This Saturday, Bushwick’s Living Installation will be hosting one of New York City’s first public  screenings of “Portraits of Andrea Palmer” at their exhibition, “Bodies!,” as a way to combat cinematic censorship and promote the freedom of artistic expression.

The film, directed by J. Lyons and C. Huston, is an indie thriller about a cam girl who gets an unexpected Craigslist offer for a full-time gig. Hopeful, the protagonist accepts the opportunity only to find herself the victim of a scam. She then turns to sex work for survival, enduring violent and tragic interactions. “Portraits of Andrea Palmer” artfully addresses real, gritty issues that are often ignored by the mainstream.

The film is not without controversy, but this was not a deterrent to Living Installation founder and director Michael Alan. “We chose this film because art, out of all things, shouldn’t (but does) have a heavy-handed judgmental structure,” the Bushwick-born artist explains. “The film, in a sense, is about a journey, and now her journey is being censored.” It may be surprising to know that this will be The Living Installation’s first time performing with a film.  For Living Installation, engaging with this particular work speaks to censorship in art in general. “Censorship in art has driven me to create a platform where no contemporary rules apply.  I find that even a definition of a category or ‘what is this supposed to be?’ is the major problem in art,” Alan explains.