Kittens, Biscuits, and Blots: Films by Luther Price (Experimental)

White Light Cinema at The Nightingale - Sunday, 7pm
One way to measure the ability of a songwriter is by how well they turn an apparent personal narrative into a universal human experience. They take what they have lived through (or think they should have) and mold it into words that can explain the hopes and fears of everyone. In an almost perfectly opposite position is the found-object artist, and specifically, the subspecies of the found-footage filmmaker. Their task is to take the scraps of mass media and turn it into their own personal story. Much like there are trite pop songs, there are also many dull found-footage films, where the voice of the filmmaker never comes through the postmodern montage. In the hands of Luther Price, though, unknown industrial films, afterschool specials, and other relics of the recent past create the perfect canvas for him to paint his thoughts and feelings (sometimes literally). Still not as well known as he should be, even within the obscurity that is the Experimental Film community, Price has created a wealth of cinema gems throughout his now almost 30 years of activity. In part, the reason he can sometimes be missed is the difficulty in seeing most of his work – Price almost never makes prints of his films, preferring to show his fragile originals. One creative approach he takes is to paint directly onto found footage (such as in his INKBLOT series) or to bury it in the dirt. In both cases he achieves abstract shapes that roll in rhythms of an energy chaos, ultimately finding new territory. In the BISCUITS series, Price takes documentary footage of elder care and, again, is able to recombine it in ways that seem fresh. Utilizing multiple prints of the same film, he is able to repeat phrases and gestures, and seems to tap into both the happiness of a life long lived and the melancholy of being "put in a home." There is a genuine compassion for his "found" characters; Price avoids exploitation in his re-workings or social commentary on nursing homes in general. The strongest articulation of his editing skill is in KITTENS GROW UP, so simple in its approach, yet powerful in impact. Utilizing long takes, with only a hint of the jarring audio scratches that populate many of Price's films, we go back and forth from a film about kittens learning life-skills to one about young children and their alcoholic father. The metaphor of child and kitten, both alone and scared in the world, is easy enough. The delicate task that is done so well here is using the footage of kittens to darken the mood, not soften it. (2007-08, approx. 95 min total, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Verna Paravel and J.P. Sniadecki's FOREIGN PARTS (New Documentary)

Chicago Filmmakers - Friday, 8pm 
American ethnographic filmmaking is experiencing a welcome crop of understated, discrete works that look at soon-to-be-gone industries. Along with 2009's SWEETGRASS, a film about a family-run sheep ranch in Montana having its final season before closing permanently, the Sensory Ethnography Lab at Harvard supported FOREIGN PARTS, a film about another type of location that most Americans will never see, and another way of life that is in danger of extinction. The stark landscape of the Willett's Point neighborhood of Queens, NY (dominated by twisted metal and signifiers of poverty), is thrust upon us in the first moments of the film, and the hustlers, independent entrepreneurs, and dancing drunks that make their lives among this urban junkyard are revealed. In true verité tradition, the camera is a quiet observer of all situations, allowing the newly erected Citi Field (home of the NY Mets baseball team) to tower over the action like a modern-day lord's castle without feeling like a forced construction of design. The attitude of 39th Street, the neighborhood's main drag, is defined by the multi-colored signage for the many places to get dirt-cheap car parts and bodywork. Drive-by customers roll down their windows and bargain in an atmosphere reminiscent of a marketplace in an underdeveloped country. This is a populace focused on their struggles of the moment, and they seem relatively unfazed by the Bloomberg administration's plan to redevelop the neighborhood into condos, malls, and office buildings. In this way, FOREIGN PARTS is influenced by our current economic situation, but not obsessed with it. We are reminded of the divide between rich and poor in the visuals, but we get to know the people that inhabit this space, and not those that come to the stadium. The characters that concern us were poor before Wall Street had a downturn, and they'll continue to live off of scraps and recycling, even if they have to go unseen somewhere else. (2010, 80 min., video) JH - Cine-File.info