From: Ed Halter (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Mar 13 2008 - 06:12:56 PDT
------ Forwarded Message
From: NY Underground Film Festival <email suppressed>
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:50:36 -0400
To: <email suppressed>
Subject: NY Underground Film Fest: Lineup Anouncement
!Forward Widely!
PLEASE SEE ATTACHED PRESS RELEASE
or read text-only version below:
For Immediate Release
For more information, contact
Kevin McGarry at email suppressed
Or 646-271-0833
15th (and Final) New York Underground Film Festival
April 28 at Anthology Film Archives
Announces Lineup, Demise, and the Birth of Migrating Forms
NEW YORK NY March 13, 2008 The 15th (and final) New York Underground
Film Festival will screen fourteen features and over one hundred shorts at
its home in the East Village, Anthology Film Archives, from April 28, 2008.
Over 1,500 submissions were reviewed by festival programmers Mo Johnston,
Nellie Killian and Kevin McGarry to craft this year's program, focusing on
the best of contemporary experimental and documentary work. Brief
descriptions of features and a list of all our programming follows.
Complete information will be available at www.nyuff.com
<http://www.nyuff.com> on Tuesday, March 18.
There will be a PRESS SCREENING of Heavy Metal in Baghdad, by Eddy Moretti
and Suroosh Alvi, on Tuesday, March 18 at 7:00pm at Anthology Film Archives,
32 Second Avenue. Please RSVP to (address suppressed)
OPENING NIGHT: Heavy Metal in Baghdad
"You want to know where we get our inspiration? Take a look around. We're
living in a heavy metal world."
The New York Undergound Film Festival is proud to present the New York
Premiere of Heavy Metal In Baghdad. Directors Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi
follow Acrassicauda, Iraq's "best known heavy metal band," as they struggle
to keep on rocking while their city tumbles further and further into chaos.
Tracking band members from the relatively optimistic days just following the
fall of Saddam Hussein to their lives as embittered refugees three years
later, this film couldn't have come at a better time. As images of Iraq
become a lingering white noise to many Americans, Heavy Metal in Baghdad
creates a devastating and personal view of the war's consequences.
CLOSING NIGHT: The Juche Idea
The New York Premiere of Jim Finn's latest propagandist memoir The Juche
Idea closes the 2008 festival. A faux relic thematically and tonally in
line with his first two features Interkosmos (Opening Night NYUFF '06) and
La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzalo (NYUFF '07), The Juche Idea
centers on a South Korean video artist who takes a residency in North Korea
and is exposed to Juche, the official North Korean religion and political
ideology. Roughly translated, Juche means self-reliance, yet the definitive
text on the state-sponsored philosophy, written by Kim Jong-il, leaves final
authority over interpretation‹to Kim Jong-il. Told through the films made
during this fictional residency, Finn creates a disarmingly playful yet
scrupulous investigation into the role of propaganda and politics in the
creation of art.
THURSDAY, APRIL 3
Hoopeston
Part poignant portrait of heartland America, part real-life Christopher
Guest on toad's milk, director Thomas Bender's Hoopeston documents the clash
between a small town at wit's end and the witches who swoop in and shake
things up. World Premiere.
Kenedi is Getting Married
In the third film by director Zelimir Zilnik about Roma everyman Kenedi
Hasani, Kenedi agrees to reenact his picaresque life story on camera. New
York Premiere.
East of the Tar Pits
Gary LeGault directs Superstar Holly Woodlawn's return to the silver screen
as Mattie, a New York housewife on a pilgrimage to Barbra Streisand's
Malibu ranch and a mission to reunite with a former flame. Michael Musto,
who will introduce the screening, raves, "intoxicatingly funny Douglas
Sirk-ian campathon." World Premiere.
FRIDAY, APRIL 4
The End of the Light Age (1, 2, 3, Whiteout)
An experimental sci-fi feature by James June Schneider. In an eerily retro,
blindingly bright future a woman named Veronique and an unnamed inventor
(the legendary Lou Castel) experiment with integrating darkness into light.
New York Premiere.
I-Be Area
Director Ryan Trecartin's second feature is a frightening and jubilant
vision of personal branding and aspirational consumerism run amok. This
hilariously incisive movie cuts to the dark roots of post-whatever life
while preserving the shining hope of uniquely creative expression.
Super High Me
Comedian Doug Benson and former High Times "Stoner of the Year" is inspired
by Super Size Me's month of Mickey D's to get hella baked for 30 days
straight, in this surprisingly methodical documentary by Michael Blieden.
New York Premiere.
SATURDAY, APRIL 5
The People's Advocate: The Life & Times of Charles R. Garry
Filmmaker Hrag Yedalian interviews the family, friends and former clients of
Charles Garry, an influential criminal defense attorney best known for his
defense of Huey Newton and Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers in the 1960s.
New York Premiere.
Foggy Mountains Breakdown More Than Non-Foggy Mountains
A experimental music documentary by Jessie Stead that uses the eponymous
folk standard as a jumping off point for a film that's structural, personal,
and fun all at the same time.
We Are Wizards
Josh Koury's feature documentary explores the creative subculture
surrounding the popular Harry Potter book series. Featuring Wizard Rock band
Harry and the Potters, founder of a popular Potter fansite Heather Lawver,
and Brad Neely, the artist behind NYUFF '04 selection and cult hit WIZARD
PEOPLE, dear readers. New York Premiere.
Adventure Poseidon, The
In 1972 The Poseidon Adventure grossed more than any other film that year,
paving the way for a decade's worth of destruction epics. Filmmaker Anne
McGuire deconstructs this disaster by reversing the order of the shots,
diffusing the suspense, while still preserving all the camp of the original.
New York Premiere.
SUNDAY, APRIL 6
We Will Live to See These Things, or, Five Pictures of What May Come to Pass
Five different looks at modern Damascus. Filmmakers Julia Meltzer and David
Thorne create a complex picture of the ways a city shapes her inhabitants
and the people shape their city.
The Golden Age of Fish
A female, African American geologist catalyzes a non-linear narration of
Cleveland, Ohio's ancient and recent histories in Kevin Jerome Everson's
latest genre-confounding feature. US Premiere.
FEATURED SHORTS
Hito Steyerl's essay-documentary Lovely Andrea about her hunt to track down
Japanese bondage photographs she posed for as a young woman; the latest in
John Smith's "Hotel Diaries," Dirty Pictures, documents Smith's move from a
drafty suite in Bethlehem to a drab one in East Jerusalem; Michael
Almereyda's Paradise (excerpts from a work-in-progress) weaves together
brief chronicles of moments between moments, stray talk and fragments of
experience; i.Mirror, a romantic documentary created by the artist Cao Fei's
Second Life avatar from inside the game; and Drew Heitzler's Night Tide (for
Sailors, Mermaids, Mystics), an eerie re-edit of the Curtis Harrington film
Nighttide that conjures the mystery of old L.A.
SPECIAL EVENTS
A three-part retrospective covering the fifteen years of the New York
Underground Film Festival entitled NYUFF if Enough; a program presented by
Orchard Gallery in timed with the conclusion of their three-year long
existence; Two Black Towers, a program organized by Jennet Thomas including
John Smith's The Black Tower as well as her re-envisioning homage, The
Return of the Black Tower; Revolution 9, a screening presented by long-time
friends of NYUFF the Robert(a) Beck Memorial (Mercurial) Cinema and
programmed by Bradley Eros; surprise cewebrities galore at Tube Time!, our
hugely popular live competitive screening of the most outrageous online
video; Nasty As U Wanna Be a program curated by Marisa Olson to celebrate
the launch of Rhizome's Nasty Nets DVD; a three-part program curated by Mike
Crane, Ryan Garrett and Edward Kihn, The Only Possible City, featuring the
US Premiere of Haroun Farocki's Prison Images; and not one but six special
2008 trailers made by NYUFF alums Peggy Ahwesh, Robert Banks, Michael
Bell-Smith, Ben Coonley, Ewa Einhorn and Jim Finn, coming soon‹before the
festival begins!‹to your computer.
THE END OF NYUFF
After 15 years, 2008 will mark the last New York Underground Film Festival.
Former festival director Ed Halter says NYUFF was "created to showcase films
that weren't being supported anywhere else. Over time, we evolved into a
festival that promoted our own special blend of documentaries, features and
experimental work. People came to expect the unexpected at the NYUFF; we
became an anti-institutional institution."
The organization has undergone many changes over the last 5 years and has
decided that a restructuring and refocusing is in order if the spirit of the
institution is to live on. A new organization called Migrating Forms has
been formed by two of NYUFF's current directors, Nellie Killian and Kevin
McGarry, and will continue to produce a film and video festival in the
spring, with the addition of year-round programming.
The name Migrating Forms signals a passing of the torch from NYUFF to the
future, and it also addresses the present condition of film and video
arts‹filmmakers are exploring new technologies while re-inventing and
re-contextualizing traditional practices. Says Kevin McGarry, "The name
Migrating Forms comes from a title of a film by a filmmaker who has gained
much attention from his 8-year participation in the NYUFF, James Fotopoulos,
and we think this is a nice, if oblique, way to remain connected to our
past." A full press release with more information on the new organization
will be available soon.
COMPLETE PROGRAM
Wednesday, April 2
8:00 Heavy Metal in Baghdad
Thursday, April 3
6:30 Where's the Love?, shorts by Peggy Ahwesh, Cao Fei, Michael
Robinson, Darren Martin, Drew Heitzler
7:00 Inside, Outside, Upside Down, shorts by Nate Boyce, Jessie Stead,
Leighton Pierce, Robert Todd, Charlotte Pryce, Jeanne Liotta
8:00 Government Radiation, shorts by Jesper Nordahl, Kevin Jerome
Everson, Steve Reinke, Martha Colburn, Nao Bustamante, Jacqueline Goss,
James June Schneider
8:45 Hoopeston
9:45 Kenedi is Getting Married
10:30 East of the Tar Pits
Friday, April 4
6:30 The Only Possible City, part 1 of 3, programmed by Mike Crane,
Ryan Garrett and Edward Kihn
7:00 NYUFF is Enough, part 1 of 3, 1994-1998
8:00 The End of the Light Age
8:45 Nasty Nets, programmed by Marisa Olson
9:45 Revolution 9, programmed by Bradley Eros
10:30 I-Be Area
11:30 Super High Me
Saturday, April 5
2:30 The Only Possible City, part 2 of 3, programmed by Mike Crane,
Ryan Garrett and Edward Kihn
3:30 The People's Advocate: The Life & Times of Charles R. Garry
4:15 Two Black Towers, programmed by Jennet Thomas
5:15 Orchard Gallery Presents
6:00 Foggy Mountain's Breakdown More than Non-Foggy Mountains, preceded
by Leslie Thorton's Photography is Easy
7:00 NYUFF is Enough, part 2 of 3, 1999-2003
7:45 Market Sentiments, shorts by Bryan Leister, Jesper Nordahl,
Barbara Musil, Peggy Ahwesh, Aaron Valdez, Angie Waller, Abby Williams, Joe
Nanashe, Hito Steyerl
8:45 We Are Wizards
9:45 Adventure Poseidon, The
10:30 TubeTime!
Sunday, April 6
2:30 The Only Possible City, part 3 of 3, programmed by Mike Crane,
Ryan Garrett and Edward Kihn
3:30 We Will Live to See These Things, preceded by Michael Robinson's
Victory Over the Sun
4:15 The Phantom Menace, shorts by Tijmen Hauer and Gerbrand Burger,
James Fotopoulos, Mark Ther, Takeshi Murata, Kirsten Stoltmann
5:15 If You Lived Here You'd Be Home by Now, shorts by Ben Rivers,
Francien van Everdingen, Deborah Stratman, Jenny Stark, Jem Cohen, John
Smith, Michael Almereyda, Vibeke Byrid
6:00 The Golden Age of Fish
[continued]
Sunday, April 6 [continued]
7:00 NYUFF is Enough, part 3 of 3, 2004-2008
7:45 Tropical Grime, shorts by Lev Kalman and Whitney Horn, Lyn Elliot,
Michael Lucid, Keith Wilson, Tommy Button, Kelly Oliver and Keary Rosen,
Jennifer MacMilan, Michele O'Marah
9:00 The Juche Idea
Program repeats scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, April 7 and 8, will be
announced Tuesday, March 18 at www.nyuff.com <http://www.nyuff.com> .
For more information, contact Kevin McGarry at email suppressed or
646-271-0833
* * *
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__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.