From: ADAM ABRAMS (email suppressed)
Date: Sun Sep 23 2007 - 09:15:54 PDT
Jefferson Presents...#83
Sat. 09/29/07, 9:00PM
$5, $4 Students
Garfield Artworks,
4931 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh
Bill Brand
Coalfields (1984) 16mm color, sound, 38.5 min
West
Virginia industrial landscapes are collaged through a series of mattes
that transform the photographed scenes into a kinetic field of shapes
and spaces. While the technique and the emotional tone are reminiscent
of the earlier are more purely personal CHUCK'S WILL'S WIDOW (1982),
the new film extends the already complex visual idiom by inlaying
social, sexual, and personal and political subjects. Woven into the
fabric of the film is the story of Fred Carter, a retired coal miner
and black lung activist who was framed by the Federal Government into
order to undercut the black lung movement and to stop his bid for
president of the UMWA. His story is told through fragments of
documentary interviews and by a poet whose narrative is a counter theme
in the film. The thematic elements and formal approaches sit in
precarious balance. COALFIELDS has an original poetic text by Kimiko
Hahn and sound composition by Earl Howard.
John A. Cutaia
Rituals (1969) 16mm, black and white, sound, 12 min
In
1966 RITUALS was 'voted one of the all time best movies of the UCLA
film department.'--(Nat Freedland, Cavalier, Feb./68). Conservative
members of the faculty subjected to pressures from politicians in
Sacramento and perhaps themselves a little nauseated at the realism of
a sequence depicting the frustrated girl freaking on acid, via a razor
blade, ordered the film banned. After two years of negotiation with
University officials, Cutaia finally secured its release. --J. C.
John Hawkins
LSD Wall (1965) 16mm, color, sound, 6.5 min
An
attempt to reproduce some visual hallucinations while on a trip (a
number of years ago), done in the major portion with clay animation. On
the average, it took one hour to shoot one-half second's viewing time.
I felt that clay was the best medium to demonstrate what one might see
under the drug experience. --J. H.
Kyo Ozawa
Sutra (Tribute to J Coltrane) (1968) 16mm, black and white, sound, 7 min
"this
film is made for the people who try to live and will try to live
furthermore. And, again, the film is dedicated to the late great
musician, John Coltrane, whose works showed us the true joie de vivre".
Sidney Peterson
Mr. Frenhofer And The Minotaur (1949) 16mm, black and white, sound, 20.75 min
Based
on Le Chef-d'Oeuvre Inconnu, Balzac's Abstract Expressionist parable.
"... should be studied by experimental filmmakers in every detail." --
Parker Tyler "We are at the crux of Peterson's genius: his ability to
formulate a new perspective and to test its implications." -- P. Adams
Sitney
Luther Price
Sodom (1989) 16mm, color, sound, 20 min
SODOM
is viscerally graphic and disturbing through its hypnotic mirage of
human fragment absorbed in mutilation. Based on the biblical story,
SODOM recreates this destruction through an editing style that lends
itself to a kind of organic image breakdown, creating a collage of
moving image.
Warren Sonbert
Honor and Obey (1988) 16mm, color, silent, 21 min
"...what
was clear was Sonbert's absolute mastery of form." -Elliot Stein, Film
Comment "In Warren Sonbert's HONOR AND OBEY soldiers march in
formation, a tiger stalks through the snow, religious processions wind
through the streets, and palm trees wave in a tropical breeze. As
brightly colored images of authority figures blend into scenes of
cocktail parties, this 21-minutes silent film flows along with the
grace of a musical score built on complex tensions hidden among notes.
'Whose authority will you obey?' the film seems to ask, as it deftly
avoids simple minded juxtapositions. Instead, we see a melange of
images so full of geography (Notre Dame Cathedral, The Sydney Opera
House, Fifth Avenue) , that the work mocks the idea of any specific
setting. Sooner or later, social and natural laws meet and probably
clash, Mr. Sonbert suggests, but in this scenario of discrete images,
all is apparent harmony. HONOR AND OBEY is by far the most accomplished
and rewarding piece in 'Avant-Garde Voices,' the title covering five
works by independent filmmakers shown at the New York Film Festival
..." Caryn James, The New York Times
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