Event

The Pink Hotel

The Pink Hotel, a feature film from Chicago artist Chris Hefner, is a portrait of the moment in which a previously grand, luxurious lifestyle is revealed to be woefully unstable. Following the parallel experiences of several tenants of a luxury hotel, we witness the ways in which different personalities react when faced with the realization that something very fundamental to their lifestyle is utterly wrong. What this is, exactly, is unclear, however a shift is undeniable. An orderly man, preparing for a New Years Day reception, finds himself inexplicably unable to leave his room due to an overwhelming dread that something dire has been neglected. A bombasatic movie star continues unflinchingly in her loud, oblivious decadence, spiraling ever higher into stardom and terrible consequence. A devoted Concierge, disgusted with the state of his beloved hotel, embarks on a mission to dispatch the building with dignity and glory. And the faded ghost of a woman, all too aware of the trajectory of her opulent home, slowly and quietly relinquishes control.

Hefners first feature film, The Pink Hotel will expand upon the themes which he has been developing in his short films and multimedia work over the past several years. Issues of impermanence and the ways in which it connects us all are central to the film. Taking place in an unspecified time period resembling the early 1930s, the film was shot on black and white Super 8mm film, thus involving reference to early sound-era films. The nature of such films is used to draw relationships between eras in our past and the modern world, as well as the universal cultural concerns of both.

Dread of losing control, wartime guilt and the all powerful Hays Code hold heavy sway over the tenants of the mighty Pink Hotel.