Screening of "Wanderer" by Danny Lyon

The Center is excited to present the West Coast debut of Danny Lyon's new documentary in conjunction with his exhibtion at Etherton Gallery. The evening will also feature Lyon in conversation with Chief Curator Becky Senf.

Wanderer is the fourth in a series of films that began in 1971. It takes place in the town of Llanito, New Mexico, and updates the stories of members of the Sanchez and Jaramillo families, many of whom are also presented in the photographs on display at the gallery.

Seating is limited- please plan to arrive early. Reserved seats will be released 15 minutes prior to the screening. 

Danny Lyon was born in Brooklyn during World War Two. When he was twenty-one he moved to Atlanta, and every couple years he moved further west, first to New Orleans, and then to East Texas. In 1970 he settled in a village called Llanito, near the town of Bernalillo, in the Rio Grand Valley in New Mexico. His work had taken him deeper and deeper into the heart land, what is now called “fly over country.” Like many artists before him he fell in love with the desert and stopped to build a home and raise a family. Meeting an undocumented worker named Eddie who was fleeing immigration, Lyon and Eddie built and adobe home. He also became Eddie’s coyote, helping to smuggle him each year across the border which was four hours from his home. He made a series of films centered on his neighbors in Llanito and Bernalillo, culminating  in “Willie” the end of the New Mexico trilogy.

In 2016 Lyon returned to Bernalillo to make a film. Using a small digital video camera that weighed a pound, he re-visited the Jaramillo family, focusing on Willie’s little brother Ferney, his sister Gloria, and his niece Janice. A neighbor, Dennis Baca lights the candles at the Lady of Sorrows Cemetery where Willie and Johnnie Sanchez are buried. Lyon’s dog Trip, an Australian Shepard appears alone, wandering through a gigantic auto junk yard, swimming the San Juan River, and eventually arriving at the New Mexico State Fair. Ferny and Dennis meet there, and as the carny photographer makes their portrait she asks “Are you two brothers?” Wanderer, done in the age of global warming, is a dark portrait of a small town done in a desert that is eternal.