Director Alison Kobayashi in person

At the International House tomorrow, Feb. 24, 7:00pm, performance and video artist Alison Kobayashi will be presenting her work.

Kobayashi’s pieces address the migration of desires, alongside the transmission of ideas and memory across distances and time. In other words, the works function as mediation through migration. Kobayashi is captivated by found objects that contain traces of private experiences.

Films with artist's notes below.

Dan Carter
dir. Alison Kobayashi, 2006, Canada, video, 15 mins, color
Dan Carter donated his answering machine to a secondhand store. Dan Carter did not remove the cassette tape. So I took it. This film is based on the messages.

From: Alex To: Alex
dir. Alison Kobayashi, 200,6 Canada , video, 6 mins, color
In the fall of 2003 I found a letter on the Winston Churchill Blvd QEW overpass. It was labeled From: Alex To: Alex. This is a film based on the contents of that letter.

DO GOOD
dir. Alison Kobayashi, 2009, Canada, video, 11 mins, color
I catalogued my family’s home video collection. I came across videos of my sister and I in Brownie and Girl Guide ceremonies. It made me want to DO GOOD. It made me want to invite others to DO GOOD too. Five Brownies created new badges. Each Brownie made a video that ex¬plained what was required to earn her badge. You are invited to participate in DO GOOD.

PERIOD 4L
dir. Alison Kobayashi, 2011, Canada , video, work in process, color
John Massier found a letter at a bus stop outside of Dickie’s Dounuts in Buffalo, New York. He gave me the letter.

Pleasure Dome
dir. Alison Kobayashi, 2010, Canada, video, 12 mins, color
Very little is publicly known about what is inside Pleasure Dome. We sought to learn more about Pleasure Dome by closely examining its characters. The goal was to create an objective look at a very singular place. This video is a sample of those findings.

Visiting Filmmaker: Kathryn Ramey

Fall (Kathryn Ramey, 2006)

As part of the Visiting Filmmaker Series sponsored by Temple's Film and Media Arts department, filmmaker Kathryn Ramey will be discussing her work, which uses experimental film techniques to address anthropological and socio-cultural research.

The event starts at 5:15 in Temple's Annenberg Hall (13th and Norris), room 3.

Temple Cinematheque: 60s/70s Animation

The next screening in the Temple Cinematheque series will be a program of Academy Award-winning animation shorts from the 1960s and 1970s. All of the titles will be screened in 16mm:

Pas de Deux (Norman McLaren, 1968, 13m)
Closed Mondays (Bob Gardiner and Will Vinton, 1974, 11m)
Special Delivery (Eunice Macauley and John Weldon, 1977, 7m)
Afterlife (Ishu Patel, 1978, 7min)
The Critic ( Ernest Pintoff, Mel Brooks and Bob Heath, 1963, 4m)
Frank Film (Frank and Caroline Mouris, 1973, 9m)

The program screens next Friday, February 18, at 3 PM in Annenberg Hall (Room 3), 13th and Norris St.

Calendar winter update

The Philly Repertory Film Calendar is now updated. An iCal download, it can be saved then imported into your iCal or Google calendar. It's a handy way to keep up with local screenings and events.

Look out for another update in mid-March.

Stan Douglas in conversation

Stan Douglas in conversation with Diedrich Diederichsen and Nora Alter


Monday, February 14, 2011
6:30 pm
Slought Foundation (4017 Walnut)
Free; reservation not required

Slought Foundation and the Temple University Department of Film and Media Arts are pleased to present artist Stan Douglas in conversation with Diedrich Diederichsen and Nora Alter on Monday, February 14, 2011 from 6:30-8:30pm at Slought Foundation. This program has been organized by Nora Alter, Chair of Film and Media Arts at Temple University. The conversation will engage Douglas’ Vidéo (2007), an audio-visual meditation on Samuel Beckett’s Film (1965), as well as the artist’s more recent public art project Abbott and Cordova (2009), a photo reenactment of the Gastown riot of 1971. The event will begin with a special screening of Vidéo (35 min; 2007).

"I'm always looking for this nexus point, the middle ground of some kind of transformation. I guess this accounts for the embarrassingly consistent binary constructions in my work. Almost all of the works, especially the ones that look at specific historical events, address moments when history could have gone one way or another. We live in the residue of such moments and for better or worse their potential is not yet spent."
-- Stan Douglas in conversation with Diana Thater (London: Phaidon Press, 1998).

Stan Douglas was born in 1960 and attended the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. His film and video installations, photography, and work in television address the history of literature, cinema and music, the technical and social aspects of mass media, and modernism in terms of its failures as a theoretical utopian concept and its manifestation in present day urbanism. His work frequently engages in subtle societal criticisms and investigations of authorship and subjectivity, and has often been imbued with tropes associated with Blues and Jazz. They are media machines, Automats of a sort, which involve the viewer in their mechanics; they reflect an era of transition from literally mechanical reproduction to electronic saturation. Douglas's widely appreciated work has appeared in the 1995 Whitney Biennial and three Venice Biennales; at Documenta 9, 10 and 11; at the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao; and at the Museums of Modern Art in San Francisco and New York. He has had solo exhibitions at the Dia Foundation for the Arts in New York, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among others. His work has also been shown in New York at The Studio Museum, Harlem, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Dia Center for the Arts.

Diedrich Diederichsen was editor of two music magazines in the 1980s (Sounds, Hamburg; Spex, Cologne) and taught at several academies in the 1990s in Germany, Austria, and the U.S. in the fields of art history, musicology, theater studies, and cultural studies. He was Professor for Cultural Theory at Merz Academy, Stuttgart from 1998 to 2006, and is currently Professor of Theory, Practice, and Communication of Contemporary Art at the Academy of Fine Art in Vienna. Recent Publications include Psicodela y ready-made, Buenos Aires 2010; Utopia of Sound, Vienna 2010 (co-edited with Constanze Ruhm); Rock, Paper, Scissor—Pop-Music/Fine Arts, Graz 2009 (co-edited with Peter Pakesch); On Surplus Value (of Art), Rotterdam/New York 2008; Eigenblutdoping, Cologne 2008; Kritik des Auges, Hamburg 2008; Argument Son, Dijon 2007; Personas en loop, Buenos Aires 2006; Musikzimmer, Cologne 2005.

Video Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Will Schmenner, a Penn grad student who is bringing his film programming experience to our benefit, is curating a series of artists' films and videos at The Museum of Art. The first screening in the series is this Sunday, February 13:

Kiss (Robert Bowers, 1971, 6 minutes)

True/False (Colin Campbell, 1972, 9 minutes)
This Is My Mouth (John Watt, 1973, 10 minutes)

Birthday Suit with Scars and Defects (Lisa Steele, 1974, 13 minutes)

Semiotics of the Kitchen (Martha Rosler, 1975, 6 minutes)

My Rectum Is Not a Grave (To a Film Industry in Crisis) (Steve Reinke, 2007, 7 minutes)

Screening starts at 2:00pm.
Film at Perelman

Location: Perelman Media Room

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Perelman building

Single ticket: $8 (members and students with ID $6), includes Perelman building admission
Series ticket: $38 (members and students with ID $30), includes Perelman building admission

Series details here.

Human Rights Watch Film Festival selections

This week, the International House is presenting selections from the 9th Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Wed, Feb. 9
Iran: Voices of the Unheard
The untold story of Iranian secularists through three fascinating characters – each from a distinct social, economic and educational background – but all sharing a love for their motherland and in need of a country free from political repression and theocracy. (dir. Davoud Geramifard, Canada, 2009, BetaSP, 68 mins, color, Farsi w/ English subtitles)

Thurs, Feb. 10
In the Land of the Free…
Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox and Robert King – aka The Angola 3 – have spent a combined century in solitary confinement in Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Targeted by prison officials for being members of the Black Panther Party and for fighting against terrible prison conditions, they were convicted of the murder of a prison guard. New evidence continues to emerge as they continue to challenge the verdict. Narrated by Samuel L Jackson, In the Land of the Free… presents the ongoing story as dramatic events continue to unfold. (dir. Vadim Jean, UK/US, 2009, BetaSP, 84 mins, color)

Fri, Feb. 11
Pushing the Elephant
An intimate family drama set against the backdrop of the 1998 conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pushing the Elephant tells the story of Rose Mapendo, who was separated from her five-year-old daughter Nangabire. Rose survived the atrocities of those years and eventually resettled in Phoenix, Arizona with her other children. Now, after 12 years apart, Rose and her daughter Nangabire are reunited in the US. Through the story of their reunion, we come to understand the excruciating decisions Rose made in order to survive and the complex difficulties Nangabire faces as a refugee in the US, torn between her painful past and a hopeful future. (dir. Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Mandel, US, 2010, BetaSP, 84 mins, color, English, Kinyamulenge and Swahili w/ English subtitles.)

Sat, Feb. 12

Youth Producing Change

Young people are on the frontlines of many of the world’s human rights crises, but we rarely get to hear their points of view. The third edition of Youth Producing Change shares powerful stories from young filmmakers across the globe as they turn the camera on their own lives and share their visions of change. Youth Producing Change Short Film Program was founded by Adobe Youth Voices. Full list of titles available at the International House website.

All films begin at 7:00 pm and are presented in video projection.

Companion Blog

For those interested in the more academic side of film studies, I have a separate blog run for the Philadelphia Cinema and Media Seminar. The seminar itself is a monthly meeting organized around the presentation of academic papers. The weblog will list events in the series and any other talks in the field taking place in the Philadelphia area.

1960s Omnibus Art Film

One of the semi-forgotten genres of the 1960s wave of international/European art cinema is the omnibus film. Producers would package feature length compilations of short films by New Wave and art cinema directors, often around an organizing theme. The practice would help market the work of lesser known directors and could take advantage of coproduction-oriented film policy.

This Thursday (Feb. 3), Secret Cinema is screening The Oldest Profession, an omnibus film about prostitution, featuring leading female stars of the decade (Raquel Welch, Jeanne Moreau, and Elsa Martinelli) and auteur directors, including Jean-Luc Godard and Philippe de Broca. The print is a dye-transfer 35mm print, including the Technicolor sequences of the American print. That means, too, it is dubbed in English, but it's worth noting that all versions of films like this were post-dubbed, since they had international casts.

Screening takes place at 7:00pm at the International House's cinema. Admission: $8.00 ($5.00-$6.00 for members, students & seniors)

Sam Green at Temple

Weather permitting, this Wednesday evening (Feb. 2) documentary filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground, Utopia in Four Movements) will be presenting and discussing his work at Temple University's Film and Media Arts department. The event starts at 5:15 in Temple's Annenberg Hall (13th and Norris), room 3.

This is the first in a series of visiting filmmakers, so stay tuned for future announcements.

Temple Cinematheque

Temple Cinematheque is beginning a semester of (mostly 16mm) Friday afternoon screenings. First up is a pair of Student Academy Award-winning documentary films made by students in Temple's Film and Media Arts (nee Radio Film and Television) program in the 1970s. The films screen this Friday, February 4th, at 3 PM in Annenberg Hall (Room 3), 13th and Norris St.

You See I've Had a Life

1972, B/W - a film by Ben Levin

- A 13-year-old boy does his best to live a normal life despite the fact that he has been diagnosed with leukemia.

Ben Levin was born in Joliet, Illinois. After attending the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, he served in the United States Marine Band in Washington D.C. He then entered Temple University to pursue an MFA with an emphasis in documentary production -- the start of a 17-year relationship with that institution -- culminating in his directing the MFA program there for seven years. Levin is currently Film Professor at the University of North Texas

Through Adam's Eyes

1978, B/W - a film by Bob Saget

- A portrait of a young boy with a facial birth defect. Narrated by Adam, it deals with corrective surgery performed on him and his post--surgical social adjustment.


Bob Saget - TV actor, writer, director, and producer - was born in Philadelphia. His father, Benjamin, was a supermarket executive, and his mother, Rosalyn, was a hospital administrator. Saget lived in Norfolk, Virginia, and Encino, California, before moving back to Philadelphia and graduating from Abington Senior High School. Saget originally intended to become a doctor, but his Honors English teacher saw his creative potential and urged him to seek a career in films. He attended Temple University's film school, where he created Through Adam's Eyes, a black-and-white film about a boy who received reconstructive facial surgery, and was honored with an award of merit in the Student Academy Awards. He graduated with a B.A. in 1978.

Atom Egoyan retrospective

I am working on updating the repertory film calendar for the winter. In the meantime, I wanted to flag an Atom Egoyan retrospective series going on this weekend at the International House. It kicks off tonight:

Thurs 1/20. Next of Kin (1984, 72m) 7pm

Fri 1/21. Family Viewing (1987, 96m) 7pm

Sat 1/22. Speaking Parts (1989, 92m) 5pm

Sat 1/22. Calendar (1993, 75m) 7pm

All screenings in 16mm.

The image above from Calendar - Jonathan Rosenbaum's review is a good orientation to the Armenian-Canadian director's work.

Antonioni, Ford, and more

The International House has their winter lineup announced. There are a few enticing films this week:

Tonight (Wed, 12/15)

Le Amiche/The Girlfriends (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1955)

Tomorrow (Thurs, 12/16)

The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

Saturday, 12/18

Seance on a Wet Afternoon (Brian Forbes, 1964)

All are on 35mm and begin at 7:00pm.

Troupe de Fetishe

Just a note that I will be moderating a panel tomorrow at the closing reception of Troupe de Fetishe, an large-scale video installation currently showing at the Crane Arts space. It should particularly appeal to those with an interest in the technology and conceptual possibilities of large-scale video projection. From the artists' description:

Troupe de Fetishe is a large scale video piece co-directed by Lisa Marie Patzer (MFA candidate), Ian Markiewicz (MFA '08) and Doris Chia-Ching Lin (MFA candidate) with sound design by David Miranda Hardy (MFA candidate).

Troupe de Fetishe tells the story of Oskar Vanderwold, an eccentric “tinkerer” who manipulates and cares for a troupe of flea circus performers. His ornate flea circus is a hand constructed miniature model that fits inside an antique cigar box. It is a macabre world of surreal spectacle, adorned with a series of miniature circus attractions complete with chariots, a trapeze swing, a high dive, and ring of fire.

The project was custom designed for the new video projection system in the Ice Box Project Space, equipped with four synchronized video projectors that create one seamless, 100 ft. wide by 25 ft. tall or 3646 x 768 pixel composition.

Panel discussion to take place tomorrow, Friday, October 29 at Crane Arts (1400 N. American St) from 5:30-6:30pm.

Cabiria

If repertory cinema can be thin on the ground at times, silent film gets downright neglected. Thankfully, this Thursday, the International House is showing (on 16mm) Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914), an Italian epic that's been on my list of shame for a while. Notably, the film is famous for its spectacular sets, setting off a vogue for epic films in the teens, and for its introduction of the emphatic tracking shot to narrative film. Thursday, October 28 at 7pm.