From: weekly listing (email suppressed)
Date: Sun Oct 22 2006 - 09:21:57 PDT
This week [October 22 - 29, 2006] in avant garde cinema (part 1 of 2)
Enter your announcements (calls for entries, new work, jobs, items
for sale, etc.) at:
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl
JOB AVAILABLE:
=============
NEWFEST
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=jobs&readfile=20.ann
FUNDING:
=======
conflict zone film fund
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=funding&readfile=9.ann
NEW CALLS FOR ENTRIES:
=====================
Asbury Shorts of New York 2007 (New York, NY USA; Deadline: December 20, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=630.ann
Flatpack Festival (Birmingham, UK; Deadline: December 15, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=631.ann
Single Reel Film & Video Festival (New York, NY, USA; Deadline: December
01, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=632.ann
Magmart | video under volcano (Naples, Italy; Deadline: December 31, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=633.ann
Dereel Independent Film Festival (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Deadline:
February 03, 2007)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=634.ann
Research Spaces III: Topos - The Moving Image between Art and Architecture
(London, UK; Deadline: October 15, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=635.ann
ZEMOS98 (Sevilla, Spain; Deadline: November 01, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=636.ann
Naples / Tam Tam Digifestival (Naples, NA, Italy; Deadline: December 31, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=637.ann
Experimenta 2007 (Bangalore, India; Deadline: December 15, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=638.ann
Reel Shorts (Saratoga Springs, NY. U.S.A.; Deadline: December 07, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=639.ann
Apple Cider Screening (Chicago, IL USA; Deadline: October 30, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=640.ann
Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (Ithaca, New York, U.S.; Deadline:
November 15, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=641.ann
The Delta International Film and Video Festival (Cleveland, MS USA;
Deadline: February 01, 2007)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=642.ann
Daughters of Joy! Film + Video Festival (Montreal, Quebec, Canada;
Deadline: January 15, 2007)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=643.ann
DEADLINES APPROACHING:
======================
Videologia (Volgograd, Russia; Deadline: November 01, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=592.ann
OpenLens Festival (Eugene, Oregon; Deadline: October 27, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=614.ann
The Journal of Short Film (DVD) (Columbus, OH, USA; Deadline: November 08,
2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=615.ann
Images Festival (Toronto, Ontario, CANADA; Deadline: November 17, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=616.ann
Cinematic CD FILM2MUSIC Competition (Los Angeles, CA USA; Deadline:
November 01, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=619.ann
Omaha Film Festival (Omaha, Ne, USA; Deadline: November 08, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=626.ann
ZEMOS98 (Sevilla, Spain; Deadline: November 01, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=636.ann
Apple Cider Screening (Chicago, IL USA; Deadline: October 30, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=640.ann
Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (Ithaca, New York, U.S.; Deadline:
November 15, 2006)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=641.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):
==============================
* Split Pillow Showcase: Soulmaid [October 22, Chicago, Illinois]
* 30th Anniversary Series Continues With Former Director Amy Murphy Hosting
Films By andy Warhol! [October 22, Los Angeles, California]
* New York Experimental: the Work of Chiaki Watanabe 2002-2006 [October
22, New York, New York]
* Films By Kelly Reichardt [October 22, New York, New York]
* Thread, Frame, and Flicker: Recent 16mm Films [October 22, San
Francisco, California]
* Therefore I Live Part 3: Testament [October 23, Atlanta, Georgia]
* Gunvor Nelson Retrospective: Personal Lens [October 23, New York, New
York]
* Multi-Media Performance By Miranda July [October 23, San Francisco,
California]
* Pioneers In Revolt: A Lesbian and Gay Avant-Garde Film Retrospective
[October 24, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]
* Fallen Angels [October 24, Reading, Pennsylvania]
* Multi-Media Performance By Miranda July [October 24, San Francisco,
California]
* The Motherhood Manifesto [October 24, Seattle, Washington]
* The Free Screen - Gunvor Nelson In Person! [October 24, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada]
* Pioneer of the Minimal: Tony Conrad Retrospective [October 25,
Buffalo, New York]
* Peek-A-Boo! Magic Lantern Presents "The Peep Show" [October 25,
Providence, RI]
* Pioneer of the Minimal: Tony Conrad Retrospective [October 26,
Buffalo, New York]
* The Animated Films of Adam K. Beckett [October 26, Chicago, Illinois]
* One Way Boogie Woogie / 27 Years Later [October 26, London, England]
* Jack Smith & the Destruction of Atlantis [October 26, London, England]
* Taste of Iceland Film Festival [October 26, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]
* Pioneer of the Minimal: Tony Conrad Retrospective [October 27,
Buffalo, New York]
* Half-Cocked - A Rare Screening of the Legendary Rock 'n Roll Road
Movie! [October 27, Chicago, Illinois]
* Anger Me [October 27, London, England]
* The Holy Mountain [October 27, London, England]
* Arkansas Auteur: the Folk Art Films of Phil Chambliss [October 27,
London, England]
* Halloween Special 1st of 2 Shows [October 27, New York, New York]
* On the Threshold: videos By Leslie Peters [October 27, New York, New York]
* Urban/ Rural Landscapes Explored In video and Film [October 28,
Greenbelt, MD]
* Games People Play [October 28, London, England]
* Distance and Displacement [October 28, London, England]
* One Way Boogie Woogie / 27 Years Later [October 28, London, England]
* Jack Smith & the Destruction of Atlantis [October 28, London, England]
* Halloween Special 2nd of 2 Shows [October 28, New York, New York]
* Let Me Start By Saying (Shorts Programme) [October 28, New York, New York]
* Laitala's Halloween Spooktacular! [October 28, San Francisco, California]
* Incendiary video: Selections From the Media Burn Archive [October 29,
Chicago, Illinois]
* Within You, Without You [October 29, London, England]
* Kenneth Anger 35mm Preservations With Kenneth Anger In Person !
[October 29, London, England]
* Anger Me [October 29, London, England]
* Shine On [October 29, London, England]
* Inward & Outward Journeys - Films By Sarah Miles and Laura
Waddington [October 29, Los Angeles, California]
* Winter Fire: Swiss Filmmaker Hannes Schupbach In Person [October 29,
San Francisco, California]
Events are sorted by CITY within each DATE.
------------------------
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2006
------------------------
10/22
Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Filmmakers
http://www.chicagofilmmakers.org/
8:00 pm, Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark St.)
SPLIT PILLOW SHOWCASE: SOULMAID
See October 20.
10/22
Los Angeles, California: Filmforum
http://www.lafilmforum.org/
7:00 pm, Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd.
30TH ANNIVERSARY SERIES CONTINUES WITH FORMER DIRECTOR AMY MURPHY HOSTING
FILMS BY ANDY WARHOL!
Amy Murphy, director of Filmforum in 1994, hosts a show revisiting
Filmforum's Andy Warhol Weekend, including a reel of Warhol's screen
tests, including those of the late Susan Sontag and avant-garde
filmmaker Jack Smith. Then we'll screen the classic "Harlot." General
admission $9, students/seniors $6. Cash and check only.
10/22
New York, New York: The Tank
http://www.thetanknyc.org
8:00 PM (Doors), 279 Church Street
NEW YORK EXPERIMENTAL: THE WORK OF CHIAKI WATANABE 2002-2006
A screening of works from visual music artist Chiaki Watanabe's recently
released compilation DVD, "muX", in addition to her recent video series,
o.t.m. "muX" is a collection of six visual music works created between
2002 and 2006. The title of this compilation is derived from the digital
processing term "muXing": fusing audio and visual data into one. muX
represents the best of Watanabe's works, including those featured in the
NY Video Festival, European Media Art Festival, Microcinema
International, MOMA and ICA London. All live visual works were performed
with various experimental, electronica and avant classical sound artists
in NY and abroad. "o.t.m." (on the move) is a series of abstract video
collages consisting of footage captured from everyday life, including
the street, vehicles, and nature. The collages are composed of
observations of fragments of moments. These fragments form patterns,
creating a pulse for each moment. In "o.t.m." she weaves each of these
moments into a poetic tapestry. Watanabe's work has been presented
internationally in various venues ranging from media art and video
festivals such as the New York Video Festival, Microcinema
International, European Media Art Festival (DE), Viper New Media
Festival (CH) to art institutions including MOMA, ICA (UK), Austin
Museum of Digital Art , and Kunsthall (NO). She has performed at venues
throughout New York City including Location One, Dance Theater Workshop,
The Knitting Factory, The Kitchen and Merce Cunningham studio. * muX is
made possible with support from the Experimental Television Center's
(ETC) Finishing fund. The Experimental Television Center (ETC) is
supported by The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and Media
The Foundation. FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Susan Agliata -
email suppressed - 212.563.6269 FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT:
http://www.thetanknyc.org and http://www.nicknack.org
10/22
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
6pm and 8:30pm, 32 Second Ave. @ 2nd St.
FILMS BY KELLY REICHARDT
With Kelly Reichardt's acclaimed new film OLD JOY enjoying a recent
theatrical release, Anthology is pleased to present her much-admired
feature-debut, RIVER OF GRASS, along with its medium-length follow-up
ODE, and her two short films, THEN A YEAR and TRAVIS. PROGRAM ONE:
Sunday, October 22 at 6:00: RIVER OF GRASS (1993, 81 min, 16mm, color)
"A canny, contemporary portrait of shiftlessness, this adept first
feature...set in the Florida Everglades, is about people so bored they
jump at the chance to go on the lam – taking off even before they've
committed a crime. Reichardt has an original sense of how to put
together a film sequence and an effective way of guiding her cast of
unknowns through an absurdist comedy of errors." –Jonathan Rosenbaum,
CHICAGO READER "From BONNIE AND CLYDE to NATURAL BORN KILLERS, American
audiences have embraced the theme of young lovers on the run, engaged in
sexy revolt against middle-class conventions. Kelly Reichardt's RIVER OF
GRASS, a funny, sad and honest independent film, is the first American
movie to deconstruct that myth." –Dave Kehr, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS -----
PROGRAM TWO: Sunday, October 22 at 8:00: ODE (1999, 48 min, Beta, color)
"... ODE spins the legend of Billy Joe McAllister (he who jumped off the
Tallahatchie Bridge) into a haunting…narrative about gay sexuality,
repression, and teen suicide. The film is expressively shot by Reichardt
herself in the fragile, all-but-obsolete medium of Super-8…Reichardt
cherishes film for its grain. The more grainy the image, the more
ghostly it appears, but also the livelier it seems – even when the image
is dead still, the grain never stops moving." –Amy Taubin, VILLAGE VOICE
& THEN, A YEAR (2002, 14 minutes, Beta, color) "[A] voice-over collaged
from true crime shows [with a] Super-8 picture that's essential
Reichardt: lyrical, ominous, and evocative of how horribly love can
hurt." –Amy Taubin, VILLAGE VOICE & TRAVIS (2004, 11 min, Beta, color)
"Reichardt appropriates and illustrates an NPR radio interview with the
Portland mother whose son Travis was killed clearing mines in Iraq just
after President Bush declared the end to major combat. Through intricate
sound-editing the full story of this loss is revealed with chilling
clarity." –MadCat Women's International Film Festival -- Directions:
Subway: F or V to Second Ave; 6 to Bleecker; Tickets: $8 for adults, $6
for students & seniors; $5 for members.
10/22
San Francisco, California: San Francisco Cinematheque
http://www.sfcinematheque.org
7:30, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
THREAD, FRAME, AND FLICKER: RECENT 16MM FILMS
San Francisco Cinematheque @YBCA presents Sinew of Cinema: Work by
Angelina Krahn and Tomonari Nishikawa, Angelina Krahn and Tomonari
Nishikawa In Person. Sunday, October 15, 7:30 pm $8 regular /$6
Cinematheque members, students, seniors /$6 YBCA members. The art of
cinema may be ultimately optical and auditory, but its processes are
chemical, electrical and material. Two young Bay Area-based film
artists, Krahn and Nishikawa refract landscape and gesture through the
technology called cinema and orchestrate its traces into expressive
nuance and delicate visual pleasure. They will each screen a selection
of their work with rent and re-sewn 16mm film, hand processed emulsions,
pinhole and slit-aperture videos and pixilated films.
------------------------
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2006
------------------------
10/23
Atlanta, Georgia: Eyedrum
http://www.eyedrum.org
8:00 pm, 290 Martin Luther King Jr Dr Suite 8
THEREFORE I LIVE PART 3: TESTAMENT
Testament: Diary Films ** An evening dedicated to artists filming their
own lives and surroundings. Independent film legend George Kuchar (a
major influence on John Waters among many others) appears in Rainy
Season, a classic video diary work that alternates between the
hilarious, the subversive, and the poignant. Kuchar's Wild Night in El
Reno is a short, brilliant "weather diary" of a storm in Oklahoma. **
Since the early 1980s, Anne Charlotte Robertson has been making an epic
diary work on super-8 film. Emily Died is an excerpt from this work,
detailing the events of May to September 1994, as Robertson comes to
terms with a death in her family and the surrounding difficulties. This
screening represents a rare opportunity to see Robertson's brave, highly
personal film work. ** As an originator of the modern diary film, Jonas
Mekas is a crucial figure of American independent film. Walden, one of
his most highly praised works, is a three-hour diary film consisting of
footage Mekas shot in the mid-1960s. (We will screen the first 43
minutes, which stands as a separate work in its own right.) Walden Reel
1 is a collection of exquisite small films woven together to form a
larger whole. Above all it is a celebration of the act of filmmaking. A
line from Mekas's poetic narration, "I make home movies, therefore I
live," provides the title for this film series. "They tell me I should
always be searching," he says in the film. "But I am only celebrating
what I see." ** Also included in the screening are three shorter works.
Brian Parks's video piece follows his father on a typical work day,
finding absurdity and strangeness in the everyday. Gordon Ball's
Enthusiasm, in which the filmmaker explores the death of his mother,
moved poet Allen Ginsberg to comment, "Gordon Ball makes you cry for
life itself." DHPG Mon Amour is a touching home movie of a devoted gay
couple and their use of alternative treatments for AIDS. Originally
intended as a promotional film for these treatments, it now resides in
the collection of the Museum of Modern Art as a classic of personal
cinema. ** PART 1 George Kuchar, Wild Night in El Reno (1977), 16mm,
color, sound, 6 minutes; George Kuchar, Rainy Season (1987), video, 28
minutes; Brian Parks, Atlanta Trailer City (2003), miniDV, color, sound,
6 minutes; Anne Charlotte Robertson, Emily Died (1994), super-8mm,
color, sound, 26 minutes (screened on VHS); Jonas Mekas, Walden Reel 1
(1969), 16mm, color, sound, 43 minutes ** PART 2 Gordon Ball, Enthusiasm
(1979), 16mm, color and black & white, sound, 13 minutes; Carl Michael
George, DHPG Mon Amour (1989), 8mm, color, sound, 12 minutes (screened
on VHS); Program subject to change ** THEREFORE I LIVE is a Film Love
event, programmed and hosted by Andy Ditzler for Atlanta Celebrates
Photography and Frequent Small Meals.
10/23
New York, New York: Museum of Modern Art
http://www.moma.org
6:00 pm, MoMA, 11 West 53 St
GUNVOR NELSON RETROSPECTIVE: PERSONAL LENS
Field Study #2. 1988. Animation using cutouts, found footage, and
pouring sand. 8 min. Light Years Expanding. 1988. An extension of the
visual ideas and themes of Light Years (Program 2). "[T]he distance of
time makes home further, the intensity of memory makes it richer"
(Parabola). 25 min. Trace Elements. 2003. A "sound video" highlighting
the act of shooting based on the idea that the active, ever-searching
camera never quite finds its target. 10 min. Snowdrift. 2001. (Also
known as Snowstorm.) Sudden changes in composition, background, density,
color, and contrast interrupt the perpetual flow of snowflakes,
floating, whirling, and dancing in constant restlessness. 9 min. New
Evidence. 2006. A new work created by reworking and condensing combined
material from four videos used in the installation Collected Evidence:
52 Weeks. 22 min. Premiere. Program 74 min.
10/23
San Francisco, California: San Francisco Cinematheque
http://www.sfcinematheque.org
8:00, Project Artaud Theater, 450 Florida Street at Mariposa St
MULTI-MEDIA PERFORMANCE BY MIRANDA JULY
Things We Don't Understand and Definitely Don't Want To Talk About A
Multi-Media Performance by Miranda July Monday, October 23 & October 24,
2006 @ 8PM Project Artaud Theater, 450 Florida Street, San Francisco
Tickets: $20 or $60, including gala reception on Tuesday 10/24 a benefit
for the San Francisco Cinematheque Filmmaker, writer, and performer
Miranda July is no stranger to the Bay Area (she grew up in Berkeley).
Nor to Cinematheque, where she has shown The Amateurist, Nest of Tens,
and performed The Swan Tool. Internationally acclaimed since the success
of Me and You and Everyone We Know, July graces us with a special
two-night-only performance at Project Artaud Theater to benefit the San
Francisco Cinematheque. In collaboration with the audience, she will
perform a story of love, obsession, and heartbreak. This multi-media
production is a work-in-progress that will be shot as a feature film in
Spring 2007.
-------------------------
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2006
-------------------------
10/24
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Jefferson Presents ...
http://www.geocities.com/jeffersonpresents/
9:15, Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ Harris Theater, 809 Liberty Ave.
PIONEERS IN REVOLT: A LESBIAN AND GAY AVANT-GARDE FILM RETROSPECTIVE
PIONEERS IN REVOLT: A LESBIAN AND GAY AVANT-GARDE FILM RETROSPECTIVE
Curated by Gordon Nelson of Jefferson Presents. This program is designed
to serve as an introduction to a selection of essential gay and lesbian
artists working in the area of experimental film and video. All of the
short films and videos included in this screening are considered
significant revolutionary milestones in the history of film and
represent a wide array of approaches to personal expression through
cinema. Kenneth Anger - Fireworks (1947, 16mm, b&w/so, 15 min.) A
landmark of both experimental and gay cinema, Kenneth Anger's film is a
bizarre, disturbing dreamscape of violation, rape, and homoerotic
sadomasochism. The film opens with Anger awaking from a troubled dream
and leaving his house to go on a stroll. He is confronted by a band of
buff sailors who proceed to beat, manhandle, and molest him. Fireworks
ends with the amazing image of a sailor unzipping his fly and pulling
out a lit roman candle. Recalling other surrealist masterpieces such as
Un Chien Andalou and Meshes in the Afternoon, this film uses elliptical
narrative structure and dream-like visual metaphors and puns. Jack Smith
- Scotch Tape (1959-1962, 16mm, color/so, 3 min. ) With Jerry Sims, Ken
Jacobs and Reese Haire. Scotch Tape was shot on the rubble strewn site
of the future Lincoln Center. The title arises from the piece of scotch
tape which had become wedged in the camera gate. George Kuchar - Hold Me
While I'm Naked (1966, 16mm, color/so, 15 min.) "A very direct and
subtle, very sad and funny look at nothing more or less than sexual
frustration and aloneness. In its economy and cogency of imaging, HOLD
ME surpasses any of Kuchar's previous work. The odd blend of Hollywood
glamour and drama with all-too-real life creates and inspires
counterpoint of unattainable desire against unbearable actuality." - Ken
Kelman Barbara Hammer - Superdyke (1975, 16mm, color/so, 20 min.) A
comedy about a troop of shield-bearing Amazons who take over city
institutions before relaxing in the country. Curt McDowell - Loads
(1980, 16mm, b&w/so, 22 min.) "San Francisco-based Curt McDowell has
always been a pioneer in sexual frankness, but his new film, LOADS, goes
far beyond his earlier all-out efforts and puts such big-time dabblers
in eroticism as Bernardo Bertolucci and Nagisa Oshima decidedly in the
shade." - David Ehrenstein, Los Angeles Herald Examiner Matthias Muller
- Alpsee (1994, 16mm, color/so, 15 min.) "ALPSEE is a brilliant
autobiographical essay on childhood, family and memory. It is an
exceedingly complex work revealing new layers every time you watch it.
In Alpsee, terror has taken on a harder-edged shape compared to previous
films by Matthias Müller; this nightmare has something alluring about
it. I could not take my eyes off the mellow colors of this film. In the
end, the blue of the skies is falling down and turning into red. This
part appears almost Dionysian to me, sensuous and liberating, as if the
cyclical structure of ALPSEE had to be blown up in the end by a final
intimate moment." - Christian Cargnelli Sadie Benning - Jollies (1990,
video, 11 min.) Intensely personal and revealing, Jollies details
Benning's early sexual experiences and experimentation with both boys
and girls until, eventually losing her virginity to a girl, she embraces
her coming-out and her queer identity. Benning takes us through typical
pre-teen and adolescent experiences as she attempts to sort through and
understand both her feelings and her sexuality. She is quick to note
that although her feelings are perfectly normal for any adolescent, it
is the object of her affections that makes her not only different but,
as she will soon come to realize, invisible in the larger culture that
expends its time, energy, and advertising on heterosexual love. -Melissa
Rigney, Senses of Cinema
10/24
Reading, Pennsylvania: Berks Filmmakers
http://www.berkdfilmmakers.org
7:30, Albright College
FALLEN ANGELS
Fallen Angels (1996, 90 min.) by WONG KAR-WAI - "Fallen Angels takes
every risk known to filmmaking and succeeds triumphantly" -Sight and
Sound "The acme of neo-new-wavism, the ultimate in MTV alienation, the
most visually voluptuous flick of the fin de siecle, Wong Kar-Wai's
quintessential movie is an intermittently violent, wildly stylized,
garishly soulful gangster film with almost no narrative and a surplus of
shaggy-dog digression. Fallen Angels is a reverie—albeit one erupting
periodically into slo-mo gunfights of pure, light-smearing energy. All
romantic cinephiles owe it to themselves to take in the last installment
of Wong's long goodbye to the now-lost paradise of colonial Hong Kong
and the sensationally florid film culture it incubated."- J. Hoberman,
Village Voice (Cantonese with English subtitles)
10/24
San Francisco, California: San Francisco Cinematheque
http://www.sfcinematheque.org
8PM, Project Artaud Theater, 450 Florida Street at Mariposa St
MULTI-MEDIA PERFORMANCE BY MIRANDA JULY
see Multi-Media Performance by Miranda July on Cotober 23 for details
10/24
Seattle, Washington: 911 Media Arts Center
http://www.911media.org/
7pm, 402 9th Ave N
THE MOTHERHOOD MANIFESTO
In recognition of Take Back Your Time Day (October 24), 911 Media Arts
Center, Take Back Your Time and MomsRising.org present a screening of
THE MOTHERHOOD MANIFESTO documentary The Motherhood Manifesto (USA,
2006, 60min) -A Documentary by Laura Pacheco and John de Graaf. Q&A
after screening with local filmmaker and the national coordinator for
Take Back Your Time John de Graaf and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner,
co-founder of MomsRising.org "The Motherhood Manifesto documentary is a
funny, fascinating, informative, and finally infuriating film about
motherhood in America. At the end of this one, you'll want to jump out
of your seat, rush out the door, and start demanding change
immediately!" -- Ann Crittenden, author, The Price of Motherhood The
film brings to the screen many of the characters, experts and stories
from the new book by the same name, written by Joan Blades, co-founder
of MoveOn.org and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner. Blades and Rowe-Finkbeiner
are also the founders of MomsRising.org. Moving personal stories
combined with humorous animation, expert commentary and hilarious old
film clips tell the tale of what happens to working mothers and families
in America and how enlightened employers and public policy can make paid
family leave, flexible working hours, part-time parity, universal
healthcare, excellent childcare, after-school programs and realistic
living wages a reality for American families. Fast-paced and engaging
yet carefully balanced and researched for journalistic credibility, THE
MOTHERHOOD MANIFESTO turns the camera on America's hidden crisis of
caring.
10/24
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Cinematheque Ontario
http://www.bell.ca/cinematheque
6:30 p.m., Art Gallery of Ontario's Jackman Hall, 317 Dundas Street West
THE FREE SCREEN - GUNVOR NELSON IN PERSON!
Cinematheque Ontario presents THE FREE SCREEN (formerly The
Independents). The Free Screen is your window on the vast and rewarding,
but often overlooked, world of unconventional, non-commercial cinema -
those films and videos made by committed artists working outside of
mainstream channels of production and distribution. These artists prefer
to work free from the restrictive aesthetic conventions and commercial
concerns of the movie business, a position which allows them to explore
the possibilities of the art of cinema to the fullest. The Free Screen
presents work by artists engaged in fields ranging from avant-garde film
and animation to hybrid documentaries, essay films and video art, often
with the artists in attendance to present their work. - Chris Gehman,
Free Screen programmer. "Gunvor Nelson's poetically expansive work. . .
. has made her one of the most experimental of artists, with no
definable 'style,' but rather a sustained aesthetic illumination of such
elusive and intimate matters as childhood, aging, displacement, memory,
women's roles, death, and the symbolic forces of nature" (Museum of
Modern Art, New York). Swedish-born filmmaker Gunvor Nelson was a key
figure in the vibrant American West Coast film scene from the
mid-Sixties through the early Nineties, when she returned to her native
Sweden, where she has continued to work in film, video, painting and
drawing. The creator of several classics of personal cinema, Nelson has
been a restless filmmaker, forever moving in new directions. The first
programme in this brief survey draws from almost four decades of
material, and demonstrates the extraordinary range of Nelson's work. It
includes established classics such as MY NAME IS OONA (USA, 1969, 10
min. b&w, 16mm), an incantatory portrait of her young daughter, and the
anomalous but delightful "metaphysical striptease," TAKE OFF(Featuring:
Ellion Ness, USA, 1972, 10 min. b&w, 16mm), as well as harder-to-see
works such as LIGHT YEARS(Sweden/USA, 1987, 28 min. 16mm) and FIELD
STUDY #2 (USA, 1988, 8 min. 16mm), which use a multi-layered combination
of live-action footage, still photographs and animation. Recently Nelson
has shifted her practice to video, and two of her precisely edited
studies, TREE-LINE (Sweden, 1998, 8 min. video) and SNOWDRIFT(Sweden,
2001, 9 min. video), are included here. The second programme is
comprised exclusively of recent videos, beginning with TRACE ELEMENTS, a
reflexive work that "highlight[s] the act of shooting based on the idea
that the active, ever-searching camera never quite finds its target"
(Nelson). In the surprising and mesmerizing epic TRUE TO LIFE, the
garden becomes a site for a literal confrontation between camera and
nature, while NEW EVIDENCE presents material from the installation
Collected Evidence: 52 Weeks. Gunvor Nelson will be present to
introduce Program One . Nelson is currently on her final tour of North
America, so don't miss this unique opportunity! All screenings in this
series are FREE, non-ticketed events. Programming suggestions and
submissions are welcome. All Cinematheque Ontario screenings are held at
the Art Gallery of Ontario's Jackman Hall, 317 Dundas St. West, Toronto
(McCaul Street entrance). All screenings are restricted to individuals
18 years of age or older. For more information, visit the Official
website, www.bell.ca/cinematheque, the year-round Box Office at Manulife
Centre (55 Bloor Street West, main floor, north entrance), or call
416-968-FILM.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2006
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10/25
Buffalo, New York: Hallwalls
http://www.hallwalls.org
8pm, 341 Delaware Ave.
PIONEER OF THE MINIMAL: TONY CONRAD RETROSPECTIVE
Pioneer of the Minimal: Tony Conrad Retrospective (Oct 25-27) kicks off
on Wednesday, Oct. 25th at 8pm with a musical performance in Asbury Hall
at The Church, 341 Delaware Ave. in Buffalo, New York. An ensemble will
accompany Conrad; title and details of this performance TBD! Tickets $10
members, $15 general.
10/25
Providence, RI: Magic Lantern
http://magiclanterncinema.com/
9:30pm, 204 South Main St
PEEK-A-BOO! MAGIC LANTERN PRESENTS "THE PEEP SHOW"
FILM ARCHIVIST NOEL LAWRENCE IN PERSON! Just in time for Halloween, film
archivist Noel Lawrence flies out from the San Francisco Fog of Doom to
present the 16mm films of obscurist cult-mysterioso Commie director J.X.
Williams before your unbelieving eyes. Lawrence is point-man for the
J.X. Williams Archive and the horned shadow behind the recent
"rediscovery" of Williams' lost treasure trove of
psycho-demonic-porno-mafioso films... Not only will he be
trick-or-treating you to a history lesson on the events surrounding
Williams' most significant film ("Peep Show" - a 1965 found-footage
expose on the secret history of the Kennedy administration, involving a
mafia plot to addict Frank Sinatra to heroin!), but he'll be lighting up
that silver screen with a plastic pumpkin full of skullhead psychedelia,
B-movie nudie sacrifice, Satan Claus, and a wild ride through the mean
mobster streets of cement-shoed Chicago. Jeepers creepers, indeed!
FEATURING: Psych-Burn by J.X. Williams (3:00, 16mm, 1968), Satan Claus
J.X. Williams (3:00, 16mm, 1975), The Virgin Sacrifice by J.X. Williams
(9:00 excerpt, 16mm, 1969), Peep Show by J.X. Williams (46:00, 16mm,
1965) TRT 61:00 $5
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2006
--------------------------
10/26
Buffalo, New York: Hallwalls
http://www.hallwalls.org
8pm, 341 Delaware Ave.
PIONEER OF THE MINIMAL: TONY CONRAD RETROSPECTIVE
Part two of "Pioneer of the Minimal: Tony Conrad Retrospective" (Oct.
25-27) features an evening of videos/film by Tony Conrad including: NO
EUROPE (1990, 14 min), made in collaboration with Chris Hill. BEHOLDEN
TO VICTORY (1983, 26 min.), featuring Mike Kelley and Tony Oursler.
Writes Kelley: "Beholden To Victory is an edited video version of the
full-length super-8 film Hail the Fallen. It is a 'war movie' genre
picture… The film was not directed in the traditional sense. There was
no script. The actors were required to play as in a game—to follow
certain rules, or to be more precise, to follow certain restrictions.
They were told only what they were NOT ALLOWED TO DO. Thus the film
consists of a series of scenes, of examples of correct behavior." STUDIO
OF THE STREETS (20 min. excerpt), from the activist cable access show,
starring the people of Buffalo. COMING ATTRACTIONS (1970, 77 min), made
in collaboration with Beverly Grant Conrad, this is Conrad's rarely
screened feature film. The work "looks backward moment into the memories
and forward into the future of Francis Francine (who first appeared in
Flaming Creatures), an elegantly dowdy transvestite of, and indeed
beyond, a certain age. The memories, haunted by a Spirit of Seductions
Past suggest a generally lurid life of sumptuous sex and questionable
liaisons." – Filmmakers Cooperative This screening will take place at
8pm in the Hallwalls cinema, 341 Delaware Ave, Buffalo NY. Tickets are
$7 general, $5 students/seniors, $4 members.
10/26
Chicago, Illinois: Conversations at the Edge
http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/
6:00 pm, 164 N. State Street
THE ANIMATED FILMS OF ADAM K. BECKETT
The young animator Adam K. Beckett created a handful of vivid,
astonishing films in the early 1970s, but died tragically at the age of
29 at the peak of his creative frenzy. Based on an innovation he called
the evolving cycle—whereby an animated image grows bizarrely complex
under the camera—the films combine trippy meditative rhythms with the
edgy sensibility of underground comics. SAIC film professor Jim Trainor
presents newly restored prints of five Beckett films—EVOLUTION OF THE
RED STAR (1973, 7 min.); HEAVY-LIGHT (1973, 7 min.); FLESH FLOWS (1974,
7 min.); SAUSAGE CITY (1974, 6 min.); KITCH IN SYNC (1975, 5 min.)—along
with selected animations admired by the artist: MOTION PAINTING, NO. 1
(Oskar Fischinger, 1947, 11 min.); 7362 (Pat O'Neill, 1965-67, 10 min.),
MIRROR PEOPLE (Kathy Rose, 1974, 4 min.); and LUMA NOCTURNA (Dennis
Pies, 1974, 4 min.), among others. Beckett's films are courtesy Canyon
Cinema and the iotaCenter, which is sponsoring an extensive preservation
project and monograph of Beckett's work. For more information, visit
iota's website: http://www.iotacenter.org/projects/beckett. Tonight's
program is part of a conference and series of related workshops and
screenings on animation hosted by SAIC's Department of Film, Video, &
New Media. For more information, visit www.fvnm.info. (1925-75, Adam K.
Beckett & various, USA, 16mm, ca. 90 min.)
10/26
London, England: London Film Festival
http://www.lff.org.uk
4:15pm, ICA, The Mall, SW1
ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE / 27 YEARS LATER
ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE / 27 YEARS LATER (James Benning / USA 1977-2005 /
120 mins) In 1977, concerned about the decaying nature of his native
Milwaukee, Benning shot One Way Boogie Woogie, an hour long film
composed of 60 shots of industrial urban landscape: smokestacks,
sidewalks, three Volkswagens, people few and far between, an animal here
and there. In characteristic fashion, Benning's apparently simple,
static shots are exercises in meticulous painterly composition, and
their careful sequencing ensures that the director's playful humour is
given full expression. For 27 Years Later, Benning returned to Milwaukee
to shoot 'the same film again'. The shot by shot re-staging uses very
obviously different stock – the colours are brighter, there's a
distinctly modern tone. Buildings are showing their age, or gone; people
likewise. Seen together, these two films offer a cogent illustration of
how America has changed in the intervening years, fraying in places,
gentrified in others. Benning's method, and his affinity with his
subjects is extraordinary – as if he completely absorbs the landscape,
imbues it with geo-political and cultural relevance, and re-presents it
to us in a unique mix of formal rigour and mischievous invention.
10/26
London, England: London Film Festival
http://www.lff.org.uk
13.15, NFT 2, National Film Theatre, Waterloo, SE1
JACK SMITH & THE DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTIS
JACK SMITH & THE DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTIS (Mary Jordan / USA 2006 / 96
mins)' The only person I would ever copy. He makes the best movies.'
(Andy Warhol) Diving headlong into the exotic world of Jack Smith, this
is a ravishing celebration of a seminal figure of contemporary art,
experimental theatre, fashion, film and photography. A devotee of 'moldy
glamour', Smith was shooting fanciful tableau vivants in 1957, later
naming his ensemble the 'Superstars of Cinemaroc' way before Warhol had
a Silver Factory. His ethereal masterpiece Flaming Creatures is an epic
fantasy, featuring blonde vampires and bohemians cavorting amid a tangle
of naked bodies. Fęted by Fellini, but denounced by Playboy for
'defiling at once both sex and cinema', the film was became a totem in
the battle against censorship. Dismayed and resentful, Smith reacted to
this unwanted attention by never completing another film. To become a
product was to be embalmed. Returning to the ephemeral medium of
performance, he appeared amongst piles of meticulously arranged garbage
with Yolanda, a toy penguin with jewel-encrusted brassiere. Utterly
opposed to the concept of rented accommodation, Smith railed against
'landlordism', transforming his dilapidated apartment into an homage to
Babylonian architecture. This documentary opens up Ali Baba's cave,
mixing commentary from friends and enemies with the glistening treasures
of Smith's own creation. An abundance of rare photographs, footage and
audio bear testament to his uniquely baroque vision.
10/26
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Iceland Naturally / Package Deals
http://www.packagedeals.org
7pm and 9pm, The Ritz at the Bourse, 400 Ranstead St.
TASTE OF ICELAND FILM FESTIVAL
One night only! Some of the hottest films to come out of Iceland in
recent memory will be shown Thursday, Oct. 26 at the Ritz at the Bourse
(www.ritztheaters.com, $8). Screaming Masterpiece (7 p.m.), delves into
Iceland's incredible music scene, featuring interviews with native
musicians from Björk and Sigur Rós to the teenage band Nilfisk, who
opened for the Foo Fighters when they played in Iceland. Cold Hearts (9
p.m.) is an eclectic collection of 17 experimental short films and music
videos by young Icelandic artists, providing a rare glimpse into this
small country's imaginative visual output. A cocktail reception
featuring Icelandic drinks and seafood precedes the screenings at Voices
and Visions bookstore next door, 6pm (the Bourse - 4th Street - Lower
Level). Co-hosted with the Philadelphia Film Society and Sherman Arts.
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.