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
Saturday, March 28, 2009
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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