Filmmaker Jennie Livingston’s 1991 film Paris is Burning, which documents a New York fashion subculture, won a Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, was included in the Film Registry at the Library of Congress in 2016, and in 2022, was named one of the ten best films of all time by New York Times critic A.O. Scott. Other works by Livingston include three shorts: Hotheads (1996), Through the Ice (2005), and Who’s the Top? (2005), a musical sex comedy starring Marin Hinkle, Steve Buscemi, and 24 dancers. They have also created a video for Elton John’s live show (2011-2018).
At MacDowell in 2002, Livingston wrote a dramatic script, Prenzlauerberg, about writers and artists in East Berlin and New York in 1989, which she initially researched on a grant from the German Academic Exchange. She also began looking at footage she shot for a documentary, Earth Camp One, about grief, loss, and a 1970's hippie summer camp.
Livingston continued work on Earth Camp One during their 2008, 2009, and 2023 residencies, creating tests for animation, and working on text and storyboards. The project has been funded by the Guggenheim Foundation, Netflix, and the French-American Charitable Trust and is to be completed in 2024.
