July 30th, 2014 (New York, NY) – Drafthouse Films and the Film Society of Lincoln Center are thrilled to announce the Gallery opening of The Dog: Images of a Real Bad Boy – Photographs By Marcia Resnick, in conjunction with the theatrical release of Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren’s documentary The Dog.
On Wednesday, August 6th at 7:00pm the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s The Furman Gallery at the Walter Reade Theater will premiere photos taken by Marcia Resnick of The Dog himself, John Wojtowicz, the inspiration for Al Pacino’s character in Dog Day Afternoon, at his most candid in the 1970’s. The exhibit will stay up until August 15th. After a successful screening at last year’s NYFF, The Dog will be released in New York on August 8th at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, IFC Center and available On Demand and on iTunes on August 15th.
Coming of age in the 1960s, John Wojtowicz took pride in being a pervert. His libido was excessive even by the libertine standards of the era, with multiple wives and lovers, both women and men. In August, 1972, he attempted to rob a Brooklyn bank to finance his lover’s sex-reassignment surgery. The attempted heist resulted in a fourteen-hour hostage situation that was broadcast on TV. Three years later, Pacino portrayed his character instigating the unforgettable crime on the big screen. The award-winning film had a profound influence on Wojtowicz. When he emerged from prison six years later, he became known as “The Dog.” Filmed over the course of a 10-year period by directors Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren, and interweaving extraordinary archival footage of the robbery, 70′s era interviews and the early gay liberation movement in which “The Dog” played an active role, the documentary captures the many sides of John Wojtowicz: he is, by turns, lovable, maniacal, heroic, and self-destructive. To call him larger than life feels like an understatement.
Director of The Dog Allison Berg said, “While making The Dog, we came across the photographs that Marcia Resnick took of John Wojtowicz after he got out of prison and were blown away – we just had to have them in the film. We are thrilled that audiences can now see more of Marcia’s work up close and personal at Lincoln Center during the film’s release – this is a real trip back to 1970s and 80s NYC!”
Director of The Dog Frank Keraudren said, “As a photographer, Marcia Resnick captured John’s bad boy persona like no one else. These images are really special and would have made the Dog howl with pride.”
Photographer Marcia Resnick said, “I am both elated and honored to be having an exhibition of my photographs at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Furman Gallery”, said Photographer Marcia Resnick
Marcia Resnick was born in Brooklyn, NY and studied art at NYU and Cooper Union, and received her MFA at California Institute of the Arts studying with John Baldessari and Allen Kaprow. Returning in 1975, Resnick became involved in the downtown art scene and spent her days teaching photography at Queens College and NYU by day and seeing music at CBGB’s, the Mudd Club, and Max’s Kansas City by night. With her camera as her license to explore, she invited artists to sit for portraits as well as shooting on assignment for Soho Weekly News, New York Magazine, and others. Her subjects include leading figures in the punk music scene, Johnny Thunders, John Lydon and portraits from the arts, Andy Warhol, William Burroughs, John Belushi among many others. Resnick’s photographs are held in collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC, George Eastman House, Rochester, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, New York Public Library, Jewish Museum, NYC, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Her forthcoming book is called Bad Boys: Punks, Poets and Provocateurs, portraits of extraordinary men in NYC 1977 – 1982.