Films by Ernie Gehr: Glider & Cotton Candy
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | April 11, 2002
Thursday, April 11, 2002, 6pm
Ernie Gehr in person!
Ernie Gehr continues to be one of the most original and unique artists working in media. For over thirty years, Gehr has produced a body of work that is at once formally rigorous, deeply humanistic, and a challenge to the conventional reception of the world’s images. Tonight he will premiere in Chicago two new digital video works from 2001. Gehr will also be presenting recent film work at Chicago Filmmakers; check for listings (Daniel Eisenberg). 2001, Ernie Gehr, USA, ca. 90 min., video.
Videos by Cecilia Dougherty
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | April 4, 2002
Thursday, April 4, 2002, 6pm
Cecelia Dougherty in person!
Cecilia Dougherty’s work employs experimental documentary and narrative to explore family interactions, the representation of lesbians in popular culture, outsider psychology, and everyday life. Dougherty will appear in person to present a wide range of her work, from early pieces such as Grapefruit (1989), Coal Miner’s Granddaughter (1991), Joe-Joe (1993), and My Failure to Assimilate (1995), to more recent work such as Laura (1998) (Abina Manning). 1989-1998, Cecilia Dougherty, USA, 60 min, video.
This screening is co-presented by the Video Data Bank and complements Dougherty’s new video installation Gone, based on Episode No 2 of the landmark PBS series An American Family, April 4th-7th at Gallery 312, 312 N May Street (Info: 312 942 2500 or www.gallery312.org).
Mysterious Object at Noon (Dogfar Nai Mae Marn)
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | March 28, 2002
Thursday, March 28, 2002, 6pm | Apichatpong Weerasethakul in person!
- Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Mysterious Object at Noon (2000).
“Mr. Weerasethakul’s film is like a piece of chamber music slowly, deftly expanding into a full symphonic movement; to watch it is to enter a fugue state that has the music and rhythms of another culture.” Elvis Mitchell, New York Times
A former student in the Filmmaking Department of the School of the Art Institute, Apichatpong Weerasethakul will appear in person to present his award-winning first feature film. Mysterious Object at Noon is a unique brew of road movie, folklore, documentary, surrealism, science fiction, and metafiction, in which a filmmaker travels across the Thai countryside, soliciting various people to contribute their own chapters to an ever-exapanding and mutating narrative. 2000, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand, 83 min, 35mm.
The California Trilogy: El Valley Centro, Los, Sogobi
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | March 21, 2002
Thursday, March 21, 2002, 6pm
James Benning in person!
James Benning will appear in person to present the first complete screening of his California Trilogy, including the US premiere of the third film in the trilogy, Sogobi. Each film is composed of 35 shots, each shot lasting 2 minutes and 30 seconds, filmed from a stationary camera, with no narration and no sound except the ambient sounds of the locations. The first film in the series, El Valley Centro, describes the effects of agricultural commerce in rural Central Valley. Los, the second installment, is set in Los Angeles. Sogobi, the final installment, is a portrait of California’s wilderness. 2000-02, James Benning, USA, 360 min, 16mm.
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | March 14, 2002
Thursday, March 14, 2002, 6:15pm
A central but rarely shown film in the history of feminist cinema, Jeanne Dielman follows three days in the life of a middle-class European woman as she does her daily housework, cooks for her teenage son, occasionally engages in prostition, and gradually descends into madness. Using the real-time element of the long, uninterrupted shot, Akerman forces the viewer to concentrate on aspects of life and work that are rarely shown in conventional cinema and that convey a terrifying sense of what is most irreplaceable in life: the passing of time (Jeffrey Skoller). 1975, Chantal Akerman, Belgium, 198 min, 35mm.
Ear and Eye Control: Films by Paula Froehle
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | March 7, 2002
Thursday, March 7, 2002, 6pm
Paula Froehle in person!
Loosely traversing the boundary between experimental and narrative form, Paula Froehle’s densely layered and poetic films search for new metaphoric relationships to express the realms of the subconscious. This evening provides an overview of her work, from early pieces such as Second Skin (1990), Spitting Image (1992), Flicker (1995), and Fever (1995), to her latest short, Underground Women (2001). In addition, she will screen excerpts from her recent music/film collaborations with local musicians Ken Vandermark and the Sinister Luck Ensemble, Chicago Eye and Ear Control and See/Hear Experiment (2001-02) (Daniel Eisenberg). 1990-2002, Paula Froehle, USA, 59 min, various formats.
Films by Joseph Cornell from the Flaxman Collection
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | February 28, 2002
Thursday, February 28, 2002, 6pm
Joseph Cornell’s film work links the tradition of early surrealism with the entire range of work produced by experimental filmmakers in the fifties, sixties & seventies in New York. The enormously influential Rose Hobart (1939) practically launched a movement by itself, after being seen by Jack Smith and Ken Jacobs. The filmmakers Rudy Burckhardt, Larry Jordan, and Stan Brakhage all worked for and with Cornell, but what is still most important about the films is the unique sensibility that permeates the work. Dreamy, highly charged in sexuality, innocent one moment, sophisticated the next. These films are an accompaniment to the themes, materials, and formal complexities of Cornell’s boxes. They are among the most important works to have been produced in American independent film and this is a rare survey of almost all the films, shown together. Includes: Rose Hobart (1939); The Children’s Party, Cotillion, The Midnight Party (1970); A Fable for Fountains (1957); Bookstalls (ca. 1930s); Cloches A Travers Les Feuilles (1957); What Mozart Saw on Mulberry Street (1954); Vaudeville Deluxe (ca. 1940s); The Aviary (1954); By Light with Torch and Spear (ca. 1940s); Mulberry Street (1957); Rednow Gnir (1955-56); Nymphlight (1957) (Daniel Eisenberg). 1939-1957, Joseph Cornell, USA, ca. 115 min, 16mm.
The Hart of London
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | February 21, 2002
Thursday, February 21, 2002, 6pm
Immensely influential to a generation of filmmakers, The Hart of London manages to create a seamless flow of documentary materials, poetic imagery, and a complex metaphoric construction. Canadian painter and filmmaker Jack Chambers created The Hart of London to speak about the costs of civilization and modernity, using images of his hometown of London, Ontario as the epicenter of his deeply felt alienation from “progress.” Unrelenting and strong, The Hart of London draws together a critical, poetic, and personal cinema, opening the way for others to explore this powerful connection (Daniel Eisenberg). 1970, Jack Chambers, Canada, 80 min, 16mm.
A Special Valentine’s Day With Bruce LaBruce
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | February 14, 2002
Thursday, February 14, 2002, 6pm
Bruce LaBruce in Person!
Bruce LaBruce is a writer, filmmaker, and photographer stuck in the gulag otherwise known as Toronto, Canada. He started out as a child, then quickly moved on to the production of homo punk fanzines and super 8 movies. These products helped to launch the so-called Homocore or Queercore movement, which corrupted a whole new generation of homosexuals. The program will include LaBruce’s 1999 feature Skin Flick and selections from Eat My Shorts (1987-95), a compilation of early shorts LaBruce made with Candy Parker (Jennifer Tsai). 1987-1999, Canada, ca. 90 min, video.
Black Maria Film Festival, Program 2
Posted by | Conversations at the Edge | Posted on | February 8, 2002
Friday, February 8, 2002, 6pm
The second evening of work will be presented in the screening room of the Department of Film, Video, and New Media, 112 S. Michigan Avenue, Room 1311, 13th floor. Includes: Impossible Love (Jim Jennings, 11 min); Train (Masako Miyazaki, 8 min); Shudder (Michael Gitlin, 3 min); Go/Army (Ruben OMalley, 9 min); WOT THE ANCIENT SOD (Diane Kitchen, 17 min); Lollipop Tree (Mike Mayfield, 3 min); 67/97 (Barcode) (Seoungho Cho, 7 min); Water Seeking Its Level (Leighton Pierce, 6 min); Hostage: The Bachar Tapes (Walid Ra’ad, 17 min); Mr. Tambourine Man (Michael Matei & Brendan Castner, 3 min); Hazlo Por Cuba (Do It For Cuba) (David Ellsworth, 14 min); Strange Invaders (Cordell Barker, 9 min) (Daniel Eisenberg). 2000-2002, various directors, ca. 107 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.
