Bicentennial City

GhM was selected as the lead filmmaking team for Haverford College / Hurford Center for the Arts’ 2019 DocuLab program, working with poet and project lead Thomas Devaney and 5 student fellows. The project resulted in a 40-minute essay film titled Bicentennial City that looks at the 1976 US Bicentennial celebration in Philadelphia and poses questions about how we might think about it today.

The film became the centerpiece of an eponymous exhibition which included historical and newly-commissioned work in neon, LED lighting and a sculpture of a fire hydrant replicating a vernacular modification seen around Philadelphia during the summer of ‘76.