Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler collaborated on a project inspired by Norman Mailer's novel Ancient Evenings, reimagining Mailer as his own protagonist who reincarnates three times. The film combines live acts with scenes set in Mailer's Brooklyn Heights apartment, where he emerges from a river of feces and enters his own wake. The story explores themes of power, pleasure, and reincarnation as Mailer's character fails to ascend to a higher state.
River of Fundament
A nontraditional opera, inspired by Norman Mailer's novel Ancient Evenings, brings pharaonic Egypt to life through the collaboration of Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler.
