friday november 22 at 8pm

SPLICE OF LIFE: music, words, and early silent film

Chicago-based satirical writer/performer/musician/klezmer/dilletante medievalist, Jeff Dorchen uses spoken text and music to weave "a seriocomic fable" around silent-era animated films. Dorchen will adress film as an uninvited guest ("well, partially invited guest who once arrived, refuses to leave").

Films include:

Winsor McKay's The Flying House(1921)

Thomas Edison's Birth of Cinema(1895)

Starevitch's The Revenge of the Kinematographic Cameraman(1912)

plus a George Bernard Shaw Newsreel, Emile Cohl, and more!

friday november 29 at 8pm

HENRY HILLS unlocks THE FUNCTIONS OF THE BRAIN

Henry Hills, a prolific NYC based experimental filmmaker and master editor transports his stacatto scalpel to TMH's Basement Research Facility tonight only! Henry has long worked with sound poets, new musicians & dancers in his own filmwork- anticipate complex & radical image juxtapositions, sonic concrete and re-configured epics. Films to be screened:

Radio Adios (1982)-a monologue in 12 plaited strands; an extremely precise, condensed and intensely rhythmic Busby Berkelyish spectacle of an examination of literary language...

Kino DA! (1981)-portrait of North Beach Communist & gentle comrade, Jack Hirschman.

Heretic (1995)-the 2nd radical re-edit of Joe Gibbon's and Emily Breer's Art world farceThe Genius

Electra 40 years (1990)- commissioned by Electra records - an imploded commercial project.

plus a preview of a John Zorn soundtrack for Henry's forthcoming Mechanics of the Brain and Standish Lawder's Intolerance Abridged.

saturday december 7 at 8pm

VIVIENNE DICK

One of the smartest and most continually active of the filmmakers who emerged from the "no-wave" NYC underground of the 70's which included Lydia Lunch, Nan Goldin, and Beth B., Vivienne Dick, who is now living in London, brings a program of Super-8 and video work which "... explores the cultural dislocations of individuals oscillating in unstable identities...".

Tonight features:

Staten Island (1978)-"a tacky sci-fi with an androgynous woman"

Like Dawn to Dust(1984)- "a film with Lydia Lunch in Connamara, Ireland"

Let Me Tell You a Story (1989)- "a hot summer in London"

Liberty's Booty (1980)-"...uses a matter-of-fact view of middle-class, white prostitution as bith a work of sexual demystification and an ironic exposition of American 'permissiveness'"-J.Hoberman.

plus recent work from the current UK experimental scene.

friday, december 13 at 8pm

OWEN O'TOOLE presents

THE VOLUPTUOUS CAREER OF A SUPER-8 SALESMAN

Join us for a first look at Owen O'Tool's in progress Super-8 featurette**. Owen, a long-time filmmaker, collagist, audio plagiarist and Super-8 activist brings his tale of small-gauge grand theft ART and degenerate commerce- is this autobiography? A combination of workshop and screening of a selection of Owen's earlier works:

Frames for Frampton(1985)

Filmer's Almanac(a Super-8 compilation mail art project,1988)

The Flamethrowers(1989)

Water Stadium(They have Poisoned the Drinking Water)(1992)

**contents include (but not limited to): the burning portrait of Buddy Kupka, large wooden replicas, a pendulous piano, the American flag, and automotive nose surgery.

friday, december 20 at 8pm

A CHRISTMAS SPECTACLE with STUART SHERMAN

TMH opens our hearth Videos by Stuart

to a semblance of cheer SON OF STUART AND SCOTTY(1993)

watching some videos A GLASS OF FISH(1993)

while you sit in a chair BILL RICE'S BEER GARDEN(1994)

THE LEAP(1993)

small objects arranged CHEERS(1993)

on a television tray ME AND JOE(1994)

no sleigh of hand BERLIN (WEST) / ANDERE

just a stage for a play RICHTUNGEN(1986)

BLACK AND WHITE & GRAIN (1993)

expect installations DON'T HANG UP, I'M FREEZING(1993)

yuletide machinations PULL(A Portrait of David Nunemaker)

and given some thought 8 EGGS(1994)

some micro-narrations.

friday january 3 at 8pm

Budget Films R.I.P.

Recently, Budget Films, one of the most diverse distributors of 16mm. films sold off part of their collection. TMH saved some gems from the stock footage scavengers. Tonight we are showing all of them: Luis Buñuel's Simon of the Desert, Jean Vigo's Zero for Conduct, Chuck Jönes's Rabbit of Seville, Jordan Belson's Allures, Georges Méliès's Journey to the Moon, The Conjuror & Palace of The Arabian Nights, an early cinema macabre mini-sampler (including: Edison's elephant electrocution), and last but not least, Dali and Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou (silent version with live sound-mix).

friday january 10 at 8pm

EARLY SOUND AND LATE SILENCE

films of Nathanial Dorsky

Come and see a program of films which bracket 40 years of filmmaking, beginning with the rarely seen early films which Nathanial terms "scenes from a troubled playpenî, and then zooming (as we can do in one evening) into the present to his recent and most challenging film Triste(1996). Why leap over such a span of time? Because Nick has persisted in the refinement and articulation of his vision in a uniquely personal form of cinema; to look at the early work of a mature artist helps us to understand and personalize the artistic process.

A Bend in the River(1955) Neighborhood animals viewed by an 11 year old filmmaker.

Ingreen(1964) A trilogy of sound films depicting the emergence from adolescence.

A Fall trip Home(1964)

Summerwind(1965)

Luna( from sketches 1962-63) A public premiere.

Triste(1996) "During the Bronze Age a variety of sanctuaries were built for curative purposes. One of the principal activities was transformative sleep. This montage psalm speaks to that tradition"(ND)