From: Weekly Listing (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Mar 14 2009 - 08:56:01 PDT
Part 2 of 2: This week [March 14 - 22, 2009] in avant garde cinema
----------------------
FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2009
----------------------
3/20
Austin, TX: South by Southwest Film Festival
http://sxsw.com
11:30am, Austin Convention Center
IT CAME FROM KUCHAR
See March 19.
3/20
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
7:00pm, 32 Second Avenue
THE FEATURE
2008, 177 minutes, video. NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN! Michel Auder
& Andrew Neel THE FEATURE Very special thanks to Michel Auder, Andrew
Neel and Ethan Palmer (SeeThink Productions). Michel Auder's epic new
film is a summation of his half-century-long career as a video artist
and diarist. In 15-hour diaries, 2-hour neo-narratives, and 1-minute
haikus, Auder has created a body of work that is wholly unique in the
history of the moving image. With the archive of footage Auder has
amassed over the decades providing much of the source material,
alongside new scenes shot by co-director Andrew Neel (the grandson of
painter Alice Neel), THE FEATURE represents a self-conscious and
quasi-fictional variation on the story of Auder's life.
3/20
Orlando, Florida: Sunspot Cinema
http://www.myspace.com/sunspotcinema
7:00 p.m., 500 West Livingston Street
THE PRESENTATION THEME: SELECTIONS FROM THE 2009 FLORIDA EXPERIMENTAL
FILM/VIDEO FESTIVAL
Sunspot Cinema presents "The Presentation Theme: Selections from the
2009 Florida Experimental Film/Video Festival." The University of
Central Florida Film Department and Associate Professor Chris Harris are
proud to host this special event to showcase some of the films from this
year's FLEX FEST, an experimental film festival that celebrates
alternative forms of filmmaking. The event will be held FRIDAY March
20th, 2009 at UCF's Center for Emerging Media's Bridge Theater located
at 500 West Livingston St. in downtown Orlando. The screenings will
begin at 7:00pm. This event is free and open to the public! ALL THAT
RISES by Daichi Saito 2007, .07.00, CANADA, 16MM Juxtaposition of seeing
and sounding, sky and stone and all that's in between. A short walk in
an alleyway, to hear vision sounding images, blessed with light and
darkness. SPACE GHOST by Laurie Jo Reynolds 2007, 26:00, USA, MINIDV
Space Ghost compares the experiences of astronauts and prisoners, using
popular depictions of space travel to illustrate the physical and
existential aspects of incarceration: sensory deprivation, the
perception of time as chaotic and indistinguishable, the displacement of
losing face‐to‐face contact, and the sense of existing in a
different but parallel universe with family and loved‐ones.
GRAVITY by Nicolas Provost 2007, 06:33, BELGIUM, MINIDV The cinematic
kiss is probably one of the most archetypical images to be found in film
history. It is usually a reassuring and sometimes climactic element in a
movie's storyline. Not in Nicolas Provost's Gravity though: with
stroboscopic effects, more than a dozen kissing scenes, most from
stereotypical 1950s romantic dramas, are edited together and
superimposed. Narrative is subverted as the kissing is isolated from its
context entirely; the action slows down and flickers back and forth.
Every now and then, shots from different films overlap and match;
protagonists merge and diverge again a few seconds later. The sugary and
dramatic soundtrack of romantic film music contrasts with the
deconstructed images; together, they form a dazzling 6-minute vertigo
where love becomes a passionate battle. YARD WORK IS HARD WORK by Jodie
Mack 2008, 28:00, USA, 16MM An experimental animation and mini-musical
that wants to be a romantic comedy. Using various cut-out and pixelation
stop-motion animation techniques, the piece follows a pair of newlyweds
as they learn the perils of homeownership and life in general. NOOK AND
CRANNY by Francien van Everdingen 2007, 03:00, NETHERLANDS, 16MM The
film is a moving painting of an interior in which the furniture behaves
like chickens breaking out of their egg shell, or like the mouse that
you see sneaking away in a corner of your eye. The table and the chair
vibrate loosely, out of reality , and the whole room explodes from this
abundance of details. Objects are radiant silhouettes, filled in with
patterns of flowers and foliage. The viewer searches for a handhold in
this thrilling puzzling orchestration of colour and space: something is
about to happen.... LAMPANG BOUQUET by Tony Balko 2007, 03:00, USA, 16MM
A semi-cubist representation of the available flora in Lampang, Thailand
and their relationship to the sun. The film was made in-camera on a
single piece of Kodachrome. INTERMITTENT DELIGHT by Akosua Adoma Owusu
2007,05:00, USA/GHANA, MINIDV West African batik, archival, and found
footage create culturally charged juxtapositions in Intermittent
Delight, which touches upon the idea of feminism's uneven geographical
and historical development, and the nuances of labor conditions women
face depending on where they live. THE PRESENTATION THEME by Jim Trainor
2008, 14:00, USA, 16MM The story of a Peruvian POW outmaneuvered by a
hematophagous priestess. BLUE TIDE, BLACK WATER by Sam Hamilton and Eve
Gordon 2008, 09:20, NEW ZEALAND, VIDEO Amid an ocean of wax one might
chance upon a garden of flowering chemicals, where filmmakers Sam
Hamilton and Eve Gordon circumnavigate microscopic reactions, creating
an epic in miniature. Blue Tide, Black Water is an investigation into
the world's minute reactions. One of the most basic of chemical
interactions, heat applied to liquids, is transformed from a scientific
investigation to a study of the intricate details of the natural world.
The resulting microcosmic environment seems a lush, rich primordial
soup.
3/20
San Francisco, California: Artists Television Access
http://www.atasite.org/
8PM, 992 Valencia Street @21st.
THE MUSE OF CINEMA SERIES BY KERRY LAITALA
The Muse of Cinema Series By Kerry Laitala Torchlight Tango-16mm, sound,
20 minutues-2005 "Torchlight Tango" is a burlesque romp through the
D.I.Y. direct cinematic terrain described by filmmaker/curator Scott
Stark as an "auto-romantic dance of light and body." A film about making
a film, "Torchlight Tango" compresses time and expands light refractions
to teeter between frantic and frozen moments revealing the filmmaking
process to be a solitary endeavor of intimate tactility. Using "red
blind" film exposed with a flashlight, hand processed and sent raucously
through an ancient hand crank projector, the hands of the maker are
succinctly felt as the light sensitive medium is investigated. During
the film exposure and hand processing the filmmaker shot herself using a
Bolex and intervalometer to record the processes that go into making
this kind of expressive personal cinema. The intimacy achieved was not
hindered by a large crew of people and this film was made without any
financial support from any institution. "Torchlight Tango" expands upon
what kind of cinema is possible with limited means. "Torchlight Tango"
was awarded the Best Bay Area Non- Documentary Film Award by the San
Francisco International Film Festival- 2005 and the Jury Citation Award
from Black Maria Film & Video Festival, Jersey City, NJ- 2006 Coming
Attractions- 16mm reduction print from 35mm, silent, 4 minutes, 2009
"Coming Attractions"…Will bring you through the whole Gamut of Human
Emotions" A trailer for the photoplay of the last Century. Muse of
Cinema- 35mm, 20 minutes Sound collaboration: Kerry Laitala & Robert
Fox- 2006 "Muse of Cinema" is a rowdy frolic through early moving
picture technology and illuminates the atmosphere of the darkened
theater. Magic lantern slides spring to life as they directly address
the audience, highlighting many problems endemic of this time and
communicating technical difficulties in the projection booth. In the
Muse of Cinema, the photochemical properties of the filmic medium have
been cultivated over five years using a flashlight, not a camera, to
expose the film. A solar eclipse gleams out from the screen, shimmering
and crackling with rhythmical reverberations. The process of this detail
in the Muse was demonstrated in a previous film Torchlight Tango, which
is in effect is a film that documents many parts of the production of
the Muse of Cinema. The magic lantern is the grandfather of motion
pictures; the slides in Muse provide a cinematic reflection of this
history. All slide images were shot on a slide duplicator using the
apparatus in a way that diverges from its original function. The
original hand processed film material was then mastered on a 35mm
optical printer at a film co-op in Vancouver called Cineworks. The
soundtrack was made through a collaboration with Robert Fox and we
worked diligently to create various sound/image relationships that
combine in a lyrical fashion from various sources that move
anachronistically through time. The Muse of Cinema was also hand
processed and toned to provide a meditation on this medium of alchemy
and magic. Winner of Golden Gate Award- Best Bay Area Non-Documentary
Short Film Award for "Muse of Cinema"- San Francisco International Film
Festival-2007 The Muse of Cinema was sponsored by the Princess Grace
Foundation's Special Project Grant -2004 and the Museum of Contemporary
Cinema Grant-2005 "Retrospectroscope"- 16mm, 5 minutes, silent, 1997 The
"Retrospectroscope" apparatus has gone through many incarnations; its
presence belies the processes that have created it. As a pre-cinematic
device, it traces an evolutionary trajectory, encircling the viewer in a
procession of flickering fantasies of fragmented lyricism. The
"Retrospectroscope" is a reinvention that simulates the illusion of the
analysis of motion to recall early mysteries of the quest for this very
discovery now taken for granted. The Muses of Cinema represented by the
female figures on the disk, have emerged from a dark Neoclassical past.
Streams of images revolve around, in an attempt to harness notions of a
cinematic prehistory tracing past motions and gestures to burn their
dance on the surface of the retinas. This film known as the
"Retrospectroscope", and was described in the San Francisco Bay Guardian
as "A spinning flashing UFO/roulette wheel of Athenian proportions."
Spectrology- 16mm, 11 minutes, sound, 2009- San Francisco Premiere!!!!!
In 1646, Kircher published Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae, on the subject of
the display of images on a screen using an early prototype to the magic
lantern as later developed by Christian Huygens. Using this apparatus as
a tool to enchant, spellbind and spook, Paul de Philipsthal, Robertson
and other conjurors dazzled spectators with their unique bag of 18th
Century tricks, raising up the spirits of recently deceased and
reminding the viewer of the "fate that awaits us all". "Spectrology"
calls upon conjurors of the past and their secret repertoire of magical
devices to simulate a modern rendition of the phantasmagoria. The medium
of cinema is harnessed to entice the viewer and ruminate on the
mesmerizing presence of various illusions made anew. Phantogram- 16mm,
silent, 9 minutes, 2008- San Francisco Premiere!!!! A telegram from the
dead using the medium of film. Slippery shimmers slide across the
celluloid strip, to embed themselves on the consciousness of the
viewers. "Little Bassy Velvet"- An Expanded Cinema, Projector
Performance Piece - 16mm film loops, 35mm slides and the sleight of
hand…9 minutes-2008 "A whimsical, expanded cinema piece that exists
somewhere between a light spill and a conjuring act, "Little Bassy
Velvet" teases the retinas and immerses them in a sea of squirmy,
silvery halides…." "Retrospectroscope", "Muse of Cinema" & "Spectrology"
were sponsored by the Princess Grace Foundation Total Running Time: 1
hour 18 minutes
------------------------
SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2009
------------------------
3/21
Chicago, Illinois: Roots & Culture Contemporary Art Space
http://rootsandculturecac.org
8pm, 1034 N Milwaukee Ave
REFRACTED LENS PRESENT FIGURES OF SPEECH
Refracted Lens presents... FIGURES OF SPEECH Saturday, March 21, 2009 at
8pm FREE Roots & Culture Contemporary Art Space 1034 N Milwaukee Ave,
Chicago http://rootsandculturecac.org A casual conversation between
unexpected lovers...the rituals of sign language against a backdrop of
loss...emails lost to the black hole of spam...a tangle of foreign
tongues and cultural traditions...creepy tales and ghost stories...a
scenario described but never witnessed...all embedded within miles of
celluloid and countless gigabytes... The powerful nuances of language
are often overshadowed by cinematic dazzle. But what happens when the
moving image is abstracted altogether, leaving behind only a trace of
text, a mark of memory? Or when narration assumes an intensely primary
role? And in cases where thoughts resist articulation, can film function
as a subversive tactic—in other words, as an expression of the
inexpressible? Through the recent films of eight young women artists
working in the U.S. and Europe, "Figures of Speech" deals explicitly
with language and speech acts—including voiceover, epistolary gestures,
sign language, subtitling, conversation, and storytelling—to frame new
ideas of memory, sexuality, history, and technology. This program
explores the collision of the screen with words—written, spoken, hinted
at, gestured, and omitted—to unlock a spectrum of fervent and subversive
meanings. Featuring... Eve Heller (US/Vienna), "Ruby Skin" (16mm, 4.5
mins, 2005); Caroline Key (Los Angeles), "Speech Memory" (16mm, 23 mins,
2007); Mary Helena Clark (Baltimore), "And the Sun Flowers" (16mm, 5
mins, 2008)*; Adebukola Bodunrin (Chicago - in attendance!), "It's Hard
to Wreck a Nice Beach - It's Hard to Recognize Speech" (animation/video,
15.5 mins, 2007); Dora Garcia (Spain/Belgium), "FILM (Hotel Wôlfers)"
(35mm, 11 mins, 2007)*; Sarah Christman (NYC), "Dear Bill Gates" (16mm +
video, 17min, 2006)*; Nanna Debois Buhl (Denmark/NYC), "A New Space
Within a Space" (8mm, 8 mins, 2006)* * Chicago premiere TRT: 84 mins
3/21
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
3:00pm, 7:00pm, 32 Second Avenue
THE FEATURE
2008, 177 minutes, video. NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN! Michel Auder
& Andrew Neel THE FEATURE Very special thanks to Michel Auder, Andrew
Neel and Ethan Palmer (SeeThink Productions). Michel Auder's epic new
film is a summation of his half-century-long career as a video artist
and diarist. In 15-hour diaries, 2-hour neo-narratives, and 1-minute
haikus, Auder has created a body of work that is wholly unique in the
history of the moving image. With the archive of footage Auder has
amassed over the decades providing much of the source material,
alongside new scenes shot by co-director Andrew Neel (the grandson of
painter Alice Neel), THE FEATURE represents a self-conscious and
quasi-fictional variation on the story of Auder's life.
3/21
San Francisco, California: Other Cinema
http://www.othercinema.com/
8:30, 992 Valencia St.
CHRIS CARLSSON'S 'FOUNDSF' + CALIFORNIA COMPANY TOWN +
Author of several books, most recently Nowtopia, Mission visionary Chris
Carlsson returns from the World Social Forum in Brazil for a report-back
on not only that momentous event, but also the auspicious transition of
his ongoing Shaping San Francisco to the newly named and Wiki-enabled
FoundSF. Chris is a fount of radical historical knowledge and
enlightened proposals for the future of our fair City. His themes on the
need for local autonomy resonate in the Bay Area premiere of Lee Anne
Schmitt's California Company Town. This 16mm essay film casts a probing,
clear-eyed gaze at the landscape of California towns abandoned by the
industries that created them—one-time boom-towns now haunted by the
twilight of the American promise. PLUS Emperor Norton and other glimpses
of the City's history.
3/21
Seattle, Washington: Northwest Film Forum
http://www.nwfilmforum.org
8pm, 1515 12th Ave (at Pike)
THE TOE TACTIC
MARCH 21–22, SATURDAY–SUNDAY AT 8PM Director in attendance The Toe
Tactic (Emily Hubley, USA, 2008, Beta-SP, 84 min) Animator Emily
Hubley's first feature length film is an offbeat hybrid that plays on
the themes of time, memory, loss and yearning. Blending fantasy and
reality, animation and live action, The Toe Tactic tells the story of
Mona Peek (Lily Rabe), a young woman grieving her father's death and
searching for her lost wallet in a world populated by lonely neighbors,
animated objects and a songwriting elevator man. The film includes
colorful, card-playing cartoon canines (voiced by the likes of Eli
Wallach, Marian Seldes and Andrea Martin) who comment on—and meddle
in—Mona's life. Cameos include Jane Lynch, Mary Kay Place and John
Sayles. Edited by Emily's brother Ray Hubley, with music by sister
Georgia's indie rock band Yo La Tengo, The Toe Tactic is a true
extension of the legacy of their parents, independent animation icons
Faith and John Hubley. The director will be in attendance for these
special screenings, and the feature will be preceded by two of her short
films The Pigeon Within and Set Set Spike.
----------------------
SUNDAY, MARCH 22, 2009
----------------------
3/22
Los Angeles, California: Filmforum
http://www.lafilmforum.org/
7:00 pm, Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. at Las Palmas
LOS ANGELES FILMFORUM PRESENTS A WORLD RATTLED OF HABIT: FILMS BY BEN
RIVERS.
Los Angeles Filmforum presents A World Rattled of Habit: Films by Ben
Rivers. The first LA appearance of British experimental filmmaker Ben
Rivers with the LA premieres of House (2005/7), This Is My Land (2006),
The Coming Race (2006), Astika (2006), Ah, Liberty! (2008), A World
Rattled Of Habit (2008) and more! His rich and quiet examinations of
place and unique characters resonate with unseen personal histories and
unexpected pleasures. General admission $10, students/seniors $6, free
for Filmforum members. The Egyptian Theatre has a validation stamp for
the Hollywood & Highland complex. Park 4 hours for $2 with validation.
3/22
San Francisco, California: San Francisco Cinematheque
http://www.sfcinematheque.org
7:30pm, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street
LUNCHFILM: FILM BEFORE FOOD
Curated and presented by Mike Plante. The rules are simple and
straightforward. In exchange for an afternoon meal, participating
filmmakers make a short film with an identical budget to the total cost
of the lunch. A contract is drafted on the back of a napkin with only a
handful of stipulations drawn from the lunchtime conversation, such as
"Film must: use miniatures," "have a bunny in it" or "span continents."
Now, fifty shorts later, Lunchfilm originator (and Cinevegas programmer)
Mike Plante brings the latest batch to our neighborhood. With films from
Tom Barndt, Martha Colburn, David Fenster and David Nordstrom, Jim Finn,
Mike Gibisser, Brent Green, Sam Green, Braden King, George Kuchar, Lee
Lynch and Naomi Uman, Nicholas McCarthy, Sarah Soquel Morhaim, Ricardo
Rivera, Kelly Sears, Jennifer Shainin and Randy Walker, the resulting
works are as varied and engaging as this multifarious collection of
contributors would suggest.
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
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.