From: Weekly Listing (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Nov 08 2008 - 07:11:11 PST
Part 2 of 2: This week [November 8 - 16, 2008] in avant garde cinema
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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2008
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11/14
Alexandria, LA: The Arts Council of Central Louisiana
http://www.southarts.org/site/c.guIYLaMRJxE/b.2821369/
7:00pm, Coughlin-Saunders Performing Arts Center, 1202 Third St
BEN RUSSELL: FOUR EXPERIMENTAL ETHNOGRAPHIES
"Tjúba Tén" ("The Wet Season") is an experimental ethnography recorded
in the jungle village of Bendekondre, Suriname at the start of 2007.
Composed of community-generated performances, reenactments and
extemporaneous recordings, this film functions doubly as an examination
of a rapidly changing material culture in the present and as a
historical document for the future. Whether the resultant record is
directed toward its subjects, its temporary residents (the filmmakers),
or its Western viewers is a question proposed via the combination of
long takes, materialist approaches, selective subtitling and a focus on
various forms of cultural labor. In addition to "Tjúba Tén" ("The Wet
Season"), Russell's screenings will feature three additional
experimental ethnographies: "Daumë," "The Red and the Blue Gods," and
"Black and White Trypps Number Three."
11/14
Atlanta, Georgia: HERS Foundation
http://www.unbecomingplay.com
7:30pm, Westin Buckhead Hotel-Woodruff Room-3391 Peachtree Road NE
SCREENING OF RICK SCHWEIKERT'S PLAY "UN BECOMING"
UN BECOMING revolves around Emma Douglas, a woman who has
everything...to lose. She is sensual, smart and driven. Painting is her
life's breath. But a medical opinion threatens everything. UN BECOMING
explores how any woman can lose control when the voice of intuition is
silenced.
11/14
New York, New York: Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
http://www.amnh.org/mead
7:00 pm, American Museum of Natural History 79th and Central Park West
IN THE LAND OF THE HEADHUNTERS BY EDWARD CURTIS
The Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival is the longest-running, premiere
showcase for international documentaries in the US, encompassing a broad
spectrum of work, from indigenous community media to experimental
nonfiction. The Festival is distinguished by its outstanding selection
of titles, which tackle diverse and challenging subjects, representing a
range of issues and perspectives, and by the forums for discussion with
filmmakers and speakers. OPENING NIGHT of the Mead presents In the Land
of the Head Hunters (1914) by photographer Edward S. Curtis. Found in a
Chicago area dumpster in 1947, this silent-era melodrama, featuring
performances by the Kwakwaka'wakw of British Columbia, has finally been
restored on beautiful 35mm film with help of the UCLA Film and
Television Archive. Set in a time when the First Nation peoples had not
yet encountered Europeans, the film tells of Motana, the chief's son,
who must overcome many challenges in the spirit and physical world to
woo and win the lovely Naida, a young girl whose bewitching dancing has
the power to save her from the evil Sorcerer. This film screens with
live musical accompaniment by The Coast Orchestra, a Native American
classical ensemble conducted by Timothy Long. Please reference Program
F1 when ordering tickets. Go to www.amnh.org/mead for tickets.
11/14
San Francisco, California: Artists Television Access
http://www.atasite.org/
8pm, 992 Valencia St
GLOBAL UNDERGROUNDS: REALITY AND TRUTH:- SPANISH DOCUMENTS
On November 13 and 14, as part of an ongoing cinematic and cultural
exchange between ATA and the independent cinema La Enana Marron in
Madrid, Spain, ATA hosts two nights of Documentary film from Spain
sponsored by the General Consulate of Spain in San Francisco. David
Reznak, filmmaker and founder of La Enana Marron will be here in person
to present the series. Both screenings will take place at ATA, 992
Valencia Street, Doors open at 7:30pm and films will start at 8pm.
Entrance is FREE. REALITY AND TRUTH: SPANISH DOCUMENTS Curated by David
Reznak This program includes films like "The Siege" and "As it gets
dark, it's dawn", that articulate a language from an elaborated formal
process and play with the texture of the image and the
descontextualization of the sound to create poetic moments, that oppose
another two films, "Texas Sunrise" and " Story of Juan", that use
improvisation and a seemingly invisible film crew with which, sometimes,
the spectator can wonder how these two films were made and come to the
conclusion that the script was written with the camera and the film was
finished in the editing room. Both have bet on exceptional characters
that don't need to be embellished by an elaborated cinematographic
language. These four films represent a free cinema that prove that
documentary film is a vehicle for the dramatic construction of the
filmed reality, and that a preliminary script is the worst curse of a
type of cinema. EL CERCO – THE SIEGE Nacho Martín y Ricardo Íscar 12
min. 35mm, 2005 V.O with enghish subtitles Each year, thousands of tuna
fish enter the Mediterranean Sea. Man's hands harass them in a blood and
death ritual. It's the classic war between man and animals. But it is an
unequal fight. COMO ANOCHECE AMANECE - AS IT GETS DARK, IT'S DAWN David
Reznak. 10 min, 16mm, 1996 V.O with enghish subtitles A travel log
through the Dominican Republic. TEXAS SUNRISE Luis Escartin 17min,
Video, 2002 V.O with enghish subtitles Texas Sunrise consists of an
incredibly lucid monologue narrated by Johnston Frisco, a North American
homeless person reflecting on the role of freedom in the current Western
society. Issues such as governmental aid and control over citizens by
democracies, the desire of private property and need to feel safe are
some of the points insisted on. The close ups of this film show are
images structured in a group of mostly static shots that represent the
solitude of the West Coast scenarios, followed by Johnston Frisco riding
a bike. The city of Las Vegas and its surroundings landscape are the
images that accompany Frisco's words. Postmodern architecture, lonely
roads, abandoned cars, pedestrians, restaurant signs and panoramic views
of the desert appear throughout the film, in which the face of the
protagonist is never revealed. It is easy to find an iconographic
resemblance between One Way Boogie Woogie by James Benning and Texas
Sunrise – the best work of Lluis Escartín – but here Johnston's words
show such veracity and vital consequence that they end up being the
protagonist of the 17 minutes, leaving the succession of frames in the
background. HISTORIA DE JUAN – STORY OF JUAN Fernando Borrero 38 min.
DV, 2002 V.O with enghish subtitles Juan Medina, former convict,
infected with HIV, and with a past plagued by drugs and crime, is the
protagonist of this documentary film. His reflections on politics,
religion, sexuality and freedom describe a dense and rich personal
universe, where humor tinged with irony softens the harshness of the
story. In collaboration with international institutions, organizations
and filmmakers, Artists' Television Access presents Global Undergrounds,
a film and video series that fosters awareness and appreciation of the
issues and aesthetics of our global diversity. Artists' Television
Access is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all-volunteer, artist-run, experimental
media arts gallery that has been in operation since 1984. ATA hosts a
series of film and video screenings, exhibitions and performances by
emerging and established artists and a weekly cable access television
program.
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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2008
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11/15
Los Angeles, California: Echo Park Film Center
http://www.echoparkfilmcenter.org/
8:00 PM, 1200 Alvarado Street
LOS ANGELES AS A CHARACTER
LOS ANGELES AS A CHARACTER is a one-night only screening that will
showcase narrative, experimental and documentary short films and videos
with the city of Los Angeles as a peripheral or central, theme, backdrop
or character. The following 14 films will be screened: "Dance, Eli,
Dance" (2005) – Ava Hess; "Dichotomy" (2008) – Van Veng; "Hair Cowboy"
(2008) – Patrick Robins; "I Remember Venice" (2008) – Will O'Loughlen;
"Intoxicated Demons"(2005) – Donlee Brussell; "Iris:Los Angeles" –
(2005) Valentina Martin; "Memories of an Undefined Image" (2007) – Mason
Chadwick Shefa; "Moose, Indian" (2006) – Nicholas Kokich; "Mr.
Freeway"(2008) – Kenneth Hughes; "Palm Tree Song Line" (2008) – Dagie
Brundert; "Roger" (2007) – Jennifer Stefanisko; "Rollingman" (2000) –
Mike Sakamoto; "Some Los Angeles Apartments and a Dorm" (2003)– Laura
Daroca; "Westsider" (2007) – Charles Doran More information on the films
and filmmakers can be found here: www.LAasaCharacter.org
11/15
Los Angeles, California: UCLA Film and Television Archive
http://www.cinema.ucla.edu
7:30pm, Billy Wilder Theater / Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd.
MOVING FIGURES: THE ANIMATED WORLD OF ROBERT BREER
Robert Breer, one of America's foremost independent filmmakers for more
than 50 years, will pay a rare visit to Los Angeles to attend a
multi-venue celebration of his work. A close colleague of Rauschenberg,
Oldenburg and other seminal artists of the 1950s and '60s, Breer has
brought a comparably imaginative and rigorous appreciation for collage
and pure form to the art of cinema. Throughout a body of more than 40
animated--and in many ways anti-animated films--Breer celebrates cinema
as a unique way of seeing and the act of drawing as a richly expressive
and unpredictable personal gesture. Tonight's program includes the
majority of films Breer released between 1974 and 2003, a period of
remarkable growth and sustained artistic activity. In person: Robert
Breer. Part of a three-program retrospective organized by Steve Anker.
Additional screenings will be held at Los Angeles Filmforum and REDCAT.
FUJI (1974) "A poetic, rhythmic, riveting achievement (in rotoscope and
abstract animation), in which fragments of landscapes, passengers, and
train interiors blend into a magical color dream of a voyage. One of the
most important works by a master who - like Conner, Brakhage, Broughton
- spans several avant-gardes in his ever more perfect explorations." --
Amos Vogel 35mm (blow-up from 16mm), 9 min. LMNO (1978) "[A] French
gendarme weaves a hapless path through the film's strobe attacks,
disparate drawing styles, and variable scale .... Framed by underwater
and travel imagery, the central section's faucets and aerosols,
collapsing tents and outsized croquet games, breakfast foods and sexual
violence, all suggest domestic frustration." - J. Hoberman, The Village
Voice 16mm, 10 min. T.Z. (1979) "An elegant home movie, its subject is
Breer's new apartment which faces the Tappan Zee (T.Z.) bridge. It is
permeated, as are all his films, with subtle humor, eroticism and a
sense of imminent chaos and catastrophe."--Amy Taubin, Artforum 16mm, 9
min. TRIAL BALLOONS (1982) A mix of rephotographed live action and
animation using hand-cut traveling mattes.--Canyon Cinema Catalogue.
16mm, 6 min. BANG! (1986) "Bang reveals Breer at his most accomplished
and most playful. It is also his most autobiographical film - the
youngster paddling a boat is Breer as a boy and the pencil cartoon
sequences were drawn by Breer when he was around ten years old. "Robert
Breer is the godfather of animation art. In Bang he sustains ten dense
minutes of collagistic mayhem that's as potent as anything he's ever
done. Television images of a boy paddling a boat and an arena crowd
cheering, plus film shots of bright pink and red flowers and a toy
phone, are intercut with frenetic drawings in Breer's trademark heavy
crayon, principally of baseball games. Breer inserts a photo of himself
with a question mark scrawled over his head, accompanied by the words
'Don't be smart.' But he can't help it - he is."--Katherine Dieckmann,
The Village Voice 16mm, 10 min. A FROG ON THE SWING (1989) This animated
fable is centered around a backyard pond shown intermittently in
live-action scenes. A small child appears and disappears in a ballet of
crows, rabbits, monkey wrenches, and goldfish. When the police arrive
there are pot-shots at backyard varmits, but the frog on the swing seems
to survive it all. As usual in Breer films, the soundtrack is often
conspicuously out of sync with the picture. Or is it vice versa when a
crow goes "moo?"--Canyon Cinema Catalogue. 16mm, 5 min. TIME FLIES
(1997) A playful meditation on loved ones and the passing of the years.
16mm, 5 min. ATOZ (2000) A short film dedicated to his granddaughter Zoë
that demonstrates all the characteristic traits of Breer's animation:
his humour, his favourite motifs (the hammer, a frog, graphic shapes,
aeroplanes). What is the impact of an order such as the alphabet on the
awakening mind of a child?--International Film Festival Rotterdam. 16mm,
5 min. WHAT GOES UP (2003) Breer's personal take on the everyday in
images that zoom past us like a flashback of a thousand perfectly lived
moments, a four-minute epic. The final scene of a derailed train
provides a metaphor for the absurdity of the notion that a big,
beautiful, well-lived life simply runs out. --International Film
Festival Rotterdam. 16mm, 5 min.
11/15
New York, New York: Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
http://www.amnh.org/mead
4:30 pm, American Museum of Natural History 79th and Central Park West
PAPER CANNOT WRAP UP EMBERS
The Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival presents Paper Cannot Wrap Up
Embers by Rithy Panh. A master documentary filmmaker Panh never shies
away from the nuances born of melding documentary and narrative genres.
Continuing his masterful exploration of contemporary Cambodia and the
legacy of its recent past through the stories of young women forced into
prostitution to survive. Living in the wake of the Khmer Rouge and beset
by the juggernaut of global capitalism, these women eek out an existence
in a decaying apartment building in Phnom Penh. Away from men and the
noise of the street, Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers offers moments that
range from expressions of quiet despair to the sharing of intimacies and
mutual comfort. . Please reference Program F11 when ordering tickets. Go
to amnh.org/mead for a complete program.
11/15
New York, New York: Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, American Museum of Natural History
http://www.amnh.org/mead
12:30 pm, 77th Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue
PEACE WITH SEALS
The Margaret Mead Film & Vifro Festival presents the US Premiere of
PEACE WITH SEALS by Miloslav Novák (FILMMAKER IN PERSON) Monk seal
specialist Emanuele Coppola and director Novák are on the hunt for any
trace of a real, live Mediterranean monk seal. Conversations with marine
biologists and philosophers as well as the beachgoers on the
Mediterranean shores who have supplanted the seals lead them to believe
that the only monk seals left are those preserved in Coppola's extensive
collection of archival footage. Presented as a wistful documentary
fable, the film might well stand as a warning sign for more ominous
things to come. Stunning underwater cinematography adds a stunning layer
to this lyrical film. Sat., November 15: 12:30pm at the American Museum
of Natural History. amnh.org/mead
11/15
New York, New York: Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
http://amnh.org/mead
8:15 pm, American Museum of Natural History 79th and Central Park West
ALONE IN FOUR WALLS
Alone in Four Walls by Alexandra Westmeier (85min, Russia/Germany,
Director and Cinematographer in person) will celebrate its NY Premiere
at the 32nd Annual Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival. A teenager
stands up in class and explains why his favorite color is black. Wearing
black, he says, makes it easier to escape into corners undetected and to
obscure the dirt on his clothes. This scene is just one of the many in
Westmeier's documentary about adolescent boys incarcerated at a Russian
reformatory that break the heart. Her patient camera captures them
sitting quietly in rows at class, learning to use a gasmask, making
their beds, washing the hallway floors, in a woodshop cutting wood.
Intercut are interviews in which the boys describe their home life and
the offenses that brought them to this place. Some speak of alcoholism,
beatings, theft, and grisly murders, recounted in seemingly indifferent
tones. Other boys cry remembering home, a kind but absent stepfather, a
remiss grandmother who forgets to write. Breathtakingly shot with a
painter's eye for color and composition, Westmeier's film allows these
boys a freedom of expression like they have never had nor probably will
ever get again. Reference Program F9 when ordering tickets.
11/15
New York, New York: Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
http://www.amnh.org/mead
1:00 pm, American Museum of Natural History 79th and Central Park West
UMBRELLA BY DU HAIBIN
The Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival presents the East Coast Premiere
of Umbrella by Chinese filmmaker Du Haibin. An umbrella that is carried
across a wheat field in central China or the rainy streets of Shanghai
is made in a factory in Guangdong and sold wholesale farther up the
coast in Zhejiang Province. Tracking the life of an umbrella from
factory to market, Haibin shows how the lives of farmers in rural China
have changed since the economic reforms instituted by Deng Xiaoping in
1978. "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" couched the upturning of
the ideals of the Cultural Revolution in nationalist terms to soften the
blow dealt to farmers once glorified by the state. Haibin is part of the
Sixth Generation of Chinese filmmaking, which has proven unafraid to
confront China's dictatorial policies in the wake of Tiananmen Square.
With a pace that belies the speed with which these farmers and their
families have to adjust to these new changes, he shows us factory
workers, soldiers, students, merchants, and hold-out farmers as they
scramble for livelihoods and respect in the rush toward modernization
and the glorification of wealth over traditional ideals. Screening with
Under Construction —Shanghai's old districts are demolished in the name
of regeneration. Displaced by bulldozers and wrecking balls, families
find themselves in search of a new neighborhood. Every year, more than
100,000 inhabitants are forced to leave their homes and move to the
edges of the city. Zhenchen Liu combines digitally re-mastered
photographs with documentary video footage to investigate those affected
by the endless demolition, calling into question the choice of vertical
development over building community. Reference Program F6 when ordering
tickets. Go to amnh.org/mead for a complete program.
11/15
New York, New York: Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
http://www.amnh.org/mead
7:00 pm, American Museum of Natural History 79th and Central Park West
SINKING VILLAGE, RECYCLE, THE PESTS - SHORT FILMS
The Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival is the longest running showcase
of documentary film in the United States. Exhibiting a range of
non-fiction work including: essay films, experimental works, feature
documentaries, animation, and more. The Festival is a premiere venue
housed at the American Museum of Natural History. Revealing the
diversity of programming at the Mead, we present a series of short
lyrical films that explore the human need for control. In The Pests,
termites, lice, silverfish, bedbugs, roaches, and wasps invade, experts
from entomologists to exterminators are called in and weild sprays and
bombs, electric zappers, and other insecticides, and do their chemical
best to remove the creatures. In The Pests, neatniks and entomophobes
obsess about their worst fear, the common everyday bugs that don't
respect our human limits. Recycle chronicles homeless poet, Miguel Diaz
as he collects recyclables to earn a living. Shot in striking 35mm, this
short documentary follows Diaz as he uses all the thrown-away items he's
collected to make a community garden in the median of his street and
offers his insights on survival and nature. In The Sinking Village the
Hungarian village of Medgyesbodzás is slowly sinking, and its
inhabitants are baffled. Their houses are propped up and riddled with
cracks and holes. The village receives very little help from national
authorities, so the middle-aged Jószef turns to the European Union. Ever
optimistic, he makes a short film in which he and the other villagers
tell their story. In the meantime, young people are moving away from the
village while those remaining speculate on who's to blame: oil
companies, the waterworks, or the soil itself. Reference Program F12
when ordering tickets.
11/15
San Francisco, California: Other Cinema
http://www.othercinema.com/
8:30pm, 992 Valencia Street
ALEX RIVERA'S SLEEP DEALER +
We are thrilled to host an old friend whose creativity and strength of
vision have propelled him to the launch of his first international 35mm
release, Sleep Dealer. Since we don't have 35mm facilities, we'll
instead be showing substantial clips on digital video, as Alex guides us
through his process on this provocative political allegory. It's a fable
for this globalized age, a moral tale focusing on the all-too-true
phenomenon of virtual workforces delivering their alienated labor from
across the border. Featuring eye-popping 3-D animation, Alex's highly
imaginative magical-realist masterpiece elaborates on the themes of
Latin-American relations, immigration, and digital culture that also
drive his earlier work. So to open the show, we'll screen his shorts Why
Cybraceros?, Dia de la Independencia, and maybe even PapaPapa in their
entirety, properly situating Seńor Rivera in his meteoric artistic arc.
Come early for reception, cerveza, and yes, another of our (in)famous
pińatas. *$7.
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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2008
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11/16
Los Angeles, California: Filmforum
http://www.lafilmforum.org/
7:00 pm, Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd.
MOVING FIGURES: THE ANIMATED WORLD OF ROBERT BREER – PART 3
Filmforum presents Moving Figures: The Animated World of Robert Breer –
part 3, with Breer in person! Robert Breer, one of America's foremost
filmmakers for more than 50 years, pays a rare visit to Los Angeles to
attend a multi-venue celebration of his work. Tonight features a
selection of the artist's early work (1954-1964), including portraits
and collaborations with Jean Tinguely, Claes Oldenberg and other
avant-garde figures of the '50s and early '60s, as well as his first
major animated and pixilated short films. Parts 1 & 2 are at REDCAT on
November 10 and UCLA Film & Television Archive on November 15. Los
Angeles Filmforum, at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, at Las
Palmas. Sunday Nov 16, 2008. 7:00 pm. General admission $10,
students/seniors $6, free for Filmforum members.
http://lafilmforum.wordpress.com. The Egyptian Theatre has a validation
stamp for the Hollywood & Highland complex. Park 4 hours for $2 with
validation.
11/16
New York, New York: Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
http://www.amnh.org/mead
12:00 pm, American Museum of Natural History 79th and Central Park West
GANDHI’S CHILDREN BY DAVID MACDOUGALL
Gandhi's Children by award-winning documentary filmmaker David
MacDougall presents its World Premiere at The Margaret Mead Film & Video
Festival. The Prayas Children's Home for Boys is located in one of the
poorest quarters of New Delhi. The residents usually orphans, have run
away from home, or were picked up from the streets. One day, 181 boys
arrive, having been rescued from a child labor factory. Despite the
harshness of their lives, many of these children show extraordinary
strength of character. Often left to their own devices, they institute a
seemingly arbitrary set of checks and balances to make sense of the
mayhem around them. Please reference Program F18 when ordering tickets.
Go to amnh.org/mead for a complete program.
11/16
New York, New York: Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
http://www.amnh.org/mead
6:30 pm, American Museum of Natural History 79th and Central Park West
THE LOST COLONY
The Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival presents The Lost Colony (Astrid
Bussink, US Premiere, Filmmaker in Person) The Sukhum Primate Center in
Abkhazia, the oldest primate research laboratory in the world, is
crumbling. This once prominent facility has been hailed for its strides
in medical research and space exploration. Founded in the 1920s, the
institute now strives for relevance amid Abkhazia's struggle for
independence from Georgia, dwindling funds, and the loss of a large
portion of its animals to a modern lab in neighboring Russia. On the
cusp of its 80th anniversary, Bussink visits the lab as it prepares for
a conference designed to drum up support in the scientific community.
Meanwhile, one guard searches the surrounding forests for any sign of
members of the monkey colony thought to have escaped from the lab during
the 1992 military conflict. Archival footage of the center's glory days
and present-day activities captured at a detached remove are combined
with stunning images of the decaying buildings and grounds. Now, with
recently renewed fighting between Georgia and Russia over Abkhazian and
South Ossetian independence, Bussink's ironic take on this seemingly
hopeless situation becomes prescient. Please reference Program F17 when
ordering tickets. Go to amnh.org/mead for a complete program.
11/16
New York, New York: Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
http://www.amnh.org/mead
7:30 pm, American Museum of Natural History 79th and Central Park West
THROW DOWN YOUR HEART (FEATURING BéLA FLECK)
Closing Night at The Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival presents Throw
Down Your Heart (Sascha Paladino, Filmmaker in Person, NY Premiere)
Multiple Grammy-winner Béla Fleck travels to Uganda, Tanzania, the
Gambia, and Mali searching for the roots of the banjo, the instrument he
loves so much. Part road movie, part historical document, this
fascinating film demonstrates the power of music and musicians to reach
across cultural boundaries and the limitations of language to create an
instant and abiding connection. Whether plaintive or pulsating, the
infectious music in Throw Down Your Heart transports viewers into the
heart of Fleck's personal journey. This film is co-presented by World
Music Institute. Please reference Program F21 when ordering tickets. Go
to amnh.org/mead for a complete program.
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__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.