Entrance to the Invisible Cinema at the Austrian Filmmuseum.In 1989, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, the Austrian Filmmuseum opened its famed “Invisible Cinema,” according to specifications laid out by filmmaker, theorist, and museum co-founder Peter Kubelka. Modeled after Kubelka’s original invisible cinema, built in 1970 at New York’s Anthology Film Archives, the Filmmuseum’s version is a black box creation that, by allowing for the least amount of peripheral light possible, points the viewer’s focus directly at the projected image. It is, as far as seating, quality of projection, and immersive atmosphere, an essentially perfect cinema. It was one of the places I most eagerly hoped to visit upon my first trip to the Vienna International Film Festival (Viennale), which this year celebrated its 60th anniversary; luckily, as one of the the festival’s primary venues, the Filmmuseum is a frequent destination during the Viennale’s...
- 11/15/2022
- MUBI
Peter Tscherkassky's Train Again is showing exclusively on Mubi in most countries starting March 3, 2022 in the series Brief Encounters.Again A TRAINIt all began with a wonderful piece of found footage—as is so often the case with my films. Train Again was inspired by a 5-minute roll of 35mm film that a friend had discovered at a flea market and thoughtfully passed my way. It consisted of commercial rushes for our state-owned railway, presenting ten to twelve takes of a train emerging from a tunnel in the distance, gradually approaching and finally reaching the camera which in turn pans with the train as it speeds past and disappears into the distance—at the opposite end of the frame.Aside from the pan, the takes bear an unmistakable similarity to the Lumière brothers' L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat: What begins as a long shot of a...
- 2/28/2022
- MUBI
Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) is set to launch a new immersive work that combines real-time VR with live performance and documentary.
Directed by Charlie Shackleton, Richard Misek, and Melbourne-based Oscar Raby, A Machine for Viewing is an experimental hybrid video essay told across three episodes, investigating the way in which we watch films today.
An initial interactive version of the work used virtual reality to pull an audience into the images, rather than having them viewed in a movie theatre.
Having been reimagined as a digital offering for Miff, a film about the experience (filmed at the Astor Theatre) will premiere globally online on the festival’s YouTube channel from April 8. The new iteration follows a single cinema patron’s unique experience of viewing the original.
The concept for the work was inspired by the work of filmmaker Peter Kubelka who designed a “machine for viewing” theatre in 1970 by...
Directed by Charlie Shackleton, Richard Misek, and Melbourne-based Oscar Raby, A Machine for Viewing is an experimental hybrid video essay told across three episodes, investigating the way in which we watch films today.
An initial interactive version of the work used virtual reality to pull an audience into the images, rather than having them viewed in a movie theatre.
Having been reimagined as a digital offering for Miff, a film about the experience (filmed at the Astor Theatre) will premiere globally online on the festival’s YouTube channel from April 8. The new iteration follows a single cinema patron’s unique experience of viewing the original.
The concept for the work was inspired by the work of filmmaker Peter Kubelka who designed a “machine for viewing” theatre in 1970 by...
- 3/29/2021
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
Jonas Mekas, a towering figure in New York’s avant-garde film scene and a pioneering force for film preservation, died today at age 96. His death was announced by Anthology Film Archives, the still-active archive and theater he cofounded in Manhattan’s East Village 48 years ago.
“Jonas passed away quietly and peacefully early this morning,” Anthology Film Archives wrote in a statement posted on Instagram today. “He was at home with family. He will be greatly missed but his light shines on.”
Director and friend Martin Scorsese said, in a lengthy statement released today (read it below), said, “Jonas Mekas did and meant so much to so many people in the world of cinema that you’d need a day and a night to just begin. He was a prophet. He was an impresario. He was a provocateur in the truest and most fundamental sense – he provoked people into new ways...
“Jonas passed away quietly and peacefully early this morning,” Anthology Film Archives wrote in a statement posted on Instagram today. “He was at home with family. He will be greatly missed but his light shines on.”
Director and friend Martin Scorsese said, in a lengthy statement released today (read it below), said, “Jonas Mekas did and meant so much to so many people in the world of cinema that you’d need a day and a night to just begin. He was a prophet. He was an impresario. He was a provocateur in the truest and most fundamental sense – he provoked people into new ways...
- 1/23/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
After years of planning, the Anthology Film Archives first opened its doors in New York City towards the end of 1970. That opening came with great interest and fascination of how the world’s first “museum of film” was going to operate like no other theater before it.
Articles on the Anthology’s grand opening ran in both the New York Times and New York magazine in late November. Plus, the Anthology itself ran a full page ad in the Times with the screening calendar of its first four days. Through that printed material, those early days can be pretty well reconstructed.
The Anthology itself says that it opened its doors on November 30, 1970; but, according to an article in the Times the previous day by film critic Vincent Canby, that opening was an invitation-only event at which work by George Méliès, Joseph Cornell, Jerome Hill and Harry Smith was screened. Jonas Mekas...
Articles on the Anthology’s grand opening ran in both the New York Times and New York magazine in late November. Plus, the Anthology itself ran a full page ad in the Times with the screening calendar of its first four days. Through that printed material, those early days can be pretty well reconstructed.
The Anthology itself says that it opened its doors on November 30, 1970; but, according to an article in the Times the previous day by film critic Vincent Canby, that opening was an invitation-only event at which work by George Méliès, Joseph Cornell, Jerome Hill and Harry Smith was screened. Jonas Mekas...
- 6/2/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Diagonale: Festival of Austrian Film has taken place annually since 1998 in Graz (pron. "Grats," pop. 325,000), Austria's second city, capital of the wealthy Styria province, and best known internationally as the home town of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Over its six days (this year March 13-18) the event provides a handy snapshot of current Austrian film production, with a couple of retrospective strands included for context—rendered tantalizingly inaccessible to most international visitors by the lack of English subtitles.The newer films are divided into fiction, documentary, short fiction, short documentary and what the festival labels "Innovative Kino" (Ik). A sidebar dedicated to experimental and animated work would in most festivals of this type be a decidedly marginal affair—but, given the remarkable history of Austrian avant-garde cinema over the last half-century (and more; see Adrian Martin's essay "I Dream Of Austria"), at Graz it's a big deal indeed. The standard is...
- 3/25/2018
- MUBI
This is Part Two in a series about Chicago’s Experimental Film Coalition; and covers their screening series. You can read Part One here.
Formed in 1983, the Experimental Film Coalition started holding regular monthly screenings starting in 1984. The screenings brought to Chicago the work of independent, experimental filmmakers across the country, as well as screening local work.
Screenings were held at the Randolph Street Gallery, an alternative performance and exhibition space located at 756 N. Milwaukee Ave. The Gallery eventually closed down in 1998 and donated their archives to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; which exhibits some of the Coalition’s flyers on their website.
Below is a sample of screening information culled from those archives, listed in chronological order:
1984
March 23
2 Razor Blades, dir. Paul Sharits
Make Me Psychic, dir. Sally Cruikshank
Unsere Afrikareise, dir. Peter Kubelka
Roslyn Romance, dir. Bruce Baillie
Musical Poster #1, dir. Len Lye
April 27
Rainbow Dance,...
Formed in 1983, the Experimental Film Coalition started holding regular monthly screenings starting in 1984. The screenings brought to Chicago the work of independent, experimental filmmakers across the country, as well as screening local work.
Screenings were held at the Randolph Street Gallery, an alternative performance and exhibition space located at 756 N. Milwaukee Ave. The Gallery eventually closed down in 1998 and donated their archives to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; which exhibits some of the Coalition’s flyers on their website.
Below is a sample of screening information culled from those archives, listed in chronological order:
1984
March 23
2 Razor Blades, dir. Paul Sharits
Make Me Psychic, dir. Sally Cruikshank
Unsere Afrikareise, dir. Peter Kubelka
Roslyn Romance, dir. Bruce Baillie
Musical Poster #1, dir. Len Lye
April 27
Rainbow Dance,...
- 12/17/2017
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
1963 was a pivotal year in the history of avant-garde film in the United States. In Visionary Film, P. Adams Sitney calls it “the high point of the mythopoeic development within the American avant-garde.” He explains:
[Stan] Brakhage had finished and was exhibiting the first two sections of Dog Star Man by then; Jack Smith was still exhibiting the year-old Flaming Creatures; [Kenneth Anger‘s] Scorpio Rising appeared almost simultaneously with [Gregory Markopoulos‘s] Twice a Man. The shift from an interest in dreams and the erotic quest for the self to mythopoeia, and a wider interest in the collective unconscious occurred in the films of a number of major and independent artists.
(An inclusive list of American avant-garde films made/released in 1963 can be found here.)
On Christmas Day of 1963 began the weeklong third edition of Exprmntl, a competition of worldwide avant-garde films held in Knokke-le-Zoute, Belgium. The two previous Exprmntl competitions took place in 1949 and 1958. Exprmntl...
[Stan] Brakhage had finished and was exhibiting the first two sections of Dog Star Man by then; Jack Smith was still exhibiting the year-old Flaming Creatures; [Kenneth Anger‘s] Scorpio Rising appeared almost simultaneously with [Gregory Markopoulos‘s] Twice a Man. The shift from an interest in dreams and the erotic quest for the self to mythopoeia, and a wider interest in the collective unconscious occurred in the films of a number of major and independent artists.
(An inclusive list of American avant-garde films made/released in 1963 can be found here.)
On Christmas Day of 1963 began the weeklong third edition of Exprmntl, a competition of worldwide avant-garde films held in Knokke-le-Zoute, Belgium. The two previous Exprmntl competitions took place in 1949 and 1958. Exprmntl...
- 10/1/2017
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Bruce Baillie. Courtesy of Lux. The first time he saw Bruce Baillie, a fiery Peter Kubelka recounted in front of an amused audience at the Austrian Film Museum, the American filmmaker was pulling off a headstand in a classroom before taking his students out on the campus to collect garbage. In the filmmaking of Baillie and his organization Canyon Cinema, which was showcased from January 30 to February 3 in five programs curated by Garbiñe Ortega, ideas of life and community are transformed into sounds, colors and film. Sometimes those ideas exceed the films. As Mr. Baillie has put it himself in an interview with Richard Corliss in 1971, “I always felt that I brought as much truth out of the environment as I could, but I’m tired of coming out of. . . . I want everybody really lost, and I want us all to be at home there. Something like that. Actually I am not interested in that,...
- 3/21/2017
- MUBI
The latest installment in the filmmaker's series of journal-films combining iPhone footage and sounds and images from movies. A diary penned with cinema.Journal (6.6.16 - 1.10.17)feat. additional footage from Masha Tupitsyn and Isiah MedinaMy journal-film series (of which this is the third installment) came to be as a means of resolving the points of convergence and departure amongst the environments I occupy and those which I encounter in cinema. I like to view these films as a method of managing the images that take up my thoughts and memories into a new continuity, one in which the distinction between images seen on-screen and those personally experienced is no longer absolute. In dissolving this partition, these films provide a vector for the animation conceptual concerns through cinema - montage fulfilling that which language can only formally describe and vice versa. The following essay outlines some of the concerns this film attempts...
- 3/20/2017
- MUBI
Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I WaitDear Fern,I'm so glad we could share the sheer exuberant pleasure of Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids on an IMAX screen that gave J.T. the 30 foot high stature of a god: eat your heart out, Leni Riefenstahl! As you note, this infectious concert documentary by Jonathan Demme resoundingly describes Timberlake's appeal in thundering audio-visual terms: boyish charisma, guileless performing pleasure, and a remarkable sharing of his musical credit (so much of it studio-finessed, optimized of appropriation of other music and styles) with a veritable community of producers, musicians, backing vocalists, dancers and more. There's one incredible shot (among many) in this beautiful film of the entire collection of performers playing a song that's frankly mediocre—but the camera tracks along the whole band on stage, Timberlake one of many, all of whose smiles are genuine, all who sing along...
- 9/19/2016
- MUBI
Every week, the CriticWire Survey asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday morning. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?” can be found at the end of this post.)
This week’s question: This past weekend saw the release of “Lights Out,” which is based on a horrifying short film. Shorts can have tremendous value, though even the best of them tend to fly under the radar. What is your favorite short film, and why?
Miriam Bale (@mimbale), freelance
I count this Resnais film about plastics, “La chant de la styrene,” and an industrial film by Les Blank about factory farm chickens, “Chicken Real,” among the best films, and certainly best docs, I’ve seen. And the Safdies’ short “John’s Gone” is probably my favorite of their movies, if not their best.
This week’s question: This past weekend saw the release of “Lights Out,” which is based on a horrifying short film. Shorts can have tremendous value, though even the best of them tend to fly under the radar. What is your favorite short film, and why?
Miriam Bale (@mimbale), freelance
I count this Resnais film about plastics, “La chant de la styrene,” and an industrial film by Les Blank about factory farm chickens, “Chicken Real,” among the best films, and certainly best docs, I’ve seen. And the Safdies’ short “John’s Gone” is probably my favorite of their movies, if not their best.
- 7/25/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.NEWSThe great French essayist Chris Marker remains on our minds nearly four years after his death—the mystery of his life and his work remains haunting. Which is why we're very intrigued by the news that his adopted daughter has penned a new book about their relationship, Chris Marker (le livre impossible).Okay, Sofia Coppola's A Very Murray Christmas was pretty wretched (though we can't help but love that it was shot in New York's Bemelmans Bar), but we adore Don Siegel's Southern Gothic, Civil War-set, Clint Eastwood-starring kinky horror film (!), The Beguiled—and so are tremendously curious about the news that Coppola will remake that 1971 film with Nicole Kidman.Speaking of films in the works, Terry Gilliam may...finally...start...shooting Don Quixote, produced by Paulo Branco,...
- 4/6/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Chis Marker's Chat écoutant la musiqueThere are dog people and there are cat people, this we know, and there are even people who claim to be of both—though latent sympathies remain unspoken, like with a parent and which child is their favorite. With the Vienna Film Festival welcoming me with a tumbling collection of dog and cat short films spanning cinema's history—the Austrian Film Museum, an essential destination each year collaborating with the Viennale, is hosting a “a brief zoology of cinema” throughout the festivities—it is clear that filmmakers, too, have their preference. Silent cinema decidedly prefers the more easily trained and exhibited canine, with 1907’s surreal favorite Les chiens savants as a certain kind of cruel pinnacle. For the cats, Chris Marker, already the presiding figure over so much in 20th century art, I think we can easily claim is the cine-laureate. One need not know...
- 11/8/2015
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Youth On The MARCHThere are 48 individual films screening in the Wavelengths section of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The relative importance of this section, amidst the vast array of offerings in this relatively huge festival, depends on your taste in movies, of course, to say nothing of your specific objectives. If you’re coming to Toronto to try to score a hot tip in this year’s Oscar race, well . . . I feel sorry for you on a number of levels. But Wavelengths is unlikely to be your jam. Originally conceived exclusively as a showcase for experimental and non-narrative films (hence the section’s title, a direct tribute to avant-garde master and Toronto native son Michael Snow), Wavelengths now encompasses the edgier, less commercial side of art cinema. This is the first of two preview essays, and my aim is to cover everything in the section. These are the...
- 9/12/2015
- by Michael Sicinski
- MUBI
Peter Kubelka. Photo: (S8) Mostra de Cine Periférico. María Meseguer.At the end of Martina Kudláček's biographical documentary Fragments of Kubelka (2012), the avant-garde filmmaker Peter Kubelka is shown in his kitchen in Austria, expressing in words and action his passion for cooking, as he prepares Wiener Schnitzel. Kubelka has for many years taught cooking alongside film and by talking about food he is able simultaneously to elaborate on his long-held views on cinema, and the uniqueness of each physical medium as a conduit of meaningful expression.Metaphor is essential to Kubelka’s vision. He compares the process of making and eating Wiener Schnitzel, or any dish, to creating and ‘reading’ a metaphor—an “edible metaphor”. Elsewhere in the documentary he is seen lecturing on the qualities of the film strip. Kubelka likens editing to cooking, whereby a selection of images—like recipe ingredients—are mixed, creating a satisfying totality. The ‘dance’ of the cook,...
- 8/24/2015
- by Yusef Sayed
- MUBI
Ken Jacobs. Photo by María Meseguer.This past June in A Coruña, Spain (S8) 6th Mostra de Cinema Periferico hosted a retrospective of Ken Jacobs. A legend of experimental filmmaking, this New Yorker gave a master-class about the influence of abstract paintings on his work, presented a broad selection of films in his filmography to the audience, and premiered New Paintings by Ken Jacobs (2015), a new film performance using his famous Nervous Magic Lantern, consisting of a series of abstract slides that he projects with a special device of his own creation. The program focused on Jacobs’ first films, close to a kind of Brakhage-like documentary style, the long series he made along with Jack Smith as an actor/performer, and his experiments with 3D, both in film and digital formats. After all these screenings, we had a coffee or two with him and talked about the films in the program.
- 6/30/2015
- by Víctor Paz Morandeira
- MUBI
Next year, the great Peter Kubelka, godfather of avant-garde cinema and co-founder of Anthology Film Archives in New York and Filmmuseum in Vienna, turns 80. Fragments of Kubelka can be understood as an early birthday present for the passionate cinema lover and cook. The best thing about watching the movie in Vienna was that Peter Kubelka himself was present. Not in your regular "director talks about the film" way, but just as a private viewer. Though Fragments of Kubelka is not his own work, he just cannot let it alone. As he explains in the movie, for him, going to the cinema is an ecstasy, it is all about the present, the here and now. The movie features some rare footage of past events like...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 9/17/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Oxhide II
Written and directed by Liu Jiayin
China, 2009
Liu Jiayin, only in her early thirties and with two features films, has already become a darling of the art house cinema crowd — her work traveling the festival circuits, winning awards, and establishing her name among the ranks of Tarr and Benning as well as drawing comparisons to Bresson and Ozu. However, the awards and name-dropping come with the territory of making a niche film, partially tailored to a mentality of extreme minimalism including long takes, little action, and much experimentation. If not already alienating, her second film, Oxhide II, is a mere nine shots, each in 45 degree increments around a work table in a cramped living space featuring only the director and her parents (!) as actors and the preparation and eating of dumplings as the only action. While maintaining her rigorous attention to detail, composition, and blocking to make any...
Written and directed by Liu Jiayin
China, 2009
Liu Jiayin, only in her early thirties and with two features films, has already become a darling of the art house cinema crowd — her work traveling the festival circuits, winning awards, and establishing her name among the ranks of Tarr and Benning as well as drawing comparisons to Bresson and Ozu. However, the awards and name-dropping come with the territory of making a niche film, partially tailored to a mentality of extreme minimalism including long takes, little action, and much experimentation. If not already alienating, her second film, Oxhide II, is a mere nine shots, each in 45 degree increments around a work table in a cramped living space featuring only the director and her parents (!) as actors and the preparation and eating of dumplings as the only action. While maintaining her rigorous attention to detail, composition, and blocking to make any...
- 9/11/2013
- by Zach Lewis
- SoundOnSight
At nearly four hours, this crash course in the life and work of experimental-cinema pioneer Peter Kubelka is roughly four times longer than Kubelka's lifelong output. That is, if you measure him by finished films—Kubelka remains something more like a chatterbox Solomon endlessly ruminating and philosophizing about cinema, reality, and perception, and he may well be more famous for his expansive lectures (often including cooking and the manhandling of 35mm celluloid) than his filmography. Martina Kudlacek's portrait pretty much lets Kubelka, now a merry, avuncular septuagenarian, run away with the show, but history eventually squeezes in, often in the form of Jonas Mekas's 16mm diaries. Kubelka's pioneering role in crafting the Anthology Film Archives' "invisible cinema" screening...
- 5/3/2013
- Village Voice
When watching Scott Stark’s wonderful new film The Realist, my mind unexpectedly shot back to a 1977 work by Peter Kubelka. Although it’s strange to think of a minor Kubelka film, especially in a career characterized by such parsimony of expression, not that much has been written about Pause!, partly because it is so notably different from the heavily edited, “high articulation” films on which Kubelka built his reputation. Pause!, by contrast, consists of uninterrupted camera rolls of Kubelka’s fellow Austrian avant-gardist Arnulf Rainer, as he contorts his face and body, struggling to maintain his balance. As one watches Pause!, it becomes apparent that the limitations of Rainer’s body are setting the parameters of Kubelka’s shots. In fact, although we cannot be exactly certain of this, it appears that Rainer is taking a breath at the start of each shot, and that Kubelka’s shot lasts...
- 4/6/2013
- by Michael Sicinski
- MUBI
The Bradford International Film Festival is typically an underground-friendly fest. This year appears to be no exception with two very special experimental film retrospectives, as well as a few modern underground-type flicks.
The 19th annual Biff will roll on April 11-21 at several locations around Bradford and Leeds in England, including the National Media Museum, Hebden Bridge Picture House, Hyde Park Picture House and other venues.
Biff is hosting a tribute to Stan Brakhage this year by screening the prolific filmmaker’s magnum opus, Dog Star Man, as well as a selection of his short films, from 1963′s legendary Mothlight to 1994′s Black Ice. There’s also going to be an epic-sized tribute/retrospective of experimental films from Austria, a country with a proud avant-garde filmmaking tradition that’s typically overlooked.
From Austria, Biff is, of course, screening two works from one of the experimental film world’s biggest masters,...
The 19th annual Biff will roll on April 11-21 at several locations around Bradford and Leeds in England, including the National Media Museum, Hebden Bridge Picture House, Hyde Park Picture House and other venues.
Biff is hosting a tribute to Stan Brakhage this year by screening the prolific filmmaker’s magnum opus, Dog Star Man, as well as a selection of his short films, from 1963′s legendary Mothlight to 1994′s Black Ice. There’s also going to be an epic-sized tribute/retrospective of experimental films from Austria, a country with a proud avant-garde filmmaking tradition that’s typically overlooked.
From Austria, Biff is, of course, screening two works from one of the experimental film world’s biggest masters,...
- 3/11/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Looking back at 2012 on what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2012—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2012 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
- 1/9/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
This December, Mubi will be presenting a small Tony Scott retrospective in New York at 92YTribeca. See below for the films, dates and notes. All movies will be shown on film.
***
American cinema lost one of its great, unsung, emigre directors when Tony Scott mysteriously took his life earlier this August. A pioneer in the commercial advertisement aesthetic of the 80s, Scott would take that aesthetic and build upon it, transferring it to a post-9/11 world with hyperfast cutting and camerawork that would eventually come to define the decade and the director. Gina Telaroli and I, working with 92YTribeca's Cristina Cacioppo, have assembled a program featuring one key film from each of Scott's three American periods. To draw out some of the best and overlooked qualities of his small but aesthetically and thematically coherent oeuvre, we're also accompanying each film with a short from the avant-garde, and completed the package...
***
American cinema lost one of its great, unsung, emigre directors when Tony Scott mysteriously took his life earlier this August. A pioneer in the commercial advertisement aesthetic of the 80s, Scott would take that aesthetic and build upon it, transferring it to a post-9/11 world with hyperfast cutting and camerawork that would eventually come to define the decade and the director. Gina Telaroli and I, working with 92YTribeca's Cristina Cacioppo, have assembled a program featuring one key film from each of Scott's three American periods. To draw out some of the best and overlooked qualities of his small but aesthetically and thematically coherent oeuvre, we're also accompanying each film with a short from the avant-garde, and completed the package...
- 11/19/2012
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Robert Zemeckis with the cast of Flight on flying, Michael Haneke without a manual for Amour, Peter Kubelka's Monument Film installation, and Richard Peña, aka Richard Parker gives Ang Lee an ultimatum for Life Of Pi.
Flight
Denzel Washington (Captain Whip Whitaker) arrived a little late for the New York Film Festival press conference, sat down next to the other cast members on stage, and was asked about the toughest scene for him in the movie. "Right now," he said, to the great amusement of the audience, and threw the question to his director. "What do you think, Bob?" "They were all tough. Making movies is tough," Zemeckis answered. In my question, I thanked them for not having any bird strikes in the movie and inquired how the real-life miracle landing into the Hudson played into the shaping of Flight.
Writer...
Flight
Denzel Washington (Captain Whip Whitaker) arrived a little late for the New York Film Festival press conference, sat down next to the other cast members on stage, and was asked about the toughest scene for him in the movie. "Right now," he said, to the great amusement of the audience, and threw the question to his director. "What do you think, Bob?" "They were all tough. Making movies is tough," Zemeckis answered. In my question, I thanked them for not having any bird strikes in the movie and inquired how the real-life miracle landing into the Hudson played into the shaping of Flight.
Writer...
- 10/19/2012
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
At first, Holy Motors can seem almost like a copy-paste job of disguises, devices, and thematics from Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler and Sherlock Jr.: flâneur films in which a man, lost to the world of fictions he created, becomes whatever masks he wears, both cloaking and colorcasting his presence in this conception of the city as a vast, conspiratorial mechanism, a factory of fictions. But for Holy Motors’ sci-fi, that world seems to have enervated into cliché: Denis Lavant is performer but not ever author of this universe and role, and his beggars, tramps, acrobats, and other objects of spectacle dutifully execute their acts without any sense of plot or purpose, like vaudeville functionaries, punch lines without a joke. Whatever the modernist principle here of making the mechanism visible, drawing all of a plastic society’s suppressed elements of industry, the underclass, and bodily functions back to the surface...
- 10/19/2012
- by David Phelps
- MUBI
Please excuse the reprehensible qualities of digital, composition, lighting and coverage in the below photos, but I thought I'd share a glimpse at Peter Kubelka's celluloid sculpture at the New York Film Festival, "Monument Film". It is being exhibited at the Walter Reade theatre in tandem with two screenings (accompanied by a lecture by the filmmaker) that occurred on Monday at the Views from the Avant-Garde of a new film work by Kubelka, Monument Film. This work isn't a film so much as a material-projector-theatrical experience/performance: it began with a projection of his 1960 film Arnulf Rainer—a short of overwhelming, assaultive visual-aural intensity made up of black frames, empty (clear) frames, white noise and silence—and was followed by a projection of his new film, Antiphon, a work that is made up of the material inversion of Arnulf Rainer. Where the old film has a clear frame the...
- 10/9/2012
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
This week’s Must Read is a rarity: Underground icon Damon Packard being interviewed in a major newspaper, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, on the occasion of his genius new film Foxfur screening at Craig Baldwin’s Other Cinema last night.And, you know it, it’s also not every day an underground film is profiled in the New York Times, so super congrats to director Adam Rehmeier and particularly Rodleen Getsic for this Nyt piece about the controversial nature of their The Bunny Game.Here’s a new “Must Bookmark” blog: A movie journal site by Melanie Wilmink, formerly of the $100 Film Festival, where she now hopes to open up discussion generated by indie films — and she’s doing a fantastic job so far!Also to bookmark: Eric Krasner has a blog regarding his in-progress documentary on legendary Yiddish comedian Mickey Katz.The Huffington Post reports on the totally...
- 9/16/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces the addition of Ang Lee to its New York Film Festival HBO Directors Dialogues, as well as the lineup of the fest's Avant-Garde program and short films. Lee, whose "Life of Pi" will open the festival, will be be paired with Todd McCarthy for a discussion of his career on September 29. The Directors Dialogue series will also include Abbas Kiarostami ("Like Someone in Love"), David Chase ("Not Fade Away") and Robert Zemeckis ("Flight"). In its 16th year, Views from the Avant-Garde will run October 5-8 at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, offering free public screeings. Phil Solomon's "Empire" will begin the program, and it will close with a day of Peter Kubelka films -- including the word premiere of "Monument Film" and his four-hour doc, "Fragments of Kubelka." Other world premieres include David Gatten's "The Extravagant Shadows," Jeff...
- 9/7/2012
- by Sophia Savage
- Thompson on Hollywood
The programme for the 56th BFI London Film Festival launched yesterday under the new creative leadership of BFI’s Head of Exhibition and Festival Director, Clare Stewart, bringing a rich and diverse programme of international films and events from both established and upcoming talent over a 12 day celebration of cinema. The Festival will screen a total of 225 fiction and documentary features, including 14 World Premieres, 15 International Premieres and 34 European Premieres. There will also be screenings of 111 live action and animated shorts. A stellar line-up of directors, cast and crew are expected to take part in career interviews, master classes, and other special events. The 56th BFI London Film Festival will run from 10-21 October 2012. This year sees the introduction of several changes to the Festival’s format. Now taking place over 12 days, the Festival expands further from its traditional Leicester Square cinemas – Odeon West End, Vue West End, Odeon Leicester Square...
- 9/7/2012
- by John
- SoundOnSight
Announced yesterday, the programme for the 56th BFI London Film Festival brings a rich and diverse programme of international films and events from both established and upcoming talent over a 12 day celebration of cinema. The Festival will screen a total of 225 fiction and documentary features, including 14 World Premieres, 15 International Premieres and 34 European Premieres. There will also be screenings of 111 live action and animated shorts. A stellar line-up of directors, cast and crew are expected to take part in career interviews, master classes, and other special events.
This year sees the introduction of several changes to the Festival’s format. Now taking place over 12 days, the Festival expands further from its traditional Leicester Square cinemas – Odeon West End, Vue West End, Odeon Leicester Square and Empire – and the BFI Southbank to include four additional new venues – Hackney Picturehouse, Renoir, Everyman Screen on the Green and Rich Mix, which join existing London venues the Ica,...
This year sees the introduction of several changes to the Festival’s format. Now taking place over 12 days, the Festival expands further from its traditional Leicester Square cinemas – Odeon West End, Vue West End, Odeon Leicester Square and Empire – and the BFI Southbank to include four additional new venues – Hackney Picturehouse, Renoir, Everyman Screen on the Green and Rich Mix, which join existing London venues the Ica,...
- 9/6/2012
- by Phil
- Nerdly
One of the clear victors emerging out of Telluride was Ben Affleck‘s The Town follow-up, the political hostage thriller Argo. Featuring a great ensemble including Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin and John Goodman, the film received top-notch reviews for its mix of thrillers and comedy and now we’ve got word it’ll be showing at another prestigious festival.
BFI London Film Festival announced their promising line-up today, which includes Argo, as well as Michael Haneke‘s Amour, Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths, Michael Winterbottom’s Everyday, Sally Potter’s Ginger and Rosa, Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone and much more. Check out the complete line-up below, as well as WB’s first TV spot for Argo.
London, Wednesday 5 September: The programme for the 56th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express launched today under the new creative leadership of BFI’s Head of Exhibition and Festival Director,...
BFI London Film Festival announced their promising line-up today, which includes Argo, as well as Michael Haneke‘s Amour, Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths, Michael Winterbottom’s Everyday, Sally Potter’s Ginger and Rosa, Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone and much more. Check out the complete line-up below, as well as WB’s first TV spot for Argo.
London, Wednesday 5 September: The programme for the 56th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express launched today under the new creative leadership of BFI’s Head of Exhibition and Festival Director,...
- 9/5/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
The line-up to the 56th London Film Festival has just been announced and you can see the list of movies coming to the greatest city in the world below. We already knew that Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie and Mike Newell’s Great Expectations would open and close the festival respectively but now we have the rest of the movies coming to London Town.
Let us know your thoughts on the line-up below in our comments section.
The Festival itself runs from October 10th to October 21st and we’ll be doing our best to bring you reviews from as many films as we possibly can!
London, Wednesday 5 September: The programme for the 56th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express launched today under the new creative leadership of BFI’s Head of Exhibition and Festival Director, Clare Stewart, bringing a rich and diverse programme of international films and...
Let us know your thoughts on the line-up below in our comments section.
The Festival itself runs from October 10th to October 21st and we’ll be doing our best to bring you reviews from as many films as we possibly can!
London, Wednesday 5 September: The programme for the 56th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express launched today under the new creative leadership of BFI’s Head of Exhibition and Festival Director, Clare Stewart, bringing a rich and diverse programme of international films and...
- 9/5/2012
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The London Indian Film Festival (June 20 – July 3) is exploring new boundaries and is proud to announce a brand new partnership with Tate Modern to present a rare showcase of Indian experimental film curated from Bangalore.
Festival Director Cary Sawhney says: “It’s terrific to have a world renowned organisation like Tate Modern partner with us this year and we hope this is the start of a long association. The inclusion of experimental, artist films in the festival’s line-up furthers our aim to present as varied a picture of contemporary Indian cinema as possible. It gives us the opportunity to work with respected guest curators, in this case, Shai Heredia, director of India’s Experimenta Festival. And, of course, to expand our audience, since it is likely that the audience watching these programmes will be different to that at the high-octane gangster film or the RomCom.”
The curator, Shai Heredia,...
Festival Director Cary Sawhney says: “It’s terrific to have a world renowned organisation like Tate Modern partner with us this year and we hope this is the start of a long association. The inclusion of experimental, artist films in the festival’s line-up furthers our aim to present as varied a picture of contemporary Indian cinema as possible. It gives us the opportunity to work with respected guest curators, in this case, Shai Heredia, director of India’s Experimenta Festival. And, of course, to expand our audience, since it is likely that the audience watching these programmes will be different to that at the high-octane gangster film or the RomCom.”
The curator, Shai Heredia,...
- 6/19/2012
- by Stacey Yount
- Bollyspice
The 8th annual Brakhage Center Symposium has been programmed by curator Kathy Geritz and will examine the concept of experimental narrative over three days of screenings and lectures on March 16-18 at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Geritz has pulled together a program in which experimental films explore notions of narrative through diverse means, whether combining with documentary or animated elements, or through nonlinear structure, or through the direct experience of time. As Geritz hopes: “In these different ways, the films presented will challenge and expand our expectations as they push the boundaries of storytelling conventions.”
Some of the filmmakers who will be present at the symposium are animators Stacey Steers and Chris Sullivan, experimental documentary filmmaker Amie Siegel and Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who will be screening his 1987 acclaimed feature film Syndromes and a Century and the more recent short film Emerald (2007).
Also, film critic and historian J.
Geritz has pulled together a program in which experimental films explore notions of narrative through diverse means, whether combining with documentary or animated elements, or through nonlinear structure, or through the direct experience of time. As Geritz hopes: “In these different ways, the films presented will challenge and expand our expectations as they push the boundaries of storytelling conventions.”
Some of the filmmakers who will be present at the symposium are animators Stacey Steers and Chris Sullivan, experimental documentary filmmaker Amie Siegel and Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who will be screening his 1987 acclaimed feature film Syndromes and a Century and the more recent short film Emerald (2007).
Also, film critic and historian J.
- 3/12/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The International Film Festival Rotterdam has announced the lineup for Regained, a "renewed" section of the Signals program devoted to what it calls "the memory of film." This year's edition promises a broader ranges of genres and "will consist not only of film projections, but also exhibitions, presentations and events."
To mark the 150th anniversary of Georges Méliès's birth, Regained will present Martin Scorsese's Hugo, the newly restored Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902) and Serge Bromberg's documentary on the restoration, Le Voyage extraordinaire. "In addition, under the title Retour de Flamme, Bromberg will be opening up his box of tricks for us with a live presentation of a series of unique cartoons illustrating how the 3D-effect has been stimulating animators’ imaginations for decades."
The world premiere of Martina Kudlácek's Fragments of Kubelka will be accompanied by screenings of seven of Peter Kubelka's shorts made between 1955 and 2003.
Richard Goldgewicht's Pablo,...
To mark the 150th anniversary of Georges Méliès's birth, Regained will present Martin Scorsese's Hugo, the newly restored Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902) and Serge Bromberg's documentary on the restoration, Le Voyage extraordinaire. "In addition, under the title Retour de Flamme, Bromberg will be opening up his box of tricks for us with a live presentation of a series of unique cartoons illustrating how the 3D-effect has been stimulating animators’ imaginations for decades."
The world premiere of Martina Kudlácek's Fragments of Kubelka will be accompanied by screenings of seven of Peter Kubelka's shorts made between 1955 and 2003.
Richard Goldgewicht's Pablo,...
- 1/9/2012
- MUBI
Peter Kubelka's Schwechater (1958)
Filmmaker Paul Clipson, profiled last month on the occasion of his winning a Goldie from the Bay Guardian, presents Commodified Cinema: Art, Advertising, and Commodities in Film today at noon at Sfmoma. Brecht Andersch: "Clipson is on to something here: from its inception, cinema has been seen by hoity toities as the commodified form par excellence, a cultural equivalent to advertising. As time rolls on, the bitter ironies of these notions become painfully evident: due to their relative fragility as art objects when run through a projector, celluloid artworks have never worked as collectible items of envy, and the on-going currency of critique in contemporary art has rendered much of it advertising for shallow, if politically correct ideology. In recent years, the ascendency of digital moving image technologies in all their many forms has been embraced by those with un- or semi-conscious resentment towards the photochemical...
Filmmaker Paul Clipson, profiled last month on the occasion of his winning a Goldie from the Bay Guardian, presents Commodified Cinema: Art, Advertising, and Commodities in Film today at noon at Sfmoma. Brecht Andersch: "Clipson is on to something here: from its inception, cinema has been seen by hoity toities as the commodified form par excellence, a cultural equivalent to advertising. As time rolls on, the bitter ironies of these notions become painfully evident: due to their relative fragility as art objects when run through a projector, celluloid artworks have never worked as collectible items of envy, and the on-going currency of critique in contemporary art has rendered much of it advertising for shallow, if politically correct ideology. In recent years, the ascendency of digital moving image technologies in all their many forms has been embraced by those with un- or semi-conscious resentment towards the photochemical...
- 12/8/2011
- MUBI
The Art Voice newspaper in Buffalo, NY reviewed Chris Hansen’s film Endings, which is currently playing at an interesting screening space/restaurant called Screens. Here’s the poster quote to pull: ” [Endings] ends up going somewhere you don’t quite expect.” Nice to see local papers reviewing truly indie movies, which typically get ignored.Speaking of which: The Denver Westword paper interviews documentary filmmaker Larry Wessel regarding the screening of his doc Iconoclast at the Denver Underground Film Festival tonight. The interview will warm your heart, especially when Wessel calls his doc subject, Boyd Rice, a “lonely, cold-hearted, pretentious, hypocritical sociopath.”Bright Lights Film Journal has a lengthy expose on the work of Bob Moricz, whose work we’re continually praising ourselves here on Bad Lit.If you live or want to move to Houston, TX, the Aurora Picture Show is hiring part-time Media Arts Educators.Save the Evans City Cemetary Chapel!
- 11/13/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
For their 5th annual event, which is set to run Sept. 8-11, the Sydney Underground Film Festival is looking a little more demented than ever. And that’s saying a lot for this scrappy, still relatively young fest, which typically offers ample twisted cinematic offerings.
The fun kicks off with the Opening Night film, the demented superhero comedy Super, written and directed by former Troma go-to screenwriter James Gunn (Tromeo & Juliet); then ends with the Closing Night wallowing in Sydney’s seedy underbelly, X, by homegrown filmmaker Jon Hewitt.
Crammed between these two excursions into violence and depravity is a lineup filled with perverse visions, scandalous public figures, sickening horror, experimental pop culture remixes and more.
For Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film, the highlight of the fest is Usama Alshaibi‘s Profane, a complex psychological, psychosexual, spiritual morality play about a Muslim sex worker who endures a “reverse...
The fun kicks off with the Opening Night film, the demented superhero comedy Super, written and directed by former Troma go-to screenwriter James Gunn (Tromeo & Juliet); then ends with the Closing Night wallowing in Sydney’s seedy underbelly, X, by homegrown filmmaker Jon Hewitt.
Crammed between these two excursions into violence and depravity is a lineup filled with perverse visions, scandalous public figures, sickening horror, experimental pop culture remixes and more.
For Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film, the highlight of the fest is Usama Alshaibi‘s Profane, a complex psychological, psychosexual, spiritual morality play about a Muslim sex worker who endures a “reverse...
- 8/9/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This week’s Must Read is actually a series of articles. Cineflyer is reprinting and transcribing articles from the first 2007 edition of The Moose, the newsletter of the Winnipeg Film Group. Here’s a scan of the cover. The issue included movie reviews by Darryl Nepinak and Mike Maryniuk’s top 10 Wfg films. Plus, there’s filmmaking tips by Cecilia Araneda and Heidi Phillips. An article by King of the Internet, Jaimz Asmundson. Guy Maddin interviews his favorite filmmaker, Guy Maddin.Heavy Metal Parking Lot hits the big time with a profile in the Wall Street Journal, of all places!Did you know Chicago’s Facets had a Tumblr blog? We didn’t, but now we do. Go bookmark.Plus, on the Facets blog, Gregory Hess reviews Steven Soderbergh’s “lost” film Kafka, which is only available on VHS. That’s weird.Speaking of Chicago, the Tribune spotlights two homegrown...
- 7/10/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Updated through 4/20.
MoMA's Dziga Vertov retrospective opens today with the Us premiere of the newly restored, original full-frame version of Man with a Movie Camera (1929) with live musical accompaniment by Dennis James & Filmharmonia Ensemble. Following this roundup of what others are saying about Vertov, we'll be running a few of our own pieces here in The Notebook over the coming days and weeks.
"In many ways the Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov (1896-1954) was an artist of his time," begins Dennis Lim in the New York Times. "A kindred spirit of the Constructivist artists who thrived in the wake of the 1917 October Revolution only to be stifled by the Stalinist policies of the 1930s, Vertov was a futurist at heart, a poet of the machine age. For a filmmaker in the reborn Russia the thrill of the new was palpable. Vertov, who saw theory and practice as inseparable, sought to uncover...
MoMA's Dziga Vertov retrospective opens today with the Us premiere of the newly restored, original full-frame version of Man with a Movie Camera (1929) with live musical accompaniment by Dennis James & Filmharmonia Ensemble. Following this roundup of what others are saying about Vertov, we'll be running a few of our own pieces here in The Notebook over the coming days and weeks.
"In many ways the Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov (1896-1954) was an artist of his time," begins Dennis Lim in the New York Times. "A kindred spirit of the Constructivist artists who thrived in the wake of the 1917 October Revolution only to be stifled by the Stalinist policies of the 1930s, Vertov was a futurist at heart, a poet of the machine age. For a filmmaker in the reborn Russia the thrill of the new was palpable. Vertov, who saw theory and practice as inseparable, sought to uncover...
- 4/20/2011
- MUBI
If it’s Christmas Eve, then it must be another birthday for the godfather of underground film, Jonas Mekas! He turns 88 today, having been born in the town of Semeniškiai, Lithuania on Dec. 24, 1922. To celebrate, please watch the above embedded excerpt from his classic film Walden, aka Diaries, Notes and Sketches, which comes courtesy of the distributor Re:Voir. They also sell the full version of the film.
This feels like an especially apropos film to embed today given the blustery, cold opening. However, about halfway through this excerpt, the wind and the chill eventually gives way to, like life, springtime and pretty girls.
Walden was Mekas’ first major compilation of his film diaries and covers the period of his life from 1964 to ’68. Previously, he directed the fictional narrative Guns of the Trees and a film documenting a performance of the Living Theater’s controversial play The Brig; as well as releasing short diary-like pieces,...
This feels like an especially apropos film to embed today given the blustery, cold opening. However, about halfway through this excerpt, the wind and the chill eventually gives way to, like life, springtime and pretty girls.
Walden was Mekas’ first major compilation of his film diaries and covers the period of his life from 1964 to ’68. Previously, he directed the fictional narrative Guns of the Trees and a film documenting a performance of the Living Theater’s controversial play The Brig; as well as releasing short diary-like pieces,...
- 12/24/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 39th annual Festival du Nouveau Cinema is set to run in Montreal on Oct 13-24. But, within the overall, massive festival is the Fnc Lab, the avant-garde and experimental section that will be having screenings and live film performances every night on Oct. 14-22.
This year, the Fnc Lab is showcasing two retrospectives; plus, a short film program of strictly 16mm films, films from the Korean Jeonju Digital Project, four feature-length projects and several special one-of-a-kind performances.
The retrospectives are of two key American women experimental filmmakers. First, in conjunction with the Double Negative Collective, the fest presents a career overview of Chick Strand, the eminent ethnographic filmmaker who sadly passed away last year at the age of 77.
Then, there’s also a retrospective of playful avant-garde filmmaker Marie Losier, who is well known for her collaborations with and film portraits of key underground figures like George Kuchar, Tony Conrad and Genesis P-Orridge.
This year, the Fnc Lab is showcasing two retrospectives; plus, a short film program of strictly 16mm films, films from the Korean Jeonju Digital Project, four feature-length projects and several special one-of-a-kind performances.
The retrospectives are of two key American women experimental filmmakers. First, in conjunction with the Double Negative Collective, the fest presents a career overview of Chick Strand, the eminent ethnographic filmmaker who sadly passed away last year at the age of 77.
Then, there’s also a retrospective of playful avant-garde filmmaker Marie Losier, who is well known for her collaborations with and film portraits of key underground figures like George Kuchar, Tony Conrad and Genesis P-Orridge.
- 10/6/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
First, my apologies. I’m starting out with a completely self-serving internal link: I created an Underground Film Resource Center page with links to all the different resources I have for underground filmmakers and fans alike on Bad Lit: Film festivals, films, filmmakers, theaters, distributors, websites, the timeline, and more. I have a few ideas of more resources to launch in the future, too. Distributor Channel Midnight has announced that Nathan Wrann’s Burning Inside is now available as an app for the iPhone, iPad and iTouch. I’m not posting this link so much as to promote this particular film — although I highly recommend it — but because I don’t see announcements like this very much. How much underground content is available on iTunes? When I look: Nothing. Well, now there’s this. I want to read more announcements like this in the future. The Rome News-Tribune has an...
- 7/11/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
First the history, then the list:
In 1969, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, Stan Brakhage, and Jonas Mekas decided to open the world’s first museum devoted to film. Of course, a typical museum hangs its collections of artwork on the wall for visitors to walk up to and study. However, a film museum needs special considerations on how — and what, of course — to present its collection to the public.
Thus, for this film museum, first a film selection committee was formed that included James Broughton, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, Jonas Mekas and P. Adams Sitney, plus, for a time, Stan Brakhage. This committee met over the course of several months to decide exactly what films would be collected and how they would be shown. The final selection of films would come to be called the The Essential Cinema Repertory.
The Essential Cinema Collection that the committee came up with consisted of about 330 films.
In 1969, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, Stan Brakhage, and Jonas Mekas decided to open the world’s first museum devoted to film. Of course, a typical museum hangs its collections of artwork on the wall for visitors to walk up to and study. However, a film museum needs special considerations on how — and what, of course — to present its collection to the public.
Thus, for this film museum, first a film selection committee was formed that included James Broughton, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, Jonas Mekas and P. Adams Sitney, plus, for a time, Stan Brakhage. This committee met over the course of several months to decide exactly what films would be collected and how they would be shown. The final selection of films would come to be called the The Essential Cinema Repertory.
The Essential Cinema Collection that the committee came up with consisted of about 330 films.
- 5/3/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
"There is no such thing as abstract film. Every frame is real" - Kenneth Anger
Cinema is an adventure of perception. Perception being synonymous with subjectivity, a word, perhaps the very state of being, which seems to be used in more of a negative context with film rather than a positive one. This subjective state is, I think what gives cinema its wonderfully vibrant nature; its lustful, tenacious constantly shifting form. Cinema is real because it is subjective; subjective because it is real... every frame.
Okay, all right enough lecture... Chuck Workman's Visionaries is not a lecture either, don't worry. Flowing over with a great exuberance, Workman's doc is an ample introductory history to the avante-garde, particularly the "New American Cinema", and a nice love letter to fans of Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren, Bob Downey, Peter Kubleka, the quoted Anger, and dozens of other filmmakers on the cutting edge.
Cinema is an adventure of perception. Perception being synonymous with subjectivity, a word, perhaps the very state of being, which seems to be used in more of a negative context with film rather than a positive one. This subjective state is, I think what gives cinema its wonderfully vibrant nature; its lustful, tenacious constantly shifting form. Cinema is real because it is subjective; subjective because it is real... every frame.
Okay, all right enough lecture... Chuck Workman's Visionaries is not a lecture either, don't worry. Flowing over with a great exuberance, Workman's doc is an ample introductory history to the avante-garde, particularly the "New American Cinema", and a nice love letter to fans of Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren, Bob Downey, Peter Kubleka, the quoted Anger, and dozens of other filmmakers on the cutting edge.
- 4/25/2010
- Screen Anarchy
It’s a nature video! It’s an experimental video! It’s the official commissioned trailer for the 2010 Migrating Forms experimental media festival! That’s right, it’s all three!
The second annual Migrating Forms will run at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC on May 14-23 and, once again, the festival has asked a video artist to craft an official trailer. This year they chose Leslie Thornton, a filmmaker who has studied with the likes of Hollis Frampton, Stan Brakhage, Paul Sharits and Peter Kubelka. Her work has previously screened at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Biennial, the Rotterdam International Film Festival, the Pacific Film Archive, last year’s Migrating Forms and other prestigious locations around the world.
Migrating Forms hasn’t released their official schedule yet, but as soon as they do, I’ll put it up on Bad Lit.
Read More:2009 Migrating Forms: Official...
The second annual Migrating Forms will run at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC on May 14-23 and, once again, the festival has asked a video artist to craft an official trailer. This year they chose Leslie Thornton, a filmmaker who has studied with the likes of Hollis Frampton, Stan Brakhage, Paul Sharits and Peter Kubelka. Her work has previously screened at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Biennial, the Rotterdam International Film Festival, the Pacific Film Archive, last year’s Migrating Forms and other prestigious locations around the world.
Migrating Forms hasn’t released their official schedule yet, but as soon as they do, I’ll put it up on Bad Lit.
Read More:2009 Migrating Forms: Official...
- 4/22/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Repertory theaters on the coasts are truly offering a window onto the world this spring, with Jia Zhangke and Bong Joon-ho retrospectives, as well as New French Cinema in New York, "Freebie and the Bean," "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" and Jason Reitman's favorite films invade Los Angeles, and the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin is offering a fond farewell to the video cassette. But consider this a hello to seeing classics, oddities and rarities on the big screen over the next few months.
Cities: [New York] [Los Angeles] [Austin] More Spring Preview: [Theatrical Calendar]
[Anywhere But a Movie Theater]
New York
92YTribeca
Is there a more energetic way to start the spring than with a screening of Russ Meyer's "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" (Feb. 20, with editors Rumsey Taylor, Leo Goldsmith and Jenny Jediny in attendance)? Perhaps not, but it's only the start of an exciting spring season at the 92YTribeca Screening Room, which will present several special events over the next few months.
Cities: [New York] [Los Angeles] [Austin] More Spring Preview: [Theatrical Calendar]
[Anywhere But a Movie Theater]
New York
92YTribeca
Is there a more energetic way to start the spring than with a screening of Russ Meyer's "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" (Feb. 20, with editors Rumsey Taylor, Leo Goldsmith and Jenny Jediny in attendance)? Perhaps not, but it's only the start of an exciting spring season at the 92YTribeca Screening Room, which will present several special events over the next few months.
- 2/20/2010
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
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