From: Weekly Listing (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Apr 04 2009 - 10:40:34 PDT
Part 2 of 2: This week [April 3 - 12, 2009] in avant garde cinema
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TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2009
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4/7
Denver: University of Denver
http://www.jxarchive.org/home.html
7pm, Lindsey Auditorium, Sturm Hall, University of Denver
THE LIFE AND WORK OF J.X. WILLIAMS + PEEP SHOW
The Life and Work of J.X. Williams + Peep Show. Produced in Copenhagen
in 1965, PEEP SHOW chronicles a secret history of the Kennedy
administration, revealing a mafia plot to addict Frank Sinatra to
heroin. The film's use of pornographic imagery got it banned from
several countries and even resulted in the director's brief
incarceration in Rome. Nearly a decade before Coppola and Scorsese, PEEP
SHOW offered an unrelentingly grim and realistic portrait of organized
crime, undoubtedly influenced by Mr. Williams' personal experiences as a
onetime "gofer" to Johnny Rosselli and other mobsters in Los Angeles.
Released less than two years after the assassination of JFK, PEEP SHOW
explores the dark side of Camelot and traces the tangled web of theories
that may have led to the assassination. In addition to screening PEEP
SHOW, film scholar, curator, and archivist Noel Lawrence will give a
detailed introduction on the making of the film and the colorful life of
its director, including excerpts from Mr. Williams forthcoming memoir
The Big Footnote. We will also present three of Williams' short films
from the late 1960's: Psych-Burn, Satan Claus, and The Virgin Sacrifice.
Please visit http://www.jxarchive.org/home.html
4/7
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
7:30pm, 32 Second Avenue
VIDEOS BY IRA SCHNEIDER
Ira Schneider has made video recordings of cultural events and
environments all around the world. Starting in 1969 he recorded at the
Woodstock Festival and at the Rolling Stones' Free Concert in Altamont,
CA. His 1974 video installation, MANHATTAN IS AN ISLAND was presented at
the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, November 2006-April 2007. In 2006 the
Berlin Senate awarded him the Hannah H?ch Prize for his film and video
work, and he had a comprehensive one-man-show at the Neuer Berliner
Kunstverein (NBK). This special screening will feature a selection of
Ira Schneider's INFORMATION COLLAGES. Schneider will be screening
additional works on April 10 & 12, at 8:00 each night, at the Emily
Harvey Foundation, 537 Broadway near Spring St. Visit
www.ira-schneider.com for more information.
4/7
Online: tank.tv
http://www.tank.tv/
All Hours, www.tank.tv
STEVE REINKE ON WWW.TANK.TV
Steve Reinke 15th March - 7th April 2009 on www.tank.tv "In a city so
dense with smart psychoanalytic cinema, Reinke wields the language of
the unconscious as lightly as a portable video camera. He plays with the
thinness of images and the inadequacy of words, the gap between language
and desire. [ . . . ] Though Reinke fills these videos with his own
thoughts, revealing the most intimate things about his fantasies, his
childhood, his family, there is an ironic note that undercuts the
confessional quality, as if Reinke hesitated to burden the viewer. [ . .
. ] Not masochistically but quasiscientifically, Reinke mortifies the
flesh in order to isolate desire: if you cannot both be and have, Reinke
chooses to have." Laura U. Marks, Artforum, May 1995. tank.tv is pleased
to present a selection of work from Steve Reinke including thirty two
videos from his series 'The Hundred Videos' as well as 'Painter',
'Regarding the Pain of Susan Sontag (Notes on Camp)' and 'The Fallen'.
Reinke is a prolific storyteller who enjoys sapping his self-righteous
counterparts. As suggested by the title of The Hundred Videos
(1989-1996), the volume of his output is monumental. In most of his work
and in this series - a large part of which is shown on tank.tv - the
procedure that underlies these brief videos consists of an exploration
of the voice and of the role of the narrator. In situations engaging
with topics as diverse as literature, sex, science and art, Reinke's
voice questions the consistency of the relation between what one sees
and what is happening. Reinke's comments distract the viewer from the
meaning imposed by the images while at the same time, speaking in the
first person, he creates an interlace of fictional, subjective and
documentary elements. Moreover, the content of his films carries a
seductive provocation and is prone to make one's teeth gnash or laugh.
In Regarding the Pain of Susan Sontag (Notes on Camp), Reinke films a
cemetery full of gravestones with the name "Reinke". "Every stone bears
my name. If Oprah is every woman, I am every corpse" says the
voice-over. Revealing the artist's disbelief in self-esteem, this also
perhaps represents a foretaste of the artist's lifetime project which
will explore deaths and ends, called Final Thoughts... Steve Reinke is
an artist and writer best known for his work in video. He lives in
Toronto and Chicago, where he is Associate Professor of Art Theory &
Practice at Northwestern University. His work is screened widely and is
in several collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York),
the Pompidou (Paris), and the National Gallery (Ottawa). Steve Reinke's
thirty two selections from The Hundred Videos and more will be on
www.tank.tv from the 15th March - 7th April 2009 before moving to
tank.tv's online archive of over 600 previously exhibited videos.
4/7
Reading, Pennsylvania: Berks Filmmakers, Inc
http://www.berksfilmmakers.org
7:30 pm, Albright College Center for the Arts
HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY
House by the Cemetery (1981, 82 min.) by LUCIO FULCI A ferocious and
well-crafted slasher film that only an artist with Italian giallo blood
coursing through his veins (and through this film) could have produced.
Fans of Italian horror cinema usually come to Fulci after a familiarity
with the more famous, and probably greater practitioners of the genre,
Bava and Argento. So for those of you who know the work, enjoy it, and
for those experiencing Fulci for the first time, remember, "its just a
movie". (Screening guest-curated by Italian horror connoisseur, Kevin
Vogrin)
4/7
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Images Festival
http://www.imagesfestival.com/
7:00pm, Joseph Workman Theatre, 1001 Queen Street West
ON SCREEN 4: THE LIMITS OF WHAT WE KNOW
In 1993, Amy Bodman took a small crew to Zimbabwe to make a film about
the land and its people's relationship to it. Over the course of nearly
two months, the four-person crew traveled throughout the country,
shooting 18 hours of 16mm film and conducting interviews and field
recordings amounting to 40 hours of sound. Upon returning to Canada,
Bodman worked on the film on and off over the course of the next 15
years. The end result is constructed around a series of chapters - The
Great Zimbabwe Monument, The Composition of Drought and The Language of
Trees - each of which explores issues both concrete and ephemeral: the
history of the country, the making of clay pots, the construction of
dams, as well as the communication systems of trees, or the hearts of
giraffes. The entire film, however, is less about the particulars of
each of these chapters than the accumulation of the whole. Through
juxtapostion of all these elements - the traditional and the modern, the
natural and the man made - The Limits of What We Know is at once a
documentary, a travelogue and an environmental critique. Though perhaps
circumstantial by design, much of the power of Bodman's film is
developed through the interim period between her shooting in 1993 and
its completion in 2008, which has had a huge impact on the shape,
direction and overall resonance of the work. Bodman visited Zimbabwe at
a time when the country was emerging from four years of terrible drought
and was both in a period of environmental and climactic rebirth as well
as in a state of relative peace. As such, the Zimbabwe of the film
appears, both literally and metaphorically, like spring: the land and
the foliage alive and fertile, the people active and engaged in their
day-to-day lives. Yet this footage is now framed by the last decade in
the country's history, which has seen a new era of economic and
political strife fueled by conflicts in race and battles over land
ownership. Bodman's simple yet lyrical film is reminiscent of
ethnographic filmmakers such as Robert Gardner or Judith and David
MacDougall, creating a filmic document that is both humble and generous
to its subjects, with the conversation framing a sharp and universal
analysis. The scenes and chapters that make up The Limits of What We
Know stand as documents: quiet portraits of a people and their
environment. It is a film as much about the specifics of this time and
place as it is about a broader disconnect between civilizations and the
ecosystems upon which they subsist. It is a film that looks at tradition
as a model for future development, and history as a guide. Amy Bodman
was born in Detroit and moved to Toronto in 1980. She studied film at
Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, and in 1986 her first film, Tree Tale,
screened at the Independent Film and Video Alliance in Quebec City, the
Montreal Film Festival, the Videotron Youth Festival and Cinematheque
Ontario. Her next film The Duration of Life and Other Tales from the
Grimms screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival, the
International Fair of Young Filmmakers in Spain, the Hallwalls
Contemporary Arts Centre in Buffalo, the International Storytellers'
Festival in Toronto, the Yorkton Short Film Festival in Saskatchewan,
the Canadian Film Celebration in Calgary, the Athens Film Festival in
Ohio, the Emerson Umbrella for the Arts, and the Gaslight Theatre in
Massachusetts. The Duration of Life and Other Tales from the Grimms was
also on Stan Brakhage's curriculum at the University of Colorado. Both
of these films are available through the Canadian Filmmakers'
Distribution Centre (CFMDC), Toronto. The Limits of What We Know is Amy
Bodman's first feature-length documentary.
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2009
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4/8
London, England: no.w.here
http://www.no-w-here.org.uk
7pm, Chisenhale Gallery, 64 Chisenhale Road, London, E3 5QZ, UK
REVERBERATIONS: PETER GIDAL
In the third edition of the Reverberations series, presented in
collaboration with Chisenhale Gallery, renowned filmmaker, writer and
theorist Peter Gidal presents an event in the form of its subject:
"Theatre theory for film, or not: Brecht (an interrogation/performance:
a ghost trio for two)." (Gidal) Taking the form of a multi-part dialogue
in which Gidal's translations of Brecht will be spoken, Gidal will stage
an interrogation of his own practice as an experimental filmmaker and
theorist via Brecht's theatre theory. Without rehearsal (but with
practice), Gidal will be 'replying' and counter-interrogating on the
night. Like Gidal's films, and the theatre of Beckett and Brecht, the
performance itself will seek a state of continual self-reflection –
beginning with a screening of his most recent film VOLCANO (2002) and
ending with DENIALS (1986).
4/8
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
7:30pm, 32 Second Avenue
STONEY PROGRAM 1: ALL MY BABIES
1952, 54 minutes, 35mm. With: THE REUNION/TRAILER (2009, 10 minutes,
video) Mrs. Mary Frances Coley, an African-American midwife in Georgia,
demonstrates her skill and loving kindness in a 1952 film that, in 2002,
was chosen by the Library of Congress "as a culturally, historically,
and artistically significant work" for its National Film Registry.
Teamed with David Bagnall, Stoney returned to Georgia in 2007 to record
a "Reunion" in which 150+ people who had been helped into the world by
Mrs. Coley participated. The original film and excerpts from the
"Reunion" will be screened. Currently active midwives will be present to
discuss their struggle to preserve their profession against the assaults
of other branches of medicine.
4/8
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
8:45pm, 32 Second Avenue
MY GIRLFRIEND’S WEDDING
Directed by Jim McBride 1969, 60 minutes, 16mm. A fascinating profile of
McBride's English girlfriend, Clarissa Ainley. With his camera almost
entirely trained on her, McBride explores Clarissa's life and loves, her
feelings about her parents and children, and documents her greencard
marriage to a man she has only known for a week. However, as the film
progresses, the most revealing truths are about the person behind the
camera. Originally intended as a short, it's a fascinating record of a
turbulent time, and highlights the subjective nature of the filmmaking
process. "At the time I made it, I was fond of referring to it as a
fiction film, because it was very much my personal idea of what Clarissa
was like, and not at all an objective or truthful view." –J.M.
4/8
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
7:00pm, 32 Second Avenue
DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY
by Jim McBride 1967, 74 minutes, 16mm. Acknowledged as one of the
landmark films of late-60s independent cinema, McBride's first feature
is rarely-screened, despite its reputation. The complete cinephile,
David Holzman is possessed with a desire to record his life, even if in
the process he risks destroying it. He insists not only on confessing
his innermost thoughts to the camera, but also on invading the privacy
of friends and lovers in his obsessive search for the 'truth'. Both
comic and serious, real and unreal, McBride's film is a classic of
independent cinema. "Where most independent productions are founded on
self-righteous claims of truth and honesty, McBride's film wittily
observes that Hollywood has no corner on illusionism. Even the
black-and-white, hand-held cinema still lies 24 times a second." –Dave
Kehr, CHICAGO READER
4/8
San Francisco, California: San Francisco Cinematheque
http://www.sfcinematheque.org
7:30pm, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street
MARK STREET: HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT
MARK STREET IN-PERSON. Filmmaker Mark Street has long been fascinated by
the rhythms and motions of the urban environment. In HIDDEN IN PLAIN
SIGHT, he travels to Dakar, Hanoi, Marseille and Santiago (with a
digressive visit to a post-'89 earthquake San Francisco) uncovering
traces of Ho Chi Minh and Salvador Allende. Interspersing his own images
of these locales with descriptions of historical details and writings,
the film is a meditation on perception, drawing distinctions between the
tourist experience and that of the local. With a photographic style that
at times recalls the patient observations of Mark LaPore, Street takes
refuge behind his camera's lens, observing the smallest details,
intercutting between the four continents and revealing his own tentative
relationship to his environment. These observations are underscored with
a richly textured sound design, incorporating an amalgam of local urban
field recordings, a soulful original soundtrack and voices from the
past, including Allende's 1973 radio broadcast, delivered as the Chilean
presidential palace was under siege. HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT is a poignant
meditation on discovering one's own position within a historical and
geographical continuum. Also screening is Street's 2002 film GUIDING
FICTIONS.
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THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2009
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4/9
London, England: no.w.here
http://www.no-w-here.org.uk
10.30am, 316-318 Bethnal Green Road, London, E2 0AG, UK
PETER GIDAL: REVERBERATIONS STUDY MORNING
Following on from Gidal's performance the evening before, this unique
study morning with the acclaimed filmmaker and writer will act as both
an extended question and answers for his performance, and an opportunity
for further discourse on the ideas raised. Starting from the position
that theory comes after practice, we will consider: what is the
relationship between ideas and language? and what is theory and what is
practice? Brecht's theatre theory will be discussed in relation to
Gidal's own work as a filmmaker and writer alongside a second screening
of VOLCANO and DENIALS. It is strongly recommended that anyone wishing
to attend this session also experiences the performance the night before
as it will be central to the discussion. Admission to the performance is
free but booking is essential. See http://www.no-w-here.org.uk for
details.
4/9
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
7:00pm, 32 Second Avenue
BREATHLESS
Directed by Jim McBride 1983, 101 minutes, 35mm. "Critics and film buffs
in 1982 were positively flabbergasted when Jim McBride announced that he
was going to remake Jean-Luc Godard's incredibly influential
BREATHLESS…. McBride's BREATHLESS plays like a compulsive and flashy pop
art piece; one that you stare at for a while trying to figure out
whether or not it is actually art or just something hanging on the wall.
With its whirlwind pace, Jack Nitzsche score and stunning splashes of
sun stroked Los Angeles color, BREATHLESS is undeniably fun and
exciting…. Not at all dated, it now plays as one of the most progressive
and seminal films of the 1980s." –Jeremy Richey, THE AMPLIFIER
4/9
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
7:15pm, 32 Second Avenue
SID AND NANCY
Directed by Alex Cox 1986, 112 minutes, 35mm. With Gary Oldman, Chloe
Webb and Courtney Love. Cox's cult film dramatizes the events
surrounding the Chelsea Hotel's most notorious incident, the 1978 murder
of Nancy Spungen, girlfriend to Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. With
brilliant performances by Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb, SID AND NANCY
balances a bleak evocation of star-crossed love with surreal humor and
genuine tenderness, creating a compelling portrait of the late-70s punk
scene.
4/9
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
9:15, 32 Second Avenue
HOT TIMES
Directed by by Jim McBride 1974, 80 minutes, 35mm. "A kind of Jewish
comic reply to THE LORDS OF FLATBUSH, in which a number of misogynist,
Portnoy-esque sex hang-ups are laid bare in a High School USA setting.
However, if one peels away the phony zaniness lent by the bleeping out
of 'offensive language' (defensive tampering by the producers)…one is
left with a film surprisingly true to McBride's underground origins,
notable for some persuasively bizarre touches and a superlatively fluid
visual style. Best scenes are those involving the shooting of a sex film
in which a series of male performers struggle to come-or-not-to-come on
cue, and a sequence involving a Times Square pick-up with a 'liberated'
mother." –TIME OUT
4/9
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
9:30pm, 32 Second Avenue
CHELSEA SHIRLEY CLARKE PROGRAM
TEEPEE VIDEO SPACE TROUPE: THE EARLY YEARS (1971, 16 minutes, video)
SAVAGE/LOVE (1981, 26 minutes, video) TONGUES (1982, 20 minutes, video)
The filmmaker Shirley Clarke (the subject of a full retrospective later
in April) spent her later years living and working out of her penthouse
apartment in the Chelsea, where she founded the Teepee Video Space
Troupe, with whom most of her late video work was made. This program
presents a selection of this work, including two videos – SAVAGE/LOVE
and TONGUES – made in collaboration with playwright Sam Shepard. A
plaque honoring Clarke's tenure at the Chelsea can be seen today on the
hotel's fa?ade. Plus: A newly compiled sampling of the hours of footage
shot at the Chelsea over the years by filmmaker, Anthology founder, and
frequent Chelsea visitor, Jonas Mekas. The Shirley Clarke videos will
also screen on April 26.
4/9
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
9:30pm, 32 Second Avenue
CLARKE SHORTS PROGRAM #3
TEEPEE VIDEO SPACE TROUPE: THE EARLY YEARS (1971, 16 minutes, video)
This video journal is an informal time capsule of the downtown cultural
and artistic milieu in New York. Part 1 documents a party given by John
Lennon and Yoko Ono. In Parts 2 & 3, Arthur C. Clarke performs a
celestial experiment with a video camera on the roof of the Chelsea
Hotel, while influential theologian Alan Watts waits silently, creating
"an exercise in Zen." SAVAGE/LOVE (1981, 26 minutes, video) TONGUES
(1982, 20 minutes, video) A tour-de-force synthesis of theater and
video, SAVAGE/LOVE and TONGUES mark the collaboration between Clarke,
actor/director Joseph Chaikin, and playwright Sam Shepard. Through her
ingenious camera work, precise editing, and imaginative use of
electronic imaging, Clarke powerfully transforms these stage pieces into
resonant video drama. Total running time: ca. 65 minutes.
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FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2009
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4/10
Kansas City, Missouri: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
http://www.nelson-atkins.org
7:00 p.m., 4525 Oak Street
ELECTROMEDIASCOPE
"Ear to the Ground: Art, Politics and Life." The works of the artists
included in "Ear to the Ground" extend documentary conventions through
performative and experimental forms of restaging, using non-actors to
play their own professional roles and presenting stories within stories.
These processes generate a bottom-up picture paralleling the practices
of gleaning, performance and market place debate that metaphorically and
actually function quite differently from the way events are framed by
global mass media. Their films and video works create an alternative
space that is more in keeping with oral and visual forms of literacy and
knowledge production that are becoming accessible across multiple
cultures and language groups. Their work represents another phase of
electronic media directed to a new global audience for art and
socio-political content outside the frame of reference provided by
electronic mass media. They also function as a critique of the methods
of communication and information dispersal of mainstream media that
tends to propagate a top-down master narrative point of view similar to
the globalized forces that these forms of media report on and from which
they are produced. This text-based model of literacy has distanced us
and places us in the midst of a special type of alienation that is
becoming inadequate for the kind of social intercourse that can respond
to the questions of "Where is the future?" and "Whose future is it?"
–Patrick Clancy. "The Gleaners and I," Agnès Varda (France), 2001, 82
min., digital video shown on DVD, French with English subtitles.
Previous programs included Cao Fei's "Whose Utopia" and Ou Ning and Cao
Fei's "Meishi Street" on Mar. 27 and Abderrahmane Sissako's "Bamako" on
Apr. 3.
4/10
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
7:00pm, 32 Second Avenue
FILM #23
Directed by Harry Smith c. 1980s, 23.5 minutes, 16mm, color, sound. Lab
work by Cineric, Inc. Preserved with support from the Andy Warhol
Foundation for the Visual Arts. HARRY SMITH PROGRAM PRESERVATION
PREMIERE! In addition to the works listed below, this program will
feature some unedited footage of an interview with Smith undertaken by
P. Adams Sitney and Jonas Mekas, as well as a dip into Smith's unique
treasure trove of audio recordings made in the city during the 1970s and
80s. Recently rediscovered and restored, this late film is as curious
and mannered in form and structure as the work to which it is related,
Smith's 4-projector opus MAHAGONNY. Composed of footage shot for that
project (including portraits, string figures, and sand animation), FILM
#23 is actually much closer in technique and nature to the earlier LATE
SUPERIMPOSITIONS (1964), for which Smith printed two separate rolls of
film on top of each other to create dramatic new image compositions and
deeper resonances. Much of the footage was shot in the Chelsea Hotel
where Smith was for many years a fixture. FILM #23 seems to have had few
if any public screenings, and prior to its preservation only one print
was known to exist. Anthology used the original picture and sound
elements from our collection for this preservation.
4/10
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
7:15pm, 32 Second Avenue
DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY
Directed by Jim McBride 1967, 74 minutes, 16mm. Acknowledged as one of
the landmark films of late-60s independent cinema, McBride's first
feature is rarely-screened, despite its reputation. The complete
cinephile, David Holzman is possessed with a desire to record his life,
even if in the process he risks destroying it. He insists not only on
confessing his innermost thoughts to the camera, but also on invading
the privacy of friends and lovers in his obsessive search for the
'truth'. Both comic and serious, real and unreal, McBride's film is a
classic of independent cinema.
4/10
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
9:15, 32 Second Avenue
SID AND NANCY
Directed by Alex Cox 1986, 112 minutes, 35mm. With Gary Oldman, Chloe
Webb and Courtney Love. Cox's cult film dramatizes the events
surrounding the Chelsea Hotel's most notorious incident, the 1978 murder
of Nancy Spungen, girlfriend to Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. With
brilliant performances by Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb, SID AND NANCY
balances a bleak evocation of star-crossed love with surreal humor and
genuine tenderness, creating a compelling portrait of the late-70s punk
scene.
4/10
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
9:30pm, 32 Second Avenue
GLEN AND RANDA
by Jim McBride 1971, 93 minutes, 35mm. Co-written by novelist and TWO
LANE BLACKTOP screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer, McBride's first commercial
film portrays the odyssey undertaken by the last bewildered survivors of
an atomic holocaust, as they stumble through the wreckage of a vanished
civilization. Neither moralizing sci-fi nor melodrama, despite its
fanciful premise, the film is rather like a cinéma vérité doomsday
documentary – a parable in newsreel form. "Unaccountably disregarded by
critics, this is a poisoned idyll of two young people in an America
destroyed by atomic war…. A paraphrase of the counterculture's
sensibilities, the film's subversive potential lies in its
straightforward acceptance and naturalistic portrayal of the
destructability of eternal American symbols: a destroyed Howard Johnson
restaurant is more difficult to take than newspaper articles warning
about the dangers of atomic war." –Amos Vogel, FILM AS A SUBVERSIVE ART
4/10
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: INCITE! Journal of Experimental Media & Radical Aesthetics
http://incite-online.net
9pm, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, 952 Queen Street West
SATURN RETURNS: A SCREENING AND LAUNCH OF THE JOURNAL INCITE!
Curated by Brett Kashmere for the 2009 Images Festival, Toronto. Works
by: Michael Bell-Smith, Mat Brinkman and Xander Marro, Jacob Ciocci,
Oliver Laric, Tara Mateik, Takeshi Murata, Marisa Olson, Seth Price,
Tasman Richardson, Michael Robinson, Ben Russell, and Leslie Supnet. The
Saturn Return is an astrological phenomenon that occurs every 30-or-so
years in a person's life; coinciding with the time it takes for Saturn
to orbit the sun. As the planet "returns" to the degree it occupied at
the time of our birth, we cross over a major threshold and into the next
stage of life. My generation is currently undergoing its first Saturn
Return, the time when we leave youth behind, re-evaluate the past, and
solidify plans for the future. This screening draws together a selection
of media artists born in the 1970s and 80s, who together evidence an
amazing resurgence in alternative film and video activity, and is timed
with the launch of INCITE! Journal of Experimental Media & Radical
Aesthetics, a new publication dedicated to the discourse, culture, and
community of experimental film, video, and new media. Merging handmade
and online platforms, this hybrid journal addresses the lack of critical
attention afforded film and media artists working today. INCITE! Issue
No.1: Manifest, 148 pages, letter-pressed covers, edition of 300,
includes fold-out poster. Contributors include: Association for Film
Art, Atelier national du Manitoba, Craig Baldwin, Scott Berry, Michael
Betancourt, Carl Brown, Gerda Cammaer, Double Negative Collective,
Dumba, Clint Enns, Rick Hancox, Brett Kashmere, Richard Kerr, The
League, Karl Lemieux, Scott MacKenzie, Jonas Mekas, Regina Muff, Solomon
Nagler, Georgette Nicolaides, Peter Nowogrodzki, Steve Polta, Daichi
Saito, Leslie Supnet, Syracuse Experimental, Ryan Tebo, Leslie Topness,
and Kenneth White. http://www.incite-online.net
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SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2009
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4/11
New York, New York: School of Visual Arts/NOrtheastern University
http://www.2009vmm.neu.edu
10 am - 10 pm, 333 West 23 Street, New York
2009 VISUAL MUSIC MARATHON
The Visual Music Marathon is a 12-hour festival showcasing 120 works by
contemporary digital artists and composers from around the world. The
event offers an encyclopedic look into the burgeoning practice of visual
music, which combines animation and musical composition. The roots of
the genre date back more than two hundred years to the ocular
harpsichords and color-music scales of the 18th century; the current art
form came to fruition following the emergence of film and video in the
20th century. The Visual Music Marathon presents a remarkable array of
artistic strategies and sensibilities. Some of the selected works
consist of abstract visual interpretations of pieces of music, while
others apply structural concepts of music to create moving images, or
explore the overlap between visual and musical languages. The artists
make use of a range of media and technologies, including found footage,
hand-drawn animation, stop-motion photography, digitally processed
video, computer-generated imagery, and paintings made directly on film.
Works include audio tracks ranging from computer-generated scores, to
sampled sounds from nature, to both classical and contemporary musical
compositions.
4/11
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
3:00pm, 32 Second Avenue
THE CHELSEA
Directed by Doris Chase 1993, 67 minutes, video. A video documentary by
the recently-deceased sculptor and experimental filmmaker, and long-time
Chelsea resident, Doris Chase, THE CHELSEA combines music, paintings,
passages of literature, and interviews to depict the Chelsea as a
fulcrum between art and society. "It's an experience a bit like peering
through uncurtained windows at dusk. Chase puts this personal account
together, not of fame or fortunes made or missed in the Chelsea, but of
how creative people live together." –Karen Jaehne
4/11
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
4:30pm, 32 Second Avenue
MY GIRLFRIEND’S WEDDING
Directed by Jim McBride 1969, 60 minutes, 16mm. A fascinating profile of
McBride's English girlfriend, Clarissa Ainley. With his camera almost
entirely trained on her, McBride explores Clarissa's life and loves, her
feelings about her parents and children, and documents her greencard
marriage to a man she has only known for a week. However, as the film
progresses, the most revealing truths are about the person behind the
camera. Originally intended as a short, it's a fascinating record of a
turbulent time, and highlights the subjective nature of the filmmaking
process.
4/11
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
5:30pm, 32 Second Avenue
FILM #23
Directed by Harry Smith c. 1980s, 23.5 minutes, 16mm, color, sound. Lab
work by Cineric, Inc. Preserved with support from the Andy Warhol
Foundation for the Visual Arts. HARRY SMITH PROGRAM PRESERVATION
PREMIERE! In addition to the works listed below, this program will
feature some unedited footage of an interview with Smith undertaken by
P. Adams Sitney and Jonas Mekas, as well as a dip into Smith's unique
treasure trove of audio recordings made in the city during the 1970s and
80s.
4/11
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
7:00pm, 32 Second Avenue
GLEN AND RANDA
GLEN AND RANDA Directed by Jim McBride 1971, 93 minutes, 35mm.
Co-written by novelist and TWO LANE BLACKTOP screenwriter Rudy
Wurlitzer, McBride's first commercial film portrays the odyssey
undertaken by the last bewildered survivors of an atomic holocaust, as
they stumble through the wreckage of a vanished civilization. Neither
moralizing sci-fi nor melodrama, despite its fanciful premise, the film
is rather like a cinéma vérité doomsday documentary – a parable in
newsreel form. "Unaccountably disregarded by critics, this is a poisoned
idyll of two young people in an America destroyed by atomic war…. A
paraphrase of the counterculture's sensibilities, the film's subversive
potential lies in its straightforward acceptance and naturalistic
portrayal of the destructability of eternal American symbols: a
destroyed Howard Johnson restaurant is more difficult to take than
newspaper articles warning about the dangers of atomic war." –Amos
Vogel, FILM AS A SUBVERSIVE ART
4/11
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
7:45pm, 32 Second Avenue
THE CHELSEA GIRLS
Directed by Andy Warhol 1966, ca. 210 minutes, 16mm double-projection.
With Nico, Ondine, Marie Menken, Mary Woronov, Gerard Malanga,
International Velvet, Ingrid Superstar, Mario Montez, Eric Emerson, and
Brigid Berlin. Indisputably the holy grail of the Chelsea Hotel on film,
Warhol's double-screen masterpiece – consisting of 12 unedited reels,
shown side-by-side, with only one soundtrack audible at a time – depicts
the Hotel as a teeming hive of Superstars, junkies, prostitutes, and
generally out-sized personalities. An underground sensation upon its
release in 1966, it ultimately broke out of the underground cinema
circuit, invading a 'respectable' uptown theater and leading uptight NEW
YORK TIMES critic Bosley Crowther to declare, "now that [the]
underground has surfaced on West 57th Street and taken over a theater
with carpets…it is time for permissive adults to stop winking at their
too-precious pranks." Rarely-screened today, even in downtown theaters
like Anthology, THE CHELSEA GIRLS is an unforgettable experience.
4/11
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
9:15, 32 Second Avenue
DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY
Directed by Jim McBride 1967, 74 minutes, 16mm. Acknowledged as one of
the landmark films of late-60s independent cinema, McBride's first
feature is rarely-screened, despite its reputation. The complete
cinephile, David Holzman is possessed with a desire to record his life,
even if in the process he risks destroying it. He insists not only on
confessing his innermost thoughts to the camera, but also on invading
the privacy of friends and lovers in his obsessive search for the
'truth'. Both comic and serious, real and unreal, McBride's film is a
classic of independent cinema.
4/11
San Francisco, California: Other Cinema
http://www.othercinema.com/
8:30 PM, 992 Valencia St.
XY CHROMOSOME: LYNNE SACHS & MARK STREET'S GARDEN OF VERSES
From archival snips of an educational film on the weather to cine-poems
in full blossom, New York film "avant-gardeners" Sachs and Street
cultivate an evening of cinematic seeds and mordant vines. Ten short
films, both single and double screen, reap audio-visual crops from the
fertile soil of the filmmakers' florid imaginations. In this mulch of
visual ruminations on nature's topsy-turvy shakeup of our lives, they
ponder a city child's tentative excavation of the urban forest, winter
wheat, and the great American deluge of the 21st Century (so far).
Agricultural relics and small works of farm-cycle literature are
provided free.
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.