From: ben russell (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Jul 21 2008 - 15:20:39 PDT
Dear Friends in Cinema,
After many moons of preparation and coordination, I'm pleased to announce
that Ben Rivers and I are on the cusp of beginning our film tour of the
Antipodes. We'll be wandering about New Zealand and Australia for the
coming weeks, presenting a 10-film program of our films at a variety of
venues in the Southern Hemisphere. As if one program isn't enough, we will
be mixing it up with a second show of Entirely Different Films in Sydney and
I'll be presenting a brand new double-projector performance (flicker loops!
light-sensitive electronics! masks!) at a few select sites.
Thanks to all of those who helped make this happen, and I hope to see those
of you who live in this part of the globe at the theater!
Yours In Celluloid,
Ben Russell
** * *
*
*WE CAN NOT EXIST IN THIS WORLD ALONE: The Films of Ben Rivers (UK) and Ben
Russell (US)*
Separated for a lifetime of lifetimes by that vast dark body of Atlantic
water, siblings-in-cinema Rivers and Russell have arrived on Austral-Pacific
shores to spread their message of A Present Regained. Marching beneath the
already-tattered banner of a New Modernism, the brothers Ben offer a glimpse
of a somehow-brighter-tomorrow via the (16mm) lens of today. Drawn from the
historic traditions of ethnography, documentary, and portraiture and
operating under the guise of experimental cinema, the works in this program
offer a prescription for weathering alone the gathering storm of global
capitalism. From the sci-fi landscapes of Dubai to the frozen tundra of the
Scottish highlands to the jungle wilds of Suriname; from the hermit clans of
the British Isles to the noise-show enthusiasts of Rhode Island to the
stand-up comedians of the Bardo plane; these 10 films sketch a complex
post-modern post-mortem of a world in increasingly hopeful disarray.
*FEATURING: * We The People (1:00, 16mm, 2004 – BR/UK); Workers Leaving the
Factory (Dubai) (8:00, 16mm, 2008 – BR/US); The Coming Race (5:00, 16mm,
2006 – BR/UK); Trypps #5 (Dubai) (3:00, 16mm, 2008 – BR/US); Ah, Liberty!
(20:00, 16mm scope, 2008 – BR/UK); Black and White Trypps Number Four
(10:30, 16mm, 2008 – BR/US); This Is My Land (14:00, 16mm, 2006 – BR/UK) ;
Daumë (7:00, 16mm, 2000 – BR/US); Dove Coup (2:00, 16mm, 2007 – BR/UK);
Black and White Trypps Number Three (11:30, 16mm, 2007 – BR/US); TRT 82:00
*SCREENINGS:*
7/24: 6:15pm at the *Auckland International Film Festival
<http://www.nzff.co.nz/n5863,359,region=2.html>; *Auckland, New Zealand
7/26: 8:00pm* at the *Govett Brewster
Gallery;*<http://www.govettbrewster.com/>New Plymouth, New Zealand -
with film performance by Sam Hamilton and Eve
Gordon
7/27: 5:30pm at the *Wellington International Film
Festival*<http://www.nzff.co.nz/n5878,485,region=1.html>;
Wellington, New Zealand
7/30: 8:00pm* at the *Borderline Ballroom; <http://borderlineballroom.com/>
*Christchurch, New Zealand
7/31: 9:15pm at the *Melbourne International Film
Festival*<http://www.melbournefilmfestival.com.au/>;
Melbourne, Australia
8/01: 9:30pm at the *Melbourne International Film Festival:
Intermission<http://tr_1214674340234/>;
*Melbourne, Australia**
8/05: 8:00pm* at the *Chalkhorse Gallery* <http://chalkhorse.com.au/>;
Sydney, Australia
8/08: 8:00pm at the *Mu-Meson Archives <http://www.mumeson.org/>; *Sydney,
Australia***
8/10: 8:00pm* at *Otherfilm <http://www.otherfilm.org/site.php>; *Brisbane,
Australia**
8/12: 8:00pm* at *Otherfilm <http://www.otherfilm.org/site.php>; *Brisbane,
Australia
*times are approximate - please check websites for details
***THE RED AND THE BLUE GODS / THE BLACK AND THE WHITE GODS*: *Performance
by Ben Russell
*A film performance double-projector double-header, featuring the
live-narrated ethnographic film THE RED AND THE BLUE GODS, followed by a new
20:00 performance using flicker loops, light-sensitive electronics, masks,
mixer feedback, and more!
****DOCUMENTS OF THE FORGOTTEN WORLD: Films by Ben Rivers and Ben
Russell+Brigid McCaffrey*
Time is relative - that much is made clear through this set of ethnographic
kino-portraits that pair the Darwinian musings of a 75-year old Scottish
hermit with recordings of a Surinamese Maroon tribe at work. From the
verdant jungles of South America to the remotest parts of Scotland, these
two experimental documentaries offer an image of Time in the Present - an
existence that stands in stark contrast to the increasingly maddening pace
of an over-industrialized, extra-accessorized, hyper-connected, and
(presumably) global everyday.
*
FEATURING: *Origin of the Species (20:00, 16mm, 2008) by Ben Rivers; Tjúba
Tén/ The Wet Season (47:00, 16mm, 2008) by Brigid McCaffrey+ Ben Russell
TRT 67:00
* <http://www.otherfilm.org/site.php>*** <http://www.otherfilm.org/site.php>
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