{"id":11146,"date":"2026-05-11T15:07:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unarchivefest.it\/?post_type=portfolio&p=11146"},"modified":"2026-05-12T11:30:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:30:48","slug":"garden-of-ashes","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/unarchivefest.it\/en\/eventi\/garden-of-ashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Garden of Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_empty_space empty_h=”3″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_height_percent=”0″ override_padding=”yes” h_padding=”2″ top_padding=”0″ bottom_padding=”2″ overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ column_width_percent=”100″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″ uncode_shortcode_id=”866162″][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ gutter_size=”0″ overlay_alpha=”50″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ shift_y_down=”0″ z_index=”0″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ width=”2\/3″ uncode_shortcode_id=”162486″][vc_single_image media=”11239″ media_width_percent=”100″ uncode_shortcode_id=”128504″][vc_empty_space empty_h=”2″][vc_separator sep_color=”color-855811″ uncode_shortcode_id=”111419″ sep_color_type=”uncode-palette” el_height=”10″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”146642″]USA\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator sep_color=”color-855811″ uncode_shortcode_id=”111419″ sep_color_type=”uncode-palette” el_height=”10″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”467344″]Arielle de Saint Phalle<\/strong><\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator sep_color=”color-855811″ uncode_shortcode_id=”111419″ sep_color_type=”uncode-palette” el_height=”10″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”101151″]Early Production status<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator sep_color=”color-855811″ uncode_shortcode_id=”111419″ sep_color_type=”uncode-palette” el_height=”10″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”319601″]Bunny Lake Films\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator sep_color=”color-855811″ uncode_shortcode_id=”111419″ sep_color_type=”uncode-palette” el_height=”10″][\/vc_column][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ gutter_size=”1″ overlay_alpha=”50″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ shift_y_down=”0″ z_index=”0″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ width=”1\/3″ uncode_shortcode_id=”207555″][vc_custom_heading uncode_shortcode_id=”112258″]<\/p>\n

Project Amplifier<\/strong><\/h6>\n

[\/vc_custom_heading][vc_custom_heading auto_text=”yes” text_color=”color-855811″ uncode_shortcode_id=”119310″ text_color_type=”uncode-palette”][\/vc_custom_heading][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”163188″]BOTANICAL GARDEN
\nAranciera – May 28 9:30 a.m.
\nENG<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/1″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”144313″]You might know Cookie Mueller from Nan Goldin\u2019s photo: caught in a fit of hysterical laughter, bleached-blond hair, winged eye makeup. Or maybe as the underground actress with a lisp and spring-o-lator heels in John Waters\u2019s films. But it’s in her wild body of written work that her kaleidoscopic life comes into focus: art critic, part-time drug dealer, fashion designer, health columnist, high seas cook, racehorse hot walker, foot model. <\/span>Garden of Ashes<\/span><\/i> is an archival essay film structured across geographical chapters mirroring the path of Cookie\u2019s life: Baltimore, San Francisco, Provincetown, New York, Positano, Italy and the infinite span of the Afterlife. Always looking for a good story, Cookie lived life on the edge.
\n<\/span>In \u201889, just before her own death to AIDS-related illness, Cookie wrote \u201ctime and history have proven that the sensitive souls among us have always been more vulnerable.\u201d AIDS ripped through queer communities, simultaneously exposing both the cruelty of America as well as the love and resilience amongst its most marginalized.\u00a0 More than thirty years after her death, a woman whose appetite for life, irreverence, and refusal to fall into gender lines still feels radical. Facing an epidemic that ravaged her community and the prospect of her own death, she never lost her infectious humor or the vital friendships that grounded her. <\/span>Garden of Ashes<\/span><\/i> grapples with what it means to live fully, make art from the margins, and create work that still reverberates today.\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator sep_color=”color-855811″ uncode_shortcode_id=”160454″ sep_color_type=”uncode-palette” el_height=”10″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”918338″]Archives<\/strong>: <\/span>The film is fully authorized by Cookie\u2019s son Max Mueller who holds the rights to Cookie\u2019s texts, Super 8 footage and photographs of Cookie\u2019s childhood, letters, and journals. Frank Crivelli has provided us with Super 8 footage capturing Provincetown Massachusetts in the 1970s. The footage features Cookie Mueller, her son Max, John Waters, Gregory Corso etc. We have obtained a release from Frank Crivelli for this material. Artist Francine Hunter\u2019s archives contain early video footage of Cookie and her husband Vittorio both in the hospital the year they died of AIDS-related illness.\u00a0 Many photographers who have granted us permission to use their photographs including: Nan Goldin, Jim Jarmusch, David Armstrong Estate, Peter Hujar Estate, Kate Simon etc.
\n<\/span>Filmmakers including the estate of Amos Poe, Michael Oblowitz, the estate of Glenn Obrien, John Waters have given us permission to work with their archives. Cookie was an underground actress and appears in many of their films. We have access to a massive archive of the Willoughby Sharpe Show, a public access show in NYC in the 1980s that Cookie frequently made guest appearances on.
\n<\/span>MARMIA has also provided us with materials from their archives. Additionally The Getty houses the video archives of The Kitchen which has recordings of Cookie reading her texts. The Library of Congress has acquired The Poetry Project archives and fully digitized them. They have provided us with audio recordings of all of Cookie\u2019s readings there.[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator sep_color=”color-855811″ uncode_shortcode_id=”641202″ sep_color_type=”uncode-palette” el_height=”10″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/4″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”197765″]Arielle de Saint Phalle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arielle de Saint Phalle has worked closely with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch for well over a decade. She was a co-producer of his film Father Mother Sister Brother<\/em> (Golden Lion, Venice 2025). She produced The Rifleman<\/em> (Sundance, 2021), and the restorations of Niki<\/em> de Saint Phalle\u2019s 1970s films Un R\u00eave Plus Long Que la Nuit<\/em> (NYFF 2023) and Daddy<\/em> (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2025), both released by MK2.\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_single_image media=”11238″ media_width_percent=”100″ uncode_shortcode_id=”524672″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/4″][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”197440″]Sierra Pettengill<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sierra Pettengill is an acclaimed Brooklyn-based filmmaker. She produced the Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning Cutie & the Boxer<\/em> (2013). As a director, her work includes Riotsville, USA<\/em> (Sundance 2022), The Reagan Show<\/em>, and The Rifleman<\/em>. Her films, known for their rigorous and subversive use of archives, have screened at MoMA, Locarno, and Lincoln Center. Pettengill brings her expertise in archival storytelling to lead the production of this definitive portrait of Cookie Mueller.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row row_height_percent=”0″ override_padding=”yes” h_padding=”2″ top_padding=”1″ bottom_padding=”1″ overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ column_width_percent=”100″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″ uncode_shortcode_id=”183712″][vc_column width=”1\/1″][uncode_share layout=”multiple” bigger=”yes” separator=”yes” css_animation=”bottom-t-top” title=”share”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

USA \/ Arielle de Saint Phalle \/ Early Production status \/ Bunny Lake Films <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11239,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","footnotes":""},"portfolio_category":[102],"class_list":["post-11146","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_category-project-amplifier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unarchivefest.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/11146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unarchivefest.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unarchivefest.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unarchivefest.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unarchivefest.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11146"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unarchivefest.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/11146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11268,"href":"https:\/\/unarchivefest.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/11146\/revisions\/11268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unarchivefest.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unarchivefest.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"portfolio_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unarchivefest.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_category?post=11146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}