Jennifer Montgomery: Notes on the Death of Kodachrome
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | April 12, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007, 6pm | Jennifer Montgomery in person!
- Jennifer Montgomery, Notes on the Death of Kodachrome (2006). Image courtesy of the artist.
At its start, Notes on the Death of Kodachrome pretends to be about the discontinuation of the much-beloved Super-8 film stock, Kodachrome, and with it, the possible demise of small-gauge filmmaking. The premise is simple; director Jennifer Montgomery tracks down three old friends, the writer Joe Westmoreland and directors Lisa Cholodenko and Todd Haynes, who once borrowed but never returned her Super- 8 equipment. As each encounter unfolds, the film reveals new layers and its true subjects: the political character of filmmaking, the nature of friendship, and personal reckoning. With Montgomery’s 1990 Super-8 film, Age 12: Love with a Little L. 1990-2006, Jennifer Montgomery, US, ca. 80 min, various formats.
LTTR: The Dead, The Absent and Fictitious
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | April 5, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007, 6pm
LTTR in person!
LTTR (K8 Hardy, Emily Roysdon, Ulrike Mueller, and Ginger Brooks Takahashi) is a radically vibrant feminist art collective. Post-punk and gender-queer, their exuberant activist practice includes international curatorial projects, community-based workshops, screenings, and an annual self-published arts journal-enthusing a growing community of artists and thinkers. Tonight’s program exemplifies LTTR’s ethos and their smart curatorial style: Marble Mouth Au Revoir (2006, Curtis Carman, 2006); Dead in the Desert (2006, Marriage [Math Bass & James Pei-Mun Tsang]); To Pee in Public Places (2001-2006, Itziar Okariz); The Last Day of November (2001, Bill Basquin); 21 Years (2005, Moyra Davey); East River Park (1991, Zoe Leonard and Nancy Brooks Brody); Social Movement (2005, Emily Roysdon); Me (2005-2006, Chris Spinelli); Munchausen (2006, Susanne Oberbeck); Lez Side Story (2006, Hedia Maron and Faye Driscoll); Spektro De’l Tempo (2005, Ilona Berger); Who Do You Think You Are (1997, Lovett/Codagnone); Love/Torture (2005, Ulrike Mueller); and fat/soft/normal/skinny (2005, Dafne Boggeri). 1991-2006, various directors, Italy/Spain/UK/US, ca. 75 min, various formats.
Tags: Curators and Programmers > Feminist > Political > SAIC Alumni > USA
Vladmaster!
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | March 29, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007, 6pm
Vladimir in person!
Portland artist Vladimir elevates the View-Master to high art with her hand-made stereoscopic Vladmasters, repurposing the plastic viewers for extraordinary public performances. Drawing upon Greek legends, entomology, and newspaper stories, her “films” are 28-frame haikus, each photographed from richly detailed dioramas and set to her artfully composed soundtracks-including chimes and dings. Tonight, Vladimir will present a brief survey of her output, including Lucifugia Thigmotaxis (2004); The Public Life of Jeremiah Barnes (2004); Actaeon at Home (2005); and Fear & Trembling (2006). View-Masters will be provided. 2004-06, Vladimir, US, ca. 60 min.
Mary Ellen Bute: Centennial
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | March 15, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007, 6pm
- Mary Ellen Bute, Color Rhapsody (1948).
A pioneer of visual music and electronic art, Mary Ellen Bute produced over a dozen short abstract animations between the 1930s and the 1950s. Renowned for their brilliant color, elegant design, and sprightly, dance-like rhythms, Bute’s films are at once formally rigorous and exuberantly dynamic; high modernism meets Merrie Melodies. 2006 marked the centennial of Bute’s birth and tonight’s program celebrates her artistic accomplishments with a short survey of her career, including Rhythm in Light (with Melville Webber and Ted Nemeth, 1934); Synchromy No. 2 (1935); Dada (produced for Universal Newsreel, 1936); Parabola (1937); Spook Sport (with Norman McLaren, 1939); Tarantella (1940); Polka Graph (Fun with Music) (1947); Color Rhapsody (1948); Imagination (Produced for Steve Allen, 1948); New Sensations in Sound (RCA Commercial, 1949); Pastorale (1950); Abstronic (1952); and Mood Contrasts (1953). Organized by the Center for Visual Music, in association with Cecile Starr and The Women’s Independent Film Exchange. 1934-1953, Mary Ellen Bute, US, ca. 70 min, 16mm.
Saul Levine: Notes from the Underground
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | March 8, 2007
Thursday, March 8, 2007, 6pm | Saul Levine in person!
- Saul Levine, New Left Note (1968-83). Image courtesy of the artist.
“Saul Levine is the foremost dissenting filmmaker in America,” writes critic P. Adams Sitney. “With about thirty-five years of consistent production behind him, and no signs of fatigue, he can show us the shape of a life passionately and uncompromisingly devoted to filmmaking. His works are high-energy messages of friendship, records of sexual love and political activism, radiated by humor, prophetic anger, loneliness and even though rarely, representing repose.” Tonight, the small-gauge master and SAIC alum presents beautifully restored 16mm blow-ups of a selection of his intimate and incendiary 8mm “notes”: Note To Pati (1969); Note To Colleen (1974); New Left Note (1968-83); The Big Stick/An Old Reel (1967-73); and Note To Poli (1982-83). Co-presented with the Experimental Film Club at the University of Chicago, which will screen another selection of Levine’s work on Friday, March 9. 1968-83, Saul Levine, US, ca. 90 min, 16mm.
A Home-Made Optics: Films & Videos by Leighton Pierce
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | March 1, 2007
Thursday, March 1, 2007, 6pm
Leighton Pierce in person!
Since the 1980s, many of the films and videos of Iowa-based artist Leighton Pierce have painted a lush portrait of Midwestern life. Tonight’s program compiles his rich domestic observations-a gurgling, backyard fountain in Glass (1998); the repetitive clatter of children’s feet on the porch in The Back Steps (2001); and the plucking of a solitary, stretched length of twine in 50 Feet of String (1995)-that reveal everyday drama lurking in the quietude. Also on the program are Wood (2000) and Puppy-Go-Round (1996). Co-presented with the Experimental Film Club at the University of Chicago, which will present A Wandering Optics on Friday, March 2. 1995-2001, Leighton Pierce, US, ca. 90 min, various formats.
Salla Tykkä: Films & Videos
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | February 22, 2007
Thursday, February 22, 2007, 6pm
Salla Tykkä in person!
Disquieting and seductive, the work of Finnish photographer and filmmaker Salla Tykkä mines the edges of experience with the language of our personal and collective dreams. Tykkä’s dense symbolic landscapes re-imagine Hollywood conventions as dreamlike rites of passage fraught with danger and possibility: a shirtless young woman boxes a much larger man in Power (1999); a Tippi Hedren look-a-like is pulled underwater in Zoo (2006); and a woman travels into a mysterious cavern in Cave (2003). Also on the program are Thriller (2001); Lasso (2000); Bitch: Portrait of the Happy One (1997); and My Hate is Useless (1996) among others. 1996-2006, Salla Tykkä, Finland, ca. 100 min, various formats.
Michael Snow: La Région Centrale
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | February 17, 2007
Saturday, February 17, 2007, 2pm
One of the most talked about films in the history of experimental cinema, Michael Snow’s three-hour La Région Centrale is an epic homage to the landscape tradition. Shot in remote Quebec with a specially designed machine capable of rotating the camera in all directions, the film traces spirals, twirls, and figure-eights as it probes the surrounding wilderness-fragmenting time, space, and vision. 1971, Michael Snow, Canada, 190 min, 16mm.
Copy-It-Right! Selections from the Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | February 15, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007,6pm
Curator Jon Cates in person!
Charismatic video pioneer Phil Morton influenced an entire generation of video and digital artists, founded SAIC’s Video Department, laid the groundwork for what has since become the Video Data Bank, and developed Copy-It-Right, an anti-copyright ethic that set the precedent for the current open-source movement. His name has been largely forgotten, however, and his legacy was cut short by his death in 2003. Curated by SAIC professor Jon Cates, tonight’s selection of Morton’s ground-breaking work launches the opening of the Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive, housed in the Film, Video & New Media Department at SAIC. 1969-90, Phil Morton, US, ca. 90 min, various formats.
Michael Snow: Reverberlin + Sound Works
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | February 9, 2007
Friday, February 9, 2007, 6pm
Michael Snow in person!
Renowned for his innovative and revolutionary work in film, Michael Snow is also an accomplished musician and sound artist. He began playing jazz piano in the late 1940s and has worked with free improvisation-piano, voice, radio, microphones, andrecordings-since the 1960s. Tonight, Snow will present his latest digital video Reverberlin (2006) featuring sound by his pioneering New Music trio, CCMC (PaulDutton, John Oswald, Michael Snow) along with a survey of his sound recordings, compositions, sculptures, and installations. 1950-2006, Michael Snow, Canada, ca. 100 min, various formats.
« go back — keep looking »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.
