Sanctus. Frameline: San Francisco. 2008. Print.
Editorial
"A Materialist Film Practice in the Digital Age." Janis Crystal Lipzin. agnès films. October 14, 2013. Web.
"Time Present - reflections on the art of Gunvor Nelson." Janis Crystal Lipzin. agnès films. July 31, 2013. Web.
“Fighting Modern Loneliness Together: Groups of Women in Pedro Almodóvar’s Films.” Bridget Carls. agnès films.
March 1, 2012. Web.
“Interview with Dorothy Arzner.” Karyn Kay and Gerald Peary. agnès films. July 16, 2011. Web.
"It's a beautiful day." "It is a beautiful day." On Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here. Essay for Umbrella Films' Blu-Ray release of You Were Never Really Here. 2024. Print.
“The Devil Made Me Do It. The Innovation and Influence of Benjamin Christensen's Häxan.” Abraxas Special Issue #2: Luminous Screen The Influence of the Esoteric in Cinema.. Ed. Jack Sargeant. Fulgur: London, 2014. Print.
Information Articles
“Communal Filmmaking: Bruce Baillie’s Work Still Inspires.” Aaron Cutler. Fandor Keyframe. April 16, 2016. Web.
“Bruce Baillie & Canyon Cinema.” La Furia Umana 26. December 15, 2015. Web.
“Lynne Ramsay: Outsider Auteur.” SCAN Journal of Media Arts Culture Special REVcon Issue. Eds. Jack Sargeant and Alex Munt. Macquire University, Australia. Vol. 10 No. 1, January 2013. Web.
Interviews
Interview with Animator, Director and Performance Artist Nancy Andrews. agnès films. January 27, 2017. Web.
Interview with Leah Meyerhoff Writer and Director of I Believe in Unicorns. agnès films. August 9, 2015. Web.
Reviews
"Review of Leah Meyerhoff's I Believe in Unicorns." agnès films. August 12, 2015. Web.
"Review of Ruth Novaczek's The New World." agnès films. June 22, 2014. Web.
"Review of Sini Anderson's The Punk Singer." agnès films. December 17, 2013. Web.
"Review of Sally Potter's Ginger & Rosa." agnès films. October 9, 2013. Web.
“The Incredible Melancholia of Lars von Trier.” Peripheral Offerings. 2012. Web.
Press
"Women of Canyon Cinema." Sarah Fensom. Screen Slate. 2024. Web.
"Canyon Cinema: Radicalizing Representation in Women's Cinema." Kate Robertson. Realtime. 2017. Web.
Revelation Film Festival: Denah Johnston Interview on RTR FM 92.1 Arts Beat. July 7, 2017. Radio.
Program Notes
36th San Francisco LGBT International Film Festival program. What's in a Name. Frameline: San Francisco, 2012. Print.
33rd San Francisco LGBT International Film Festival program (catalog pieces and program notes). Frameline Award - George and Mike Kuchar, Queer Notes from Underground Cinema 1960s-1970s, It Came From Kuchar, Thundercrack!, Canyon Cinema’s Queer Underground. Frameline: San Francisco. 2009. Print.
32nd San Francisco LGBT International Film Festival program. A Horse is Not a Metaphor, Vital Signs, Sanctus. Frameline: San Francisco. 2008. Print.
Editorial
"A Materialist Film Practice in the Digital Age." Janis Crystal Lipzin. agnès films. October 14, 2013. Web.
"Time Present - reflections on the art of Gunvor Nelson." Janis Crystal Lipzin. agnès films. July 31, 2013. Web.
“Fighting Modern Loneliness Together: Groups of Women in Pedro Almodóvar’s Films.” Bridget Carls. agnès films.
March 1, 2012. Web.
“Interview with Dorothy Arzner.” Karyn Kay and Gerald Peary. agnès films. July 16, 2011. Web.
Curatorial Work
Women of Canyon Cinema A research and curatorial project that unearths women behind the scenes and filmmakers in the Canyon Cinema collection. This program addresses a lack of recognition and scholarship of this work in academia and the art world. Screening and discussion with Steve Anker, Maia Cybelle Carpenter, Antonella Bonfanti, Janis Crystal Lipzin and Amy Reid. Roxie Theater, San Francisco April 22, 2024.
No Punk Transgressions. Retrospective screening series of Punk and No Wave films. Currently seeking project funding and additional presentation partners. San Francisco Film Society has offered support for this project.
Prescreener San Francisco International Film Festival, New Visions. San Francisco, California. 2015-2017.
Women Take Off co-curated and in conversation with Tess Takahashi exploring the women of Canyon Cinema program is part of Canyon Cinema 50, California College of the Arts, October 24, 2017.
Canyon Cinema Retrospective: Always Something There to Remind Me and Stinky Wieners and Dreamy Beavers A Collection of Curt McDowell. Revelation Film Festival, Perth, Australia. July 9-10, 2017.
Always Something There to Remind Me. Australian Center for the Moving Image, ART + FILM, Melbourne, Australia. July 5, 2017
Brakhage Symposium: A Tribute to George Kuchar University of Colorado, Boulder. March 4-6, 2016.
Curated and introduced a program of George Kuchar's films spanning from the late-1960s into the late 1970s to highlight his unique and varied sense of humor as well as the wide array of his modes of storytelling using the medium of film collaborating with other artists (Curt McDowell, George Segal and Donna Kerness).
Canyon Cinema Salon Seeing Something Always Hidden. New Nothing Cinema. San Francisco, California. October 27, 2014.
"From Vault to Screen: Canyon Cinema 16mm" National Gallery of Art. Washington, DC. July-August 2014. Co-programming an extensive series of eight screenings to highlight new acquisitions, recent restorations, archival and vintage prints from the Canyon collection. National Gallery of Art Summer Film Program
my gaze /// yr gaze * denah a. johnston
my gaze /// yr gaze * denah a. johnston n/a gallery. Oakland, California. April 27, 2014.
A special assembly and presentation of LGBT and LGBT-readable cinema from the Canyon Cinema collection.
Narrative Short Film Judge Athens International Film & Video Festival. Athens, Ohio. April 2014.
Exception to the Rule (collaboration with Janis Crystal Lipzin) Kadist Art Foundation. San Francisco, California. December 18, 2013.
“Exception to the Rule” presents a rare array of films produced in the past 60 years that were assembled from the Canyon Collection. Each film, in its own distinct way, insists on challenging expectations of narrative, form and content. Though each could be seen as representative of a specific moment in the trajectory of avant-garde film history, each investigates its own boundaries of how and why we as viewers experience film art.
Sound and Vision: Works by Pat O'Neill, Peter Tscherkassky and Gunvor Nelson Athens International Film & Video Festival. Athens, Ohio. April 2013.
Experimental Film Judge Athens International Film & Video Festival. Athens, Ohio. April 2013.
Experimental Film Judge Athens International Film & Video Festival. Athens, Ohio. April 2012.
Prescreener, San Francisco International Film Festival, Golden Gate Awards. San Francisco, California. 2008-2010.
Curator/prescreener, San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival. San Francisco, California 2005-2010.
Curator and consultant San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival. Thundercrack!, It Came From Kuchar, I Was a Teenage Rumpot and Canyon Cinema’s Queer Underground. I also moderated a panel on the history and future of Queer Underground Film supported by the Warhol Foundation and the NEA. Castro Theater, Victoria Theater & Roxie Theater, San Francisco, California 2009.
Co-curator, Cinema Currents. New Nothing Cinema. San Francisco, California 2004.
Co-curator, Challenge Your Optic Sensibilities. New Nothing Cinema. San Francisco, California 2003.
Co-curator, Time-Bomb. New Nothing Cinema. San Francisco, California 2002.
Programmer/prescreener, Athens International Film & Video Festival. Athens, Ohio 1996-1999.