Part 2 of 2: This week [December 12 - 20, 2009] in avant garde cinema

From: Weekly Listing (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Dec 12 2009 - 09:34:13 PST


Part 2 of 2: This week [December 12 - 20, 2009] in avant garde cinema

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2009
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12/18
Chicago, Illinois: White Light Cinema
http://www.whitelightcinema.com
8:00pm, The Nightingale (1084 N. Milwaukee Ave.)

 LEWIS KLAHR'S TALES OF THE FORGOTTEN FUTURE
  First Ever Chicago Screening of the Complete Series! ***** Unseen in
  Chicago in Any Form in over 18 Years! ***** For its final screening of
  2009, White Light Cinema is pleased to present animator Lewis Klahr's
  great early Super-8mm film series TALES OF THE FORGOTTEN FUTURE
  (1988-1991, 131 mins, total, Super-8mm on video). ***** [Part 1: The
  Morning Films
: Lost Camel Intentions, 1988, 10 mins.; For the
  Rest of Your Natural Life, 1988, 9 mins.; In the Month of Crickets,
  1988, 14 mins.; Part 2: Five O'Clock Worlds
: The Organ Minder's
  Gronkey, 1990, 14 min.; Hi-Fi Cadets, 1989, 11 mins.; Verdant Sonar,
  1989, 2 mins.; Part 3: Mood Opulence
: Cartoon Far, 1990, 6 mins.;
  Yesterdays Glue, 1989, 14 mins.; Elevator Music, 1991, 14 mins.; Part 4:
  Right Hand Shade
: Station Drama, 1990, 14 mins.; Untitled, 1991,
  21 mins.; Untitled, 1991, 4 mins.] ***** "An epic cycle created on the
  tiny, domestic medium of Super-8, the film combines the intimacy of its
  chosen gauge with the evocative sweep of Freudian dreamwork. It's a
  moving collage clipped together out of photos and illustrations from the
  Atomic Age, reconfigured into a private visual language that speaks of
  both Klahr's own childhood and a greater strangeness: how images from
  another era stand as uncanny evidence for a very different stage of
  development in the American psyche." (Light Industry website) ***** "No
  one can be called a more thorough or inventive ransacker of the common
  culture than Klahr; better than an imagined 10-season run of [David]
  Lynch's red-herring vaudeville [Twin Peaks], Tales taps into the
  frustration, strangeness, delirium and dreary vertigo that lurks in the
  drywall of Middle America's psychosexual tract house. The 'forgotten
  future' posited in Klahr's super-8 jeremiad is, of course, the idyllic
  America of the post-WWII dream, a future that never actually happened,
  like those cartoons about the Kitchen of Tomorrow. Indeed, Tales is
  packed with images of dead fads and faded fashions: obsolete appliances,
  cheap furniture, garish wallpaper patters, Steve McQueen-ish race cars,
  industrial futurism, luxurious department stores—all interrelated as if
  in a museum diorama." (Michael Atkinson, NY Press, 1993)

12/18
New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
8:00 pm, 32 2nd Avenue

 ALFRED LESLIE PROGRAM
  Luckily for us painter and filmmaker Alfred Leslie has lately been
  producing some of the very best work of his distinguished career. As
  talented as he is restless, Leslie is a true radical and an artist's
  artist. Hard at work since the 1940s, Leslie's approach to all his
  chosen mediums (painting, film, video, performance) is carefully
  considered and always on the cutting-edge. This program presents a
  quartet of recent works which should not be missed. A STRANGER CALLS AT
  MIDNIGHT (2008, 30 minutes, video) Subtitled "A Self-Interview, of
  Sorts", this brand-new piece offers a unique view of Leslie's creative
  practice, told in his own words. SONGS OF THE BLUE-FOOTED BOOBIES (2008,
  11 minutes, video) Music videos for hipsters! In these short collages,
  three of Frank O'Hara's poems meet their match with Leslie superimposing
  cabaret music and film clips. EINSTEIN'S SECRET (2008, 11 minutes,
  video) Leslie layers a visual track of drawings and frames from his
  graphic novella ATTACKED BY THE HEART with a text track of three poems
  by Frank O'Hara streamed as subtitles. MAGIC THINKING (Guggenheim
  version) (2008, 35 minutes, video) A stunning recreation and revisiting
  of a multi-media performance given by Leslie at the Guggenheim Museum in
  1965. Combining layers of text, subtitles, sound and image, Leslie
  manages to avoid an out-and-out reconstruction in favor of a
  collage-like approach that foregrounds the ephemeral as much as the
  evidence, what is missing as much as what remains. Total running time:
  ca. 90 minutes.

12/18
San Francisco, California: Artists Television Access
http://www.atasite.org/
7PM door, 8PM screening $3-5 suggested donation,, 992 Valencia St, at 21st

 DRUNK DONKEY CINEMA
  A night of new work by film students from City College of San Francisco
  and The Art Institute of California at San Francisco. Drunk Donkey
  Cinema Off-the-wall cinema from a new oddball generation of filmmakers.
  7-8 Reception 8-10 Screening Refreshments will be served! Snack will be
  provided! Tunes will be spun!

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2009
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12/19
New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
6:00 pm, 32 2nd Avenue

 ESSENTIAL CINEMA: EGGELING/CAVALCANTI PROGRAM
  Viking Eggeling SYMPHONIE DIAGONALE 1924, 8 minutes, 35mm, silent.
  Alberto Cavalcanti RIEN QUE LES HEURES 1928, 52 minutes, 35mm, silent. A
  "city symphony" interweaving documentary, experimental and narrative
  elements that provide vivid images of Paris in the mid-1920s. Total
  running time: ca. 65 minutes.

12/19
New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
6:30 pm, 32 2nd Avenue

 SHORTS PROGRAM
  Matthew Silver BEWARE OF THE HOT DOG PEOPLE (2002, 5 minutes,
  16mm-to-video) Michael Jackson, the open highway, and pizza. Rip Torn
  THE BEARDING OF THE PRESIDENT (ca. 16 minutes, 16mm) This short
  experimental political satire, unearthed during the lead-up to our Rip
  Torn retrospective last spring, features Torn impersonating Richard
  Nixon, a role he would later revisit in much more conventional
  circumstances, as part of a 1979 CBS TV movie. A strange and funny
  investigation into the shady realms of media, performance, and Nixonian
  psychology. J. Hoberman CARGO OF LURE (1974, 14.5 minutes, 16mm)
  Hoberman's single-shot journey up the Harlem River is both a rigorously
  minimalist filmic experiment and a disarmingly beautiful record of a
  part of the city that generally goes unnoticed. Greg Sharits TRANSFER
  (12 minutes, 8mm-to-16mm. Preserved with support from the National
  Endowment for the Arts.) Employing colored 8mm leader and letraset
  numbers, letters, and symbols, Greg Sharits created this intense
  masterpiece, which is surely on par with anything made by his older and
  more renowned brother, Paul. Jose Rodriguez-Soltero JEROVI (1965, 11.5
  minutes, 16mm. Preserved with support from the Andy Warhol Foundation
  for the Visual Arts.) Directed by the gifted avant-garde filmmaker
  Rodriguez-Soltero, who passed away earlier this year, JEROVI celebrates
  narcissistic desire and the physical act of self-love. Matthew Silver
  IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME (2006, 30 minutes, 16mm/DV. Made in
  collaboration with Bogdan Szabo.) What do you really need to know about
  a film called IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME? Total running time: ca. 95
  minutes.

12/19
New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
7:30 pm, 32 2nd Avenue

 ESSENTIAL CINEMA: CONRAD, JACOBS & FLEISCHNER PROGRAM
  Tony Conrad THE FLICKER 1966, 30 minutes, 16mm, sound. Mathematical and
  rhythmical orchestration of white and black frames. Ken Jacobs & Bob
  Fleischner BLONDE COBRA 1959-63, 35 minutes, 16-to-35mm blow-up.
  Featuring Jack Smith. Preserved by Anthology, with the generous support
  of the Film Foundation, the National Film Preservation Foundation, Simon
  Lund and Cineric, Inc. "BLONDE COBRA is an erratic narrative – no, not
  really a narrative, it's only stretched out in time for convenience of
  delivery. It's a look in on an exploding life, on a man of imagination
  suffering pre-fashionable Lower East Side deprivation and consumed with
  American 1950s, 40s, 30s disgust. Silly, self-pitying, guilt-strictured
  and yet triumphing – on one level – over the situation with style…
  enticing us into an absurd moral posture the better to dismiss us with a
  regal 'screw off.'" –K.J. Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.

12/19
New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
8:30 pm, 32 2nd Avenue

 JAMES NARES PROGRAM
  In May 2008 Anthology hosted the first complete retrospective of
  painter/filmmaker James Nares. While perhaps most recognized by
  cinephiles for his no-wave period piece ROME 78, Nares has produced an
  extensive, exciting body of moving image works that continually defy
  gravity and expectations. This single-program survey includes a generous
  selection of short works spanning more than 30 years and concludes with
  the premiere of two brand new videos. "James Nares's films are like
  luminous jewels scattered in the dirt – as varied and striking as his
  paintings, his photographs, and his train of thought." –Jim Jarmusch
  DRIP (2007, 2 minutes, video) Rhythmic video music made by dropping
  stones on stones. RAMP (1976, 3 minutes, Super-8mm-to-16mm) A concrete
  ball on the off-ramp to the old West Side Highway. WAITING FOR THE WIND
  (1982, 7.5 minutes, Super-8mm-to-16mm) "A technical tour de force. Nares
  creates a tornado-like catastrophe with a hand-held Super-8 camera, a
  shooting ratio of three to one (about $100 worth of film stock), and
  remarkable timing." –Amy Taubin, SOHO WEEKLY NEWS WEATHER BED (1991, 3
  minutes, video) Tracking a storm in the bedsheets. SUICIDE ? NO, MURDER
  (1977, 30 minutes, Super-8mm-to-16mm) Nares returns, an aspiring angry
  young man, to England, the home of his youth. His simmering discontent
  is reflected in the maelstrom of late-70s cultural upheaval. HAMMERED
  (1991, 2 minutes, video) Narrow escape from a rain of hammers. WITH GOD
  ON OUR SIDE (2008, 5 minutes, video) RIDING WITH MICHAUX (2009, 5
  minutes, video) Total running time: ca. 60 minutes.

12/19
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Film @ International House Philadelphia
http://www.ihousephilly.org/januscollectionwinter0910.htm
7pm, 3701 Chestnut Street

 30+ YEARS OF FILM @ INTERNATIONAL HOUSE THE JANUS COLLECTION
  30+ Years of Film @ International House THE JANUS COLLECTION Truly one
  of our national treasures, American film culture without Janus Films is
  unimaginable. Film @ International House is celebrating 30 + years with
  a selection of titles from Janus' extraordinary collection, all in
  brand-new or restored 35mm prints. Here's your chance to celebrate their
  achievements and to be dazzled all over again by highlights from their
  incomparable collection. Saturday, December 19 at 7pm Jeanne Dielman, 23
  Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles dir. Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France,
  1975, 35mm, 201 mins, color, French w/ English subtitles A singular work
  in cinema history, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
  meticulously details, with a sense of impending doom, the daily routine
  of a middle-aged widow whose chores include making the beds, cooking
  dinner for her son and turning the occasional trick. In its enormous
  spareness, Akerman's film seems simple, but it encompasses an entire
  world. Jeanne Dielman is an astonishing, compelling movie experiment
  that has been analyzed and argued over for decades. Free admission
  IHouse members above Internationalist level; $5 Internationalists; $6
  students + seniors; $8 general admission. In advance at TICKETWEB or 1/2
  hour before showtime at The Ibrahim Theater Box Office.

12/19
San Francisco, California: Other Cinema
http://www.othercinema.com/
8:30, 992 Valencia St.

 OTHER CINEMA: NEW EXPERIMENTAL WORKS
  Here's an energized evening of new cinematic efforts that champion
  personal expression and radical form. Constituting the season's most
  exploratory programming initiative—and with many of the makers in
  person—are Carl Diehl's Mind Children Get Headaches, Shalo P's The Spy,
  Andrew Mooney's Flok, David Cox' Flash Memory, Richard Mitchell's
  Well-Tempered Clavier, and Robbyn Alexander's A Spell to Catch a
  Firefly. ALSO recent pieces by Bryan Boyce, Karla Betancourt, Myrina
  Tunberg, Karl Lind, James Hong/Yin-Ju Chen, and others TBA. $7.

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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2009
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12/20
New York: Anthology Film Archives
http://www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/
6:30 pm, 32 2nd Avenue

 BERYL SOKOLOFF PROGRAM
  Anthology hosted a retrospective this past spring devoted to Jim
  McBride, whose landmark cinema-vérité satire DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY is
  justifiably a cult favorite. But the series established without a doubt
  that there is much more to McBride's career, marking the re-discovery of
  several incredible films, including the two personal documentaries
  screening here, the bona fide vérité follow-ups to HOLZMAN. MY
  GIRLFRIEND'S WEDDING 1969, 60 minutes, 16mm. A fascinating profile of
  McBride's English girlfriend, Clarissa Ainley. With his camera almost
  entirely trained on her, McBride explores Clarissa's life and loves, her
  feelings about her parents and children, and documents her greencard
  marriage to a man she has only known for a week. However, as the film
  progresses, the most revealing truths are about the person behind the
  camera. PICTURES FROM LIFE'S OTHER SIDE 1971, 45 minutes, video. The
  third film of McBride's 'documentary' trilogy, PICTURES follows Jim and
  Clarissa in a journey across the U.S., waiting for a baby and looking
  for a place to settle. Crude, witty, or plain scenes of everyday life
  compose a moving portrait of early-70s America – an uncharted country, a
  generation with no direction home.

12/20
San Francisco, California: Artists Television Access
http://www.atasite.org/
7:30PM door, 8Pm screening $4, 992 Valencia St, at 21st

 CCSF STUDENT FILM SHOWCASE
  Join CCSF Department of Cinema's Motion Picture Directing class for a
  screening of the 2009 final film projects. The showcase features a
  variety of narrative scenes starring Bay Area actors. Directing
  Students: Joshua Bewig, Andreas Blair, Krisana Horachaikul, Nick
  Petrick, Mark Pope, Robert Sawyer, Sophia Rivera, Miranda McCauley,
  Mandel Lum, Daniel Kaminsky, Moises Joshua Contreras, Green Le Fluer,
  Melissa Kalestrom, Jaime Gonzales. Music, Drinks, lots of fun

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