This week [February 20 - 27, 2000] in avant garde cinema
Scott Stark
Send your event announcements and subscription requests to Craig Fischer at
fisc...@conrad.appstate.edu.
Events are sorted alphabetically BY CITY within each DATE.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2000
2/20
Berkeley, California: Pacific Film Archive
http://www.uampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa/
BFI NEW DIRECTORS SHORTS
5:30pm: Gavin Smith: "A selection of shorts reflecting the diverse array of
emerging talents supported by the British Film Institute. KILL THE DAY
(Lynne Ramsay, 1996) is a stark portrait of a junkie wrestling with
addiction and haunting memory. In the playfully Borgesian DEAD LONDON
(Thomas Napper, 1996), two investigators hung up on chaos theory trace the
hidden patterns underlying a series of accidental deaths. Carine Adler's
FEVER (1994) is a study of compulsive sexuality and the exorcising of
mother-daughter tensions. The impressionistic, poetically heightened
SPINDRIFT (Simone Horrocks, 1996 depicts a day in the life of two homeless
London youths, a rent boy and a skateboarder. Influential critic Geoff
Andrew describes FLAMES OF PASSION (1989), from Richard Kwietniowski, the
director of LOVE AND DEATH ON LONG ISLAND, as ‘a beguiling and imaginative
gay fantasy which reworks BRIEF ENCOUNTER to engagingly mysterious and
droll effect.' FLOATING (Richard Heslop, 1991) is a bizarre, increasingly
apocalyptic comic portrait of a dysfunctional family living in a housing
project, whose deranged patriarch enacts a Noah's Ark delusion." The
Pacific Film Archive is located at 2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. For more
information, call (510) 642-5249.
2/20
Boulder, Colorado: University of Colorado-Boulder
SUNDAY EVENING WITH BRAKHAGE
7:30pm: Each Sunday evening Stan Brakhage is host for a gathering of
friends and film buffs to view films and videotapes from his incredible
collection. Often viewers will see a world premiere of the latest Brakhage
film. Most evenings those in attendance stay after the showing to talk
about a wide variety of subjects with Stan. These gatherings are held in
room N141 of the Fine Arts building on the Boulder Campus of the University
of Colorado. All are encouraged to attend and the showings are free.
2/20
London, England: The Paper Bag Factory / Film and Video Umbrella
WALL OF DEATH
The spectacle of the movie car chase has provided the inspiration for this
latest large-scale audio-visual work from installation artists Graham
Ellard and Stephen Johnstone. WALL OF DEATH takes its name from the
motorcycle stunt fairground attraction, and places visitors in the midst of
a dynamic and frantic car chase. To experience the work, viewers must enter
an enormous cyclorama in which two video-projected images chase each other
around a 25 meter circular screen. THE FRENCH CONNECTION, VANISHING POINT,
and THE DRIVER are amongst the classic chase movies alluded to in this
piece. The artists have digitally manipulated sequences to remove
extraneous detail leaving only the vehicles in isolation. The result is an
unending chase to the circling accompaniment of engine roar and screeching
tires. By extracting and distilling the chase sequences, Ellard and
Johnstone have managed to focus on the point in a film where the plot
stands still, and action and sheer spectacle take over. WALL OF DEATH will
be exhibited between now and February 27 at The Paper Bag Factory, 165
Childers Street, London SE8, UK. For more information, call 020 7831 7753.
2/20
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
BIRTH OF A NATION (1996)
7pm: Mekas: "One hundred and sixty portraits or rather appearances,
sketches and glimpses of avant-garde, independent filmakers and film
activists between 1955 and 1996. Why BIRTH OF A NATION? Because the film
independents IS a nation by itself. We are surrounded by commercial cinema
Nation same way as the indigenous people of the United States or of any
other country are surrounded by the Ruling Powers. We are the invisible,
but essential nation of cinema." Anthology is located at 32 2nd Avenue, New
York; for more information, call (212) 505-5181.
2/20
New York, New York: Exit Art
http://www.exitart.org
THE END EXPERIMENTAL FILM SERIES: SUPER-8
Organized by Bradley Eros, Mark McElhattan, Brian Frye, and Jeanne Liotta.
Exit Art, as part of its current institutional history project entitled THE
END: AN INDEPENDENT VIEW OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE, is pleased to present an
homage to Exit Art's renowned program, THE FESTIVAL OF SUPER 8, originally
presented at Exit Art in 1988. The current program features new work in
Super 8 from Japan, Europe, and Canada as well as a program featuring new
work by American filmmakers. At 6pm: an international program featuring
recent Super-8 films from Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Holland, England
and Italy. At 9pm: an American program featuring films by Steve Polta,
Martha Colburn, silt, and Michael Johnsen of Orgone. Separate Admission for
each program. Exit Art is located at 548 Broadway in New York. For more
information, call (212) 966-7745.
2/20
New York, New York: The Kitchen
http://anansi.panix.com:80/kitchen/
ART GALLERY: DANCE ON VIDEO
A display of dance on video from The Kitchen archives, selected by curators
Dean Moss and Christina Yang. Screenings will include the work of artists
Johanna Boyce, Yoshiko Chuma, Dancenoise, Ishmael Houston-Jones, and Wendy
Perron, among others. Through February 26. The Kitchen is located at 512
West 19th Street, New York City. The Kitchen Art Gallery is open Tue-Sat,
2-6pm, and one hour before performance and during intermissions. Admission
is free. For more information, call (212) 255-5793.
2/20
Newark, New Jersey : Victoria Theatre at NJ-PAC
GARDEN / THE BREATHING SHOW
GARDEN, a film by Abraham Ravett in collaboration with
dancer/choreographer, Bill T. Jones, will be shown as part of Jones' solo
performance THE BREATHING SHOW.
2/20
San Francisco, California: San Francisco Cinematheque
http://www.sfcinematheque.org
THE FILMS OF RICHARD DINDO: ARTHUR RIMBAUD, A BIOGRAPHY (1991)
7:30pm: Richard Dindo In Person. RIMBAUD is unique in Dindo's oeuvre, for
here he incorporates actors as his witnesses to the life and death of the
great poet. We see and hear his mother and sister, his school mentor, the
poet and lover Verlaine, an employer in Aden and a Swiss business associate
speak of their relationships with Rimbaud in the very places where they
shared his life (his home in Charleville, Paris, London, Marseille, Aden,
Harare). Rimbaud himself is present only through the wound of his absence,
made visible through the images of the places he inhabited, the voices of
those who knew him, and excerpts from his poems and letters. This event
will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street,
San Francisco For more information, call the Cinematheque at (415)
558-8129.
2/20
Sheffield, England : Site Gallery / Film and Video Umbrella
http://www.site-map.u-net.com
PEEPING TOM BY MARK LEWIS
PEEPING TOM BY MARK LEWIS is a large-scale projection work that extends
Lewis' investigation into what he terms the parts or bits of cinema. Lewis
has used the full apparatus of commercial cinema to make, literally, 'bits'
of films: title sequences, endings, intermissions, inserts into existing
films and so on. PEEPING TOM continues this preoccupation through the
creation of a short five-minute work that takes its title and its
inspiration from Michael Powell's seminal 1959 psychological thriller,
PEEPING TOM. Powell's PEEPING TOM is the story of a young film-maker called
Mark Lewis who, in pursuit of the ultimate image of fear, films the death
of the young women he murders with his specially modified camera and
tripod. These filmed images of death are part of a larger documentary that
Mark Lewis is making. PEEPING TOM BY MARK LEWIS recreates the character's
film-within-a-film 'documentary', reconstructed and re-shot from the
cross-haired camera-eye sequences that form part of the Michael Powell
feature, with the addition of various shots which we see the Mark Lewis
character filming, but which we never see on-screen in the movie. PEEPING
TOM BY MARK LEWIS will be exhibited between now and March 11 at Site
Gallery, 1 Brown Street, Sheffield S1 2BS, UK, and Lewis will give a
lecture on his work on February 10 at 6pm. For more information, contact
Site Gallery at gal...@site-map.u-net.com or 0114 281 2077.
2/20
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Cinematheque Ontario
http://www.bell.ca/filmfest/cinematheque/independents.htm
BRUCE BAILLIE: THE LYRICAL TRADITION
3pm: Bruce Baillie is a great colourist. His lyrical films soar, expressing
his intense love of the San Francisco Bay Area landscape: its golden hills,
gentle streams, and urban industrial settings. Presented in the context of
this thematic series, Baillie's films lead us in the direction of lyricism
through their masterful technique and deep spirituality. TO PARSIFAL
(1963), set to the overture of Richard Wagner's PARSIFAL, is a radiant
pastoral hymn tinged with a hint of sadness. TUNG (1966), ostensibly a
portrait of a woman shot in profile, is equally a film about the colour
blue. CASTRO STREET (1966), a short city symphony film, creates graceful
rhythms which evoke various levels of consciousness. QUICK BILLY (1970),
perhaps Baillie's greatest achievement, centres on themes of life and
death, birth and rebirth. Baillie has commented that the film is an
adaptation of the BARDO THODOL, The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Robert A.
Haller of Anthology Film Archives will present this programme of rare
Kodachrome prints which showcase Baillie's work with the richest possible
colour palette. All Cinematheque Ontario screenings are held at Jackman
Hall located in the Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas Street West,
Toronto. For more information, call the Cinematheque at (416) 968-3456.
2/20
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Cinematheque Ontario
http://www.bell.ca/filmfest/cinematheque/independents.htm
TREASURES FROM ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES
1pm: Curated and presented by Robert A. Haller. Haller has worked at
Anthology Film Archives in New York for twenty years, where he has been
instrumental in preservation, restoration, programming and publishing
activities related to avant-garde, classic and contemporary films. In 1998,
he curated a thematic series for Anthology entitled FIRST LIGHT that
included many abstract films, and edited an accompanying publication. This
afternoon's programme is a selection of many of Haller's favourites. Ed
Emshwiller's painterly TRANSFORMATION (1959) and Jordan Belson's cosmic
spectacular SAMADHI (1967) are followed by the rhythmic CINQ MINUTES DE
CINEMA PUR, an exceptional work of "pure cinema" from 1926 made by Henri
Chomette (the brother of René Clair) based on a pure flow of images
divorced from narrative or thematic construction. Robert Breer's animated
experimental films 69 (1968) and 70 (1970) delight with their exploration
of two- and three-dimensional space and playful visual
stream-of-consciousness. The rich colour palette of 70 is echoed by
FUTURIST SONG (1968), which represents Roger Jacoby's transition from
painting to film and his love of deep, saturated colour. TREES DURING
AUTUMN (1960) is an early (and influential) structural film by Austrian
filmmaker Kurt Kren. Jim Davis (1901-74) came to film after two decades as
a painter. He made over one hundred films between 1946 and 1974, most of
which he never presented in public. Davis's three "buried treasures,"
IMPULSES (1959), JERSEY FALL (1949) and DEATH IN TRANSFIGURATION (1961),
form the pièce-de-résistence of this programme of highlights. All
Cinematheque Ontario screenings are held at Jackman Hall located in the Art
Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto. For more information,
call the Cinematheque at (416) 968-3456.
2/20
Vancouver, British Columbia: Blinding Light
http://www.blindinglight.com/
LOW SELF ESTEEM GIRL
8:30pm: Lois, aka Low Self Esteem Girl, is the girl who makes everybody
else feel good, if you know what I mean. A one night stand leads a pot
dealer to believe that he holds the key to her heart in the form of a magic
phrase. By selling the information to his clients, he effectively
prostitutes our heroine without her knowledge. Meanwhile, a demon-possessed
born-again Christian falls in love with her and conspires with his youth
group pastor to convert her to the faith. Will she be a saint or a sinner?
Or both? Or neither? Pillow fights, excorcisms and back seat make-out
sessions propel this first feature from cartoonist turned film-maker,
Blaine Thurier. Shot in glorious DV, Low Self Esteem Girl features
impressive performances by local rock legends Corrina Hammond (Maow), Carl
Newman (Superconductor, Zumpano), Dan Bejar (Destroyer) and Cindy Wolfe
(Tennesse Twin). Buy Nothing Day founder Ted Dave is "really damn funny" in
his screen debut. Funny and disturbing, Low Self Esteem Girl may be the
first self help movie. See it and learn to live again! This screening is at
the Blinding Light, 36 Powell Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada; for more
information, call (604) 878-3366.
2/20
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York: Ocularis
http://www.billburg.com/ocularis/
THE MANIPULATORS AND MONTY PYTHON'S THE MEANING OF LIFE
7 and 9:30pm: A screening of Andrew Wright and Clare Rojas's short film THE
MANIPULATORS (1999), followed by MONTY PYTHON'S THE MEANING OF LIFE (Terry
Gilliam and Terry Jones, 1983). Ocularis is at Galapagos Art and
Performance Space, 70 North 6th Street (between Wythe and Kent Avenues) in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For more information, call (718) 388-8713.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2000
2/21
Boulder, Colorado: First Person Cinema
http://www.colorado.edu/FilmStudies/ifs
KONRAD STEINER IN PERSON
Konrad Steiner lives in San Francisco and has been making films for 18
years. He is trained as a linguist, but makes a living in the computer
field of office automation. His films have shown at the Image Forum's
Experimental Film Festival (Tokyo), The London Film Festival, and The New
York Film Festival. he has been inspired by techniques and values of other
activities, among them: music in the form of free jazz improvisation;
flower arrangement, as a contemplative are of arranging independent
objects; the poetics of Japanese "linked poetry: the woodworker's sense of
joinery as efficient strength;" the rhythms and pacings of prolonged casual
conversation. he is interested in poetic cinema of montage and sync, and is
currently pursuing work with film as a response to and extension of
preexisting works of music, poetry and dance. Films to be shown include
FIRESIDE (1983), the four-film cycle LIMN (1986-89), FIVE MOVEMENTS
(1990/99) and FLOATING BY EAGLE ROCK/SHE IS ASLEEP (1997-99). First Person
Cinema takes place at the Muenzinger Auditorium on the University of
Colorado-Boulder campus. For more information, contact hea...@colorado.edu.
2/21
Minneapolis, Minnesota: City Club Cinema
http://www.nationalprojects.com/cityclub/index.html
FOR ART AND LOVE
8pm: A screening of short films about "art and love." The City Club Cinema
is located at Grumpy's Bar and Grill, 1111 Washington Avenue S.E,
Minneapolis.
2/21
New York, New York: Harvestworks
http://www.harvestworks.org/events.html
THE 100TH TURN
12pm: THE 100th TURN is a program of video art created by Harvestworks
Artists In Residence and curated by director Carol Parkinson. Works
included in the program are: YEAR ZEROZERO (Peter d'Agostino,1999-00); TWO
WRENCHING DEPARTURES (Ken Jacobs, 1989); CHECKERS (Caterina Borelli, 1992);
PAN, ZOOM, DESERT (Tirtza Even, 1998); MOVING WITH NO PATTERN (Joan Jonas,
1999); AMBER CITY (Jem Cohen, 1999); TO SORROW (Kit Fitzgerald, 1992);
BLACK DOG DREAMS (Matthew Schlanger, 1988); EXCERPT (L. Halsey Brown,
1999); SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER (Annie Gosfield, 1999); and LA BLANCHISSEUSE
(Rohesia Hamilton Metcalfe, 1993). THE 100th TURN is shown on Mondays and
Wednesdays, Noon-2pm, through February 2000, at "Arts Interludes," the
Video Wall Program at 1251 Avenue of the Americas (between 49th and 50th
Street, east Concourse), New York City. Admission is free.
2/21
Sidney, Australia : Side On Café
http://www.side-on.com.au
AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILMS: BEST OF THE REST SCREENINGS
Following our recent Netfest and awards Side On is screening the best of
the films entered apart from the prize winners, including DETAILS OF DAILY
LIVING, GO BEFORE YOU COME, ENASHELL, UNNECCESARILY, WET DREAM, ENIGMA,
BLUE SHIFT and THE SIGN. Side On Cafe is located at 83 Parramatta Road
Annandale Sydney NSW. For more information, contact Luke at 9519 0055.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2000
2/22
Berkeley, California: Pacific Film Archive
http://www.uampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa/
BUÑUEL'S BIRTH: THE CENTURY OF AN EYE-SPLICE
7:30pm: We celebrate the birth of Luis Buñuel, a hundred years ago today,
with a program of two feature-length films (L'AGE D'OR [1930] and VIRIDIANA
[1961]) and a screening of UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1929) composed, recorded, and
performed by Owen O'Toole. O'Toole is a local filmmaker, sound artist, and
member of the performance group Wet Gate. Like many of us, he blames Buñuel
for getting him into cinema. The Pacific Film Archive is located at 2575
Bancroft Way, Berkeley. For more information, call (510) 642-5249.
2/22
New York, New York: Museum of Modern Art
http://www.sirius.com/%7Esstark/org/moma/moma.html
A PAGE OF MADNESS
6pm: A screening of A PAGE OF MADNESS (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926): An
odd-job man works in an insane asylum where his wife is an inmate.
Presented partly from the point of view of the patients themselves,
Kinugasa's impressionistic masterpiece owes much to the European
avant-garde of the day, yet, amazingly, was filmed before he was exposed to
the work of his contemporaries. A singular work of hallucinatory power.
This screening will take place at the Titus 2 Theater, the Museum of Modern
Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York City. For more information, call (212)
708-9400.
2/22
New York, New York: Museum of Modern Art
http://www.sirius.com/%7Esstark/org/moma/moma.html
LUIS BUÑUEL CENTENNIAL BIRTHDAY SCREENING
2:30 and 6pm: To mark the 100th anniversary of Buñuel's birth on February
22, 1900, two of his earliest films are presented from the Museum's
archives. L'AGE D'OR (1930) was Buñuel's second film and his first feature
film. Cowritten with Salvador Dalí, and financed by the Viscount of
Noailles, who risked excommunication, the Surrealist L'AGE D'OR caused such
a scandal that it was banned by the City of Paris. Over the next
half-century it could only be seen privately at the Cinémathèque française;
it finally enjoyed a limited commercial release in New York a year before
it reopened in Paris in 1981. Financed by a friend's lottery winnings, LAS
HURDES: TIERRA SIN PAN (LAND WITHOUT BREAD, 1932) is Buñuel's
uncompromising revelation of the desperately poor LAS HURDES region in
northwest Spain, near the Portuguese border; though it anticipated the
social documentary movement in Western Europe, LAS HURDES is so unusual
that it resists inclusion in any mainstream. This screening will take place
at the Titus 1 Theater, the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New
York City. For more information, call (212) 708-9400.
2/22
New York, New York: The Robert Beck Memorial Cinema
APE HAS KILLED APE OR MY OTHER RIDE IS YOUR WIFE
9pm: The sexiest swinger in Boston (Rich Pontius, that is) graces NYC with
his potent presence, for the New York premiere of THE LETTERS (of Joe
Shepard and Rich Pontius, 1989-1996). But what the hell? I'll let the man
speak in his own words: "Communication is the lifeline of love. More to
follow? Did I describe these things before? They're a series of film
letters that Joe and I sent to each other from about 1989 to 1996. Haven't
watched them in a long time and was afraid they wouldn't hold up, but they
seem to. They're personal and journalistic, but the subject matter has a
universal quality. We think. Showed them once at Mass Art Film Society and
that's it." All that and a special surprise screening of a film by Boston's
favorite son Luther Price as well! Admission is $5. This program will take
place at Collective Unconscious 145 Ludlow Street, New York City. For more
information, contact Brian Frye at frye...@redconnect.net or
(718)622-5360.
2/22
Reading, Pennsylvania: Berks
http://www.elecsp.com/bfminc/bfminc.htm
THE BLACK MARIA FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL: JOHN COLUMBUS IN PERSON
Black Maria (launching its 19th year) has become the premiere traveling
showcase for independent film, especially experimental film and video.
Tonight's program, selected and presented by John Columbus, will feature
short experimental works, many of them prize winners including OUTER SPACE
by Peter Tscherkasky, WALKING DISTANCE by Phil Solomon, BRENDAN'S CRACKER
by Vincent Grenier, IN.SIDE.OUT by Scott Stark, MOBY RICHARD by Emily Breer
and Joe Gibbons, ROTATION by Paul Winkler, and other short films and
videos. Festival jurors this year were David Callahan, Kathy High, Jytte
Jensen, Mark McElhatten and Ana Ramos. This event will be held in Klein
Hall, the Albright College Center for the Arts, Reading, Pennsylvania. For
more information, contact administrative director Jerry Orr at
yea...@ix.netcom.com or call (610) 921-7713.
2/22
Vancouver, British Columbia: Blinding Light
http://www.blindinglight.com/
ANNE MCGUIRE'S STRAIN ANDROMEDA THE
8:30pm: With STRAIN ANDROMEDA THE, American film and video artist Anne
McGuire has created an awesome and spellbinding film that throws everything
from story structure to character motivation into question. Put simply,
McGuire has taken the entire 1971 Robert Wise-directed THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN
(based on the novel by Michael Crichton) and re-edited it shot by shot
precisely in reverse, so that the last shot appears first and the first
last, though nothing is actually running backwards. As the film unfolds (or
reverts?), more and more information about how our characters and their
surroundings came about is revealed to us. While intially confusing, the
film quickly takes on an ominous and mesmerizing quality that defies
description. The original film plot is one filled with tension in a "race
against time" which only adds to this effect. STRAIN ANDROMEDA THE can only
be experienced to be understood. And if you have never seen the original
film, all the better. Above all, don't arrive late or you'll miss
the...end. This screening is at the Blinding Light, 36 Powell Street,
Vancouver, BC, Canada; for more information, call (604) 878-3366.
2/22
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York: Galapagos Art and Performance Space
http://www.billburg.com/ocularis/index_fs.html
TRINITY INSTALLATION
The Trinity film/video installation by Jim Browne explores the relationship
between Desire, Memory and Sin. 3 booths, each a cross between a voting
booth, confessional and peep show play continuous tape loops of short video
pieces. The following schedule of 16mm film is in addition to the video
installation: 7pm: THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (Carl Dreyer, 1928); 9pm:
EMPIRE (48 minute excerpt, Andy Warhol, 1964). Galapagos is located at 70
North 6th Street (between Wythe and Kent Avenues) in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn. For more information, call (718) 388-8713.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2000
2/23
Berkeley, California: Pacific Film Archive
http://www.uampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa/
INTOXICATING VISION: FILMS AND VIDEOTAPES BY DAVID LARCHER: ICH TANK AND
GRANNY'S IS
7:30pm: Steve Seid: "With GRANNY'S IS, Larcher sought in video filmic
equivalents that somehow affirm the artist's hand. Through digital matting
and optical effects, he nurtures the image, reworking and layering the many
strata. Self-described as a geriatric anthro-apology, GRANNY'S IS is an
acrid portrait of Larcher's ailing grandmother. Larcher fills his home-and
the frame-with a swarm of images of his infirm elder. He seems overwhelmed
by her presence, as though her likeness carries a cargo of love tempered by
guilt and revulsion. Here the image is the vessel of memory, remarking on
the fragility of the present...ICH TANK, Larcher's newest work, began as a
pun on the German pronoun for I and led to a chain of ichtian coincidences.
Generating an electronic world of submerged chambers and aqueous corridors,
Larcher sought visual analogies for psychoanalytic tropes. Here, the artist
swims with the fishes through a Lacanian lagoon, complete with analyst's
couch and ichthyological projections." The Pacific Film Archive is located
at 2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. For more information, call (510) 642-5249.
2/23
Buffalo, New York: Hallwalls
http://www.pce.net/hallwall/
TWO FILMS BY CHARLENE GILBERT
8pm: Showings of two films, presented by filmmaker Charlene Gilbert.
HOMECOMING: SOMETIMES I AM HAUNTED BY MEMORIES OF RED DIRT AND CLAY (1998)
chronicles the generations-old struggle of African Americans to acquire
land of their own, a struggle which pitted them against both the Southern
white power structure and the federal agencies responsible for helping
them. INA MAE BEST (1993) is a portrait of an African American woman who
worked for 18 years in a textile factory in Goldsboro, North Carolina,
eventually becoming a leader in the effort to organize a union there.
Hallwalls is located at 700 Main Street, Buffalo. For more information,
call (716) 835-7362.
2/23
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Film Archive
http://www.harvardfilmarchive.org/
WHO ARE YOU, POLLY MAGGOO? (QUI ETES-VOUS POLLY MAGGOO?) (1965-66)
8:45pm: William Klein's celebrated mock-documentary follows the career of
Polly Maggoo, a fictional American fashion model who is pursued by both a
French television producer and a prince. With its high-contrast
black-and-white cinematography and its frenetic editing, the film satirizes
both the look and the content of the world of haute couture. The opening
fashion-show sequence sets the film's comically abrasive tone by focusing
on the latest collection of the hot Parisian designer Isidore Ducasse, who
is labeled by one awestruck fashion editor "the poet of sheet-metal" for
the riotous aluminum sculptures in which he has clad the models. This
screening will take place at the Archive, the Carpenter Center for the
Visual Arts, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge. For more information, call the
Archive at (617) 495-4700.
2/23
New York, New York: Harvestworks
http://www.harvestworks.org/events.html
THE 100TH TURN
12pm: THE 100th TURN is a program of video art created by Harvestworks
Artists In Residence and curated by director Carol Parkinson. For more
details, see February 21.
2/23
Vancouver, British Columbia: Blinding Light
http://www.blindinglight.com/
ANNE MCGUIRE'S STRAIN ANDROMEDA THE
8:30pm: A screening of Anne McGuire's STRAIN ANDROMEDA THE. For more
details, see February 22.
2/23
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York: Galapagos Art and Performance Space
http://www.billburg.com/ocularis/index_fs.html
TRINITY INSTALLATION
The Trinity film/video installation by Jim Browne explores the relationship
between Desire, Memory and Sin. 3 booths, each a cross between a voting
booth, confessional and peep show play continuous tape loops of short video
pieces. The following schedule of 16mm film is in addition to the video
installation: 7pm: NEW YORK PORTRAIT PART I (Peter Hutton, 1977-79) and NEW
YORK PORTRAIT PART II (Hutton, 1980-1); 8pm: RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME
(Maya Deren, 1946) and MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (Deren, 1943); 9pm: NEWS
FROM BROOKLYN (Tim Allen, 1989), FISHING (Allen, 1990) and UNTITLED (Allen,
1990). Galapagos is located at 70 North 6th Street (between Wythe and Kent
Avenues) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For more information, call (718)
388-8713.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2000
2/24
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Film Archive
http://www.harvardfilmarchive.org/
AN EVENING WITH FRANÇOISE ROMAND
7pm: Françoise Romand in person. Visiting Lecturer Françoise Romand is a
director of documentary and fiction films dealing mainly with identity.
Tonight's program features two works, CALL ME MADAM (1986), a documentary
about transsexualism that recieved the Golden Gate Award at the San
Francisco Film Festival in 1988, and PAST IMPERFECT (1994), Romand's first
full-length feature: A war photographer trying to forget his past pulls a
mysterious woman out of the sea in Tunisia. She is suffering from amnesia
and doesn't want to deal with her past. Jonathan Rosenbaum of the CHICAGO
READER has called this film "a provocative, troubling and haunting
spellbinder... beautifully shot and originally conceived. The soundtrack is
especially striking." This screening will take place at the Archive, the
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge. For more
information, call the Archive at (617) 495-4700.
2/24
Madison, Wisconsin: Starlight Cinema
http://rso.union.wisc.edu/wud/web/film/starlight.html
DIRECTOR J. J. MURPHY IN PERSON
9pm: Structuralist filmmaker and University of Wisconsin prof J.J. Murphy
will present three of his films: SKY BLUE WATER LIGHT SIGN (1972), PRINT
GENERATION (1973-4), and SCIENCE FICTION (1979). PRINT GENERATION, in its
construction, is a musical film not dissimilar to some of Steve Reich's
work in which a minimal, rhythmic phrase is layered on to itself, in and
out of phase until the ear is led into a complex situation of perception.
This program will take place at the Fredric March Play Circle, the second
floor of the Memorial Union, University of Wisconsin at Madison, 800
Langdon Street, Madison. Admission is free. For more information, call
(608) 262-6333.
2/24
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Walker Art Center
http://www.walkerart.org/jsindex.html
AMERICAN EXPERIMENTAL FILM: ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE
7pm: A screening of ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE (James Benning, 1977). Benning
presents 60 one-minute static shots of one-way streets in Milwaukee.
Patterns emerge through editing, and ordinary images (smokestacks, road
signs, Volkswagen Beetles) take on greater significance through repetition.
This film, which at times seems like a series of photographs, stands out as
Benning's most structuralist work. This screening will take place at the
Lecture Room Walker Art Center Auditorium, at the corner of Vineland Place
and Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota. For more information,
call (612) 375-7622.
2/24
New York, New York: Museum of Modern Art
http://www.sirius.com/%7Esstark/org/moma/moma.html
BIG AS LIFE: AN AMERICAN HISTORY OF 8MM FILMS
6pm: MY WORD (Vito Acconic, 1974). The often radical art practices of
Acconci include a large body of work in small-gauge film mostly made during
the 1970s. MY WORD is conceptual and performance-based (he himself being
the performer) as is most of the artist's work in other mediums. Working
with clichés, wordplay, and an odd assortment of "sayings" in the limited
space of his loft and the immediate outdoors, he creates an immensely
affecting self-portrait/diary-cum-psycho-drama of an imagined love
relationship, playing with deception, delusion, interpretation, and
expectation, from all sides, with the camera as a stand-in psychiatrist.
Program screenings are held in The Time Warner Screening Room, Museum of
Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York City. Seating is limited to fifty;
admission is free after 5:30. For more information, call (212) 708-9400.
2/24
Reading, Pennsylvania: Berks
http://www.elecsp.com/bfminc/bfminc.htm
OPEN SCREENING
Bring your own films and tapes; all works will be screened. This event will
be held in Klein Hall, the Albright College Center for the Arts, Reading,
Pennsylvania. For more information, contact administrative director Jerry
Orr at yea...@ix.netcom.com or call (610) 921-7713.
2/24
San Francisco, California: San Francisco Cinematheque
http://www.sfcinematheque.org
DISQUIETING EPIPHANIES: JAY ROSENBLATT'S KING OF THE JEWS AND ERIN SAX'S
JERUSALEM SYNDROME
7:30pm: Jay Rosenblatt and Erin Sax in person. Bay Area Premieres! KING OF
THE JEWS, Jay Rosenblatt's newest work, is a lyrical, provocative and
deeply personal film which examines both Rosenblatt's uneasy relationship
to Christ as a Jewish child growing up in Brooklyn (a relationship based on
terror and mistrust) and the roots of Christian anti-Semitism. Using
home-movies, found footage, and excerpts from films depicting the life of
Christ, it explores inter-religious misunderstanding and hatred and as well
as their transcendence. Erin Sax returns to the Cinematheque to show
JERUSALEM SYNDROME, a complex portrayal of this holy city and the extreme
expressions of religiosity and mystical experience to which it sometimes
gives rise. Each year numerous visitors have spiritual experiences
resulting in personality changes and convictions that they are, or are in
direct contact with, God. The film examines this phenomenon labeled the
Jerusalem Syndrome by the Israeli psychiatric community from the
perspective of those in the midst of its 'spell' and in the context of the
city's long history of mystical accounts. This event will take place at the
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street, San Francisco For more
information, call the Cinematheque at (415) 558-8129.
2/24
San Jose, California: Cine16
http://www.cine16.com/
MORE FUN WITH THE WHOLE FAM-DAMNLY: PART II
7pm: Family-related films from the National Board of Canada, Part 2. ALL IN
THE SAME BOAT (Deborah Kingsland, 1979): A wake-up call for couples who
think that having kids is a cakewalk. JAMIE: STORY OF A SIBLING (John Howe,
1964): A "day-in-the-life" drama of a middle child, squeezed between the
domineering older sibling, and the better-loved younger one, shot from his
own perspective. A provocative film that, unfortunately, will probably not
be seen by the people who are in most need of it. WOULD I EVER LIKE TO WORK
(Kathleen Shannon, 1974): Joan's got no uppers, 7 kids and no job; what can
she do? The kids are driving her nuts! Our first impression was that just
was just another of Shannon's "poor me" subjects, but mom's situation in
this scathing interview leaves us scratching our heads, wondering if there
really IS a solution...SEE YOU IN THE FUNNY PAPERS (Grant Munro, 1983): Not
everyone's dysfunctional: this visit with FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE
cartoonist Lynn Johnston in Lynn Lake, Manitoba is, we think, even better
than her strips. REFLECTIONS (Noel Black, 1975?): Finally, here's how it
starts: ethnic families of differing races break up a relationship between
two teens. This sociodrama makes a poignant statement about the inculcation
of hate, clothed in the mantle of "morality." Cine 16 is held at the Agenda
Restaurant and Lounge, 399 South First Street, San Jose, California, and
admission is free.
2/24
Vancouver, British Columbia: Blinding Light
http://www.blindinglight.com/
CINEWORKS PRESENTS ALL ABOUT SEX
8:30pm: Erotic and explicit short films about sex, a subject that serves as
a continuous source of inspiration for filmmakers, and a never-ending
preoccupation for the rest of us. This program of short films explores
sexuality, eroticism and desire with a frankness that blurs the boundaries
between art and pornography. Films include Isabelle Auger and Wrik Mead's
(ab)NORMAL, a pixilated cornucopia of sexual possibilities; Michael
Brynntrup's ALL YOU CAN EAT, a collage of Super-8mm '70s porn that is
larger than life; XXX:SPACEJUNK, local video artist Shawn Chappelle's
psychedelic space-age porn odyssey, a ravishing, shock-cut exercise in
subliminal seduction; Kika Thorne's SISTER about a young woman discovering
her own sexuality while searching for the reasons behind her sister's
suicide; Alina Martiros' PEARL MAD is an exoticised portrait of a WASP
hunted by Bees, a personal mythology of sex and honey in Pearl and
Glitter...and many more! This screening is at the Blinding Light, 36 Powell
Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada; for more information, call (604) 878-3366.
2/24
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York: Galapagos Art and Performance Space
http://www.billburg.com/ocularis/index_fs.html
TRINITY INSTALLATION
The Trinity film/video installation by Jim Browne explores the relationship
between Desire, Memory and Sin. 3 booths, each a cross between a voting
booth, confessional and peep show play continuous tape loops of short video
pieces. The following schedule of 16mm film is in addition to the video
installation: 7pm: UN CHIEN ANDALOU (Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, 1928)
and WINDOW WATER BABY MOVING (Stan Brakhage, 1959); 8pm: PASSION PLAY
(Henry Vincent, 1899) and MAN'S GENESIS (D.W. Griffith, 1912); 9pm: KISS
(Andy Warhol, 1963); 10pm: REPORT (Bruce Conner, 1963-7), A MOVIE (Conner,
1958), VALSE TRISTE (Conner, 1978) and MONGOLOID (Conner, 1978). Galapagos
is located at 70 North 6th Street (between Wythe and Kent Avenues) in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For more information, call (718) 388-8713.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2000
2/25
Buffalo, New York: Hallwalls
http://www.pce.net/hallwall/
FILMS BY AUSTIN ALLEN
8pm: Austin Allen is a Cleveland-based documentary filmmaker who will be in
residence at Hallwalls during February, doing production work on his major
documentary work-in-progress on Frederick Law Olmsted. Allen will present
brief excerpts from the work-in-progress OLMSTED: SITING DIVERSITY, a work
which explores the impact on landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted's
work of African culture and African-American history, as well as the
continuing impact of Olmsted's parks on present-day African-American urban
communities. Allen will also present an encore screening of his
award-winning documentary CLAIMING OPEN SPACES, a critical examination of
the design and histories of the American urban open space, as well as THE
MARCH, a documentary on the events leading up to the Million Man March of
October 16, 1995. The March includes interviews with Haki Madhubuti, Herb
Boyd, Louis Farrakhan, and many others. Hallwalls is located at 700 Main
Street, Buffalo. For more information, call (716) 835-7362.
2/25
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Film Archive
http://www.harvardfilmarchive.org/
THE MESSIAH (1999)
7pm: William Klein in person. Set to the strains of Handel's famous
oratorio, Klein's latest film presents a global view of humanity at the end
of the millennium as it documents various performances of the ubiquitous
choral piece. From the grotesque to the sublime, from the mundane to the
tragic, Klein's cast includes Texas prison inmates, a gay choir in Times
Square, women boxers at the Taj Mahal, a drug rehab choir in Harlem,
thousands of sobbing Promise Keepers in Detroit's Superdome, several
hundred wealthy arts patrons attired for Houston's annual Hair Ball, and
the Ministers of Muscle preaching the gospel across America. This screening
will take place at the Archive, the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts,
24 Quincy Street, Cambridge. For more information, call the Archive at
(617) 495-4700.
2/25
Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Filmmakers
http://www.chicagofilmmakers.org/
FADE OUT: NEW VIDEO PART TWO
7pm: Tonight's program features new video work from the U.S., France, and
Argentina. Tony Buba's FADE OUT (1998) is a reflection on the changes in
his hometown Braddock, Pennsylvania. OFF AND ON (1998) by Michael Gitlin:
"Time's layers undone." (NYVF), These four videos by French artist Pierre
Yves Clouin are wonderfully odd conceptual works: KANGAROO (1998),
PNEUMATIC FLIGHT (1999), THE LITTLE BIG (1999), and DIANA, TEXAS (1999). MY
PARENTS READ DREAMS I'VE HAD ABOUT THEM (1998) by Neil Goldberg: "Two Long
Island parents recite their son's dreams about death, babies, Jerry Lewis
and more, with humorous and tender results." (NYVF). Former Chicagoan Gregg
Biermann's THE HOBGOBLIN OF LITTLE MINDS (1999) forces the viewer to
constantly change the way they watch by shifting the formal structure of
what is seen. A TROPICAL STORY (1999) by Alfred Guzzetti: "Fleetly edited
images and sounds of stunning clarity suggest the push and pull of a vivid
present and inner recollection, 'a lesson on thinking of something and
being far away from it and seeing other things entirely.'" (NYVF). THE WARM
PLACE (1998) by Marcello Mercado: "Its title referring at once to the human
body and the diseased body politic, Mercado's tape moves freely between
operating room, slaughterhouse and killing field, corrosive and delirious
in its densely layered visuals and soundtrack. Like a malignant illuminated
manuscript, it is both a prolonged cry of profound disgust at the human
condition and a visceral indictment of a corrupt social order in denial of
its complicity in atrocity: the 'Dirty War' of the 1970s and the
'disappeared' victims of the military dictatorship." (NYVF). This event
will be held in the Claudia Cassidy Theater of the Chicago Cultural Center,
78 East Washington Street, Chicago. Admission is free. For more
information, call Chicago Filmmakers at (773) 293-1447.
2/25
Chicago, Illinois: The Expatriate Cafe
http://www.thexpatcafe.com/sys-tmpl/door/
OPEN SCREENING
8pm: A monthly screening featuring short video, film and audio pieces. If
you are an independent video, film or audio maker and would like to screen
your work in Chicago, please contact The Expatriate Cafe or bring your
finished short in person to the screening held at Chicago Access
Corporation, 322 S. Green Street, Chicago. For more information, contact
Basia Mosinski at ba...@thexpatcafe.com or (312) 243-0937.
2/25
Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Cinematheque
http://www.wisc.edu/commarts/cinema.htm
INDEPENDENT FILM AND VIDEO COLLABORATIVE OPEN FILM SHOW
7:30pm: Sponsored by the Independent Film and Video Collaborative. Submit
your Super 8mm or 16mm films and screen them on the big screen where they
should be seen, or just come to watch and support your local filmmakers.
For submission guidelines and length restrictions, check the IFVC website
at http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~ifvc, or contact Joe Beres at (608) 265-4231.
2/25
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Walker Art Center
http://www.walkerart.org/jsindex.html
AN EVENING WITH ROBERT BREER
8pm: Robert Breer in person. Best known as an animator today, Robert Breer
was an American painter in Paris during the 1950s when he began exploring
the film medium. With roots in the graphic cinema of Richter and Eggeling,
Breer began creating animations with his first series of films, FORM PHASES
I-IV (1952-1954). Following these first experiments, he moved on to study
motion through his flip books and then worked in collage films. At the end
of the 1950s, he returned to New York, where he continues to work as a
filmmaker, painter, and sculptor. With more than 40 films to his credit,
Breer has established himself as an entertainer and artist whose short,
playful animations and self-propelled sculptures possess an effervescent
energy. He infuses his work with a dry wit and visual cleverness that has
delighted his following for decades, despite being rarely screened in the
United States. Films to be screened include RECREATION (1956-1957), HOMAGE
TO JEAN TINGUELY'S "HOMAGE TO NEW YORK" (1960), BLAZES (1961), PAT'S
BIRTHDAY (1962), 69 (1968), FUJI (1974), SWISS ARMY KNIFE WITH RATS AND
PIGEON (1980) and TIME FLIES (1997). This screening will take place at the
Lecture Room Walker Art Center Auditorium, at the corner of Vineland Place
and Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota. For more information,
call (612) 375-7622.
2/25
San Francisco, California: Artists Television Access
http://www.atasite.org/
OPEN SCREENING
8pm: Bring your work to our open screening! Artists' Television Access is
located at 992 Valencia, San Francisco; for more information, call (415)
824-3890.
2/25
Vancouver, British Columbia: Blinding Light
http://www.blindinglight.com/
SURREAL CITY: LUIS BUNUEL'S 100TH BIRTHDAY PARTY
8:30pm: In honour of the 100th birthday of Luis Bunuel we kick off our week
of SURREAL VISIONS with an astounding program of his films. UN CHIEN
ANDALOU (1928) is considered the true cinematic icon of Surrealism.
Remembered best for its famous razor across an eye scene, this Bunuel/Dali
collaboration is presented with a brilliant new soundtrack composed,
recorded, and performed in person for the first time in Canada by Berkeley
sound artist, Wetgate projector-performance group member and filmmaker OWEN
O'TOOLE. Also on the bill are SIMON OF THE DESERT, Bunuel's irreverent tale
of Simon, an ascetic who stands on a pillar in the desert for years to be
closer to God, only to be tempted by a gorgeous incarnation of the Devil,
and VIRIDIANA, Bunuel's masterpiece and scathing indictment of Catholic
self-righteousness wherein an innocent girl takes in beggars only to find
that they refuse to change their ways. This screening is at the Blinding
Light, 36 Powell Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada; for more information, call
(604) 878-3366.
2/25
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York: Galapagos Art and Performance Space
http://www.billburg.com/ocularis/index_fs.html
TRINITY INSTALLATION
The Trinity film/video installation by Jim Browne explores the relationship
between Desire, Memory and Sin. 3 booths, each a cross between a voting
booth, confessional and peep show play continuous tape loops of short video
pieces. The following schedule of 16mm film is in addition to the video
installation: 7pm: LA JETEE (Chris Marker, 1963), CASTRO STREET (Bruce
Baillie, 1966) and VALENTIN DE LAS SIERRAS (Baillie, 1967); 8pm: FISHING
(Tim Allen, 1990), UNTITLED (Tim Allen, 1990) and WINDOW WATER BABY MOVING
(Stan Brakhage, 1959); 9pm: SLEEP (42 minute excerpt, Andy Warhol, 1963);
10pm: TABU (F.W. Murnau, 1931), with live musical accompaniment by DJ
Ramen. Galapagos is located at 70 North 6th Street (between Wythe and Kent
Avenues) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For more information, call (718)
388-8713.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2000
2/26
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Film Archive
http://www.harvardfilmarchive.org/
IN AND OUT OF FASHION
7pm: William Klein in person. This montage film mixes excerpts from Klein's
feature films with imagery from his fashion photography, books, and
paintings, and even includes rare footage he shot of Yves Saint Laurent's
very first runway show. The title suggests not only the centrality of
fashion to Klein's work, but also the shifts in taste that have by turns
cast him in the spotlight or relegated him to the wings. Given the current
revival of attention to nearly all aspects of his career, Klein's now
classic work remains very much in fashion. This screening will take place
at the Archive, the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy Street,
Cambridge. For more information, call the Archive at (617) 495-4700.
2/26
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Film Archive
http://www.harvardfilmarchive.org/
THE MESSIAH (1999)
9:30pm: William Klein in person. A screening of THE MESSIAH, William
Klein's chronicle of the end of the millennium. For more details, see
February 25.
2/26
Houston, Texas: Aurora Picture Show
http://www.aurorapictureshow.org
THE MUSEUM OF LOVE EXCEEDING: CATASTROPHE AND CRESCENDO
7and 9pm: Programmed and hosted by Michael Bell, architect and Professor of
Architecture at Columbia University. THE MUSEUM OF LOVE EXCEEDING examines
the catastrophic (in art, mathematics, politics, science and film) as a
generator of unanticipated new forms. Lazslo Moholy-Nagy, Chris Marker,
Erik Adigard, others. The Aurora Picture Show is located at 800 Aurora
Street, Houston, Texas 77009. For more information, contact Andrea Grover
at gro...@aurorapictureshow.org or (713) 868-2101.
2/26
New York, New York: Millennium Film Workshop
http://www.sirius.com/~sstark/org/mill/mill.html
VIDEO SCREENING: ALAN SONDHEIM, AZURE CARTER, FOOFWA D'IMOBILITE
8pm: A showing of NIKUKO (Alan Sondheim, Azure Carter, Foofwa D'Imobilite):
Nikuko, the famous Russian ballet dancer, pirouettes for Doctor Leopold
Konninger. These and other avatars from the Internet play out structures of
language, body/movement, and desire. A sourceless hunger pervades the work
(which may be one work or many), created half in, half out, of cyberspace.
We are all lost ghosts, discovering and abandoning language. Dance stutters
or shudders among bodies. Pirouetting continues obsessively. All of us walk
out of the tape, in one or another way, the beautiful styles of the day.
Foofwa d'Imobilite was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for 7
years. He has been performing his multimedia work (dance, text and video)
in New York and Europe. Azure Carter is currently working in video in New
York. Alan Sondheim works online, in multimedia, and text / sound/ video.
Millennium is located at 66 East 4th Street, New York City. For more
information, call (212) 673-0090.
2/26
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh Filmmakers
http://www.pghfilmmakers.org/
BLACK MARIA FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL
Named after Thomas Edison's tar-covered movie studio (circa 1890), the
Black Maria Film and Video Festival is the most prestigious and competitive
festival for experimental media in the US, gathering more than 1,000
submissions from around the world. Pittsburgh Filmmakers is proud to
continue to host this wonderful, brand new collection of cutting edge film
and video. For the twelfth year in a row, Festival founder and director
John Columbus will be on hand to introduce the program of prize-winning
media art. This screening will be held in the Melwood Screening Room, 477
Melwood Avenue, North Oakland, Pennsylvania. For more information, call
(412) 682-4111.
2/26
San Francisco, California: Other Cinema
http://www.othercinema.com/
THE LAST ANGEL OF HISTORY
8:30pm: For Black History Month, Other Cinema presents John Akomfrah's
futuristic essay THE LAST ANGEL OF HISTORY. From Britain's Black Audio
Collective, Akomfrah analyses hitherto unexplored relationships between
Pan-African culture, science fiction, intergalactic travel, and rapidly
progressing computer technology. Positing science fiction as a metaphor for
the Pan-African experience of forced displacement, cultural alienation, and
otherness, tropes such as alien abduction, estrangement, and genetic
engineering are discussed by African artists George Clinton, Sun Ra, DJ
Spooky, Ishmael Reed, Greg Tate, and Kodwo Eshun. Plus other glimpses of
George "Mothership Connection" Clinton, Intergalactic Arkestra, and DJ
Spooky in action. This screening will take place at Artists' Television
Access, 992 Valencia, San Francisco; for more information, call (415)
824-3890.
2/26
San Francisco, California: Vehicle
INAUGURAL MOTION AND STILL PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW
8pm: Vehicle is proud to announce its first motion and still photography
show. Doors open at 8pm, during which time art, projections, and music can
be enjoyed. At 9pm: Screenings of two films. BLOCKSTACKER, NEWSPAPERREADER
(Tim Clinton, 1997): The figures of the blockstacker and the
newspaperreader can be seen throughout the film, both in their visual
incarnations and in the ebb-and-flow of their allegorical positions. The
blockstacker is the child, a figure moving through transitional modes of
knowledge: how to cry, crawl, walk, talk, stack, read. The newspaperreader
is the adult, the figure that has ascended to a comfortable position of
knowledge, leaving the skill of block-stacking far behind. Through these
figures, the hierarchical structure of knowledge is both posited and called
into question. AMOUR RATE (Steve MacDonald, 1998) deals with issues of lost
love and the communicative devices that play a part in the construction and
ultimate dissipation of affections. The props built for the film include an
entire phone system equipped with an exchange board, full size telephone
poles, and even a wax cylinder answering machine. These systems combine
technologies of the past with those of the absurd, resulting in machines
that mirror the reality of love through their confused yet intriguing
nature. Reception to follow. Vehicle is located at 245 South Van Ness at
Duboce, #304 (above post tools), San Francisco, California. For more
information, call Vehicle at (415) 355-1100 or contact Tim Clinton at
timcl...@earthlink.net or (415) 643-0623.
2/26
Vancouver, British Columbia: Blinding Light
http://www.blindinglight.com/
SURREAL CITY: LUIS BUNUEL'S 100TH BIRTHDAY PARTY
8:30pm: In honour of the 100th birthday of Luis Bunuel, an astounding
program of his films. For more details, see February 25.
2/26
Washington, D.C.: Warner Theatre
GARDEN / THE BREATHING SHOW
GARDEN, a film by Abraham Ravett in collaboration with
dancer/choreographer, Bill T. Jones, will be shown as part of Jones' solo
performance THE BREATHING SHOW.
2/26
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York: Galapagos Art and Performance Space
http://www.billburg.com/ocularis/index_fs.html
TRINITY INSTALLATION
The Trinity film/video installation by Jim Browne explores the relationship
between Desire, Memory and Sin. 3 booths, each a cross between a voting
booth, confessional and peep show play continuous tape loops of short video
pieces. The following schedule of 16mm film is in addition to the video
installation: 7pm: RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME (Maya Deren, 1946), PASSION
PLAY (Henry Vincent, 1899) and MAN'S GENESIS (D.W. Griffith, 1912); 8pm:
PRIMAL CALL (D.W. Griffith, 1911), FUSES (Carolee Schneemann, 1964-7) and
NEWS FROM BROOKLYN (Tim Allen, 1989); 9pm: BLOW JOB (Andy Warhol, 1963);
10pm: WITHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES (Benjamin Christensen, 1922), with live
musical accompaniment by Guy Yarden and Sean Meehan. Galapagos is located
at 70 North 6th Street (between Wythe and Kent Avenues) in Williamsburg,
Brooklyn. For more information, call (718) 388-8713.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2000
2/27
Boulder, Colorado: University of Colorado-Boulder
SUNDAY EVENING WITH BRAKHAGE
7:30pm: Each Sunday evening Stan Brakhage is host for a gathering of
friends and film buffs to view films and videotapes from his incredible
collection. For more information, see February 20.
2/27
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Film Archive
http://www.harvardfilmarchive.org/
THE MESSIAH (1999)
6pm: A screening of THE MESSIAH, William Klein's chronicle of the end of
the millennium. For more details, see February 25.
2/27
Houston, Texas: Aurora Picture Show
http://www.aurorapictureshow.org
THE MUSEUM OF LOVE EXCEEDING: CATASTROPHE AND CRESCENDO
3pm: THE MUSEUM OF LOVE EXCEEDING examines the catastrophic (in art,
mathematics, politics, science and film) as a generator of unanticipated
new forms. For more details, see February 26.
2/27
New York, New York: Exit Art
http://www.exitart.org
THE END EXPERIMENTAL FILM SERIES: SUPER-8
Organized by Bradley Eros, Mark McElhattan, Brian Frye, and Jeanne Liotta.
Exit Art, as part of its current institutional history project entitled THE
END: AN INDEPENDENT VIEW OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE, is pleased to present an
homage to Exit Art's renowned program, THE FESTIVAL OF SUPER 8, originally
presented at Exit Art in 1988. The current program features new work in
Super 8 from Japan, Europe, and Canada as well as a program featuring new
work by American filmmakers. At 6pm: an American program featuring films by
Steve Polta, Martha Colburn, silt, and Michael Johnsen of Orgone. At 9pm:
an international program featuring recent Super-8 films from Japan,
Germany, France, Canada, Holland, England and Italy. Separate Admission for
each program. Exit Art is located at 548 Broadway in New York. For more
information, call (212) 966-7745.
2/27
San Francisco, California: San Francisco Cinematheque
http://www.sfcinematheque.org
A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO RUDY BURCKHARDT
7:30pm: Bill Berkson and Nathaniel Dorsky in person. Tonight's rescheduled
program now includes two beautiful, previously unavailable rare prints of
EASTSIDE SUMMER (1959), MILLIONS IN BUSINESS AS USUAL (1961), the premiere
of Burckhardt's last film completed shortly before his death, ON
AESTHETICS, and a slide/music show of his photographs, paintings and
favorite music. Also included: WHAT MOZART SAW ON MULBERRY STREET (with
Joseph Cornell, 1956), CATERPILLAR (1973), JULIE (1980), and NIGHT
FANTASIES (with Yvonne Jacquette, 1991). Bill Berkson: "The great
filmmaker, photographer and painter Rudy Burckhardt died on August 1 in
Maine at 85 years of age. Born in Basel, Switzerland, he came to New York
in 1935 and made it his home as well as the hero of most of his works.
Burckhardt filmed what he likes and lets you see it that way, too. The
power is formal and sympathetic, never editorialized, though the films are
as much edited as shot. Sensations of the obvious or commonplace are lifted
sky high. With what Edwin Denby called ‘a visual grandeur he keeps as light
as it is in fact,'Burckhardt shows what's livable and true in everyday
life." This event will take place at the San Francisco Art Institute, 800
Chestnut Street, San Francisco. For more information, call the Cinematheque
at (415) 558-8129.
2/27
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Cinematheque Ontario
http://www.bell.ca/filmfest/cinematheque/independents.htm
ANDREW NOREN X2
1pm: Andrew Noren has been making avant-garde films since the mid-Sixties.
Since 1968 he has been working on a multi-part diary film entitled THE
ADVENTURES OF THE EXQUISITE CORPSE. Rarely screened in Canada, Noren's
accomplished films are some of the finest examples of the transformative
and abstract qualities of black-and-white film. His works are astonishing
meditations on the essence of film that capture with reverie the simple
beauty of domestic scenes. A master of light and shadow, fragmentation and
speed, Noren dazzles the eye and offers a transcendent view of reality.
Scott MacDonald: "Increasingly, Noren's interest is light itself, as it is
manipulated by camera and filmmaker. If one thinks of the movie camera as
an instrument with which a filmmaker can compose and perform visual music,
Noren may well be the most accomplished visual master musician we have. THE
LIGHTED FIELD reveals Noren at the peak of his form: the film is a visual
phantasmagoria: exquisite, scintillating, sensual, sometimes nearly
overwhelming." Today's screening will include THE LIGHTED FIELD (PART V:
THE ADVENTURES OF THE EXQUISITE CORPSE) (1987) and IMAGINARY LIGHT (PART
VI: THE ADVENTURES OF THE EXQUISITE CORPSE) (1994). All Cinematheque
Ontario screenings are held at Jackman Hall located in the Art Gallery of
Ontario, 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto. For more information, call the
Cinematheque at (416) 968-3456.
2/27
Vancouver, British Columbia: Blinding Light
http://www.blindinglight.com/
EYE OF NEWT LIVE WITH JEAN COCTEAU'S BLOOD OF A POET
8:30pm: Eye of Newt return with their immensely popular live accompaniment
to cinema, this time featuring Jean Cocteau's stunning BLOOD OF A POET
which follows the adventures of a poet who lives out the creations of his
mind. Featuring special effects used to wholly poetic ends, camera
trickery, mirror-play, visual transformations and radical disruptions in
space and time, Cocteau's first film is a testament to the truly artistic
potential of cinema. This screening is at the Blinding Light, 36 Powell
Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada; for more information, call (604) 878-3366.
2/27
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York: Ocularis
http://www.billburg.com/ocularis/
HOLD ME WHILE I'M NAKED AND L'AGE D'OR
7 and 9:30pm: A screening of George Juchar's HOLD ME WHILE I'M NAKED
(1966), followed by L'AGE D'OR (THE AGE OF GOLD) (Luis Buñuel, 1930).
Ocularis is at Galapagos Art and Performance Space, 70 North 6th Street
(between Wythe and Kent Avenues) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For more
information, call (718) 388-8713.
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