From: Weekly Listing (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Mar 28 2009 - 23:14:21 PDT
Part 1 of 2: This week [March 28 - April 5, 2009] in avant garde cinema
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NEW CALLS FOR ENTRIES:
=====================
Rencontres Internationales Sciences et Cinémas (Marseille, France; Deadline: June 01, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=1014.ann
Antimatter Film Festival (Victoria, BC, Canada; Deadline: June 05, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=1015.ann
Ellensburg Film Festival (Ellensburg, WA, USA; Deadline: July 03, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=1016.ann
EXiS2009 (seoul, south korea; Deadline: May 15, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=1017.ann
Woodstock Museum 10th Annual Film Festival (Woodstock, New York, U.S.A.; Deadline: April 01, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=1018.ann
VIDEOHOLICA 2009 INTERNATIONAL VIDEO ART FESTIVAL (Varna; Deadline: June 20, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=1019.ann
SYDNEY UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL (Sydney; Deadline: May 29, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=1020.ann
Festival Miden (Greece; Deadline: May 15, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=1021.ann
DEADLINES APPROACHING:
======================
25 FPS International Experimental Film and Video Festival (Zagreb, Croatia; Deadline: May 01, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=1008.ann
Illuminated Corridor (oakland, ca, usa; Deadline: April 01, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=1011.ann
Woodstock Museum 10th Annual Film Festival (Woodstock, New York, U.S.A.; Deadline: April 01, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=1018.ann
H2O: Film on Water; Juried VIDEO Exhibition 2009 (VT and NH, USA; Deadline: April 15, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=939.ann
Curtas Vila do Conde (Vila do Conde, Portugal; Deadline: April 06, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=956.ann
film sharing Low & No Budget VideoFilmfestival Tour 2009 (Mainz, Germany, Europe; Deadline: April 01, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=980.ann
The Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival (Chicago, IL, US; Deadline: April 10, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=986.ann
Wimbledon Film Festival 2009 (London, UK; Deadline: March 31, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=992.ann
Gallery RFD (Swainsboro, GA; Deadline: April 23, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=997.ann
Festival of (In)appropriation (Los Angeles, CA, USA; Deadline: April 01, 2009)
http://www.hi-beam.net/cgi-bin/ann.pl?type=calls&readfile=998.ann
Enter your event announcements by going to the Flicker Weekly Listing Form
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Also available online at Flicker: http://www.hi-beam.net
THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMS (SUMMARY):
==============================
* Among the Paving Stones [March 28, Ann Arbor, Michigan]
* Hapax Legomena, Program 1 [March 28, New York, New York]
* Hapax Legomena, Program 2 [March 28, New York, New York]
* Bleak House: the Poetic Horror of Ben Rivers [March 28, San Francisco, California]
* Systems and Layers [March 29, Ann Arbor, Michigan]
* Hitoshi Toyoda: Nazuna 35mm Slideshow [March 29, Ann Arbor, Michigan]
* Los Angeles Filmforum Presents the Los Angeles Premiere of Ken Jacobs's
"Razzle Dazzle the Lost World." [March 29, Los Angeles, California]
* Hapax Legomena, Program 1 [March 29, New York, New York]
* Essential Cinema Zorns Lemma [March 29, New York, New York]
* Hollis Frampton's Hapax Legomena, Pgm 1 [March 29, New York, New York]
* Hollis Frampton's Hapax Legomena, Pgm 2 [March 29, New York, New York]
* Hapax Legomena, Program 2 [March 29, New York, New York]
* <B>This Is My Land: Ben Rivers’ Portraits and Landscapes</B> [March 29, San Francisco, California]
* Lift Monthly Screening: Documentary and Authenticity [March 29, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* Robert Todd's Cinema of Discovery [March 30, Los Angeles, California]
* Hollis Frampton's Hapax Legomena, Pgm 1 [March 30, New York, New York]
* Hollis Frampton's Hapax Legomena, Pgm 2 [March 30, New York, New York]
* Two Films By Klaus Wyborny [March 31, Brooklyn, New York]
* The Passion of Joan of Arc [March 31, Reading, Pennsylvania]
* The April Fool's Cinema Show Feat. Robert Banks [April 1, Oberlin, OH 44074]
* <B>Restoring and Rediscovering the Los Angeles Avant-Garde</B> [April 1, San Francisco, California]
* Hipstory: Film Tribute To the 40th Anniversary of '69 Woodstock Festival [April 1, Woodstock]
* Transfixed Motion | Transitory Still [April 2, Sheffield]
* Notes On Composing: 5 Collaborations In Film and Music [April 2, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* Electromediascope [April 3, Kansas City, Missouri]
* <B>Tony Conrad: Flickering Jewel, Program One</B> [April 3, San Francisco, California]
* Talk To the Pie 1 : Notes On Composing [April 3, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* Live Images 2 : Make Me Stop Smoking [April 3, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* Live Images 3 : In the Room 3 [April 3, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* Out of the Shadows; Or, the Light Is Just Around the Corner [April 4, Chicago, Illinois]
* Journey From Darkness Into Light: Some Films By Kerry Laitala [April 4, Los Angeles, California]
* Magic Lantern Cinema Presents: the Inappropriate Covers Show [April 4, Providence, RI]
* Barn Dance: Melinda Stone's Homestead Hoe-Down + the Goat Family + [April 4, San Francisco, California]
* <B>Tony Conrad: Flickering Jewel, Program Two</B> [April 4, San Francisco, California]
* Live Images 2 : Make Me Stop Smoking [April 4, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* Talk To the Pie 2 : and then there Were None [April 4, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* Ben Coonley : Talking Points and Talking Ponies [April 4, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* Rabih Mroue :Make Me Stop Smoking [April 4, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* Videodrome [April 4, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* Live Images 3 : In the Room [April 4, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* Expanded Cinema For Cornelius Cardew. the Room. [April 5, Bretigny Sur Orgne, France]
* Los Angeles Filmforum Presents Animated Documentaries Part 1 – Portraits [April 5, Los Angeles, California]
* <B>Tony Conrad: Flickering Jewel, Program Three</B> [April 5, San Francisco, California]
* Crossing Over (Under Your Skin) Curated By Arjon Dunnewind [April 5, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* Talk To the Pie 3 : Sung Kwan Kim [April 5, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* On Screen 1: A Human Drawing Blood From A Bound Prisoner, An
Anthropomorphic Cat Doing the Same [April 5, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
* Spotlight On Louise Bourque [April 5, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]
Events are sorted by CITY within each DATE.
------------------------
SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 2009
------------------------
3/28
Ann Arbor, Michigan: Ann Arbor Film Festival
http://aafilmfest.org/
4 pm, Michigan Theater Screening Room
AMONG THE PAVING STONES
Dig by Robert Todd, USA, 3 min., 16mm, 2007. / Speechless by Scott
Stark, USA, 13 min., 16mm, 2008. / Lossless #2 by Rebecca Baron and Doug
Goodwin , USA, 3 min., video, B/W, 2008. / De Tijd by Bart Vegter,
Netherlands, 9 min., 35mm,silent, 2008. / Horizontal Boundaries by Pat
O'Neill, USA, 23 min., 35mm, 2008. / Public Domain by Jim Jennings, USA,
8 min., 16mm, silent, 2008. / ELEMENTs by Julie Murray, USA, 7
min.,16mm, 2008. / Origin of the Species by Ben Rivers, England, 16
min., 16mm, 2008. / Sarabande by Nathaniel Dorsky, USA, 15 min., 16mm
silent, 2008.
3/28
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
6:45 pm, 32 2nd Avenue
HAPAX LEGOMENA, PROGRAM 1
See March 25 for details.
3/28
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
9:15pm, 32 2nd Avenue
HAPAX LEGOMENA, PROGRAM 2
See March 25 for details.
3/28
San Francisco, California: Other Cinema
http://www.othercinema.com/
8:30 PM, 992 Valencia St.
BLEAK HOUSE: THE POETIC HORROR OF BEN RIVERS
In his first-ever visit, this Brighton, UK maker unleashes a creepy lot
of sublimely suspenseful, genre-inflected cine-poems. Winner of last
year's Rotterdam Tiger Award, this prolific Brit fashions minimal, moody
riffs on horror film tropes. Rivers' work profits from the sheer
physical pleasure of the hazy chiaroscuro of desolate and crumbling
places. Included on this program of poignant cinema are Old Dark House,
a hand-processed tour-by-flashlight of an abandoned, burnt-out building;
The Hyrcynium Wood, a B/W "mystery" film shot in 16mm; and The Coming
Race, wherein thousands of people climb a rocky mountain terrain – a
vague, mysterious and unsettling pilgrimage fraught with unknown
intentions. DJ Onanist conjures up a haunted-house FX mix for our
artist's reception.
----------------------
SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2009
----------------------
3/29
Ann Arbor, Michigan: Ann Arbor Film Festival
http://aafilmfest.org/
1 pm, Michigan Theater Main Theater
SYSTEMS AND LAYERS
On the Third Planet from the Sun by Pavel Medvedev, Russia, 32 min.,
35mm, 2006. / Más Se Perdió by Stephen Connolly, England, 14 min., 16mm,
2008. / O'er the Land by Deborah Stratman , USA, 52 min., 16mm, 2008.
3/29
Ann Arbor, Michigan: Ann Arbor Film Festival
http://aafilmfest.org/
3:30 pm, Michigan Theater Screening Room
HITOSHI TOYODA: NAZUNA 35MM SLIDESHOW
Hitoshi Toyoda in person to present NAZUNA (35mm slideshow, 580 images,
90 min, silent). NAZUNA documents Toyoda's yearlong journey back through
Japan; returning to his family's home in Tokyo, discovering a small
community of Japanese Amish, spending time at a church for the homeless
and living in a Buddhist temple deep in the mountains. Hitoshi Toyoda is
a self-taught photographer who has worked exclusively in the medium of
slideshows for the past ten years. His silent slide shows have been
compared to haiku literature because of the way they are able to
encompass both the minutiae of daily life and the larger, unknowable
forces that govern that life. Toyoda only exhibits his work in live
contexts, clicking through the slides himself. Born in New York City, he
grew up in Tokyo and now divides his time between both. He has presented
his work in public spaces, churches, and galleries and museums including
the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art, Setagaya Art Museum, Taka Ishii
Gallery, Images Festival and Anthology Film Archives.
3/29
Los Angeles, California: Filmforum
http://www.lafilmforum.org/
7:00 pm, Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. at Las Palmas
LOS ANGELES FILMFORUM PRESENTS THE LOS ANGELES PREMIERE OF KEN JACOBS’S
"RAZZLE DAZZLE THE LOST WORLD."
Los Angeles Filmforum presents the Los Angeles Premiere of Ken Jacobs's
"Razzle Dazzle the Lost World." Ken Jacob's is one of the leading
practitioners of film and video art in the world. We're delighted to
host the Los Angeles premiere of his newest video work: Capitalism:
Slavery (2006, DVD NTSC, b&w, silent, 3 min.) and the Razzle Dazzle the
Lost World (2008, DVD NTSC, color and black & white, 90 min.). An
eye-popper and brain-boggler…" – Nathan Lee, NY Times. General admission
$10, students/seniors $6, free for Filmforum members. The Egyptian
Theatre has a validation stamp for the Hollywood & Highland complex.
Park 4 hours for $2 with validation.
3/29
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
6:45 pm, 32 2nd Avenue
HAPAX LEGOMENA, PROGRAM 1
PROGRAM 1: (nostalgia) (HAPAX LEGOMENA I) 1973, 36 minutes, 16mm, sound.
"[T]he time it takes for a photograph to burn (and thus confirm its
two-dimensionality) becomes the clock within the film, while Frampton
plays the critic, asynchronously glossing, explicating, narrating,
mythologizing his earlier art, and his earlier life, as he commits them
both to the fire of a labyrinthine structure; for Borges too was one of
his earlier masters, and he grins behind the facades of logic,
mathematics, and physical demonstration which are the formal metaphors
for most of Frampton's films." –P. Adams Sitney POETIC JUSTICE (HAPAX
LEGOMENA II) 1972, 31 minutes, 16mm, silent. "Frampton presents us with
a 'scenario' of extreme complexity in which the themes of sexuality,
infidelity, voyeurism are 'projected' in narrative sequence entirely
through the voice telling the tale – again it is the first person
singular speaking, however, in the present tense and addressing the
characters as 'you,' 'your lover,' and referring to an 'I'. We see, on
screen, only the physical aspect of a script, papers resting on a
table…and the projection is that of a film as consonant with the
projection of the mind." –Annette Michelson CRITICAL MASS (HAPAX
LEGOMENA III) 1971, 26 minutes, 16mm, sound. "As a work of art I think
[it] is quite universal and deals with all quarrels (those between men
and women, or men and men, or women and women, or children, or war. It
is war!... It is very funny, and rather obviously so. It is a magic film
in that you can enjoy it, with greater appreciation, each time you look
at it. Most aesthetic experiences are not enjoyable on the surface. You
have to look at them a number of times before you are able to fully
enjoy them, but this one stands up at once, and again and again, and is
amazingly clear." –Stan Brakhage Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.
3/29
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
4:30pm, 32 Second Avenue
ESSENTIAL CINEMA ZORNS LEMMA
Directed by Hollis Frampton 1970, 60 minutes, 16mm, color, sound. "A
major poetic work. Created and put together by a very clear eye-head,
this original and complex abstract work moves beyond the letters of the
alphabet, beyond words and beyond Freud. If you don't understand it the
first time you see it, don't despair, see it again! When you finally
'get it,' a small light, possibly a candle, will light itself inside
your forehead." –Ernie Gehr
3/29
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
6:45 pm, 32 Second Avenue
HOLLIS FRAMPTON’S HAPAX LEGOMENA, PGM 1
Frampton's seven-part HAPAX LEGOMENA is arguably his greatest completed
achievement. While its various parts can each stand alone, together they
form a complex and quasi-symphonic whole – an enigmatic structuralist
'autobiography', a series of investigations into the possibilities of
filmmaking, and a playful and dazzling encyclopedia of the cinema that
is perhaps the closest thing avant-garde film has to Bach's
"Well-Tempered Clavier". Puzzling, conceptually daring, and at times
disarmingly comic, HAPAX LEGOMENA is one of the pinnacles of
experimental film.
3/29
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
9:15pm, 32 Second Avenue
HOLLIS FRAMPTON’S HAPAX LEGOMENA, PGM 2
Frampton's seven-part HAPAX LEGOMENA is arguably his greatest completed
achievement. While its various parts can each stand alone, together they
form a complex and quasi-symphonic whole – an enigmatic structuralist
'autobiography', a series of investigations into the possibilities of
filmmaking, and a playful and dazzling encyclopedia of the cinema that
is perhaps the closest thing avant-garde film has to Bach's
"Well-Tempered Clavier". Puzzling, conceptually daring, and at times
disarmingly comic, HAPAX LEGOMENA is one of the pinnacles of
experimental film.
3/29
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
9:15pm, 32 2nd Avenue
HAPAX LEGOMENA, PROGRAM 2
HOLLIS FRAMPTON'S HAPAX LEGOMENA MARCH 25-31 "Hapax legomena are,
literally, 'things said once'. The scholarly jargon refers to those
words that occur only a single time in the entire oeuvre of an author,
or in a whole literature." –H.F. Hollis Frampton – photographer,
theoretician, philosopher and, above all, filmmaker – is one of the
towering figures of American avant-garde cinema. Possessed of a
frighteningly prodigious and wide-ranging intellect – he was a voracious
reader from childhood, and his films abound with evidence of his
fascination with linguistics, science, mathematics and philosophy –
combined with a witty and mischievous attraction to puzzles and
game-playing, Frampton was active as a filmmaker for only a
decade-and-a-half (his career cut tragically short by his death from
cancer in 1984). But in that brief time he created a breathtakingly
ambitious body of work, whose range and inventiveness are unsurpassed.
Frampton's seven-part HAPAX LEGOMENA is arguably his greatest completed
achievement. While its various parts can each stand alone, together they
form a complex and quasi-symphonic whole – an enigmatic structuralist
'autobiography', a series of investigations into the possibilities of
filmmaking, and a playful and dazzling encyclopedia of the cinema that
is perhaps the closest thing avant-garde film has to Bach's
"Well-Tempered Clavier". Puzzling, conceptually daring, and at times
disarmingly comic, HAPAX LEGOMENA is one of the pinnacles of
experimental film. This full week of screenings of the complete work
celebrates the preservation of HAPAX LEGOMENA, as well as the April 2009
publication, by MIT Press, of ON THE CAMERA ARTS AND CONSECUTIVE
MATTERS: THE WRITINGS OF HOLLIS FRAMPTON, edited by Bruce Jenkins, a
collection encompassing Frampton's critical essays, lectures,
correspondence, interviews, and scripts. In addition to a very special
recreation of Frampton's A LECTURE, and presentations by Michael Zryd
(York University) and Ken Eisenstein (University of Chicago) on
Saturday, March 28, each evening will feature an introduction by a
different Frampton scholar or enthusiast. The scheduled speakers
include: Keith Sanborn, filmmaker and critic (Wednesday); Annette
Michelson, scholar and co-founder of the journal, OCTOBER (Thursday); P.
Adams Sitney, scholar and author of VISIONARY FILM (Friday); Bruce
Jenkins, Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Professor of Film, Video, and
New Media at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Saturday); Bill
Brand, filmmaker, scholar, and preservationist, along with students from
NYU's Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program (Sunday); and
Gerry O'Grady, scholar and writer (Monday). HAPAX LEGOMENA has been
preserved through a major cooperative effort funded by the National Film
Preservation Foundation, and undertaken by MoMA, Anthology Film
Archives, the New York University Moving Image Archiving and
Preservation Program, and Bill Brand, professor in the NYU program and
project conservator. PROGRAM 2: TRAVELING MATTE (HAPAX LEGOMENA IV)
1971, 34 minutes, 16mm, silent. "TRAVELING MATTE is the pivot upon which
the whole of HAPAX LEGOMENA turns." –H.F. "This film metaphors an entire
human life: birth, sex, death – the framing device is the fingers and
palm of the maker's hand, wherein others only attempt to read the
future." –Stan Brakhage ORDINARY MATTER (HAPAX LEGOMENA V) 1972, 36
minutes, 16mm, sound on CD. "A vision of a journey, during which the eye
of the mind drives headlong through Salisbury Cloister (a monument to
enclosure), Brooklyn Bridge (a monument to connection), Stonehenge (a
monument to the intercourse between consciousness and LIGHT)… visiting
along the way diverse meadows, barns, waters where I now live; and
ending in the remembered cornfields of my childhood." –H.F. "I suppose I
think of it as a kind of acceleration from TRAVELING MATTE. [There] the
eye is groping and feeling its way and staggering and so forth. And
[here] the need somehow to worry about those words, and still
photographs, and so forth, is behind. ORDINARY MATTER is for me a kind
of ecstatic, headlong dive." –H.F. REMOTE CONTROL (HAPAX LEGOMENA VI)
1972, 29 minutes, 16mm, silent. "[In REMOTE CONTROL], the images speed
up to the point where every successive frame is different from every
previous frame, so that if there is an image in it, it's a kind of inner
voice within the images, as sometimes music will have many voices that
can be written out on the paper, and then in the listening the real
shape of the music is to be found in the voice that is generated among
them. … It was shot in a single evening, off the tube, right off the
ordinary TV set, in the course of an evening." –H.F. SPECIAL EFFECTS
(HAPAX LEGOMENA VII) 1972, 11 minutes, 16mm, sound. "I wanted to affirm
and honor the film frame itself. Because so much of what we know now, so
much of our experience is something that comes to us through that frame.
It seems to be a kind of synonym for what we are conscious of. I have
only seen the pyramids of Egypt within that frame. I have only seen –
endless things – most of what I believe I have experienced I have in
fact seen at the movies. I've seen it inside that frame." –H.F. Total
running time: ca. 115 minutes.
3/29
San Francisco, California: San Francisco Cinematheque
http://www.sfcinematheque.org
7:30pm, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street
THIS IS MY LAND: BEN RIVERS’ PORTRAITS AND LANDSCAPES
BEN RIVERS IN-PERSON. The work of Ben Rivers occupies a distinctive
place between personal document and expressive explorations of place.
Detailed intimacies of portraiture are met with suggestions of the
mysterious and vast through impressionistic images of landscape. These
quiet contemplations are augmented with the fervent energies of the
occupants to reveal myriad layers of character. Rivers will appear in
person from England to present five recent films in his portraiture
series (THIS IS MY LAND, ASTIKA, A WORLD RATTLED OF HABIT, ORIGIN OF
SPECIES and AH, LIBERTY! ) as well as the San Francisco premiere of his
latest work.
3/29
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto
http://www.lift.on.ca/
7 pm, 1137 Dupont St. (@ Gladstone), Toronto, ON
LIFT MONTHLY SCREENING: DOCUMENTARY AND AUTHENTICITY
In its new monthly screening series, LIFT presents a program of works on
the theme of Documentary & Authenticity, with 16mm films by Philip
Hoffman (?O, Zoo! and Somewhere Between Jalostotitlan and Encarnacion)
and Ryan Feldman (Eulogy/Obverse). Phil Hoffman will be in attendance.
The LIFT monthly screening is a new event intended to introduce
filmmakers to diverse approaches to filmmaking. During the LIFT workshop
season, the last Sunday of each month will be devoted to screening and
discussing a selection of work from the library of the CFMDC and
elsewhere. This is an excellent opportunity for filmmakers to get
together, discuss the approaches other filmmakers have taken, and
develop their own ideas. The winter/spring screenings present a diverse
selection of Canadian documentary work to complement the workshop
season's focus on documentary filmmaking. Admission by donation ($5
suggested).
----------------------
MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2009
----------------------
3/30
Los Angeles, California: Redcat
http://www.redcat.org/
8:30pm, 631 W. 2nd St.
ROBERT TODD’S CINEMA OF DISCOVERY
Robert Todd's lyrical shorts, shot in 16mm, demonstrate a masterful
command of the medium, the strong influence of painting, musical forms
and poetry, and an openness to chance. The award-winning Boston
experimentalist says that this selection of his latest work "offers a
series of celebratory explorations, and, in some cases, transformations,
of varied components of my life. They are an odd blend of performance
and alchemical construction, freedom and control, a highly crafted and
rather baroque diary." Featured are Dig (2007, 2 min.), 21 Alleys (2007,
8 min.), Riverbed (2008, 18 min.), Interplay (2006, 7 min.), Office
Suite (2007, 15 min.), Passing (2008, 19 min.), and Rose (2008, 9
min.)—in which Todd "turns inward and undertakes a Fantastic Voyage into
[his] own lightstream-as-bloodstream." In person: Robert Todd Jack H.
Skirball Series $9 [students $7]
3/30
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
6:45 pm, 32 Second Avenue
HOLLIS FRAMPTON’S HAPAX LEGOMENA, PGM 1
Frampton's seven-part HAPAX LEGOMENA is arguably his greatest completed
achievement. While its various parts can each stand alone, together they
form a complex and quasi-symphonic whole – an enigmatic structuralist
'autobiography', a series of investigations into the possibilities of
filmmaking, and a playful and dazzling encyclopedia of the cinema that
is perhaps the closest thing avant-garde film has to Bach's
"Well-Tempered Clavier". Puzzling, conceptually daring, and at times
disarmingly comic, HAPAX LEGOMENA is one of the pinnacles of
experimental film.
3/30
New York, New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
9:15pm, 32 Second Avenue
HOLLIS FRAMPTON’S HAPAX LEGOMENA, PGM 2
Frampton's seven-part HAPAX LEGOMENA is arguably his greatest completed
achievement. While its various parts can each stand alone, together they
form a complex and quasi-symphonic whole – an enigmatic structuralist
'autobiography', a series of investigations into the possibilities of
filmmaking, and a playful and dazzling encyclopedia of the cinema that
is perhaps the closest thing avant-garde film has to Bach's
"Well-Tempered Clavier". Puzzling, conceptually daring, and at times
disarmingly comic, HAPAX LEGOMENA is one of the pinnacles of
experimental film.
-----------------------
TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2009
-----------------------
3/31
Brooklyn, New York: Light Industry
http://www.lightindustry.org/
7:30pm, 220 36th Street, 5th Floor
TWO FILMS BY KLAUS WYBORNY
Introduced by Larry Gottheim Light Industry presents two films by Klaus
Wyborny. A key figure of experimental cinema in Europe and a noted
influence on artists like Derek Jarman, his work is all too rarely seen
in the US. We feel a revival is long overdue. Pictures of the Lost
World, 1974, 16mm, 50 mins "Wyborny trained as a mathematician, worked
as a cameraman on Werner Herzog's Kasper Hauser. He first attracted the
attention of the New York and London avant-gardes five years ago for his
elliptical narratives, Dallas Texas - After The Gold Rush (1971) and The
Birth of a Nation (1973). Their plots, 'collapsed' by the optical
transformation and repetition of individual shots, move from anecdotal
narrative to an examination of narrative construction itself. His method
was analogous, in a way, to that of novelists like Robbe-Grillet (e.g.
Jealousy), though Wyborny was far more interested in the actual
materials of film than were the french 'new novelists' when they turned
to cinema. His work was further characterised by a romantic appreciation
for desolate, ruined vistas. The 1975 Pictures of the Lost Word is
clearly an outgrowth of this concern and, in its virtual abandonment of
storyline, forms a bridge to his subsequent, more purely structural
films. "For 50 minutes or so Pictures presents a series of static, or
gently swaying images which are sometimes bucolic landscapes but more
often industrial ones (sludgy harbours, power lines, abandoned railway
stations or deserted factories). The interplay between the two sets of
imagery is not simple. Wyborny photographs his modern ruins at their
most ravishing - at dawn or sunset, partially reflected in the water or
glimpsed through the trees. Shots recur throughout, optically printed
into brilliant colours or else, given the washed out quality of fifth
generation Xeroxes. As there are few people shown, one's impression is
of a planet that is populated mainly by cows, barges and hydraulic
drills. "On the soundtrack, a pianist improvises a slow, chord-heavy
piece that adds to an overall sense of lush melancholy. Towards the end,
Wyborny begins to parody his own nostalgia. The images repeat in
rapid-fire clusters while the pianist switches to a maddening seven-note
phrase, playing it over and over, like a record stuck in a groove. In
its mock symphonic form, the film is an ironic exaltation of the
'pastoral ideal' (still a strong strain in both British and German
avant-garde films) as it celebrates the entropic beauty of the same
satanic mills that drove Wordsworth in the countryside and Schiller to
decry the 'degeneration' of European culture...If Wyborny's work is a
harbinger, the European avant-garde is surely in the midst of a
full-scale renaissance. " - J. Hoberman, Village Voice (1978)
Unreachable Homeless, 1978, 16mm, 25 mins Could it be true that
Bergson's dream of durée in the movies can't be achieved by following
the intentions of Lumiere's patterns? That it can only be reached by
misusing an invention that wanted to depict continuous movement and thus
carried the tormenting germs of representational time? That only the
most terrifying destruction of physical continuity that is achievable by
camera operations can give the spectator at least an idea of what durée
can mean in film? The most admirable invention of the narrative cinema,
the inevitable and systematic return - out - usually one of the worst
carriers of non-durée - can become the Santa Maria that sails to
reconquer the realms of real time? That nobody takes any notice of you?
That the only trace of your appearance that is perceived by other people
is your despicable body odour? If these questions and more torment you
in your dreams and are a trouble to your days, you might find a few
answers in watching Unreachable Homeless. The main character of this
film is a person who wakes up one morning and realises that he is but a
robot. In the course of the day his appearance changes and when finally
night dissolves his identity, we participate in the most horrendous
sexoaesthetic inversion any human has witnessed to date.
3/31
Reading, Pennsylvania: Berks Filmmakers, Inc
http://www.berksfilmmakers.org
7:30 pm, Albright College Center for the Arts
THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928,110 min.) CARL THEODOR DREYER Pauline
Kael described it as "one of the greatest of all movies." Arguably the
best and, without question, the most famous of the Danish master's
films, The Passion "concentrates on the last eight hours in the life of
the martyred saint, in which she refuses to sign a confession and is
burned at the stake. The film is famous for, among other things, the
script's adherence to the trial records; Rudolph Maté's cruel, canted,
and cropped compositions of Joan and her tormentors, and the abstract
use of space; the shocking topography of flesh, often in intense
close-up, and its anointments of blood, tears, and spittle; and,
especially, Falconetti's self-obliterating performance as Joan. Little
wonder that Passion has been so loved and alluded to by other artists,
from Godard in Vivre sa vie to Adrienne Rich in 'Cartographies of
Silence.'" - Cinematheque Ontario. "In addition to the inherently
religious and spiritually transcendent depiction of Joan's…tragic and
uncompromising ultimate sacrifice, Dreyer's humanist sentiment also
transforms The Passion of Joan of Arc into a socially relevant and
harrowing reflection of the senseless persecution of women in a
patriarchal society." - Acquarello, senses of cinema - "The silence that
strips bare:/In Dreyer's Passion of Joan/ Falconetti's face, hair shorn,
a great geography/mutely surveyed by the camera/if there were a poetry
where this could happen"- Adrienne Rich
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2009
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4/1
Oberlin, OH 44074: Pioneer Species
http://www.pioneerspecies.net/
8:00pm, 119 Woodland St.
THE APRIL FOOL'S CINEMA SHOW FEAT. ROBERT BANKS
THE APRIL FOOL'S CINEMA SHOW: Screening of works directed by Robert
Banks – With introduction by the artist - FREE! Please join Pioneer
Species and The Oberlin Independent Film Series in welcoming the
Cleveland-based, cult-cinema-inspired filmmaker Robert Banks to Oberlin
for a retrospective screening of his unique oeuvre, which includes
multiple award-winning films. A self-described "moving graffiti" artist,
Banks has been a champion of emulsion-based cinema for many years,
inspiring and challenging audiences with politically and culturally
conscious commentary on the film medium. Working in 16mm and 35mm
formats, Banks uses found footage, new footage, and hand-manipulated
film to question the intentions of the motion picture industry over that
last several decades. ABOUT ROBERT BANKS: Based in Cleveland, Ohio,
Robert Banks specializes in avant-garde structuralist filmmaking. He
attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, and has taught film at Cuyahoga
Community College, the Cleveland Institute of Art, and Cleveland State
University. Banks' films have shown at the Sundance Film Festival, the
New York Underground Film Festival, and the Black Mariah Film & Video
Festival, among others. Over the course of his career Banks has garnered
numerous awards, was named Filmmaker of the Year at the Midwest
Filmmakers Conference in 2001, and in 2000 was the honored guest
filmmaker at the BBC British Short Film Festival in London. His
best-known work is the 1992 film, X: The Baby Cinema, a 5-minute, 16mm
film that chronicles the commercial appropriation of the image of
Malcolm X. An instant underground classic, the film was selected for
inclusion on the video compilation, The Best Of The New York
Underground: Year One. The April Fool's Cinema Show is presented by
Pioneer Species and with support from the Oberlin Independent Film
Series. These entities are working together to bring a greater diversity
of alternative, independent, and experimental media to the community of
Oberlin, with the goal of creating a broader awareness of non-mainstream
media and media making. Watch for further updates and events!
4/1
San Francisco, California: San Francisco Cinematheque
http://www.sfcinematheque.org
7:30pm, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street
RESTORING AND REDISCOVERING THE LOS ANGELES AVANT-GARDE
Curated and presented by Mark Toscano (Academy Film Archive) Although
cinematic experimentation in the shadow of "the Industry" goes back
practically as far as Hollywood itself, the 1960s and '70s in Los
Angeles were a particularly vibrant and exciting time for experimental
filmmaking. Despite the astounding variety and volume of strong, unique
and diverse work coming out of the Southland during this time, much of
it is still quite unknown outside of the area. This program showcases a
broad range of work made between 1967 and 1980, all in restored prints
from the Academy Film Archive, including Thom Andersen & Malcolm
Brodwick's --- -------, Gary Beydler's PASADENA FREEWAY STILLS, a
recently unearthed video by Morgan Fisher and other works by Roberta
Friedman & Grahame Weinbren, Fred Worden, Chris Langdon and two by Pat
O'Neill (in collaboration with Chick Strand & Neon Park on a
newly-discovered sponsored film and with Robert Abel on BY THE SEA). A
few of these films have been widely shown but the majority have likely
never screened in the Bay Area before, despite the fact that they were
made less than a six-hour drive away. In particular, STASIS AND ROSE FOR
RED from David and Diana Wilson respectively, whose acclaimed films have
gone nearly unseen since they opened the Museum of Jurassic Technology
in the 1980s.
4/1
Woodstock: WoodstockMuseum
http://www.WoodstockMuseum.org
6:30PM, 130 Tinker Street, Woodstock, New York 12498 at Varga Gallery
HIPSTORY: FILM TRIBUTE TO THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF '69 WOODSTOCK FESTIVAL
Woodstock Museum presents a film tribute to the 40th Anniversary of '69
with it's new release "HIPSTORY: Woodstock the Town, the Festival(s) and
the Notion" at VARGA Gallery - 6:30PM. Welcome April fools. HIPSTORY
shows an historic chronology from Woodstock to Bethel, Saugerties, Rome
and beyond, featuring related gatherings, festivals and Woodstock's
official sister city, the entire town of Nimbin, Australia (surrounded
by 200 intentional communities) that was re-birthed by the Aquarian
notion 36 years ago in 1973. Discuss the museum's vision with founders
Shelli Lipton and Nathan Koenig. Hear what historian Alf Evers said
about it. Refreshments will include popcorn and homemade ice-cream cake.
Suggested donation $3.
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THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2009
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4/2
Sheffield: Sheffield Hallam University
http://www.shu.ac.uk/art/gallery/
6pm-9pm, Sheffield Institute of Art and Design Gallery, Furnival Building, Sheffield Hallam University, 153 Arundel Street, Sheffield S1 2NU, UK
TRANSFIXED MOTION | TRANSITORY STILL
In closing his contribution to the essay collection, Stillness and Time:
Photography and the Moving Image, David Campany postulates: 'Photography
has all but given up the 'decisive moment' in order to explore what a
moment is; video art has all but given up movement, the better to think
what movement is … But must the speedy always be sacrificed in all this?
Need slowness be the only way? At this key point in the histories of art
and media, I think it is a question worth posing. And a pose worth
questioning'. – 'Posing, Acting, Photography' The two notions of
stillness and movement, and how these can powerfully conflict,
contradict or compliment each other, are the premise of Transfixed
Motion | Transitory Still. This exhibition, curated by Esther Johnson
and David Williams, brings together a diverse group of 22 UK-based
artists whose work reflects the above quote and who incorporate moving
image, photography and/or sound into their practice. The show runs from
Friday 3 to Saturday 18 April, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Monday–Saturday,
at Sheffield Institute of Art and Design Gallery. Please note, the
Gallery will be closed on Good Friday 10 April and Easter Monday 13
April. Campus map: http://www.shu.ac.uk/visit/plancity.html –
downloadable as PDF
4/2
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Images Festival
http://www.imagesfestival.com/
2000, Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles Street West
NOTES ON COMPOSING: 5 COLLABORATIONS IN FILM AND MUSIC
OPENING NIGHT GALA! In partnership with Continuum Contemporary Music,
Images has commissioned five Canadian filmmakers to create new works,
each scored in collaboration with a composer. Making its world premiere
this fall at the prestigious Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam, the
project's North American premiere is set to kick off the 22nd edition of
the Images Festival. For this special presentation, the films' scores
will be performed live by Continuum's ensemble of flute, clarinet,
violin, cello, piano and percussion, with one piece also featuring
composer/violinist Malcolm Goldstein. In these projects, the essential
relationship of film and music is realigned in five different
collaborative processes resulting in five very different works. Most of
the collaborating artists had never met or worked together, and with
that, these collaborations represented something of a leap in faith, or
a dare on the part of all the parties involved. The result of this
engagement -some between collaborators as far apart as Toronto and
Rotterdam, or Winnipeg and Arnhem - reflects distance, method,
temperament, and still the individual voice. Toronto-based filmmaker and
poet Clive Holden and Rotterdam composer Oscar van Dillen's 2 Cameras @
Sea focuses on the waves: from reflections by the filmmaker's father on
his growing up on the Irish coast, to footage of Vancouver Island
coastal landscapes, to recordings of the North Sea off the Dutch Coast.
Vera Frenkel's ONCE NEAR WATER: Notes from the Scaffolding Archive
continues the focus on water. Collaborating with percussionist and
composer Rick Sacks, ONCE NEAR WATER focuses on Toronto's relationship
with its watery surrounds; a city turned away from its lakeshore
boundary and in trouble, where ubiquitous scaffolding marks both
aspiration and loss. In Behind the Shadows, filmmaker Christina Battle
and composer Martin Arnold document the imagined moment when the
delicate balance between natural and developed worlds began to shift.
Looking back upon an event yet to occur, time inside this threatened
world is caught in an endless loop. Montréal-based Daïchi Saïto and
Malcolm Goldstein embark on an aural and visual exploration of familiar
landscape imagery that they share in their district at the foot of
Mount-Royal Park in Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis. Closing the program
is a new short by Guy Maddin working with the British/Dutch composer
Richard Ayres. Glorious tells the story of an aging crime family
patriarch, holed up in a derelict apartment block. Maddin pulls out all
the stops as the film unfolds into an orgy of paranoia, bursting ammo
shells, rackety disarmaments and oral gratification from beyond the
grave.
(continued in next email)
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.