Big As Life: An American History of 8mm Films
Big As Life 1999: Moving Out
January 14, 21, 28; ongoing through May 2000
One of the most exciting artistic developments in American cinema of the
last fifty years has been the growing vitality of a moving-image-making
movement parallel to but far removed from all other kinds of films and
videos. Unnamed, critically unrecognized, and generally unassuming in
intent, this often miraculously inventive movement comprises the countless
films and videotapes made with modest 8mm (regular 8mm film, Super 8mm film,
and Video 8) technical facilities.
A collaboration between the San Francisco Cinematheque and The Museum of
Modern Art, Big As Life covers the span of achievement from the earliest 8mm
practitioners to those currently working, with a focus on implicit social
and critical themes as well as the figures who have created substantial
bodies of work within their mediums. With few exceptions, the works selected
are screened in their original formats.
With this second year of the Museum's large-scale retrospective, focus is
shifted from films that explore the private, intimate worlds of 8mm
filmmakers to works that use small-gauge filmmaking to interact with the
world.
We begin with three "city film" programs, including lyrical street
portraits, urban fantasies, and caustic cultural commentaries on New York
City, Coney Island, San Francisco, Chicago, and Rome.
Big As Life: An American History of 8mm Films was co-organized
by Jytte
Jensen, Associate Curator, Department of Film and Video, The Museum of
Modern Art, and Steve Anker, Director, San Francisco Cinematheque. The
program is accompanied by a catalogue, edited by Albert Kilchesty, that
includes original essays by and source materials from artists, critics,
and
other professionals, and complete filmographies of the artists included
in
this two-year retrospective.
Please note: Program screenings are held in the Time Warner Screening Room;
seating is limited to fifty. Tickets are available at the Lobby Information
Desk on a first-come, first-served basis, and are included in the price
of
Museum admission. After 5:30 p.m., tickets are free.
Spying. 1978-79. USA. Joe Gibbons.
60 min.
Fair Doctrine. 1983-86. USA. Andrea Kirsch. 10 min.
Don from Lakewood. 1989. USA. Erik Saks. 23 min.
Harmful or Fatal if Swallowed. 1975-80. USA. Manuel De Landa. 6 min.
These four films raise questions about personal versus objective
documentation, and the filmmaker/viewer as complicit observer or voyeur.
Gibbon's Spying is an extended series of vignettes isolating private moments
as observed in San Francisco's backyards and apartment windows; De Landa's
Harmful or Fatal if Swallowed is a raunchy, raucous send-up of lunch-time
street activities in New York's financial district; Saks's pixelvideo Don
from Lakewood uses an unseen telephone voice to lampoon everyday consumer
transactions; and Kirsch's Fair Doctrine offers a bracingly candid and
political glimpse into the discarded lives of streetpeople.
Total running time 99 min. Thursday, January 14, 6:00. TWR
Ire. 1995. USA. Pelle Lowe. 2.5 min.
nothing, but ... Part I. 1979. USA. Phil Weisman. 25 min.
City Film. 1993. USA. Lewis Klahr.
17 min.
Lost Book Found. 1996. USA. Jem Cohen. 37 min.
This program includes four internalized reflections on city life in which
8mm cameras are used as notepads to record the filmmakers' observations
and
responses. Lowe's Ire offers a visual critique of business life on the run
in the streets of Boston; Weisman's nothing, but ... is a richly textured
black-and-white portrait of urban forms and movements through various
seasons; Klahr's City Film contemplates New York City rhythms, creating
a
tapestry of real and imagined street activities; and Cohen's Lost Book Found
uses fleeting impressions of New York night scenes as threads in recapturing
past experiences.
Total running time 82 min. Thursday, January 21, 6:00. TWR
Grace Going Awkwardly. 1974. USA. Rachel Strickland. 18 min.
The Dancing Soul of the Walking People. 1974-78. USA. Paula Gladstone. 60
min.
People performing at work and at play form the basis for this program. Both
films organize welters of urban activities into visually complex and
musically articulated street portraits. Strickland's Grace Going Awkwardly
weaves details observed in a Roman piazza market into a flow of movement.
Gladstone's The Dancing Soul of the Walking People is an extended rhapsody
of scores of people enjoying themselves at Coney Island's Boardwalk.
Thursday, January 28, 6:00. TWR
Turkish Bathing (2 versions). 1976. USA. Robert C. Morgan.
15 min.
Waiting for X To Happen. 1986. USA. Jaclyn White. 8 min.
Corners. 1988. USA. Scott Stark. 4 min.
W. 1988. USA. Scott Stark. 27 min.
Total running time 54 min. Thursday, February 4, 6:00. TWR
Splices for Sharits. 1980. USA. Joseph Bernard. 7 min.
Intrigues I-VII. 1981. USA. Joseph Bernard. 52 min.
The Function of Film. 1982. USA. Joseph Bernard. 10 min.
Flapping Things. 1974. USA. Janis
Crystal Lipzin. 9 min.
Seasonal Forces. 1995-97. USA. Janis Crystal Lipzin. 23 min.
New work. Janis Crystal Lipzin.
Total running time approx. 115 min. Thursday, February 11, 6:00. TWR
Jellyfish Sandwich. 1994. USA. Luther Price. 20 min.
In the Month of Crickets. 1988-91. USA. Lewis Klahr. 10 min.
Fish in Wishing Pool. 1970s. USA. Jack Smith. 3 min.
Leaving Tot. 1970s. USA. Jack Smith.
3 min.
Putting Litter in Pool. 1970s. USA. Jack Smith. 3 min.
Sinbad of Bagdad. 1970s. USA. Jack Smith. 3 min.
Elegy. 1991. USA. Joe Gibbons. 12 min.
Total running time 54 min.
Thursday, February 18, 6:00. TWR
Home Avenue. 1989. USA. Jennifer Montgomery. 17 min.
Rubber Crutches. 1979-93. USA. Robert Attanasio. 30 min.
Fingered. 1986. USA. Richard Kern.
25 min.
Total running time 72 min. Thursday, March 4, 6:00. TWR
Beauty Becomes the Beast. 1979. USA. Vivienne Dick. 45 min.
Guerillere Talks. 1978. USA. Vivienne Dick. 30 min.
Thursday, March 11, 6:00. TWR
The Offenders. 1979. USA. Beth and Scott B. 90 min. Thursday,
March 18,
6:00. TWR
Viet Flakes. 1965. USA. Carolee Schneemann. 7 min.
Detritus. 1989. USA. Willie Varela.
5 min.
The Big Stick. 1967-73. USA. Saul Levine. 17 min.
Novo Dextro: Purity and Danger. 1982. USA. Directed by Bill Stamets.
33 min.
New Hampshire Primary. 1992. USA. Directed by Bill Stamets. 20 min.
Total running time 82 min. Thursday, April 15, 6:00. TWR
23rd Psalm Branch. 1966-67. USA. Directed by Stan Brakhage.
100 min.
Thursday, April 22, 6:00. TWR
Sudan Rolls. 1989. USA. Directed by Mark LaPore. 25 min.
Oued Nefifik: A Foreign Movie. 1982. USA. Directed by Liza Bear. 27 min.
Kuch Nai. 1992. USA. Directed by silt.
38 min.
Total running time 90 min. Thursday, April 29, 6:00. TWR
