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
Friday, December 10, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
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
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
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