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
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
SOUTH MAIN (Documentary)
Chicago Filmmakers – Saturday, 8pm
When a public housing project in South Central Los Angeles is shuttered due to gang violence, the law-abiding residents find themselves displaced. Director Kelly Parker shows the story of three such families and their struggles with the transition to life in Section 8 housing in 2005. A fiancé who is killed in a drive-by-shooting the night before the move and increased bills that leave the family closer to poverty are the content of the stories told here, but the style is what makes this film original. In a departure from cinéma vérité, the camera remains mostly static—save for the handheld shots taken by the family members—and the filmmaker is content to let the matriarch of each family directly address the camera for extended monologues. Although this strategy is not always successful, sometimes drawing more attention to the presence of the camera than is necessary, Parker ultimately benefits from her minimal production scale and the familiarity with her subjects that it allows. Additionally, the intentional stylistic choice of allowing the camera to be a presence rather than an extension of the filmmaker works to keep the film from becoming a sweeping statement about poverty, and privileges the individual stories that it tells. (2008, 77 min, DVD) JH - Cine-File.info
When a public housing project in South Central Los Angeles is shuttered due to gang violence, the law-abiding residents find themselves displaced. Director Kelly Parker shows the story of three such families and their struggles with the transition to life in Section 8 housing in 2005. A fiancé who is killed in a drive-by-shooting the night before the move and increased bills that leave the family closer to poverty are the content of the stories told here, but the style is what makes this film original. In a departure from cinéma vérité, the camera remains mostly static—save for the handheld shots taken by the family members—and the filmmaker is content to let the matriarch of each family directly address the camera for extended monologues. Although this strategy is not always successful, sometimes drawing more attention to the presence of the camera than is necessary, Parker ultimately benefits from her minimal production scale and the familiarity with her subjects that it allows. Additionally, the intentional stylistic choice of allowing the camera to be a presence rather than an extension of the filmmaker works to keep the film from becoming a sweeping statement about poverty, and privileges the individual stories that it tells. (2008, 77 min, DVD) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Alfred Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES (Classic Revival)
Music Box - Saturday and Sunday, 11:30am
Although film schools all teach a semester-long course on Alfred Hitchcock, they might as well just show 1938's THE LADY VANISHES on the first day of freshman year and tell the students he never got it quite as right again. In the director's penultimate UK feature, the plot is tight and the action is full of suspense, but it is the characters that keep us entertained throughout. Margaret Atwood's heroine and Michael Redgrave's unlikely academic hero lead the cast in this tale of international espionage (on a train, of course), but the supporting duo of Caldicott & Charters (Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford) steal their scenes as a pair of dry humored Brits only interested in a cricket match back home. With an overt critique of Britain's pre-war non-intervention policy woven in, the sometimes slapstick, sometimes understated humor of Hitchcock charms us throughout the film in a way that only resurfaced occasionally in his US work. Francois Truffaut, who claimed to have seen the film twice a week at some points, told Hitchcock "Since I know it by heart, I tell myself each time that I’m going to ignore the plot (and study the technique and effect). But each time, I become so absorbed by the characters and the story that I’ve yet to figure out the mechanics of the film.” (1938, 97 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Although film schools all teach a semester-long course on Alfred Hitchcock, they might as well just show 1938's THE LADY VANISHES on the first day of freshman year and tell the students he never got it quite as right again. In the director's penultimate UK feature, the plot is tight and the action is full of suspense, but it is the characters that keep us entertained throughout. Margaret Atwood's heroine and Michael Redgrave's unlikely academic hero lead the cast in this tale of international espionage (on a train, of course), but the supporting duo of Caldicott & Charters (Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford) steal their scenes as a pair of dry humored Brits only interested in a cricket match back home. With an overt critique of Britain's pre-war non-intervention policy woven in, the sometimes slapstick, sometimes understated humor of Hitchcock charms us throughout the film in a way that only resurfaced occasionally in his US work. Francois Truffaut, who claimed to have seen the film twice a week at some points, told Hitchcock "Since I know it by heart, I tell myself each time that I’m going to ignore the plot (and study the technique and effect). But each time, I become so absorbed by the characters and the story that I’ve yet to figure out the mechanics of the film.” (1938, 97 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Psycho-Sexual Animation (Animation/Experimental)
Chicago Filmmakers – Saturday, 8pm
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase "Psycho-Sexual?" If you think "Norman Bates loves his mama," then you're accidentally on the right track for this show. From 1970 to 1974 Victor Faccinto created a series of nightmarish and grotesque cut-out films starring his alter ego, Video Vic, a voyeuristic, neurotic figure dressed in a black leather jacket and executioner’s mask who is compelled by his own feelings of sexual inadequacy and perversion. Almost forty years after their creation, the films are still subversive and uncomfortable to sit through and their deliberately crude style are partly responsible. Perhaps the strangest of the series, the silent WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM? WHERE IS IT GOING?, establishes the themes of a sadistic God, an overt masculinity that is essentially impotent, a fusion of predators and genitalia and characters who gain pleasure from watching others suffer. In THE SECRETE OF LIFE the mumbled speech of the protagonist Chico and the sound effects are heavy on the reverb as he spies on and engages in often-violent sexual encounters. FILET OF SOUL expands the character base to include Vic and his counterculture companions. The sophistication of the production increases to include shots that collage animation with still images, mood music made with whistling and kazoos, and dialogue from multiple characters. In the final film, SHAMELESS, Faccinto's techniques become more complex and include manipulated found footage, stop-motion sequences with actors, and shots that feature both cut-out characters and real humans. Faccinto's films are honest and intensely personal, like a drunken secret that a new acquaintance has whispered in your ear: you didn't ask to hear it, but the outburst explains their personality in a way that only years of intimacy could. This show is billed as Adult Animation, and may not be suitable for all audiences. Also showing are three recent animated video works: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD (Joe Tucker, UK), A LETTER TO COLLEEN (Andy London and Carolyn London, US), CHAINSAW (Dennis Tupicoff, Australia). (1970-2008, 97 min total, 16mm and Video) JH - Cine-File.info
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase "Psycho-Sexual?" If you think "Norman Bates loves his mama," then you're accidentally on the right track for this show. From 1970 to 1974 Victor Faccinto created a series of nightmarish and grotesque cut-out films starring his alter ego, Video Vic, a voyeuristic, neurotic figure dressed in a black leather jacket and executioner’s mask who is compelled by his own feelings of sexual inadequacy and perversion. Almost forty years after their creation, the films are still subversive and uncomfortable to sit through and their deliberately crude style are partly responsible. Perhaps the strangest of the series, the silent WHERE DID IT ALL COME FROM? WHERE IS IT GOING?, establishes the themes of a sadistic God, an overt masculinity that is essentially impotent, a fusion of predators and genitalia and characters who gain pleasure from watching others suffer. In THE SECRETE OF LIFE the mumbled speech of the protagonist Chico and the sound effects are heavy on the reverb as he spies on and engages in often-violent sexual encounters. FILET OF SOUL expands the character base to include Vic and his counterculture companions. The sophistication of the production increases to include shots that collage animation with still images, mood music made with whistling and kazoos, and dialogue from multiple characters. In the final film, SHAMELESS, Faccinto's techniques become more complex and include manipulated found footage, stop-motion sequences with actors, and shots that feature both cut-out characters and real humans. Faccinto's films are honest and intensely personal, like a drunken secret that a new acquaintance has whispered in your ear: you didn't ask to hear it, but the outburst explains their personality in a way that only years of intimacy could. This show is billed as Adult Animation, and may not be suitable for all audiences. Also showing are three recent animated video works: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD (Joe Tucker, UK), A LETTER TO COLLEEN (Andy London and Carolyn London, US), CHAINSAW (Dennis Tupicoff, Australia). (1970-2008, 97 min total, 16mm and Video) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, July 11, 2009
FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF (Contemporary Revival)
Chicago History Museum - Tuesday at dusk
Sometimes there is a moment of pure serendipity in one's life and, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it. Case in point: the Chicago History Museum is presenting the film that not only taught countless youngsters how to properly play sick, but also showcased our city as the playground for Matthew Broderick's understimulated Northshore slacker. In a performance that made him a bonafide leading man at the age of 23, Broderick creates a character so clever and charming that you can’t help but root for him. Beginning with a little white lie about a serious illness to get a final day off before going to college, Ferris schemes to cheer up his best friend Cameron with a VIP tour of the city. Wrigley Field, the Art Institute, Michigan Avenue, and the Sears Tower (“I think I see my dad”) are the backdrop for the greatest senior ditch day ever put on film. Its enduring appeal lies in the subplot, however, in which the evil dean of students, Edward Rooney (Jeffery Jones), vows to catch Ferris in the act and force him to repeat his senior year. The screening is free, and will take place on the lawn behind the museum starting at dusk. (1986, 103 min, DVD) JH - Cine-File.info
Sometimes there is a moment of pure serendipity in one's life and, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it. Case in point: the Chicago History Museum is presenting the film that not only taught countless youngsters how to properly play sick, but also showcased our city as the playground for Matthew Broderick's understimulated Northshore slacker. In a performance that made him a bonafide leading man at the age of 23, Broderick creates a character so clever and charming that you can’t help but root for him. Beginning with a little white lie about a serious illness to get a final day off before going to college, Ferris schemes to cheer up his best friend Cameron with a VIP tour of the city. Wrigley Field, the Art Institute, Michigan Avenue, and the Sears Tower (“I think I see my dad”) are the backdrop for the greatest senior ditch day ever put on film. Its enduring appeal lies in the subplot, however, in which the evil dean of students, Edward Rooney (Jeffery Jones), vows to catch Ferris in the act and force him to repeat his senior year. The screening is free, and will take place on the lawn behind the museum starting at dusk. (1986, 103 min, DVD) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Rare Films from the Baseball Hall of Fame (Special Event)
Block Cinema (Northwestern University) – Thursday, 7pm
In an unexpected but appropriate finale for the spring calendar at Block, this program of 20 short clips, commercials, and promotional films about Major League Baseball and its personalities from the past is a welcome beginning to summer. Featuring historic home runs (Willie Mays' 511th, 1966), World Series highlights (NYG vs. CLE, 1954), Gillette Razor endorsements (Phil Rizzuto, Gil Hodges, 1954), and what can only be a foreshadowing of Nancy Reagan (Baseball vs. Drugs, 1972), the sport’s former position as a national pastime and microcosm of American society will be on display. David Filipi, film and video curator at Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, will be on hand to host the show, and one can only hope that he'll elaborate on the significance of playing hooky to take in a game and sitting on your porch, cold one in hand, listening to Bob Eucker narrate another Brewer's loss. (1934-1972, approx. 75 min total, Video) JH - Cine-File.info
In an unexpected but appropriate finale for the spring calendar at Block, this program of 20 short clips, commercials, and promotional films about Major League Baseball and its personalities from the past is a welcome beginning to summer. Featuring historic home runs (Willie Mays' 511th, 1966), World Series highlights (NYG vs. CLE, 1954), Gillette Razor endorsements (Phil Rizzuto, Gil Hodges, 1954), and what can only be a foreshadowing of Nancy Reagan (Baseball vs. Drugs, 1972), the sport’s former position as a national pastime and microcosm of American society will be on display. David Filipi, film and video curator at Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, will be on hand to host the show, and one can only hope that he'll elaborate on the significance of playing hooky to take in a game and sitting on your porch, cold one in hand, listening to Bob Eucker narrate another Brewer's loss. (1934-1972, approx. 75 min total, Video) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, May 23, 2009
CALIFORNIA COMPANY TOWN (Experimental Documentary)
Chicago Filmmakers – Saturday, 8pm
Following in the tradition of Western authors such as Wallace Stegner and Gretel Ehrlich, filmmaker Lee Anne Schmitt is obsessed with the landscape of possibility that led the first industrialists to California, and the legacy they left behind. Mining, logging, farming, oil and steel towns that were established as a means to keep workers on a short leash have now been all but abandoned by their original owners. Some are entirely vacant, while others have lived on, but all are reminders of the environmental impact that industry and then the military has left on the landscape. Using voice-over narration, clips from contemporary radio—of the religious and political variety—and found footage, Schmitt gives us a history of and comment on 14 such places, and their demise. A timely lesson in the current economic climate. Filmmaker Lee Anne Schmitt in person. (2008, 77 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Following in the tradition of Western authors such as Wallace Stegner and Gretel Ehrlich, filmmaker Lee Anne Schmitt is obsessed with the landscape of possibility that led the first industrialists to California, and the legacy they left behind. Mining, logging, farming, oil and steel towns that were established as a means to keep workers on a short leash have now been all but abandoned by their original owners. Some are entirely vacant, while others have lived on, but all are reminders of the environmental impact that industry and then the military has left on the landscape. Using voice-over narration, clips from contemporary radio—of the religious and political variety—and found footage, Schmitt gives us a history of and comment on 14 such places, and their demise. A timely lesson in the current economic climate. Filmmaker Lee Anne Schmitt in person. (2008, 77 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Pat O'Neill's THE DECAY OF FICTION (Experimental)
Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Friday, 7pm
When someone becomes a master in a commercial craft that becomes technologically obsolete, what is there left to do? For one thing, they can make films about places that have also outlived their original purpose, as Pat O'Neill does in this 2002 feature film. An optical printer by practice and occupation, O'Neill casts L.A.'s now demolished Ambassador Hotel as the protagonist and explores the corridors and cavities that were once the playground of Hollywood elites. Black and white ghosts float through the Cocoanut Grove nightclub providing snippets of dialogue of classic Noir films, and attempt to breathe life into the now empty opulence. Chants of "we want Bobby" are heard as we track through the kitchen that was the site of RFK's assassination, and a woman hypnotizes countless men in one of the upstairs suites. In the end, only devils and angels remain as the sun sets on our star, and perhaps on the glory of O'Neill's seamless camera and metaphor, holding on to the golden era of machination. Pat O’Neill in person. (2002, 74 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
When someone becomes a master in a commercial craft that becomes technologically obsolete, what is there left to do? For one thing, they can make films about places that have also outlived their original purpose, as Pat O'Neill does in this 2002 feature film. An optical printer by practice and occupation, O'Neill casts L.A.'s now demolished Ambassador Hotel as the protagonist and explores the corridors and cavities that were once the playground of Hollywood elites. Black and white ghosts float through the Cocoanut Grove nightclub providing snippets of dialogue of classic Noir films, and attempt to breathe life into the now empty opulence. Chants of "we want Bobby" are heard as we track through the kitchen that was the site of RFK's assassination, and a woman hypnotizes countless men in one of the upstairs suites. In the end, only devils and angels remain as the sun sets on our star, and perhaps on the glory of O'Neill's seamless camera and metaphor, holding on to the golden era of machination. Pat O’Neill in person. (2002, 74 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Jean-Luc Godard’s VIVRE SA VIE (Classic Revival
Music Box – Check Reader Movies for showtimes
If you think Godard's political, allegorical, theoretical approach to filmmaking always outshines his ability to produce believable and emotional portraiture, then check out VIVRE SA VIE, showing in a new print. His fourth feature tells the tale of a working class young woman, Nana (Anna Karina), as life goes from bad to worse. Despite the breakdown into chapters (complete with title cards) the film is at first an unstructured manifesto intended to persuade the audience that capitalism can only leads to the commoditization of all things, including our flesh. But this is merely a single thread in the complex nature of the film. Communication is flawed, character and cinema are experienced and molded, and there are more than thirteen ways to look at ones wife through a viewfinder. At times Godard is mimicking the tropes of documentary, at others he is relying on overt reference (Dreyer's THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC, for example), and at others he is doing what he does best (using framing and composition to make sure that no one present misunderstands the emotional distance a character feels). One would he hard pressed to find another film with such an abrupt and sad ending that still makes one leave the theater with a smile. Poetic, beautiful, and concise. (1962, 85 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
If you think Godard's political, allegorical, theoretical approach to filmmaking always outshines his ability to produce believable and emotional portraiture, then check out VIVRE SA VIE, showing in a new print. His fourth feature tells the tale of a working class young woman, Nana (Anna Karina), as life goes from bad to worse. Despite the breakdown into chapters (complete with title cards) the film is at first an unstructured manifesto intended to persuade the audience that capitalism can only leads to the commoditization of all things, including our flesh. But this is merely a single thread in the complex nature of the film. Communication is flawed, character and cinema are experienced and molded, and there are more than thirteen ways to look at ones wife through a viewfinder. At times Godard is mimicking the tropes of documentary, at others he is relying on overt reference (Dreyer's THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC, for example), and at others he is doing what he does best (using framing and composition to make sure that no one present misunderstands the emotional distance a character feels). One would he hard pressed to find another film with such an abrupt and sad ending that still makes one leave the theater with a smile. Poetic, beautiful, and concise. (1962, 85 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Films by Will Hindle (Experimental)
School of the Art Institute (112 S Michigan Ave, Rm. 1307) – Friday, 4:30pm
During a short period in the 1960s and '70s Will Hindle produced a body of work that rivals any filmmaker of the period. His optical effects are on par with SFX master Douglas Trumbull (of 2001 fame), and in WATERSMITH he uses this technical sophistication to present a masterwork that is simultaneously an ode to human athleticism à la Riefenstahl and an exploration of the gay male gaze. A subtle soundtrack of diagetic and nondiagetic water compliments the imagery of boys swimming without overpowering it. An unstylized presentation of reality marks Hindle’s films and in BILLABONG he veers closer to documentary when he turns his camera to a boys camp in Oregon. Also showing are 29: MERCI, MERCI, and SAINT FLOURNOY LOBOS-LOGOS AND THE EASTERN EUROPE FETUS TAXING JAPAN BRIDES IN WEST COAST PLACES SUCKING ALABAMA AIR. (1966-70, 83 min total, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
During a short period in the 1960s and '70s Will Hindle produced a body of work that rivals any filmmaker of the period. His optical effects are on par with SFX master Douglas Trumbull (of 2001 fame), and in WATERSMITH he uses this technical sophistication to present a masterwork that is simultaneously an ode to human athleticism à la Riefenstahl and an exploration of the gay male gaze. A subtle soundtrack of diagetic and nondiagetic water compliments the imagery of boys swimming without overpowering it. An unstylized presentation of reality marks Hindle’s films and in BILLABONG he veers closer to documentary when he turns his camera to a boys camp in Oregon. Also showing are 29: MERCI, MERCI, and SAINT FLOURNOY LOBOS-LOGOS AND THE EASTERN EUROPE FETUS TAXING JAPAN BRIDES IN WEST COAST PLACES SUCKING ALABAMA AIR. (1966-70, 83 min total, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info
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