From: Nicky Hamlyn (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Jun 07 2008 - 02:30:04 PDT
Hi Patrick,
I've sent today two DVDs of older work. I sent it to N. Clark street
as I don't have your home address,
Best wishes,
Nicky.
On 7 Jun 2008, at 01:41, Patrick Friel wrote:
> Hi All,
>
>
> A bit late, but hopefully worth the wait.
>
> Chicago Filmmakers is not on Frameworks right now, so sending from
> home.
>
> I hope many of you in/near Chicago can attend.
>
> Best,
>
> Patrick Friel
> Festival Director and Programmer
> The 20th Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival
> A Production of Chicago Filmmakers
>
> ************************************************************
>
>
> The 20th Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival
> A Production of Chicago Filmmakers
>
> June 19-22, 2008
>
> ***************************************************************
>
> SCHEDULE OVERVIEW:
>
> Tuesday, June 17: Focus Pull Exhibition Opens at Gallery 400
>
> Wednesday, June 18: Focus Pull Opening Reception at Gallery 400
> (5:00-8:00pm)
> Wednesday, June 18: Onion City Kick-Off Party at Sonotheque
> (9:00pm-2:00am)
>
> Thursday, June 19: Opening Night Program at the Gene Siskel Film
> Center (8:00pm)
>
> Friday, June 20: Ben Russell Screening at The Nightingale (7:00pm)
> Friday, June 20: Shana Moulton Screening at The Nightingale (9:00pm)
>
> Saturday, June 21: Group Show 1 at Chicago Filmmakers (4:00pm)
> Saturday, June 21: Group Show 2 at Chicago Filmmakers (7:00pm)
> Saturday, June 21: Group Show 3 at Chicago Filmmakers (9:00pm)
>
> Sunday, June 22: Group Show 4 at Chicago Filmmakers (3:30pm)
> Sunday, June 22: Group Show 5 at Chicago Filmmakers (6:00pm)
> Sunday, June 22: Group Show 6 at Chicago Filmmakers (8:00pm)
>
> Wednesday, June 25: Sight-Lines Screening at Gallery 400 (7:00pm)
>
> Saturday, July 5: Focus Pull Exhibition closes
>
>
> **********************************************************************
> ****
>
> FOCUS PULL: Onion City Off-Screen
> Exhibition at Gallery 400
> Presented by Onion City and Gallery 400
> Tuesday, June 17 - Saturday, July 5
>
> Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 18, 5:00-8:00pm
>
>
> At Play in the Fields of the Lord [NEBRASKA]
> Single channel video projection
> Jon Jost, US
>
> Hanky Panky January 1902
> Single channel video
> Ken Jacobs, US
>
> Basket
> Single channel video
> Nicky Hamlyn, UK
>
> PIN WHOLE SERIES Application 1: Bulb
> 16mm projector installation
> Jorge Lorenzo, Mexico
>
> Collage works from films
> Paper collage
> Lewis Klahr, US
>
>
> Gallery 400 is located at 400 S. Peoria St. on the University of
> Illinois at Chicago campus.
> Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 10:00am - 6:00pm; Saturday,
> 12:00-6:00pm.
>
> Sight-Lines
> Companion Screening at Gallery 400
> Wednesday, June 25, 7:00pm
>
> Featuring Jerry Takes a Back Seat, Then Passes Out of the Picture
> (1987, 11 mins.) by Ken Jacobs; Pistrino (2003, 9 mins.) by Nicky
> Hamlyn; Muktikara (1999, 11 mins.) by Jeanne Liotta; Soft Ticket
> (2004, 7 mins.) and Engram Sepals (2000, 6 mins.); and Spectre
> Mystagogic (1957, 8 mins.) by Larry Jordan (showing in a brand new
> restored print).
>
>
> *********************************************************************
>
>
> Wednesday, June 18, 9:00pm-2:00am
>
> ONION CITY KICK-OFF PARTY!
> At Sonotheque (1444 W. Chicago Ave.)
>
> Join us at one of Chicago’s hottest spots for an evening of music,
> visuals, and fun as we kick off the 20th edition of Onion City in
> style. Sneaks of some of the work in the festival and other visual
> delights will be running through out the night and the music will
> be jumping.
>
> At 10:30, Milwaukee-based film and video maker Brent Coughenour
> will perform The Indomitable Human Spirit, a live audio-visual
> performance for thumb piano, video game controller and computer.
> Incorporating a broad array of audio and video analysis and
> synthesis strategies, the piece creates a hinted and tenuous
> relationship between sounds and images, between abstract and
> concrete, between performance gesture and software response.
>
> $4.00 Svedka cocktail drink special courtesy of Sonotheque.
> Admission is free (but a $5.00 suggested donation is appreciated).
> Cash bar. You must be 21 to attend.
>
>
> *********************************************************************
>
>
> Thursday, June 19, 8:00pm at the Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N.
> State St.)
> OPENING NIGHT PROGRAM
>
> The Rabbit Hunters (2007, 23 mins., video, Portugal): In this coda
> to his magnificent feature Colossal Youth, Pedro Costa continues
> his incisive look at the lives of the downtrodden Cape Verdians
> living on the outskirts of Lisbon.
>
> Last Days in a Lonely Place (2007, 20 mins., video, US): Using
> material taken entirely from the Grand Theft Auto video game, Phil
> Solomon creates a haunting and moody world teetering at the edge of
> apocalypse.
>
> Observando El Cielo (2007, 19 mins., 16mm, US): Jeanne Liotta limns
> heaven and earth though seven years of time-lapse recordings of the
> night sky in this visually lush and magical film.
>
> Easter Morning (2008, 10 mins., video, US): A lyrical delight by
> the great Bruce Conner, featuring music by Terry Riley.
>
> The Dike of Transience (2005, 13 mins., 35mm, Hungary): The
> inhabitants of a small village live under the threat of the
> destruction of a nearby dam, in this charming and beautifully
> photographed film by Gyula Nemes.
>
> Our Lady of the Sphere (1969, 10 mins., 35mm, US): A wonderful and
> strange animated classic by Larry Jordan, showing in a new 35mm
> blow-up.
>
> The Hyrcynium Wood (2007, 3 mins., video, UK) and We the People
> (2007, 1 min., video, UK): These two atmospheric shorts by Ben
> Rivers explore tropes from classic horror films.
>
>
> *********************************************************************
>
>
> Friday, June 20, 7:00pm at The Nightingale (1084 N. Milwaukee Ave.)
> Co-presented by The Nightingale
>
> ETHNOGRAPHIC ASIDES: FILMS BY BEN RUSSELL
> Ben Russell in Person!
>
> For nearly a decade, film and video maker Ben Russell has been
> pushing the boundaries and definitions of ethnographic film,
> peeking in the corners and skirting along the margins to explore
> subjects and cross-genre approaches to illuminate and raise
> questions about this field and the idea of representation more
> generally. Working primarily in an experimental mode, his films
> have a rigor in their approach, a formal beauty uncommon to
> ethnography, and frequently display a sly humor at odds with an
> area of investigation traditionally rooted in the sciences.
>
> Black and White Trypps Number Four (2008, 11 mins., 16mm, US):
> "Using a 35mm strip of motion picture slug featuring the recently
> deceased American comedian Richard Pryor, this extended Rorschach
> assault on the eyes moves out of a flickering chaos created by
> incompatible film gauges into a punchline involving historically
> incompatible racial stereotypes." (BR)
>
> Trypps #5 (Dubai) (2008, 3 mins., 16mm, US): A small detail of
> consumer society raises big questions.
>
> Workers Leaving the Factory (Dubai) (2008, 8 mins.. 16mm, US): "103
> years later, a(nother) remake of the Lumière Brothers pseudo-
> actuality film La Sortie des usines Lumière. This time around our
> factory is a job site, a construction site peopled by thousands of
> Southeast Asian laborers, a neo-Fordist architectural production
> site that manufactures skyscrapers like so many cars." (BR)
>
> The Wet Season [Tjúba Tén] (Co-directed by Ben Russell and Brigid
> McCaffrey, 2007, 47 mins., 16mm, US/Suriname): "An experimental
> ethnography recorded in the jungle village of Bendekondre, Suriname
> at the start of 2007. Composed of community-generated performances,
> re-enactments and extemporaneous recordings, this film functions
> doubly as an examination of a rapidly changing material culture in
> the present and as a historical document for the future. Whether
> the resultant record is directed towards its subjects, its
> temporary residents (filmmakers), or its Western viewers is a
> question proposed via the combination of long takes, materialist
> approaches, selective subtitling, and a focus on various forms of
> cultural labor." (BR)
>
>
> ****************************************
>
> Friday, June 20, 9:00pm at The Nightingale (1084 N. Milwaukee Ave.)
> Co-presented by Chicago Cinema Forum and The Nightingale
>
> CYNTHIA'S MOMENT - Screening and Live Performance
> With Shana Moulton in Person!
>
> The work of Brooklyn-based videomaker and artist Shana Moulton
> might be considered post-post-modern: while she uses odd detritus
> of pop culture - Angela Lansbury work out videos, Crystal Light
> drink mix, dimestore tchotchkes, Donald Duck educational cartoons,
> and more - her videos and performances are infused with an
> unexpected sincerity rather than the usual distancing irony. Her
> alter-ego Cynthia is searching for some kind of meaning in her life
> and, despite her eccentricities and attraction to self-help and new
> age remedies, Moulton treats her with respect and a sympathetic
> understanding of her desires. Moulton seemingly lives through her
> character in some ways and invites the audience to question their
> own wants and desires by welcoming them to share in Cynthia's Moment.
>
> Electric Blanket Temple Altar (2005, 6 mins., video)
> A self-help book guides the reader through a series of self-esteem
> exercises that culminate in a theosophical theory of electricity.
> Scenes from the reader's life illustrate the effect these exercises
> have on reality.
>
> Whispering Pines #8 (2006, 8 mins., video)
> Fueled by the sugar-free drink Crystal Light, Cynthia methodically
> fills a vase with alchemical home decorating items. Once her
> project is completed, Cynthia is again left to dwell in her
> thoughts. Suddenly a ladder grows out of the vase. Cynthia climbs
> the ladder and, through a trap door, enters an ecstatic rave
> complete with a techno remix of the Crystal Light commercial music.
>
> Whispering Pines #4 (2007, 12 mins., video)
> This installment of Whispering Pines follows the artist's
> character, Cynthia, on a quest for relief from her carpal-tunnel.
> She visits an Avon lady/medicine woman in the forest and receives a
> series of treatments, including sound medicine from seashell and
> pinecone
> headphones, a reflexology hand massage and a makeover. Having
> gained a new sense of physical liberation from the Avon lady's
> remedies, Cynthia removes her clothes and runs into the forest
> where her nude but fractal covered body performs an ecstatic
> dance. After collapsing, she becomes transported to the abstracted
> world from Disney's 1959 cartoon, Donald in Mathmagic Land. The
> disembodied Cynthia takes Donald's place in this version and
> discovers that understanding math is the key to understanding
> nature, the physical world and her body.
>
> Body ÷ Mind + 7 = Spirit (15 mins., live performance with video)
> Moulton brings Cynthia and her strange world to life through live
> performance and projected video, creating a unique experience that
> is equal parts personal growth workshop, dance recital,
> instructional video and fairytale. Cynthia, an anxiety-ridden
> hypochondriac, wears clothing embedded with medical devices and
> surrounds herself with inspirational new age knickknacks in order
> to cope with her life. Through her banal home decorations, Cynthia
> searches for fulfillment, purpose and salvation. Her struggles with
> the mundane, the eclectic and the disposable offer a unique
> perspective on the relationship between spirituality and
> consumerism in contemporary society.
>
> Feeling Free with 3D Magic Eye Remix (9 mins., live performance
> with video)
> Appropriating a dated exercise video hosted by actress Angela
> Lansbury, Feeling Free presents a woman, played by Moulton, who
> attempts to follow the televised workout in her living room even as
> elements of her home decor begin to appear onscreen. Deriving its
> title from an inspirational segment of Lansbury's program, Feeling
> Free subjects the appropriated footage to eccentric visual and
> audio displacements, culminating in a psychedelic dance sequence
> set to a remix of the program's insipid theme song.
>
>
> *********************************************************************
>
> Saturday, June 21, 4:00pm at Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark St.)
> GROUP SHOW 1
>
> Bachelor Machines Part 1
> Rosalind Nashashibi (2007, 30 mins., 16mm, UK): A cargo ship
> traveling from Italy to Sweden is the focus of Nashashibi’s
> stunning experimental documentary.. The film combines an
> observation of a closed community - the crew - with the attribution
> of anthropomorphic characteristics to the ship itself.
> Bachelor Machines Part 2
> Rosalind Nashashibi (2007, 5 mins., 16mm x 2, UK): A double-
> projection, in which the artist Thomas Bayrle discusses the
> invention of the machine (in particular, the diesel engine) as a
> materialization of the desires once conveyed abstractly through the
> repetition of the rosary.
> Revisiting Solaris
> Deimantas Narkevicius (2007, 18 mins., video, Lithuania): “More
> than forty years after Andrej Tarkovskij's Solaris, actor Donatas
> Banionis revisits his role as Chris Kelvin in a film based on the
> last chapter of Lem's original book, which was left out of
> Tarkovskij's version. In this chapter, Kelvin reflects on his brief
> visit to the "soil" of the planet Solaris shortly before his return
> from the space mission.” (Ann Arbor Film Festival)
> Strange Attractors
> Michael Wechsler (2008, 7 mins., video, US): The insertion of the
> digital into the natural world raises questions about borders and
> boundaries.
> Missing
> Riccardo Iacono (2007, 4 mins., video, UK, North American
> Premiere): Airing one’s dirty laundry in public takes on a whole
> new meaning in this performance video.
> Take into the air my quiet breath
> The Speculative Archive [Julia Meltzer and David Thorne] (2006, 17
> mins., video, US): An architect in Damascus recounts the 30-year on-
> again, off-again fate of a building site, weaving in personal
> history and changes in Syrian society along the way.
> (81 mins.)
>
>
> Saturday, June 21, 7:00pm at Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark St.)
> GROUP SHOW 2
>
> This program is dedicated to Zack Stiglicz (1952-2007), filmmaker,
> video artist, painter, teacher, husband, and friend. Zack’s
> insatiable curiosity, boundless energy, passion for art and
> teaching, and provocative and questioning spirit will be missed by
> all who knew him.
>
> Armoire
> Vincent Grenier (2007, 3 mins., video, US): A playful and
> disarmingly simple video about a bird in a box.
> Antigenic Drift
> Lewis Klahr (2007, 17 mins., video, US): Lewis Klahr transfers his
> trademark collage animation to the cool, shiny world of digital
> video in this work on the unsettling dread of air travel and
> contagion.
> Phantom
> Luke Sieczek (2007, 6 mins., video, US): “Rearticulating scenes
> from Jacques Tourneur's Cat People, actress Simone Simon's face is
> a luminous surface in a permanent state of unrest.” (LS)
> Praxis 1 – 3 Scenes
> Dietmar Brehm (2007, 23 mins., video, Austria): Brehm reconfigures
> several of his own films for the video age, without losing the
> moody darkness of the originals.
> Primitive I
> Jake Barningham (2008, 2 mins. video, US, World Premiere): Cubist
> video?
> All That Rises
> Daïchi Saïto (2007, 7 mins., 16mm, Canada): “A juxtaposition of
> seeing and sounding, sky and stone and all that’s in between.” (DS)
> Infection Transmission Event/Cloudy November
> Paul Abbott (2008, 7 mins., video, UK, World Premiere): The mind
> works at the futile task of making sense of a series of isolated
> words and fragmented phrases, largely unrecognizable images, and
> blackness in this video that proves to be about the difficulty of
> knowing and the instability of understanding.
> reSHOOTING
> Jake Barningham (2008, 5 mins. video, US, World Premiere): An
> iconic image from early American cinema is subjected to structural
> film tactics.
> God the Pugilist
> Zack Stiglicz (1996, 10 mins., 16mm, US): The Chichen Itza ruins in
> the Yucatan are the site of visual play and Gnostic rambling in
> Stiglicz’s visceral exploration of spirit and nature.
> (80 mins.)
>
>
> Saturday, June 21, 9:00pm at Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark St.)
> GROUP SHOW 3
>
> About a World
> Corinna Schnitt (2007, 9 mins., video, Germany): Nudes in the
> wilderness referencing imagined classical studies are set upon by a
> randy man and Jürgen Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action.
> Victory over the Sun
> Michael Robinson (2007, 13 mins., 16mm, US): “Dormant sites of past
> World's Fairs breed an eruptive struggle between spirit and matter,
> ego and industry, futurism and failure. For thine is the kingdom
> and the power and glory; nothing lasts forever, even cold November
> rain.” (MR)
> Androa Autoportrait
> Matthias De Groof and Kristin Rogghe (2006, 16 mins., video,
> Belgium/DR Congo): In this playful tweaking of the idea of self-
> portraiture - conceived by De Groof and Rogghe - the Congolese
> artist Androa Mindre Kolo films himself while running through an
> arts academy in Kinshasa.
> Ah, Liberty!
> Ben Rivers (2008, 20 mins., 16mm widescreen, UK): “A celebratory
> portrait of a family’s place in the wilderness – living, working,
> playing on a farm throughout the seasons; free-range animals and
> children, junk and nature, all within the most sublime
> landscape.” (BR)
> Footnotes to a House of Love
> Laida Lertxundi (2007, 13 mins., 16mm, US/Spain): A house in the
> California desert becomes the site of hinted at narratives,
> relationships, and meanings.
> (71 mins.)
>
>
> Sunday, June 22, 3:30pm at Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark St.)
> GROUP SHOW 4
>
> For the Unseen
> Chi Jang Yin (2007, 11 mins., video, US): Fact, fiction, and memory
> merge and blur in a familial conversation on a train.
> Opening
> Madison Brookshire (2007, 25 mins., 16mm, US): “Using everyday
> images of overlooked spaces, Opening reveals the city in the
> landscape and the landscape in the city.” (MB)
> Two/2
> Peter Bo Rappmund (2008, 7 mins., 16mm, US, World Premiere): A
> dynamic, abstract exploration of image/sound relationships,
> extrapolated from Léonin’s Magnus Liber Organi.
> Discoveries on the Forest Floor 1-3
> Charlotte Pryce (2007, 4 mins., 16mm, US): “Three miniature,
> illuminated, heliographic studies of plants, observed and
> imagined.” (CP)
> Ring
> Robert Todd (2007, 15 mins., 16mm, US): “A reflection of the
> eternal internal, rippling through and along with waves of
> light.” (RT)
> Untitled Seaway Studies
> Paul Lloyd Sargent (2008, 8 mins., video, US, World Premiere): A
> camera let loose on the St. Lawrence River.
> Green Cameraless
> Robbie Land (2007, 5 mins., 16mm, US): Handmade cinema of street
> lamps, rocket ships, and water towers.
> (75 mins.)
>
>
> Sunday, June 22, 6:00pm at Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark St.)
> GROUP SHOW 5
>
> The After Life
> Fred Worden (2007, 7 mins., video, US): The rise and fall of
> capitalism and a spectral dance of consumer purgatory.
> Along with the Phoenix
> Masha Godovannaya (2008, 10 mins., 16mm, Russia, North American
> Premiere): A beautiful film which references the destruction of
> fire and the birth of the Phoenix.
> Broken Horses
> Peter Miller (2008, 3 mins., 16mm, Austria, US Premiere): “A black
> horse and a white horse are interwoven…subtle gestures and curves
> give way to graceful forms and elegant lines.” (PM)
> Canons
> Keith Tassick (2007, 10 mins., video, US): Miniature visual
> vignettes – like Marie Menken’s Notebook for the digital age.
> Garden/ing
> Eriko Sonoda (2007, 6 mins., video, Japan, US Premiere): A dizzying
> and confounding exploration of real and reproduced space.
> It Will Die Out in the Mind
> Deborah Stratman (2006, 4 mins, video, US): “A short meditation on
> the possibility of spiritual existence and the paranormal in our
> information age.” (DS)
> Marietta
> Adele Friedman (2006, 4 mins., 16mm, US): Friedman’s wandering
> camera settles on unlikely framings and telling details in this
> portrait film of three friends in Vienna.
> Public Domain
> Jim Jennings (2007, 8 mins. 16mm, US): “The film’s title was a
> response to the debate in New York over the City’s plan to require
> licensing and insurance from filmmakers to film on the street, in
> the public realm. Fortunately, the City backed down. In its
> whirling color, this film expresses my never-ending fascination
> with the street.” (JJ)
> Spirit House
> Robert Todd (2008, 11 mins., 16mm, US, US Premiere): “A tale of two
> passages within the Spirit house. This is the first in a series
> that looks at the places we find our spiritual presence augmented,
> inflamed, or simply acknowledged.” (RT)
> Study #40
> lia (2007, 10 mins., video, Austria): A minimalist abstraction that
> explores visual and aural patterns.
> (73 mins.)
>
>
> Sunday, June 22, 8:00 at Chicago Filmmakers (5243 N. Clark St.)
> GROUP SHOW 6
>
> Palimpsest 98
> Jennifer Fieber (2008, 3 mins., 16mm, US, World Premiere): "Which
> one's real? You decide." (JF)
> Quartet
> Nicky Hamlyn (2007, 8 mins., 16mm, UK, US Premiere): A chamber
> study of sorts as Hamlyn explores the details of a domestic space
> through repetition.
> Tziporah
> Abraham Ravett (2007, 7 mins., 16mm, US): A delicate reflection on
> loss and grief.
> Tulipa
> Karo Goldt (2008, 3 mins., video, Austria/Germany): “This film is
> part of a series of abstract works about flowers in which three
> different themes are united: my passion for classic oil painting,
> my passion for flowers, and my passion for music.” (KG)
> Sunbeam Hunter, A Logic Sore, & For Them Ending
> Jonathan Schwartz (2007, 9 mins. total, 16mm, US): These three in-
> camera animations hint at nostalgia, but ultimately take a more
> critical stance.
> All Through the Night
> Michael Robinson (2007, 4 mins., video, US): “A charred visitation
> with an icy language of control. There is no room for love.” (MR)
> Carol Anne Is Dead
> Michael Robinson (2008, 7 mins., video, US): Robinson recycles his
> family’s home movie version of Poltergeist, made when he was ten,
> into a raw look at the performative.
> Hold Me Now
> Michael Robinson (2008, 5 mins., video, US): Sing-along with the
> Thompson Twins.
> Inside the Velvet K
> Luther Price (2006, 8 mins., 16mm, US)
> Dusty Ricket
> Luther Price (2007, 6 mins., 16mm, US)
> At Twilight (Inkblot #9)
> Luther Price (2008, 6 mins., 16mm, US, World Premiere): These three
> very different films by Luther Price continue his fascination with
> found footage, decay (literal and figurative), the accretion of
> meaning through juxtaposition of images and, in the last film,
> through paint, visual tactility, and the transformation of the
> physical into a quest for understanding.
> (66 mins.)
>
>
> **********************************************************************
> ********
>
> ADMISSION:
>
>
> EXHIBITION:
> Focus Pull exhibition: Free
> Wednesday, June 25 Gallery 400 Sight-Lines screening: Free
>
> PARTY:
> Wednesday (June 18) Onion City Kick-Off Party at Sonotheque: Free
> (but a $5.00 suggested donation is appreciated); Cash Bar.
>
> SCREENINGS:
> Thursday (June 19) Opening Night Program at the Gene Siskel Film
> Center: $9.00 general; $7.00 students; $5.00 Film Center and
> Chicago Filmmakers’ members.
>
> Friday (June 20) screenings at The Nightingale, per screening:
> $8.00 general; $7.00 students; $4.00 Chicago Filmmakers’ members
> (members’ free admission are not good for these programs).
>
> Saturday and Sunday (June 21 and 22) screenings at Chicago
> Filmmakers, per screening: $8.00 general; $7.00 students; $4.00
> Chicago Filmmakers’ members.
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.