Gerard Damiano's LET MY PUPPETS COME (Cult/Adult Film Revival)

Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Thursday, 9:45pm
Gerard Damiano may be the most important director of pornographic film ever. His 1972 film DEEP THROAT created a sensation that almost single-handedly launched the adult entertainment industry. He had another hit with his 1973 follow up, THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES, and went on to direct more than 60 films through the mid '90s. His meteoric rise is the stuff of legend, making this entry into Doc Films' sexploitation series as intriguing as it is odd. The semi-autobiographical tale of a company in financial distress that decides to make a porno to stay afloat is a common premise, but having most of the roles played by puppets is pure genius. Musical numbers abound, and intercourse is an afterthought as foam rubber perverts crack jokes that feel like they came from a foul-mouthed seventh grader and copulate in the most unerotic ways. Complete with a parody of '70s commercials ("Climax watches: they take a lickin'..."), this film really is a product of its era. Lighthearted and at times hilarious, PUPPETS has to be seen to be believed. (1977, 75 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Films by Maya Deren (Experimental Revival)

Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Tuesday, 7pm
Leaving aside the filmmaking for a moment, it is fair to say that only a few individuals rival Maya Deren's importance in the development of the American Experimental cinema, and none of the early figures can rival the tales of her rich life and forceful personality. There's an often-repeated rumor that she once used her Voodoo powers, acquired while researching for an anthropology book in Haiti (The Divine Horseman), to pick up a refrigerator and toss it at a houseguest who had overstayed his welcome. An astute theorist and tireless promoter of the art, Deren's early films took the psychodrama of European filmmakers such as Jean Cocteau and morphed them to create a foundation for the personal-lyrical filmmaking of early Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger, and her later films foreshadowed the Structuralist work of Michael Snow and Ernie Gehr. Though she only completed a handful of films in her short life, they are each almost unanimous classics of the genre. Talk to any film professor worth their salt and you'll hear about the groundbreaking editing in MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON, the elegant spatial manipulation of A STUDY IN CHOREOGRAPHY FOR THE CAMERA, and the formal shamanism in MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE. Although her work is now quite accessible on DVD, all true believers of the Church of Cinema need to march down to Hyde Park to see these films as they were intended. Also showing: AT LAND, RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME, THE WITCH'S CRADLE, and THE VERY EYE OF NIGHT. (1945-55, 86 min total, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Lewis Klahr's TALES OF THE FORGOTTEN FUTURE (Experimental)

White Light Cinema at The Nightingale - Friday, Dec 18th, 8pm
Without question the most ambitious undertaking of his ongoing career, Klahr's 12 film series has never before screened in its entirety in Chicago. Trafficking in the noir that has is now the familiar backward looking lens at the Eisenhower-Kennedy era, Klahr has a genuine affection for the collection of visual elements that populate his fragmented narratives. Produced over four years, from 1988-1991, these films whisper the claustrophobic outcomes of a childhood shaped by shopping malls and two car garages, and shout the angst of Nicholas Ray's best characters. More than this they are about the unfulfilled dreams of an exuberant nation, fueled by cheap gasoline and atomic energy, ready to change the world through technology and righteousness. Through the domesticity of the Super-8mm medium Klahr's cutout animation is made personal through delicate juxtaposition and detail, and his careful camerawork leads us through the often-convoluted logic of his symbols. Incorporating both original and found music, short clips of dialog and authentic ambient noise, he is able to immerse the viewer in a mood-colored world of simultaneous possibility and failure. Rarely is the intellectual exercise of evaluating one's society so effortless. (1988-1991, 131 mins total, Super-8mm on video) JH - Cine-File.info

Hollis Frampton: Birth of Magellan (Experimental)

Chicago Filmmakers - Saturday, 8pm               
As the third installment of the ongoing retrospective series CRITICAL MASS: RE-VIEWING HOLLIS FRAMPTON, Chicago Filmmakers will be presenting fragments of the artists' fabled MAGELLAN CYCLE. Intended to consist of 1000 films totaling roughly 36 hours to be viewed over 369 days, it is "like a tour of the possible principles for forming an encyclopedia," according to Frampton. Seen outside of their original context and because of their frequent structural density, the individual pieces are sometimes challenging (though not always), and one can only imagine what the experience of seeing them as short shots of wisdom day after day after day would have been like. It is likely that the casual viewer will have difficulty parsing the subtleties of each piece, but that is only because it is easy to dig too deep to find meaning. But they can be appreciated on many different levels. The simplicity of the structure in CADENZAS I & XIV (1980, 11 min, 16mm) revolves around gentle juxtapositions of sound and image, and a building of meaning from one visual to the next. The trick here is that what looks like a bold sexual metaphor is really a joke about sexual metaphors in poetic filmmaking, complete with laugh track. In MINDFALL I & VII (1977-80, 36 min, 16mm) the visuals are more complex, with groups being repeated and played like alternating chord structures. As they build on one another, and refrains are recognized, the often superimposed and out-of-synch imagery vibrates like a plucked string. From my viewing notes: cactus, tropical plants, ping-pong, water, religious symbols, Geiger counter, three kings, Frampton's shadow, applause. Also screening: MATRIX (1977, 28 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Paul Wegener's THE GOLEM (Classic Revival)

Chicago Cultural Center - Friday, 7pm
As legend has it, Rabbi Loew gave life to a Golem in 16th century Prague. Sculpted by his own hand from a mound of clay, the Rabbi carved the Hebrew word "emet," meaning truth, into the giant's forehead and brought it into existence. The creature was meant to be a protector of the Jewish Ghetto, and was to act as a servant to Loew. Taking this legend as his basis, actor/co-director/co-screenwriter Paul Wegener created one of the most iconic monsters in movie history. His stiff armed portrayal of the creature was perfect for a silent silver screen, and served as inspiration for Boris Karloff's Frankenstein a few years later. The film is beautifully shot by Karl Freund, with sets designed by the architect Hans Poelzig. The Cultural Center gives us a rare treat by presenting the film with members of the group Fulcrum Point providing live musical accompaniment, performing an original score by Betty Olivero. (1920, 85 min, unknown format) JH - Cine-File.info

Occasional Pieces: Film & Video by Steve Connolly (Experimental)

The Nightingale - Saturday, 7:30pm
British filmmaker Steve Connolly's films are inquisitive works: they ask questions about the spaces they investigate, and they ask questions of the viewer. Less exploration and more collected clues, finding the answers does not seem to be as of much concern as finding the right complex. In MAS SE PERDIO (2008) Havana, Cuba is the setting. An outdoor stadium with a few young men working out (potential), the structure of an elegant national ballet school that was never used (forgotten glory), and an intersection being restored with manual labor (limited resources) are shown. Although the film is presented in three acts, each section juxtaposes the different shooting locations, allowing their shared obsolescence to act as a stand in for the continual restoration of the outdated that has permeated communist Cuba. Less structured but more personal is FILM FOR TOM (2005). Connolly gives us all the trappings of a biography when we see scenes from the childhood of Tom Pearson and hear an adult voice recounting the events of his life. However, this is not a film about Tom, but rather about Connolly's anguish over Tom's violent murder. The narrator, after being told by a psychoanalyst that he has no sense of self, responds "Perhaps I could find myself in someone else," and through his film Connolly allows each of us to find our unique story in that of another. Also screening: THE READING ROOM (2002), POSTCARD FROM ISTANBUL (2003), THE WHALE (2003), GREAT AMERICAN DESERT (2007). Connolly in person. (2002-08, approx. 62 min, 16mm and video) 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

Mike Judge’s OFFICE SPACE (Contemporary Revival)

Music Box – Friday and Saturday, Midnight
1999 was a banner year for movies that criticized pursuing the American Dream as a soul-sucking, monotonous, and crushing defeat. These films all told us that the only way to achieve happiness in your modern life is to get up out of your cubicle, give your boss an emphatic middle finger and drop the hell out! But while FIGHT CLUB wrapped itself up in CGI and a philosophy of violence, and AMERICAN BEAUTY sought to regain it's youth with a Lolita and some reefer, OFFICE SPACE gives us the chance to do nothing. And how sweet nothing can be. Introducing the world to the phrases "pieces of flair" and "O-face," and with a plot device shamelessly stolen from SUPERMAN III, the film attempts to deny that it's a sophisticated satire. However, in the hands of writer-director Mike Judge (who was best know for BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD before this film), astute social commentary always gets mixed up with fart jokes. Corporate underling Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) plays the straight man to a cadre of ridiculous co-workers, neighbors, and waiters. With ten years of history between now and the film's release, it's basic setup of a code-monkey working on the Y2K problem may seem dated, but the office stereotypes it creates are timeless. (1999, 89 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

François Truffaut’s FAHRENHEIT 451 (Classic Revival)

Doc Films (University of Chicago) – Wednesday, 7 and 9:30pm
What is it about French directors in the 60's that made them visualize the future as looking pretty much the same, but with a few fancy gadgets and streamlined clothing? And what was it about Ray Bradbury that makes his dystopian futures less frightening than Philip K. Dick's? François Truffaut can share credit for both of these phenomena. In his first color film, and only English language film, Bradbury's 1951 novel of the same name is adapted to become an anti-censorship, pro-intellectual statement. In a future where all books and written language are banned, Oskar Werner plays the book burning "fireman," an up-and-coming fascist about to get promoted who has a crisis of conscience. Julie Christie plays the dual roles of Linda, his sedative and TV addicted wife, and Clarisse, the young schoolteacher who seduces his mind. Beginning with the opening credits, which are spoken by a narrator while we see two-toned shots of antennae, Truffaut forefronts his visual acumen. Though the dialogue is sometimes lacking in terms of rhythm and delivery, the art direction is sublime. The reds, oranges, and yellows of burning paper dominate Christie's wardrobe and home, and only a handful of cool colors are dripped throughout the film. The film uses some quick zooms, which feel dated today, but sheds many of the cinematic flourishes that populate much of Truffaut's earlier work. Though technically sci-fi, it's light on the science, and heavy on the (literary) fiction. (1966, 112 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Daniel Barrow’s WINNIPEG BABYSITTER (Live Performance/Special Event)

The Nightingale – Saturday, 8pm
When cable television came on the scene in the late 70s not only did it increase the number of channels available, but in many communities it also created Public Access TV. Funded and equipped by the corporations that reaped the profits, Public Access provided a platform for hobby enthusiasts, amateur actors, wannabe talk-show hosts, political junkies, and artists of all kinds to take over your boob tube each week. On the eastern edge of the Canadian prairies, the citizens of Winnipeg exploited this new format to it's fullest, with people such as performance artist Glen Meadmore and a young Guy Maddin creating masterworks of the medium. When SHAW cable took over the local system in the late 80's, rumors circulated that they had destroyed the archives, and Winnipeg illustrator, collector, animator, and overhead-projector performer Daniel Barrow took action. He began researching and collecting the programs that had been part of this creative explosion, many times needing to track down VHS copies of shows from the producers and viewers. In the Chicago edition of his ongoing project he will present a selection of his favorite finds, side by side with his handcrafted liner notes for each program. Part performance, part archival presentation, this show promises to be a funny and nostalgic look back at an era when technology and economics combined to give anyone with a little initiative a chance to be a star for 30 minutes—or just a larger platform to subvert the dominant paradigm. (1982-1999, approx. 90 min, video and overhead projection) JH - Cine-File.info