Tropical Malady (Sud Pralad)
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | November 17, 2004
Wednesday, November 17, 2004, 8pm
Apichatpong Weerasethakul in person!
Experimental filmmaker and the most prominent advocate of film art in Thailand, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, an alumnus of the Department of Film, Video and New Media at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will be an artist-in-residence this week at the school. Well-regarded for challenging established forms, for his strong ideas and artistic integrity, his work is dedicated to building a new chapter in Thai modern cinema. For this visit he brings his acclaimed Tropical Malady to Chicago; awarded this year’s Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. A rare opportunity to have our dear friend and accomplished alumnus among us. (Daniel Eisenberg)
“Set in contemporary Thailand, Tropical Malady opens with soldiers taking photographs of one another in a field. Shot in the loose, hand-held style of much contemporary documentary, the scene seems perfectly ordinary until you realize that there’s a dead body on the ground and the soldiers are actually snapping trophy shots. The full import of this tableau doesn’t become clear until much later when Mr. Weerasethakul returns us to a similar looking field (it may be the same one) as if to return to the scene of a crime. By then, the story’s two principle characters, the shy country boy Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee) and a beautiful soldier named Keng (Banlop Lamnoi), will have been stricken by the tropical malady of the film’s title and fallen in love.” In Thai with English subtitles. (Manohla Dargis, New York Times). With Banlop Lomnoi and Sakda Kaewbuadee. 2004, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand, 118 min, 35mm.
Moses and Aron
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | November 11, 2004
Thursday, November 11, 2004, 8pm
Possibly Schoenberg’s finest work and certainly one that he held close to his heart, the unfinished opera Moses und Aron represents Schoenberg’s finest attempt at meshing his philosophy with his art. It is a work that can be approached on many different levels: as an exemplar of his twelve-tone system, as a work of biblical commentary or as an attempt to work out the problems facing the Jew in the modern world. For Straub and Hulliet, it is the ideal contemporary text to argue their uncompromising position in cinema: austere, cerebral and politically engaged. The film Moses and Aron confronts the conditions of commercial cinema as effectively as Schoenberg confronted harmony and romantic expression, with an allegorical text, its classical locations and staging and insistence on the “idea” as the alpha and omega of cinema. It’s a classical confrontation between representation and abstract thought. In German with English subtitles (Daniel Eisenberg). With Gunther Reich, Louis Devos. 1975, Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, Austria, 105 min, 35mm.
Films from the Academy Film Archive
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | November 4, 2004
Thursday, November 4, 2004, 8pm
Mark Toscano in person!
The Academy Film Archive, despite conjuring an image of vaults full of nothing but Oscar broadcasts, has one of the most diverse collections and preservation programs in the world. A wide range of film spanning genres, eras and countries has been preserved at the archive and the collection is made up of the works of great Hollywood masters, avant-garde innovators, major documentarists and plenty of esoteric anomalies, as well as those Oscar broadcasts. Tonight’s program is a selection of recently restored 16mm avant-garde films: Film Abstractions 1/2/3 (with restored jazz track) (ca. 1949, Harry Smith); On the Edge (1949/2003, Curtis Harrington), Logos (1957, Jane Conger Belson Shimane), Frank Film (1973, Frank and Caroline Mouris), Even—As You and I (1937, Roger Barlow, Harry Hay & Leroy Robbins), Limitations (1988, Robert Nelson), Obmaru (1953, Patricia Marx), Castro Street (1966, Bruce Baillie), Rio Reel (ca. 1968, Russ Tamblyn), The Off-Handed Jape (1967, Robert Nelson) (Daniel Eisenberg). 1937 – 1988, various directors, USA, ca. 80 min, 16mm.
Diverse Works by Matt Hulse
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | October 28, 2004
Thursday, October 28, 2004, 8pm
Matt Hulse in person!
Matt Hulse was born upside-down in 1873. He trained at the Court of King James the Awkward in the art of crystal shoe making. He later founded the College of Wax working in Krakow, Poland, the site of which was the inspiration for Renais’ Last Year at Marienbad. He currently lives and works up a gum tree in Bolivia with his third wife and collection of miniature stuffed dogs. He’s currently developing a feature film called I Cycled into the Arctic Circle based on a book by a deaf cyclist and is also collaborating with Dutch film artist Joost van Veen on a short which features an enormous kinetic device called The Exchange. Trickster Matt Hulse will present a program of diverse works of music and image, including: Take Me Home (1997); Wee Tree (1998), Loslassen! (Let It Go!) (2002); Polskie Buty (Polish Shoes) (2002) Now I Am Yours (2001), The Plot (2002), Come On Let’s Go (2001), God Save the Queen (2002), Half Life (2004). 1997-2004, Matt Hulse, Britain, ca. 60 min, various formats.
Political Advertisement 2004
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | October 21, 2004
Thursday, October 21, 2004, 8pm
Marshall Reese in person!
Antonio Muntadas and Marshall Reese have been documenting the selling of the American presidency since 1984 and have expanded and updated the series with every election. Political Advertisement 2004 features ads from the 1950s to the present, including the 2004 campaign. As Muntadas and Reese trace the development of the TV spot, what emerges is the political strategy and manipulative marketing techniques of the American televisual campaign process. Political Advertisement 2004 includes many rare spots, some never before seen, edited without commentary, to present an endless stream of candidates, from Eisenhower to John Kerry, who are sold like commercial products (Description courtesy of Donnell Media Center). 2004, Antonio Muntadas & Marshall Reese, USA, 75 min.
The Patriot (Die Patriotin)
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | October 14, 2004
Thursday, October 14, 2004, 7:45pm
History teacher Gabi Teichert is looking for something. She sets out, spade in hand and begins to dig. Deeper and deeper she digs, determined to uncover German history at last. She is fed up with simply feeding her pupils German events in chronological order, from crusades to Stalingrad, as directed by the curriculum. “German history was so moving that it cannot be propagated in a positive sense,” in her opinion. She feels compelled to improve the basic material available for history classes, such as by exerting a direct influence on the spot at a SPD party conference. She is a practical person, curious and incredulous, looking for concrete evidence and not afraid of dirtying her hands during her private archeological digs, carrying out alchemistic experiments in her “witches kitchen” or using tools to attack fat volumes of history. The Patriot is the most perfect demonstration of master filmmaker Alexander Kluge’s theories and a film that totally refuses to bow to narrative cinema’s linearity and casualty, even refusing a stringent account of its contents. Instead, it presents different perspectives, attitudes, opinions and actions in order to encircle Kluge’s central theme: the development of a new awareness of history. In German with English subtitles (Marli Feldvoss/Daniel Eisenberg). 1979, Alexander Kluge, Germany, 121 min, 16mm.
Exploded States: War, Politics and National Identity
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | October 7, 2004
Thursday, October 7, 2004, 8pm
- Shuji Terayama, Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1971).
This program is part of the series “JPEX: Japanese Experimental Film and Video 1955-Now” that will screen at the University of Chicago later this fall. In Exploded States, the importance of political and social critique for postwar Japanese experimentation is made apparent. These experimental films and videos draw from and contribute to experimental theater and avant-garde performance, happenings staged by avant-gardists in Hi Red Center (an intercontinental Fluxus movement), and Hijikata Tatsuni’s butoh dance. Viewed together, these works exhibit a delightful irony and playful insubordination to state, collective and perspectival authority. Two triple-screen projections by Matsumoto Toshio and Terayama Shuji will also be screened. An Introduction to Cinema for Boys and Young Men (1974, Terayama Shuji); God Bless America (2002, Takamine Tadasu); X (Batsu) (1960, Tanikawa Shuntaro & Takemitsu Toru), Navel and A-Bomb (1960, Hosoe Eiko); White Hole (1976, Matsumoto Toshio); Switchback (1976, Kawanaka Nobuhiro); Yoshikei (1979, Tanaami Keiichi); Dear Photographer (1973, Takamine Go), Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1970, Terayama Shuji); For My Crushed Right Eye (1968, Matsumoto Toshio). Full program information will be available at the screenings. “JPEX: Japanese Experimental Film and Video 1955-Now” has been made possible by the generous support of the Image Forum Archive, the University of California, Irvine and the University of Chicago (Jonathan M. Hall and Michelle Puetz). 1960-2004, various directors, Japan, ca.115 min, various formats.
Khait Errouh (Threads)
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | September 30, 2004
Thursday, September 30, 2004, 8pm
Hakim Belabbes & Dan Smith in person!
“Beautifully shot in vibrant colors, the film shifts between characters, story lines, and perspectives with the prismatic grace of a kaleidoscope.” — Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
In this highly personal first feature by Moroccan-born, Chicago-based Hakim Belabbes, a dying man, accompanied by his Americanized daughter, returns after many years to his native village. Mixing documentary and surrealist styles, Belabbes weaves the impressionistic threads of different lives into a rich fabric of village life that illuminates themes of exile, parenting, and rite of passage. In French and Arabic with English subtitles. Director Hakim Belabbes and co-producer Don Smith will be present for audience discussion (Marty Rubin). With Azzedine Bouayad, Laura Marks. 2003, Hakim Belabbes, Morocco, 92 min, 35mm.
Onion City Festival Opening Night Program
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | September 23, 2004
Thursday, September 23, 2004, 8pm
The Opening Night Program of the 16th Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, a production of Chicago Filmmakers, features an exciting selection of new works by celebrated avant-garde artists. In Gunvor Nelson’s Trace Elements (2004), lush digital images, an intricate soundscape, and a constantly searching camera create a work of mystery. Chateau/Poyet (2004), master collage animator Lawrence Jordan’s first film in several years, is a dynamic reworking of Poyet’s engraved illustrations. Bruce Conner’s Luke (2004) is a new digital video based on a never-released short film Conner shot on the set of Cool Hand Luke. Su Friedrich’s The Head of a Pin (2004) is a wry observation on what happens when city dwellers encounter a country spider. Sharon Lockhart’s No (2003) frames minimally choreographed actions of Japanese agriculture within the visual tradition of 19th-century American landscape painting. For the entire Onion City schedule, visit www.chicagofilmmakers.org (Patrick Friel). 2003-2004, various directors, ca. 92 min, various formats.
Puppet Animations by Lisa Barcy
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | May 6, 2004
Thursday, May 6, 2004, 8:15pm
Lisa Barcy in person!
Escape is at the center of Lisa Barcy’s dark, if playful, animations. Always looking for the closest exit, her neurotic protagonists – paper cutouts, 3-D puppets, or lumps of moving clay – are prone to leaping without looking first, inviting disaster into their dreamlike worlds. Like a nature documentary from Mars, The Ordovicians (2004) fills the screen with weirdly twitching objects. In the romance-novel inspired Woman Without a Past (2003), the artist’s alter ego is harassed by the single piece of paper she most wants to discard. The Guilt Trip (2003) is a stop-motion road movie starring Jesus and Mary Magdalene, with the Pope in hot pursuit. A dazzling combination of live-action video, Bunraku puppets and animated silhouettes, Mermaid (2004) stretches absurdity to its tragicomic limit, as a marriage of marine biologists is threatened by an eerily fetching giant squid (Jim Trainor). 2003—2004, Lisa Barcy, USA, ca. 70 min, various formats.
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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.
