San Francisco Cinematheque
Winter Calendar 1995
See also the new Spring/Summer 1995 Cinematheque Calendar.
Artist as Filmmaker
The Films of Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono was an influential conceptual artist and central figure in the New York fluxus movement of the 1960s. Beginning in 1966, Ono produced 16 films "emerging out of the same complex totality of interdisciplinary endeavors that had informed her objects and performances... In Ono's films, the camera serves as an eye, an instrument for observation." (John Hanhardt, Whitney Museum) Tonight's films include The Museum of Modern Art Show (1971) and No. 4 (Bottoms) (1966), "an aimless petition, signed by people with their anuses" for peace. Produced by The American Federation of Arts.
Alfonso Alvarez/Thad Povey
Sunday, March 5, 7:30pm
at SFAI
Alfonso Alvarez and Thad Povey in Person
Indelible fixtures of the Bay Area film landscape, Thad Povey and Alfonso Alvarez present retrospectives of their work, including Alvarez' La Reina and Quixote Dreams, and Povey's I Smell The Blood of an Englishman (premiere). While Povey's wry use of found footage creates a landscape littered with strangely familiar faces that become silent images in the mirror held up to ourselves, Alvarez's brilliantly hued manipulation leads us back to childhood dreams. Their work alternately delves into the psyche of identity, searches for spiritual redemption in war-loving society, celebrates centennials, and discovers the Virgin Mary hidden within the optical printer.
Two Sundays, March 19 & 26, 6:00pm
at SFAI
FREE!
March 19: SONGS 15-22, including Fifteen Song Traits (1965, 30 min.), "a series of individual portraits of friends and family."
March 26: SONG 23 (23rd Psalm Branch Part 1 & 2)
"The phenomenal and painstaking craftsmanship of this film reflects the intensity of the obsession with which its theme grasped his mind." (P. Adams Sitney) An epic 85-minute meditation on the nature of war. 8mm prints loaned through the generosity of New York's Museum of Modern Art Department of Film.
Admission to both programs is free.
Sunday, March 19, 8:00pm
at SFAI
A death-defying leap into the joys and terrors of being a teenager in the 1970s, with films made by adults who should know better. First up, a mind-bending selection of "educational" propaganda films made for the high school market, including The Day I Died (drinking, driving, dying), A Quiet Place (David Cassidy has sex, turns to God and Dad), and much more. Then, a rare screening of the fondly remembers yet completely absurd Born Innocent (1975, Donald Wrye), starring teen trash cult hero Linda Blair (The Exorcist) as the ultimate good girl gone bad in reform school. Don't miss what will surely be your last opportunity to see these films on the big screen!
Curated by Joel Shepard
Canyon Cinema Nights:
Mechanix of Nature
Diane Kitchen managed Canyon Cinema during a turbulent period in the late 1970s, and helped guide a stabilize it into its position as a premiere artists' organization. Kitchen is now on the faculty at University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. She has selected eight films from Canyon's catalogue--favorites, unknowns and a wild care-- which draw their images from natural settings: Six Windows by Marjorie Keller; Windowmobile by James Broughton and Joel Singer; Fuji by Robert Breer; Seven Days by Chris Welsby; Skyworks, The Red Mile by Le Ann Bartok; Fog Line by Larry Gottheim; Still Life by Bette Gordon and Time and Places by Art Zipperer.
-- Curated by Diane Kitchen
Sunday, March 26, 8:00pm
at SFAI
Jean Rouch's Chronicle of a Summer - Paris 1960 (1961, with Edgar Morin) helped launch both cinéma verité and the French New Wave. A seminal figure in ethnographic film, Rouch took his camera to the streets of Paris during a period of political turmoil and the Algerian War to search for truth through interactions with Parisians of various ethnic and social backgrounds. Rouch's earlier, controversial Les Maîtres Fous (1955) documents a trance ritual in West Africa which incorporates and parodies aspects of British colonialism. It has both been accused of racism and lauded as an expose of colonialism.
Curated by Irina Leimbacher.
Hosted by Erin Sax and Steve Anker
Tonight Cinematheque's Open Screening moves to the new Media Theater at Center for the Arts. Bring recently completed films (Super 8mm or 16mm) and/or videos (1/2" or 3/4") to share and discuss. Only films and tapes 15 minutes or less will be shown; doors open at 7:00pm. Admission is free.
Co-sponsored with Center for the Arts.
Ernie Gehr:
Adaline Kent Award Screening
Sunday, April 2, 7:30pm
at SFAI
Ernie Gehr in person
Ernie Gehr will receive the 1995 Adaline Kent Award for his lifetime body of work. For the occasion, Gehr will present two events: a media installation at the Walter/McBean Gallery (March 30-April 30), Brother, Can You spare Some Time, "a series of reflections and meditations on cinema and changing technologies, as well as the metamorphoses of memory and history"; and three films at the Cinematheque: Untitled: Part One, 1981; Signal-Germany On The Air (1982-85); and Rear Window (1986/91) -- which wind their ways from Brooklyn, to Germany, and back to Brooklyn.
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