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
Saturday, August 29, 2009
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
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