Barbara Rubin & the Exploding NY Underground (2018) with director Chuck Smith and executive producer Elizabeth Murray Finkelstein in person

The Warhol takes visitor and staff health and safety seriously. In an abundance of caution, this event has been canceled.

The Barbara Rubin & the Exploding NY Underground (2018) film screening has been postponed. Once a rescheduled date is confirmed, we will update this page with that information, and will contact those previously registered to attend with the new date. For those registered, your current tickets will be honored on the rescheduled date.

Underground filmmaker Barbara Rubin’s 1964 art-porn masterpiece Christmas on Earth, made when she was only 18 years old, shattered creative and sexist boundaries and shocked NYC’s experimental film scene. Working with Jonas Mekas at the Filmmaker’s Coop, Rubin was instrumental in creating NYC’s thriving underground film community and a rare female voice in a world of powerful men. A rebellious Zelig of the Sixties, she introduced Andy Warhol to the Velvet Underground and Bob Dylan to the Kabbalah. But beyond shaping the spirit of the Sixties, Barbara was seeking the deeper meaning of life. After retiring to a farm with Allen Ginsberg, she shocked everyone by becoming a Hasidic Jew. How and why did one of the 1960’s freest spirits submit to a religious life?  For years, 94-year-old filmmaker Jonas Mekas has saved all of Barbara’s letters and cherished her memory. Working with Mekas’ footage and rare clips from our archives, the film takes us inside the world and mind of Barbara Rubin; a woman who truly believed that film could change the world and who then vanished into obscurity.

Please note this film contains explicit content and adult subject matter.

Femme Touch is presented by Bank of America and Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, Founders of The Bennett Collection of Women Realists.