The Animated Films of Adam K. Beckett
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | October 26, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006, 6pm
Curator Jim Trainor in person!
The young animator Adam K. Beckett created a handful of vivid, astonishing films in the early 1970s, but died tragically at the age of 29 at the peak of his creative frenzy. Based on an innovation he called the evolving cycle—whereby an animated image grows bizarrely complex under the camera—the films combine trippy meditative rhythms with the edgy sensibility of underground comics. SAIC film professor Jim Trainor presents newly restored prints of five Beckett films—Evolution of the Red Star (1973); Heavy-Light (1973); Flesh Flows (1974); Sausage City (1974); Kitch in Sync (1975)—along with selected animations admired by the artist: Motion Painting, No. 1 (1947, Oskar Fischinger); 7362 (1965-67, Pat O’Neil), Mirror People (1974, Kathy Rose); and Luma Nocturna (1974, Dennis Pies), among others (including the anonymous 1925 film Everready). Beckett’s films are courtesy Canyon Cinema and the iotaCenter, which is sponsoring an extensive preservation project and monograph of Beckett’s work. For more information, visit iota’s website: http://www.iotacenter.org/projects/beckett. 1925-75, Adam K. Beckett & various, USA, ca. 90 min, 16mm.
About
Conversations at the Edge is a weekly series of screenings, performances, and talks by groundbreaking media artists.
CATE is organized by SAIC's Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation in collaboration with the Gene Siskel Film Center and SAIC's Video Data Bank.
Programs take place at the Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N. State / Chicago, IL / 312.846.2600), unless otherwise noted.
