White Light Cinema at The Nightingale - Friday, Dec 18th, 8pm
Without question the most ambitious
undertaking of his ongoing career, Klahr's 12 film series has never
before screened in its entirety in Chicago. Trafficking in the noir
that has is now the familiar backward looking lens at the Eisenhower-Kennedy
era, Klahr has a genuine affection for the collection of visual elements
that populate his fragmented narratives. Produced over four years, from
1988-1991, these films whisper the claustrophobic outcomes of a childhood
shaped by shopping malls and two car garages, and shout the angst of
Nicholas Ray's best characters. More than this they are about the unfulfilled
dreams of an exuberant nation, fueled by cheap gasoline and atomic energy,
ready to change the world through technology and righteousness. Through
the domesticity of the Super-8mm medium Klahr's cutout animation is
made personal through delicate juxtaposition and detail, and his careful
camerawork leads us through the often-convoluted logic of his symbols.
Incorporating both original and found music, short clips of dialog and
authentic ambient noise, he is able to immerse the viewer in a mood-colored
world of simultaneous possibility and failure. Rarely is the intellectual
exercise of evaluating one's society so effortless. (1988-1991, 131
mins total, Super-8mm on video) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Hollis Frampton: Birth of Magellan (Experimental)
Chicago Filmmakers - Saturday, 8pm
As the third installment of the ongoing retrospective series CRITICAL MASS: RE-VIEWING HOLLIS FRAMPTON, Chicago Filmmakers will be presenting fragments of the artists' fabled MAGELLAN CYCLE. Intended to consist of 1000 films totaling roughly 36 hours to be viewed over 369 days, it is "like a tour of the possible principles for forming an encyclopedia," according to Frampton. Seen outside of their original context and because of their frequent structural density, the individual pieces are sometimes challenging (though not always), and one can only imagine what the experience of seeing them as short shots of wisdom day after day after day would have been like. It is likely that the casual viewer will have difficulty parsing the subtleties of each piece, but that is only because it is easy to dig too deep to find meaning. But they can be appreciated on many different levels. The simplicity of the structure in CADENZAS I & XIV (1980, 11 min, 16mm) revolves around gentle juxtapositions of sound and image, and a building of meaning from one visual to the next. The trick here is that what looks like a bold sexual metaphor is really a joke about sexual metaphors in poetic filmmaking, complete with laugh track. In MINDFALL I & VII (1977-80, 36 min, 16mm) the visuals are more complex, with groups being repeated and played like alternating chord structures. As they build on one another, and refrains are recognized, the often superimposed and out-of-synch imagery vibrates like a plucked string. From my viewing notes: cactus, tropical plants, ping-pong, water, religious symbols, Geiger counter, three kings, Frampton's shadow, applause. Also screening: MATRIX (1977, 28 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
As the third installment of the ongoing retrospective series CRITICAL MASS: RE-VIEWING HOLLIS FRAMPTON, Chicago Filmmakers will be presenting fragments of the artists' fabled MAGELLAN CYCLE. Intended to consist of 1000 films totaling roughly 36 hours to be viewed over 369 days, it is "like a tour of the possible principles for forming an encyclopedia," according to Frampton. Seen outside of their original context and because of their frequent structural density, the individual pieces are sometimes challenging (though not always), and one can only imagine what the experience of seeing them as short shots of wisdom day after day after day would have been like. It is likely that the casual viewer will have difficulty parsing the subtleties of each piece, but that is only because it is easy to dig too deep to find meaning. But they can be appreciated on many different levels. The simplicity of the structure in CADENZAS I & XIV (1980, 11 min, 16mm) revolves around gentle juxtapositions of sound and image, and a building of meaning from one visual to the next. The trick here is that what looks like a bold sexual metaphor is really a joke about sexual metaphors in poetic filmmaking, complete with laugh track. In MINDFALL I & VII (1977-80, 36 min, 16mm) the visuals are more complex, with groups being repeated and played like alternating chord structures. As they build on one another, and refrains are recognized, the often superimposed and out-of-synch imagery vibrates like a plucked string. From my viewing notes: cactus, tropical plants, ping-pong, water, religious symbols, Geiger counter, three kings, Frampton's shadow, applause. Also screening: MATRIX (1977, 28 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Paul Wegener's THE GOLEM (Classic Revival)
Chicago Cultural Center - Friday,
7pm
As legend has it, Rabbi Loew gave life to a Golem in 16th century Prague. Sculpted by his own hand from a mound of clay, the Rabbi carved the Hebrew word "emet," meaning truth, into the giant's forehead and brought it into existence. The creature was meant to be a protector of the Jewish Ghetto, and was to act as a servant to Loew. Taking this legend as his basis, actor/co-director/co-
As legend has it, Rabbi Loew gave life to a Golem in 16th century Prague. Sculpted by his own hand from a mound of clay, the Rabbi carved the Hebrew word "emet," meaning truth, into the giant's forehead and brought it into existence. The creature was meant to be a protector of the Jewish Ghetto, and was to act as a servant to Loew. Taking this legend as his basis, actor/co-director/co-
Occasional Pieces: Film & Video by Steve Connolly (Experimental)
The Nightingale - Saturday, 7:30pm
British filmmaker Steve Connolly's films are inquisitive works: they ask questions about the spaces they investigate, and they ask questions of the viewer. Less exploration and more collected clues, finding the answers does not seem to be as of much concern as finding the right complex. In MAS SE PERDIO (2008) Havana, Cuba is the setting. An outdoor stadium with a few young men working out (potential), the structure of an elegant national ballet school that was never used (forgotten glory), and an intersection being restored with manual labor (limited resources) are shown. Although the film is presented in three acts, each section juxtaposes the different shooting locations, allowing their shared obsolescence to act as a stand in for the continual restoration of the outdated that has permeated communist Cuba. Less structured but more personal is FILM FOR TOM (2005). Connolly gives us all the trappings of a biography when we see scenes from the childhood of Tom Pearson and hear an adult voice recounting the events of his life. However, this is not a film about Tom, but rather about Connolly's anguish over Tom's violent murder. The narrator, after being told by a psychoanalyst that he has no sense of self, responds "Perhaps I could find myself in someone else," and through his film Connolly allows each of us to find our unique story in that of another. Also screening: THE READING ROOM (2002), POSTCARD FROM ISTANBUL (2003), THE WHALE (2003), GREAT AMERICAN DESERT (2007). Connolly in person. (2002-08, approx. 62 min, 16mm and video) JH - Cine-File.info
British filmmaker Steve Connolly's films are inquisitive works: they ask questions about the spaces they investigate, and they ask questions of the viewer. Less exploration and more collected clues, finding the answers does not seem to be as of much concern as finding the right complex. In MAS SE PERDIO (2008) Havana, Cuba is the setting. An outdoor stadium with a few young men working out (potential), the structure of an elegant national ballet school that was never used (forgotten glory), and an intersection being restored with manual labor (limited resources) are shown. Although the film is presented in three acts, each section juxtaposes the different shooting locations, allowing their shared obsolescence to act as a stand in for the continual restoration of the outdated that has permeated communist Cuba. Less structured but more personal is FILM FOR TOM (2005). Connolly gives us all the trappings of a biography when we see scenes from the childhood of Tom Pearson and hear an adult voice recounting the events of his life. However, this is not a film about Tom, but rather about Connolly's anguish over Tom's violent murder. The narrator, after being told by a psychoanalyst that he has no sense of self, responds "Perhaps I could find myself in someone else," and through his film Connolly allows each of us to find our unique story in that of another. Also screening: THE READING ROOM (2002), POSTCARD FROM ISTANBUL (2003), THE WHALE (2003), GREAT AMERICAN DESERT (2007). Connolly in person. (2002-08, approx. 62 min, 16mm and video) JH - Cine-File.info
Friday, October 23, 2009
The Bruce Conner Prospective (Experimental)
Eye and Ear Clinic at SAIC (112
S Michigan Ave, Rm 1307) - Monday, 6pm
One of the great accidents of Art History is that Bruce Conner did not invent the found-footage film. Sure, Joseph Cornell made ROSE HOBART in 1936 and Eisenstein et al were rumored to have rearranged THE BIRTH OF A NATION while teaching themselves the art of montage in the 1910s, but Conner did it better. In his first major film, simply titled A MOVIE (1958, 12 min, 16mm) he displayed a knack for gluing the scraps of civilization together to create both a humorous and scathing visual commentary on society at large and Hollywood idioms. As the title indicates, this was a generalized version of the more mind-numbing fare that is arguably still the norm: sex, explosions, racism, and sexy racist explosions. In REPORT (1967, 13 min, 16mm) he used the news coverage surrounding the Kennedy assassination, shot off his own TV set, to explore the media's obsession with violence and celebrity. Again Conner uses a medium of mass communication as the message, but shows more sensitivity as he explores his own feelings about an event that defined a generation. Craig Baldwin's TRIBULATION 99 (1992, 48 min, 16mm) is a film that is epic in scope and archival in source material. Taking a different approach to appropriation, Baldwin braids 99 different conspiracy theories into a narrative. With footage mainly from B-movie clips and educational films, he explains in half-whispered narration not just who killed JFK, but what it had to do with the Mayans and aliens. Baldwin shows a sensitivity to the societal fringes that incubated these theories, and you get the sense that although he doesn't believe them, he knows they're onto something. Also screening: Brian Boyce's SPECIAL REPORT (1999, 3 min, video), Kent Lambert's SEPTEMBER SICK SEMPER TYRANNIS (2008, 4 min, video), and Jesse McLean's ONLY WE KNOW (2009, 5 min, video). Lambert and McLean person. JH - Cine-File.info
One of the great accidents of Art History is that Bruce Conner did not invent the found-footage film. Sure, Joseph Cornell made ROSE HOBART in 1936 and Eisenstein et al were rumored to have rearranged THE BIRTH OF A NATION while teaching themselves the art of montage in the 1910s, but Conner did it better. In his first major film, simply titled A MOVIE (1958, 12 min, 16mm) he displayed a knack for gluing the scraps of civilization together to create both a humorous and scathing visual commentary on society at large and Hollywood idioms. As the title indicates, this was a generalized version of the more mind-numbing fare that is arguably still the norm: sex, explosions, racism, and sexy racist explosions. In REPORT (1967, 13 min, 16mm) he used the news coverage surrounding the Kennedy assassination, shot off his own TV set, to explore the media's obsession with violence and celebrity. Again Conner uses a medium of mass communication as the message, but shows more sensitivity as he explores his own feelings about an event that defined a generation. Craig Baldwin's TRIBULATION 99 (1992, 48 min, 16mm) is a film that is epic in scope and archival in source material. Taking a different approach to appropriation, Baldwin braids 99 different conspiracy theories into a narrative. With footage mainly from B-movie clips and educational films, he explains in half-whispered narration not just who killed JFK, but what it had to do with the Mayans and aliens. Baldwin shows a sensitivity to the societal fringes that incubated these theories, and you get the sense that although he doesn't believe them, he knows they're onto something. Also screening: Brian Boyce's SPECIAL REPORT (1999, 3 min, video), Kent Lambert's SEPTEMBER SICK SEMPER TYRANNIS (2008, 4 min, video), and Jesse McLean's ONLY WE KNOW (2009, 5 min, video). Lambert and McLean person. JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Mike Judge’s OFFICE SPACE (Contemporary Revival)
Music Box – Friday and Saturday, Midnight
1999 was a banner year for movies that criticized pursuing the American Dream as a soul-sucking, monotonous, and crushing defeat. These films all told us that the only way to achieve happiness in your modern life is to get up out of your cubicle, give your boss an emphatic middle finger and drop the hell out! But while FIGHT CLUB wrapped itself up in CGI and a philosophy of violence, and AMERICAN BEAUTY sought to regain it's youth with a Lolita and some reefer, OFFICE SPACE gives us the chance to do nothing. And how sweet nothing can be. Introducing the world to the phrases "pieces of flair" and "O-face," and with a plot device shamelessly stolen from SUPERMAN III, the film attempts to deny that it's a sophisticated satire. However, in the hands of writer-director Mike Judge (who was best know for BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD before this film), astute social commentary always gets mixed up with fart jokes. Corporate underling Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) plays the straight man to a cadre of ridiculous co-workers, neighbors, and waiters. With ten years of history between now and the film's release, it's basic setup of a code-monkey working on the Y2K problem may seem dated, but the office stereotypes it creates are timeless. (1999, 89 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
1999 was a banner year for movies that criticized pursuing the American Dream as a soul-sucking, monotonous, and crushing defeat. These films all told us that the only way to achieve happiness in your modern life is to get up out of your cubicle, give your boss an emphatic middle finger and drop the hell out! But while FIGHT CLUB wrapped itself up in CGI and a philosophy of violence, and AMERICAN BEAUTY sought to regain it's youth with a Lolita and some reefer, OFFICE SPACE gives us the chance to do nothing. And how sweet nothing can be. Introducing the world to the phrases "pieces of flair" and "O-face," and with a plot device shamelessly stolen from SUPERMAN III, the film attempts to deny that it's a sophisticated satire. However, in the hands of writer-director Mike Judge (who was best know for BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD before this film), astute social commentary always gets mixed up with fart jokes. Corporate underling Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) plays the straight man to a cadre of ridiculous co-workers, neighbors, and waiters. With ten years of history between now and the film's release, it's basic setup of a code-monkey working on the Y2K problem may seem dated, but the office stereotypes it creates are timeless. (1999, 89 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
François Truffaut’s FAHRENHEIT 451 (Classic Revival)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) – Wednesday, 7 and 9:30pm
What is it about French directors in the 60's that made them visualize the future as looking pretty much the same, but with a few fancy gadgets and streamlined clothing? And what was it about Ray Bradbury that makes his dystopian futures less frightening than Philip K. Dick's? François Truffaut can share credit for both of these phenomena. In his first color film, and only English language film, Bradbury's 1951 novel of the same name is adapted to become an anti-censorship, pro-intellectual statement. In a future where all books and written language are banned, Oskar Werner plays the book burning "fireman," an up-and-coming fascist about to get promoted who has a crisis of conscience. Julie Christie plays the dual roles of Linda, his sedative and TV addicted wife, and Clarisse, the young schoolteacher who seduces his mind. Beginning with the opening credits, which are spoken by a narrator while we see two-toned shots of antennae, Truffaut forefronts his visual acumen. Though the dialogue is sometimes lacking in terms of rhythm and delivery, the art direction is sublime. The reds, oranges, and yellows of burning paper dominate Christie's wardrobe and home, and only a handful of cool colors are dripped throughout the film. The film uses some quick zooms, which feel dated today, but sheds many of the cinematic flourishes that populate much of Truffaut's earlier work. Though technically sci-fi, it's light on the science, and heavy on the (literary) fiction. (1966, 112 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
What is it about French directors in the 60's that made them visualize the future as looking pretty much the same, but with a few fancy gadgets and streamlined clothing? And what was it about Ray Bradbury that makes his dystopian futures less frightening than Philip K. Dick's? François Truffaut can share credit for both of these phenomena. In his first color film, and only English language film, Bradbury's 1951 novel of the same name is adapted to become an anti-censorship, pro-intellectual statement. In a future where all books and written language are banned, Oskar Werner plays the book burning "fireman," an up-and-coming fascist about to get promoted who has a crisis of conscience. Julie Christie plays the dual roles of Linda, his sedative and TV addicted wife, and Clarisse, the young schoolteacher who seduces his mind. Beginning with the opening credits, which are spoken by a narrator while we see two-toned shots of antennae, Truffaut forefronts his visual acumen. Though the dialogue is sometimes lacking in terms of rhythm and delivery, the art direction is sublime. The reds, oranges, and yellows of burning paper dominate Christie's wardrobe and home, and only a handful of cool colors are dripped throughout the film. The film uses some quick zooms, which feel dated today, but sheds many of the cinematic flourishes that populate much of Truffaut's earlier work. Though technically sci-fi, it's light on the science, and heavy on the (literary) fiction. (1966, 112 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Daniel Barrow’s WINNIPEG BABYSITTER (Live Performance/Special Event)
The Nightingale – Saturday, 8pm
When cable television came on the scene in the late 70s not only did it increase the number of channels available, but in many communities it also created Public Access TV. Funded and equipped by the corporations that reaped the profits, Public Access provided a platform for hobby enthusiasts, amateur actors, wannabe talk-show hosts, political junkies, and artists of all kinds to take over your boob tube each week. On the eastern edge of the Canadian prairies, the citizens of Winnipeg exploited this new format to it's fullest, with people such as performance artist Glen Meadmore and a young Guy Maddin creating masterworks of the medium. When SHAW cable took over the local system in the late 80's, rumors circulated that they had destroyed the archives, and Winnipeg illustrator, collector, animator, and overhead-projector performer Daniel Barrow took action. He began researching and collecting the programs that had been part of this creative explosion, many times needing to track down VHS copies of shows from the producers and viewers. In the Chicago edition of his ongoing project he will present a selection of his favorite finds, side by side with his handcrafted liner notes for each program. Part performance, part archival presentation, this show promises to be a funny and nostalgic look back at an era when technology and economics combined to give anyone with a little initiative a chance to be a star for 30 minutes—or just a larger platform to subvert the dominant paradigm. (1982-1999, approx. 90 min, video and overhead projection) JH - Cine-File.info
When cable television came on the scene in the late 70s not only did it increase the number of channels available, but in many communities it also created Public Access TV. Funded and equipped by the corporations that reaped the profits, Public Access provided a platform for hobby enthusiasts, amateur actors, wannabe talk-show hosts, political junkies, and artists of all kinds to take over your boob tube each week. On the eastern edge of the Canadian prairies, the citizens of Winnipeg exploited this new format to it's fullest, with people such as performance artist Glen Meadmore and a young Guy Maddin creating masterworks of the medium. When SHAW cable took over the local system in the late 80's, rumors circulated that they had destroyed the archives, and Winnipeg illustrator, collector, animator, and overhead-projector performer Daniel Barrow took action. He began researching and collecting the programs that had been part of this creative explosion, many times needing to track down VHS copies of shows from the producers and viewers. In the Chicago edition of his ongoing project he will present a selection of his favorite finds, side by side with his handcrafted liner notes for each program. Part performance, part archival presentation, this show promises to be a funny and nostalgic look back at an era when technology and economics combined to give anyone with a little initiative a chance to be a star for 30 minutes—or just a larger platform to subvert the dominant paradigm. (1982-1999, approx. 90 min, video and overhead projection) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Kathryn Bigelow's NEAR DARK & POINT BREAK (Contemp. Revival)
Portage Theater - Thursday, 7:30pm (Dark) and 9:30pm (Break)
As a director Kathryn Bigelow exists in that strange place where she is respected by her peers and critics, enjoys a cult following of movie buffs, but has yet to gain mainstream name recognition. A woman who is best known for her work in the traditionally masculine genres of Action, Sci-Fi, and Horror, she consistently makes good films that don't earn quite enough at the box office. Her 2009 feature, THE HURT LOCKER, a story about the members of a US army bomb squad in Iraq that has won numerous awards at film festivals worldwide, has sparked a renewed interest in her earlier work and a chance to reassess her importance as a contemporary auteur. In NEAR DARK (1987, 94 min, 35mm), which Bigelow also co-scripted, tropes of the Western genre are combined with a Vampire story, set on the late 1980s Great Plains. From the opening scene of Caleb, our Oklahoma farm boy protagonist, driving to town in his beat-up truck for a night of beer and girls, to the final battle between humans and the undead, there is rarely a plot twist. Instead, Bigelow sets a scene and lets our expectations of the genre do the rest. Outside of Caleb and the Vamp who turns him, there is a minimum of character development and explanation. The word "Vampire" is never used in the film, and when our hero gets up on his horse for the first time, we know the good guys will win. At the core, Caleb's human family is pitted against the outcast Vampire family that takes him in, and Bigelow continues this theme in her 1991 studio debut, POINT BREAK (1991, 120 min, 35mm). Southern California has suffered a string of bank robberies, and a rookie FBI agent (Keanu Reeves) follows his veteran partner's hunch that the criminals are also surfers. Reeves goes undercover to infiltrate the gang, led by Patrick Swayze, and falls in love with their thrill-seeking lifestyle and Swayze's live for the moment philosophy. Reeves is finally accepted as one of the boys, and when his cover is blown he is forced to make a choice between the lost-boys family of surfers and his responsibility as a lawman. Featuring extended sequences of surfing and skydiving, POINT BREAK uses these narrative asides to increase the suspense of its crime genre core. Again, extended explanations of the two worlds are never provided, giving the story the economy of convention to explore itself. JH - Cine-File.info
As a director Kathryn Bigelow exists in that strange place where she is respected by her peers and critics, enjoys a cult following of movie buffs, but has yet to gain mainstream name recognition. A woman who is best known for her work in the traditionally masculine genres of Action, Sci-Fi, and Horror, she consistently makes good films that don't earn quite enough at the box office. Her 2009 feature, THE HURT LOCKER, a story about the members of a US army bomb squad in Iraq that has won numerous awards at film festivals worldwide, has sparked a renewed interest in her earlier work and a chance to reassess her importance as a contemporary auteur. In NEAR DARK (1987, 94 min, 35mm), which Bigelow also co-scripted, tropes of the Western genre are combined with a Vampire story, set on the late 1980s Great Plains. From the opening scene of Caleb, our Oklahoma farm boy protagonist, driving to town in his beat-up truck for a night of beer and girls, to the final battle between humans and the undead, there is rarely a plot twist. Instead, Bigelow sets a scene and lets our expectations of the genre do the rest. Outside of Caleb and the Vamp who turns him, there is a minimum of character development and explanation. The word "Vampire" is never used in the film, and when our hero gets up on his horse for the first time, we know the good guys will win. At the core, Caleb's human family is pitted against the outcast Vampire family that takes him in, and Bigelow continues this theme in her 1991 studio debut, POINT BREAK (1991, 120 min, 35mm). Southern California has suffered a string of bank robberies, and a rookie FBI agent (Keanu Reeves) follows his veteran partner's hunch that the criminals are also surfers. Reeves goes undercover to infiltrate the gang, led by Patrick Swayze, and falls in love with their thrill-seeking lifestyle and Swayze's live for the moment philosophy. Reeves is finally accepted as one of the boys, and when his cover is blown he is forced to make a choice between the lost-boys family of surfers and his responsibility as a lawman. Featuring extended sequences of surfing and skydiving, POINT BREAK uses these narrative asides to increase the suspense of its crime genre core. Again, extended explanations of the two worlds are never provided, giving the story the economy of convention to explore itself. JH - Cine-File.info
Films by Robert Todd (Documentary/Experimental)
The Nightingale - Friday, 10pm
Boston based filmmaker Robert Todd is one of the most prolific and precise celluloid artists working today. Many of his films begin as documents and, through careful manipulation of lens, light, and editorial timing, transcend their subject matter to become existential metaphors. Two such black and white films, ROSE (2008, 9 min, 16mm) and QUIVER (2008, 10 min, 16mm), utilize film grain to translate the physical texture of objects to the eyes. The camera's eye is more akin to a finger as extreme close-ups combine with rack-focus, gently brushing the surface to reveal the internal. Similar in approach is QUALITIES OF STONE (2006, 11 min, 16mm), a color film that combines imagery of the organic and inorganic to contemplate life and death, artificial and natural. Tactile poetry for the eyes. Also screening are FLOWERGIRLS (2004, 14 min, 16mm), HAPPY PEPPY SPARKY DOG (2002, 3 min, 16mm), BLISS (2006, 5 min, 16mm), and others TBA. JH - Cine-File.info
Boston based filmmaker Robert Todd is one of the most prolific and precise celluloid artists working today. Many of his films begin as documents and, through careful manipulation of lens, light, and editorial timing, transcend their subject matter to become existential metaphors. Two such black and white films, ROSE (2008, 9 min, 16mm) and QUIVER (2008, 10 min, 16mm), utilize film grain to translate the physical texture of objects to the eyes. The camera's eye is more akin to a finger as extreme close-ups combine with rack-focus, gently brushing the surface to reveal the internal. Similar in approach is QUALITIES OF STONE (2006, 11 min, 16mm), a color film that combines imagery of the organic and inorganic to contemplate life and death, artificial and natural. Tactile poetry for the eyes. Also screening are FLOWERGIRLS (2004, 14 min, 16mm), HAPPY PEPPY SPARKY DOG (2002, 3 min, 16mm), BLISS (2006, 5 min, 16mm), and others TBA. JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Owen Land's DIALOGUES (Experimental)
Chicago Filmmakers - Saturday, 8pm
Overarching and overreaching, DIALOGUES is autobiographic lying at its most sincere. Vignettes in various shapes and sizes populated by various japes and friars make the flimsiest of narrative plausibility possible. Legendary Structuralist filmmaker Owen Land's tongue is not much in check as he pretends to tell the story of his 1985 return to LA after a year spent living in Japan. Representing two halves of his persona--the Trickster-Literary Land and the Pure Fool-Visual--by using two different actors, Land take turns re-enacting significant encounters with the director's past. Seemingly every tale ends with a woman removing her clothing for reasons that would make a porno screenwriter blush and, for the first portion of the film, this misogyny and self-indulgence takes us hostage. Soon, however, the stories become less the embellished tales of an aging icon and more a lighthearted attempt to contemplate religion, language, audience's expectations of narrative structure, and hero-worship in the art world. Transforming itself from pathetic to introspective to reflective and then to sorrowful, Land's newest work makes you work for the reward, and then rewards you with mental work. (2008, 133 min, video) JH - Cine-File.info
Overarching and overreaching, DIALOGUES is autobiographic lying at its most sincere. Vignettes in various shapes and sizes populated by various japes and friars make the flimsiest of narrative plausibility possible. Legendary Structuralist filmmaker Owen Land's tongue is not much in check as he pretends to tell the story of his 1985 return to LA after a year spent living in Japan. Representing two halves of his persona--the Trickster-Literary Land and the Pure Fool-Visual--by using two different actors, Land take turns re-enacting significant encounters with the director's past. Seemingly every tale ends with a woman removing her clothing for reasons that would make a porno screenwriter blush and, for the first portion of the film, this misogyny and self-indulgence takes us hostage. Soon, however, the stories become less the embellished tales of an aging icon and more a lighthearted attempt to contemplate religion, language, audience's expectations of narrative structure, and hero-worship in the art world. Transforming itself from pathetic to introspective to reflective and then to sorrowful, Land's newest work makes you work for the reward, and then rewards you with mental work. (2008, 133 min, video) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, September 19, 2009
NO IMPACT MAN (Documentary)
Music Box - Check Reader Movies for showtimes
Although it can easily be dismissed as AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH meets SUPER SIZE ME, the documentary about NYC based author Colin Beavan's year of "living simply" separates itself from the pack. Unlike many of the eco-disaster films that will be part of a 2009 bumper crop, NO IMPACT MAN has a distinctly human element at its core. Beaven is the one who initiated the project to have his family reduce their consumption for an entire year but his wife, Michelle Conlin, is the real star of the film. A senior writer for Business Week who is a self-described caffeine junkie and shopaholic, Conlin struggles with the abrupt lifestyle change. She gets plenty of screen time and serves as a glass-is-half-empty counter to her husband. This film may be preaching to the converted at times, such as when Beavan watches garbage trucks converging on a Bronx neighborhood, but it is at its best in the moments when longtime activists ask Beavan if his project is only a publicity stunt. This lends an introspective and humble element to the journey, one which doesn't scold the audience, buts lets them choose their own path. (2009, 93 min, BlueRay Video) JH - Cine-File.info
Although it can easily be dismissed as AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH meets SUPER SIZE ME, the documentary about NYC based author Colin Beavan's year of "living simply" separates itself from the pack. Unlike many of the eco-disaster films that will be part of a 2009 bumper crop, NO IMPACT MAN has a distinctly human element at its core. Beaven is the one who initiated the project to have his family reduce their consumption for an entire year but his wife, Michelle Conlin, is the real star of the film. A senior writer for Business Week who is a self-described caffeine junkie and shopaholic, Conlin struggles with the abrupt lifestyle change. She gets plenty of screen time and serves as a glass-is-half-empty counter to her husband. This film may be preaching to the converted at times, such as when Beavan watches garbage trucks converging on a Bronx neighborhood, but it is at its best in the moments when longtime activists ask Beavan if his project is only a publicity stunt. This lends an introspective and humble element to the journey, one which doesn't scold the audience, buts lets them choose their own path. (2009, 93 min, BlueRay Video) JH - Cine-File.info
Chick Strand: Soft Fiction (Experimental)
Conversations at the Edge at the
Gene Siskel Film Center - Thursday, 6pm
When Chick Strand passed away in July she left behind a body of work that places here firmly in the upper echelon of Experimental Cinema. One of the founders of the San Francisco Cinematheque and Canyon Cinema, she also was one of the first artists to explore the line between documentary and poetic filmmaking. In her most ambitious work, SOFT FICTION (1979, 54 min, 16mm), Strand allows five women to share very personal stories about their sexual experiences. Each of the women speaks directly to the camera, usually in Strand's home, and the intimacy forged between filmmaker and subject is an achievement that has rarely been matched. Minimalist in approach, the film continually adds to the complexity of the idea of female sexuality while also calling into question the reliability of memory. Conscious of her control over the meaning of the film, Strand uses the subjects' tales as a stand-in for her own, creating a sort of allegorical autobiography. The truth may be plastic, but honesty is concrete. Also screening is the short KRISTALLNACHT (1979, 7 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
When Chick Strand passed away in July she left behind a body of work that places here firmly in the upper echelon of Experimental Cinema. One of the founders of the San Francisco Cinematheque and Canyon Cinema, she also was one of the first artists to explore the line between documentary and poetic filmmaking. In her most ambitious work, SOFT FICTION (1979, 54 min, 16mm), Strand allows five women to share very personal stories about their sexual experiences. Each of the women speaks directly to the camera, usually in Strand's home, and the intimacy forged between filmmaker and subject is an achievement that has rarely been matched. Minimalist in approach, the film continually adds to the complexity of the idea of female sexuality while also calling into question the reliability of memory. Conscious of her control over the meaning of the film, Strand uses the subjects' tales as a stand-in for her own, creating a sort of allegorical autobiography. The truth may be plastic, but honesty is concrete. Also screening is the short KRISTALLNACHT (1979, 7 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, September 12, 2009
John Cassavetes’ A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE (Classic Revival)
Gene Siskel Film Center – Wednesday, 7:30pm (repeats next week)
For the uninitiated, the films of John Cassavetes are at best unknown and at worst unappreciated. Marked by intimacy, chaos, and frequent awkwardness, they are populated by characters who are not from the same town as Jake LaMotta or even Harry Caul. The experience of a Cassavetes film can often hit too close to home—as when someone's mood suddenly shifts from jolly to angry, or when someone else blurts out an unprovoked insult, followed by an extended uncomfortable silence. He has a knack for allowing an actor to so fully inhabit the skin of their character that even Peter Falk somehow ceases to be Columbo. One of his finest achievements is A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE. Utilizing a crew of both professionals and students from AFI—where he was serving as "filmmaker in residence"—Cassavetes draws us into the marriage of blue collar Nick Longhetti (Peter Falk) and his wife Mabel (Gena Rowlands, Cassavetes’ real-life spouse) as she struggles with an unnamed mental illness and raising their three children. If Mabel is unstable, Nick is insecure and prone to violent outbursts. Neither of them is wired quite right, but what makes Cassavetes' approach to the story remarkable is his compassion for each of these deeply flawed, but not broken, people. Moments of real love emerge from a caress or exchanged glance; Mabel's social faux-pas are seen as simply quirks of her condition; and Nick's violence towards a co-worker is dismissed as part of a bad day. These actions are not justified; they are simply accepted by the filmmaker as part of the human condition. The main setting is a small home in Los Angeles, and the camera is often a silent child in the room, watching as the parents overreact. Close-ups dominate the mise-en-scene, with skillful hand-held shots sometimes approaching a documentary look—where the focus struggles to keep up with the action. WOMAN is a film of raw emotion laid bare; perhaps it is this intensity that continues to limit a wider appreciation of his work. (1974, 155 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
For the uninitiated, the films of John Cassavetes are at best unknown and at worst unappreciated. Marked by intimacy, chaos, and frequent awkwardness, they are populated by characters who are not from the same town as Jake LaMotta or even Harry Caul. The experience of a Cassavetes film can often hit too close to home—as when someone's mood suddenly shifts from jolly to angry, or when someone else blurts out an unprovoked insult, followed by an extended uncomfortable silence. He has a knack for allowing an actor to so fully inhabit the skin of their character that even Peter Falk somehow ceases to be Columbo. One of his finest achievements is A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE. Utilizing a crew of both professionals and students from AFI—where he was serving as "filmmaker in residence"—Cassavetes draws us into the marriage of blue collar Nick Longhetti (Peter Falk) and his wife Mabel (Gena Rowlands, Cassavetes’ real-life spouse) as she struggles with an unnamed mental illness and raising their three children. If Mabel is unstable, Nick is insecure and prone to violent outbursts. Neither of them is wired quite right, but what makes Cassavetes' approach to the story remarkable is his compassion for each of these deeply flawed, but not broken, people. Moments of real love emerge from a caress or exchanged glance; Mabel's social faux-pas are seen as simply quirks of her condition; and Nick's violence towards a co-worker is dismissed as part of a bad day. These actions are not justified; they are simply accepted by the filmmaker as part of the human condition. The main setting is a small home in Los Angeles, and the camera is often a silent child in the room, watching as the parents overreact. Close-ups dominate the mise-en-scene, with skillful hand-held shots sometimes approaching a documentary look—where the focus struggles to keep up with the action. WOMAN is a film of raw emotion laid bare; perhaps it is this intensity that continues to limit a wider appreciation of his work. (1974, 155 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Zummer Tapez: Kent Lambert (Experimental)
Roots & Culture Gallery (1034 N. Milwaukee Ave.) – Sunday, 8pm
Roots and Culture gallery continues its Zummer Tapez series with local videomaker Kent Lambert presenting a collection of his own video work intermixed with pieces from his favorite kindred contemporaries. Perhaps better known as the lead songwriter and singer of the band Roommate, Lambert has also produced a number of often-hilarious found-footage videos over the years. Mining mainly VHS era clips, his work has roasted such stalwarts as Ken Burns (KEN BURNS GIVE YOU SOMETHING), John Ashcroft (SECURITY ANTHEM), and Philip Michael Thomas of Miami Vice fame (WHACK). Graced with a keen sense of editorial timing, Lambert uses his subject's own words to twist their egos into knots without going straight for the cheap laugh. But beyond humor, Lambert can turn his source material into sonic landscapes with a beat—à la EBN—and juxtapose images to unlock the cultural bias contained within. He will also present two new pieces, WHSVHS #1 and FANTASY SUITE, along with work by Animal Charm, Shana Moulton, Emily Kuehn, Michael Robinson, and more. (1999-2009, approx. 75 min, Video) JH - Cine-File.info
Roots and Culture gallery continues its Zummer Tapez series with local videomaker Kent Lambert presenting a collection of his own video work intermixed with pieces from his favorite kindred contemporaries. Perhaps better known as the lead songwriter and singer of the band Roommate, Lambert has also produced a number of often-hilarious found-footage videos over the years. Mining mainly VHS era clips, his work has roasted such stalwarts as Ken Burns (KEN BURNS GIVE YOU SOMETHING), John Ashcroft (SECURITY ANTHEM), and Philip Michael Thomas of Miami Vice fame (WHACK). Graced with a keen sense of editorial timing, Lambert uses his subject's own words to twist their egos into knots without going straight for the cheap laugh. But beyond humor, Lambert can turn his source material into sonic landscapes with a beat—à la EBN—and juxtapose images to unlock the cultural bias contained within. He will also present two new pieces, WHSVHS #1 and FANTASY SUITE, along with work by Animal Charm, Shana Moulton, Emily Kuehn, Michael Robinson, and more. (1999-2009, approx. 75 min, Video) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, August 22, 2009
SOUTH MAIN (Documentary)
Chicago Filmmakers – Saturday, 8pm
When a public housing project in South Central Los Angeles is shuttered due to gang violence, the law-abiding residents find themselves displaced. Director Kelly Parker shows the story of three such families and their struggles with the transition to life in Section 8 housing in 2005. A fiancé who is killed in a drive-by-shooting the night before the move and increased bills that leave the family closer to poverty are the content of the stories told here, but the style is what makes this film original. In a departure from cinéma vérité, the camera remains mostly static—save for the handheld shots taken by the family members—and the filmmaker is content to let the matriarch of each family directly address the camera for extended monologues. Although this strategy is not always successful, sometimes drawing more attention to the presence of the camera than is necessary, Parker ultimately benefits from her minimal production scale and the familiarity with her subjects that it allows. Additionally, the intentional stylistic choice of allowing the camera to be a presence rather than an extension of the filmmaker works to keep the film from becoming a sweeping statement about poverty, and privileges the individual stories that it tells. (2008, 77 min, DVD) JH - Cine-File.info
When a public housing project in South Central Los Angeles is shuttered due to gang violence, the law-abiding residents find themselves displaced. Director Kelly Parker shows the story of three such families and their struggles with the transition to life in Section 8 housing in 2005. A fiancé who is killed in a drive-by-shooting the night before the move and increased bills that leave the family closer to poverty are the content of the stories told here, but the style is what makes this film original. In a departure from cinéma vérité, the camera remains mostly static—save for the handheld shots taken by the family members—and the filmmaker is content to let the matriarch of each family directly address the camera for extended monologues. Although this strategy is not always successful, sometimes drawing more attention to the presence of the camera than is necessary, Parker ultimately benefits from her minimal production scale and the familiarity with her subjects that it allows. Additionally, the intentional stylistic choice of allowing the camera to be a presence rather than an extension of the filmmaker works to keep the film from becoming a sweeping statement about poverty, and privileges the individual stories that it tells. (2008, 77 min, DVD) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Alfred Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES (Classic Revival)
Music Box - Saturday and Sunday, 11:30am
Although film schools all teach a semester-long course on Alfred Hitchcock, they might as well just show 1938's THE LADY VANISHES on the first day of freshman year and tell the students he never got it quite as right again. In the director's penultimate UK feature, the plot is tight and the action is full of suspense, but it is the characters that keep us entertained throughout. Margaret Atwood's heroine and Michael Redgrave's unlikely academic hero lead the cast in this tale of international espionage (on a train, of course), but the supporting duo of Caldicott & Charters (Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford) steal their scenes as a pair of dry humored Brits only interested in a cricket match back home. With an overt critique of Britain's pre-war non-intervention policy woven in, the sometimes slapstick, sometimes understated humor of Hitchcock charms us throughout the film in a way that only resurfaced occasionally in his US work. Francois Truffaut, who claimed to have seen the film twice a week at some points, told Hitchcock "Since I know it by heart, I tell myself each time that I’m going to ignore the plot (and study the technique and effect). But each time, I become so absorbed by the characters and the story that I’ve yet to figure out the mechanics of the film.” (1938, 97 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Although film schools all teach a semester-long course on Alfred Hitchcock, they might as well just show 1938's THE LADY VANISHES on the first day of freshman year and tell the students he never got it quite as right again. In the director's penultimate UK feature, the plot is tight and the action is full of suspense, but it is the characters that keep us entertained throughout. Margaret Atwood's heroine and Michael Redgrave's unlikely academic hero lead the cast in this tale of international espionage (on a train, of course), but the supporting duo of Caldicott & Charters (Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford) steal their scenes as a pair of dry humored Brits only interested in a cricket match back home. With an overt critique of Britain's pre-war non-intervention policy woven in, the sometimes slapstick, sometimes understated humor of Hitchcock charms us throughout the film in a way that only resurfaced occasionally in his US work. Francois Truffaut, who claimed to have seen the film twice a week at some points, told Hitchcock "Since I know it by heart, I tell myself each time that I’m going to ignore the plot (and study the technique and effect). But each time, I become so absorbed by the characters and the story that I’ve yet to figure out the mechanics of the film.” (1938, 97 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Psycho-Sexual Animation (Animation/Experimental)
Chicago Filmmakers – Saturday, 8pm
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase "Psycho-Sexual?" If you think "Norman Bates loves his mama," then you're accidentally on the right track for this show. From 1970 to 1974 Victor Faccinto created a series of nightmarish and grotesque cut-out films starring his alter ego, Video Vic, a voyeuristic, neurotic figure dressed in a black leather jacket and executioner’s mask who is compelled by his own feelings of sexual inadequacy and perversion. Almost forty years after their creation, the films are still subversive and uncomfortable to sit through and their deliberately crude style are partly responsible. Perhaps the strangest of the series, the silent WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM? WHERE IS IT GOING?, establishes the themes of a sadistic God, an overt masculinity that is essentially impotent, a fusion of predators and genitalia and characters who gain pleasure from watching others suffer. In THE SECRETE OF LIFE the mumbled speech of the protagonist Chico and the sound effects are heavy on the reverb as he spies on and engages in often-violent sexual encounters. FILET OF SOUL expands the character base to include Vic and his counterculture companions. The sophistication of the production increases to include shots that collage animation with still images, mood music made with whistling and kazoos, and dialogue from multiple characters. In the final film, SHAMELESS, Faccinto's techniques become more complex and include manipulated found footage, stop-motion sequences with actors, and shots that feature both cut-out characters and real humans. Faccinto's films are honest and intensely personal, like a drunken secret that a new acquaintance has whispered in your ear: you didn't ask to hear it, but the outburst explains their personality in a way that only years of intimacy could. This show is billed as Adult Animation, and may not be suitable for all audiences. Also showing are three recent animated video works: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD (Joe Tucker, UK), A LETTER TO COLLEEN (Andy London and Carolyn London, US), CHAINSAW (Dennis Tupicoff, Australia). (1970-2008, 97 min total, 16mm and Video) JH - Cine-File.info
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase "Psycho-Sexual?" If you think "Norman Bates loves his mama," then you're accidentally on the right track for this show. From 1970 to 1974 Victor Faccinto created a series of nightmarish and grotesque cut-out films starring his alter ego, Video Vic, a voyeuristic, neurotic figure dressed in a black leather jacket and executioner’s mask who is compelled by his own feelings of sexual inadequacy and perversion. Almost forty years after their creation, the films are still subversive and uncomfortable to sit through and their deliberately crude style are partly responsible. Perhaps the strangest of the series, the silent WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM? WHERE IS IT GOING?, establishes the themes of a sadistic God, an overt masculinity that is essentially impotent, a fusion of predators and genitalia and characters who gain pleasure from watching others suffer. In THE SECRETE OF LIFE the mumbled speech of the protagonist Chico and the sound effects are heavy on the reverb as he spies on and engages in often-violent sexual encounters. FILET OF SOUL expands the character base to include Vic and his counterculture companions. The sophistication of the production increases to include shots that collage animation with still images, mood music made with whistling and kazoos, and dialogue from multiple characters. In the final film, SHAMELESS, Faccinto's techniques become more complex and include manipulated found footage, stop-motion sequences with actors, and shots that feature both cut-out characters and real humans. Faccinto's films are honest and intensely personal, like a drunken secret that a new acquaintance has whispered in your ear: you didn't ask to hear it, but the outburst explains their personality in a way that only years of intimacy could. This show is billed as Adult Animation, and may not be suitable for all audiences. Also showing are three recent animated video works: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD (Joe Tucker, UK), A LETTER TO COLLEEN (Andy London and Carolyn London, US), CHAINSAW (Dennis Tupicoff, Australia). (1970-2008, 97 min total, 16mm and Video) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, July 11, 2009
FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF (Contemporary Revival)
Chicago History Museum - Tuesday at dusk
Sometimes there is a moment of pure serendipity in one's life and, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it. Case in point: the Chicago History Museum is presenting the film that not only taught countless youngsters how to properly play sick, but also showcased our city as the playground for Matthew Broderick's understimulated Northshore slacker. In a performance that made him a bonafide leading man at the age of 23, Broderick creates a character so clever and charming that you can’t help but root for him. Beginning with a little white lie about a serious illness to get a final day off before going to college, Ferris schemes to cheer up his best friend Cameron with a VIP tour of the city. Wrigley Field, the Art Institute, Michigan Avenue, and the Sears Tower (“I think I see my dad”) are the backdrop for the greatest senior ditch day ever put on film. Its enduring appeal lies in the subplot, however, in which the evil dean of students, Edward Rooney (Jeffery Jones), vows to catch Ferris in the act and force him to repeat his senior year. The screening is free, and will take place on the lawn behind the museum starting at dusk. (1986, 103 min, DVD) JH - Cine-File.info
Sometimes there is a moment of pure serendipity in one's life and, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it. Case in point: the Chicago History Museum is presenting the film that not only taught countless youngsters how to properly play sick, but also showcased our city as the playground for Matthew Broderick's understimulated Northshore slacker. In a performance that made him a bonafide leading man at the age of 23, Broderick creates a character so clever and charming that you can’t help but root for him. Beginning with a little white lie about a serious illness to get a final day off before going to college, Ferris schemes to cheer up his best friend Cameron with a VIP tour of the city. Wrigley Field, the Art Institute, Michigan Avenue, and the Sears Tower (“I think I see my dad”) are the backdrop for the greatest senior ditch day ever put on film. Its enduring appeal lies in the subplot, however, in which the evil dean of students, Edward Rooney (Jeffery Jones), vows to catch Ferris in the act and force him to repeat his senior year. The screening is free, and will take place on the lawn behind the museum starting at dusk. (1986, 103 min, DVD) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Rare Films from the Baseball Hall of Fame (Special Event)
Block Cinema (Northwestern University) – Thursday, 7pm
In an unexpected but appropriate finale for the spring calendar at Block, this program of 20 short clips, commercials, and promotional films about Major League Baseball and its personalities from the past is a welcome beginning to summer. Featuring historic home runs (Willie Mays' 511th, 1966), World Series highlights (NYG vs. CLE, 1954), Gillette Razor endorsements (Phil Rizzuto, Gil Hodges, 1954), and what can only be a foreshadowing of Nancy Reagan (Baseball vs. Drugs, 1972), the sport’s former position as a national pastime and microcosm of American society will be on display. David Filipi, film and video curator at Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, will be on hand to host the show, and one can only hope that he'll elaborate on the significance of playing hooky to take in a game and sitting on your porch, cold one in hand, listening to Bob Eucker narrate another Brewer's loss. (1934-1972, approx. 75 min total, Video) JH - Cine-File.info
In an unexpected but appropriate finale for the spring calendar at Block, this program of 20 short clips, commercials, and promotional films about Major League Baseball and its personalities from the past is a welcome beginning to summer. Featuring historic home runs (Willie Mays' 511th, 1966), World Series highlights (NYG vs. CLE, 1954), Gillette Razor endorsements (Phil Rizzuto, Gil Hodges, 1954), and what can only be a foreshadowing of Nancy Reagan (Baseball vs. Drugs, 1972), the sport’s former position as a national pastime and microcosm of American society will be on display. David Filipi, film and video curator at Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, will be on hand to host the show, and one can only hope that he'll elaborate on the significance of playing hooky to take in a game and sitting on your porch, cold one in hand, listening to Bob Eucker narrate another Brewer's loss. (1934-1972, approx. 75 min total, Video) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, May 23, 2009
CALIFORNIA COMPANY TOWN (Experimental Documentary)
Chicago Filmmakers – Saturday, 8pm
Following in the tradition of Western authors such as Wallace Stegner and Gretel Ehrlich, filmmaker Lee Anne Schmitt is obsessed with the landscape of possibility that led the first industrialists to California, and the legacy they left behind. Mining, logging, farming, oil and steel towns that were established as a means to keep workers on a short leash have now been all but abandoned by their original owners. Some are entirely vacant, while others have lived on, but all are reminders of the environmental impact that industry and then the military has left on the landscape. Using voice-over narration, clips from contemporary radio—of the religious and political variety—and found footage, Schmitt gives us a history of and comment on 14 such places, and their demise. A timely lesson in the current economic climate. Filmmaker Lee Anne Schmitt in person. (2008, 77 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Following in the tradition of Western authors such as Wallace Stegner and Gretel Ehrlich, filmmaker Lee Anne Schmitt is obsessed with the landscape of possibility that led the first industrialists to California, and the legacy they left behind. Mining, logging, farming, oil and steel towns that were established as a means to keep workers on a short leash have now been all but abandoned by their original owners. Some are entirely vacant, while others have lived on, but all are reminders of the environmental impact that industry and then the military has left on the landscape. Using voice-over narration, clips from contemporary radio—of the religious and political variety—and found footage, Schmitt gives us a history of and comment on 14 such places, and their demise. A timely lesson in the current economic climate. Filmmaker Lee Anne Schmitt in person. (2008, 77 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Pat O'Neill's THE DECAY OF FICTION (Experimental)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Friday, 7pm
When someone becomes a master in a commercial craft that becomes technologically obsolete, what is there left to do? For one thing, they can make films about places that have also outlived their original purpose, as Pat O'Neill does in this 2002 feature film. An optical printer by practice and occupation, O'Neill casts L.A.'s now demolished Ambassador Hotel as the protagonist and explores the corridors and cavities that were once the playground of Hollywood elites. Black and white ghosts float through the Cocoanut Grove nightclub providing snippets of dialogue of classic Noir films, and attempt to breathe life into the now empty opulence. Chants of "we want Bobby" are heard as we track through the kitchen that was the site of RFK's assassination, and a woman hypnotizes countless men in one of the upstairs suites. In the end, only devils and angels remain as the sun sets on our star, and perhaps on the glory of O'Neill's seamless camera and metaphor, holding on to the golden era of machination. Pat O’Neill in person. (2002, 74 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
When someone becomes a master in a commercial craft that becomes technologically obsolete, what is there left to do? For one thing, they can make films about places that have also outlived their original purpose, as Pat O'Neill does in this 2002 feature film. An optical printer by practice and occupation, O'Neill casts L.A.'s now demolished Ambassador Hotel as the protagonist and explores the corridors and cavities that were once the playground of Hollywood elites. Black and white ghosts float through the Cocoanut Grove nightclub providing snippets of dialogue of classic Noir films, and attempt to breathe life into the now empty opulence. Chants of "we want Bobby" are heard as we track through the kitchen that was the site of RFK's assassination, and a woman hypnotizes countless men in one of the upstairs suites. In the end, only devils and angels remain as the sun sets on our star, and perhaps on the glory of O'Neill's seamless camera and metaphor, holding on to the golden era of machination. Pat O’Neill in person. (2002, 74 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Jean-Luc Godard’s VIVRE SA VIE (Classic Revival
Music Box – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
If you think Godard's political, allegorical, theoretical approach to filmmaking always outshines his ability to produce believable and emotional portraiture, then check out VIVRE SA VIE, showing in a new print. His fourth feature tells the tale of a working class young woman, Nana (Anna Karina), as life goes from bad to worse. Despite the breakdown into chapters (complete with title cards) the film is at first an unstructured manifesto intended to persuade the audience that capitalism can only leads to the commoditization of all things, including our flesh. But this is merely a single thread in the complex nature of the film. Communication is flawed, character and cinema are experienced and molded, and there are more than thirteen ways to look at ones wife through a viewfinder. At times Godard is mimicking the tropes of documentary, at others he is relying on overt reference (Dreyer's THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC, for example), and at others he is doing what he does best (using framing and composition to make sure that no one present misunderstands the emotional distance a character feels). One would he hard pressed to find another film with such an abrupt and sad ending that still makes one leave the theater with a smile. Poetic, beautiful, and concise. (1962, 85 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
If you think Godard's political, allegorical, theoretical approach to filmmaking always outshines his ability to produce believable and emotional portraiture, then check out VIVRE SA VIE, showing in a new print. His fourth feature tells the tale of a working class young woman, Nana (Anna Karina), as life goes from bad to worse. Despite the breakdown into chapters (complete with title cards) the film is at first an unstructured manifesto intended to persuade the audience that capitalism can only leads to the commoditization of all things, including our flesh. But this is merely a single thread in the complex nature of the film. Communication is flawed, character and cinema are experienced and molded, and there are more than thirteen ways to look at ones wife through a viewfinder. At times Godard is mimicking the tropes of documentary, at others he is relying on overt reference (Dreyer's THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC, for example), and at others he is doing what he does best (using framing and composition to make sure that no one present misunderstands the emotional distance a character feels). One would he hard pressed to find another film with such an abrupt and sad ending that still makes one leave the theater with a smile. Poetic, beautiful, and concise. (1962, 85 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Films by Will Hindle (Experimental)
School of the Art Institute (112 S Michigan Ave, Rm. 1307) – Friday, 4:30pm
During a short period in the 1960s and '70s Will Hindle produced a body of work that rivals any filmmaker of the period. His optical effects are on par with SFX master Douglas Trumbull (of 2001 fame), and in WATERSMITH he uses this technical sophistication to present a masterwork that is simultaneously an ode to human athleticism à la Riefenstahl and an exploration of the gay male gaze. A subtle soundtrack of diagetic and nondiagetic water compliments the imagery of boys swimming without overpowering it. An unstylized presentation of reality marks Hindle’s films and in BILLABONG he veers closer to documentary when he turns his camera to a boys camp in Oregon. Also showing are 29: MERCI, MERCI, and SAINT FLOURNOY LOBOS-LOGOS AND THE EASTERN EUROPE FETUS TAXING JAPAN BRIDES IN WEST COAST PLACES SUCKING ALABAMA AIR. (1966-70, 83 min total, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
During a short period in the 1960s and '70s Will Hindle produced a body of work that rivals any filmmaker of the period. His optical effects are on par with SFX master Douglas Trumbull (of 2001 fame), and in WATERSMITH he uses this technical sophistication to present a masterwork that is simultaneously an ode to human athleticism à la Riefenstahl and an exploration of the gay male gaze. A subtle soundtrack of diagetic and nondiagetic water compliments the imagery of boys swimming without overpowering it. An unstylized presentation of reality marks Hindle’s films and in BILLABONG he veers closer to documentary when he turns his camera to a boys camp in Oregon. Also showing are 29: MERCI, MERCI, and SAINT FLOURNOY LOBOS-LOGOS AND THE EASTERN EUROPE FETUS TAXING JAPAN BRIDES IN WEST COAST PLACES SUCKING ALABAMA AIR. (1966-70, 83 min total, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, March 28, 2009
A World Rattled of Habit: Films by Ben Rivers (Experimental)
Conversations at the Edge (Gene Siskel Film Center) – Thursday, 6pm
Over the last few years England’s Ben Rivers has consistently turned out fresh and simple experimental portraits of the rural life in Europe and the British Isles. His 16mm Cinemascope film AH, LIBERTY! (2007), about the farm life and machines of a small, isolated family, was awarded the Tiger Award for Short Film at the 2008 Rotterdam International Film Festival and alone is worth the price of admission. Rivers describes it as “A family’s place in the wilderness, outside of time; free-range animals and children, junk and nature, all within the most sublime landscape. The work aims at an idea of freedom, which is reflected in the hand-processed ’scope format, but is undercut with a sense of apocalyptic foreboding.” As a treat Rivers will show a work in progress, I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING, along with ASTIKA (2006), ORIGIN OF SPECIES (2008), and A WORLD RATTLED OF HABIT (2008). Rivers will be appearing in person and is tentatively showing three additional films of his choosing: the amazing SAME DAY NICE BISCOTTS (Luther Price, 2005), MEASURMENT OF OXFORD (Barry Kimm, 1989), and PRINCE HOTEL (Karl Kels, 1987/2003), if time allows. (1987-2008, approx. 90 min total, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Over the last few years England’s Ben Rivers has consistently turned out fresh and simple experimental portraits of the rural life in Europe and the British Isles. His 16mm Cinemascope film AH, LIBERTY! (2007), about the farm life and machines of a small, isolated family, was awarded the Tiger Award for Short Film at the 2008 Rotterdam International Film Festival and alone is worth the price of admission. Rivers describes it as “A family’s place in the wilderness, outside of time; free-range animals and children, junk and nature, all within the most sublime landscape. The work aims at an idea of freedom, which is reflected in the hand-processed ’scope format, but is undercut with a sense of apocalyptic foreboding.” As a treat Rivers will show a work in progress, I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING, along with ASTIKA (2006), ORIGIN OF SPECIES (2008), and A WORLD RATTLED OF HABIT (2008). Rivers will be appearing in person and is tentatively showing three additional films of his choosing: the amazing SAME DAY NICE BISCOTTS (Luther Price, 2005), MEASURMENT OF OXFORD (Barry Kimm, 1989), and PRINCE HOTEL (Karl Kels, 1987/2003), if time allows. (1987-2008, approx. 90 min total, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Cinema, Nature, Ecology Series: Local Landscapes (Experimental/Essay)
Film Studies Center (U of C) - Friday, 6pm (Stratman) & 7:45pm (Comerford/Brown)
Deborah Stratman, Thomas Comerford, and Bill Brown make work that is simultaneously documentary and experimental, landscape portrait and essay, personal and accessible. Three of the most engaging filmmakers working today, all are either current or former locals. Contextualized together here, their films become a mapping of the contemporary American experience and power structure. Comerford’s LAND MARKED/MARQUETTE uses locations and monuments in the Chicago area connected to 17th century explorer Jacques Marquette as a jumping-off point for reflection on representations of history and how our modern city has transformed land that was once prairie. In O’ER THE LAND, Stratman ponders the multitude of definitions that Americans have for “Freedom” by combining footage of high-school football, war re-enactments, and machine gun festivals, focusing on the participants and refusing to tell the viewer what to think. She combines these pastimes with the story of U.S. Marine Colonel William Rankin who survived a 40-minute descent through a thunderstorm in 1959 after being forced to eject from his aircraft at 47,000 feet. Bill Brown, who describes his films as postcards of pretty pictures with voice-over instead of writing, will show THE OTHER SIDE, a film about the US-Mexico border that uses migrant activists and the natural features of the desert Southwest to investigate political boundaries in a geographic and historical manner. After the screenings the artists will engage in a roundtable discussion that is sure to be the highlight of the evening. Also screening: IN ORDER NOT TO BE HERE (Stratman), FIGURES IN THE LANDSCAPE (Comerford), and CHICAGO DETROIT SPLIT (Brown & Comerford). (6pm: 2002 & 2008, 84 min total, 16mm / 7:45: 2002-06, 88 min total, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Deborah Stratman, Thomas Comerford, and Bill Brown make work that is simultaneously documentary and experimental, landscape portrait and essay, personal and accessible. Three of the most engaging filmmakers working today, all are either current or former locals. Contextualized together here, their films become a mapping of the contemporary American experience and power structure. Comerford’s LAND MARKED/MARQUETTE uses locations and monuments in the Chicago area connected to 17th century explorer Jacques Marquette as a jumping-off point for reflection on representations of history and how our modern city has transformed land that was once prairie. In O’ER THE LAND, Stratman ponders the multitude of definitions that Americans have for “Freedom” by combining footage of high-school football, war re-enactments, and machine gun festivals, focusing on the participants and refusing to tell the viewer what to think. She combines these pastimes with the story of U.S. Marine Colonel William Rankin who survived a 40-minute descent through a thunderstorm in 1959 after being forced to eject from his aircraft at 47,000 feet. Bill Brown, who describes his films as postcards of pretty pictures with voice-over instead of writing, will show THE OTHER SIDE, a film about the US-Mexico border that uses migrant activists and the natural features of the desert Southwest to investigate political boundaries in a geographic and historical manner. After the screenings the artists will engage in a roundtable discussion that is sure to be the highlight of the evening. Also screening: IN ORDER NOT TO BE HERE (Stratman), FIGURES IN THE LANDSCAPE (Comerford), and CHICAGO DETROIT SPLIT (Brown & Comerford). (6pm: 2002 & 2008, 84 min total, 16mm / 7:45: 2002-06, 88 min total, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, March 7, 2009
D.A. Pennebaker’s DON’T LOOK BACK (Documentary)
Block Cinema (Northwestern University) – Thursday, 8pm
A driving force in the Direct Cinema movement, documentary director D.A. Pennebaker made his reputation with this 1967 film about Bob Dylan on the road in England. Taking place almost exclusively in crowded back seats, green rooms, and hotel suites, we watch from the corner as The Star holds court with soon-to-be ex-girlfriend Joan Baez, Alan Price, and Donovan, who is put firmly in his place when Dylan’s insecurity and arrogance manifest themselves. A simple portrait of the artist at 23, the camera rolls without much intervention, and engages the viewer firmly as we march towards a final concert at the Royal Albert Hall without shying away from his negative traits. Dylan now claims he was acting throughout the film, but eloquently sums up the Pennebaker approach when he tells a Time magazine reporter “The truth is just a plain picture.” (1967, 96 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
A driving force in the Direct Cinema movement, documentary director D.A. Pennebaker made his reputation with this 1967 film about Bob Dylan on the road in England. Taking place almost exclusively in crowded back seats, green rooms, and hotel suites, we watch from the corner as The Star holds court with soon-to-be ex-girlfriend Joan Baez, Alan Price, and Donovan, who is put firmly in his place when Dylan’s insecurity and arrogance manifest themselves. A simple portrait of the artist at 23, the camera rolls without much intervention, and engages the viewer firmly as we march towards a final concert at the Royal Albert Hall without shying away from his negative traits. Dylan now claims he was acting throughout the film, but eloquently sums up the Pennebaker approach when he tells a Time magazine reporter “The truth is just a plain picture.” (1967, 96 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
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