From: Joel S. Bachar (email suppressed)
Date: Wed May 25 2005 - 10:28:57 PDT
Two great experimental titles now available for sale through Blackchair DVD:
Maya Deren - Experimental Films - Authorized DVD edition
and
Different Cinema - Volume One
Maya Deren - Experimental Films - Authorized DVD edition
Catalog No. MC-377
2002, 76 minutes
ISBN: 1-56176-033-1
UPC: 715098760339
SRP: $29.98
To order:
http://www.microcinema.com/programResult.php?program_id=377
The collected shorts of Maya Deren the "Mother of the trance film" who
worked completely outside the commercial film industry and made her own
inner experience the center of her films.
“From the early 1940’s until her death in 1961, Maya Deren evoked and
exemplified the American avant-garde movement virtually by herself. Her
first film, MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON, set the tone for the decade and linked
the movement to the older European avant-garde films of Cocteau and Buñuel.”
- Cecile Starr, The New York Times
"The cinema of Maya Deren delivers us from the studios: it presents our eyes
with physical facts which contain profound psychological meaning; it beats
out within our hearts a time which alternates, continues, revolves, pounds,
or flies away… Poetry, after all, is the feast which life offers those who
know how to receive with their eyes and hearts, and understand."
- Le Corbusier
"Intensely personal, symbolic and surreal films that reveal her deepest,
darkest fantasies. She's Fellini and Bergman wrapped in one gloriously
possessed body. Watching these films can change forever your concept of what
cinema can be."
- L. A. Weekly
Includes:
MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (1943-59, in collaboration with Alexander Hammid,
music by Teiji Ito, 14 min.)
AT LAND (1944, silent, 15 min.)
A STUDY IN CHOREOGRAPHY FOR CAMERA (1945, silent, 4 min.)
RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME (1945-6, silent, 15 min.)
MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE (1948, music arranged by Maya Deren, 12 min.)
THE VERY EYE OF NIGHT (1952-59, choreographic collaboration by Anthony
Tudor, music by Teiji Ito, 15 min.)
Special Features:
Excerpt from
DIVINE HORSEMAN: THE LIVING GODS OF HAITI
PRIVATE LIFE OF A CAT
Previously unreleased short by Alexander Hammid
PICTURE GALLERY
NOTES AND QUOTES
BIOGRAPHY
To order:
http://www.microcinema.com/programResult.php?program_id=377
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Different Cinema - Volume One
Catalog No. MC-379
2005, 90 minutes
UPC: 3 760073440109
SRP: $24.95
To order:
http://www.microcinema.com/programResult.php?program_id=379
Synopsis:
The DIFFERENT CINEMA Vol. 1 DVD is a compilation of rare and original
experimental films from around the world, each of which were selected for
screening at the Different Film Festival of Paris (Festival des Cinémas
Différents de Paris) between 2001 and 2003. The DVD includes the Lettrist
artist Maurice Lemaître and video artist Takahiko Iimura as well as a number
of young undiscovered talents such as Hugo Verlinde, Colas Ricard and Martin
Gracienau.
The ten shorts films on this DVD, each of which have been presented at one
of several Different Cinema Festivals of Paris, represent a panoramic view
of contemporary experimental creations. The visuals take the lead over the
narration and orient the direction of the work. But these directions join
with the questions of humanity, philosophical and aesthetic, that each
creator asks himself no matter that the style or format: games, desire,
encounters, the search for an identity, representation, society.
The first film on the DVD, I-Motion by Rozenn Nobilet, is a rhythmic work
that puts into parallel the body with the art form of cinema. The body
becomes a subject of film, a means of narration. Egbert Mittelstädt works on
a similar theme in this film as he explores the body in motion by filming a
dancer. The body leaves traces that become abstract images that eventually
rejoin the body itself. Other films like Jardin privé by Stéphane Marti or
Geminga by Hugo Verlinde also tackle the subject of body language through
film.
The more narrative films on this DVD, Sentimental Journey by Tony Wu/Georges
Hsin, Introspection by Richard Beaune and Ganeden by Maurice Lemaître,
demonstrate how experimental film can include storytelling. These films,
through their unique treatment of the subject matter, invite the viewer into
fascinating private worlds that are both fragile and intimate.
Subtitled in four languages (English, French, German and Spanish) The
DIFFERENT CINEMA Vol. 1 DVD addresses an international audience. Enriched by
an interview with Marcel Mazé, the founder of the Collectif Jeune Cinéma
(CJC) and a biography/filmography of each of the featured artists. A written
essay by Raphaël Bassan, a French film critic, is included as a pullout
booklet.
Films and filmmakers included on the compilation:
I MOTION by Rozenn Nobilet - UK - 7 mins
SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY by Tony Wu & Georges Hsin - Taiwan - 10 mins
TANDEM : FAUX RACCORDS - Colas Ricards & Martin Gracineau - France - 6 mins
15 secs
GEMINGA - Hugo Verlinde - France - 9 mins 10 secs
GANEDEN - Maurice Lemaitre - France - 17 mins
INTROSPECTION - Richard Beaune - France - 12 mins
JARDIN PRIVE - Stephane Marti - France - 12 mins
OUR FORMER GLORY - Robert Todd - USA - 8 mins
I'M (NOT) SEEN - Takahikio Iimura - Japan - 5 mins
UNFOLDING - Egbert Mittelstadt - Germany - 3 mins 35 secs.
BONUS: Biographies, Filmographies, Interview
SUBTITLES: English, French, German, Spanish
SOUND: Stereo
FORMAT: 4:3, DVD-10, NTSC/PAL, ALL ZONES
http://www.microcinema.com/programResult.php?program_id=379
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