CFA Road Trip: A North American Travelogue (Special Event)

Gene Siskel Film Center - Sunday, 5:15pm
Watching this collection of amateur and industrial films, one can't help but get nostalgic for a time when "road trip" referred to wholesome family fun, and the cost of gas wasn't an issue. Although most of the pieces included in this archival screening, curated by former Chicagoan KJ Mohr, are technically home movies, they were chosen because they show a love for the landscapes they capture. Of particular note is the excerpt of GLACIER PARK #1, shot in 1954. The mountains, vistas, and fall colors are gorgeous, but the more interesting part is the portraits that visitors to the park take with headdress wearing Indians. As much a piece of history, and with the most charming hand-drawn intertitles this reviewer has ever seen, is GYPSYMANIA. This rambling road movie, shot in both the US and Mexico, catalogs one families' vacation in the early 1940s and, while watching it, you can almost picture the church basement where this adventure was shared with the whole town. The industrials from Ford Motor Company and Castle Films have a sense of purpose that is admirable. They work as the travel shows of their day, selling destinations like Bryce Canyon (along with a shiny new automobile...travel wherever you want..."with reliability, safety, and economy!") and Banff/Lake Louise (apparently a country club in the Canadian Rockies). Watching these commercial productions is a healthy reminder that not all corporate endeavors are bad. The cherry on top of this show is the final amateur film, SUNNY CUBA. In lush color, it depicts the island nation in 1946. In a beautiful night sequence that lasts almost a minute, the neon signs of Havana dissolve from one to the next, almost as if the corporate logos were etched on a black background. Rural life is also shown, with oxen plowing fields and farmers working the land with hand-powered tools. Although most of the films included were originally silent, the screening will be accompanied by a live electronic score by local musician and videomaker Kent Lambert, and selections from the audio archive of LA based filmmaker Timoleon Wilkins. The screening will be hosted by WBEZ's Allison Cuddy and introduced by curator Mohr. (1937-1954, 89 min total, various formats) JH - Cine-File.info

Olivia Wyatt's STARING INTO THE SUN (Experimental Documentary)

The Nightingale - Friday, 8pm
Having been continuously inhabited since before the record of history began, the diversity of the human experience in Eastern Africa is difficult to comprehend in anything other than abstract terms. Ethiopia is a country made up of 85 million people and over 80 distinct cultures with just as many indigenous languages. So what better way to learn about the country and its people than through a travel documentary, right? Wyatt's film portrays 13 different tribes but, as travel documentaries go, it gives a distinct lack of contextual information. We get subtitles telling us the location and name of the people featured in each section, and we become acutely aware that these are just labels and not definitions. We observe the visual and aural uniqueness of each segment, but there is no narration to lead us along the way. Differences in clothing and hair styles are lingered upon by the camera, and almost ever scene features singing, whether it is part of a wedding celebration, a chant during a ritual feeding of hyenas, or a multiphonic song to ease the stress of manual labor. Because we don't get a translation of what is going on, this makes the viewing experience more like being a foreigner in a strange country for the first time, and less like a reader of Lonely Planet. Structurally, this is both refreshing and disorienting. Sights and sounds from one village blend into those from another, and our learning about Ethiopia occurs in real time. The details of each tribal member become of lesser import than the greater societies from which they are born, and the diversity of the country is realized in our inability to define it in broad strokes. You won't leave the screening with a handful of facts about the country, but your mental image of Ethiopia will be sharper and closer to the real thing. Also screening is Wyatt's SEEKING THE SPIRIT (2010, 10 min, video), a powerful but gentle portrait of the congregation of the Celestial Church of Christ and their annual month-long worship ritual on Rockaway Beach in New York City. The practitioners, most of whom are immigrants from Benin, practice their unique form of Pentecostalism between the hours of Midnight and 6am. Their leader and prophet explains their beliefs to us in voice-over, and the black and white images of white-clad men and women gesticulating almost as if possessed remind us of the power of belief. (2010, 60 min, video) JH - Cine-File.info

The Voyagers - A Double Feature: Works by Penny Lane and Brian Frye (Experimental)

The Voyagers: Part One - Video Inquiry: Work by Penny Lane
The Nightingale - Saturday, 7pm
There are some auteurs that use a distinctive camera style or work with the same themes over and over. And then there are those like Penny Lane who jump around visually and thematically, but whose work is united through a distinctive voice. In pieces such as WE ARE THE LITTLETONS (2004) this voice is literal, as Lane narrates. It is in an investigation into the whereabouts of an adopted child cast out of the family, but it may as well be about any black sheep. As the camera wanders throughout the now empty home, drawers are opened revealing memories both happy and sad, but as correspondence between the filmmaker and the matron unfold on the soundtrack Lane suggests that black sheep, like the rest of us, are shaped by their environment. The way digital environments shape their users is explored in both MEN SEEKING WOMEN (2007) and SOMETIMES I GET LOSSY (2008), as Lane checks in on both the personals section of Craigslist and her own screen induced boredom/psychedelic daydream. Time is the place that defines THE VOYAGERS (2010). Using the Golden Record that was placed aboard the Voyager spacecraft as a jumping off point, Lane frames this particular NASA project as a love-letter to the chance happening that is the existence of the human race. A launching into the unknown, a wonderment at the beauty of existence, and a touching piece involving both Carl Sagan and Coney Island, it is her wedding present to her husband, Brian Frye. ALSO SCREENING: HOW TO MAKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY (2010), FAMOUS LUNCH 03.25.05 (2009), SHE USED TO SEE HIM MOST WEEKENDS (2007), and THE COMMONERS (2009). Penny Lane in person. (2004-10, approx. 53 min total, video)
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The Voyagers: Part Two - The Anatomy of Cinema: Films by Brian Frye
White Light Cinema at The Nightingale- Saturday, 9pm 
It is hard to describe the work of Brian Frye as anything other than distant. Distant serendipity (THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, 1999). Distant sublime (THE LETTER, 2001). Distant absurdity (ACROSS THE RAPPANHANNOCK, 2002). Time and again Frye's camera (or that of the original shooter) finds the poetry in a situation by keeping away from the human subjects. This contextualization lends an air of analysis to what are quite lyrical films of memory, history, sorrow, and Civil War reenactment. All the while, as these ghosts haunt the screen, one gets the impression that it is not the misery of the human experience that excites the filmmaker, but rather the hope and joy of those who lives are imperfect. When they are projected through that mystic machine, stiff actors become icons, archetypes for all that is important. The reels contain not stories, but messages from the creator, ciphered by the artist into almost understandable visions that seem to come from the early part of the industrial age. Frye gives these important ideas the space to resonate with the viewer, but also doesn't smother our minds with structure and order. There is not chaos, but a gentle observation of the profound, taken from a safe spot across the river from the real battle. Also Screening: 6.95 STRIPTEASE (1995), 9.95: THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENT IN MY LIFE (INFINITE SET) (1995), MEETING WITH KHRUSCHEV (1997), and KADDISH (2002). (1995-2002, approx. 85 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Restoring Appearances To Order: Rare Films by Coleen Fitzgibbon (Experimental)

White Light Cinema at The Nightingale - Friday, 7:30pm
When structuralist filmmaking works, its like watching performance art. You are often intrigued and confused, unsure of whether or not you liked it, only able to intelligently speculate on the artists' intentions at a later date. The work of Coleen Fitzgibbon does that too, but in a warmer way. Where Vito Acconci's video work makes you anxious, Fitzgibbon's RESTORING APPEARANCES TO ORDER IN 12 MINUTES (1975, 12 min, 16mm) delivers calm like a cup of chamomile. The camera holds a static close up as Fitzgibbon scrubs a well-used utility sink throughout, clearing up every drop of paint from the labor of art making. More ambitious and more uneven is L.E.S. (1976, 30 min, S8mm on video), a neighborhood portrait cum mockumentary about the residents of Manhattan's Lower East Side. The narrator vacillates between speaking as a news reporter and an anthropologist, and when the film works, spins tales about the native dwellers of the apocalyptic landscape. An indictment of capitalism and its headquarters just to the south, the film also serves as an excellent document of urban decay before gentrification was part of our vernacular. It is political in its very existence, and is a welcome counterbalance to Fitzgibbon's more formal work. ALSO SCREENING: GYM (1973, 4 min, S8mm on video), TIME (1975, 8 min, 16mm), TRIP TO CAROLEE'S (1973, 6 min, S8mm on video), MARGIES HOUSE (1973, 6 min, S8mm on video). JH - Cine-File.info

Comedic Video Art: Visual Poetics and Songs about Dogs (Experimental)

Hopscotch Cinema at the Nightingale - Sunday, 7pm
This trifecta of video makers could work as a primer on the lighter side of video art, from the 70s to now. The most famous artist in the show, William Wegman, is known for using his pet Weimaraner (named Man Ray) as a lead actor. Man Ray is often a patient prop, and occasionally annoyed as Wegman dresses him up in a series of ridiculous costumes and narrates a stream of jokes, some better than others. If it's possible for a dog to "ham it up," Man Ray is the all time champion of canine kitsch. A full-time ad man, Neil Ira Needleman was once described as "Woody Allen's funny gay brother." He makes sweet, witty video pieces, often full of self-mockery about his creative process. Suffice it to say his cat makes appearances, and often is a harsh critique of Neil's work. Chad Knutson, the youngest of the bunch is less a product of the video age, and more a phenomenon of the YouTube generation. He points the camera at himself, and half rants, half sings to us. Almost like stand-up comedy without any buildup, his videos are short, variable, and occasionally brilliant. (1978-2010, 70 min total, video) JH - Cine-File.info

Internal Systems: Films by Coleen Fitzgibbon (Experimental Revival)

Conversations at the Edge at the Gene Siskel Film Center - Thursday, 6pm
When structuralist filmmaking works, its like watching performance art. You are often intrigued and confused, unsure of whether or not you liked it, only able to intelligently speculate on the artists' intentions at a later date. The work of Coleen Fitzgibbon does that too, but in a warmer way. Where Vito Acconci's video work makes you anxious, Fitzgibbon's RESTORING APPEARANCES TO ORDER IN TWELVE MINUTES (1975, 12 min) delivers calm like a cup of chamomile. The camera holds a static close-up as she scrubs a well-used utility sink throughout, clearing up every drop of paint from the labor of art making. She also tries her hand at found image manipulation in FOUND FILM FLASHES (1974, 3 min), stuttering and blinking her way through what appears to be an interview. The subject never gets to blurt out his story, as the sound skips back and forth and the images slow down in the projector gate. The result is alternating squelch and mind's-eye view, and works to subvert any concrete meaning outside the film itself. The bulk of the program is taken up with INTERNAL SYSTEM (1974, 45 min), an ambitious work of abstract film. The entire frame is taken up with monochromatic color, subtly shifting in hue and saturation and brightness, breaking down the projected image into the barest components of light. Shape, line, texture, and depth are eliminated, leaving only shifts from red to green to blue, broken by clouds of black, and distinguishable only by the change in speed. ALSO SCREENING: FM/TRCS (1974, 11 min) Fitzgibbon in person. (1974-75, 71 min total, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Super-8 Rides Again (Special Event)

Chicago Filmmakers - Friday, 8pm
In the vernacular of cinema nothing says nostalgia and family quite like Super-8mm. With its simple light-tight cartridge and auto-exposure cameras it really was the format that gave the everyman a chance to capture memories when it was introduced in 1965. By reducing the technical skill required for filmmaking down to simply pointing and shooting it exponentially increased the number of home-movie makers and foreshadowed the era of video and the widespread documentation of weddings, school plays, and the oh-so-common Christmas mornings. While the amateur aesthetic this would suggest is not to be ignored during the unique show at Chicago Filmmakers tonight, nostalgia takes a back seat to a celebration of community. Twenty local filmmakers have each been given a single roll of film to shoot and no one, not even the filmmakers, gets a chance to see the results before they screen.* The format inspires introspection and familiarity, and it is sure to be central to a number of the films. For my contribution I walked around the Damen blue line stop early on a weekday morning and took ten-second portraits of people in my neighborhood. Both an experiment and a chance to talk to strangers on the street (I probably asked 75 people before I had enough willing participants), to me the film was a fitting reflection of the show. Being a part of an artistic community like that in Chicago is much like the city we call home: friendly, under the radar, formally challenging, and happy to take a risk. Many of the filmmakers will be in person. (2010, approx. 70 min, Super-8mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Ilisa Barbash & Lucien Castaing-Taylor's SWEETGRASS (New Documentary)

Music Box - Check Venue website for showtimes
Rarely in cinema do we have the chance to witness both an elegy and a eulogy. A simultaneous lament for and celebration of a life that has recently passed on. Such is the power of the silver screen: to take footage of people doing their job, and in the process, encapsulate the death of an era, an occupation, and a national myth of identity. Or at least that's how the team behind SWEETGRASS chooses to use movie magic. Aside from being an excellent collection of Bierdstadtian landscape shots of the Montana Wilderness, the film tells the story of a band of sheep, horses, cowboys (sheep herders, actually), and their dogs during a summer spent grazing on the public lands in high mountain valleys. The film opens in late spring, with snow still on the ground. Quiet and stillness dominate our world, as wide shots of mountain peaks seem to get ever closer to an unseen destination, when finally we cut to a low angle shot of the commercial sheep herd. Hundreds of white sheep stand still, filling the screen and stretching into the distance. The texture of their wool resembles the melting snow we've seen in the preceding shots, and the lack of noise will stand in stark contrast to the rest of the film. Finally we move in to a close-up of a single sheep standing, chewing on grass. Slowly, he turns his head towards the camera, chewing constantly. At the very moment when he finally turns to look straight at the camera, he suddenly stops chewing. He stares straight ahead, blankly, silently, with a small hint of fear, and completely still. And after the title card, our audio endurance test begins. A "baah!" here, and a "baah!" there. Eventually the incessant and overbearing sound of the herd emerges, and a constant drone sustains throughout the entire film. "BAAH! BAAH! BAAH!" Constantly. The sound is deafening, but eventually you begin to pick out the differences in the noises, and almost hear them as voices, and understand the mood of the vocalist. When the Drive begins, we head out as one gigantic group of 1000 sheep, horses, dogs, and people. As we move through forests and over creeks, the skill of the sheep dogs becomes evident. The cowboys constantly call to them, and the dogs usher the herd towards safety. The cowboys split up on the way, and each take a few hundred sheep, a horse, and two or three dogs into a valley, where they stay for the summer. There's quite a bit more humor and drama than you might expect from these men of few words. They live a primitive life, harkening back to an earlier era. They sleep in canvas tents and cook with wood-burning stoves. But they also carry sophisticated cameras (for documenting a sheep killed by a bear) and cell phones. They exist in two worlds, and one of those worlds is coming to a close. However, this really is the story of the sheep, and when everyone comes back from the mountains for the very last time, the sheep are sent off to slaughter. The cowboys, knowing that an occupation that they personally had held for a lifetime was gone forever, drive home, saying nothing to one another. The sheep were gone, and in the typical Western economy of language, so were all the words. (2009, 101 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Joel Schumacher's THE LOST BOYS (Contemporary American Revival)

Music Box - Friday and Saturday, Midnight
In addition to being the first movie where Corey Feldman and Corey Haim (R.I.P.) appear together, THE LOST BOYS is also a darn good time. In a rarity for a horror film from the '80's, the comedic elements work to lighten the mood without bringing too much cheese. Much as with Schumacher's previous movie targeted towards teenagers, ST. ELMO'S FIRE, the production team doesn't cut corners. Recently pubescent vampires (Keifer Sutherland, Jason Patric, and Jami Gertz) and soon-to-be pubescent comic store geeks (Haim and Feldman) get the adult treatment as realistic characters, without a comic foil in the bunch. Though the film was shot in and around Santa Cruz, the fictional location of San Carla, CA, is adeptly rendered as a dark and downtrodden small town, and feels like it could exist on the edge of the Salton Sea. With it's run-down boardwalk, gang problems, and mysterious disappearances, this is not the "Sunny California" that was (and is?) a staple of the movies. Though the film lags a bit during the third act, the night-time scenes of the amusement park and the vampires' lair are dead on, and the soundtrack features an excellent cover of "People are Strange" performed by Echo and the Bunnymen. (1987, 97 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Haskell Wexler's MEDIUM COOL (American Revival)

Film Studies Center (University of Chicago) - Thursday, 7pm
How many times have you gone somewhere expecting a massive riot? And if you did go, did you also expect to come away with cinematic gold? That's pretty much what Chicago native Haskell Wexler did in '68 when he decided to shoot footage of protesters outside the Democratic National Convention. Already an Oscar-winning cinematographer for his work on WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, he set a fictional film about the ethics of a TV news cameraman amongst the actual chaos in the city. In MEDIUM COOL he used what was essentially a documentary crew (operating the camera himself), and had the actors intermingle with real protesters and police as all hell broke loose in Chicago. Other documentary footage was repurposed and additional narrative scenes were shot to fill in the gaps of the superficial plot, and Wexler used these elements to walk the line between fact and fiction while addressing the political climate of the times. Perhaps more than any other filmmaker, Wexler is responsible for the shooting style used in films by directors like John Cassavetes, John Sayles, and Kelly Reichardt, who all seem to have taken his advice: "If your film can reflect areas of life where people feel passion, then it will have genuine drama." Wexler in person. (1969, 111 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Nicholas Ray's REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (American Revival) & John Hughes' THE BREAKFAST CLUB (Contemporary American Revival)

Nicholas Ray's REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (American Revival)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Monday, 7pm
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John Hughes' THE BREAKFAST CLUB (Contemporary American Revival)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Wednesday, 7 and 9pm
American in the '50s vs. America in the '80s. Eisenhower and hula-hoops vs. Reagan and the Rubik's Cube. Conformity reigns: go to school, get a job, get married, and move to the suburbs. Makes you want to drop out right now doesn't it? Cinematically, the two decades were also high points of the Teen Movie genre, and you can't have a stellar film about teens without a good looking rebel that makes the girls swoon. Is it careful planning that allows Doc Films to bring us the most iconic rebels of each decade in one week, or just serendipity? It really doesn't matter, because at the very least we get a chance to use them as the lens through which the two decades are contrasted. Let's get one thing straight; when REBEL was released in 1955 (one month after James Dean's death) it was daring, fresh, and hard-hitting. A critique of morally corrupt youth, lackadaisical parenting, and the decay of the American family, it still commands praise of the highest degree for its quality of acting and ability to capture teenage angst in an honest, believable, and frank manner. Hughes' skill as a movie maker cannot be compared to Ray's, but his young cast was every bit the equal of Sal Mineo, Natalie Wood, and Dean in their collective ability to connect with a teenage audience. For people of a certain age, Anthony Michael Hall's voiceover which bookends the film will forever define who everyone at their high school was: a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. And our criminal, played by a now shaggy Judd Nelson, defined cool rebellion for the better part of a decade. As John Bender he insults the principal to his face ("Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?"), hides dope in his locker, sees through everyone's bullshit and calls them out on it, and gets to make out with the prom queen. But since we're comparing the two films, what does each anti-hero tell us about each director's vision, and about the decades they inhabit? In the 50's, Jim Stark is misunderstood, a young man who feels out of place in society, too sensitive to relate to his peers, and set up by society to fail. But his parents are simply misguided: they love Jim; they just don't know how to take care of him. We know that if he just gets a chance he can be somebody good, he just needs a few years. He lives in an optimistic America, where tomorrow is a bright new day. In the '80's though, John Bender has some real malice, and the cigarette burns on his arm to show us why. He forces a bonding ritual on his fellow high school students, but we know that his triumphant fist in the air to close the movie will be the high point of his life. At best he is destined for a crappy job in a bleak suburb, stuck in a loveless marriage with kids he can't stand. At worst he's drunk and alone, recounting how he blew his last best chance with that pretty little rich girl. The American dream is on the ropes, the rich are gonna get richer, and human connection is a fleeting illusion. You've got two choices, get with the program, or suffer the consequences. (1955, 111 min, 16mm/1985, 97 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Kristina Buozyte’s THE COLLECTRESS (Lithuania)

Gene Siskel Film Center - Saturday, 5:30pm and Thursday, 8pm
The voyeuristic tendencies of humanity are spilling themselves all over the web as you read this. Cell phone footage of violence and misery are as instantly disseminated and have replaced the daily newspaper of the 20th Century. No longer do we wait for tomorrow, and no longer do we take time to process the events we hear about through the media. Or in our own lives. The immediacy of the mass recounting of history has lead to a numbing of our emotions and a disconnection from others. Or so the argument goes. In one of the smartest films about the continuing intrusion of technology in our lives, the ability to document experience is posited as the only means for reconnecting with emotion. After the death of her father renders speech therapist Gaille void of feeling, she stumbles upon a drunken auteur disguised as a low-grade video editor. Living amongst filth and bottles of vodka, he turns weddings into farces, where brides are ugly and guests gorge on reception food like pigs. He edits some footage of Gaille working for her to present at a conference, and she realizes that only through seeing herself on tape does she reconnect with her feelings. She begins to have herself taped as she engages in a variety of stunts. The pranks begin harmlessly enough, with the taping of Gaille crashing a wedding and kissing the unexpecting groom, but she needs to keep upping the ante. Of course this self-reflexive voyeurism has a price to pay, and Gaille systematically severs her connections to everyone around her. Although comparisons to VIDEODROME are not unfounded, where Cronenberg tried to shock us into agreeing with his thesis, Buozyte uses her video sequences to humanize her characters. This film shows a deft eye for visual style and a light touch in pacing, somewhat remarkable for an MFA thesis film. Expect more from Buozyte in the future. (2008, 84 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Videos by Lynne Sachs (Experimental Documentary/Narrative)

Chicago Filmmakers - Friday, 8pm
Film Studies Center - Saturday, 7pm
For twenty-five years Lynne Sachs has been making work that seek to explain the universal elements of human experience that emerge from documenting first person perspectives. History, or at least the knowledge of historical events, shapes how each of us views life, and it is this connection between past and present that remains central in her newest works. Her films acknowledge the limitations inherent in the documentary genre, and perhaps no more so than in her decade-long five-film series I AM NOT A WAR PHOTOGRAPHER. This weekend she will present the most recent installment in the series, LAST HAPPY DAYS (2009, 37 min, DVD), at Chicago Filmmakers and the Film Studies Center at University of Chicago. Sachs paints a picture of a distant relative whose life story encompasses both the best and worst qualities of life in the twentieth century. Originally a doctor in his native Hungary, Sandor Lenard fled the Nazis in 1938, first to Rome where he worked for the US Army reconstructing the bones of dead soldiers. Eventually he settled in the Brazilian Amazon and gained brief fame after translating Winnie the Pooh into Latin. Reflecting on our collective obsession with genealogy, Sachs approaches her portraiture as an essay on the horrors of war as well as the motivation behind artistic practice. To complete each evening, Chicago Filmmakers pairs this film with Sachs first narrative film, WIND IN OUR HAIR (2009, 42 min, DVD), inspired by the writings of Julio Cortazar, and the FSC pairs it with a new piece about Iraqi burial rituals translated into Latin, COSMETIC SURGERY FOR CORPSES (2010, 10 min, DVD). Lynne Sachs in person at both screenings. JH - Cine-File.info

Hellmuth Costard's FOOTBALL AS NEVER BEFORE (Documentary Revival)

Hellmuth Costard's FOOTBALL AS NEVER BEFORE (Documentary Revival)
White Light Cinema at The Nightingale - Friday, 8pm
The most apparent truth conveyed in this film is that, for George Best, being a professional athlete was a serious, patient, isolating, and precise occupation. The more poignant truth is that the core of all rituals infused with mysticism is the interplay of rhythm and duration, syntax and meaning. Best is ostensibly the star of the film as he paces like a caged tiger while someone off screen sets up a free kick, jogs casually upfield as spectators yell insults, waits on the wing with his hands on his hips like a bored schoolboy, and sprints hard for a slide tackle while supporters chant sing-songy rhymes. All the while Costard's six cameras keep him in their sites, and use Best as a puppet in what is truly a remarkable attempt at making cinema that exists outside the language of narrative. Never do we get a cutaway, an insert shot, or a reaction. As the game unfolds in real time we are unaware of score or the flow, left alone with Best to ponder the action, save for the few moments when the ball comes to him and gets passed away. Despite the apparent voyeurism of the approach, this "actor" is not a star we get titillation from gazing upon, nor is the camera's eye that of the unseen "other." From our usual perch above the playing field we are alone with an image of Best and his shadow, surrounded by the field, and the constant sound of the crowd. All attempts to engage with the game are thwarted by the cameras' unrelenting focus on one individual, for a story needs characters, and characters need conflicts to keep us interested. Finally, with a few minutes left in the first half, there is a moment of tension. Best dribbles across the top of the box, and launches a missile across his body towards goal, only to summersault to the pitch. Emotion threatens to make an appearance as the crowd cheers Best's effort, but we are not allowed to share in it: we are not participants in this spectacle. We are participants in the ritual of cinema, but removed from the expected syntax of hero and exposition we cannot recognize the structure and rhythm. In a typical film we are presented with a plausible reality on the screen, and we can predict what will happen, or at least be surprised by it. In our lives we place these waking daydreams of narrative artwork into a category called illusion. But when a graphic appears to show the score still standing at 0-0, Costard reminds us that in cinema, reality is always an illusion. (1971, 105 min, 16mm on DVD) JH - Cine-File.info

Philipp Stölzl's NORTH FACE (New German)

Philipp Stölzl's NORTH FACE (New German)
Music Box - Check venue website for showtimes
Rarely on Cine-File do we cover a film that feels like a Clint Eastwood sports epic (unless it is a Clint Eastwood sports epic, viz. INVICTUS), but in this case the film is a 2008 German release that has received little to no attention in the States. Part adventure-epic, part journalist drama, and part love story, it's all wonderfully shot blowing snow and foreboding rock crags that echo the bergfilmes of the '30's. Set in 1936, when everyone wanted to be the first to summit the north face of Switzerland's "the Eiger"--the last great unsolved problem of the Alps. Teams from Germany, Austria, Italy, and France were all competing to prove their superiority as mountaineers and as a nation. And unlike other challenges of human endurance, this one had a hotel with a lookout balcony and a cog railway through the interior of the mountain (that still boasts the highest station in Europe) that made this dangerous game of bravado into a spectator sport. What makes this story of two unsuccessful German climbers and the journalist who covered them worthwhile is the attention to detail that captures the climbing experience in sight and sound. The camera dangles on a rope next to the climbers, and at times we can barely hear their dialogue over the howling wind. The story becomes secondary after the first hour, as we already suspect their deadly fate. We stay to watch while the landscape becomes all-consuming, and devours our "heroes" like an ogre. (2008, 121 min, 35mm) - Cine-File.info

Pat O'Neill's WATER AND POWER (Experimental Revival)

Experimental Film Society (SAIC, 112 S Michigan Ave, Rm. 1307)  - Tuesday, 4:30pm
In early films like 1967's 7362 or 1971's RUNS GOOD Pat O'Neill used an Optical Printer and sophisticated matting effects to play, as if he was crafting short sonnet-films. By 1989 he outgrew the trickster's humor of special effects and gave us his first bit of epic poetry with WATER AND POWER. An ode to the city of Los Angeles, layered images juxtapose facets the multi-ethnic metropolis that sprouted from the desert in Southern California to become a Mecca for the American Dream, and a synonym for traffic jams and capitalist excess. Found footage is mixed with time-lapse shots and staged sequences. We move from city to desert, and back again along the pipelines that bring water to the thirsty machine. He wants to show us the energy of his city and how the parts contribute to the whole, but as the New York Times said when the film was released, "Mr. O'Neill's major concern is the power of film to redefine and control all images, even natural ones." Reductionism would never befit an artistic exploration of any urban area, and O'Neill's complexity as a filmmaker seeks to touch on the range of surprises that make LA unique, as a story and an experiment. (1989, 54 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Films by Tom Palazzolo & Morton Heilig (Doc / Narrative Shorts Revival)

Chicago Filmmakers - Friday, 8pm
If the name Tommy Chicago doesn't ring a bell, you better ask somebody. Since he moved to the city in the early '60s to study at the Art Institute, Palazzolo has made work that captures the diversity (read: ethnic enclaves), characters, and quirks of the Midwestern Metropolis. An accomplished painter and photographer with wit to spare, he's never tried to imitate the tropes of costal experimental film stalwarts. Instead he's used (and reused) his heartland footage to craft films with joie-de-vivre and irreverence. Palazzolo edits by intuition rather than theory, and even when his technique seems crude his heart makes up for it. Tonight's program, titled Gone Rogue: An Iconoclastic Look at Church and State, features four of his shorts and what he says is his favorite film about the early sixties. If counterculture is what you're after, then CAMPAIGN (1968/2009) will provide you with the recommended daily allowance of Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsburg. The original Mayor Daley battles hippies and chaos, and gleefully sends his goons to keep the peace. Advantageously shot during the '68 Democratic convention, it ranks right up there with MEDIUM COOL as an accidental comment on the generational divide the event reinforced. Less political is TATTOOED LADY (1967/2009). Covering the long-since defunct Riverview Park, the camera lets the real freaks perform and enrapture us into believing that, even in 1967, this north-side amusement park wasn't downtrodden. The most recent film showing is a comedic collaboration with Second City, VATICAN WORLD (1992), and features Jon Favreau (credited as Favro) in his film debut. Favreau plays a young, near-sighted pope who enlists a PR man to increase the market share of Catholicism. Also screening is Palazzolo's HEY GIRLS (1990), based on a Heather McAdams cartoon, and Morton Heilig's ASSEMBLY LINE (1961), which has a tone reminiscent of classic 50's educational films. An optimistic young factory worker goes downtown to blow his weekly earnings but, instead of fun and camaraderie, he finds scams and loneliness and ends up at home with one more rung in the ladder of his banal industrial life. Palazzolo in person. (1961-92, approx. 70 min total, 16mm and DVD) JH - Cine-File.info

Critical Mass: The Legacy of Hollis Frampton

Film Studies Center (University of Chicago) – Saturday and Sunday, beginning 10am each day (9:30am Continental Breakfast)
The citywide, multi-venue celebration of Hollis Frampton wraps up this weekend with three days of inquiry and exploration. Legendary filmmaker and Frampton collaborator Michael Snow kicks it off Friday night with a sold-out reading of Frampton’s performative A LECTURE. There's still a slim chance you can get in if someone doesn't show up, and it's worth taking the risk. Often Frampton's films attempt to utilize the cinematic form to analyze its own psychosomatic processes, and while successful, they can be rather cloistered. By contrast, with A LECTURE he crafted a performance between narrator and projectionist that, although germane to an academic discussion of how one interacts with the silver screen, is more-so a tale of the people and tools that mesh and fight before we get to sit back and enjoy Bogie and Bacall. Self-consciously deconstructing the social act of going to the movies sounds boring, but Frampton's intelligence and humor make it fun. As the performance begins a voice asks: “Please turn out the lights. If we're going to talk about movies, we might as well do it in the dark.” It's interesting that he's says “we,” because for the next sixty minutes or so “we” will sit passively while “he” uses the essence of cinema to engulf us. We are one with the world on the screen. The voice emanating from the speakers of the auditorium was always intended to vary, and the choice of Snow for Friday should be an inspired one. On Saturday and Sunday all are welcome when some of the top scholars, historians, and makers of experimental cinema hold court (along with a healthy dose of upcoming ones) with a series of panels looking at Frampton's work and legacy. Participants include historian and author Scott MacDonald, filmmaker and preservationist Bill Brand, filmmaker and musician Tony Conrad, historian and author P. Adams Sitney, film and video maker Keith Sanborn, Canadian filmmaker and author Bruce Elder, SAIC’s Bruce Jenkins, and the U of C’s Tom Gunning, who organized the conference. JH - Cine-File.info

HC Potter's HELLZAPOPPIN' (American Revival)

Bank of America Cinema - Saturday, 8pm
This is what happens when a Broadway show that was basically vaudeville gets made into a film. Disconnected and thin on plot, this is nevertheless a cinematic plum. Our hosts for the evening are Olson and Johnson, a comedy duo made up of two straight men who can't help but talk to the audience and yell at the projectionist. There's some funny gags, a song or two from "the Big Mouth," Martha Raye, and a great Lindy Hop dance scene featuring Frankie Manning, but the shining moments are when the characters get to play with the fourth wall. In what can only be the inspiration for MST3K, the opening sequence takes place on a soundstage where Olson and Johnson argue with a director and screenwriter about how to turn their show into a movie. They sit down to watch some footage covering the tacked-on love story, and make up their own dialog for the on screen action before seamlessly becoming part of it. Despite failing to capture the mythic energy of the stage show with which it shares a name, HELLZAPOPPIN' still pleases almost 70 years later. (1941, 84 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Lisandro Alonso's LIVERPOOL (New Argentinean)

Facets Cinémathèque - Saturday 1pm and Sunday, 1pm and 3pm
Distance. Space. Solitude. With a minimum of dialog and obvious flair, Alonso explores these themes as both form and content. When we drop in on our protagonist, Farrel (Juan Fernández), he is aboard a shipping vessel. Although he interacts with his shipmates and is not obtuse, conversations consist of few words and no sharing. One gets the impression that he prefers spending his down time alone, smoking cigarettes on the deck and starring at the endless ocean. When he says that he is going on shore leave there is little emotion in his voice, as if time and location are irrelevant to him. But time and location are of utmost importance to Alonso and his film. As Farrel journeys from an unnamed port city to his parent's home in a run-down logging camp the camera keeps its distance, allowing the viewer to take in the snow-covered mountains of Argentina's landscape. Though the landscape is gorgeous, our character is not. The long takes show Farrel as he packs his meager belongings, watches TV while he waits for a ride, and walks the final distance to his home. Our attention is spent on perfunctory actions, not moments of triumph or change. He does not show emotion, and one feels pity for him, but not sorrow. We know he lacks connections to this place--or to any other--and has long since stopped caring. And ultimately so do we stop caring about him, as the film shifts to follow Farrel's discarded daughter for the final fifteen minutes. Every shot of LIVERPOOL is mundane yet precise, restrained and enunciated. An economy of detail and drama are Alonso's tools here, and their power is mighty. (2008, 84 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

David Lynch's BLUE VELVET (American Revival/Cult)

Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Wednesday, 7 and 9:30pm
This is where the legend really began. It's curious to think how Lynch's career would have developed if DUNE (1984) had not been a box office failure, but cinema history can thank him for not playing it safe with this rebound project. Though Lynch had already made three features, VELVET was the first full articulation of his core theme of the evil that lurks in small towns everywhere. Not the outright surrealist endeavor that was ERASERHEAD, it is also not the most accessible of narratives. Dark, violent, sexual, and reeking of 1963 suburbia, the film is at times a noir mystery and at others a violent thriller. Many of the visual symbols that would populate TWIN PEAKS are introduced here, such as red curtains appearing when danger is present, and Lynch's continued growth as a complete cinematic artist is evident. Despite having a cast that didn't feature a legitimate star (Dennis Hopper may be the exception, but his career was in the dumps when he was cast...as the third choice), the film earned Lynch his second Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, as well as praise from critics throughout the world. It's also notable that Kyle MacLachlan (essentially playing Dale Cooper) might never have worked again if not for his excellent performance. Still dangerous twenty years later, the film is as gorgeous as it is classic. (1986, 120 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Gerard Damiano's LET MY PUPPETS COME (Cult/Adult Film Revival)

Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Thursday, 9:45pm
Gerard Damiano may be the most important director of pornographic film ever. His 1972 film DEEP THROAT created a sensation that almost single-handedly launched the adult entertainment industry. He had another hit with his 1973 follow up, THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES, and went on to direct more than 60 films through the mid '90s. His meteoric rise is the stuff of legend, making this entry into Doc Films' sexploitation series as intriguing as it is odd. The semi-autobiographical tale of a company in financial distress that decides to make a porno to stay afloat is a common premise, but having most of the roles played by puppets is pure genius. Musical numbers abound, and intercourse is an afterthought as foam rubber perverts crack jokes that feel like they came from a foul-mouthed seventh grader and copulate in the most unerotic ways. Complete with a parody of '70s commercials ("Climax watches: they take a lickin'..."), this film really is a product of its era. Lighthearted and at times hilarious, PUPPETS has to be seen to be believed. (1977, 75 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Films by Maya Deren (Experimental Revival)

Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Tuesday, 7pm
Leaving aside the filmmaking for a moment, it is fair to say that only a few individuals rival Maya Deren's importance in the development of the American Experimental cinema, and none of the early figures can rival the tales of her rich life and forceful personality. There's an often-repeated rumor that she once used her Voodoo powers, acquired while researching for an anthropology book in Haiti (The Divine Horseman), to pick up a refrigerator and toss it at a houseguest who had overstayed his welcome. An astute theorist and tireless promoter of the art, Deren's early films took the psychodrama of European filmmakers such as Jean Cocteau and morphed them to create a foundation for the personal-lyrical filmmaking of early Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger, and her later films foreshadowed the Structuralist work of Michael Snow and Ernie Gehr. Though she only completed a handful of films in her short life, they are each almost unanimous classics of the genre. Talk to any film professor worth their salt and you'll hear about the groundbreaking editing in MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON, the elegant spatial manipulation of A STUDY IN CHOREOGRAPHY FOR THE CAMERA, and the formal shamanism in MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE. Although her work is now quite accessible on DVD, all true believers of the Church of Cinema need to march down to Hyde Park to see these films as they were intended. Also showing: AT LAND, RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME, THE WITCH'S CRADLE, and THE VERY EYE OF NIGHT. (1945-55, 86 min total, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info