From: Weekly Listing (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Nov 03 2007 - 10:54:50 PDT
Part 2 of 2: This week [November 3 - 11, 2007] in avant garde cinema
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2007
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11/9
Columbus, Ohio: Wexner Center for the Arts
http://www.wexarts.org
7 PM, 1871 N. High St.
BRUCE MCCLURE PROJECTOR PERFORMANCES
Brooklyn-based Bruce McClure makes his first Columbus appearance with
one of his in-demand projection performances. McClure loads custom-made
film loops into three specially modified 16mm projectors and then hooks
the projectors up to guitar-effect pedals, using the projectors and
their beams of light as a densely modulating instrument. The result is a
unique film that exists only during the moment of projection, and an
experience that's impossible to record or describe. The throbbing
visuals (which have been compared to the paintings of Mark Rothko, the
films of Paul Sharits, and the motion optics of rotoreliefs) combine
with the dense soundscape of visceral, modulating beats to build a
transporting sensation of existing outside of time and space. Screening:
Rack & Slide, Nethergate, Unnamed Compliment (program app. 100 mins.,
[modified] 16mm)
11/9
London, England: BFI Southbank
http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/southbank/
8:40pm, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XT
THE NATURE OF OUR LOOKING
Moving from ocean to sky and back to the land, these six films respond
to nature in less programmatic ways. Peter Hutton's camera explores the
coastal landscape and swirling waters of the Irish West Coast, whilst
David Gatten immerses raw film stock in seawater, allowing the ocean to
inscribe its presence in constantly shifting abstract patterns. Three
films use time-lapse and long exposure to reveal the celestial mysteries
of night-time, and the final work gently lifts us from our reverie with
an ecological warning. LOOKING AT THE SEA (Peter Hutton, 2001, 15 mins)
WHAT THE WATER SAID 4-6 (David Gatten, 2006, 17 mins) LAKE (Lucy
Reynolds, 2007, 12 mins) REDSHIFT (Emily Richardson, 2001, 4 mins)
OBSERVANDO EL CIELO (Jeanne Liotta, 2007, 17 mins) YOU DON'T BRING ME
FLOWERS (Michael Robinson, 2005, 8 mins)
11/9
Los Angeles, California: Los Angeles County Museum of Art
http://www.lacma.org/programs/FilmSeriesSchedule.aspx
7:30 pm, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard
EUROPEAN SURREALISM AND THE AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE CINEMA
7:30 PM The Birth of Poetic Cinema: The Blood of a Poet (1930/b&w/50
min. | Scr/dir: Jean Cocteau; w/ Lee Miller, Enrique Rivero); Les
Mystères du château de Dé (1929/b&w/20 min. | Scr/dir: Man Ray). In The
Blood of a Poet, Cocteau follows a young artist as he plunges into the
blackness of a mirror and drifts through a sublime realm of visions and
dreams populated with sphinxes, angels and living statues (among them
Lee Miller, Man Ray's lover and collaborator). In Man Ray's last film, a
strange group of visitors, faces obscured by shrouds, go about fanciful
games and movements in and around the striking modernist villa (designed
by Robert Mallet-Stevens) belonging to the Vicomte de Noailles, who also
commissioned both Cocteau's film and L'Âge d'or. 9:20 pm Trance Films:
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943/b&w//18 min | Scr/dir: Maya Deren,
Alexander Hammid); At Land (1944/b&w/14 min. | Scr/dir: Maya Deren); Du
sang, de la volupté et de la mort (1947-48/color/70 min./three parts:
Psyche, Lysis, Charmides | Scr/dir: Gregory J. Markopoulos). European
surrealism hit American screens with the development of the trance film.
Described as works of "visionary experience" by scholar P. Adams Sitney,
they feature "somnambulists, priests, initiates of rituals, and the
possessed" as protagonists "wandering through a potent environment
toward a climactic scene of self-realization." In Meshes of the
Afternoon and At Land, Maya Deren infuses this model with psychodrama
and mystery. Begun in Los Angeles while he was a student at USC and
completed in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, Gregory J. Markopoulos' Du
sang, de la volupté et de la mort is inspired by an unfinished Pierre
Louys novella and Platonic dialogues. "His shimmering, complex films,
with their elusive themes of memory, desire, and creativity...were once
compared to the works of Joyce, Proust, and Eisenstein." - Kristin M.
Jones, Artforum.
11/9
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
8:00pm, Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue
RECENT FILMS BY JIM JENNINGS & VIDEOS BY KAREN TREANOR AND VINCENT
GRENIER
aren Treanor MUSLIM QUARTER (6 minutes) PATIO (5 minutes) DIM SUM (6
minutes) Jim Jennings SILK TIES (2006, 9.5 minutes, 16mm, silent) "Jim
Jennings's SILK TIES renders a sumptuously black-and-white New York
City, owing to the photographic tradition of William Klein and Robert
Frank." –Andrea Picard, TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL Plus, a selection of new
work! Vincent Grenier TABULA RASA (1993-2004, 7.5 minutes, 16mm to
mini-DV, color, sound) Camera, production and editing by Vincent
Grenier. Additional camera by Bill Rowley. Sound recording by Joel
Schlemowitz. Filmed in a South Bronx high school, TABULA RASA attempts
through sound-image juxtapositions, digital manipulation and layering to
deal at once with the propensity to mislead and the eloquence of the
recorded image. NORTH SOUTHERNLY (2005, 6 minutes, video) Stereo?sound:
edited fragments from John Cage's CREDO IN US, performed by Markus Hauke
& Mainz Percussion Ensemble. Changes of directions, in the wind, the
edges, the shapes, a joyous and mesmerizing intrigue. THIS, AND THIS
(2006, 10.5 minutes, video) THIS, AND THIS is digital immediacy and
splendor wherein images of nature cannot be merely innocent. Plus, a
possible new piece! Upcoming Showings: Friday Nov 9 8:00 PM
11/9
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
8 pm, Anthology Film Archives
NEW AND RECENT WORKS BY JIM JENNINGS, KAREN TREANOR AND VINCENT GRENIER
New and recent works by Jim Jennings, Karen Treanor and Vincent Grenier
11/9
San Francisco, California: Artists Television Access
http://www.atasite.org/
8:00 pm, 992 Valencia Street (at 21st)
ALTERNATIVES OF ALTERNATIVES
ALTERNATIVES OF ALTERNATIVES Co-presented by Artists' Television Access,
Arthur Magazine, and Saturnalia. *with artists Ira Cohen and Andrew
Wilson in attendance* Alternatives of Alternatives introduces film and
video works that focus on "alternative" lifestyles or subcultures (new
age gnostics, new media-art zealots, cryptozoologists, revolutionary
theatre collectives) with critical eyes and ears, presented in an
"alternative" cinematic structure. One purpose of the screening is to
investigate the way "alternative" forces arrange and define themselves
in our world, another is to present works in which form meets content in
a synthesis beyond the industry standard for documentary. PARADISE NOW:
The Living Theatre in Amerika (1969) a film by Marty Topp, produced by
Ira Cohen for Universal Mutant. In 1968 The Living Theatre, led by
Julian Beck and Judith Malina, triumphantly returned to America from
years of self-imposed exile in Europe with their theatrical breakthrough
Paradise Now. The play introduces the practice of collective creation,
dissolving the boundaries of human interactions and forging a harmony
between the actors and audience. Of this process, Julian Beck writes,
"Collective creation is the secret weapon of the people... This play is
a voyage from the many to the one and from the one to the many. It's a
spiritual voyage and a political voyage, a voyage for the actors and the
spectators. The play is a vertical ascent toward permanent revolution,
leading to revolutionary action here and now. The revolution of which
the play speaks is the beautiful, non-violent, anarchist revolution. The
purpose of the play is to lead to a state of being in which non-violent
revolutionary action is possible." The result of this shared voyage is
the spontaneous creation of a temporary anarchist collective- free from
the enslavements of war, violence, the State, money and the self. FOLK /
TAX (2007) a video by Andrew Wilson - 32 min. The purpose of this video
was to engage in the creative production of a map in order to understand
and then expose the ways in which certain New Age Gnostic
entrepreneurial forces arrange themselves in our world. The
classificatory system produced for this semiotic regime is esoteric in
its nature, as the classifications arose from the gradual analysis of
the content. Concepts are organized to call attention to specific
information, while the work also serves to blur the conventional
distinction between a folk taxonomy and a scientific/academic taxonomy.
Blobsquatch: In the Expanded Field (2007) a video by Carl Diehl - 11
min. 30 sec. Cryptozoology, a field known for its inquiries into unknown
creatures like the Bigfoot and Lock Ness Monster, constitutes a
challenge to exclusive hierarchies of knowledge and established
scientific authority by presenting alternative theories and new
taxonomic models. While many Bigfoot aficionados have dismissed
Blobsquatches (photos too blurry to be discernible as Sasquatches) as
impediments to serious cryptozoological research, this densely packed
document speculates on another understanding of the blobsquatch. Under
the panopticonfident gaze of a Google-crazed world, the Blobsquatch
personifies noise, is a provocative counter-sight to the over-exposed
Sasquatch, and simultaneously challenges and perpetuates alternative
thought processes.
11/9
San Francisco, California: Oddball Films
http://www.oddballfilm.com
8:30 PM, 275 Capp Street
"CALLING BETTY PAGE: SURVEYING SEX IN CINEMA"
"Calling Betty Page: Surveying Sex in Cinema" With Portland Curator Ian
Sundahl in Person! Sex is where you find it and Portland archivist and
collector Ian Sundahl has excavated hundreds of reels of it-on film. On
Friday, November 9, 2007 at 8:30PM Oddball Films Presents "Calling Betty
Page: Surveying Sex in Cinema", Sundahl's intriguing program focusing on
the historically offbeat gems from his personal collection of "non
commercial" erotic films. Found in dumpsters, basements and purchased at
garage sales and on ebay over a 15 year period these forgotten fragments
comprise a unique inventory of one-of-a-kind underground erotica.
Program highlights feature rare films of the legendary "Tease From
Tennessee" Betty Page, the infamous 60's topless stripper and star of
San Francisco's Condor Club Carol Doda and the San Francisco premiere of
Sundahl's own 2006 film "Bump and Grind" starring girls, snakes and cult
film director George Kuchar. Admission is $10.00. Limited Seating. RSVP
Only. Also Featuring! Naughty, Haughty Home Movies (1940's, Color) Watch
this rich (and not so famous) couple parade around in their pajamas.
Witness wifey as she poses topless in furs, lingerie and swimsuits at
the beach and at their lavish home. Shot in eye-popping Kodachrome! Oh
you Beautiful Doll (1960, B+W) A truly bizarre amateur underground
erotic film, directed by "unknown." This garage sale find was originally
shot and produced on Super 8mm and later blown up to 16mm. "Doll"
features complex stop motion animation, gender bending drag queens and a
appearance by "paper doll" dictator Adolf Hitler. The Magician's
Assistant (1950's, B+W) What happens when a cute girl gets a magic book
in the mail? Find out with this fun early 50's nudie cutie. The Wank
(2005, B+W) Painstakingly created over the course of months, filmmaker
Jorge Lorenzo's one-minute-long " Wank" packs a "dildo inspired",
scratch animated visual punch. The Bet (1970's, Color) Big busted Candy
Samples stars in this early 70's Grindhouse trailer. Plus! "How to See a
French Doctor", "Captain Mom", "Merry XXXMiss", "Voyeur at the Window"
and much, much more! All films screened in glorious 16mm film! About
Curator Ian Sundahl Film archivist/artist Ian Sundahl has been
collecting and compiling offbeat and bizarre films for over 15 years. A
recent SFAI MFA grad, Sundahl acted as archivist for the documentary
"American Stag" and has been entertaining audiences with unusual film
shows in Portland, Oregon for the past several years.
11/9
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Cinematheque Ontario
http://www.bell.ca/cinematheque
9:30 p.m., Jackman Hall - 317 Dundas Street West (use east entrance at McCaul Street)
ZANZIBAR FILMS AT CINEMATHEQUE ONTARIO
ACÉPHALE Director: Patrick Deval (France, 1968, 65 minutes). "Traveling
backward on the world ending. French heads exit their corpses, twirling
thick and dry" (Patrick Deval). Patrick Deval's debut film takes its
name from Surrealist provocateur George Bataille's journal, ACÉPHAL, and
rallies with like-minded fervency. Its title a double entendre –
literally, a headless man; figuratively, expressing the need to
transcend rational ways of thinking – ACÉPHALE begins with a dizzying
three-hundred-and-sixty-degree panoramic shot of painter Jacques
Monory's head being shaved. The off-screen sound is that of an electric
saw, invoking the Surrealist juxtapositions of Buñuel and Dali. Its
radical call for a cinematic tabula rasa is abetted by a cast of
non-professional actors whose showy demonstrations are steeped in the
rebellious post-'68 spirit. Displaying wild contempt for narrative
conventions, Laurent Condominas proclaims: "I cannot stand the facility
of fiction. I demand reality. I am going mad." One of the film's most
telling lines is spoken by Jackie Raynal, as she announces: "Europe for
us has become a blank page." Preceded by: NEW 35MM PRINT! VITE Director:
Daniel Pommereulle (France, 1969, 37 minutes). "To be a dandy, one must
approach death" (Daniel Pommereulle). Despite its short run-time, VITE
was one of the Zanzibar's most expensive border-crossing productions.
Half of the film takes place in Morocco where Pommereulle and a young
Arab man spit on the Western world's unlawful hegemony. Sweeping desert
landscapes are juxtaposed with ethnographic images of the moon taken by
the Questar, a fancy telescope that Pommereulle encountered while
visiting Marlon Brando in Los Angeles. The lunar images were
subsequently used in a few French films, including Bresson's L'ARGENT.
VITE takes up Pommereulle's dandy diatribe, begun in Godard's WEEK-END
and Rohmer's LA COLLECTIONNEUSE. Friday, November 9 9:30 p.m. For more
information visit: cinemathequeontario.ca
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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2007
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11/10
Atlanta, Georgia: Eyedrum
http://www.eyedrum.org
8:00 PM, 290 Martin Luther King Jr Dr Suite 8
FILM LOVE #52: DEAD FLOWERS
In conjunction with the Dead Flowers gallery exhibition at Eyedrum, a
program of films on gardens, loss, and the passage of time. Curated by
Andy Ditzler for Frequent Small Meals. ** Films: Marjorie Keller, The
Answering Furrow (1985), 16mm, color, sound, 27 minutes ** Anne
Charlotte Robertson, Emily Died (1994), super-8mm, color, sound, 26
minutes (screened on VHS) ** The Answering Furrow: Owing to Virgil's
Georgics. Music: Charles Ives. Filmed in Yorktown Heights, New York; St.
Remy en Provence, France; Mantua, Rome and Brindisi, Italy; and in
Arcadia and the island of Kea in Greece. ** Emily Died: 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. ** The Film Love series provides access to great but
rarely-screened films, and promotes awareness of the rich history of
experimental and avant-garde filmmaking. Film Love was voted Best Film
Series in Atlanta 2006 by the critics of Creative Loafing. More
information about the series is at http://www.frequentsmallmeals.com/
11/10
London, England: BFI Southbank
http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/southbank/
8:40pm, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XT
THE NATURE OF SYSTEMS
Technological systems create, fragment and transform landscapes: a long
video monitor stream, digitally mutated coastlines and strange urban
microclimates introduce fascinating artificial worlds, blurring the
boundaries between natural and constructed landscapes. Starting with
documentation of Chris Meigh-Andrews' video installation Stream Line and
passing through a variety of spellbinding single-screen film and video
environments, the programme also incorporates a presentation of Susan
Collins' most recent internet transmitted, real-time reconstruction of
Loch Faskally in Perthshire. STREAM LINE (Documentation) (Chris
Meigh-Andrews, 1991, 6 mins) BIT-SCAPES 135.1_08 (Davide Quagliola &
Chiara Horn, 2006, 3 mins) THE SOUND OF MICROCLIMATES (Semiconductor,
2004, 8 mins) SUBURBS OF THE VOID (Thomas Köner, 2004, 14 mins) TRAIN
NO. 8 (Daniel Crooks,2005, 6 mins) BIT-SCAPES 135.2_03 (Davide Quagliola
& Chiara Horn, 2006, 3 mins) UNTITLED (Rachel Reupke, 2006, 2 x 90 secs)
VOILIERS ET COQUELICOTS (Rose Lowder, 2002, 3 mins) BIT-SCAPES 135.7_13
(Davide Quagliola & Chiara Horn, 2006, 3 mins) AS WE ALL KNOW (Alix
Poscharsky, 2006, 3 mins) GLENLANDIA (Susan Collins, 2006, continuous)
11/10
Los Angeles, California: Los Angeles County Museum of Art
http://www.lacma.org/programs/FilmSeriesSchedule.aspx
7:30 pm, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard
EUROPEAN SURREALISM AND THE AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE CINEMA
7:30 PM The Magik Lantern: Harry Smith 1957-62/b&w/66 min. | Scr/dir:
Harry Smith | Newly preserved with support from the National Film
Preservation Foundation. Preservation work by Cineric, Inc. The Harry
Smith Archives will present a live performance of the newly restored
version of Harry Smith's film Heaven and Earth Magic with specially
designed slides, colored gels and maskings. A collage film of animated
segments created from antique catalogues and elocution manuals, Smith
showed the film with its special projection set-up only once, in the
late 1950s at Carnegie Hall, New York City on a specially built
projector. This show involved the use of colored gels and slide overlays
to create a vividly colored presentation that had the strong feel of a
magic lantern show with an animated shadow play at its center. It is
characteristic of Smith to have created this antiquated form of color
presentation, very much akin to the tinting and toning of silent films,
rather than naturalistic color. With the slides and gels, Heaven and
Earth Magic regains its aboriginal character as an alchemical séance.
This reconstructed version gives a depth and vitality to the film that
has not been experienced for thirty years. 9:20 PM The Magik Lantern:
Joseph Cornell and Larry Jordan Rose Hobart (1936/b&w/17 min. | Scr/dir:
Joseph Cornell) The Children's Trilogy: Cotillion/The Midnight
Party/Children's Party (1940s/b&w and color/25 min. | Scr/dir: Joseph
Cornell) Duo Concertantes (1964/b&w/9 min. | Scr/dir. Larry Jordan)
Hamfat Asar (1965/b&w/15 min | Scr/dir: Larry Jordan) Our Lady of the
Sphere (1969/color/10 min. | Scr/dir: Larry Jordan) Joseph Cornell's
Rose Hobart, arguably the earliest found-footage film, transforms the
1931 B-picture East of Borneo - the story of a woman in pursuit of her
missing husband through a tropical jungle - into a mystical collage
blasted by Dalí upon its New York premiere. Dalí allegedly accused
Cornell of stealing the film from Dalí's own subconscious. Before he
died, Cornell handed over six unfinished films to Larry Jordan for
completion. Among them was The Children's Trilogy (Cotillion, The
Midnight Party and The Children's Party), described as "a hilarious and
touching tribute to the ecstasy of childhood - and childlike - make
believe," by Michael Joshua Rowin in Reverse Shot. In his own work,
Jordan creates transportive fantasies by animating Victorian engravings.
Duo Concertantes, Hamfat Asar and Our Lady of the Sphere date from "the
climax of Jordan's career...an exquisite space and time where reverie
and dream meet, delicately poised between nostalgia and terror," per P.
Adams Sitney
11/10
New York, New York: Millennium Film Workshop
http://www.millenniumfilm.org/
8PM, 66 East 4th Street
JOEL SCHLEMOWITZ - NEW EXPERIMENTAL FILMS AND DVD RELEASE PARTY
Joel Schlemowitz - New Experimental Films and DVD Release Party 8PM -
Saturday, November 10, 2007 Millennium Film Workshop 66 East 4th Street
New York City http://www.millenniumfilm.org/shows.html New York City
filmmaker, Joel Schlemowitz had his first one-person show at the
Millennium ten years ago. He returns with a wide-ranging program of new
and old films, multi-projection works, film loops, 35mm slides. There
are several premieres including SILO, a single camera roll shot in time
lapse, documenting the final night of Issue Project Room at their former
space inside a converted silo on the Gowanus Canal. Also premiering are
THE GLOWING WOMAN and MORNING POEM #43, poem films inspired by the
writings of Wanda Phipps. The poem films are made with low-tech contact
printing techniques, with raw color film stock exposed in the dark using
a flashlight and color filters. Other works showing, include FOREST AT
NIGHT, a double projection piece with music by Rebecca Moore, and THE
DREAM KING, A TABLEAUX FOR MAGIC LANTERN, a multi-projection piece with
16mm film loops, 35mm slides, magic lantern, and Victrola sound track. A
DVD set of 45 experimental films by the filmmaker will be available at a
discounted price for this special screening. Joel Schlemowitz teaches at
the New School and has had two previous one-person shows at the
Millennium. ***Reception to follow with DJ Eros on the Victrola***
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.joelschlemowitz.com
11/10
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
6:00pm, Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue
STAN BRAKHAGE
STAN BRAKHAGE -EYES (1970, silent, 35 minutes), DEUS EX (1971, silent,
34 minutes) -THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE'S OWN EYES (1971, silent, 32
minutes). The "Pittsburgh Documents" about the police, open-heart
surgery, and the morgue. The films were made with the active assistance
of Sally Dixon (provided funding and introductions) and photographer
Mike Chikiris (introductions and transportation). The decade of the
1970s was a pivotal one for the growth of avantgarde cinema in the
United States. In the 1940s, 50s, and especially the 60s, generations of
personal, experimental filmmakers had emerged largely in New York City,
Los Angeles, and in the San Francisco Bay Area. The films that they
made, however, were only rarely seen outside Manhattan and San
Francisco. This changed dramatically in 1970 and 1971 with the
unorganized, nearly simultaneous appearance of museum exhibition
programs, community film workshops, and university-related screenings in
many cities between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Pittsburgh was one
of the earliest cities to devote substantial resources to screening,
making, discussing, and supporting the making of avantgarde cinema.
Indeed, in the 1970s Pittsburgh became the "third center" of avantgarde
film in America. Starting in 1970, the Film Section of the Museum of Art
of Carnegie Institute presented ten to fifteen in-person programs with
the filmmakers each year, in addition to scores of supporting
screenings, lectures, and the sponsoring of a filmmaking organization –
Pittsburgh Film-Makers – which soon became an autonomous partner in
making Pittsburgh a magnet for film artists. Upcoming Showings: Saturday
Nov 10 6:00 PM
11/10
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
8:00pm, Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue
KAMOUFLAGE FILMS
EVENING OF EXPERIMENTAL ANIMATIONS KAMouflage FILMS are the work of
artist/filmmaker Kirt Markle and his collaborator, Rosebud Pettet. These
films have been described as "reminiscent of the later work of Harry
Smith." Rosebud, Smith's close companion for 27 years, says, "Harry
would have loved these." WORLD'S FAIR (2007, 3.5 minutes) Manipulation
of long-lost footage – time travel back to the 1964 New York World's
Fair! 12 FLOWERS (2007, 3.5 minutes) Laboriously created from 12 single
frames. LOWER EAST SIDE (2007, 7.5 minutes) A heart-pounding roller
coaster ride through the lost Lower East Side. MY WORLD (2007, 5.5
minutes) A painting in light. NEW YORK #1 (2007, 10.5 minutes)
Hallucinatory visions of New York City, as seen through a Hell's Kitchen
window. GIRL U WANT (2007, 4.5 minutes) Naughty girls act up! ANIMATION
#7 (2007, 3 minutes) A hypnotic, kaleidoscopic visual carnival. THREE
(2007, 5.5 minutes) Dreamlike meditation on the city as circus,
zoological garden and Masonic temple. TIBETAN FESTIVAL (2007, 9 minutes)
A celebration of old and new Tibet in Battery Park, 2001. CONEY ISLAND
#1 (2007, 11.5 minutes) Step right up, folks! A dizzying dreamscape of
the Mermaid Parade! Plus, a couple surprises! Total running time: ca. 75
minutes. Upcoming Showings: Saturday Nov 10 8:00 PM
11/10
San Francisco, California: Other Cinema
http://www.othercinema.com/
8:30pm, 992 Valencia Street
ERIK DAVIS + ISIS AQUARIAN ON FATHER YOD AND THE SOURCE FAMILY
Attendant upon the release of Process Media's fascinating volume on the
storied SoCal commune, The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho
Wa 13 and The Source Family, we welcome authors Isis Aquarian and
Electricity Aquarian, editor Jodi Wille, and ex-members of that Family
in the flesh! The group grounds a 2 hr. audio-visual survey of the life
and times of this seminal '60s/'70s countercultural force in Los Angeles
spirituality, music, and lifestyle (their famous restaurant The Source).
Literally hundreds of slides, several family home movies and 70s cable
access video clips, and numerous Ya Ho Wa 13 musical selections serve as
springboards for anecdotes, discussion, and Q&A. OC fave Erik Davis, who
wrote the book's introduction, opens the show with prefatory remarks,
framing the cult's activity within his Visionary State cosmology. *$7.77
11/10
San Francisco, California: Other Cinema
http://www.othercinema.com/
8:30pm, 992 Valencia Street
PRELINGERS' ECOLOGY OF LIBRARIES + PARR +
Twin beacons of local enlightenment, Rick and Megan Shaw Prelinger
propose a new model for understanding the importance of grassroots
collecting and conserving in their multimedia performative essay.
Through evocative photos, smart text-graphics, and an intricate
double-helix spoken-word duet, the pair advances an urgent argument at
this crucial juncture between analog and digital modes. ALSO advocating
for a vernacular cultural stewardship, Stephen Parr of the SF Media
Archive tips his hat to Raleigh's A/V Geeks and Pittsburgh's Orgone
Archives in sharing a couple of clips from the new Home Movie Day album,
consummated by the 1961 San Francisco in Cinemascope. PLUS Sarah
Christman's Dear Bill Gates, Scott Calonico's Mondo Intro (exc.), and a
section from Prelinger's Panorama Ephemera, re-tracked by Gino Robair.
Bring in your old books for pre-show potlatch, and expect to take some
"new" old ones home with you!
11/10
Seattle, Washington: Northwest Film Forum
http://www.nwfilmforum.org
7pm, 1515 12th Ave
TWO STEREOSCOPIC FILMS BY ZOE BELOFF
DIRECTOR IN ATTENDANCE IN THE KINGDOM OF SHADOWS: Two Stereoscopic Films
by Zoe Beloff SHADOW LAND OR LIGHT FROM THE OTHER SIDE (2000, USA, 16mm,
32 min) CHARMING AUGUSTINE (USA, 16mm, 40 min) These films explore the
prehistory of cinema, not simply from the point of view of technology,
but from a psychic perspective, how the projection of images grew out of
the desire to manifest the unconscious. SHADOW LAND OR LIGHT FROM THE
OTHER SIDE is based on the 1897 autobiography of Elizabeth d'Esperance,
an English medium who could conjure up full body apparitions. CHARMING
AUGUSTINE is inspired by series of photographs and texts on hysteria
published by the great insane asylum in Paris in the 1880s under the
title of the "Iconographie Photographique de la Salpetriere." "To
conjure up a time just prior to the invention of cinema I shot the films
in a stereoscopic format to suggest a different direction that cinema
might have taken. Ultimately what I wish to convey is a fragile,
spectral, what if a moment in time when the moving image was on the
brink of existence in a form not yet standardized."-Zoe Beloff
11/10
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Cinematheque Ontario
http://www.bell.ca/cinematheque
7:30 p.m., Jackman Hall - 317 Dundas Street West (use east entrance at McCaul Street)
ZANZIBAR FILMS AT CINEMATHEQUE ONTARIO
ICI ET MAINTENANT Director: Serge Bard (France, 1968, 90 minutes). "I
had the idea to call my film ICI ET MAINTENANT, because the cinema is
exactly the contrary of the here and now. The cinema is always elsewhere
and before…It seemed important to rediscover the magic of the present,
that is the here and now. I wanted the spectator during the film to
return to himself and thus not to participate in the usual process of
identification where he is able to escape from himself" (Serge Bard).
Emblematic of the Zanzibar movement's youthful, revolutionary zeal, the
title of Bard's film ICI ET MAINTENANT is a "seize the day" clarion
call, fitting for a generation who sought to change the world. Shot in
Brittany, with Caroline de Bendern and Olivier Mosset who were lovers at
the time, and no script, the film took as its subject the idea of
"contestation." With its loose, radicalized narrative, and
hyper-aestheticized flamboyance, ICI ET MAINTENANT depicts a series of
symbolic attacks against society and an atomic factory threatened by
sketchy characters. This was the final film Bard made before decamping
for Africa and clandestinely converting to Islam, expeditiously sending
his film crew, many of whom had worked on ICI ET MAINTENANT, back to
Paris, bewildered. Saturday, November 10 7:30 p.m. For more information
visit: cinemathequeontario.ca
11/10
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Cinematheque Ontario
http://www.bell.ca/cinematheque
9:15 p.m., Jackman Hall - 317 Dundas Street West (use east entrance at McCaul Street)
PHILIPPE GARREL'S LE LIT DE LA VIERGE AT CINEMATHEQUE ONTARIO
NEW 35MM PRINT! LE LIT DE LA VIERGE (THE VIRGIN'S BED) Director:
Philippe Garrel (France, 1968, 114 minutes). A major rediscovery at this
year's Berlin film festival, LE LIT DE LA VIERGE is Philippe Garrel's
haunting and hallucinatory fifth feature film, made when he was just
twenty-one years old. A minimalist-psychedelic retelling of the Christ
story shot in Brittany, Morocco, and Rome in black-and-white Scope, with
bleached-out mise en scènes, bewildering but also bewitching ritualistic
exchanges, entropic dialogue, and LSD-fueled performances, the film
feels like a modern miracle. The rawness of Pierre Clémenti's depiction
of the reluctant Christ figure is unnerving, even to non-believers.
VIERGE was edited by Françoise Colin, who worked on Godard's
frenetically-paced PIERROT LE FOU; she admitted she had very little to
do on the two-hour film as it consists of a mere thirty shots. Summed up
by Garrel: "I believe my point of view on the Christian myth is quite
clear in LE LIT DE LA VIERGE . . . It is a non-violent parable in which
Zouzou incarnates both Mary and Mary Magdalene while Pierre Clémenti
incarnates a discouraged Christ who throws down his arms in face of
world cruelty. In spite of its allegorical nature, the film contains a
denunciation of the police repression of 1968, which was generally well
understood by viewers at the time." Features music by Nico, Garrel's
muse, and his Zanzibar band, Les Jeunes rebelles. Saturday, November 10
9:15 p.m. for more information visit: cinemathequeontario.ca
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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2007
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11/11
London, England: National Maritime Museum
http://www.nmm.ac.uk
12pm, Park Row, Greenwich, London, SE10 9NF
HOLLIS FRAMPTON’S MAGELLAN 1: THE BIRTH OF MAGELLAN
A screening, over two consecutive Sundays, of Hollis Frampton's
monumental film sequence Magellan, which uses Fernand Magellan's
circumnavigatory voyage as a metaphor for a meditation on the history
and language of cinema, and the phenomena of perception. The schedule of
4 x 2-hour programmes, structured by Michael Zryd (who will introduce
the first programme), is based on the 1978 version of Frampton's
"Magellan Calendar" and the last work-in-progress screenings presented
by the artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York) in
January 1980.
11/11
London, England: National Maritime Museum
http://www.nmm.ac.uk
3pm, Park Row, Greenwich, London, SE10 9NF
HOLLIS FRAMPTON’S MAGELLAN 2: THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN I
A screening, over two consecutive Sundays, of Hollis Frampton's
monumental film sequence Magellan, which uses Fernand Magellan's
circumnavigatory voyage as a metaphor for a meditation on the history
and language of cinema, and the phenomena of perception. "A series of
shaped observations that include portraits, cadaver footage, re-stagings
of Lumière films, visits to slaughterhouses, double exposures, a field
of peaceful dairy cattle, allusions to Muybridge, electronic imagery,
industrial pictures, a state fair – a kind of capsule version of the
twentieth century that might have been placed on the Voyager spacecraft
as it soared out of the solar system to worlds unknown." (Robert Haller,
Anthology Film Archives, New York)
11/11
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
5:30pm, Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue
PITTSBURGH TRILOGY
Stan Brakhage EYES 1970, 36 minutes, 16mm, silent. Preserved by
Anthology Film Archives. "After wishing for years to be
given-the-opportunity of filming some of the more 'mystical' occupations
of our Times – some of the more obscure Public Figures which the average
imagination turns into 'bogeymen'? viz.: Policemen, Doctors, Soldiers,
Politicians, etc.: – I was at last permitted to ride in a Pittsburgh
police car, camera in hand, the final several days of September 1970 –
this opportunity largely due to the efforts of a Pittsburgh newspaper
photographer, Mike Chikiris – who was sympathetic to my film show at The
Carnegie Institute and responded to my wish as stated on that occasion –
therefore pleaded my 'cause' eloquently with Police Inspectors of his
acquaintance: my thanks to him, to Sally Dixon of The Carnegie Institute
and to the Policemen who created the situation that made this film
possible." –S.B. DEUS EX 1971, 34 minutes, 16mm, silent. Preserved by
Anthology Film Archives. "I have been many times very ill in hospitals;
and I drew on all that experience while making DEUS EX in West Penn.
Hospital of Pittsburgh; but I was especially inspired by the memory of
one incident in an emergency room of San Francisco's Mission District:
while waiting for medical help, I had held myself together by reading an
April-May 1965 issue of 'Poetry Magazine': and the following lines from
Charles Olson's 'Cole's Island' had especially centered the experience,
'touchstone' of DEUS EX, for me: Charles begins the poem with the
statement 'I met Death –' And then: 'He didn't bother me, or say
anything. Which is / not surprising, a person might not, in the
circumstances; / or at most a nod or something. Or they would. But they
wouldn't, / or you wouldn't think to either, / it was Death. And / He
certainly was, the moment I saw him.' The film begins with this sense of
such an experience and goes on to envision the whole battle of hospital
on these grounds, thru to heart surgery seen as equivalent to Aztec
ritual sacrifice? the lengths men go to avoid so simple and straight a
relationship with Death as Charles Olson managed on/in 'Cole's Island.'"
–S.B. THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE'S OWN EYES 1971, 32 minutes, 16mm,
silent. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives. "Stan Brakhage, entering,
with his camera, one of the forbidden, terrific locations of our
culture, the autopsy room. It is a place wherein, inversely, life is
cherished, for it exists to affirm that no one of us may die without our
knowing exactly why. All of us, in the person of the coroner, must see
that, for ourselves, with our own eyes. It is a room full of appalling
particular intimacies, the last ditch of individuation. Here our vague
nightmare of mortality acquires the names and faces of others. This last
is a process that requires a witness; and what 'idea' may finally have
inserted itself into the sensible world we can still scarcely guess, for
the camera would seem to be the perfect Eidetic Witness, staring with
perfect compassion where we can scarcely bear to glance." –Hollis
Frampton Total running time: ca. 105 minutes. Upcoming Showings: Sunday
Nov 11 5:30 PM
11/11
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
8:00pm, Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue
THE TEXT OF LIGHT
Brakhage's tour-de-force exploration of refracted light in an ashtray.
"All that is, is light." – Dun Scotus Erigena Upcoming Showings: Sunday
Nov 11 8:00 PM
11/11
San Francisco, California: San Francisco Cinematheque
http://www.sfcinematheque.org
7:30pm, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street (corner of Third)
PIONEERS OF BAY AREA FILMMAKING
Filmmaking in the Bay Area has an explosive history and has had a far
lasting dynamic effect around the world. Explosive new forms of film
have emerged from the Bay Area community over the years to reveal
unheralded new visions of the medium and explorations into its aesthetic
properties. This program presents a sampling of experimental cinema by
artists in the Bay Area from the late 1940s and '50s. Screening: Horror
Dream and Clinic of Stumble by Sidney Peterson, Things to Come and
Obmaru by Patricia Marx, Four in the Afternoon by James Broughton, Notes
on the Port of St. Francis by Frank Stauffacher, Divertissement Rococo
and Eneri by Hy Hirsch, In Between by Stan Brakhage, Logos and Odds and
Ends by Jane Conger, and Beat by Christopher Maclaine.
Enter your event announcements by going to the Flicker Weekly Listing Form
at http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/thisweek.pl
The weekly listing is also available online at Flicker:
http://www.hi-beam.net
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.