From: weekly listing (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Feb 18 2006 - 08:24:32 PST
This week [February 19 - 26, 2006] in avant garde cinema
NEW FILM/VIDEO: NON-FEATURE:
===========================
"Six Bullets" by Jon Kline
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=newwork&readfile=236.ann
"_grau" by Robert Seidel
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=newwork&readfile=235.ann
"The One and the Many" by Andre Silva
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=newwork&readfile=234.ann
"AV 60" by michal
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=newwork&readfile=233.ann
"Nam June Paik’s Fingerprints" by Taly and Russ Johnson
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=newwork&readfile=231.ann
NEW CALLS FOR ENTRIES:
=====================
Open APPerture Short Film Festival (Boone, NC, USA; Deadline: March 01, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=504.ann
Studio 27 (San Francisco, CA USA; Deadline: March 31, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=505.ann
syntocin (The Hague; Deadline: April 15, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=506.ann
2nd piXelDANce ViDeo aRt feStiVaL (Thessaloniki, Greece; Deadline: March 20, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=507.ann
National Queer Arts Festival (san francisco, ca 94110; Deadline: March 15, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=508.ann
PEC Independent Film Championship (Colorado Springs, CO; Deadline: November 30, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=509.ann
Call for filmmaking stories (Toronto, Canada; Deadline: June 01, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=510.ann
DEADLINES APPROACHING:
======================
Solstice Film Festiestival (St. Paul, MN USA; Deadline: March 01, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=347.ann
Her Shorts: 1st Annual Women’s International Video Festival and Symposium (Tucson, AZ, USA; Deadline: March 01, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=472.ann
Microcinema International (Houston, TX, United States; Deadline: March 31, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=475.ann
Victoria Erotica Film Festival (Victoria BC Canada; Deadline: March 15, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=481.ann
The Delta International Film and Video Festival (Cleveland, MS USA; Deadline: March 01, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=482.ann
Rio Cinema (London, England; Deadline: February 28, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=483.ann
Microcinema International (Houston, TX, United States; Deadline: March 30, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=485.ann
Pioneer Theater (New York, NY; Deadline: March 01, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=486.ann
The Journal of Short Film, Volume 3 (Columbus, OH; Deadline: February 28, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=487.ann
Calgary ImaginASIAN 2006 Film Festival (Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Deadline: March 13, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=488.ann
Festival Images Contre Nature (Marseille, France; Deadline: March 01, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=489.ann
the white space/scsi-morlock (Den Haag, the netherlands; Deadline: March 31, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=491.ann
ten minutes older (London, UK; Deadline: February 28, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=492.ann
the Play Ground (Duluth, Minnesota, USA; Deadline: February 18, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=493.ann
Silverlake Film Fest - Lost Weekend (Los Angeles, CA USA; Deadline: March 15, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=503.ann
Open APPerture Short Film Festival (Boone, NC, USA; Deadline: March 01, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=504.ann
Studio 27 (San Francisco, CA USA; Deadline: March 31, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=505.ann
2nd piXelDANce ViDeo aRt feStiVaL (Thessaloniki, Greece; Deadline: March 20, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=507.ann
National Queer Arts Festival (san francisco, ca 94110; Deadline: March 15, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=508.ann
Enter your event announcements by going to the Flicker Weekly Listing Form
at http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/thisweek.pl
Also available online at Flicker: http://www.hi-beam.net
THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMS (SUMMARY):
==============================
* Urban Research On Film [February 19, Berlin, Germany]
* How Little We Know of Our Neighbors By Rebecca Baron [February 19, Chicago, Illinois]
* Kill Your Timid Notion [February 19, Dundee, Scotland, UK]
* An Evening With Peter Tscherkassky and Eve Heller [February 19, Los Angeles, California]
* Shirley Clarke's 1961 <I>The Connection</I> [February 19, San Francisco, California]
* How To Be A Canadian [February 20, Houston, Texas]
* The Women's Film Preservation Fund [February 21, Berkeley, California]
* Paramedia Centripetal- Live Performance W/ Yasunao Tone [February 21, Detroit, MI]
* Sandra Gibson & Luis Recoder In-Person [February 21, Reading, Pennsylvania]
* Media City 12th Annual International Festival of Experimental Film and
video Art [February 22, Windsor, Ontario CANADA]
* Confessions of A Sociopath: Recent Work By Joe Gibbons [February 23, Chicago, Illinois]
* Luis Recoder [February 23, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]
* Open Screening [February 23, Reading, Pennsylvania]
* Media City 12th Annual International Festival of Experimental Film and
video Art [February 23, Windsor, Ontario CANADA]
* Electromediascope [February 24, Kansas City, Missouri]
* Special Screening of Harry Smith's Film #18: Mahagonny [February 24, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]
* Media City 12th Annual International Festival of Experimental Film and
video Art [February 24, Windsor, Ontario CANADA]
* Greta Snider's view-Master Spectacular+ [February 25, San Francisco, California]
* Media City 12th Annual International Festival of Experimental Film and
video Art [February 25, Windsor, Ontario CANADA]
* Two By Bruce Baillie: Quick Billy and Valentin De Las Sierras [February 26, Chicago, Illinois]
* Looking At Surveillance [February 26, Los Angeles, California]
* <I>Lion's Love</I>: Varda Responds To Warhol [February 26, San Francisco, California]
Events are sorted by CITY within each DATE.
-------------------------
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2006
-------------------------
2/19
Berlin, Germany: Directors Lounge
http://www.richfilm.de/DL2006.html
6:30 pm, Directors Lounge, Karl-Marx-Allee 137, 10243 Berlin-Friedrichshain, Germany
URBAN RESEARCH ON FILM
Special Program at Directors Longe 2006 curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr --
desire for modernity -- Mariana Vassileva, Journal, 2005, DE, 6:00, DVD
-/- Chi-jang Yin, Glass House, 2005, USA, 9:00, DVD -/- Ben Speth,
Satellite, 2005, Australien, 75:00, vhs -/- extra: Dirk Holzberg, n*ich
eskalopp, 1999, DE, 3:40, DV
2/19
Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Filmmakers
http://www.chicagofilmmakers.org/
7:00pm, Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark St.)
HOW LITTLE WE KNOW OF OUR NEIGHBORS BY REBECCA BARON
Filmmaker Rebecca Baron in Person! How Little We Know of Our Neighbors
(2005, 50 mins., video), a new documentary by award-winning Los Angeles
filmmaker Rebecca Baron, is "an engrossing study of the Mass Observation
movement in Britain. Founded in 1937, Mass Observation was an eccentric
social science enterprise that used hidden cameras to record and
scrutinize behavior in public spaces. Initially concerned with
anthropology, the outfit became a civil spy unit during World War II
before re-emerging as a market research firm in the '50s. Baron--who has
shown her work at the New York, Rotterdam, Oberhausen and Vienna
festivals--considers this fascinating history in relation to
contemporary issues of surveillance, public self-disclosure and
privacy." (Redcat Theater). Showing with The Idea of North (1995, 14
mins., 16mm), a beautiful and mysterious film about an ill-fated polar
expedition.
2/19
Dundee, Scotland, UK: Kill Your Timid Totion
http://www.killyourtimidnotion.org
1pm, Dundee Contemporary Arts, 152 Nethergate
KILL YOUR TIMID NOTION
see 17th Feb for details
2/19
Los Angeles, California: Filmforum
http://www.lafilmforum.org/
7:00 pm, Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd.
AN EVENING WITH PETER TSCHERKASSKY AND EVE HELLER
Filmforum welcomes from Austria these two superb filmmakers, featuring
Tscherkassky's glorious Cinemascope films and Heller's hypnotic works.
2/19
San Francisco, California: San Francisco Cinematheque
http://www.sfcinematheque.org
7:30, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St
SHIRLEY CLARKE'S 1961 THE CONNECTION
A dancer/choreographer turned filmmaker, Shirley Clarke was one of the
few women making any kind of film in the 1950s and '60s. Her first
feature, made after several avant-garde shorts and before her
better-known The Cool World and Portrait of Jason, was restored last
year by UCLA from original 35mm negatives. Based on Jack Gelber's play
about a group of junkies hanging out in a New York loft waiting for
their fix, The Connection is part beat narrative, part interrogation of
documentary form, part portrait of a subculture. Noted for Clarke's
innovative camera-choreography, it was banned for its obscenity but won
the Critic's Prize at Cannes.
-------------------------
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2006
-------------------------
2/20
Houston, Texas: Aurora Picture Show
http://www.aurorapictureshow.org
8:30pm doors open, 9pm screening, Aurora @ Clark's, 314 Main Street near Preston
HOW TO BE A CANADIAN
Guest Curator Astria Suparak with Brett Kashmere The second largest
country in the world, Canada houses a population less than California's
34 million. The birthplace of You Can't Do That on Television, Tom
Green, and the inspiration for American Pie, Canada has been a chief
exporter of adolescent gross-out comedy for two decades. No MTV,
Madonna, Mister Roger's Neighborhood or melting pot, but Much Music,
Alanis Morissette, Mr. Dressup's tickle trunk and government-mandated
Multiculturalism. Works by Brett Kashmere, Jake Kennedy, Shari Boyle,
Jubal Brown, Daniel Barrow, Jon Sasaki, Dorion Berg, Jim Munroe, Jeremy
Bailey, Daniel Cockburn, Paige Gratland, and Tom Sherman.
--------------------------
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2006
--------------------------
2/21
Berkeley, California: Pacific Film Archive
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/
7:30 PM, 2575 Bancroft Way @ Bowditch
THE WOMEN'S FILM PRESERVATION FUND
Alice Guy-Blaché, Meredith Monk, and Actresses Grace Cunard and Francine
Everett Alice Guy-Blaché was arguably the first director of a narrative
film (La Fée aux choux, 1896). Films like Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913,
14 mins, Silent, B&W, Courtesy Library of Congress), a comedy on
marriage, are notable for their naturalism, delightful humor, and
independent female characters. The rare Unmasked (Francis Ford, 1917, 11
mins, Silent, B&W/Tinted, Courtesy George Eastman House) is a short
heist caper starring Grace Cunard, the exuberant, multi-talented silent
star known as the "Queen of the Serials." Meredith Monk is a composer,
choreographer, filmmaker, and theatrical innovator whose spare, somber,
and exquisite Ellis Island (1979, 28 mins, Color, Courtesy of the
artist) evokes anonymous documentary films of newly arrived immigrants
in the early twentieth century. Dirty Gertie from Harlem USA (1946, 65
mins, B&W, Courtesy David Stedman) is an African-American independent
feature loosely based on Somerset Maugham's Rain. It stars Francine
Everett, a pioneering actor in African-American features and shorts who
refused to play stereotypical roles. She was active in the Negro Actors
Guild and involved in the WPA Theater Project. Dirty Gertie was directed
by Spencer Williams, best known as Andy Brown on TV's Amos 'n' Andy. •
(Total running time: 118 mins, 35mm)
2/21
Detroit, MI:
http://www.detroitfilm.org
7:30 pm, Detroit Film Center, 1227 Washington Blvd.
PARAMEDIA CENTRIPETAL- LIVE PERFORMANCE W/ YASUNAO TONE
VISITING ARTIST & PERFORMANCE BY: YASUNAO TONE. Tone will present his
new work "Paramedia Centripetal" - an audio-visual composition derived
from projections of Tone's real time drawings of Chinese calligraphy and
live performance of electronic music. Yasunao Tone founded the legendary
Japanese collective Group Ongagku and has been active in Fluxus since
1962. He has created many multi-media works in addition to his music
compositions. A co-presentation with the Media City Festival of
Experimental Film and Video Art in Windsor, Ontario.
2/21
Reading, Pennsylvania: Berks Filmmakers, inc
http://www.berksfilmmakers.org
7:30 p.m., Albright College Center for the Arts
SANDRA GIBSON & LUIS RECODER IN-PERSON
SANDRA GIBSON + LUIS RECODER (NYC) will present a joint program of their
recent films. Gibson/Recoder have presented their collaborative film
performances and installations at film festivals, museums, galleries,
and alternative venues since 2001: eg., Whitney Museum of American Art
(NYC), The Kitchen (NYC), Hallwalls Contemporary Arts (Buffalo, NY),
Images Festival (Toronto, Canada), International Film Festival Rotterdam
(The Netherlands), Hartware Medien Kunst Verein (Dortmund, Germany), La
Casa Encendida (Madrid, Spain),Youkobo Art Space (Tokyo, Japan), Image
Forum Festival (Yokohama & Kanazawa, Japan). Their work touches upon the
material-physical properties of the film medium - its sculptural,
painterly, and tactile potential. A filmstrip is hand painted,
scratched, and stitched; a projector spills the contents of a film reel
onto the gallery's floor and accumulates over time; a light-and-shadow
spectacle invites the viewer to look into the light. In addressing the
materials and processes of their medium via performance and
installation, Gibson/Recoder play with and against the illusory currents
of cinema with an eye toward bending the rays and diffracting the ways.
"From the inventive ways that they create images on the film strip to
the use of multiple projection that often incorporates live performance,
Luis and Sandra are two of the most vital young artists working in the
field of "expanded cinema". – Mark Webber, Curator
----------------------------
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2006
----------------------------
2/22
Windsor, Ontario CANADA: Media City festival
http://www.houseoftoast.ca/mediacity
6:30, 8pm, 9:30 pm, The Capitol Theatre and Art Centre, 121 University Ave. W.
MEDIA CITY 12TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF EXPERIMENTAL FILM AND
VIDEO ART
6:30 pm Opening reception @ Artcite Inc. 109 University Ave.W. Video and
new media installations by Paulette Phillips (Canada); Provmyza
(Russia); Kero (Canada); Brent Coughenour (USA); and Emily Richardson
(England) This reception is free and open to the public! 8:00 pm
International program 1 Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine
(Peter Tscherkassky, Austria, 35mm Cinemascope, b&w, 17:00, 2005) Ein
Sommer in Deutschland (Ichiro Sueoka, Japan, 16mm, b&w, 7:00, 2004) The
Bleeding Heart of It (Louise Bourque, Canada, 35mm, 8:00, 2005)
Elsewhere (Luke Sieczek, USA, 16mm, 6:00, 2004) Interlude (Joost van
Veen, Netherlands, 16mm, b&w, 3:00, 2004) Morningfilm Double Projection
6/2001-8/2003 (Hans Michaud, USA, 2x16mm, silent, 7:00, 2005) Trilogy
about Clouds (Naoyuki Tsuji, Japan, 35mm, b&w, 13:00, 2005) 9:30 pm
International program 2 Uyuni (Andres Denegri, Argentina, Mini DV, 8:00,
2005) Close Quarters (Jim Jennings, USA, 16mm, b&w, silent, 12:00, 2004)
Blockade (Sergei Loznitsa, Russia, 35mm, b&w, 52:00, 2006)
---------------------------
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2006
---------------------------
2/23
Chicago, Illinois: Conversations at the Edge
http://www.artic.edu/webspaces/siskelfilmcenter/2006/february/edge.html
6:00 p.m., 164 N. State St.
CONFESSIONS OF A SOCIOPATH: RECENT WORK BY JOE GIBBONS
Joe Gibbons in person! Joe Gibbons' dry humor comes across in obsessive
rants that scrape the bottom of a monomaniacal mind, spilling forth with
fantasies of power, destruction, and death. In this selection of recent
videos, Gibbons reveals the depth of his psychosis: documenting his
paranoia; confiding his sins (endless drug and alcohol abuse,
shoplifting; cheating on his parole officer); and teaching us how to
make a movie. CONFESSIONS OF A SOCIOPATH PART 1 (2001 – 2006, 35 min.);
CONFESSIONS OF A SOCIOPATH PART 2 (THESE ARE MY SINS) (preview, 2006, 15
min.); THE PRODUCER (Tony Conrad with Joe Gibbons and Louise Bourque,
2005, 15 min.); and DOPPELGANGER (2006, 20 min.). Joe Gibbons,
2001-2006, USA, 85 min. Co-presented with the Video Data Bank. BetaSP
video.
2/23
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The University of the Arts
http://www,uarts.edu
7:30 PM, Room 1408 Terra Building; 211 South Broad St.
LUIS RECODER
Luis Recoder's abstract films and performance pieces aim at a
reinscription of the relationship between image and viewer far more
fundamental than that achieved by most experimental films. Working
without acamera, Recoder fogs the film in a variety of ways, producing
subtly shifting light patterns whose soft edges subvert the standard
geometries of most abstract imagery. With their slow shifts and absence
of overt rhythmic organization, these pieces invite a focused response
to pure color in a manner that calls to mind John Cage's proposed
definition of art: "paying attention." Whitney Museum curator Chrissie
Iles compares Recoder's films to the work of light sculptor James
Turrell: both artists use light to explore the boundaries between the
palpable and the insubstantial. - Fred Camper, Chicago Reader
2/23
Reading, Pennsylvania: Berks Filmmakers, inc
http://www.berksfilmmakers.org
7:30 p.m., Albright College Center for the Arts
OPEN SCREENING
Bring your own films, tapes & DVD's: all works will be screened.
2/23
Windsor, Ontario CANADA: Media City festival
http://www.houseoftoast.ca/mediacity
8pm, 9:30 pm, The Capitol Theatre and Art Centre, 121 University Ave. W.
MEDIA CITY 12TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF EXPERIMENTAL FILM AND
VIDEO ART
8:00 pm Juror's retrospective screening w/ Karl Kels (Germany). Program
1 Sluice (16mm, b&w, silent, 4:57, 1983) Haystacks (16mm, b&w, silent,
1:57, 1981) Condensation Trail (16mm, b&w, silent, 3:24, 1982)
Rhinoceroses (16mm, b&w, silent, 8:43, 1987) Prince Hotel (16mm, b&w,
silent, 7:50, 1987/2003) Starlings (16mm, b&w, silent, 5:45, 1991)
Hippopotamuses (35mm, b&w, silent, 35:00, 1993) 9:30 pm International
program 3 Mantis Tales (Chu-Li Shewring, Malaysia/UK, Mini DV, 14:00,
2005) Made in Chinatown (Jim Jennings, USA, 16mm, silent, 7:00, 2005)
Views from Home (Guy Sherwin, England, Mini DV, 9:00, 1987/2005) Market
Street (Tomonari Nishikawa, Japan/USA, 16mm, b&w, silent, 5:00, 2005)
Crosscut Jack (Bruce McClure, USA, 3x16mm performance, 12:00, 2004) you
don't bring me flowers (Michael Robinson, USA, 16mm, 8:00, 2005)
Evergreen (Rob Todd, USA, 16mm, 15:00, 2005)
-------------------------
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2006
-------------------------
2/24
Kansas City, Missouri: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
http://www.nelson-atkins.org
7:00 p.m., 4525 Oak Street
ELECTROMEDIASCOPE
Love and Obsession presents a series of works by artists and filmmakers
who combine elements of documentary and fictional techniques while
expressing the psychological and cultural dimensions of the lives of a
variety of real and invented characters. Seduction, rejection, control,
jealousy and revenge are explored as the boundaries between love,
obsession and desire become blurred in these often ironically
tragicomedic human stories. Guy Madden's Cowards Bend the Knee is a dark
comedy and narrative extravaganza that was originally exhibited as a
ten-part peephole installation. This subliminal melodrama with overtones
of a delirious Greek tragedy tells a tale of revenge, jealousy,
pathological obsession, deceit, murder, and ghosts. Fragments of
Madden's childhood experiences of family, friends and places take shape
and unfold cinematically in a hallucinatory, visceral memory theater of
the mind. –Patrick Clancy. Cowards Bend the Knee, Guy Maddin (Canada),
2003, 64 min., Super 8 film to DigiBeta shown on DVD, silent with
English intertitles. Rooster Workbook, Guy Maddin (Canada), 2005, 4
min., Super 8 film shown on DVD. Zookeeper Workbook, Guy Maddin
(Canada), 2005, 4 min., Super 8 film shown on DVD. Fancy, Fancy Being
Rich, Guy Maddin (Canada), 2002, 5 min., Super 8 film to Beta SP shown
on DVD. Sombra Dolorosa, Guy Maddin (Canada), 2004, 7 min., 16mm film to
DigiBeta shown on DVD. Sissy Boy Slap Party, Guy Maddin (Canada), 2004,
6 min., 16mm film to DigiBeta shown on DVD.
2/24
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Andy Warhol Museum
http://www.warhol.org/
7:30pm, 117 Sandusky Street
SPECIAL SCREENING OF HARRY SMITH'S FILM #18: MAHAGONNY
Harry Smith's Film #18: Mahagonny (1970-80) 16mm, color sound, 141 min.
Presented on 35mm. Experimental filmmaker, anthropologist, painter, and
musicologist Harry Smith's final film was an epic four-screen projection
titled Mahagonny. Smith worked on this cinematic transformation of Kurt
Weill and Bertolt Brecht's opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
for over ten years and considered it his magnum opus. His friends have
said that Smith was obsessed with the opera, playing it over and over in
his room at the Chelsea Hotel. The film was shot from 1970 to 1972 and
edited for the next eight years. The "program" of the film is
meticulous, with a complex structure and order. The Weill opera is
transformed into a numerological and symbolic system. Images in the film
are divided into categories— portraits, animation, symbols and nature—
to form the palindrome P.A.S.A.N.A.S.A.P. Mahagonny is an allegory of
contemporary life; it explores the needs and desires of man amid the
rituals of daily life in New York City. Smith's New York, like
Mahagonny, is a place where everything is permitted and the only sin is
not having enough money. Much of the film takes place within the Chelsea
Hotel. The film contains invaluable cameos of important avant-garde
figures such as Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, and Jonas Mekas, intercut
with installation pieces from Robert Mapplethorpe's studio, New York
City landmarks of the era, and Smith's visionary animation. Smith's
portrait of life in New York has strong affinities with the Brecht/Weill
opera. Both are set in a somewhat mythical America, meant to exemplify
life in capitalist society more generally. The opera caused a riot when
it premiered in Leipzig, Germany, in 1930. Smith's selection of the
opera was prompted by his desire to create a similarly radical effect,
although his Mahagonny provoked no mass demonstrations when it was
screened in New York. Smith identified with Weill's transformation of
popular music into an avant-garde presentation, and an analogy can be
made between Weill's work and Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music
(1952). For the Anthology, Smith took existing commercial recordings of
traditional American folk music and reshaped them into a complex aural
collage. Like Weill's opera and the Anthology, Mahagonny blurs the line
between "high" and "low," traditional form and radical production,
taking vernacular elements out of their original context to create a
work that addresses many areas of culture that Smith had been
investigating for over thirty years. The editing of Mahagonny was a
byzantine process. Smith created index cards for each scene and
organized them according to various mathematical permutations in
relation to the opera. Twenty-four scenes appear on each reel, following
the order of the palindrome. Smith determined the length of each scene
by taking into account certain constants in the viewer such as
respiration and heartbeat. To synchronize the four screens with the
operatic score, he made scrolls representing each edited reel plus a
fifth scroll with the time code and list of scenes from the opera. The
completed film consists of four 16 mm images tiled together on the
screen to form one four-part image synced to the opera. The film has had
limited exposure, showing only six times in 1980 at Anthology Film
Archives in New York with Smith present at each screening. His desire
was to have it presented on four pool tables within a boxing ring but
that was never realized. Smith designed frame filters within which the
film would be projected accompanied by scrolling subtitles of the opera,
but that project also never came to fruition. This screening represents
the completion of an ambitious preservation project by the Harry Smith
Archives with the assistance of Anthology Film Archives. The artist's
original intention was to screen the film with four 16mm projectors.
While we have duplicated and printed the 16mm elements, we have made a
radical departure in transferring the 16mm screen sections to a single
35mm film in order to make it easier for the film to be exhibited. The
original 16mm film masters have been optically printed onto a single
'tiled' 35mm film negative. Rani Singh, Harry Smith Archives
2/24
Windsor, Ontario CANADA: Media City festival
http://www.houseoftoast.ca/mediacity
6:30 pm, 8 pm, 9:30 pm, The Capitol Theatre and Art Centre, 121 University Ave. W.
MEDIA CITY 12TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF EXPERIMENTAL FILM AND
VIDEO ART
6:30 pm Juror's program and discussion w/ Jeremy Rigsby (Canada). THE
FILMS OF VINCENT GRENIER (Canada) Interieur Interiors (To A.K.) (16mm,
b&w, silent, 15:00, 1978) Time's Wake (Once Removed) (16mm, b&w, silent,
14:00,1987) World in Focus (16mm, silent, 20:00,1976) Surface Tension #
2 (16mm, 4:00, 1995) Catch (16mm, 5:00, silent, 1975) Here (Mini DV,
7:00, 2002) Tabula Rasa (Mini DV, 7:30, 2004) 8:00 pm International
program 4 Stationary Music (Jayne Parker, England, 16mm on Mini DV,
b&w, 15:00, 2005) Chronomops (Tina Frank, Austria, Mini DV, 2:00, 2004)
Water Water (Nicky Hamlyn, England, 16mm, silent, 11:00 2004) Ideas of
Order in Cinque Terre (Ken Kobland,USA, Mini DV, 30:00, 2005) Bouquet
28-30 (Rose Lowder, France, 16mm, 18fps, silent, 4:00, 2005) Ariadne
(Barbara Meter, Netherlands, 35mm, 12:00, 2005) 9:30 pm International
program 5 Britton South Dakota (Vanessa Renwick,USA,Mini DV, b&w, 7:00,
2004) Falten (Hannes Schupbach, Switzerland, 16mm, silent, 28:00, 2005)
Kolkata (Mark Lapore, USA, 16mm, b&w, 35:00, 2005)
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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2006
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2/25
San Francisco, California: Other Cinema
http://www.othercinema.com/
8:30, 992 Valencia Street
GRETA SNIDER'S VIEW-MASTER SPECTACULAR+
The queen of all things DIY, Snider brings her enlightened 3-D
documentary initiative to our microcinema environment. Yes, that's
right, with the help of Pad McGlaughlin's View-Master projector (!), the
whole audience can marvel at the eye-popping imagery of neighborhood
personalities and places. Johunna Grayson, Lee Krist, and Erick Lyle
also provide their hand-processed perspectives. And McGlaughlin shares
his precious historical insights on the 19th century Stereo View
formats, which will be made available to the assembled throng. Bring
your own View-Master "reel" to project on to the big screen, whilst
Telescape invokes the gods of stereoscopy for a truly carnivalesque
carpet ride. Free popcorn!
2/25
Windsor, Ontario CANADA: Media City festival
http://www.houseoftoast.ca/mediacity
1pm, 6:30pm, 8pm, 9:30pm, The Capitol Theatre and Art Centre, 121 University Ave. W.
MEDIA CITY 12TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF EXPERIMENTAL FILM AND
VIDEO ART
1:00 pm Juror's retrospective screening w/ Karl Kels (Germany). Program
2 Starlings (16mm, b&w, silent, 5:45, 1991) Elephants (35mm, b&w,
silent, 62:00, 2000) 6:30 pm Juror's retrospective screening and lecture
w/ Brigitta Burger-Utzer(Austria). LORD OF THE FRAMES: KURT KREN 1/57
Versuch mit synthetischem Ton (16mm, b&w, 1:30, 1957) 37/78 Tree Again
(16mm, silent, 4:00, 1978) 9/64 O Tannenbaum (16mm, silent, 3:00,1964)
0/65 Selbstverstummelung (16mm, b&w, silent, 5:30, 1965 ) 2/60 48 Kopfe
aus dem Szondi-Test (16mm, b&w, silent, 4:30, 1960) 36/78 Rischart
(16mm, silent, 3:00, 1978) 49/95 tausendjahrekino (16mm, 4:00, 1995)
20/68 Schatzi (16mm, b&w, silent, 3:00, 1968) 31/75 Asyl (16mm,
silent,und 8:30, 1975) 6/64 Mama Papa(16mm, silent, 4:00, 1964) 23/69
Underground Explosion(16mm, 5:00, 1969) 26/71 Zeichenfilm - Balzac oder
das Auge Gottes(16mm, b&w, silent, 0:30,1971) 15/67 TV (16mm, b&w,
silent, 4:00, 1967) 40/81 Breakfast im Grauen (16mm, b&w, silent, 3:00,
1981) 44/85 Foot'-age shoot'-out (16mm, 3:00, 1985) 29/73 Ready-made
(16mm, b&w, 13:00, 1973) 8:00 pm International program 6 From the
Outskirts of Nothing to the Suburbs of the Void (Thomas Koener, Germany,
audio visual performance, 60:00, 2006) 9:30 pm International program 7
The Mendi (Steve Reinke, Canada, Mini DV, 10:00, 2005) The Threshold of
Transience (Gyula Nemes, Hungary, 35mm, b&w, 15:00, 2005) Object Studies
(Nicky Hamlyn, England, 16mm, silent, 17:00, 2005) Un Pont sur la Drina
(Xavier Lukomski, Belgium, 35mm Cinemascope, 18:00, 2005) man. road.
river. (Marcellvs L, Brazil, Mini DV, 11:00, 2005)
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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2006
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2/26
Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Filmmakers
http://www.chicagofilmmakers.org/
8:00pm, Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark St.)
TWO BY BRUCE BAILLIE: QUICK BILLY AND VALENTIN DE LAS SIERRAS
Two little-seen classics (plus some extras!) by the great experimental
filmmaker Bruce Baillie. Valentin De Las Sierras (1967, 10 mins.) Skin,
eyes, knees, horses, hair, sun, earth. Old Song of Mexican hero
Valentin, sung by blind Jose Santollo Nasido en Santa Cruz de la
Soledad; Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico. Quick Billy (1967-70, 56 mins,) "is a
personal meditation conducted across an American landscape. 'I consider
Quick Billy a kind of interior documentary,' writes Baillie. The
filmmaker translates The Tibetan Book of the Dead into a dream-like
diary and meditation on American space. This meditation concludes with a
sepia-toned mini-Western—'Set in Kansas in 1893'—featuring Baillie
himself as the eponymous gun-slinging hero. Baillie describes the film
as both 'A Horse Opera in Four Reels' and as a film that offers 'The
experience of transformation between life and death, death and birth, or
rebirth in four reels.' It is, therefore, something of a Western and an
Eastern." (UWM) Showing with 6 uncut camera rolls. Numbered 14, 41, 43,
46, 47, and 52 (16 mins.) The 'rolls' took the form of a correspondence,
or THEATRE, between their author and Stan Brakhage, in the winter of
1968-69. They're kind of magic cousins of the film.
2/26
Los Angeles, California: Filmforum
http://www.lafilmforum.org/
7:00 pm, Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd.
LOOKING AT SURVEILLANCE
Featuring Rebecca Baron's "How Little We Know of Our Neighbors" (2005,
video, 49 minutes) - her experimental documentary on London's history of
surveillance - and Michael Gitlin's "The Birdpeople" (2004, 16mm, 61
min), his multi-faceted look at bird watchers. Both filmmakers in
person!
2/26
San Francisco, California: San Francisco Cinematheque
http://www.sfcinematheque.org
7:30, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St
LION'S LOVE: VARDA RESPONDS TO WARHOL
A "meta-Warhol movie" according to Vincent Canby, Lion's Love (1969) is
the fruit of Agnès Varda's foray into 1960s US pop and avant-garde
culture. While Viva (of Warhol fame), Rado, and Ragni (both of Hair) are
a ménage-à-trois looking for a future in LA, Shirley Clarke, played
somewhat unwillingly by Shirley Clarke, attempts to leave behind her
experimental work in New York (see The Connection above) for a Hollywood
career, and Bobby Kennedy is assassinated on television. Varda takes on
a few Warhol tropes, but Clarke's uneasy presence and Varda's whimsy
shift the tone. The film is playful and witty, spicing up its
fascination with a bit of cynicism in this tribute to a '60s American
way of life
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__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.