Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:14:39 -0700 (PDT)
Hi All: Missed the weekly listing. Info for this Wednesday's Magic Lantern screening in Providence, RI, is included below. All the best, JOSH ---- Magic Lantern Cinema Presents: The STUFF Show Curated by Colleen Doyle Wed., October 12th, 9:30 PM Cable Car Cinema & Cafe 204 S. Main St. Providence, RI Admission $5 Whether by design, circumstance, or accident, stuff sticks to us. In form and function, our belongings are descriptors in our personal narratives. What rules do we use to curate the objects we keep? Do our possessions–and the systems of organization we use to govern their arrangement–reveal more about us than our most intimate conversations? Magic Lantern Cinema’s “The Stuff Show” is a collection of short films about gleaning, coveting, producing, and purging. Stuff by its many names–essentials, art, waste–is scattered throughout scenes of a manufacturing company warehouse, a Pop artist’s sculpture studio, and a Japanese beachside dump. Commonplace objects stray from their everyday roles to haunt, fornicate, and dance across the screen. Here is a program to prompt a reconsideration, reassemblage, or repurposing of our stuff–much of which will long outlive us. FEATURING: G.W. “Billy” Bitzer, “Westinghouse Work: Panorama view aisle B” (1904); Hans Richter, “Ghosts Before Breakfast” (1928); Michael Snow, “A to Z” (1956); Willard Maas, “The Mechanics of Love” (1955); Takahiko Iimura, “Kuzu (Junk)” (1962); Ed Emshwiller, “George Dumpson’s Place” (1965); Charles and Ray Eames, "Goods" (1982) and “Tops" (1969); Mallory Slate, “Claes Oldenburg” (1966) TRT: 87 min Admission: $5 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * “Westinghouse Works: Panorama view aisle B,” G.W. “Billy” Bitzer, 1904, 16mm on video, b&w, silent, 2 min. In April and May of 1904, The American Mutoscope Biograph Company made 29 films at the Westinghouse Electric Company production facilities. Billy Bitzer–who would later become the cinematographer for D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation–was hired to shoot the films. In Panorama view aisle B, a crane-mounted camera tracks high above the factory floor. Piles of metal forms lie below amid the commotion of workers cutting, welding, assembling, polishing and painting machine parts. “Ghosts Before Breakfast,” Hans Richter, 1928, 16mm, b&w, silent, 9 min. “Objects are also people and [they] follow their own laws”-“the rhythm of the clock.” (H.R.). According to the clock in Ghosts Before Breakfast is 11:55 am. Only five minutes remain for bowler’s hats, teacups, a fire hose, revolvers, and a bow tie to run amuck in the world. At the stroke of noon they obediently return to a functional state. A title card at the start of the film reads: “The Nazis destroyed the sound version of this film as ‘degenerate art’. It shows that even objects revolt against regimentation.” “A to Z,” Michael Snow, 1956, 16mm, b&w, silent, 7 min. Michael Snow’s first film (his only animation) illustrates the nighttime activities of dinning furniture. A vase, bowl, teacup and saucer dance merrily around a table. A chair stands still to the side. The teacup leads the chair to meet a friend–another chair. After a very brief romance, the two chairs consummate their love. “The Mechanics of Love,” Willard Maas, 1955, 16mm, b&w, sound, 7 min. A couple’s act of lovemaking is described in still life images of suggestive household items and through the motion of ordinary tasks. "Daring and ingenious ... daring because of its 'forbidden' subject matter; ingenious because commonplace objects are uncommonly related to build an action without actors, the effect of which is vivid, witty and downright bold." - Lewis Jacobs “Kuzu (Junk),” Takahiko Iimura, 1962, 16mm, b&w, sound, 10 min. “The beach of Tokyo Bay was a dumpsite for all the city's human, animal and industrial wastes when I shot "Junk" there in the early 60s - today this is no longer the case. I was interested in the way my commitment could revive the junk and dead animals. At times the objects are animated, which could be seen as surreal, yet they are real at the same time. The concept coincides with the Neo-Dada in art, in which junk is assembled and incorporated into artwork. Yet today's point of view, the film certainly shows concern with the ecology and may be regarded as an early attempt to deal with the destruction of our environment.” – T.I. “George Dumpson’s Place,” Ed Emshwiller, 1965, 16mm, color, sound, 8 min. A camera leads us over a stream and trough the woods to a dilapidated, overstuffed cabin. Its contents spill out amongst the surrounding flora. As we scan the piles of scavenged objects, careful arrangements begin to stand out. Broken action figures crouch between piles of stones. A tiny ceramic bust stands watch atop the end of a broomstick. In regard to his desire to make this film, Ed Emshwiller explained that George Dumpson “epitomized the soul of the artist.” “Goods,” Charles & Ray Eames, 1982, slides on video, color, sound, 6.25 min. An excerpt from a lecture on poetry (given at Harvard in 1970-71) is paired with a three-screen slide show. A story about the break-in of his wife Ray’s car, and the items which the burglar chose to leave behind, leads into a discussion of what Charles Eames calls the ‘new covetables.’ “Tops,” Charles and Ray Eames, 1969, color, 35mm on video, sound, 8 min. From the simplest wooden dreidel to the hypnotizing Tedco toy gyroscope, tops of all shapes, colors, and sizes spin to the music of Elmer Bernstein. Operators across cultures and generations wind, crank, zip, twirl, and toss this classic toy in delightfully dizzying close-up compositions. “Claes Oldenburg,” Mallory Slate, 1966, 16mm, b&w, sound, 30 min. In a 1966 visit to his massive Lower East Side live/work loft, Claes Oldenburg takes us through the process of creating his mammoth, grotesque soft sculptures of everyday objects. He describes his pieces as idealized, magnified representations of the ‘sculptures of the home.’ Claes and his wife Pat develop patterns, prototypes, and finished works for various exhibitions. Slouching toilets and droopy electric mixers draw scores of art lovers into New York galleries. **Magic Lantern Cinema is generously funded by the Malcolm S. Forbes Center for Culture and Media Studies at Brown University.
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