Pat O'Neill's WATER AND POWER (Experimental Revival)

Experimental Film Society (SAIC, 112 S Michigan Ave, Rm. 1307)  - Tuesday, 4:30pm
In early films like 1967's 7362 or 1971's RUNS GOOD Pat O'Neill used an Optical Printer and sophisticated matting effects to play, as if he was crafting short sonnet-films. By 1989 he outgrew the trickster's humor of special effects and gave us his first bit of epic poetry with WATER AND POWER. An ode to the city of Los Angeles, layered images juxtapose facets the multi-ethnic metropolis that sprouted from the desert in Southern California to become a Mecca for the American Dream, and a synonym for traffic jams and capitalist excess. Found footage is mixed with time-lapse shots and staged sequences. We move from city to desert, and back again along the pipelines that bring water to the thirsty machine. He wants to show us the energy of his city and how the parts contribute to the whole, but as the New York Times said when the film was released, "Mr. O'Neill's major concern is the power of film to redefine and control all images, even natural ones." Reductionism would never befit an artistic exploration of any urban area, and O'Neill's complexity as a filmmaker seeks to touch on the range of surprises that make LA unique, as a story and an experiment. (1989, 54 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Films by Tom Palazzolo & Morton Heilig (Doc / Narrative Shorts Revival)

Chicago Filmmakers - Friday, 8pm
If the name Tommy Chicago doesn't ring a bell, you better ask somebody. Since he moved to the city in the early '60s to study at the Art Institute, Palazzolo has made work that captures the diversity (read: ethnic enclaves), characters, and quirks of the Midwestern Metropolis. An accomplished painter and photographer with wit to spare, he's never tried to imitate the tropes of costal experimental film stalwarts. Instead he's used (and reused) his heartland footage to craft films with joie-de-vivre and irreverence. Palazzolo edits by intuition rather than theory, and even when his technique seems crude his heart makes up for it. Tonight's program, titled Gone Rogue: An Iconoclastic Look at Church and State, features four of his shorts and what he says is his favorite film about the early sixties. If counterculture is what you're after, then CAMPAIGN (1968/2009) will provide you with the recommended daily allowance of Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsburg. The original Mayor Daley battles hippies and chaos, and gleefully sends his goons to keep the peace. Advantageously shot during the '68 Democratic convention, it ranks right up there with MEDIUM COOL as an accidental comment on the generational divide the event reinforced. Less political is TATTOOED LADY (1967/2009). Covering the long-since defunct Riverview Park, the camera lets the real freaks perform and enrapture us into believing that, even in 1967, this north-side amusement park wasn't downtrodden. The most recent film showing is a comedic collaboration with Second City, VATICAN WORLD (1992), and features Jon Favreau (credited as Favro) in his film debut. Favreau plays a young, near-sighted pope who enlists a PR man to increase the market share of Catholicism. Also screening is Palazzolo's HEY GIRLS (1990), based on a Heather McAdams cartoon, and Morton Heilig's ASSEMBLY LINE (1961), which has a tone reminiscent of classic 50's educational films. An optimistic young factory worker goes downtown to blow his weekly earnings but, instead of fun and camaraderie, he finds scams and loneliness and ends up at home with one more rung in the ladder of his banal industrial life. Palazzolo in person. (1961-92, approx. 70 min total, 16mm and DVD) JH - Cine-File.info

Critical Mass: The Legacy of Hollis Frampton

Film Studies Center (University of Chicago) – Saturday and Sunday, beginning 10am each day (9:30am Continental Breakfast)
The citywide, multi-venue celebration of Hollis Frampton wraps up this weekend with three days of inquiry and exploration. Legendary filmmaker and Frampton collaborator Michael Snow kicks it off Friday night with a sold-out reading of Frampton’s performative A LECTURE. There's still a slim chance you can get in if someone doesn't show up, and it's worth taking the risk. Often Frampton's films attempt to utilize the cinematic form to analyze its own psychosomatic processes, and while successful, they can be rather cloistered. By contrast, with A LECTURE he crafted a performance between narrator and projectionist that, although germane to an academic discussion of how one interacts with the silver screen, is more-so a tale of the people and tools that mesh and fight before we get to sit back and enjoy Bogie and Bacall. Self-consciously deconstructing the social act of going to the movies sounds boring, but Frampton's intelligence and humor make it fun. As the performance begins a voice asks: “Please turn out the lights. If we're going to talk about movies, we might as well do it in the dark.” It's interesting that he's says “we,” because for the next sixty minutes or so “we” will sit passively while “he” uses the essence of cinema to engulf us. We are one with the world on the screen. The voice emanating from the speakers of the auditorium was always intended to vary, and the choice of Snow for Friday should be an inspired one. On Saturday and Sunday all are welcome when some of the top scholars, historians, and makers of experimental cinema hold court (along with a healthy dose of upcoming ones) with a series of panels looking at Frampton's work and legacy. Participants include historian and author Scott MacDonald, filmmaker and preservationist Bill Brand, filmmaker and musician Tony Conrad, historian and author P. Adams Sitney, film and video maker Keith Sanborn, Canadian filmmaker and author Bruce Elder, SAIC’s Bruce Jenkins, and the U of C’s Tom Gunning, who organized the conference. JH - Cine-File.info

HC Potter's HELLZAPOPPIN' (American Revival)

Bank of America Cinema - Saturday, 8pm
This is what happens when a Broadway show that was basically vaudeville gets made into a film. Disconnected and thin on plot, this is nevertheless a cinematic plum. Our hosts for the evening are Olson and Johnson, a comedy duo made up of two straight men who can't help but talk to the audience and yell at the projectionist. There's some funny gags, a song or two from "the Big Mouth," Martha Raye, and a great Lindy Hop dance scene featuring Frankie Manning, but the shining moments are when the characters get to play with the fourth wall. In what can only be the inspiration for MST3K, the opening sequence takes place on a soundstage where Olson and Johnson argue with a director and screenwriter about how to turn their show into a movie. They sit down to watch some footage covering the tacked-on love story, and make up their own dialog for the on screen action before seamlessly becoming part of it. Despite failing to capture the mythic energy of the stage show with which it shares a name, HELLZAPOPPIN' still pleases almost 70 years later. (1941, 84 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Lisandro Alonso's LIVERPOOL (New Argentinean)

Facets Cinémathèque - Saturday 1pm and Sunday, 1pm and 3pm
Distance. Space. Solitude. With a minimum of dialog and obvious flair, Alonso explores these themes as both form and content. When we drop in on our protagonist, Farrel (Juan Fernández), he is aboard a shipping vessel. Although he interacts with his shipmates and is not obtuse, conversations consist of few words and no sharing. One gets the impression that he prefers spending his down time alone, smoking cigarettes on the deck and starring at the endless ocean. When he says that he is going on shore leave there is little emotion in his voice, as if time and location are irrelevant to him. But time and location are of utmost importance to Alonso and his film. As Farrel journeys from an unnamed port city to his parent's home in a run-down logging camp the camera keeps its distance, allowing the viewer to take in the snow-covered mountains of Argentina's landscape. Though the landscape is gorgeous, our character is not. The long takes show Farrel as he packs his meager belongings, watches TV while he waits for a ride, and walks the final distance to his home. Our attention is spent on perfunctory actions, not moments of triumph or change. He does not show emotion, and one feels pity for him, but not sorrow. We know he lacks connections to this place--or to any other--and has long since stopped caring. And ultimately so do we stop caring about him, as the film shifts to follow Farrel's discarded daughter for the final fifteen minutes. Every shot of LIVERPOOL is mundane yet precise, restrained and enunciated. An economy of detail and drama are Alonso's tools here, and their power is mighty. (2008, 84 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

David Lynch's BLUE VELVET (American Revival/Cult)

Doc Films (University of Chicago) - Wednesday, 7 and 9:30pm
This is where the legend really began. It's curious to think how Lynch's career would have developed if DUNE (1984) had not been a box office failure, but cinema history can thank him for not playing it safe with this rebound project. Though Lynch had already made three features, VELVET was the first full articulation of his core theme of the evil that lurks in small towns everywhere. Not the outright surrealist endeavor that was ERASERHEAD, it is also not the most accessible of narratives. Dark, violent, sexual, and reeking of 1963 suburbia, the film is at times a noir mystery and at others a violent thriller. Many of the visual symbols that would populate TWIN PEAKS are introduced here, such as red curtains appearing when danger is present, and Lynch's continued growth as a complete cinematic artist is evident. Despite having a cast that didn't feature a legitimate star (Dennis Hopper may be the exception, but his career was in the dumps when he was cast...as the third choice), the film earned Lynch his second Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, as well as praise from critics throughout the world. It's also notable that Kyle MacLachlan (essentially playing Dale Cooper) might never have worked again if not for his excellent performance. Still dangerous twenty years later, the film is as gorgeous as it is classic. (1986, 120 min, 35mm) JH - Cine-File.info

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