Sept 20 & 22 — SPECIAL WARNING: FILMS BY ROBERT NELSON
September 20, 6:00 pm September 22, 12:30 pm Introduced by curators Lori Felker and Mark Toscano! Renowned for their exuberance and inventive cinematic wit, Robert Nelson’s films established him as a leading member of the West Coast avant-garde and post-Beat culture of the ‘60s and ‘70s. These two programs of different works pair recently restored […]
Thursday – WU TSANG & WILDNESS!!
September 13, 6:00 p.m Due to unforeseen circumstances, artist Wu Tsang will be joining us live via Skype instead of in person. We apologize for any inconvenience (but hope you will still join us!) Image from Wildness (Wu Tsang, 2012). Courtesy of the artist. Rooted in the tropical underground of Los Angeles nightlife, magical realism […]
James Benning: Twenty Cigarettes
April 19, 6:00 p.m. | James Benning in person! James Benning, Twenty Cigarettes (2011). Courtesy the artist. Celebrated for his minimal, monumental landscape studies, James Benning turns to the intimacy of the portrait in his latest film, Twenty Cigarettes. Referencing Warhol’s screen tests, 1930’s Hollywood glamour, and the disappearing cigarette break, the film captures 20 […]
Yvonne Rainer: Lives of Performers
April 12, 6:00 p.m. | Yvonne Rainer in person! Yvonne Rainer, Lives of Performers (1972). Courtesy Zeitgeist Films. Join us for an evening with filmmaker, choreographer, and poet Yvonne Rainer and a rare screening of her acclaimed first feature, Lives of Performers, shown from a pristine new print. Embodying Rainer’s aesthetic rigor and wit, the film […]
Brent Green: Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then
March 29, 6:00 p.m. & March 31, 12:30 p.m. | Brent Green in person! Brent Green, Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then (2010). Courtesy the artist. Brent Green’s folk-punk films interweave drawing, puppets, hand-built sets, and stop-motion animation to spin tales of transformation and loss. For two appearances Green presents his acclaimed animated feature Gravity Was […]
Tomonari Nishikawa & Small-Gauge Japan
March 8, 6pm | Tomonari Nishikawa in person Tomonari Nishikawa, Tokyo-Ebisu (2010). Courtesy the artist. Working in formats ranging from Super 8 to 35mm still photographic film, Tomonari Nishikawa constructs his films through precise single-frame shooting, elaborate masking, superimposition, and in-camera editing. He transforms the elements of urban life into multilayered abstractions of light, movement, […]
Laure Prouvost: Don’t Look Up
March 1, 6:00 p.m. | Introduction and post-screening discussion with Laure Prouvost via Skype! Laure Prouvost, Monolog (2009). Courtesy the artist and MOT International. The brilliantly anarchic videos of Laure Prouvost run wild with the rules of narrative and language. Prouvost’s fast-paced works often feature surreal tales jarringly interrupted by self-conscious text, unsettling imagery, or […]
George Kuchar: HotSpell
Thursday, February 23, 6:00 p.m. | Introduced by Abina Manning, Executive Director of the Video Data Bank George Kuchar, HotSpell (2011). Courtesy the Video Data Bank. “Desire and death are in the air, along with some aromatic wisps of ethnic edibles, so be sure to sniff it all.” —George Kuchar George Kuchar became a legend […]
Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area /// New Prints/New Preservation
February 16, 6:00 p.m. | Introduced by Steve Anker, curator and Dean of the School of Film/Video at CalArts Image from Peggy and Fred in Hell: The Prologue (Leslie Thornton, 1984). Courtesy the Pacific Film Archive Library. Since the 1940s, San Francisco has been both a haven and inspiration for an influential constellation of moving […]
THE FILMS OF AMAR KANWAR
Thursday, November 17, 6:00 pm | Amar Kanwar in person! Image from THE SMILE (Amar Kanwar, 2007). Courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York. Amar Kanwar’s films and installations offer incisive and meditative explorations of the political, social, economic, and ecological conditions of the Indian subcontinent. They are also formally inventive, synthesizing documentary, […]
« 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.
