General Idi Amin Dada

I've been meaning to mention the regular screening series of the Cinematheque Internationale of Philadelphia. They screen films of video, but with full rights clearance and with a good discussion afterward - something useful to the repertory film experience.

I will be leading discussion next Wednesday at their screening of Barbet Schroeder's Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait.

Wednesday, February 22

Doors open at 6:30pm. Films begins at 7:00pm.

L'Etage at Beau Monde

624 South 6th Street

Discussion following each film.
$10.00 General Admission

$5.00 Students and Artists

Upcoming films:

03.11.12: THE SCAR – Krzysztof Kieslowski
03.28.12: VERONIKA VOSS – Rainer Werner Fassbinder
04.15.12: PERSONA – Ingmar Bergman
04.25.12: VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS – Jires
05.06.12: COME AND SEE – Elem Klimov
05.23.12: HUKKLE – György Pálfi
06.10.12: VEILED VOICES – Brigid Maher
06.27.12: BEIRUT: THE LAST HOME MOVIE – Jennifer Fox

Experimental: Austrian Avant-Garde and Canyon Cinema

There are two screenings of experimental work at the International House this week. The first, part of the "Archive Fever" series, features found-footage compilation films by Austrian avant-garde makers. The program is tomorrow (Wednesday) and starts at 7:00PM.

Tito-Material
dir. Elke Groen, Austria, 1998, 16mm, 5 mins, color

14. März 1938-Ein Nachmittag
dir. Christoph Weihrich, Austria, 2008, 16mm, 10 mins ,color

Notes on Film 05 CONFERENCE
dir. Norbert Pfaffenbichler, Austria, 2011, 35mm, 8 mins, color

Oceano Nox
dir. Georg Wasner, Austria, 2011, HDCAM, 15 mins, color

Coming Attractions
dir. Peter Tscherkassky, Austria, 2010, 35mm, 25 mins, color and b/w

Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and Truth)
dir. Peter Kubelka, Austria, 1996-2003, 35mm, 13 mins, color

To the Happy Few
dir. Thomas Draschan, Austria, 2003, 16mm, 4 mins, color, sound

Metropolen des Leichtsinns (Metropolis of Recklessness)
dir. Thomas Draschan, Austria, 2000, 16mm, 12 mins, color, sound

This Saturday, Feb. 11, a Bruce Baillie retrospective screens at 5:00pm, while a Chick Strand retrospective starts at 8:00pm.

Program 1, at 5PM: Bruce Baillie’s Early Canyon Cinema Years
Early Canyon Cinema Years comprises seven of Baillie’s films of the early Canyon years. Made between 1961 and 1966, they include canyon “CinemaNews” films as well as some of Baillie’s most famous early experimental works.

On Sundays
dir. Bruce Baillie, US, 1960-1961, 16mm, 27 mins, b/w, sound

The Gymnasts
dir. Bruce Baillie, US, 1961, 16mm, 8 mins, b/w, sound

Mr Hayashi
dir. Bruce Baillie, USA 1961, 16mm, 3 mins. b/w, sound

Here I Am
dir. Bruce Baillie, US, 1962, 16mm, 11 mins, b/w, sound

Termination
dir. Bruce Baillie, US, 1966, 16mm, 5 mins, b/w, sound

Mass For The Dakota Sioux
dir. Bruce Baillie, USA, 1963-1964, 16mm, 20 mins, b/w, sound

Castro Street
dir. Bruce Baillie, US, 1966, 16mm, 10 mins, color, sound

Program 2, at 8PM: Chick Strand: Beginnings, Ends and In-Betweens
This overview of Chick Strand includes both experimental and documentary works. In the mid-1960s, Strand left Canyon Cinema to move to Los Angeles where she began her own filmmaking career. Her intimate, sensual camerawork combined with an exploration of women’s personal and domestic worlds, make her films, shot largely in California and in Mexico, absolutely unique.

Waterfall
dir. Chick Strand, US, 1967, 16mm, 3 mins, color, sound

Kristallnacht
dir. Chick Strand, US, 1979, 16mm, 7 mins, b/w, sound

Soft Fiction
dir. Chick Strand, US, 1979, 16mm, 54 mins. b/w, sound

Señora con Flores
dir. Chick Strand, US, 2011, 16mm, 15 mins. color, sound

Full descriptions of the Austrian program and Canyon Cinema programs available from the website.

Flaherty on the Road

The International House is exhibiting a series of films from the Flaherty Seminar.

Program 1: The Artist and the Process
Thursday, Feb 02
07:00 PM

The Artist and the Computer (dir. Lillian F Schwartz, US, 1980, video, 11 mins, color)

Pixillation (dir. Lillian F Schwartz, US, 1970, video, 4 mins, color)

UFOs (dir. Lillian F Schwartz, US, 1971, video, 3 mins, color)

From Zero (dir. Frank Scheffer, Netherlands, 2011, video, 60 mins, color)
From Zero incorporates extensive footage of Scheffer’s first interview with American composer, philosopher, and poet John Cage, much of it never before seen. A Cagecollaborator, Scheffer created From Zero expressly for the 2011 Flaherty Film Seminar, completing it on the morning of its premiere.

Program 2: City Symphonies
Friday, Feb 03
07:00 PM

Window Cleaning in Shanghai (dir. Laura Kissel, US, 2010, video, 3 mins, color, Chinese w/English subtitles)
Media artist Laura Kissel describes her subjects simply as “two workers I met, hanging off the edges of my apartment building in Shanghai.” This arresting moment captures places, people, and events that suggested the qualities of everyday life in contemporary Shanghai. A work self-aware of the verité tradition it inhabits, Window Cleaning uses only location sound and defers to long takes. Yet Kissel also has a photographer’s eye for composition, structuring her window on the world in ways that are beautiful, honest, and only occasionally ironic.

Tan Mian Hua (dir. Laura Kissel, US, 2011, video, 15 mins, color, Chinese w/ English subtitles)
While documenting the contemporary textile industry in Shanghai, Kissel found the Zhu family on Chongming Island, who demonstrated the disappearing art of making a quilt with simple tools. Tan mian hua (beating cotton) is the process of assembling this type of handcrafted quilt.

Singapore GaGa (dir. Tan Pin Pin, Singapore, 2005, video, 54 mins, color, English, Mandarin and Arabic w/ English subtitles)
Tan Pin Pin’s work shows a studied devotion to the audio dimension of contemporary life, particularly as experienced in her home city. Official declarations – school songs, patriotic parades – are heard in contrast to marginalized voices: a wheel chaired busker, avant-garde musicians, and the
multilingual polyphony of everyday life.

Program 3: Heart and Soul
Saturday, Feb 04
05:00 PM

Multiple Sidosis (dir. Sid Laverents, US, 1970, video, 10 mins, color)
Sid Laverents, a retired Convair engineer, has long been a legend in the amateur film community. Multiple Sidosis is a kind of latter-day trick film, in which Sid reprises the one-man band act he performed as a traveling Vaudevillian in the ‘20s and ‘30s. This self-reflexive masterpiece features Sid– or rather many, many Sids – hysterically performing the song “Nola,” recorded with his ingenious sound-on-sound looping technique and filmed with the use of his handmade in-camera mattes. – Ross Lipman, Filmmakers

Yard Work Is Hard Work (dir. Jodie Mack, US, 2008, video, 30 mins, color)
What if Caroline and Frank Mouris (Frank Film, 1973) had made a narrative operetta about the difficulties of romance and home ownership in the cell-phone era? A handsome, hyperactive, funny, cut-out animation tour de force, Yard Work is of considerable length for such a labor-intensive form. Accomplished animation technique aside, the music is memorable and delightfully sung (by director Mack and others), with a “libretto” of wit. To go from making dozens of miniatures in this form to producing a film of such depth is a major achievement in the art of animation.

The Florestine Collection (dir. Helen Hill, completed by Paul Gailiunas, US, 2011, video, 30 mins, color)
Animator Helen Hill (1970-2007) was beloved for her enchanting, whimsical movies, her passionate advocacy for her craft, and her radical dedication to making the world better for more people in the experimental cinema and DIY art worlds. Her shocking murder in New Orleans after Katrina was incalculably tragic, but her life and work have since inspired many. Completed posthumously by her husband and creative partner Paul Gailiunas, The Florestine Collection was always conceived as being about the connection between two New Orleans DIY artists. The film tells the story of African American seamstress Florestine Kinchen, and Helen’s discovery of Kinchen’s handmade dresses on a trash pile one Mardi Gras morning.

Los Angeles Plays Itself

The ICA and The International House, with Penn Cinema studies, is hosting an ongoing series examining the use of archival image in moving-image art: Living Document / Naked Reality: Towards an Archival Cinema will present works in video, installation, and traditional “black box” cinema that respond to a particular historical moment and cultural movement through the engagement of archival material.

This Saturday, January 14, at 1pm, they will be screening Thom Andersen's LA Plays Itself (2003, 169 min.), an essay film that juxtaposes Hollywood's depiction of Los Angeles with the city's social and political history.

The will be followed with a roundtable discussion with myself and Timothy Corrigan, from Penn's Cinema Studies' program.

Saturday, January 14

1pm
International House (3701 Chestnut St.)
$9 and $7 for Students/Seniors (Free for ICA and International House members)

Nuremberg

Swarthmore College

Film & Media Studies presents:

NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY (1948)
The Schulberg/Waletzky Restoration

One Screening Only

Monday, December 5, 2011

7:00 pm

Lang Performing Arts Center Cinema

Swarthmore College

Special guest Sandra Schulberg -- daughter of filmmaker Stuart Schulberg & producer of the restoration -- will speak about the making of Nuremberg and its subsequent suppression in the U.S.

Co-sponsored by German Studies, History, Peace & Conflict Studies. Event made possible by the Serendipity Fund

5 Short Documentaries at I-House

Five MFA graduates from Temple's film program are screening documentary work at the International House this Tuesday, November 27, at 7:00pm. I've personally seen some of this work, either in-progress or completed, and I can say that it's quite strong and represents a range of approaches to documentary, including observation, animation, self-reflexivity, and poetic approaches.

The program, titled "The Things They Carry," comprises five shorts:

3956 County Road 15 (Ellen Knechel) 26m

Inheritance (Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz) 29m
Pigment (Alexis McCrimmon) 12m
Roy: Dream Catcher (Andrew Bateman) 65m
Things We Keep (David Cooper Moore) 20m

More descriptions can be found at the event's homepage. In all, it's a cohesive program worth catching.

Ides of March at Bryn Mawr Film Institute

The mainstream film may turn some people on the right side of the political fence off, but there is no doubt that this power house drama is among the best that 2011 has to offer. This is the last chance to catch the film during its time at the cineplex, being pulled on November 22nd. So make sure to get over there!

"George Clooney goes behind the camera for the fourth time to direct The Ides of March, an adaptation of Beau Willimon's play Farragut North. The movie stars Ryan Gosling as Stephen Meyers, an idealistic deputy campaign manager for Governor Mike Morris (Clooney), who is in a major political battle in Ohio that could be the key to winning the Democratic presidential nomination. When the opposing candidate's campaign manager (Paul Giamatti) offers Stephen a job on his staff, Stephen neglects to inform his boss (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Just as that omission is revealed, Stephen uncovers a dirty personal secret that could sink Morris' political career. The Ides of March screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival."

The film provides phenomenal supporting performences from Paul Giamatti and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who should both be appearing at the Oscars with nominations come this February.

If you want to see some of Clooney's new work, Alexander Payne's "The Descendant's" is beginning at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute on November 23rd! If you can't wait until then, it opens at the Ritz in center city Philadelphia this Friday, 11/18.

Film Festival offerings

Kevin, a Temple film student who has been helping me on this site, posted some upcoming highlights from the Philadelphia Film Festival. Given the scope of the offerings, I thought I'd add to his list by highlighting a few films I'm particularly interested in.

Dreileben (Three Lives). This German trilogy has been a bit of a festival hit, partly because it explores a crime mystery/art film hybrid across three separate self-contained films from three different filmmakers. David Bordwell had a fuller discussion of the films. (Wed 10/26 and Sun 10/30).

The Kid with the Bike. The Dardenne brothers' latest film gets a rave from Jonathan Rosenbaum, who calls it one of the best films he's seen this year. (Sat 10/22, Sun 10/23)

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes, this Turkish film sounds to be a slow-cinema version of the police procedural, with stunning cinematography. (Fri 10/28, Sun 10/30)

Life Without Principle. Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To is better known for his action films, but lately he's been venturing into other territory. This one is about the recent financial crisis and its impact on Hong Kong society. (Tues 10/25, Sat 10/29)

And as a reminder, our downloadable iCal calendar has the film festival included, so you can import and even copy the films you want to see into your personal calendar.

Animate Art! series

Karen Beckman, from Penn's Cinema Studies and Art History programs, has curated for the ICA a series of media makers using animation:

The Animate Art! series foregrounds the recent interest that artists have shown in a variety of animation practices within the museum context. Through conversation with artists from a variety of geographic locations we will consider a variety of questions, including: the relationship between animation and other media; contemporary artists' engagement with the histories of art and film; the role of music; the differences among various forms of animation; and animation's treatment of history, time, and place.

This Thursday, at 6:30pm, the series continues with Jennifer Levonian, a local artist who works in cut-paper animation. Levonian will screen her latest film, The Oven Sky, with a live performance by New York-based artist and singer Rachel Mason.

Fall Calendar update

The Repertory Film calendar has been updated. You can download it and import into iCal, Google calendar, or similar program. We've even included the upcoming Philadelphia Film Festival calendar for your convenience.

Bryn Mawr Film Club-The Guard

The Bryn Mawr Film Club screening and discussion this Thursday Sep 29th is The Guard, "an acid-sharp comedy starring Brendan Gleeson. With the humour as black as a pint of Guinness and just as Irish."

Directed by Irish filmmaker John Michael McDonagh with photography directed by Larry Smith (cinematographer for Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut), the film is McDonagh's directing debut and in the spirit of his brother Martin McDonagh's In Bruges(2008). To date The Guard is the most successful Irish independent film of all time according to the box office.

(R) 1 hr 36 min - in English
2011 Starring Don Cheadle, Brendan Gleeson

"A small-town Irish policeman (Brendan Gleeson) reluctantly teams up with a straight-laced FBI agent (Don Cheadle) to investigate a drug case in this wry crime comedy from Irish filmmaker John Michael McDonagh."

Thursday, September 29, 2011
5:30 PM
Admission: $7.00 for students with valid I.D.
Discussion: 7:10 - 8 PM Community Room (just off the arcade, across from MilkBoy)

Bryn Mawr Film Institute
824 W. Lancaster Avenue
PO Box 1058
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
www.BrynMawrFilm.org


The Bryn Mawr Film Club meets bimonthly for screening and discussion of movies currently in theaters. Stay tuned for updates!

Philadelphia Film Festival 2011 Schedule!

Hey everyone!

The schedule for the Philadelphia film festival schedule is now online!

There is a downloadable copy on the website and we will have a downloadable version on the blog soon.

There are many different genres and films this year that are being showcased at the festival with a few specifics standing out for landmark directors.

Lars von Trier's "Melancholia" is premiering at the festival on Saturday, Oct. 22 at 2:20 PM at the Prince Music Theater. As many have read, his Nazi-ist remarks that he made at the Cannes film festival earlier this year have put him on the map for being a truly controversial director. However, the controversy between that, and his last bleak drama "Antichrist" have made him a director to keep an eye on at the festival this year.

"Melancholia" stars Kirsten Dunst stars as a young woman named Justine, who on the night of her marriage finds out that a planet named Melancholia is heading on a collision course with Earth. This sci-fi drama is a strange direction for the genre, but not for Von Trier who is familiar to the abstract craft.

The film is facing comparisons toward Malick's acclaimed film from earlier this year, "The Tree of Life", as both are taking unfamiliar views on the creation and destruction of life as we know it. Both use less dialogue and more vivid imagery helping ramp up the viewers ability to interpret a scene rather than have a theme imposed on them. Melancholia should prove to be an interesting view nonetheless.

Also premiering at the festival is Cronenberg's new film "A Dangerous Method", starring Viggo Mortenson, Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley. The film follows Dr. Jung (Fassbender), who teams with Sigmund Freud (Mortenson) to diagnose and help an extremely unstable patient named Sabina (Knightley). The film follows both of the doctors sexual desires and how they lead to methods never before performed on patients.

The film follows some factual basis, but also takes many liberties and Cronenberg with his signature dark style, helps to add sexuality in a glorious amount to the content. His last film 2007 "Eastern Promises", was notorious for Mortenson's full frontal nude fight scene, both for it's use of the naked body as well as the gratuitous violence. However, his films always have excellent commentary on the desensitization of today's audiences towards violence in cinema.

Another film worth mentioning in Roland Emmerich's "Anonymous" starring Rhys Ifans. It follows the story of the controversy over who actually compiled William Shakespeare's work. As it has plagues the minds of countless philosophers for centuries, the film partly grounded in facts expriements in a art house format to bring the time period to life.

This film is a real step back for Emmerich, who's directed the blockbusters Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow and 2012. His first full fledged drama ever put on screen will be an interesting watch, and based on preliminary reports by critics, is his "best film yet". (Honeycutt)

So the Philly film fest is shaping up to be a great one this year with plenty of other films that I have yet to even mention! So check out the website attached and find out more synopsis' to see what you are interested in!

Bruce Conner Retrospective

(from Report)

This weekend is a Bruce Conner retrospective at the International House, cosponsored by Bryn Mawr's Film Studies program and introduced by film scholar Bruce Jenkins. It's a terrific opportunity to see Conner's work, famous both for its early exploration of the possibilities of found-footage filmmaking and for its accessible, humorous avant-garde ethos.

Program I
Friday, September 23 at 7:30pm

COSMIC RAY
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1961, 16mm, 4 mins, b/w

A MOVIE
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1958, 16mm, 12 mins, b/w

THE WHITE ROSE
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1967, 16mm, 7 mins, b/w

MARILYN TIMES FIVE
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1968-73, 16mm, 13 mins, b/w

VIVIAN
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1964, 16mm, 4 mins, b/w

TEN SECOND FILM
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1965, 16mm, 10 sec, b/w

BREAKAWAY
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1966, 16mm, 5 mins, b/w

MEA CULPA
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1981, 16mm, 5 mins, b/w

TAKE THE 5:10 TO DREAMLAND
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1977, 16mm, 5 mins, color

VALSE TRISTE
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1979, 16mm, 5 mins, b/w

HIS EYE ON THE SPARROW
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 2006, video, 4 mins, b/w and color

EASTER MORNING
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 2008, 16mm, 10 mins, color


Program II
Saturday, September 24 at 7pm

MONGOLOID
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1978, 16mm, 3 mins, b/w

AMERICA IS WAITING
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1981, 16mm, 4 mins, b/w

REPORT
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1963-67, 16mm, 13 mins, b/w

CROSSROADS
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1976, 35mm, 36 mins, b/w

LOOKING FOR MUSHROOMS
dir. Bruce Conner, US, 1996, 16mm, 14 mins, b/w

Full descriptions available at the I-House site.

Scribe events with Kevin Jerome Everson

This Wednesday, Scribe is bring Kevin Jerome Everson to the International House to screen his work Erie, a series of one-take black and white 16mm shots filmed near Lake Erie. Thematically the work connects the Great Migration to the contemporary experience of African-Americans.

Having seen some of Everson's work, I can recommend it for its formal rigor and an evocative approach to experimental narrative.

Full Exposure: An Evening with Kevin Jerome Everson:

Erie

Sep 21, 07:00 PM at the International House
Presented as part of Scribe Video Center’s Producers’ Forum series.

Q+A with Kevin Jerome Everson following the film.

Reception/Presentation:

"Materials, Process, Procedure and Subject"

Sep 22, 07:00 PM at Scribe Video Center (6PM reception)

Admission: $15. Free for Scribe, PIFVA and Reelblack members, Temple and University of Penn students, faculty and staff. (Everson in person)

In this special topic lecture, Everson discusses how he creates his works that document and reflect on the "gestures or tasks caused by certain conditions in the lives of working class African Americans." Everson will screen a selection of his recent short films. Films courtesy of the artist and Picture Palace Pictures.

(Erie still: Video Data Bank)

Philadelphia Film Festival Schedule

The Philadelphia Film Festival

The schedule for the upcoming Philly film fest is going on sale on September 28th! Remember, you need to be a member of the Philadelphia Film Society to buy discount tickets! All-Access Passes start at $300 for members and $350 for non-members, giving you admission to any film playing at the event! Stay tuned for the schedule release.

The festival runs from October 20th-November 3rd!