From: Caroline Koebel (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Jan 23 2008 - 07:40:29 PST
Hi Frameworkers, The Film Coop is still getting the word out about this new
16mm series in collaboration with P.S. 1.... Caroline
Performance! Humor, Hallucinations, and Happenings in the 60s
Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 3:30 p.m.
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Avenue at 46th Avenue
Long Island City, NY 11101
The third installment of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Centerıs 16mm film series,
Café Cinema: Cinema of the Unusual, produced in collaboration with the
Film-Makersı Cooperative, focuses on performance as Experimental Cinema.
Taking place between 1963 and 1964, these five filmed "Happenings" were some
of the first experiments of this now widely accepted and admired art form.
Performance! Humor, Hallucinations, and Happenings in the 60ıs features five
films by four talented filmmakers, beginning with two films by writer,
producer and director Vernon Zimmerman: Scarface and Aphrodite (1963) and
America Au Gratin (1963). The first is a 15-minute black and white film
based on artist Claes Oldenburgıs 1963 Happening, for which Zimmerman
subsequently won a special commendation at the Third International Film
Festival. Completed that same year, Zimmermanıs satire America Au Gratin
shone a spotlight on talented avant-garde actors Wheatfield Ergot and
Margaret Goll. Filmmaker Ron Riceıs last and only color work, Chumlum (1964)
takes the viewer on a highly stylized journey through the making of fellow
filmmaker Jack Smithıs Normal Love, superimposing images of the actors
on-and-off-set with extreme colors and full texture. Doomshow (1964), shot
by filmmaker Ray Wisniewski, was actually lost on the ³D² train and returned
by an honest passenger. The film documents a Happening in a Manhattan
basement, revealing telling tales of 60ıs street life and culture. Peter
Mooreıs Stockhausenıs Original: Doubletakes (1993) was originally filmed at
Charlotte Moormanıs Second Annual New York Avant-Garde Festival with an
all-star cast that included Allan Kaprow, Nam June Paik, Max Neuhaus, and
Allen Ginsberg. The film itself was shot in 1964, however it was completed
by his wife and collaborator Barbara Moore and film editor Susan Editor a
year after his death in 1993. Barbara Moore and their daughter Rebecca
Moore, noted musician and actress, will be present to speak with the
audience about the era of American Experimental Cinema.
Café Cinema: Cinema of the Unusual is organized by M.M. Serra, Executive
Director of the Film-makersı Cooperative and produced by P.S.1 Public
Programs. The Café Cinema series explores different aspects of the New
American Cinema (from 1960s onward), is inspired by the 1964 film program at
the 55th Street Playhouse. The series has adopted its name from the motto of
the Playhouse ³Americaıs Only Cinema of the Unusual!² All of the films
have been graciously provided by the Film-makersı Cooperative.
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.