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

Michael Madsen's INTO ETERNITY (New Danish Documentary)

Chicago Filmmakers - Friday, 8pm
Can you imagine what the human race will be doing in 100,000 years? Will there be war and struggle? Will there be literature and art? What will they know about us? About our intelligence, our technology, our hubris? And how can we protect them, and their world, from our nuclear waste? These are the existential questions that the scientists and engineers who are building Onkalo, a massive underground fortress cum disposal facility in western Finland, are forced to confront on a daily basis. Shot and edited to feel like science fiction, Danish director Michael Madsen interviews many of the minds behind the worlds first full-scale structure designed to last 100,000 years. Descending over 500m down to the bedrock of the European continent, the series of tunnels are scheduled to start taking on waste about 2020, and to be completely filled and sealed off about a hundred years after that. It is a massive undertaking, with a planned lifespan that cannot really be conceived of in any sort of human terms. The talking heads that populate the film speculate on the best way to ensure that this storage is "permanent." Emphasizing the gravity of these decisions are digitally crisp, high-contrast, slow-motion shots of the workers who drill the tunnels, set the charges, and spend countless hours in the darkness of the tunnel. True to the sci-fi genre, their world is void of definition, and full of shadow and mystery, and is sharp, vast, and eerie. The soundtrack contains constant ominous tones, and the intertitles that separate the chapters of the story look like flashing warning signals, more ALIENS than STAR TREK. As a framing device, the director appears in a dark tunnel, lights a match near his face, and addresses questions to the future visitors who will uncover this curse. It is clear that Madsen is skeptical that the technology of the tunnel will last without repairs, and that future generations can be trusted to preserve the knowledge of what lies beneath the surface, or leave it alone if they did. (2010, 75 min, video) JH - Cine-File.info

The Wild Triumphs of Martha Colburn (Experimental Animation)

Conversations at the Edge at the Gene Siskel Film Center - Thursday, 6pm
For well over a decade, Martha Colburn has been making short anti-establishment works that are political without being statements. Full of chaos and a punk-rock aesthetic, her films critique modern life with cut-out puppets and found-footage but avoid intellectual elitism. If her imagery didn't come at you so fast, her films might be described as fun. Instead, they're cathartic capsules of directed anger. This program packs 15 films into 75 minutes, offering a good overview of the development of Colburn's practice. In the early LIFT OFF (1993) and EVIL OF DRACULA (1997) female sexuality is at the forefront, as images from magazines are manipulated into sexy astronauts and bloodsuckers. The animation is raw, and the low-fi soundtracks are reminiscent of a monster truck show announcer. Colburn also paints over the images, sometimes adding body parts, and often giving us rotating spirals. More sophisticated jointed puppets populate SPIDERS IN LOVE (2000) and CATS AMORE (2002) as arachnids with human heads and erotic dancers with cat heads seduce their targets: boy spiders and dogs. Lust and objectification are projected onto Colburn's humanoid puppets and their animated audience, celebrating red-hot sexual attraction. Her newer work is more overtly topical, covering plastic surgery (COSMETIC EMERGENCY), the "cowboy" military in Iraq (DESTINY MANIFESTO), and methamphetamine addiction (MYTH LABS). This later work is less busy, displacing rapid-fire guitars with piano, strings, and classical vocals on the soundtrack. There is an elegance in form at times, despite the still crude manner of the puppets' movements. Also screening: WHAT'S ON? (1997), MEET ME IN WICHITA (2006), DON'T KILL THE WEATHERMAN (2007), ONE AND ONE IS LIFE (2009), ELECTRIC LITERATURE (2009), JOIN THE FREEDOM FORCE (2009), TRIUMPH OF THE WILD (2009), and DOLLS VS. DICTATORS (2011). Colburn in person. (1993-2011, approx. 75 min, various formats) JH - Cine-File.info

Klaus vom Bruch's DAS SCHLEYERBAND (Experimental Revival)

White Light Cinema at The Nightingale - Sunday, 7pm
Often, the use of found footage to comment on events of the recent past involves heavy manipulation of mass produced media. There is an overt effort to deconstruct scraps of industrial communication, and to decode hidden truths about the modern world through the use of jarring visual effects. The resistance to this impulse is what makes vom Bruch's lengthy video both refreshing and hermetic. Utilizing a mixture of television news footage, commercials, and propaganda tapes from the Red Army Faction (the Anglicized name of the Baader-Meinhof group), vom Bruch's work poses more questions about West German society thirty years after the end of WWII than it answers. Images related to the kidnapping of a former SS officer who became one of the country's leading industrialists, Hanns Martin Schleyer, as well as those of a Lufthansa plane that was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists, are presented in an almost episodic fashion. Often lasting for a few minutes without cutting, vom Bruch forces the audience to rewatch newscasts of the violent "German Autumn," without the emotional distance of analysis. This approach to the subject matter serves to critique the violent nature of events without positing a reason why. The addition of images of product consumption alongside the self-produced materials of left-wing domestic terrorists seems to imply that the common thread of the West German national identity has frayed, and the lack of distinction between the two poles is an eloquent reflection of the artist's inability to make sense of what has happened. In many ways, the violent fall of 1977 was the most important national event for Germans between 1945 and the fall of the Berlin Wall, but not one that vom Bruch wants to glorify. Introduced by DePaul and Columbia College film instructor Therese Grisham. (1977-78, 112 min, video) JH - Cine-File.info

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

Olivia Wyatt's STARING INTO THE SUN (Experimental Documentary)

The Nightingale - Friday, 8pm
Having been continuously inhabited since before the record of history began, the diversity of the human experience in Eastern Africa is difficult to comprehend in anything other than abstract terms. Ethiopia is a country made up of 85 million people and over 80 distinct cultures with just as many indigenous languages. So what better way to learn about the country and its people than through a travel documentary, right? Wyatt's film portrays 13 different tribes but, as travel documentaries go, it gives a distinct lack of contextual information. We get subtitles telling us the location and name of the people featured in each section, and we become acutely aware that these are just labels and not definitions. We observe the visual and aural uniqueness of each segment, but there is no narration to lead us along the way. Differences in clothing and hair styles are lingered upon by the camera, and almost ever scene features singing, whether it is part of a wedding celebration, a chant during a ritual feeding of hyenas, or a multiphonic song to ease the stress of manual labor. Because we don't get a translation of what is going on, this makes the viewing experience more like being a foreigner in a strange country for the first time, and less like a reader of Lonely Planet. Structurally, this is both refreshing and disorienting. Sights and sounds from one village blend into those from another, and our learning about Ethiopia occurs in real time. The details of each tribal member become of lesser import than the greater societies from which they are born, and the diversity of the country is realized in our inability to define it in broad strokes. You won't leave the screening with a handful of facts about the country, but your mental image of Ethiopia will be sharper and closer to the real thing. Also screening is Wyatt's SEEKING THE SPIRIT (2010, 10 min, video), a powerful but gentle portrait of the congregation of the Celestial Church of Christ and their annual month-long worship ritual on Rockaway Beach in New York City. The practitioners, most of whom are immigrants from Benin, practice their unique form of Pentecostalism between the hours of Midnight and 6am. Their leader and prophet explains their beliefs to us in voice-over, and the black and white images of white-clad men and women gesticulating almost as if possessed remind us of the power of belief. (2010, 60 min, video) JH - Cine-File.info

The Voyagers - A Double Feature: Works by Penny Lane and Brian Frye (Experimental)

The Voyagers: Part One - Video Inquiry: Work by Penny Lane
The Nightingale - Saturday, 7pm
There are some auteurs that use a distinctive camera style or work with the same themes over and over. And then there are those like Penny Lane who jump around visually and thematically, but whose work is united through a distinctive voice. In pieces such as WE ARE THE LITTLETONS (2004) this voice is literal, as Lane narrates. It is in an investigation into the whereabouts of an adopted child cast out of the family, but it may as well be about any black sheep. As the camera wanders throughout the now empty home, drawers are opened revealing memories both happy and sad, but as correspondence between the filmmaker and the matron unfold on the soundtrack Lane suggests that black sheep, like the rest of us, are shaped by their environment. The way digital environments shape their users is explored in both MEN SEEKING WOMEN (2007) and SOMETIMES I GET LOSSY (2008), as Lane checks in on both the personals section of Craigslist and her own screen induced boredom/psychedelic daydream. Time is the place that defines THE VOYAGERS (2010). Using the Golden Record that was placed aboard the Voyager spacecraft as a jumping off point, Lane frames this particular NASA project as a love-letter to the chance happening that is the existence of the human race. A launching into the unknown, a wonderment at the beauty of existence, and a touching piece involving both Carl Sagan and Coney Island, it is her wedding present to her husband, Brian Frye. ALSO SCREENING: HOW TO MAKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY (2010), FAMOUS LUNCH 03.25.05 (2009), SHE USED TO SEE HIM MOST WEEKENDS (2007), and THE COMMONERS (2009). Penny Lane in person. (2004-10, approx. 53 min total, video)
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The Voyagers: Part Two - The Anatomy of Cinema: Films by Brian Frye
White Light Cinema at The Nightingale- Saturday, 9pm 
It is hard to describe the work of Brian Frye as anything other than distant. Distant serendipity (THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, 1999). Distant sublime (THE LETTER, 2001). Distant absurdity (ACROSS THE RAPPANHANNOCK, 2002). Time and again Frye's camera (or that of the original shooter) finds the poetry in a situation by keeping away from the human subjects. This contextualization lends an air of analysis to what are quite lyrical films of memory, history, sorrow, and Civil War reenactment. All the while, as these ghosts haunt the screen, one gets the impression that it is not the misery of the human experience that excites the filmmaker, but rather the hope and joy of those who lives are imperfect. When they are projected through that mystic machine, stiff actors become icons, archetypes for all that is important. The reels contain not stories, but messages from the creator, ciphered by the artist into almost understandable visions that seem to come from the early part of the industrial age. Frye gives these important ideas the space to resonate with the viewer, but also doesn't smother our minds with structure and order. There is not chaos, but a gentle observation of the profound, taken from a safe spot across the river from the real battle. Also Screening: 6.95 STRIPTEASE (1995), 9.95: THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENT IN MY LIFE (INFINITE SET) (1995), MEETING WITH KHRUSCHEV (1997), and KADDISH (2002). (1995-2002, approx. 85 min, 16mm) JH - Cine-File.info

Restoring Appearances To Order: Rare Films by Coleen Fitzgibbon (Experimental)

White Light Cinema at The Nightingale - Friday, 7:30pm
When structuralist filmmaking works, its like watching performance art. You are often intrigued and confused, unsure of whether or not you liked it, only able to intelligently speculate on the artists' intentions at a later date. The work of Coleen Fitzgibbon does that too, but in a warmer way. Where Vito Acconci's video work makes you anxious, Fitzgibbon's RESTORING APPEARANCES TO ORDER IN 12 MINUTES (1975, 12 min, 16mm) delivers calm like a cup of chamomile. The camera holds a static close up as Fitzgibbon scrubs a well-used utility sink throughout, clearing up every drop of paint from the labor of art making. More ambitious and more uneven is L.E.S. (1976, 30 min, S8mm on video), a neighborhood portrait cum mockumentary about the residents of Manhattan's Lower East Side. The narrator vacillates between speaking as a news reporter and an anthropologist, and when the film works, spins tales about the native dwellers of the apocalyptic landscape. An indictment of capitalism and its headquarters just to the south, the film also serves as an excellent document of urban decay before gentrification was part of our vernacular. It is political in its very existence, and is a welcome counterbalance to Fitzgibbon's more formal work. ALSO SCREENING: GYM (1973, 4 min, S8mm on video), TIME (1975, 8 min, 16mm), TRIP TO CAROLEE'S (1973, 6 min, S8mm on video), MARGIES HOUSE (1973, 6 min, S8mm on video). JH - Cine-File.info

Comedic Video Art: Visual Poetics and Songs about Dogs (Experimental)

Hopscotch Cinema at the Nightingale - Sunday, 7pm
This trifecta of video makers could work as a primer on the lighter side of video art, from the 70s to now. The most famous artist in the show, William Wegman, is known for using his pet Weimaraner (named Man Ray) as a lead actor. Man Ray is often a patient prop, and occasionally annoyed as Wegman dresses him up in a series of ridiculous costumes and narrates a stream of jokes, some better than others. If it's possible for a dog to "ham it up," Man Ray is the all time champion of canine kitsch. A full-time ad man, Neil Ira Needleman was once described as "Woody Allen's funny gay brother." He makes sweet, witty video pieces, often full of self-mockery about his creative process. Suffice it to say his cat makes appearances, and often is a harsh critique of Neil's work. Chad Knutson, the youngest of the bunch is less a product of the video age, and more a phenomenon of the YouTube generation. He points the camera at himself, and half rants, half sings to us. Almost like stand-up comedy without any buildup, his videos are short, variable, and occasionally brilliant. (1978-2010, 70 min total, video) JH - Cine-File.info