From: Thomas Beard (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Jun 22 2006 - 10:21:14 PDT
Ocularis at Galapagos Art Space
70 North 6th Street, Brooklyn
http://www.ocularis.net
Monday, June 26 at 8 PM
Ocularis at Ten
10th Anniversary Screening
Our show of shows!
Founded in June, 1996 as a rooftop film series catering to local audiences
in North Brooklyn, Ocularis has since evolved into a weekly cinema, a
producer of collaborative film/video work and a summer open-air screening
series. Now, in honor of that highly eventful decade, we¹ve gathered ten
individuals--founders, board members, directors, et al--who have helped make
Ocularis what it is today. Each will present a film or video that they¹ve
found representative of their time with the organization, along with an
anecdote or two. And the results, at once hit parade and history lesson, are
sure to make for one of our most memorable evenings yet.
Nouvelle Vach
Bruce McClure, 6 min, 1998
Selected by Dónal Ó'Céilleachair
"Nouvelle Vach is a hand spray-painted film on 16mm. The soundtrack comes
from the Œspillage¹ of the paint from the image onto the optical track; it
increases and decreases in intensity in an almost Œorganic¹ sonic
equivalence to the shifting, transforming images before the eyes." - DOC
Sex Without Glasses
Ross McLaren, 13 min, 1983
Selected by Marie Losier
"An amalgam of sex without guilt and sight without glasses. The importance
of being able to see what you are doing. A film about confusing
relationships, telephones and wetness; and starring a preverbal somnambulist
floating between word and object." - RM
The Moschops
Jim Trainor, 13 min, 2000
Selected by Jonathan Howell
"Scientists believe the Moshcops was capable of interior tenderness, which
it expressed, ironically, through incessant fighting. It lived in South
Africa two hundred and forty seven million years ago. There were no
dinosaurs then, and the Moschops is definitely not a dinosaur." - JT
"Accomplishes in thirteen strange and pathos-packed minutes what Bruno
Dumont's Twentynine Palms takes nearly two painstaking hours to achieve."
-JH
Isle of Flowers
Jorge Furtado, 12 min, 1989
Selected by Isabelle Dupuis
³Through the apparently improbable intertwinement of tomato crops, opposable
thumbs and perfume as well as a hefty dose of clever editing and graphics,
Jose Furtado delivers a commentary on the human condition that that is in
turn witty and scathing.² ID
Little Flags
Jem Cohen, 7 min, 2000
Selected by Karyn Riegel
"Filmed on the streets of lower Manhattan during a patriotic victory parade.
Everyone loves a parade--except for the dead." - JC
Endless Obsession
Glen Fogel, 6 min, 2001
Selected by Henriette Huldisch
"A dense reworking of footage from Salò that reckons with, and transforms,
the film's abject sexuality." - Nathan Lee
Les malles
Felix Samba N'Diaye, 13 min, 1989
Selected by Moira Tierney
Near the Colobane bridge in Waxi Naan, Senegal, Carlo and his crew
recuperate old metal barrels formerly used to transport tar. The lids are
removed and the leftover tar burnt off by Carlo's apprentices. Another group
works on the clean metal, and suitcases gradually emerge from the raw
material, subsequently painted with a two-color ornamental pattern. The sole
sound of the film comes from the rhythm of the hammers.
Nettezza Urbana
Michelangelo Antonioni, 9 min, 1948
Selected by Sophie Fenwick
"Antonioni's second film, an essay on Roman street sweepers, much of it
photographed at dawn and dusk, using the visual methods that appear in his
later feature films. From the narration: Apparently we don't care who these
sweepers are or how they live, these quiet and humble workers who no one
deems worthy of a word or even a stare. Street sweepers are a part of the
city to the same degree as inanimate objects. And yet, no one more than they
takes part in the life of the city." - Robert Haller
Welcome to My Homey Page
Paper Rad, 3 min, 2003
Selected by Lauren Cornell
"Gifs go wild in one of Paper Rad's signature flash animations. Bright-eyed
cats, beating hearts, saccharine sweet rainbows, pixilated peace symbols,
whirling bart simpsons and smiley faces--all images that represent an
earlier era of the Internet--careen and collide in a fast-paced collage that
celebrates digital pop culture as it simultaneously critiques its rapid
obsolescence and commodification of culture, religion and emotional content.
Syncopated to an original soundtrack written by members of Paper Rad." - LC
Pixillation
Lillian Schwartz, 4 min, 1970
Selected by Thomas Beard
"Produced at Bell Labs, Schwartz's animation is a seminal work of early
computer art. With its throbbing soundtrack and mutating geometries, who
knew that the emerging aesthetic of fin-de-siècle Providence had a precursor
in suburban New Jersey?" - TB
Ticket Price - $6
For more information, please contact Thomas Beard (email suppressed)
About Ocularis
Ocularis is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization that provides a forum for
the exhibition of independent, experimental and documentary film/video and
new media, as well as international and repertory cinema. Established in
1996 as a rooftop film series catering to local audiences in North Brooklyn,
it has since evolved into a weekly cinema, a producer of collaborative
film/video work and a summer open-air screening series.
-- Thomas Beard Program Director Ocularis at Galapagos Art Space 70 North 6th Street Brooklyn, NY 11211 http://www.ocularis.net __________________________________________________________________ For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.