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