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

The Bruce Conner Prospective (Experimental)

Eye and Ear Clinic at SAIC (112 S Michigan Ave, Rm 1307) - Monday, 6pm
One of the great accidents of Art History is that Bruce Conner did not invent the found-footage film. Sure, Joseph Cornell made ROSE HOBART in 1936 and Eisenstein et al were rumored to have rearranged THE BIRTH OF A NATION while teaching themselves the art of montage in the 1910s, but Conner did it better. In his first major film, simply titled A MOVIE (1958, 12 min, 16mm) he displayed a knack for gluing the scraps of civilization together to create both a humorous and scathing visual commentary on society at large and Hollywood idioms. As the title indicates, this was a generalized version of the more mind-numbing fare that is arguably still the norm: sex, explosions, racism, and sexy racist explosions. In REPORT (1967, 13 min, 16mm) he used the news coverage surrounding the Kennedy assassination, shot off his own TV set, to explore the media's obsession with violence and celebrity. Again Conner uses a medium of mass communication as the message, but shows more sensitivity as he explores his own feelings about an event that defined a generation. Craig Baldwin's TRIBULATION 99 (1992, 48 min, 16mm) is a film that is epic in scope and archival in source material. Taking a different approach to appropriation, Baldwin braids 99 different conspiracy theories into a narrative. With footage mainly from B-movie clips and educational films, he explains in half-whispered narration not just who killed JFK, but what it had to do with the Mayans and aliens. Baldwin shows a sensitivity to the societal fringes that incubated these theories, and you get the sense that although he doesn't believe them, he knows they're onto something. Also screening: Brian Boyce's SPECIAL REPORT (1999, 3 min, video), Kent Lambert's SEPTEMBER SICK SEMPER TYRANNIS (2008, 4 min, video), and Jesse McLean's ONLY WE KNOW (2009, 5 min, video). Lambert and McLean person. JH - Cine-File.info

Zummer Tapez: Kent Lambert (Experimental)

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