From: Joel S. Bachar (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Aug 30 2006 - 14:57:59 PDT
September New Releases from Microcinema International
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Street Date: September 26th, Prebook: September 1:
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RELINE2
A collection of 18 progressive audiovisual works by international artists
Catalog No. MC-547
2005, 91 minutes
UPC: 880198054791
SRP: $18.99
Synopsis:
RELINE2 artists investigate modern mythology, examine environments, play
with similes between machine and body, and explode form. Through the use of
custom software, unique processing methods, and envelope- pushing
applications of traditional production tools, these works push technical
limits and the very boundaries of style and imagination. RELINE2 offers an
insight into the current world and it's potential future as imagined through
graphic re-interpretations, biotechnology, architecture, and the
environment.
ABOUT THE RELINE DVD SERIES
The goal of the RELINE DVD series is to compile an array of work showcasing
artists engaged in the creation of new visual forms deriving from
experimental techniques and the re-orientation of high- end production
processes. Part video archive, part work of art itself, the RELINE DVD
series serves the dual goal of contextualizing and developing an emerging
media form.
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Wild Wheels by Harrod Blank
Catalog No. MC-567
Feature, Documentary
1992, 65 minutes + extra footage
ISBN: 0-933621-10-8
UPC: 881359000015
SRP: $29.95
Synopsis:
WILD WHEELS is filmmaker Harrod Blank's comic and revealing exploration of
Art Cars, personally customized automobiles which reflect the
individualistic spirit of their drivers. Traveling across the country in his
own wildly decorated VW bug, Blank discovers a memorable cast of real-life
characters who are obsessed with transforming their cars into mobile works
of art.
They say driving is a privilege, not a right. If you haven't seen this film,
driving is neither privilege nor right. Driving is a bore! In "Wild Wheels,"
Harrod Blank takes the "auto" matic out of automobile for an hour of pure
family fun! In this, his second film, filmmaker Blank explores a nation of
eccentrics who, like himself, woke up one day driven toward making something
new, colorful and personal out of their straight factory cars. At first
glance, Blank's 1992 documentary film has a "don't do this at home, kids"
kind of feel with Blank getting pulled over by the police for daring to be
different behind the wheel. But in no time, Blank has made us forget traffic
court and driven us far out across a land of rebel creative souls with cars
the likes of which you have never imagined. From the Hippo Car and the
Cow-asaki bovine motorcycle to the Wrought Iron VW Bug and the Grass Car,
the 46 cars featured in "Wild Wheels" turn the classic icon on its head and
make the freeway fun again. I loved this movie! It's the kind of film you
can pop in and watch again and again over the years and it never gets old.
Now translated into over 36 languages and seen by 45 million people
worldwide, "Wild Wheels" is literally changing the way humanity views the
automobile. Far from the sometimes frightening proposition of "driving while
being different," more and more people are making art cars every year. For
many, "Wild Wheels" is where it all began.
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Fever Dreams and Heavenly Nightmares: the Short Films of Chel White
Catalog No. MC-553
2006, 60 minutes
UPC: 880198055392
SRP: $24.95
Synopsis:
"Fever Dreams and Heavenly Nightmares" is the long awaited DVD compilation
of independent filmmaker Chel White's visionary work. Spanning 20 years,
this collection is an hour's worth of award-winning short films, astonishing
animation, and more.
>From a story about a man who is obsessed with soil to an
>expressionistic
choreography of photocopied bodies, Chel White's films defy easy
categorization. Exploring love, obsession, memories and dreams, his work is
sublime and intricately beautiful. Chel is often describes as a cinematic
poet, and many of his films have a darkly humorous edge to them. The Austin
Chronicle says, "Chel White's work seems to dispatch itself in some secret,
subversive code, flashing messages amid animation, obscure stock footage,
and actors with crazy eyes."
The "Fever Dreams and Heavenly Nightmares" disk features Magda, Dirt, and
Soulmate, three adaptations of stories by long-time monologist and radio
artist Joe Frank.
Fresh from its run of over 50 film festivals, Magda is a tale of a young man
who joins a traveling circus after falling in love with the enigmatic
contortionist. The film's actors are wooden-literally. Using pose-able
artist manikins in stop-motion animation, the film has a surprising
emotional depth. To date, Magda has collected several first place awards,
including the Grand Jury Prize for Best Animated Short from the Florida Film
Festival. The Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival describes
Magda as a "truly astounding short film".
The newest film on the DVD is A Painful Glimpse Into My Writing Process (In
Less Than 60 Seconds). It is black humor tour de force derived from a poem
by Scott Poole. The International Film Festival of Boston describes the film
as a "dark comedy (that) captures the humiliating process of wracking your
brain for something original to say."
Producer and indie film maven Christine Vachon (Far From Heaven, Boys Don't
Cry) described Chel White's Dirt as "a post-modern Invasion of the Body
Snatchers." The film won the award for Best Short Film from the Stockholm
International Film Festival and played in competition at the Sundance Film
Festival.
Other films featured on the "Fever Dreams and Heavenly Nightmares" DVD are
Passage, described by the Willamette Week as "an eerily beautiful rumination
on the passage between birth and death", and Eclipse, a haunting examination
of the often-controversial subject of the right to choose, told from a
perspective that is pointedly more personal than political. Also on this new
DVD compilation are two of White's early animations, and a plethora of bonus
material that includes glimpses behind-the-scenes, out-takes, experiments,
an interview, a sampling of a few of White's artful commercials, and more.
In addition to the DVD itself, the package comes with a 12-page film book
with images, descriptions, and press quotes on the films.
Chel White, whose oeuvre includes narrative, abstract, animation and
live-action, says, "I consider myself a moving-image alchemist. I get great
satisfaction from being relentless in exploring new territories as I work to
push the limits of my filmmaking, from the look of a film to the content
below the surface." He adds, "Most of my film themes reside just between
consciousness and dreams, where I find the most interesting stories".
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Inhaling the Spore - A Journey through the Museum of Jurassic Technology
Catalog No. MC-559
2004, 35 minutes
UPC: 880198055996
SRP: $19.99
Synopsis:
Behind a storefront in Los Angeles is one of the most unusual cultural
institutions in America - The Museum of Jurassic Technology. It's a
modern-day "cabinet of curiosities," filled with juxtapositions of the
genuine, the strange, and the truly unexplainable. Inhaling the Spore is an
intimate journey through the "MJT", and features its founder and director
David Wilson, who can often be found in front of the museum, playing his
accordion to attract visitors.
Entering the museum, the camera winds through a dark warren of spaces.
Behind glass are various exhibits presented with the normal trappings of a
museum - exhaustive captions, hushed lighting, and scholarly audio programs.
With Wilson as our guide, we see:
--A collection of horns and antlers, including one that purports to be a
human horn.
--Micro-miniature sculptures of Napoleon and the Pope, each carved from a
human hair, and mounted in the eye of a needle.
-An elaborate exhibit about the bat Myotis lucifugus, or "piercing devil"
which is believed to fly through solid objects.
Yes, there is something very odd going on here, questioning our usual
assumptions of what is real.or not.
We turn to some outside experts for analysis: Author Lawrence Weschler
relates his experiences trying to verify some of the MJT's exhibits; the J.
Paul Getty Museum's John Walsh compares it to the first museums of the 17th
century; art historian Barbara Stafford observes that Wilson's exhibits
invite us to see the hidden associations between objects; and actor/magician
Ricky Jay discusses his "on-loan" collection of desiccating dice.
Museum director David Wilson views one particular exhibit as a metaphor for
the entire enterprise. The African Stink Ant inhales the spore of a
parasitic fungus that causes it to behave in curious and irrational ways.
Eventually the fungus grows, horn-like, from the ant's head, and rains down
new spores to the forest floor. "All of us here at the museum feel like
we've inhaled that spore," says Wilson, "and hopefully we'll infect other
people as well."
Inhaling the Spore explores and celebrates the Museum of Jurassic
Technology. A place that inspires us to wonder at the marvels of man and
nature... and wonder whether any of it could possibly be true.
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Available through all major distributors OR:
To order: email suppressed
or fax: 509-351-1530 phone: 415-864-0660 or send PO to:
Microcinema International
1636 Bush Street #2
San Francisco, CA 94109, USA
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.