FILM SCREENING: NYC DOA PRESENTS“ANNA! IN UNDERLAND”, A Short Art Film Shot in the Depths of NYC’s Subway Tunnels

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: info@nycdoa.org
Release Date: April 21, 2025

NYC DEPARTMENT OF ART PRESENTS “ANNA! IN UNDERLAND”

A Short Film Shot in the Depths of NYC’s Subway Tunnels

Screening Set for Sunday, April 27, 8–10 PM at Ray’s Bar, Manhattan

NEW YORK, NY — April 21, 2025 — The New York City Department of Art (NYCDOA) will host the public premiere of Anna! in Underland, a 10-minute short film by NYC-based graffiti artist ANNA!, on Sunday, April 27, from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. at Ray’s Bar, 177 Chrystie Street (Downstairs), New York, NY. The film will run on a continuous loop throughout the evening. Admission is free and open to the public. Press welcome.

Filmed over the course of a year in New York City’s abandoned subway tunnels, ANNA!! in Underland explores themes of grief, infrastructure, and urban mythology. ANNA!, known for painting large-scale graffiti rollers across city buildings, began filming as a personal ritual to cope with past trauma - by recreating the adrenaline of the night her father—a well-known architect—died by suicide.

Simultaneously, ANNA! and DUSTER (Style Wars, 1983), who plays the Cheshire Cat in the film, became obsessed with rumors that Robert Moses’ unbuilt Lower Manhattan Expressway ran beneath the squat where she was living. So they went looking. And never stopped filming.

Adding to the psychic fracture, ANNA! was recently the target of a coercive attempt by Harvey Weinstein’s prison consultant and attorney Craig Rothfeld—who now also represents Luigi “Babyshoes” Ciasullo, the alleged killer of a federal insurance witness—to recover nude drawings Weinstein had made of her. The film opens with a voicemail from Rothfeld pressuring ANNA! to turn over the artwork in exchange for money. That voicemail is real, and its inclusion sets the tone for the psychological break that drives the descent into the tunnels.

What resulted is a fever dream of grief, graffiti, and forgotten infrastructure. Dressed in an Alice in Wonderland costume, ANNA! follows a man in a rabbit ears—played by her then-roommate, Peter T. Donald aka WASP in the throes of heroin addiction—into the unlit belly of the city. Along the way, she encounters graffiti icons including DUSTER, LEDDERICK (Sad Boys / Lil Peep), JESUS SAVES, DISTORT, and TRAP 167, each playing surreal versions of Carroll’s characters. Edie Sedgwick narrates via archival audio.

“The tunnels aren’t scary,” says ANNA!. “The third rail? You step over it like a puddle. What’s scary is how much of the system is just... forgotten. Breaker rooms with live power. Exit doors wide open. Whole corridors no one checks. Even the MTA doesn’t have a complete map. The danger isn’t death—it’s how easy it is to disappear.”

Equal parts unauthorized urban exploration and fever dream, Anna! in Underland documents a descent into the emotional and literal underworld of New York. It also serves as a conceptual origin for ANNA!’s visual art practice—centered on neglected systems, unprocessed trauma, and the absurdity of surviving both.

EVENT DETAILS

What: Anna! in Underland short film screening
Where: Ray’s Bar (Downstairs), 177 Chrystie Street, NYC
When: Sunday, April 27, 2025
Time: 8:00–10:00 PM (film loops continuously)
Admission: Free | Open to Press & Public

TRAILER

Watch the official teaser trailer here:
https://youtu.be/6xjTac3I-i0

ABOUT THE ARTIST

ANNA! is a New York City–based graffiti artist and filmmaker whose work spans rooftops, tunnels, gallery walls, and billboards. Her bold, emotional style has been featured in Artnet, Up Magazine, Jetset Times, The Daily Mail, and the New York Post.

Instagram: @annas.city
Website: www.annas.city
NYC Department of Art: @nycdoa | www.nydoa.org

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