MadCat Festival

From: Ariella Ben-Dov (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Sep 18 2008 - 02:13:31 PDT


The 12th Annual MadCat Women¹s International Film Festival
Screening the best films by women directors from around the world

http://www.madcatfilmfestival.org/festival_info.html
When: September 19 and September 23 in San Francisco
Where: Artists¹ Television Access and El Rio
 
The 12th Annual MadCat Women¹s International Film Festival is just around
the corner with two special events that celebrate its superlative history as
a showcase for the finest work by women directors everywhere. September 19th
at ATA, MadCat Looks Back: 8 Greats from the Festival Archives screens some
of the most exciting 16mm films culled from past editions of MadCat. On
September 23, Hear It to Believe It continues MadCat¹s longstanding
tradition of presenting silent films to live musical accompaniment under the
stars at San Francisco¹s outdoor venue El Rio.
 
This year marks a change at MadCat with a new schedule for the call for
submissions and the announcement of an expanded touring program. MadCat¹s
open call is now exclusively for touring works, which will be selected by
May 1, 2009, for a national tour to begin in Fall 2009. Submissions are
accepted beginning in October. Although the schedule has changed, MadCat¹s
commitment to women directors and quality film is unwavering. As always,
MadCat seeks films directed or co-directed by women that are produced ANY
year. MadCat accepts ALL GENRES: experimental, documentary, animated,
narrative, hybrid, etc. The Festival favors works that push the limits of
genre and expand notions of visual storytelling. The expanded tour will stop
in San Francisco as well as continue to reach audiences at venues around the
country that in the past have included: Anthology Film Archives, Brown
University, Harn Museum of Art, Harvard Film Archive, the New School,
Pacific Film Archive, PRATT, and RISD Museum of Art, among others.
 
2008 Program: Sept 19 and 23
8 Greats from the MadCat Archives Artists¹ Television Access,
                                                     September 19, 7:30 pm
Some of the best 16mm films MadCat has screened over its twelve-year history
are highlighted, including works by local talent Kerry Laitala, Angela
Reginato, and Phoebe Tooke.

Hear It to Believe It El Rio, September 23, 8:30 pm
Continuing a long-running tradition, MadCat presents a series of silent 16mm
films set to live music performed by local musicians, including bands
Tartufi and Silian Rail. Learn more about these musicians at:
http://www.tartufirock.net/ --- http://www.myspace.com/silianrailmusic
 
SEE BELOW FOR DETAILED PROGRAM NOTES
MADCAT See Movies you won¹t find anywhere else!
Founded in 1996, MadCat is the longest running women¹s film festival in San
Francisco and the only avant-garde women¹s film festival in the United
States. The festival is proud of its worldwide outreach and has presented
films by women from around the globe, from Ireland to India and from Siberia
to Spain. Annually culling through hundreds of entries, MadCat champions
work by female directors who explore notions of visual storytelling and aims
to entice audiences with out-of-the-ordinary groupings of films and videos.
Screenings include thematic shorts programs, trailblazing documentaries, and
slide presentations by local artists.
 
12th Annual MadCat Film Festival
El Rio
3158 Mission St. @ Precita in San Francisco
Tues and Wed, Sept 23
Movies 8:30 pm; FREE BBQ at 6:30 pm
Rain or Shine
Tix: $7­20. Cash Only. 21 and over.
(415) 282-3325; www.elriosf.com

Artists¹ Television Access (ATA)
992 Valencia St. @ 21st in San Francisco
Fri, Sept 19
Movies 7:30 pm
Tix: $7­20. Cash Only.
(415) 824-3890; www.atasite.org
 
MadCat Women¹s International Film Festival
Note new deadline schedule for 2008­2009
Early Bird Deadline: Nov 15, 2008
Late Bird Deadline: Jan 25, 2009
Tour Begins: September 2009
For information visit http://www.madcatfilmfestival.org

2008 MadCat Women¹s International Film Festival
Program Notes
 
Program 1: MadCat Looks Back: 8 Greats from the Festival Archives
Screening Friday, September 19 at Artists¹ Television Access
Orbit Kerry Laitala
2006 € 7 min € Color € 16mm € US Filmmaker in Person
Candy-apple light emissions tickle the retinas in this playful pulsation of
mis-registered images created when a lab accidentally split the film from
16mm to regular 8. (screened at MadCat in 2006)
 
Winter Return Chelsea Walton
2006 € 1 min € Color € mini-DV € US € Filmmaker in Person
A moody stop-motion peek at a city. (screened at MadCat in 2006)
 
Contemplating the City (Contemplando La Ciudad) Angela Reginato
2005 € 3:30 min € B/W € 16mm € US/MX
Perfectly, without affect, a girl sings along with a pop tune, transporting
herself through space and time to Mexico City circa 1978. (screened at
MadCat in 2005)

Late Diane Cheklich
2003 € 7:38 min € B/W € 16mm € US
A collage of eerie, high-contrast shots of seedy hotels and Dial-A-Savior
billboards flicker by as late-night radio evangelist Sister Agnes Phillips
dispenses wisdom and hope to lost souls. (screened at MadCat in 2004)
 
Hotel City Phoebe Tooke
2004 € 16 min € B/W € 16mm € US € Filmmaker in Person
Four tenants living in SRO (single residence occupancy) hotels struggle to
improve their lot. Through the Central City SRO Collaborative, they fight
alongside other tenants and community members for better, safer conditions
as well as address larger issues facing their neighborhoods. (screened at
MadCat in 2004)

Historia del Desierto Celia Galan Julve
2002 € 6 min € Color € Beta € UK
Spanish with English subtitles
Set against the Chihuahua desert, artful stop-motion action illustrates the
brutal crimes of the fictitious Rosita Guzmán, a.k.a. La Mocha, who keeps
her pursuers guessing for more than forty years. (screened at MadCat in
2003)
 
Vessel Wrestling Lisa Yu
2001 € 13 min € Color € 16mm € US
Jello, clay and human hair are the elements of this domestic space gone
awry. Hairballs have a mind of their own and humans melt into light fixtures
only to ooze out of the walls in erotic delight. (screened at MadCat in
2002)
 
Sorry, Brenda Samara Halperin
2000 € 3 min € B/W€ 16mm € US € Filmmaker in Person
Using scenes from Beverly Hills 90210 shot on Super-8 off a television
monitor and optically printed to 16mm, the filmmaker arranges a love affair
between two unlikely characters. (screened at MadCat in 2001)
 
Program 2: Hear It to Believe It
Screening at El Rio on Tuesday, September 23 at 8:30 pm
Live musical accompaniment by Silian Rail and Tartufi
 
Observando el Cielo Jeanne Liotta
Soundtrack by Peggy Ahwesh
2007 € 19 min € Color € 16mm € US
Seven years of celestial field recordings gathered from the chaos of the
cosmos are inscribed onto 16mm film. These naturally occurring VLF (very low
frequency) radio recordings of the magnetosphere allow the universe to speak
for itself. Chosen as one of the Top Ten Films of 2007 by Artforum and the
Village Voice.
 
Air Sheri Wills
2008 € 6 min € Color € 16mm € US € West Coast Premiere
Mimicking the unpredictable and frequently serendipitous nature of
watercolor paints as they run over a blank sheet of paper, these images
unfold on the screen, become charged with life, then quickly disappear into
a mysterious void.
 
Box Office Jenny Perlin
2007 € 2:25 min € B/W € 16mm € US € US Premiere
Shocking statistics highlight the hypocrisy of American foreign policy in
Iraq.
 
Fallen Flags Amanda Christie
2007 € 8:10 min € Color € 16mm € Canada € US Premiere
A layered tapestry of filmed trains and underwater footage, this film
explores fear, death, and transience through the traces of human voices set
amid the flickering light and shadows of empty passenger cars.
 
Ecstatic Vessels Diane Kitchen
2008 € 20 min € Color € 16mm € US € Northern California Premiere
Fluid images of nature create a dreamlike palette of color and time, what
fellow filmmaker Grant Wiedenfeld called, ³A symphony of movement, color,
focus, line.²
 
The Parable of the Tulip Painter and the Fly Charlotte Pryce
2008 € 3:50 min € Color € 16mm € US € Northern California Premiere
A philosophical quest drenched in luminous colors and sparkling light, this
film was shot on color reversal and entirely hand-processed and re-printed
on the optical printer.
 

MadCat Women¹s International Film Festival
10 South Portland Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217

P. 415 436-9523
E. email suppressed
W. www.madcatfilmfestival.org

MadCat Women¹s International Film Festival
Screening the best films by women directors from around the world

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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.