Lunch Break

Lockhart spent one year looking at the lives of workers in Maine’s Bath Iron Works. Lunch Break features 42 workers as they take their midday break in a corridor stretching nearly the entire shipyard. Contrary to her previous films, the camera is untethered and, as it slowly moves down the corridor, we experience what was a brief interval in the workday schedule expanded into a sustained gaze. Lined with lockers, the hallway seems not only an industrial nexus but also a social one, its surfaces containing a history of self-expression and customization. Over the course of the lunch break we see workers engaged in a wide range of activities – reading, sleeping, talking – in addition to actually eating their midday meal. The soundtrack is a composition designed in collaboration with composer Becky Allen and filmmaker James Benning, in which industrial sounds, music, and voices slowly merge and intertwine. Together, picture and sound provide an extended meditation on a moment of respite from productive labor.

Sharon Lockhart is an artist based in Los Angeles. Since Forum Expanded was founded, four of her films have been shown in its program and another four at the Forum.

Director Sharon Lockhart. Cinematography Richard Rutkowski. Editing James Benning. Music Becky Allen. Producers Andrew Fierberg, Clay Russel Lerner.

Films: 1994: Khalil, Shaun, a Woman under the Influence (16 min.). 1997: Goshogaoka (63 min.). 1999: Teatro Amazonas (40 min.). 2003: Nō (32 min., Forum 2010). 2005: Pine Flat (137 min., Forum Expanded 2006). 2008: Lunch Break, Exit (41 min.). 2009: Podwórka (32 min., Forum Expanded 2010), Double Tide (99 min., Forum 2010). 2016: Rudzienko (56 min., Forum 2017). 2017: Little Review (27 min.). 2022: EVENTIDE (30 min.).

Forum Expanded catalog 2009

19.2. 11am Arsenal 2
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