[Frameworks] Part 2 of 2: This week [October 15 - 23, 2011] in avant garde cinema
Weekly Listing
weeklylisting at hi-beam.net
Sat Oct 15 15:00:08 CDT 2011
Part 2 of 2: This week [October 15 - 23, 2011] in avant garde cinema
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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2011
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10/21
Ann Arbor, Michigan: Studies and Observations Group
8 pm, 327 Braun Ct
TRANSUBSTANTIATION: RITUALS, TRANSFORMATIONS AND APPROPRIATIONS
Program curated by MARCY SAUDE and MARK TOSCANO (in person). "Using
varied techniques including optical manipulation, observation and
documentation, and appropriation of found footage and materials, the
filmmakers in this program work with film as a transformative tool
that's both mystical and mundane. Michael J. Fox is transformed into a
totemic stand-in for a woman who survived three shipwrecks. Text and
nearly invisible artifacts are transmuted into bleeding abstractions via
photocopying. The stuff of a day job at a make-up counter becomes raw
material for an exploration of refracted light and color. A ceremony
involving the gift of a tuba is recreated; the ritualistic aspects of
drug use are explored in order to create alternatives; and Jesus Christ
dies, rises, and ascends to heaven." Films include: ANSELMO (Chick
Strand, 1967, 16mm, b/w & color, sound, 3min.) / FOR THE RECORD (Carolyn
Faber, 2004, 16mm, b/w, silent 24fps, 3min.) / ERRATA (Alexander
Stewart, 2005, 16mm, color, silent 24fps, 7min.) / MICRO 2 (Elwood
Decker, 1952, 16mm, color, silent 24fps, 9min.) / TRIPPING (Lee Chapman,
ca.1971, 16mm, color, sound, 18min.) / SANCTUS (David Lebrun, 1967,
16mm, b/w, sound, 16min.) / THE DIVINE MIRACLE (Daina Krumins, 1973,
16mm, color, sound, 5min.) / THE COUNTER GIRL TRILOGY (Courtney Hoskins,
2006, 16mm, color, silent 24fps 6min.) / I SWIM NOW (Sarah Biagini,
2010, 16mm, b/w, sound, 9min.) / INCANTATION (Peter Rose, 1968, 16mm,
color, sound, 8.5min.) / ***** The second screening in a monthly series,
Studies & Observations no.2 is organized by the Studies and Observations
Group and co-presented by the Ann Arbor Film Festival.
10/21
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Film Archive
http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa
7pm, Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy Street
THE FLOWER THIEF - TAYLOR MEAD IN PERSON
Directed by Ron Rice. With Taylor Mead, Barry Clark, Heinz Ellsworth US
1960, 16mm, b/w, 75min In the old Hollywood days movie studios would
keep a man on the set who, when all other sources of ideas failed
(writers, directors) was called upon to 'cook up' something for filming.
He was called The Wild Man. The Flower Thief has been put together in
memory of all dead wild men who died unnoticed in the field of
stunt.Ron Rice Inspired by the poetry of Allen Ginsberg and especially
by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie's Pull My Daisy (1959), Ron Rice cast
Mead as the protagonist of his own improvised, Beat-inspired vehicle: a
picaresque ramble through San Francisco coffee houses, playgrounds and
ramshackle seafront structures.
http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2011octdec/mead.html#flower
10/21
Chicago, Illinois: Chicago 8 Small Gauge Film Festival
http://chicago8fest.org
8 & 9:30 PM, 1550 N Milwaukee Ave 4th Floor
'SUPER 8 CHICAGO' & 'JAAP PIETERS US WORLD TOUR' WITH TRAVIS BIRD & EVAN
LINDORFF-ELLERY
Chicago 8: A Small Gauge Film Festival Day 1 October 21 - 23, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011 - 8:00pm Location: Opening Night at Cinema
Borealis, 1550 N. Milwaukee Ave. The Chicago 8: Small Gauge Film
Festival opens with two shows at Cinema Borealis: a group show of local
filmmakers at 8pm, and a retrospective by Dutch filmmaker Jaap Pieters
at 9:30pm. Visit the festival website at http://chicago8fest.org.
10/21
London, England: BFI London Film Festival
http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff
6:30pm, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XT
FREE RADICALS: A HISTORY OF EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA
FREE RADICALS: A HISTORY OF EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA (Pip Chodorov | France
2010 | 82 min) FREE RADICALS scratches the surface of the history of
avant-garde cinema in Europe and the USA, from early post-war pioneers
through to the founding of New York's Anthology Film Archives, a museum
whose screen is the exhibition space. Director Pip Chodorov is
well-placed to chronicle the movement he established the Re:Voir label
to distribute tapes and DVDs of artists' films, and counts many key
exponents amongst his friends. In this personal journey through
experimental movies, he surveys a generation of artists who pushed the
boundaries of the medium. Working without compromise, and without
financial rewards, they were forced to create their own support
structures in an expression of solidarity. Whilst not claiming to be a
definitive documentary, FREE RADICALS is a discerning introduction to
the field, and its informal nature provides a privileged glimpse at the
personalities involved. Archival footage of Hans Richter, Nam June Paik
and Stan Vanderbeek (drawn from TV programmes made by the filmmaker's
father) supplements new interviews with Chodorov's distinguished
acquaintances (Jonas Mekas, Peter Kubelka, Ken Jacobs, Robert Breer) and
generous excerpts from the films themselves. www.experimentaweekend.org
10/21
London, England: BFI London Film Festival
http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff
9pm, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XT
TWO YEARS AT SEA
TWO YEARS AT SEA (Ben Rivers | UK 2011 | 88 min) Using old 16mm cameras,
artist Ben Rivers, who has been nominated for the Jarman Prize and has
won a Tiger Award at Rotterdam, creates work from stories of real
people, often those who have disconnected from the normal world and
taken themselves into wilderness territories. His new long-form work
extends his relationship with Jake, a man first encountered in his short
film This Is My Land. The title refers to the work Jake did in order to
finance his chosen state of existence. He lives alone in a ramshackle
house, in the middle of the forest. It's full of curiosities from a
bygone age, including a beloved old gramophone. We see his daily life
across the seasons, as he occupies himself going for walks in all
weathers, and taking naps in the misty fields and woods. Endlessly
resourceful, he builds a raft to fish in a loch. Jake has a tremendous
sense of purpose, however eccentric his behaviour seems to us. The
presence of the camera is irrelevant to him; he has no desire for human
contact, and is completely at home in his environment, the nature around
him and his constructed abode. Rivers' gracefully-constructed film
creates an intimate connection with an individual who would otherwise be
a complete outsider to us. www.experimentaweekend.org
10/21
Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Festival Du Nouveau Cinema, Montreal
http://www.beyond2000.co.uk/umbrella/
8:30pm, the Agora du Coeur des Sciences de l'UQÀM. 174 ave. President Kennedy, Montreal. All performances are FREE
ZAPRUDER FILMMAKERSGROUP (IT) - SPELL
Immerse yourself in the avantgarde world of SPELL, a 3D film about
Oscar, a hypnotist dog with supernatural powers. There's also a
performance a hyperamplified 'concert for ping-pong table' inspired
by the telepathic experiments of parapsychologist Charles Honorton.
www.zapruderie.com
10/21
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
7:00 pm, 32 2nd Avenue
GOING HOME
by Adolfas Mekas 1972, 60 minutes, 16mm Share + Film Notes Filmed by
Adolfas Mekas & Pola Chapelle; edited by Adolfas. "A film about
childhood memories, life's hardships, and the durability of families. In
1971, after a 27-year absence, Adolfas and his brother Jonas returned to
their birthplace in Lithuania. They had left as young men, destined for
a German labor camp. Now they came home, Adolfas with his wife, the
singer Pola Chapelle, and in the long northern summer days they sang and
walked across golden fields and feasted at crowded tables with family
and friends. There are flowers for the dead and for the living in this
film; it is full of flowers and songs.
For me, the importance of GOING
HOME is its strength in expressing feelings about personal and national
identity." Emilie de Brigard, MoMA Preceded by: HALLELUJAH THE VILLA
(28 minutes, video) A spirited interview with Adolfas, directed and
edited by David Avallone. Total running time: ca. 90 minutes.
10/21
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
9:15 pm, 32 2nd Avenue
GUNS OF THE TREES
by Jonas Mekas 1961, 75 minutes, 35mm With Adolfas Mekas, Frances
Stillman, Ben Carruthers, Argus Speare Juilliard, Frank Kuenstler, Louis
Brigante, and Allen Ginsberg (narrator). "I assisted my brother Jonas in
all stages of production, writing, and editing. I also played one of the
leading roles in the film." A.M. "What is the theme of GUNS OF THE
TREES? It is the suicide of a young girl.
But, really, the question is
posed in a much larger sense, and the theme becomes: "Why do we commit
suicide?" The film doesn't tell the story, it doesn't even allow us to
witness Frances's suicide; instead, it limits itself to showing the
wanderings of the two male protagonists the negro and the white
through the city and the suburbs, by day and by night. Through these
wanderings emerges a very clear answer to Frances's suicide: we do
commit suicide because the modern world, dominated by money and the will
for power, leads us to suicide. The moral: we should change the modern
world." Alberto Moravia
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2011
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10/22
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Film Archive
http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa
7pm, Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy Street
BRAND X - TAYLOR MEAD IN PERSON
Directed by Wynn Chamberlain. With Taylor Mead, Sally Kirkland, Tally
Brown, Frank Cavestani US 1970, 16mm, color, 87 min After a snowbound
weekend in 1969 spent watching television, painter Wynn Chamberlain was
inspired to make his first film, a series of skits spoofing the politics
and mass media of the day and presented as a string of faux TV shows,
complete with commercials. (His previous attempt at filmmaking was
preempted when houseguest Andy Warhol commandeered Chamberlain's cache
of 16mm film to make Sleep.) The result is sketch comedy of, by and for
the counterculture, starring a wondrous and eclectic array of famous
personalities, including Ultra Violet, Abbie Hoffman, Sally Kirkland and
Sam Shepard. Taylor Mead pops up frequently as a string of delightfully
bizarre characters, including a fitness guru, a televangelist and the
President of the United States. Aptly described by Jonas Mekas as
"propaganda for the politics of joy and disorder," this remarkably
prescient satire was unavailable for years after its initial success,
until the sole surviving print surfaced quite recently and was recovered
by Chamberlain. $12 Special Engagement - Taylor Mead and Sam
Chamberlain, son of Wynn, in person
http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2011octdec/mead.html#brand
10/22
Chicago, Illinois: Chicago 8 Small Gauge Film Festival
http://chicago8fest.org
6:30, 8 & 9:30 PM, 5243 N Clark St
A TOWN CALLED TEMPEST -JANIS CRYSTAL LIPZIN/SMALL GAUGE WORKS-HOLD ME
WHILE I'M NAKED
Day 2- The Chicago 8: Small Guage Film Festival continues with 3 shows
at Chicago Filmmakers. A group show of nationally recognized artists
kicks off at 6:30pm, a solo show by San Francisco filmmaker Janis
Crystal Lipzin at 8pm, and another group show to celebrate the spirit of
the late George Kuchar at 9:30pm. Janis Crystal Lipzin, Rick Bahto and
Pixie Cram in Person!
10/22
London, England: BFI London Film Festival
http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff
2pm, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XT
ALTERED STATES
TRYPPS #7 (BADLANDS) (Ben Russell / USA 2010 / 10 min) The mirror
crack'd: As a young woman, high on LSD, looks toward the camera, the
doors of perception swing open for both viewer and subject. WHILE YOU
WERE SLEEPING (Mary Helena Clark / USA 2010 / 9 min) 'This is your life.
It rides like a dream.' SANS TITRE (Neil Beloufa / France 2010 / 15 min)
In a reconstruction of a villa occupied by terrorists during the
Algerian War, onlookers speculate on the activities that took place. THE
PIPS (Emily Wardill / UK 2011 / 4 min) A gymnast performs, and
everything begins to fall away.
THESE BLAZEING STARRS! (Deborah
Stratman / USA 2011 / 14 min) Watch the skies! Throughout history,
comets have heralded events of grave significance and change; today it
is thought that they can reveal facts about the formation of the
universe. THESE HAMMERS DON'T HURT US (Michael Robinson / USA 2010 / 13
min) 'Tired of underworld and overworld alike, Isis escorts her
favourite son on their final curtain call down the Nile, leaving a neon
wake of shattered tombs and sparkling sarcophagi.'
www.experimentaweekend.org
10/22
London, England: BFI London Film Festival
http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff
4pm, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XT
NATHANIEL DORSKY / BEN RIVERS
PASTOURELLE (Nathaniel Dorsky / USA 2010 / 17 min) 'A pastourelle and an
aubade are two different forms of courtship songs from the troubadour
tradition. In this case, the film PASTOURELLE, a sister film to AUBADE,
is in the more tumultuous key of spring.' THE RETURN (Nathaniel Dorsky /
USA 2011 / 27 min) 'Like a memory already gone, this place of life.'
Dorsky has created a poetic form of cinema in which the screen becomes a
site for reverie or transfiguration. In his most recent film, he seems
to move towards a more abstract representation of light and being. SACK
BARROW (Ben Rivers / UK 2011 / 21 min) The march of time claims another
casualty. SACK BARROW documents (and laments) the out-dated, but
functioning, technology of a family owned electroplating factory in the
weeks around its closure its old ways now unsustainable in the modern
world. www.experimentaweekend.org
10/22
London, England: BFI London Film Festival
http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff
7pm, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XT
GABRIEL ABRANTES
LIBERDADE (Gabriel Abrantes & Benjamin Crotty / Portugal-Angola 2011 /
16 min) LIBERDADE sketches episodes in the relationship between a
domineering Chinese immigrant and her Angolan boyfriend with lavishly
cinematic panache. Travelling through spectacular locations in and
around Luanda, they navigate the complications of their burgeoning
identities and the different cultures they represent. PALACIOS DE PENA
(PALACES OF PITY) (Gabriel Abrantes & Daniel Schmidt / Portugal 2011 /
56 min) Gabriel Abrantes and his collaborators use the tropes of
mainstream cinema to make works that are by turns comical,
thought-provoking and transgressive. In a parable on guilt and
oppression, which alludes to aspects of Portuguese colonial history, two
cousins are potential heirs to their grandmother's fortune. A new
generation may be oblivious to the past, but inherits it nonetheless.
OLYMPIA I & II (Gabriel Abrantes & Katie Widloski / Portugal-USA 2008 /
7 min) Mimicking the composition of Manet's notorious painting, the
artists play out two possible scenarios: between a prostitute and her
gay brother, and between a wealthy transsexual and his devoted maid.
www.experimentaweekend.org
10/22
London, England: BFI London Film Festival
http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff
9pm, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XT
SLEEPLESS NIGHTS STORIES
SLEEPLESS NIGHTS STORIES (Jonas Mekas / USA 2011 / 114 min) Jonas Mekas'
opening confession that he suffers from insomnia will come as no
surprise to anyone aware if his singular contribution to cinema. Over 50
years he has established and promoted a viable culture for truly
independent and avant-garde filmmaking, and his recent acceptance by the
art world has brought a long overdue wave of attention and success.
SLEEPLESS NIGHTS STORIES is the latest in the series of long-form diary
films that Mekas has been making since his arrival in the USA in 1949.
Eating, drinking, singing and dancing with friends, the tireless
octogenarian is full of life and wonder, casually weaving together
contemporary folk tales collected during travels across the globe.
Marina Abramovic fantasizes about domesticity, Lee Stringer recounts an
episode from his crack-addicted past, and the protagonist toasts the
'working class voice' of Amy Winehouse. Marina Abramovic, Bjork, Harmony
Korine and Patti Smith also appear. Treating significant and
inconsequential moments with equal import, Mekas' modern day saga
presents the first episodes from his ambitious '1001 Nights' project.
www.experimentaweekend.org
10/22
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
4:15 pm, 32 2nd Avenue
GOLDSTEIN
by Philip Kaufman & Benjamin Manaster 1964, 85 minutes, 35mm Share +
Film Notes Edited by Adolfas Mekas. Newly preserved print courtesy of
George Eastman House; preservation funded by the National Endowment for
the Arts. Edited by Adolfas, this was the feature-film debut of Philip
Kaufman (THE RIGHT STUFF). A fable about an old man with an odd effect
on those he encounters, it is a fascinating and vibrant example of early
American independent filmmaking, and features a performance from Ben
Carruthers, star of Cassavetes's SHADOWS, and the discovery of Lou
Gilbert, later picked by Fellini for a major role in JULIET OF THE
SPIRITS. Newly preserved, it is a little-seen gem of 1960s American
cinema. "Gotham filmmaker Adolfas Mekas
did a brilliant job of editing.
He has meshed the rambling tale together with firmness and clarity."
Gene Moskowitz, VARIETY Preceded by: ADOLFAS MEKAS ACCEPTS THE BARD
AWARD (2004, 12 minutes, video) Video by Sean Mekas. At the President's
dinner, with Adolfas Mekas, Peter Hutton, and Leon Botstein & David
Schwab. Total running time: ca. 100 minutes.
10/22
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
6:30 pm, 32 2nd Avenue
DOUBLE-BARRELLED DETECTIVE STORY
by Adolfas Mekas 1965, 90 minutes, 35mm Share + Film Notes Archival
print courtesy of the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique. "An inventive
film based on a Mark Twain tale with an oater background. The humor is
muted, but amusing throughout. The first half has the deceptively rustic
humor of Twain, as a dastardly Northerner marries the daughter of a
mellow Southern plantation owner. The man (played by Hurd Hatfield)
mistreats the girl to get revenge on the father
even tying her up to a
tree with bloodhounds ripping her clothes. All this is done with the
right use of mellow silent film techniques of obvious emoting, with the
balance of mock seriousness, lampoon, and sentiments sans slush. The
father dies of embarrassment, and shortly after she gives birth to a son
who, when he grows up, heads west to avenge his mother. Mekas again
shows he has a way with parody and he gets disarmingly innocent
performances from his actors." VARIETY Preceded by: SKYSCRAPER (1965, 3
minutes, 16mm, b&w) Directed and produced by Adolfas Mekas for the
Broadway show of the same name. A parody of Italian movies written by
Peter Stone, and starring Pola Chapelle, Paul Sorvino, Julie Harris, and
Charles Nelson Reilly. "Those responsible for the funny film clip
spoofing 'art' flickers deserve special praise. It provides just the
right touch at just the right time." VARIETY Total running time: ca. 95
minutes.
10/22
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
8:45 pm, 32 2nd Avenue
GOING HOME
See notes for October 21, 7 pm.
10/22
San Francisco, California: Other Cinema
http://www.othercinema.com/
8:30, ATA, 992 Valencia Street
ORPHANS WEST BY NORTHWEST
ANOMALIES OF THE ARCHIVE: IZZO / MORI / ZORN'S BARE ROOM + Here's an odd
lot of obscure films, either "as-is" discoveries, or perversely
repurposed assemblages of arcane celluloid. Joey Izzo personally
introduces his found-footage noir, based on a John Zorn "score" and with
an Ikue (DNA) Mori track, sampled from the source footage! ALSO: After
Sarah Wood's For Cultural Purposes Only (on the Palestinian film archive
lost in the '82 Beirut bombing), David Blair's Telepathic Cinema of
Manchuria, and Bryan Boyce's Whisper Hungarian in My Ear, we showcase
two artifacts from OC's own archive: The Quitteran anti-smoking
proto-cult-jam drawn from Peter Lorre's tour-de-force in Mand Toys on a
Field of Blue, a dark Beat psycho-drama way, way outside of its intended
educational use. PLUS local hero Rick Prelinger's network-news report on
Trip Down Market Street, Sylvia Schedelbauer's Sounding Glass, and the
oh-so-apt Treasures In A Garbage Can.
10/22
San Francisco, California: Stop & Go
http://www.stopandgoshow.com
7:00 pm, Z Space 450 Florida Street
STOP & GO RIDES AGAIN
STOP AND GO RIDES AGAIN An exhibition and screening of stop-motion work
by visual artists and filmmakers Catch a diverse collection of work by
an international roster of artists as they unveil their most recent
experiments in animation and comment on everything from the simple
beauty of a rubber ball to the history of evolution. The screening
program paired with physical artworks will illuminate a deeper
connection between the artists' primary practice and the processes used
to create their animations. For this homecoming exhibition, a selection
of the local Stop & Go Rides Again artists (Kathy Aoki, Paz de la
Calzada, Mel Prest and Andy Vogt) will create new, site-specific and
large-scale works and performance based artworks for the space. The
international selection of work includes animations by Reed Anderson,
Daniel Davidson, Kathy Aoki, Alessandra Ausenda, Lizzie Black, Anna
Maria Murphy, Paz de la Calzada, Michael Rauner, Deborah Davidovits,
Almut Determeyer, Owen Gatley, Luke Jinks , Sarah Klein, Evelien
Lohbeck, Miwa Matreyek, Tucker Nichols, David O'Kane, Ara Peterson, Mel
Prest, Jen Stark, Melinda Stone, Sam Sharkey, Sjors Vervoort, Andy Vogt,
and Scott Wolniak. Screening of Stop & Go Rides Again with live music by
Tamsen Fynn: October 22, 2011, 7pm* *Free with reservations suggested at
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/191252
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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2011
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10/23
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Film Archive
http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa
5pm, Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy Street
THE QUEEN OF SHEBA MEETS THE ATOM MAN
Directed by Ron Rice. With Taylor Mead, Winifred Bryan, Julian Beck US
1963/82, 16mm, b/w, 109 min As the title characters, Winifred Bryan and
Taylor Mead are a comic-strip Adam and Eve in a distinctly non-Edenic
industrial wasteland. Made shortly before his death in 1964 at age 29,
Ron Rice's magnum opus also features an all-star supporting cast: Jack
Smith, Jonas Mekas, Judith Malina, Julian Beck and many others,
including Rice himself. Mead's performance exhibits the charm and impish
physicality of the great silent comedians. His Atom Man is no superhero
but rather a Cold War-era everyman at play. Unfinished at the time of
Rice's death, Mead created the present version from available footage
and added a soundtrack in the 1980s with the assistance of Anthology
Film Archives. $9 regular admission, $7 students and seniors
http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2011octdec/mead.html#queen
10/23
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Film Archive
http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa
7pm, Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy Street
TARZAN AND JANE REGAINED... SORT OF - TAYLOR MEAD IN PERSON
Directed by Andy Warhol. With Taylor Mead, Naomi Levine, Gerard Malanga
US 1970, 16mm, color, 87 min Andy Warhol's first partially scripted film
grew out of a visit to Los Angeles with Taylor Mead, Wynn Chamberlain
and Gerard Malanga in 1963. Mead takes credit for the idea inspired by
a highway sign indicating an exit for the town of Tarzana and the
editing. Accordingly, he was cast as the lead, with the swimming pool of
the Beverly Hills Hotel serving as a jungle lagoon. Mead's slender torso
and less-than-macho demeanor make for an immediate contrast from the
usual Hollywood Tarzans, instantly announcing the project's ironic
attitude towards the archetypal duo of the title and the culture
industry that produced them. Tarzan and Jane proceeds as a series of
episodic encounters shot at several locations around southern
California, with the other members of the entourage as supporting
players, while providing fascinating glimpses of the Los Angeles art
world at the time, including appearances by Wallace Berman and Dennis
Hopper, who shows up as Mead's stunt double. After the Village Voice
published a letter by a viewer complaining that Tarzan and Jane
"focus[ed] on Taylor Mead's ass for two hours," Warhol made a film that
was just that. $12 Special Engagement - Taylor Mead in Person
http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2011octdec/mead.html#tarzan
10/23
Chicago, Illinois: Chicago 8 Small Gauge Film Festival
http://chicago8fest.org
6:30 & 8 PM, 5243 N Clark St Chicago Filmmakers
A REASON TO LIVE & BRIDE OF SUPER 8
Day 3- The Chicago 8: Small Gauge Film Festival concludes with two great
group shows: recognized filmmakers from around the U.S. at 6:30pm, then
commissioned local work at 8pm. BRIDE OF SUPER 8 Sponsored by Kodak and
Dwayne's Photo Co-Presented by Chicago Filmmakers. Rick Bahto in Person!
10/23
London, England: BFI London Film Festival
http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff
2pm, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XT
INTIMATE VISION: FILMS BY CHICK STRAND
As one of the instigators of Canyon Cinema, Chick Strand (1931-2009) was
at the heart of 1960s West Coast avant-garde. Her film work, comprising
of found footage and personally photographed material, has been rarely
seen in the UK and is presented now in newly preserved prints. Strand's
camera is almost continually in motion, catching details in kinetic
close-up to convey celebrations of intimacy and the joys of living.
CARTOON LE MOUSSE (Chick Strand / USA 1979 / 15 min) In her collage
films, Strand uses the magic of editing to conjure surreal humour from
the connections between disparate fragments. MOSORI MONIKA (Chick Strand
/ USA 1970 / 20 min) The impact of American missionaries on the Warao
Indians in Venezuela is considered from the viewpoints of women from
each side. ANGEL BLUE SWEET WINGS (Chick Strand / USA 1966 / 3 min) A
multi-layered cine-poem apropos life and vision. LOOSE ENDS (Chick
Strand / USA 1979 / 25 min) Found footage is used to convey the effect
of information overload, finding wit and pathos in the complicated
synthesis of personal experience and media assault. ARTIFICIAL PARADISE
(Chick Strand / USA 1986 / 13 min) 'The anthropologist's most human
desire: the ultimate contact with the informant. The denial of
intellectualism and the acceptance of the romantic heart, and a soul
without innocence.' KRISTALLNACHT (Chick Strand / USA 1979 / 7 min)
'Dedicated to the memory of Anne Frank, and the tenacity of the human
spirit.' LOOSE ENDS was preserved by Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley. All
other films preserved by Pacific Film Archive and Academy Film Archive,
Los Angeles, with support from the National Film Preservation
Foundation.
10/23
London, England: BFI London Film Festival
http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff
4pm, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XT
PHIL SOLOMONS AMERICAN FALLS
'Should anyone imagine that the art of alchemy died with the Middle
Ages, Phil Solomon's AMERICAN FALLS testifies to the contrary: both to
the possibilities of photographic and digital transformation and to the
magical emanations of their fusion.' (Tony Pipolo, Artforum) AMERICAN
FALLS (Phil Solomon / USA 2010 / 60 min) In his sublime 16mm films, Phil
Solomon chemically alters photographic imagery to create a thick
celluloid impasto that infuses footage with profound emotional
resonance. For AMERICAN FALLS, Solomon rifles through a collective
memory fashioned from both fact and fiction, mixing elements from
newsreels, actualities and narrative films in a monumental retelling of
American history which draws parallels with and reflects upon the
current state of the nation. Houdini, Harold Lloyd, Keaton and King Kong
commingle with presidents, gold-diggers, railroad barons and the civil
rights movement. 'My project is ultimately one of great hope, stemming
from a life-long love for this American experiment of ours
but it is
also necessitated by my deepest concern for its present and future
directions.' Originally conceived as a 360-degree installation around
the walls of the Corcoran Gallery of Art's rotunda, the work has been
reconfigured for the cinema as a panoramic view in triptych, with
surround sound mix by composer Wrick Wolff. WHAT'S OUT TONIGHT IS LOST
(Phil Solomon / USA 1983 / 8 min) 'The film began in response to an
evaporating relationship, but gradually seeped outward to anticipate
other imminent disappearing acts: youth, family, friends, time
I
wanted the tonal shifts of the film's surface to act as a barometer of
the changes in the emotional weather.' Preserved by the Academy Film
Archive, Los Angeles. www.experimentaweekend.org
10/23
London, England: BFI London Film Festival
http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff
7pm, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XT
THE PETTIFOGGER
THE PETTIFOGGER (Lewis Klahr / USA 2011 / 65 min) The first
feature-length work by Lewis Klahr takes a unique approach to a familiar
genre. Ostensibly a thriller that traces events in the life of an
American gambler and con man circa 1963, THE PETTIFOGGER is described by
the filmmaker as 'an abstract crime film and, like many other crime
films involving larceny, a sensorial exploration of the virulence of
unfettered capitalism.' Characters lifted from comic books move through
an impressionistic landscape of textures, photographs and drawings,
populating a story whose narrative is suggested but not strongly
defined. Employing a range of iconography and appropriated audio to
expand his signature style of collage animation, Klahr recycles symbols
of popular culture to address themes of the loss of innocence and the
irresistible allure of wealth. APRIL SNOW (Lewis Klahr / USA 2010 / 10
min) A love story about cars and girls, carried away by songs from the
Shangri-La's and The Boss. www.experimentaweekend.org
10/23
London, England: BFI London Film Festival
http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff
9pm, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XT
ON THE ROAD WITH ROBERT FENZ
Robert Fenz's films explore cultural diversity and the human condition
with a keen eye reminiscent of his tutors Peter Hutton and James
Benning. Mixing improvisation with luminous photography, he offers a
poetic but political worldview. An associate of Robert Gardner's
Studio7Arts, Fenz has collaborated with musician Wadada Leo Smith and
worked as cinematographer for Chantal Akerman. THE SOLE OF THE FOOT
(Robert Fenz / USA 2011 / 34 min) Filmed in France, Israel and Cuba.
'Borders (and all the politics attending the drawing of borders) exist
to keep some people in (citizenship) and others out. This film is an
attempt to capture the presence of people otherwise denied the political
right to be at home in some place that is their home, where they have
their roots, where they have their being.' CORRESPONDENCE (Robert Fenz /
USA 2011 / 30 min) For CORRESPONDENCE, Fenz travelled to places where
the pioneering ethnographic filmmaker Robert Gardner shot three of his
best-known films West Papua (DEAD BIRDS), Ethiopia (RIVERS OF SAND)
and India (FOREST OF BLISS). While documenting present conditions in
these locations, Fenz also constructs an elegy for a form of
image-making that is now in decline. www.experimentaweekend.org
10/23
Los Angeles, California: Filmforum
http://www.lafilmforum.org/
7:30pm, The Spielberg Theater at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd (at Las Palmas)
FILM/MUSIC/FORMS EARLY ABSTRACTIONS OF THE 1940S AND 1950S
In person: John Whitney Jr., Norm Hammond (Elwood Decker's friend and
biographer), Demore Scott (Curt Opliger's companion)(schedules
permitting). Tonight's program focuses on a key strain of experimental
filmmaking in Los Angeles, the abstract film, which predates the War but
continued and expanded after it and was usually (but not always) created
through animation. Screening: Film Exercises #4 and #5, by John & James
Whitney (ca.1945), Introspection, by Sara Kathryn Arledge (1947), Mahzel
by John Whitney (ca.1949), Paper Moon, by Flora Mock (1949),
Phantasmagoria, by Curt Opliger (1949), Prelude, by Curt Opliger (1950),
Moonlight Sonata, by Frank Collins & Donald Meyer (1948), Color
Fragments, by Elwood Decker (1948), Crystals, by Elwood Decker (1951),
Sophisticated Vamp, by Lynn Fayman (1951/1958), Title sequence from
Hitchcock's Vertigo by John Whitney & Saul Bass (1958), and Yantra, by
James Whitney (1957).
10/23
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
4:45 pm, 32 2nd Avenue
GUNS OF THE TREES
See notes for Oct. 21st, 9:15 pm.
10/23
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
6:30 pm, 32 2nd Avenue
COMPANERAS AND COMPANEROS
by Barbara Stone, David C. Stone, and Adolfas Mekas In Spanish with
English subtitles, 1970, 80 minutes, 16mm-to-video This documentary
about the Cuban Revolution portrays the country's society through the
words and experiences of young Cubans. In frank and open discussions,
these young compañeras and compañeros explain their third-world
consciousness, their theories on guerrilla warfare, their faith, and
their commitment toward building Che's New Man, and illustrate with
verve and vitality what the Cuban Revolution is really all about.
"[A]bove all and quite uniquely, a modern political work. That is to
say, it offers not merely a transcription of aspiration and achievement,
but more urgently, the tracing of the formation and development of a
revolutionary consciousness." Annette Michelson Preceded by: IN THE
FOOTSTEPS OF ST. TULA (2003, 24 minutes, 16mm-to-video) An account of
the first appearance to Adolfas Mekas of the mythical St. Tula, Patron
Saint of Cinema and Filmmakers. Total running time: ca. 105 minutes.
10/23
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
8:30 pm, 32 2nd Avenue
GOLDSTEIN
See notes for Oct. 22, 4:15 pm.
10/23
Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art
http://www.nga.gov
2:00, National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW.
AMERICAN ORIGINALS NOW: LYNNE SACHS
Your Day Is My Night October 23 at 2:00 East Building Concourse,
Auditorium Lynne Sachs in person The Task of the Translator (2010,
video, 10 minutes) and Sound of a Shadow (2011, Beta SP, 10 minutes),
two recently completed shorts, precede a screening of Sachs' current
work in progress, Your Day Is My Night: "
a collective of Chinese and
Puerto Rican performers living in New York explores the history and
meaning of 'shiftbeds' through verité conversations, character-driven
fictions, and integrated movement pieces. A shiftbed is shared by people
who are neither in the same family nor in a relationship. Looking at
issues of privacy, intimacy, privilege, and ownership in relationship to
this familiar item of furniture
I have conducted numerous performance
workshops centered around the bedexperienced, remembered, and imagined
from profoundly different viewpoints."Lynne Sachs. (Total running time
approximately 60 minutes) The ongoing film series American Originals Now
offers an opportunity for discussion with internationally recognized
American filmmakers and a chance to share in their artistic practice
through special screenings and conversations about their works in
progress. Since the mid-1980s, Lynne Sachs has developed an impressive
catalogue of essay films that draw on her interests in sound design,
collage, and personal recollection. She investigates war-torn regions
such as Israel, Bosnia, and Vietnam, always striving to work in the
space between a community's collective memory and her own subjective
perceptions. Sachs teaches experimental film and video at New York
University and her films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art and
the Buenos Aires, New York, and Sundance Film Festivals. Her work was
recently the subject of a major retrospective at the San Francisco
Cinemathèque.
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