Lunch Break

Forum Expanded Anniversary 2025

Lockhart spent one year looking at the lives of workers in Maine’s Bath Iron Works. Lunch Break features 42 workers as they take their midday break in a corridor stretching nearly the entire shipyard. Contrary to her previous films, the camera is untethered and, as it slowly moves down the corridor, we experience what was a brief interval in the workday schedule expanded into a sustained gaze. Lined with lockers, the hallway seems not only an industrial nexus but also a social one, its surfaces containing a history of self-expression and customization. Over the course of the lunch break we see workers engaged in a wide range of activities – reading, sleeping, talking – in addition to actually eating their midday meal. The soundtrack is a composition designed in collaboration with composer Becky Allen and filmmaker James Benning, in which industrial sounds, music, and voices slowly merge and intertwine. Together, picture and sound provide an extended meditation on a moment of respite from productive labor.

by Sharon Lockhart (Director) USA 2008 English 83'

Crew

Director	Sharon Lockhart
Cinematography	Richard Rutkowski
Editing	James Benning
Music	Becky Allen
Producers	Andrew Fierberg, Clay Russel Lerner

Sharon Lockhart

Sharon Lockhart is an artist based in Los Angeles. Since Forum Expanded was founded, four of her films have been shown in its program and another four at the Forum.

Filmography

1994 Khalil, Shaun, a Woman under the Influence; 16 min. 1997 Goshogaoka; 63 min. 1999 Teatro Amazonas; 40 min. 2003 Nō; 32 min., Forum 2010 2005 Pine Flat; 137 min., Forum Expanded 2006 2008 Lunch Break; 83 min., Forum Expanded 2009 · Exit; 41 min. 2009 Podwórka; 32 min., Forum Expanded 2010 · Double Tide; 99 min., Forum 2010 2016 Rudzienko; 56 min., Forum 2017 2017 Little Review; 27 min. 2022 EVENTIDE; 30 min.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025