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
Our annual tradition of Fantasy Double Features asks the year's Notebook contributors to pair something new with something old, with the only requirement being the films have to have been freshly seen this year.Part diary of memorable viewing during 2021, part creative prompt to think about how cinema's present speaks to its past (and vice versa), the 14th edition of our end of year poll weaves between theater-going and home-viewing so seamlessly as to suggest that early pandemic impediments from last year are now quite normal. Yet clearly that hasn't stopped us from watching, being delighted by, and thinking about movies, and the wonderful combinations below are testaments to the dynamic, idiosyncratic, and interactive vitality of moviegoing wherever and however its being practiced.CONTRIBUTORSJett Allen | Paul Attard | Jennifer Lynde Barker | Susana Bessa | Michael M. Bilandic | Ela Bittencourt | Johannes Black | Joshua Bogatin | Alex Broadwell | Celluloid Liberation Front | Lillian Crawford | Adrian Curry...
- 1/13/2022
- MUBI
In the Summer 1961 edition of Film Quarterly, Stan Vanderbeek was the first person to refer to experimental filmmaking as the “underground.” A filmmaker himself, Vanderbeek was frustrated that his work and the films of his peers — such as Stan Brakhage, Hilary Harris, Robert Breer and Robert Frank — was not being considered as serious art by the broader cinematic culture.
Eventually, the term “underground film” would become part of the regular movie vernacular, but was it adopted slowly or quickly after its first appearance in 1961?
Jonas Mekas‘s “Movie Journal” column in the Village Voice was the main organ promoting experimental and avant-garde cinema in the early 1960s. A survey of the column from that time period has shown that Mekas did not use the term “underground film” very frequently.
At approximately the same time of the Film Quarterly issue, Mekas devoted a column on May 4, 1961 to three filmmakers. Mekas began the column with:
Stan Vanderbeek,...
Eventually, the term “underground film” would become part of the regular movie vernacular, but was it adopted slowly or quickly after its first appearance in 1961?
Jonas Mekas‘s “Movie Journal” column in the Village Voice was the main organ promoting experimental and avant-garde cinema in the early 1960s. A survey of the column from that time period has shown that Mekas did not use the term “underground film” very frequently.
At approximately the same time of the Film Quarterly issue, Mekas devoted a column on May 4, 1961 to three filmmakers. Mekas began the column with:
Stan Vanderbeek,...
- 10/14/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Stan Vanderbeek was one of the most prolific filmmakers of the experimental film scene, churning out primarily collage films featuring original footage cut up with found imagery.
At the same time, he was also a prodigious film theorist, producing articles on film theory in much the same way he made his films — by combining original writing with text and images created by others. One of Vanderbeek’s most famous articles is “The Cinema Delimina” published in the Summer 1961 edition of Film Quarterly (vol. Xiv no. 4), in which he is the first person to use the term “underground” to refer to what was then mostly referred to as “experimental cinema.”
To be clear, though, Vanderbeek actually did not use the exact term “underground film.”
The gist of the article appears to be Vanderbeek arguing that experimental films should be considered as something better than...
At the same time, he was also a prodigious film theorist, producing articles on film theory in much the same way he made his films — by combining original writing with text and images created by others. One of Vanderbeek’s most famous articles is “The Cinema Delimina” published in the Summer 1961 edition of Film Quarterly (vol. Xiv no. 4), in which he is the first person to use the term “underground” to refer to what was then mostly referred to as “experimental cinema.”
To be clear, though, Vanderbeek actually did not use the exact term “underground film.”
The gist of the article appears to be Vanderbeek arguing that experimental films should be considered as something better than...
- 9/30/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
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
Above: Italian 2-foglio for Loves of a Blonde (Miloš Forman, Czechoslovakia, 1965).As the 54th New York Film Festival winds to a close this weekend I thought it would be instructive to look back at its counterpart of 50 years ago. Sadly, for the sake of symmetry, there are no filmmakers straddling both the 1966 and the 2016 editions, though Agnès Varda (88 years old), Jean-Luc Godard (85), Carlos Saura (84) and Jirí Menzel (78)—all of whom had films in the 1966 Nyff—are all still making films, and Milos Forman (84), Ivan Passer (83) and Peter Watkins (80) are all still with us. There are only two filmmakers in the current Nyff who could potentially have been in the 1966 edition and they are Ken Loach (80) and Paul Verhoeven (78). The current Nyff is remarkably youthful—half the filmmakers weren’t even born in 1966 and, with the exception of Loach and Verhoeven, the old guard is now represented by Jim Jarmusch, Pedro Almodóvar,...
- 10/15/2016
- MUBI
Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Metrograph
Frederick Wiseman‘s High School begins a week-long run.
“Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z” offers multiple titles this weekend, including Assayas‘ Boarding Gate, The Beguiled, and Nicolas Roeg‘s Bad Timing.
A 35mm print of Carol screens on Saturday night.
Cary Grant and Irene Dunne star in My Favorite Wife, playing this Sunday.
Museum...
Metrograph
Frederick Wiseman‘s High School begins a week-long run.
“Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z” offers multiple titles this weekend, including Assayas‘ Boarding Gate, The Beguiled, and Nicolas Roeg‘s Bad Timing.
A 35mm print of Carol screens on Saturday night.
Cary Grant and Irene Dunne star in My Favorite Wife, playing this Sunday.
Museum...
- 3/25/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
As an educator, I’m constantly cycling through the history of animation on a zoetrope hamster wheel, noting how each technical development re-investigates the same fundamental principles set forth by painting, literature, theatre, photography, or any method of communication and presentation. The constantly evolving modes of production in cinema foreshadowed our economy of planned obsolescence via a quest for re-perfection. As revealed by animation historians like Donald Crafton and Maureen Furniss, principles of Taylorism—standardized animation production methods spawning uniform products—governed industry practices. This model re-packages pre-existing modes/products with advances in technology. In this case: 3D is sound; 3D is color; 3D is analog/Sd/HD/2K/4K/6K/Xk video; 3D is IMAX; 3D is new media. I ask my students: have you ever noticed that life is actually in 3D? For me, an obscure and underground experimental animator, cinema is about learning or remembering how to see,...
- 5/11/2015
- by Jodie Mack
- MUBI
The 6th annual Migrating Forms will be returning to the BAMcinématek in Brooklyn, New York on December 10-18 for a full week of new and classic experimental media.
The fun kicks off with the lyrical portrait of North Korea, Songs From the North, for which filmmaker Soon-Mi Yoo compiled footage from popular films, state-organized demonstrations and home video from her own visits to the country.
Highlights of the fest include a three-film retrospective of documentarian William Greaves, Still a Brother, The Fight and Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One; a new consumerist exploration by Cory Arcangel, Freshbuzz (www.subway.com); the oblique narrative Don’t Go Back to Sleep by Stanya Kahn; and the Hong Kong experimental post-apocalyptic The Midnight After by Fruit Chan.
The full lineup for the 2014 Migrating Forms is below:
December 10
8:00 p.m.: Songs From the North, dir. Soon-Mi Yoo. This portrait of North Korea has been crafted...
The fun kicks off with the lyrical portrait of North Korea, Songs From the North, for which filmmaker Soon-Mi Yoo compiled footage from popular films, state-organized demonstrations and home video from her own visits to the country.
Highlights of the fest include a three-film retrospective of documentarian William Greaves, Still a Brother, The Fight and Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One; a new consumerist exploration by Cory Arcangel, Freshbuzz (www.subway.com); the oblique narrative Don’t Go Back to Sleep by Stanya Kahn; and the Hong Kong experimental post-apocalyptic The Midnight After by Fruit Chan.
The full lineup for the 2014 Migrating Forms is below:
December 10
8:00 p.m.: Songs From the North, dir. Soon-Mi Yoo. This portrait of North Korea has been crafted...
- 12/10/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Jodie Mack is a relatively young filmmaker. She has emerged as a significant force on the experimental scene only in the last few years. She is a professor at Dartmouth, where she teaches filmmaking. Part of what is truly remarkable about Mack’s work is the sheer volume of high-quality films and web-based imagery she has produced in a relatively short time (around thirty films in eight years), including the recent karaoke-based featurette, Dusty Stacks of Mom: The Poster Project. In the midst of this flurry of activity, Mack has developed and refined a highly idiosyncratic approach to animated imagery. Her work builds on the legacy of such masters as Robert Breer, Lawrence Jordan, Janie Geiser and Lewis Klahr, while at the same time locating a highly personal and humorous style of handmade formalism.>> - Michael Sicinski...
- 9/16/2014
- Keyframe
Jodie Mack is a relatively young filmmaker. She has emerged as a significant force on the experimental scene only in the last few years. She is a professor at Dartmouth, where she teaches filmmaking. Part of what is truly remarkable about Mack’s work is the sheer volume of high-quality films and web-based imagery she has produced in a relatively short time (around thirty films in eight years), including the recent karaoke-based featurette, Dusty Stacks of Mom: The Poster Project. In the midst of this flurry of activity, Mack has developed and refined a highly idiosyncratic approach to animated imagery. Her work builds on the legacy of such masters as Robert Breer, Lawrence Jordan, Janie Geiser and Lewis Klahr, while at the same time locating a highly personal and humorous style of handmade formalism.>> - Michael Sicinski...
- 9/16/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Above: New Fancy Foils
My new favorite filmmaker is the American animator Jodie Mack. In 2012 I was in the audience at the Views from the Avant-Garde sidebar of the New York Film Festival and had the unexpected experience of dropping my jaw and having it remain fully in that position throughout the surface loveliness and aggregating intensity—both analytic and sensual—of Mack's lace flicker film Point de Gaze. Its young filmmaker has been making films since 2003—several of which are viewable on her website—with a flurrying productivity which belays the painstaking efforts taken to bring her animated films to life. The screening was the revelation of incredible talent, a moving effort of hands and mind, and it promised a great deal for the future.
That promise had already paid off in spades at the 2014 International Film Festival Rotterdam in January, which presented a program of Mack's recent short films not as a profile,...
My new favorite filmmaker is the American animator Jodie Mack. In 2012 I was in the audience at the Views from the Avant-Garde sidebar of the New York Film Festival and had the unexpected experience of dropping my jaw and having it remain fully in that position throughout the surface loveliness and aggregating intensity—both analytic and sensual—of Mack's lace flicker film Point de Gaze. Its young filmmaker has been making films since 2003—several of which are viewable on her website—with a flurrying productivity which belays the painstaking efforts taken to bring her animated films to life. The screening was the revelation of incredible talent, a moving effort of hands and mind, and it promised a great deal for the future.
That promise had already paid off in spades at the 2014 International Film Festival Rotterdam in January, which presented a program of Mack's recent short films not as a profile,...
- 5/11/2014
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
From The Victoria Advocate, Sunday, Jan. 21, 1968. Article text:
Wild Is the Word
Hollywood (Nea) — The underground movie — or “non-commercial cinema,” as those who make them prefer to call their product — is blooming. Most major cities have theaters showing these avant-garde films. There are dozens of festivals at which they are shown.
And now there is a catalogue listing hundreds of movies you can rent for from $4 (for a three- or four-minute epic) up to $129 for something like Andy Warhol’s eight-hour “Empire,” which he describes as “homage to the world’s tallest.”
There is something for everyone. If you like action, there is “Blazes” — “100 basic images switching position for 4,000 frames. A continuous explosion.”
Like tragedy? Try “Snow” — “Snow (that fluffy white stuff that falls in the winter) which is beautiful and winter too somewhat since snow comes then and winter is a kind of pseudo-death, so maybe the movie is...
Wild Is the Word
Hollywood (Nea) — The underground movie — or “non-commercial cinema,” as those who make them prefer to call their product — is blooming. Most major cities have theaters showing these avant-garde films. There are dozens of festivals at which they are shown.
And now there is a catalogue listing hundreds of movies you can rent for from $4 (for a three- or four-minute epic) up to $129 for something like Andy Warhol’s eight-hour “Empire,” which he describes as “homage to the world’s tallest.”
There is something for everyone. If you like action, there is “Blazes” — “100 basic images switching position for 4,000 frames. A continuous explosion.”
Like tragedy? Try “Snow” — “Snow (that fluffy white stuff that falls in the winter) which is beautiful and winter too somewhat since snow comes then and winter is a kind of pseudo-death, so maybe the movie is...
- 10/10/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This Week’s Must Read is actually a few weeks old, but I’ve been skipping these links posts a lot. Anyway… The Brooklyn Rail got a bunch of big names, such as P. Adams Sitney and Ken Jacobs, to discuss the legacy of their friend, Jonas Mekas. That legacy, of course, can never be summed up in just one article, but this is good.Media artist Clint Enns interviewed media artist Sabrina Ratté about her working process. Clint’s probably one of the most insightful people regarding our world of experimental media I know, so this is a must read.Filmmaker Magazine interviewed one of our favorite underground comedy directors, Zach Clark, about his new Christmas movie White Reindeer, which, of course, we’re dying to see.Our pal J.J. Murphy recently posted his annual “Best of 2012″ indie films list, as he traditionally does around this time of year.
- 3/3/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
It’s the 50th anniversary of the Ann Arbor Film Festival and they’re preparing an all-out blowout on March 27 to April 1 to celebrate! The fest is crammed to the gills with the latest and greatest in experimental and avant-garde film, in addition to a celebration of classic work from Ann Arbors past.
Filmmaker Bruce Baillie was there at the first Aaff — and numerous times since. He’s back this year with a major retrospective of his entire career that spans three separate programs. Baillie, who’ll be in attendance of course, will present a brand-new restored version of his epic pseudo-Western Quick Billy, plus screenings of his classic short movies such as Castro Street, Yellow Horse, Quixote, To Parsifal and more.
There’s also a program dedicated to the films of the late Robert Nelson, including Bleu Shut and Special Warning, as well as sprinklings of underground classics throughout...
Filmmaker Bruce Baillie was there at the first Aaff — and numerous times since. He’s back this year with a major retrospective of his entire career that spans three separate programs. Baillie, who’ll be in attendance of course, will present a brand-new restored version of his epic pseudo-Western Quick Billy, plus screenings of his classic short movies such as Castro Street, Yellow Horse, Quixote, To Parsifal and more.
There’s also a program dedicated to the films of the late Robert Nelson, including Bleu Shut and Special Warning, as well as sprinklings of underground classics throughout...
- 3/7/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Feb. 11
5:00 p.m.
Microscope Gallery
4 Charles Place
Brooklyn, NY 11221
Hosted by: Microscope Gallery
Throughout the month of February, Brooklyn’s Microscope Gallery will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of NYC’s Film-makers’ Cooperative, the oldest and largest artist-run coop in the world. While the opening reception for this special exhibit will be at 7:00 p.m. on Feb. 11, at 5:00 p.m. will be a special screening of rare 16mm films by the legendary Jack Smith.
Ironically, Smith would probably be furious about this special event if he were still alive, thanks to his severe falling out with the Coop’s founder Jonas Mekas. But, with several new 16mm prints of many of his “lost” films, this event promises to be one of the premiere avant-garde screenings of 2012. So, screw Jack. The films that will be screening are: Respectable Creatures, Song for Rent, Hot Air Specialists, Overstimulated, Scotch Tape,...
5:00 p.m.
Microscope Gallery
4 Charles Place
Brooklyn, NY 11221
Hosted by: Microscope Gallery
Throughout the month of February, Brooklyn’s Microscope Gallery will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of NYC’s Film-makers’ Cooperative, the oldest and largest artist-run coop in the world. While the opening reception for this special exhibit will be at 7:00 p.m. on Feb. 11, at 5:00 p.m. will be a special screening of rare 16mm films by the legendary Jack Smith.
Ironically, Smith would probably be furious about this special event if he were still alive, thanks to his severe falling out with the Coop’s founder Jonas Mekas. But, with several new 16mm prints of many of his “lost” films, this event promises to be one of the premiere avant-garde screenings of 2012. So, screw Jack. The films that will be screening are: Respectable Creatures, Song for Rent, Hot Air Specialists, Overstimulated, Scotch Tape,...
- 2/7/2012
- by screenings
- Underground Film Journal
Colors flow and glide across the screen in Lillian Schwartz‘s classic experimental short film Papillons, produced in 1973. Simultaneously, the film is both of its decade and very timeless, following in the traditional experimental animation tradition, but using the then-new process of using computers to create art.
The official description of Papillons indicates that it is a visual representation of “mathematical functions,” but the bold, chunky, swirling colors also feel to be a holdover from the psychedelic era that had just died down by the time of the film’s production. Plus, there also appears to be some continuity with the type of fluid and repetitive animation in the tradition of Robert Breer, even though Schwartz was bringing that style to a new, digital medium.
Schwartz created her art films while working in residence at At&T’s Bell Laboratories where she helped create the image-generating programming language Explor, an...
The official description of Papillons indicates that it is a visual representation of “mathematical functions,” but the bold, chunky, swirling colors also feel to be a holdover from the psychedelic era that had just died down by the time of the film’s production. Plus, there also appears to be some continuity with the type of fluid and repetitive animation in the tradition of Robert Breer, even though Schwartz was bringing that style to a new, digital medium.
Schwartz created her art films while working in residence at At&T’s Bell Laboratories where she helped create the image-generating programming language Explor, an...
- 2/6/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
"The second-to-last interview that Pier Paolo Pasolini gave before he was murdered in 1975 (a case that still remains mysterious) and that was long believed lost has turned up," reports the New Yorker's Richard Brody. "Eric Loret and Robert Maggiori tell the story in Libération — Pasolini was introducing his work in Sweden, a round-table discussion was recorded for broadcast, then held, then lost, until his Swedish translator, Carl Henrik Svenstedt, recently found his personal recording of the talk. The Italian weekly L'Espresso has published a partial transcript of the discussion, along with the audio recording." And he's got excerpts. For example: "I consider consumerism to be a Fascism worse than the classical one, because clerical Fascism didn't really transform Italians, didn't enter into them. It was a totalitarian state but not a totalizing one."
In other news. "This month Offscreen groups together (four of the five) essays that attempt to illuminate...
In other news. "This month Offscreen groups together (four of the five) essays that attempt to illuminate...
- 12/30/2011
- MUBI
Fake Fruit Factory from Guergana Tzatchkov on Vimeo.
"Every year, Librarian of Congress James H Billington personally selects which films will be added to the National Film Registry, working from a list of suggestions from the library’s National Film Preservation Board and the general public," reports Ann Hornaday for the Washington Post. This year's list of 25 films slated for preservation:
Allures (Jordan Belson, 1961) Bambi (Walt Disney, 1942) The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953) A Computer Animated Hand (Pixar, 1972) Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (Robert Drew, 1963) The Cry of the Children (George Nichols, 1912) A Cure for Pokeritis (Laurence Trimble, 1912) El Mariachi (Robert Rodriguez, 1992) Faces (John Cassavetes, 1968) Fake Fruit Factory (Chick Strand, 1986) Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994) Growing Up Female (Jim Klein and Julia Reichert, 1971) Hester Street (Joan Micklin Silver, 1975) I, an Actress (George Kuchar, 1977) The Iron Horse (John Ford, 1924) The Kid (Charlie Chaplin, 1921) The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945) The Negro Soldier (Stuart Heisler,...
"Every year, Librarian of Congress James H Billington personally selects which films will be added to the National Film Registry, working from a list of suggestions from the library’s National Film Preservation Board and the general public," reports Ann Hornaday for the Washington Post. This year's list of 25 films slated for preservation:
Allures (Jordan Belson, 1961) Bambi (Walt Disney, 1942) The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953) A Computer Animated Hand (Pixar, 1972) Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (Robert Drew, 1963) The Cry of the Children (George Nichols, 1912) A Cure for Pokeritis (Laurence Trimble, 1912) El Mariachi (Robert Rodriguez, 1992) Faces (John Cassavetes, 1968) Fake Fruit Factory (Chick Strand, 1986) Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994) Growing Up Female (Jim Klein and Julia Reichert, 1971) Hester Street (Joan Micklin Silver, 1975) I, an Actress (George Kuchar, 1977) The Iron Horse (John Ford, 1924) The Kid (Charlie Chaplin, 1921) The Lost Weekend (Billy Wilder, 1945) The Negro Soldier (Stuart Heisler,...
- 12/30/2011
- MUBI
A terrific year for avant-garde film and video--much more so than had been forecast for 2011- -was matched by mid-year woe and commemorative celebration as a string of successive losses reminded us that many of the great, pioneering voices of the sixties and seventies (largely considered the “second wave” of cinematic avant-gardists, some limning the “New American Cinema”) were dying off, or nearing the end of their lives. 2011 brought with it the passing of Lithuanian-born anarchic filmmaker Adolfas Mekas, legendary animator Robert Breer, enigmatic prankster Owen Land (a.k.a. George Landow), visual music animator Jordan Belson, the inimitable underground camp supernova, trash enthusiast and twin extraordinaire George Kuchar, as well as Chilean-French master Raoul Ruiz and British bad boy Ken Russell, both avant-garde in their own amazing, hallucinatory (and very different!) ways. And yet, to proclaim a ceremonial changing of the guard would be...
- 12/29/2011
- Indiewire
The East Village's Anthology Film Archives, which was just acknowledged by the Village Voice for its programming, has announced its schedule for the next two months. Highlights include retrospectives of Joyce Weiland, John Samson, Owen Land and Robert Breer, as well as the theatrical premiere of Anthology founder Jonas Mekas' new feature, "Sleepness Nights Stories," which features Yoko Ono, Patti Smith, Ken Jacobs and Marina Abramovic. Full schedule below: Anthology ...
- 10/25/2011
- Indiewire
The BFI London Film Festival opens tonight with Fernando Meirelles's 360 and closes on October 27 with Terence Davies's The Deep Blue Sea (and you can read a roundup on both films at once right here). Sight & Sound presents a guide to "30 fine films we've already seen and (mostly) written about in the magazine or on the web" and Time Out London has set up a microsite currently featuring reviews of at least as many titles.
"When Sandra Hebron took over as artistic director of the BFI London Film Festival nine years ago, it was a more subdued affair," recalls David Gritten, "a thoughtful, well-meaning event at the National Film Theatre, primarily for the benefit of the paying public, and showcasing the best new movies from all over the world. While respected, its international profile was relatively low. Today, it's a very different creature. This year, its 55th as a festival,...
"When Sandra Hebron took over as artistic director of the BFI London Film Festival nine years ago, it was a more subdued affair," recalls David Gritten, "a thoughtful, well-meaning event at the National Film Theatre, primarily for the benefit of the paying public, and showcasing the best new movies from all over the world. While respected, its international profile was relatively low. Today, it's a very different creature. This year, its 55th as a festival,...
- 10/12/2011
- MUBI
Donal Foreman's cut-to-the-bone report on the five-day Filmmaker Conference at last month's Independent Film Week pits Jon Jost against Ted Hope, weighs the effect of Michael Tully's "Take-Back Manifesto" and explains why Antonio Campos prompted another panelist to ask, "Are you saying we should all become communists?" A lively must-read for anyone interested in the current state of independent filmmaking.
Also in the October issue of the Brooklyn Rail: Tom McCormack remembers Robert Breer, who "pioneered a form of cinematic collage that used single-frame editing and omnium-gatherums of chaotic imagery to shape the quotidian into whirligig treatises on the nature of perception." Plus: Leo Goldsmith and Rachael Rakes on Harun Farocki's Images of War (at a Distance), on view at MoMA through January 2, and Emily Apter talks with Silvia Kolbowski about two of her works, A Few Howls Again? and After Hiroshima Mon Amour.
Los Angeles Filmforum...
Also in the October issue of the Brooklyn Rail: Tom McCormack remembers Robert Breer, who "pioneered a form of cinematic collage that used single-frame editing and omnium-gatherums of chaotic imagery to shape the quotidian into whirligig treatises on the nature of perception." Plus: Leo Goldsmith and Rachael Rakes on Harun Farocki's Images of War (at a Distance), on view at MoMA through January 2, and Emily Apter talks with Silvia Kolbowski about two of her works, A Few Howls Again? and After Hiroshima Mon Amour.
Los Angeles Filmforum...
- 10/9/2011
- MUBI
This year's Experimenta at the Lff is full of fascinating, taboo-busting and just plain beautiful films, says curator Mark Webber
Curating experimental work for a film festival that prides itself on attracting the broadest possible audience is not without its challenges. "I used to go screenings and people would be yawning or you'd hear witty comments like 'Has it started yet?'," says Mark Webber, who programmes for the London film festival's Experimenta strand. "You get nervous about showing challenging work because of that kind of reaction. But it was always a bit of a mission of mine to reach people who wouldn't normally encounter this sort of film. At the Lff, there are certain people who follow this work regularly but a lot of it is that nebulous festival audience we don't see throughout the year. But people who come to these screenings seem to be receptive. They stay...
Curating experimental work for a film festival that prides itself on attracting the broadest possible audience is not without its challenges. "I used to go screenings and people would be yawning or you'd hear witty comments like 'Has it started yet?'," says Mark Webber, who programmes for the London film festival's Experimenta strand. "You get nervous about showing challenging work because of that kind of reaction. But it was always a bit of a mission of mine to reach people who wouldn't normally encounter this sort of film. At the Lff, there are certain people who follow this work regularly but a lot of it is that nebulous festival audience we don't see throughout the year. But people who come to these screenings seem to be receptive. They stay...
- 9/27/2011
- by Ben Walters
- The Guardian - Film News
As has been noted many times before, by me and others, the Wavelengths series of the Toronto International Film Festival is like a festival unto itself. So far removed from the red carpet nonsense, the deal-making, and the me-firstism of web journalists hoping to hit the Web with their initial impressions of some new Bryce Dallas Howard vehicle, Wavelengths affords breathing room to cinema and video at its most formally adventurous and, yes, uncommercial. We come here to look and listen, not to look “at” or listen “to,” and if that sounds hopelessly pretentious, come on down to the Jackman Hall and see for yourself. It’s actually quite cleansing, often funny, and a guaranteed good time, at least in part. (Short films are like the weather in my hometown of Houston, Texas. Don’t like it? Wait a moment. It’ll change.)
Sadly, Wavelengths 2011 will be the final year for series curator Andréa Picard.
Sadly, Wavelengths 2011 will be the final year for series curator Andréa Picard.
- 9/8/2011
- MUBI
Experimental film-maker and artist whose creations had a playful, unpredictable quality
The experimental animator Robert Breer, who has died aged 84, made more than 40 highly inventive films in a career spanning some 50 years. His oeuvre combined abstraction, subversive collage, figurative work and simple mark-making, and took in a broad range of influences and reference points, including painting, kinetic art, early cinema and cartoons.
Breer was considered by some to be an anti-animator, as he often worked against the processes with which the craft is ordinarily associated. He explored movement between frames and within, and teased apart the lines between motion and stasis, working skilfully, sensitively and humorously, with variations in speed and repetition. In films such as Swiss Army Knife With Rats and Pigeons (1980), he combined many different styles of animation, as well as live action. Breer took a considered yet light-of-touch approach to his films, infusing them with life and spontaneity.
The experimental animator Robert Breer, who has died aged 84, made more than 40 highly inventive films in a career spanning some 50 years. His oeuvre combined abstraction, subversive collage, figurative work and simple mark-making, and took in a broad range of influences and reference points, including painting, kinetic art, early cinema and cartoons.
Breer was considered by some to be an anti-animator, as he often worked against the processes with which the craft is ordinarily associated. He explored movement between frames and within, and teased apart the lines between motion and stasis, working skilfully, sensitively and humorously, with variations in speed and repetition. In films such as Swiss Army Knife With Rats and Pigeons (1980), he combined many different styles of animation, as well as live action. Breer took a considered yet light-of-touch approach to his films, infusing them with life and spontaneity.
- 9/2/2011
- by William Fowler
- The Guardian - Film News
Dorsky’s done it again! Just like last week — but even more so! — this week’s Absolute Must Read is Nathaniel Dorsky’s remembrance of living the avant-garde film life in NYC in the late ’60s. Adventures include hanging out with Stan Brakhage and Naomi Levine, going to the deli with Slavko Vorkapich, projecting films with Jerome Hiller and many other impossibly cool things. The New York Times published an official obit for Robert Breer, which has several pieces of personal bio info not otherwise found online. Also, Yoel Miranda has a very personal remembrance of Breer. So, what’s it like to intern at a major independent film festival? Rooftop Films intern Sheila Maria Lobo lets us know. By the way: Donna k. lets us know that film festivals, in general, are fabulous. South Australia has banned A Serbian Film. Man, that country is so uptight. Speaking of which,...
- 8/21/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Experimental animator Robert Breer, once referred to by the Harvard Film Archive as the "Kinetic Poet of the Avant-Garde," passed away on Friday. Pip Chodorov broke the news via the Frameworks list, calling him "a good friend, a very funny man, and a great artist."
Breer's father, an automobile designer, rigged a Bolex so that he could shoot home movies in 3D. In the early 50s, Breer lived in Paris, where he made large abstract paintings, and in the 60s, he made "float" sculptures that wander the gallery. An exhibition of several of these paintings and sculptures is currently on view at Baltic's Level 4 Gallery in Gateshead through September 25.
Yoel Meranda, who, a few years ago, worked at the Film-makers' Cooperative in New York, which Breer co-founded in the 70s, has a moving remembrance. Here's how it begins: "When I first saw on Fred Camper's Senses of Cinema top tens...
Breer's father, an automobile designer, rigged a Bolex so that he could shoot home movies in 3D. In the early 50s, Breer lived in Paris, where he made large abstract paintings, and in the 60s, he made "float" sculptures that wander the gallery. An exhibition of several of these paintings and sculptures is currently on view at Baltic's Level 4 Gallery in Gateshead through September 25.
Yoel Meranda, who, a few years ago, worked at the Film-makers' Cooperative in New York, which Breer co-founded in the 70s, has a moving remembrance. Here's how it begins: "When I first saw on Fred Camper's Senses of Cinema top tens...
- 8/14/2011
- MUBI
It has been announced via the Frameworks listserv that pioneering experimental animator Robert Breer passed away on Aug. 11. The news came with no information regarding the circumstances of his death. Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film believes Breer was born in 1926, so although we don’t know the specific date of his birth, he was either 84 or 85 years old.
(Bad Lit is also not a member of Frameworks, but had this information forwarded to us.)
According to Sheldon Renan’s An Introduction of the American Underground Film, Breer began his artistic career originally as a painter, graduating from Stanford in 1949 with a degree in that field. Upon graduation, he moved to Paris where he first began making animated collage films such as Form Phases I (1953).
Then, he moved into line animation films, including one of his most famous short works, A Man and His Dog Out for Air (1957), which...
(Bad Lit is also not a member of Frameworks, but had this information forwarded to us.)
According to Sheldon Renan’s An Introduction of the American Underground Film, Breer began his artistic career originally as a painter, graduating from Stanford in 1949 with a degree in that field. Upon graduation, he moved to Paris where he first began making animated collage films such as Form Phases I (1953).
Then, he moved into line animation films, including one of his most famous short works, A Man and His Dog Out for Air (1957), which...
- 8/13/2011
- 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
The shapes of things to come. Hard-edged geometric shapes flow into organic blobs flow into humanoid figures in Edwin Rostron‘s abstract animation Visions of the Invertebrate. The logical shape shifting in a controlled space by Rostron gives the film the feeling of an abstract expressionist painting put into motion and calls to mind early experimental film work by animators, particularly the work of Robert Breer.
Given that Rostron places the figure of a canine in the center of his film, the easiest connection to make is between Visions of the Invertebrate and Breer’s classic A Man and His Dog Out for Air, even though Breer was working in B&W and mostly animating formless squiggly lines. Plus, Breer’s dog doesn’t show up until the end of the film. Still, it’s also the fluid motion of one shape to another that connects the films.
Breer also...
Given that Rostron places the figure of a canine in the center of his film, the easiest connection to make is between Visions of the Invertebrate and Breer’s classic A Man and His Dog Out for Air, even though Breer was working in B&W and mostly animating formless squiggly lines. Plus, Breer’s dog doesn’t show up until the end of the film. Still, it’s also the fluid motion of one shape to another that connects the films.
Breer also...
- 7/19/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
I usually link to Making Light of It in these posts — when Jacob’s not disappearing on me — but I really want to make sure people look at Jacob’s most recent article, so I’m listing him first this week. Jacob’s scanned a bunch of covers of old Film Culture magazines that are really sweet looking. I don’t recognize everybody’s picture, but I see Stan Vanderbeek, Harry Smith, Robert Breer and more. And, I think Jacob has the second only photo ever of Ron Rice on the Internet, after mine. Fangoria conducted a fascinating interview with one of Bad Lit’s favorite people, C.W. Prather of the Spooky Movie Festival, which is currently going on. Funniest thing I saw this week — hell, funniest thing I’ve seen in months! — was the Twitter stream of Ted Nope, a parody of indie film producer Ted Hope’s airless Twitter musings.
- 10/24/2010
- 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
Wow, this is a long list this week. Enjoy!
Is Australia the most conservative country in the world right now? Luke Buckmaster of The Age newspaper reports that the illegal screening of Bruce Labruce’s gay horror movie L.A. Zombie at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival went off without any arrests. But Buckmaster was so thoroughly disgusted by the movie, he’s practically advocating for the censorship of it. What the hell did he think he was going to go see? Or maybe England is gunning for the Most Conservative Country Award. Electric Sheep reports on Srdjan Spasojevic’s controversial A Serbian Movie being pulled from FrightFest after British censors demanded almost four minutes of edits. While the film has, and will, screen freely here in the U.S. at festivals, who knows what the MPAA would say if the film were released here theatrically? The Australian Film Reviews...
Is Australia the most conservative country in the world right now? Luke Buckmaster of The Age newspaper reports that the illegal screening of Bruce Labruce’s gay horror movie L.A. Zombie at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival went off without any arrests. But Buckmaster was so thoroughly disgusted by the movie, he’s practically advocating for the censorship of it. What the hell did he think he was going to go see? Or maybe England is gunning for the Most Conservative Country Award. Electric Sheep reports on Srdjan Spasojevic’s controversial A Serbian Movie being pulled from FrightFest after British censors demanded almost four minutes of edits. While the film has, and will, screen freely here in the U.S. at festivals, who knows what the MPAA would say if the film were released here theatrically? The Australian Film Reviews...
- 9/5/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Well, this is an exciting week for links! I’ve stumbled upon or have been directed to several new sources from which to pull from. Is the underground film blogging boom not far away? This is one of the longer links posts I’ve done.
First up isn’t exactly an underground film site per se. It’s Catherine Grant’s phenomenal Film Studies for Free who puts up encyclopedia-sized links posts that make my weekly compilations seem sad and pathetic by comparison. Semi-underground related, Grant recently posted up 12 videos from a David Lynch symposium that took place back in ’09 at the Tate Modern. Add this site to your RSS reader. I did. Making Light of It has recommended a resurrected blog that I’ve never seen before: Watermelon Rinds by Ekrem Serdar. In his most recent post, Serdar tries to gather some thoughts and ideas on Robert Breer and Keewatin Dewdney.
First up isn’t exactly an underground film site per se. It’s Catherine Grant’s phenomenal Film Studies for Free who puts up encyclopedia-sized links posts that make my weekly compilations seem sad and pathetic by comparison. Semi-underground related, Grant recently posted up 12 videos from a David Lynch symposium that took place back in ’09 at the Tate Modern. Add this site to your RSS reader. I did. Making Light of It has recommended a resurrected blog that I’ve never seen before: Watermelon Rinds by Ekrem Serdar. In his most recent post, Serdar tries to gather some thoughts and ideas on Robert Breer and Keewatin Dewdney.
- 8/15/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Embedded above is a brief segment from the 1999 British TV show Dope Sheet on Mary Ellen Bute, the experimental animation pioneer who produced over a dozen abstract animated films between the 1930s and ’50s. While her contribution to experimental film has largely been overlooked except by hardcore animation buffs, there’s been a slow resurgence in interest in her work.
Her name crossed my path in a significant way this past week or so while I was building the beginning stages of my underground film timeline. The timeline currently credits her with just 11 films, 10 of which are abstract animations and one, The Boy Who Saw Through, is a live action short film that, according to the above documentary, stars an extremely young Christopher Walken. The documentary also credits Bute for having made 15 animated films between 1935 and 1956.
However, there’s some dispute between the information I currently have. For example, the timeline says her first film,...
Her name crossed my path in a significant way this past week or so while I was building the beginning stages of my underground film timeline. The timeline currently credits her with just 11 films, 10 of which are abstract animations and one, The Boy Who Saw Through, is a live action short film that, according to the above documentary, stars an extremely young Christopher Walken. The documentary also credits Bute for having made 15 animated films between 1935 and 1956.
However, there’s some dispute between the information I currently have. For example, the timeline says her first film,...
- 7/19/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Flamethrower Magazine conducted an impressive and extensive interview with underground film raconteur Mike Z about his hoax filmmaking career and his Charles Manson inspired stage show, The Strip Cult, which may become a major musical. The Chicago Underground Film Festival is this week and Hollywood Chicago passionately recommended seeing the opening night film, The Wild Hunt. Chicago Journal ran an overview of the fest. Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips — whom I thoroughly enjoy on At the Movies — wrote a brief preview focusing on Jonas Mekas. Newcity Film liked the Chicago-produced documentary Scrappers. True/Slant also raved about Scrappers. Also in Chicago, the Reader named The Nightingale as the 2010 Best Alternative Film Venue in the city. On Cinema Scope, Michael Sicinski profiles and interviews British experimental filmmaker Ben Rivers, which prompts Making Light of It to offer its own assessment of Rivers’ work. Blake Williams looks at the evolution of the long,...
- 6/27/2010
- 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
So, with this week, I’m thinking up and trying to implement new ways to pull links from more diverse sources, so that I’m not just linking to the same types of posts. Although some of my “regulars” are posting consistently interesting things, too. Let’s start mixing it up!
You might have to register for these, but first here’s a classic review from the 1975 New York Times by Richard Eder for a re-release of Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie’s Pull My Daisy, the notorious 1959 Beat film. Then, more recently, Dave Itzkoff interviews Chuck Workman, the director of Visionaries, a documentary about Jonas Mekas and the history of avant-garde film. The site Guest of a Guest also reviews Visionaries and includes an early — and I mean early — acting clip of Robert Downey Jr. in one of his dad’s films. Another blast from the past, Making Light...
You might have to register for these, but first here’s a classic review from the 1975 New York Times by Richard Eder for a re-release of Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie’s Pull My Daisy, the notorious 1959 Beat film. Then, more recently, Dave Itzkoff interviews Chuck Workman, the director of Visionaries, a documentary about Jonas Mekas and the history of avant-garde film. The site Guest of a Guest also reviews Visionaries and includes an early — and I mean early — acting clip of Robert Downey Jr. in one of his dad’s films. Another blast from the past, Making Light...
- 4/25/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
So, I’m currently working on a big research project, the results of which won’t be seen unless you happen to be poring through Bad Lit’s sister site the Underground Film Guide — and the way that site is woefully under-updated, why would you?
The Ufg, as I like to call it, is a database project of underground filmmakers and films. Recently I decided to halt adding new entries and to make the old filmmaker entries I previously uploaded more comprehensive. One way I’m doing that is going through books on underground film and, if a filmmaker is written up in each book, I’ll add that book’s info to the filmmaker’s profile. If you’re interested and want an idea of what I’m talking about, go look at John Waters’ entry and scroll down to the book section.
One book that is a tremendous...
The Ufg, as I like to call it, is a database project of underground filmmakers and films. Recently I decided to halt adding new entries and to make the old filmmaker entries I previously uploaded more comprehensive. One way I’m doing that is going through books on underground film and, if a filmmaker is written up in each book, I’ll add that book’s info to the filmmaker’s profile. If you’re interested and want an idea of what I’m talking about, go look at John Waters’ entry and scroll down to the book section.
One book that is a tremendous...
- 4/17/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
I just found out the other day that the American Film Institute (AFI) used to give out an annual Maya Deren Independent Film and Video Artists Award to celebrate achievements in underground and non-commercial independent filmmaking.
Information about this award is difficult to come by, so I thought I’d post up all of the recipients in one easy to browse list on Bad Lit. While I’m sure AFI has kept records of the award — and hopefully have video somewhere of the recipients accepting it, if there were indeed award ceremonies — none of that is currently live on their website.
I compiled the list of winners, which is posted below, from records on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). I’m just going under the assumption that the IMDb info is indeed correct. However, I believe it is as I did happen to find some corroboration on some of the...
Information about this award is difficult to come by, so I thought I’d post up all of the recipients in one easy to browse list on Bad Lit. While I’m sure AFI has kept records of the award — and hopefully have video somewhere of the recipients accepting it, if there were indeed award ceremonies — none of that is currently live on their website.
I compiled the list of winners, which is posted below, from records on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). I’m just going under the assumption that the IMDb info is indeed correct. However, I believe it is as I did happen to find some corroboration on some of the...
- 1/22/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The term “underground film” has never enjoyed a popular definition. Oh, some writers have attempted formal definitions, but I doubt there will ever be one that is popularly agreed upon. It’s not even a term that can be agreed upon to be used. But, it is used and I personally have billed this site “The Journal of Underground Film,” so I thought I’d give my general perception of what “underground film” might mean to contribute to an ongoing dialogue about it.
And I prefer to consider writing a post like this as contributing to a dialogue because I do not have any interest in trying to build a definition myself. However, what I can say is that “Underground film” is not a genre. Actually, what leads me to use the term “underground” is that it feels to me to be a catch-all for other genres.
Avant-garde, experimental, poem,...
And I prefer to consider writing a post like this as contributing to a dialogue because I do not have any interest in trying to build a definition myself. However, what I can say is that “Underground film” is not a genre. Actually, what leads me to use the term “underground” is that it feels to me to be a catch-all for other genres.
Avant-garde, experimental, poem,...
- 1/12/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Tim Burton invades New York, New Italian Cinema hits Los Angeles, Harold and Kumar spread holiday cheer in Austin and everywhere you look, they're celebrating All Tomorrow's Parties -- just some of the holiday film fun you can have this winter at your local repertory theater.
More Holiday Preview: [Theatrical Calendar]
[Repertory Calendar] [Anywhere But a Movie Theater]
New York
92YTribeca
In November, the 92YTribeca Screening Room will have some special guests in the house when it hosts the already sold out "A Conversation with Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman" on November 10th, with the two longtime collaborators discussing their latest film "Fantastic Mr. Fox." But tickets are still available for the night before (Nov. 9th), when actor Ben Foster and director Oren Moverman will screen their acclaimed new post-war drama "The Messenger". Much of the rest of the month is devoted to Cinema Tropical's Ten Years of New Argentine Cinema series with screenings of Adrián Caetano's immigration...
More Holiday Preview: [Theatrical Calendar]
[Repertory Calendar] [Anywhere But a Movie Theater]
New York
92YTribeca
In November, the 92YTribeca Screening Room will have some special guests in the house when it hosts the already sold out "A Conversation with Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman" on November 10th, with the two longtime collaborators discussing their latest film "Fantastic Mr. Fox." But tickets are still available for the night before (Nov. 9th), when actor Ben Foster and director Oren Moverman will screen their acclaimed new post-war drama "The Messenger". Much of the rest of the month is devoted to Cinema Tropical's Ten Years of New Argentine Cinema series with screenings of Adrián Caetano's immigration...
- 11/3/2009
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
3 have Rotterdam's Tiger by tail
AMSTERDAM -- The International Film Festival Rotterdam on Wednesday unveiled the first films selected for its Tiger Award competition.
Japanese autobiographical production "Waltz in Starlight" by Shingo Wakagi, Pusan award-winner "Flower in the Pocket" by debutante Liew Seng from Malaysia and "Wonderful Town" by Aditva Assarat, a Thai production supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, are the first three titles chosen.
The full competition lineup for the Jan. 23-Feb. 3 festival will be unveiled in January by newly appointed director Rutger Wolfson, who replaced Sandra den Hamer in September.
The 37th edition already is taking shape, with U.S. experimental director Robert Breer and Russian director Scetlana Proskurina chosen as Filmmakers in Focus.
The festival also announced a number of world premieres. Brit director Stephen Dwoskin will present "The Sun and The Moon", a radical portrait of lust, pain and melancholy, while U.S. helmer Jeff Pickett presents his first feature, "The Skyjacker", a story about a man who hijacks a plane and falls in love with the stewardess.
Japanese autobiographical production "Waltz in Starlight" by Shingo Wakagi, Pusan award-winner "Flower in the Pocket" by debutante Liew Seng from Malaysia and "Wonderful Town" by Aditva Assarat, a Thai production supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, are the first three titles chosen.
The full competition lineup for the Jan. 23-Feb. 3 festival will be unveiled in January by newly appointed director Rutger Wolfson, who replaced Sandra den Hamer in September.
The 37th edition already is taking shape, with U.S. experimental director Robert Breer and Russian director Scetlana Proskurina chosen as Filmmakers in Focus.
The festival also announced a number of world premieres. Brit director Stephen Dwoskin will present "The Sun and The Moon", a radical portrait of lust, pain and melancholy, while U.S. helmer Jeff Pickett presents his first feature, "The Skyjacker", a story about a man who hijacks a plane and falls in love with the stewardess.
- 11/22/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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