Mica Levi Scores New Short Film by Photographer Nan Goldin

Composer Mica Levi has penned a score for a new short film by renowned photographer Nan Goldin. Sirens will make its digital premiere on July 31 at 8 p.m. Eastern as part of Manhattan theater Metrograph’s recently-launched Live Screenings series. The film will be available to watch through August 6 with a Live Screenings membership.

Sirens is dedicated to Donyale Luna, the first Black supermodel. The short marks Goldin’s first work of entirely found-footage, including clips from films by Kenneth Anger, Lynne Ramsay, Michelangelo Antonioni, and others, as well as documentary footage of the Manson family. Sirens debuted in fall 2019 at the Marian Goodman Gallery. Of the film, the gallery wrote in a press release:

“Echoing the enchanting call of the Sirens from Greek mythology, who lured sailors to their untimely deaths on rocky shores, this hypnotic work visually and acoustically entrances the viewer into the euphoria of being high.”

Levi recently scored a short by filmmaker Jonathan Glazer titled Strasbourg 1518. The piece is based on the bizarre “dancing plague” that infected hundreds in a French city in the 16th century. Levi and Glazer previously teamed up for the latter’s feature film Under the Skin.

Read Pitchfork’s rundown of the “50 Best Movie Scores of All Time,” and read our interview with Levi and Jonathan Glazer.