Notebook: The Films of Marie Menken
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | October 18, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007, 6pm
One of the most significant members of New York’s underground film scene in the 1950s and 1960s, Marie Menken inspired a generation of filmmakers—from Andy Warhol and Gerard Malanga to Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, and Jonas Mekas. Celebrated for her lyrical sensibility and improvisational style, Menken, according to Mekas, “filmed with her entire body, her entire nervous system,” spinning her observations into luminous haikus of color, texture, and light. Tonight’s program includes Glimpse of the Garden (1957); Hurry! Hurry! (1957); Dwightiana (1959); Eye Music in Red Major (1961); Arabesque for Kenneth Anger (1961); Notebook (1962–63); Go Go Go (1964); and Andy Warhol (1965). 1957–65, Marie Menken, USA, ca. 70 min, 16mm.
A Darkness Swallowed
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | October 11, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007, 6pm
Betzy Bromberg in person!
For twenty years, Betzy Bromberg straddled the worlds of experimental film and Hollywood, where she worked as a special effects supervisor and cameraperson on blockbusters like The Terminator (1984), The Abyss (1989), and Strange Days (1995) while also crafting her own visually striking, politically-charged films. Currently the director of the Film and Video Program at CalArts, Bromberg’s latest project, A Darkness Swallowed, reflects this tightrope in its mastery of form and subject. Six years in the making, the film maps the physical traces of memory through familiar and otherworldly micro-scapes of gnarled roots and ligaments, sinewy tissues and webs, and explosions of light, expressionistic scoring, and sound design. The final result, according to Holly Willis of the LA Times, contains “images that, once seen, will stay with you forever.” 2006, Betzy Bromberg, USA, 78 min, 16mm.
The Devil Lives in Hollywood: Amy Lockhart & Friends
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | October 4, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007, 6pm
Amy Lockhart in person!
Nothing is quite right in animator and SAIC visiting faculty member Amy Lockhart’s hallucinogenic, hyper-colored world. Siamese-hearts pump hamburgers and butterflies, voracious Pac-Men hunt flocks of weeping eyeballs, and frogs belch Smurf-like red-and-white mushrooms. Funny and tragic by turns, Lockhart’s films mix knowingly-naïve hand-drawn characters with pop-culture cutouts and digitally manipulated imagery to create works that dazzle the eye and spark the imagination. Tonight’s program charts Lockhart’s career over the last decade and includes additional gems admired by the artist. Tell Mumsy I Love Her (2006); Walk for Walk (2005); Lady Flex (2005); A Single Tear (2004); Miss Edmonton Teenburger 1983 in: You’re Eternal… (2002); Miss Edmonton Teenburger 1983 in: It’s Party Time! (2002); Bonk! (w/Mark Bell, 2000); Tests (w/Mark Bell, 2000); The Devil Lives in Hollywood (1999); Sylvia Lining (1998); along with La Mujer Lagartija (Trixy Sweetvittles, 1996); Thought City (Stefan Gruber, 2000); Tunnel of Love (Helen Hill, 1996); and One Last Trick (Red Smarteez, 1998). 1996–2006, various directors, Canada/USA, ca. 80 min, various formats.
Nothing Compares 2 U: Films & Videos by Michael Robinson
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | September 27, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007, 6pm
Michael Robinson in person!
The films and videos of Michael Robinson are a deft mix of stunning beauty and nervy wit. He combines lush, often optically-printed imagery with the electric fuzz of video-games, old movie footage, and dusty magazine layouts in pop song–scored cine-ballads that are at once cynical and sincere. In tonight’s program, the sitcom-perfect world of Full House devours itself in the demonic Light is Waiting (2007); National Geographic centerfolds unfurl into oblivion in You Don’t Bring Me Flowers (2005); and a radio tunes in karaoke transmissions from beyond in the elegiac And We All Shine On (2006). A multiple prize-winner in festivals across North America and Europe, Robinson will also premiere two new pieces: Victory over the Sun (2007) and an as-of-yet untitled video. Also screening: The General Returns from One Place to Another (2006); Tidal (2001); and Chiquitita and the Soft Escape (2003). 2001–07, Michael Robinson, USA, ca. 75 min, various formats.
Guerrilla Television
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | September 20, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007, 6pm
Skip Blumberg, Nancy Cain, and Chip Lord in person!
The 1970s gave rise to a network of radical video makers who set out to create a feisty alternative to broadcast television. Decades before the so-called media democratization offered by YouTube, cell phone cameras, and hundred-channel cable, these artist-activists turned their Portapaks on protesters, politicians, and the men-, women-, and children-on-the-street to create startlingly candid documentaries that aired on a system of closed-circuit, pirate, and early cable stations—even infiltrating broadcast television itself. Hailing from seminal guerrilla collectives Videofreex, Ant Farm, and TVTV, artists Nancy Cain, Skip Blumberg, and Chip Lord present an overview of their pioneering work and discuss its legacy today. Program includes Ant Farm’s Dirty Dishes (1971, Ant Farm); Four More Years & the World’s Largest TV Studio (1972, TVTV excerpt); Media Burn (1975, Ant Farm, excerpt); Greetings from Lanesville: Home of Probably the World’s Smallest TV Station (1976, Videofreex, excerpt); Flying Morning Glory (On Fire) (1985, Skip Blumberg); Repent Krishna (1989, Nancy Cain); CamNet (ca. 1990s, Nancy Cain, excerpt); Time Capsule 1972–1984 (2000, Ant Farm); Nam June Paik: Lessons from the Video Master (2007, Skip Blumberg). This program is made possible in part by a grant from the Illinois Humanities Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Illinois General Assembly. Co-presented by the Media Burn Independent Video Archive and the Video Data Bank. 1971–2007, various directors, USA, ca. 120 min, various formats.
Tags: Early Video Art > Non-Fiction > Political > USA > Video Data Bank
Tommy’s Chicago: Newly Preserved Films by Tom Palazzolo
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | September 13, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007, 6pm
Tom Palazzolo in person!
For over four decades, Chicago legend and SAIC alum Tom Palazzolo (“Tommy Chicago”) has documented the unorthodox rituals of the Windy City with genuine affection and wonder. From frantic deli owners to the unveiling of the Picasso sculpture, Palazzolo’s work is suffused with mischievous humor and an uncanny eye for the surreal. Tonight’s screening features seven newly preserved prints of Palazzolo’s early films: Love It/Leave It (1967); The Bride Stripped Bare (1967); O (1967); Tattooed Lady (1967); Jerry’s (1976); America’s in Real Trouble (1967); and He (1967). Prints preserved by Chicago Filmmakers with funding from the Avant-Garde Masters program and the National Film Preservation Foundation. Co-presented with Chicago Filmmakers. 1967-1976, Tom Palazzolo, USA, USA, ca. 75 min, 16mm.
Cinema of Prayoga: Indian Experimental Films
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | September 6, 2007
Thursday, September 6, 2007, 6pm
For nearly a century, Indian filmmakers have drawn on the country’s rich aesthetic traditions to craft radically original works. Despite the international popularity of Bollywood, the country’s “Cinema of Prayoga” (which loosely translates as cinema of “experiment” in Sanskrit) remains largely unknown. Curated by Brad Butler and Karen Mirza of no.w.here (London) and in partnership with Filter India (Mumbai), this program gathers work from multiple generations to provide a glimpse into the history of India’s innovative independents. Programs includes Birth of Shri Krishna (1918, D.G. Phalke); Bridging the Ocean (1932, D.G. Phalke); And I Make Short Films (1968, S.N.S. Sastry); Trip (1970, Pramod Pati); Child on a Chess Board (1979, Vijay B. Chandra); Kalighat Fetish (1999, Ashish Avikunthak); and XYZ (2004, Amit Dutta). 1918–2004, various directors, India, ca. 90 min, various formats.
SAIC Film, Video & New Media Department Year-End Show
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | May 3, 2007
Thursday, May 3, 2007, 6pm
Tonight’s program is a cinematic toast to the semester’s end with a cross-section of current work by students in the department of Film, Video & New Media.
All Stars
Jodie Mack, 2006, 0:24 min, 16mm
Colored acetate + star punch + tape = this mini-movie. (JM)
Bird Song Trilogy, Part 1 & Bird Song Trilogy, Part 2
Emily Kuehn, 2007, 5 min, miniDV
Using lo-fi tools and told in only two parts, the author attempts to create a narrative that is simultaneously non-specific and infinitely recognizable. Bird Song Trilogy confronts the flattening of culture and the ethics of false nativity. (EK)
Mysterieuse
Samantha Olschan, 2007, 3 min, miniDV
When a local girl is seduced by the arrival of an enigmatic leopard she is left with more than memory. Mysterieuse is a computer-generated animation deeply influenced by traditional myth as well as collage and printmaking techniques. (SO)
Standing on the Beach in Rimini
Chelsea Knight, 2006, 8 min, miniDV
Standing on the Beach in Rimini is a collection of memories recounted by a traveler in translation. As an analogue to her foreignness, each of the traveler’s “memories” contains an element of personal or cultural estrangement. This work combines the nostalgic, murky vision of the traveler with the invisibility of the migrants, immigrants and displaced populations around her. (CK)
Interruption #5 (The Biggest Shopping Day of the Year Comes Along Just Once a Year)
Chris Royalty, 2005, 2 min, DV)
The Interruption video series investigates the construction of mass-media forms through the use of simple audio overdubbing – as visually un-manipulated works with re-recorded self-narrated audio, they draw attention to the linguistic redundancy and banal verbal conventions of contemporary television broadcasting. (CR)
Strategies of Trust
Gonzalo Escobar, 2006, 4 min, miniDV
This piece aims to illustrate the dynamics of trust based on presumptions, assumptions, and the (contemporary) obvious. Reliance on doubt is allowed. (GE)
It’s Hard to Wreck a Nice Beach / It’s Hard to Recognize Speech
Adebukola Bodunrin, 2007, 10 min excerpt, miniDV
It’s a cultural study and creative autobiography done from the perspective of analyzing speech. (AB)
Black Chair and White Objects
Kyung Woo Han, 2007, 5 min, miniDV
It is a piece that indicates the stereotype of perception that we have in our mind. There is no absolute definition in our lives. (KWH)
Land Escape
Basia Goszczynska, 2007, 7 min, miniDV
While traveling a landscape built from found objects, Land Escape introduces a series of puppets who are soon to be deeply affected by the decaying of their land. (BG)
Interruption #7 (People Get Caught Up)
Chris Royalty, 2006, 2 min, DV
Life Long Love
Jodie Mack, 2006/7, 4 min, 16mm -> miniDV
Two lonely singles dream of eternal love, wonder if it even exists, meet, and wed. This is the opening number to a larger project–Yard Work Is Hard Work –an animated musical. (JM)
Bulb In The Head
Melika Bass, 2006, 5 min, 16mm -> DVcam
An earthen fairy tale. A feast for the living. (MB)
On Poisoning Birds
Kenny Reed & Ben Popp, 2007, 2 min, miniDV
A short film about coming to terms with my childhood. (KR)
Zwischen
Lori Felker, 2006, 2 min, 16mm
Zwischen exists on the thin line between opposing forces. Dirt moves through light to a hand-drawn soundtrack of “zwisch” and silence. (LF)
Pistolary! Films and Videos by Peggy Ahwesh
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | April 26, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007, 6pm | Peggy Ahwesh in person!
- Peggy Ahwesh, Nocturne (1998). Image courtesy of the Video Data Bank.
Since the early 1980s, Peggy Ahwesh has created “a kind of renegade arte povera ethnography of the everyday” (Mark McElhatten). Drawing from horror films, psychoanalysis, and the writings of Bataille, her films and videos are sublime studies of culturally complex subjects: sexual pleasure, relationships, and notions of the self. The young Martina plays baby and mother in Martina’s Playhouse (1989); rotting emulsion censors 70s skin in The Color of Love (1994); and Lara Croft gains subjectivity in She Puppet (2001). Also on the program are Nocturne (1998); 73 Suspect Words & Heaven’s Gate (2000); and additional rarities from Ahwesh’s personal collection. Co-presented by CATE and the Video Data Bank in conjunction with VDB’s release of the 3-disc DVD anthology, Pistolary! Films and Videos by Peggy Ahwesh. 1989-2001, Peggy Ahwesh, US, ca. 85 min, various formats.
Sharon Lockhart: Pine Flat
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | April 19, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007, 6pm
Sharon Lockhart in person!
Los Angeles photographer and filmmaker Sharon Lockhart’s latest project is an exquisite, meditative portrait of youth in Pine Flat, a small community of three hundred in the foothills of central California’s Sierra Nevadas. Shot over the course of two years and made up of twelve ten-minute static shots, Lockhart’s camera captures her young subjects in repose, at play, and in the tentative embrace of adolescent desire- telegraphing the vulnerability, bliss, and loneliness of childhood. At once intimate and meticulously staged, Lockhart mines the implicit tensions between the stillness of her camera and the ephemeral quality of youth, laying bare the small moments that make up a life. 2006, Sharon Lockhart, US, 135 min, 16mm.
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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.
