Anthology Film Archives

In Japanese with English subtitles.

In war-torn medieval Japan, a demon haunts the Rajomon Gate, ripping out the throats of samurai in the grove beyond. The governor sends a war hero to confront the spirit, but what the man finds are two beautiful women who look just like his lost mother and wife. Both a chilling ghost story and a meditation on the nature of war and social hypocrisy, KURONEKO mixes stunning visuals, an evocative score, and influences from traditional Japanese theater to create an atmospheric, haunting, and emotionally devastating masterpiece.

NEWFILMMAKERS CELEBRATES WRITING, ACTING, FILMMAKING, AND THE OTHER DARK ARTS

FIRST SHORT PROGRAM
about writing
Choice Skinner SELLING IT (2012, 12 minutes, video)
Matt McClain THE DICK (2011, 13 minutes, video)
Sean Ryan UNTITLED (2011, 15 minutes, video)
Vadim Brin AUTUMN MUSE (2009, 27 minutes, video)

SECOND SHORT PROGRAM
about acting
Sergio Marcos INSPECTOR SANCHEZ (2011, 11 minutes, video)
Adam Goldhammer 1-800-CHOICES (2011, 18 minutes, video)
Doron Hagay ACTING (2011, 19 minutes, video)
Henry Moskowitz JUSTIFIED TRUE BELIEF (2011, 21 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Lamont Jack Pearly
KING OF B
2011, 53 minutes, video.
A dark comedy about an aspiring actor, who takes his craft seriously and delusionally believes he is his idol, Kurt Russell. Writer/Director, Lamont Jack Pearley gives the audience a claustrophobic, up close and personal case study of Grandiose Delusional Disorder and it’s effect on Kevin’s world.

Sunday, April 1, First Short Program at 6:00, Second Short Film Program at 7:15, and Feature Presentation at 8:45.

(SARA DRIVER SELECTS)
35mm preservation print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Norman Z. McLeod’s classic comedy finds Cary Grant and Constance Bennett behaving beyond the pale…from beyond the grave. As stockholding hedonists whose reckless passion for pleasure leads them to bite the dust in a car accident, the couple makes their mischievous return in order to introduce some necessary chaos to the dull life of their bank’s president.

With Alfred Molina, Marianne Faithfull, Seymour Cassel, and Rachel Bella; shot by Robby Müller; music composed by Joe Strummer.

“Sara Driver’s principal films are surrealist works whose images tend to linger like half-remembered dreams. … WHEN PIGS FLY – set in an east-coast port town, though filmed in Gemany – is a whimsical ghost story inspired by TOPPER. If the tone seems light, the images, filmed by the great Robby Müller, nevertheless persist. The hero, beautifully played by Alfred Molina, is a sweet-tempered jazz musician who subsists mainly on the money he earns from giving music lessons and is sustained by the companionship of a dog (whose jazz-inspired dreams, rendered by Driver in full, are as lyrical as the hero’s). Some of the action takes place in a shabby Irish pub lorded over by Seymour Cassel, and when a barmaid gives Molina’s character an old rocking chair, he inherits a pair of ghosts (Marianne Faithfull and child actress Rachel Bella) along with it. …[A] sweet mood piece that, like some English comedies, is driven more by character than by plot.” –Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER

Followed by:
A half-hour film, shot by Jim Jarmusch, documenting Joe Strummer as he composes the music to WHEN PIGS FLY.

NEWFILMMAKERS WELCOMES THE MONO NO AWARE FILM PROGRAM AND NEWLATINO FILMMAKERS PRESENTS NEW LATINO FILM NIGHT.

SPECIAL PROGRAM
with the Mono No Aware film program
MONO NO AWARE is an international exhibition for contemporary artists and filmmakers whose work incorporates Super 8mm, 16mm, 35mm or altered light projections as part of a live performance or installation. No digital projections are considered; film and projected light only.

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
with NewLatino Filmmakers
David Liz LUZ (2010, 9 minutes, video)
Michael Martinez ESPERANZA (2011, 9 minutes, video)
Bill Sorice OH HAPPY DAY (2011, 11 minutes, video)
Ryan Perez STOPPING AT ALL STATIONS (2011, 17 minutes, video)
Keyri Soto THE BALLAD (2011, 20 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
with NewLatino Filmmakers
Eddie Fernandez
FINAL LEVEL
2011, 85 minutes, video.
A murder mystery and martial arts revenge film.

Monday, April 2, Special Program at 6:00, Short Film Program at 7:00, and Feature Presentation at 8:15.

NEWFILMMAKERS PRESENTS A MUSIC NIGHT

DOCUMENTARY SERIES 
Michael Streissguth RECORD PARADISE: THE MUSICAL LIFE OF JOE LEE (2012, 53 minutes, video)
Opinionated, brash, and unabashedly entertaining, Joe Lee, owner of one of the nation's most successful record stores, is a movie unto himself. RECORD PARADISE is the next best thing.

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Benjamin Ridway TRIBOLUMINESCENCE (2010, 2 minutes, video)
Dorian Levi MERAUDER -UNTIL (2011, 5 minutes, video)
Ryan Guiterman THUNDERSTRUCK (2011, 45 minutes, video)

FIRST FEATURE PRESENTATION
Vipal Monga
BLACK FEBRUARY
2010, 65 minutes, video.
Chronicles an unprecedented series of concerts performed in NYC by legendary jazz composer and conductor Lawrence D. ‘Butch’ Morris.

SECOND FEATURE PRESENTATION
Andrew Menan
WITHOUT A CROWD
2009, 83 minutes, video.
Throw out the script. Roll the camera. Grab your guitar and pour the Whiskey. You might get a crowd. You might not.

–Monday, April 2, Documentary Series at 6:00, Short Film Program at 7:00, First Feature at 8:00, Second Feature at 9:30.

NEWFILMMAKERS PRESENTS INDIAN FILM NIGHT

FIRST DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Teju Prasad NOT A FEATHER, BUT A DOT (2011, 60 minutes, video)
A look at the history and shifting perceptions of the Indian-American community.

SECOND DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Aaron Lehman ABODE OF THE SERPENT (2009, 50 minutes, video)
A documentation of the tribes inhabiting the Dang Forest in Gujarat, India, a people undergoing drastic changes due to an economic boom, globalization and tourism.

FIRST FEATURE PRESENTATION
Phil Rached
WHERE THE SUN HAS A MUSTACHE
2010, 62 minutes, video.
Living in Dhrangadhra, Gujarat, India, Bahadursinh and his family share foreign yet familiar moments with us. These scenes and songs meld with the pulse of Gujarati life.

SECOND FEATURE PRESENTATION
Chandra Pemmaraju
LOVE LIES AND SEETA
2011, 110 minutes, video.
The movie follows the lives of three guys who met Seeta, an Indian adopted by American parents, at different points in their lives. After another chance encounter with her in NY, all three fall for her. However, Seeta doesn’t believe in love.

–Tuesday, April 3, First Documentary Program at 6:00, Second Documentary Program at 7:15, First Feature at 8:15, Second Feature at 9:30.

NEWFILMMAKERS PRESENTS NEW YORK FILMMAKERS.

FIRST SHORT PROGRAM
Brooklyn Filmmakers
Winston James MIND STROLL (2009, 3 minutes, 16mm)
Anna Pasual BICYCLE POEM (2011, 6 minutes, 8mm)
Leo Fionca LAST SUPPER (2011, 9 minutes, video)
Melanie Travis THE APARTMENT (2011, 10 minutes,
video)
Jason Hinkle DEAR RENI (2011, 12 minutes, video)Gabriel Wilson THE LEMON (2011, 12 minutes, video)
Margarita Jimeno SWIMMING AWAY (2010, 15 minutes, 16mm)
Noelia Santos TRIPTYCH (2011, 19 minutes, video)

SECOND SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Manhattan Filmmakers
Eric Norcross WALK OF THE CITY (2012, 3 minutes, StopMotion video)
Chin Tangsakulsathaporn A MOMENT (2012, 4 minutes, video)
Doug C. Williams BLOTTER (2011, 5 minutes, video)
Germano Cecere TIME LAPSE (2010, 11 minutes, video)
Kent Kitzman PREDATOR / PREY (2011, 12 minutes, video)
Daniel Perry POSSUM (2011, 14 minutes, video)
Edward Caban FRIENDS AND STRANGERS (2011, 14 minutes, video)
Thomas Leveritt GIRDER (2011, 20 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION 
Nick Sandow
PONIES
2010, 76 minutes, video.
This film examines the tensions and treachery that arise in the seedy world of off-track betting in New York City, where three men from very different backgrounds connect and clash with each other.

Wednesday, April 4, First Short Program at 6:00, Second Short Film Program at 7:30, and Feature Presentation at 9:00.

SPECIAL SCREENING!
Anthology is overjoyed to present this very rare screening of two masterpieces by the incomparable Gregory Markopoulos. One of the key figures of the New American Cinema Group, and arguably among the greatest cinematographers, colorists, and editors in the history of the medium, Markopoulos alternated between ambitious avant-garde feature films and short works of a breathtakingly crystalline perfection. This screening encompasses films made in both modes: the Aeschylus-inspired ILLIAC PASSION and the gem-like short film BLISS.

Please note: Anthology co-founder and Princeton professor P. Adams Sitney will give a talk on Markopoulos’s vision on Thursday, April 5 at 6:30 in the James Gallery, the Graduate Center, CUNY (365 Fifth Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets). Free and open to the public. See centerforthehumanities.org for details.

Very special thanks to Temenos Archive, Robert Beavers, Rebekah Rutkoff, and the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

THE ILLIAC PASSION
1964-67, 92 minutes, 16mm. With Richard Beauvais, Taylor Mead, Tally Brown, Gerard Malanga, Jack Smith, Andy Warhol, Paul Swan, Gregory Battcock, and Gregory Markopoulos.
Reflecting Markopoulos’s fascination with Greek mythology and culture, this visionary interpretation of Aeschylus’s PROMETHEUS BOUND is one of his greatest achievements. Featuring appearances from a whole constellation of underground film and art world luminaries – including Andy Warhol, Jack Smith, art critic Gregory Battcock, Gerard Malanga, and Taylor Mead (who will be here at Anthology for his own screening the day after this program – see page ? for more details) – THE ILLIAC PASSION is a contemporary reimagining of the classical realm, with a soundtrack consisting of excerpts from Bartók and Markopoulos’s own stylized reading of Aeschylus’s text.

“For a viewer seeing this extravagant ode to creation some thirty years after its making, the film’s most plangent moments involve Markopoulos’s affectionate casting of friends as mythical figures – Andy Warhol’s Poseidon pumping on an Exercycle above a sea of plastic, Taylor Mead’s Demon leaping, grimacing, and streaming vermilion fringes, and [Jack] Smith’s bohemian Orpheus, spending a quiet afternoon at home with Eurydice.” –Kristin M. Jones

Followed by:
BLISS (1967, 6 minutes, 16mm)
Made soon after Markopoulos moved to Europe, BLISS is a lyrical study of the interior of the Church of St. John on the island of Hydra, shot using only available light and, miraculously, edited entirely in-camera.

You might call him the Shirley Temple of the Underground. He was definitely one of Warhol’s funniest and most appealing Superstars. Brendan Gill of THE NEW YORKER once quipped “Taylor Mead looks like a cross between a zombie and a kewpie and speaks as if his mind and mouth were full of marshmallow.” Words fail to convey all that makes Taylor Mead so truly special. He is a living legend whose decades of under-the-radar, over-the-top performances in countless films, plays, poetry houses, and bars have earned him infamy and renown the world over. Luckily for us, Taylor is also a neighborhood fixture, and to celebrate this we are introducing a new ongoing series that will spotlight his bewitching je ne sais quoi. Tonight’s show features the NYC premiere of a recent restoration of one of Taylor’s earliest films, PASSION IN A SEASIDE SLUM, and two early marvels made with Vernon Zimmerman. Best of all, the man himself will be on hand to introduce, take questions, and give answers.

Robert Wade Chatterton
PASSION IN A SEASIDE SLUM
1961, 32 minutes, 8mm-to-16mm, silent. Preserved by Los Angeles Film Forum, Academy Film Archive, and Anthology Film Archives, with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.

“After his tour-de-force performances in THE FLOWER THIEF (1960) and LEMON HEARTS (1960), both made in San Francisco, the great underground performer and poet Taylor Mead moved to Los Angeles and lived and worked in the Venice Beach Beat community for a number of months. It was in this context that Mead collaborated with film society director and amateur filmmaker Robert Wade Chatterton on the silent color 8mm film, PASSION IN A SEASIDE SLUM. Mead plays ‘the faggot’ who persistently cruises a butch guy intent only on fishing in one of the canals. Using the magic wand of a radio antenna, Mead transforms himself into ever more implausible drag figures in his attempts to garner the guy’s interest, but only succeeds in soliciting his amused laughs. Chatterton’s self-conscious, light-hearted treatment of homosexual desire fueled by Mead’s inventive and uproarious performance make for a seminal – if previously forgotten – example of queer underground cinema.” –Marc Siegel

Vernon Zimmerman LEMON HEARTS (1962, 26 minutes, 16mm)
Are you ready to see Taylor Mead in eleven different roles? Take that, Eddie Murphy! An early favorite of the New American Cinema, an energetic comedy with an early cinema sensibility that remains riotously funny.

Vernon Zimmerman TO L.A.… WITH LUST (1961, 27 minutes, 16mm)
Archer Winsten, the long ago critic at the NEW YORK POST, comments that this film is “wild and dirty, but so easy to understand…that it may be considered a fair introduction to cinematic youth on-the-march.” What else is there to say?

Total running time: ca. 90 minutes.

A THRILLING FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES

SPECIAL PROGRAM
With NewFilmmakers Animation Group.Details TBA; visit www.newfilmmakers.com for updates.

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Jerome Green RUNNER (2011, 2 minutes, video)
Sid Bodalia ALONELINESS (2011, 11 minutes, video)
Justin Lisson HAPPY BIRTHDAY (2011, 15 minutes, video)
Filipe F. Coutinho BLACK MASK (2012, 29 minutes, video)

NEWFILMMAKERS FEATURE PRESENTATION
Tony Glazer
JUNCTION
2011, 91 minutes, video.
In the idyllic upscale neighborhood, four strangers make a choice that sets in motion a series of events that will change forever their lives, the lives of some not-so-innocent homeowners, and a troubled police force.

–Friday, April 6, Special Program at 6:00, Short Film Program at 7:15, Feature Presentation at 8:30.

In Sevilla during the 1970s, Manuela, the daughter of a poacher, gets married to the servant of Don Ramón, a wealthy man who is in love with her. With her natural beauty and her unrestrained emotions, she inspires the passions of many, as well as the resulting conflicts. Taking place in the world of the wealthy land-owners of Andalucía, who were known as “señoritos”, the film presents an image of this southern region of Spain far removed from traditional folkloric clichés.

(EL ANACORETA)
Courtesy of Jet Films.
“In this tragicomedy, loosely based on a tale by Anatole France, Fernando Fernan Gomez plays a man who has locked himself away in the bathroom of his apartment in Madrid after furnishing it with various necessities. In a wan attempt to communicate with the far-distant world, he flushes aspirin bottles filled with messages down the toilet, reasoning that they will reach the sea eventually. After almost a dozen years, one of his messages reaches someone who finds the idea of responding somewhat amusing.” –Clarke Fountain, ROVI

EL DESENCANTO
“A veritable cult classic, this documentary profiles the widow and children of Leopoldo Panero, an official poet of Franco’s regime. The surviving family members, now expressing themselves in post-Franco democracy, proceed to voice their anger and disgust – towards Panero and one another. Hailed as ‘the best creative documentary in Spanish cinematographic history’, this is a beautiful portrait of a family – and post-Franco Spain – trying to come to terms with its own history.” –British Film Institute

EL DIPUTADO
“If you have never heard of Eloy de la Iglesia, that’s not his fault. Over the last 20 years, the 40-year-old Spanish director has averaged a movie a year and gained something of a cult reputation for his explicit treatment of homosexuality. Mr. de la Iglesia once belonged to the Spanish Communist Party, and THE DEPUTY…brings together his political and sexual predilections in a passionate mix. Despite its excesses, the film, his first to find commercial release in this country, attests to both Mr. de la Iglesia’s craft and his spirit.” –Walter Goodman, NEW YORK TIMES

FIREWORKS (1947, 20 min, 35mm, b&w)
RABBIT’S MOON (1950-70, 15 min, 35mm)
EAUX D’ARTIFICE (1953, 13 min, 16mm)
KUSTOM KAR KOMMANDOS (1965, 3 min, 16mm)
SCORPIO RISING (1963, 30 min, 35mm)
Poetry, psychodrama, and the occult meet in these timeless works by one of the pioneers of the American avant-garde film.
Total running time: ca. 85 min.

(PEPI, LUCI, BOM Y OTRAS CHICAS DEL MONTÓN)
Courtesy of SLOT.
“Deliberately tasteless, punky and glitzy, unabashedly homosexual in its viewpoint and characters, [this] is a true underground movie: shot on 16 millimeter in a grab-it-while-you-can mood that suggests the late ‘70s movies of John Waters – which may well have influenced it. … This movie has been knocked for bad taste, but it is a midnight movie of the PINK FLAMINGOS variety, and that’s how it should be seen…. Almodóvar would get cooler, sleeker, less ‘primitive’; his command of Hollywood stylistics would get more polish and pizazz. But I suspect that…he was never more himself and in his world than he is in PEPI, LUCI, BOM – whose full title, PEPI, LUCI, BOM, AND THE OTHER GIRLS ON THE HEAP – more accurately conveys its special tawdry ferocity.” –Michael Wilmington, L.A. TIMES

This edition of SINGLE FRAME (our ongoing series highlighting slide projections) sheds light on the 35mm slides left behind by filmmaker, photographer, writer, and teacher Hollis Frampton. The subject of a brand new Blu-ray/DVD release from Criterion, Frampton produced a remarkable body of work across many different mediums in his all-too-brief career. Some projects that he began were never completed at the time of his death in 1984 at age 48, and others were only ever tentative ideas awaiting further development. Anthology’s Frampton collection contains multiple bins of curiously organized slides, and while these are definitely not finished works, they perhaps offer us a better understanding of Frampton’s unique working process. We are happy to have Frampton scholars Ken Eisenstein and Michael Zryd on hand to help provide some background and context for these beautiful and beguiling images.

A HOLLIS FRAMPTON ODYSSEY will be released by the Criterion Collection on April 24; for more info visit: www.criterion.com.

(LABERINTO DE PASIONES)
“This is an early and rather choice effort from Almodóvar, his second feature, made before he went slick and lost much of his funkiness. The varied cast of characters includes a onetime nymphomaniac named Sexilia who’s a member of a rock band, a gay Arab prince, a Lacanian psychotherapist, and assorted transvestites, punks, and Iranian fundamentalists. Cheerfully slapdash and high-spirited in the farcical John Waters manner….” –Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER

PLEASE NOTE: We are very sorry to announce that, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are not able to screen LABYRINTH OF PASSION on 35mm, but will have to project it from video.  We apologize for this unavoidable format change.

(PEPI, LUCI, BOM Y OTRAS CHICAS DEL MONTÓN)
Courtesy of SLOT.
“Deliberately tasteless, punky and glitzy, unabashedly homosexual in its viewpoint and characters, [this] is a true underground movie: shot on 16 millimeter in a grab-it-while-you-can mood that suggests the late ‘70s movies of John Waters – which may well have influenced it. … This movie has been knocked for bad taste, but it is a midnight movie of the PINK FLAMINGOS variety, and that’s how it should be seen…. Almodóvar would get cooler, sleeker, less ‘primitive’; his command of Hollywood stylistics would get more polish and pizazz. But I suspect that…he was never more himself and in his world than he is in PEPI, LUCI, BOM – whose full title, PEPI, LUCI, BOM, AND THE OTHER GIRLS ON THE HEAP – more accurately conveys its special tawdry ferocity.” –Michael Wilmington, L.A. TIMES

(OCAÑA: RETRATO INTERMITENTE)
A documentary portrait of Barcelona in the 1970s, and of José Pérez Ocaña, a homosexual painter from Andalucía. Ocaña expresses himself freely, recounting stories of his hard life and his opinions of the world, while Pons intermixes his direct testimony with scenes of his life in the streets (walking half naked along Barcelona’s famous street, La Rambla, singing a song in a crowded bar, or organizing a drag queen procession). An invaluable record of the gay and lesbian experience in Spain during an era in which homosexuals were officially considered “morally dangerous” and hence legally persecuted, OCAÑA is also an extraordinary portrait of an unforgettable personality.

NEWFILMMAKERS PRESENTS NEW ASIAN FILMS

DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Jinhee Park VOICE UNKNOWN (2011, 33 minutes, 16mm)
Ema Ryan Yamazaki NEITHER HERE NOR THERE (2011, 36 minutes, video)

FIRST SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Mariko Takai A DARK SIDE OF HUSBAND AND WIFE (2011, 6 minutes, video)
Girard Tecson THE LAST FAREWELL (2011, 12 minutes, video)
Xiaocao Liu CABBY(2011, 19 minutes, video)
Dae Kyu Lee RENDEZVOUS POINT (2011, 25 minutes, video)

SECOND SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Jamie Nishizaki SCHOOL DAYS SHOOT (2011, 3 minutes, video)
Rob Sabal PASSING THROUGH (2011, 7 minutes, 35mm)
Boim Hwang LE DAVID (2010, 19 minutes, video)
Christina Rubenstein UNREST (2009, 16 minutes, 16mm)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Tara Milutis
VIETNAMESE GIRL
2011, 86 minutes, video.
During a six-month period of living and traveling throughout Vietnam, an American director meets a diverse group of Vietnamese women and documents their attempted integration into the new global culture. From a group of Hmong hill tribe girls struggling to create new identities now that tourism and global media have forever changed their lives, to a Hanoian divorcee's transformation into independent global backpacker, Vietnamese Girl documents the growing pains at the dawn of a new feminism in Asia.

–Sunday, April 8, Documentary Series at 6:00, First Shorts Program at 7:30, Second Shorts Program at 8:45, Feature Presentation at 9:45.

(ARREBATO)
Iván Zulueta’s masterpiece, a cult film in Spanish cinema, RAPTURE has been unfairly overlooked outside of Spain.
“His bizarre, baroque film – self-conscious, psychedelic, and brimming with sex and drugs – concerns a hack director of horror films who has just finished his latest grade-B vampire movie when he receives a package containing a reel of film, an audiotape, and a key. RAPTURE is a full-length film as hypnotic as they come, charged with a certain mysticism and eliciting numerous readings – an indisputable (and indisputably odd) masterwork….” –Pacific Cinemathèque

(EL SUR)
“[S]eems to bring back some of the haunting obsessions of [Erice’s] wonderful THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (1973): the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, the magical spell movies exert over childhood, and a little girl’s preoccupation with her father and the past. This subtle spellbinder ends somewhat abruptly, reportedly because the film’s budget ran out, but it seems to form a nearly perfect whole as it is: a brooding tale with the poetic ambience of a Faulkner story about an intense father-daughter relationship and a mysterious and resonant past. English critic Tim Pulleine has observed that a reference to Hitchcock’s SHADOW OF A DOUBT points to an elaborate system of duplication underlying the film’s structure, seen in shots and sequences as well as themes (north and south, father and daughter, real and imaginary).” –Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER

NEWFILMMAKERS PRESENTS COMEDY SHORTS AND THE FEATURE RUMBLESTRIPS

FIRST COMEDY SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Beth Trifilo AFTERNOON INDULGENCE (2012, 3 minutes, video)
Nira Burstein THE LIGHT HOUSE (2011, 12 minutes, 16mm)
Matthew Foster CLICKED (2011, 36 minutes, video)

SECOND COMEDY SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Courtney Ware RASPBERRY JAM (2011, 10 minutes, video)
Saralyn Armer WHERE IN THE GPS (2011, 11 minutes, video)
Lawrence Zoeller HOW TO BREAK UP WITH YOUR MOTHER (2011, 18 minutes, video)
Michele Remsen JUKE (2011, 25 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Toby Poser
RUMBLESTRIPS
2012, 85 minutes, video.
Broke and emotionally blistered after the death of her husband, Toby turns to a beloved pastime, growing marijuana, to provide for her family. When she is arrested and convicted, she packs up the RV and takes her two young daughters on a road trip while awaiting sentencing.

–Monday, April 9, First Shorts Program at 6:00, Second Shorts Program at 7:15, Feature Presentation at 8:45.

(EL PICO)
Two friends, Paco & Urko, get addicted to heroin at the same time. To get their daily doses, they will do anything: stealing, lying, and even killing their dealer. Their voyage into the underworld of drugs in Bilbao during the 1980s takes place in a distinct political context. Paco is the son of Chief Torrecuadrada of the National Police (Guardia Civil), while Urko is the son of Martin Aramendia, the leader of a left wing, pro-independence Basque party, ‘Herri Batasuna’.

In Sevilla during the 1970s, Manuela, the daughter of a poacher, gets married to the servant of Don Ramón, a wealthy man who is in love with her. With her natural beauty and her unrestrained emotions, she inspires the passions of many, as well as the resulting conflicts. Taking place in the world of the wealthy land-owners of Andalucía, who were known as “señoritos”, the film presents an image of this southern region of Spain far removed from traditional folkloric clichés.

NEWFILMMAKERS PRESENTS ACTION FILMS, BUT BE WARNED, THERE WILL BE BLOOD

Lou Reed, filmmaker Stephan Berwick, and Anthology Film Archives Artistic Director and co-founder Jonas Mekas will be here in person to introduce the screening of FINAL WEAPON during the Third Shorts Program at 8:15, and for a Q&A afterwards!

FIRST SHORT FILM PROGRAM
About Vampires.
Paulo J. Maia LA REINA VAMPIRA (2010, 11 minutes, video)
Unoc Min VAMPIRE WAI INTERVIEW (2010, 30 minutes, video)

SECOND SHORT FILM PROGRAM
About Ghosts.
James Marcolin I AM ALIVE (2011, 12 minutes, video)
Ryan Sokol ALONE (2011, 24 minutes, video)
Marc Masciandaro IMPOSTER (2011, 26 minutes, video)

THIRD SHORT FILM PROGRAM
About Martial Arts.
Nick Twemlow THE LAYING ON OF HANDS (2010, 8 minutes, video)
Bryan Felber UNIVERSITY OF THE STREETS (2010, 11 minutes, video)
Stephan Berwick FINAL WEAPON (2010, 15 minutes, video)
Linette Lucas FRIEND & FOE (2010, 32 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Giovanni Zelko THE INTERVIEW (2010, 15 minutes, video)
&
Dejan Vlaisavljevic
BIG BANG KISS
2010, 75 minutes, video.
Three Yugoslav partners-in-crime connect in Amsterdam to execute the final stage of a deal, but as the undertaking fails, their unity crumbles.

–Tuesday, April 10, First Shorts Program at 6:00, Second Shorts Program at 7:00, Third Shorts Program at 8:15, Feature Presentation at 9:30.

(EL ANACORETA)
Courtesy of Jet Films.
“In this tragicomedy, loosely based on a tale by Anatole France, Fernando Fernan Gomez plays a man who has locked himself away in the bathroom of his apartment in Madrid after furnishing it with various necessities. In a wan attempt to communicate with the far-distant world, he flushes aspirin bottles filled with messages down the toilet, reasoning that they will reach the sea eventually. After almost a dozen years, one of his messages reaches someone who finds the idea of responding somewhat amusing.” –Clarke Fountain, ROVI

EL DIPUTADO
“If you have never heard of Eloy de la Iglesia, that’s not his fault. Over the last 20 years, the 40-year-old Spanish director has averaged a movie a year and gained something of a cult reputation for his explicit treatment of homosexuality. Mr. de la Iglesia once belonged to the Spanish Communist Party, and THE DEPUTY…brings together his political and sexual predilections in a passionate mix. Despite its excesses, the film, his first to find commercial release in this country, attests to both Mr. de la Iglesia’s craft and his spirit.” –Walter Goodman, NEW YORK TIMES

NEWFILMMAKERS WELCOME BACK THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS SPECIAL PROGRAM
New films from its School of Filmmaking – details TBA.

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Charles Chadwick INFILTRATION (2009, 5 minutes, 8mm)
Spencer and Lloyd Harvey CARNATIONS (2011, 6 minutes, video)
Bernd Porr I AM WOMAN (2011, 6 minutes, video)
Jack Gattanella A CERTIFIED MAN (2010, 8 minutes, video)
Andrew Hannibal TRAINERR (2011, 11 minutes, video)
Sabina Sattar SWOOSH! (2011, 20 minutes, video)
Patrick Donnelly JULIUS CAESAR (2011, 30 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Amber Dawn
MURDER DANCE
2011, 62 minutes, video.
In a hip, diverse, Brooklyn neighborhood few things seem shocking, even murder. A killer thins out members of a hip, diverse Brooklyn community, and the neighborhood reacts by inviting them to an art show. Could the killer be a drifter, a polish immigrant, a crack addict, or someone they least expect.

–Wednesday, April 11, Special Program at 6:00, Short Film Program at 8:00, Feature Presentation at 9:45.

EL DESENCANTO
“A veritable cult classic, this documentary profiles the widow and children of Leopoldo Panero, an official poet of Franco’s regime. The surviving family members, now expressing themselves in post-Franco democracy, proceed to voice their anger and disgust – towards Panero and one another. Hailed as ‘the best creative documentary in Spanish cinematographic history’, this is a beautiful portrait of a family – and post-Franco Spain – trying to come to terms with its own history.” –British Film Institute

(OCAÑA: RETRATO INTERMITENTE)
A documentary portrait of Barcelona in the 1970s, and of José Pérez Ocaña, a homosexual painter from Andalucía. Ocaña expresses himself freely, recounting stories of his hard life and his opinions of the world, while Pons intermixes his direct testimony with scenes of his life in the streets (walking half naked along Barcelona’s famous street, La Rambla, singing a song in a crowded bar, or organizing a drag queen procession). An invaluable record of the gay and lesbian experience in Spain during an era in which homosexuals were officially considered “morally dangerous” and hence legally persecuted, OCAÑA is also an extraordinary portrait of an unforgettable personality.

(EL SUR)
“[S]eems to bring back some of the haunting obsessions of [Erice’s] wonderful THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (1973): the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, the magical spell movies exert over childhood, and a little girl’s preoccupation with her father and the past. This subtle spellbinder ends somewhat abruptly, reportedly because the film’s budget ran out, but it seems to form a nearly perfect whole as it is: a brooding tale with the poetic ambience of a Faulkner story about an intense father-daughter relationship and a mysterious and resonant past. English critic Tim Pulleine has observed that a reference to Hitchcock’s SHADOW OF A DOUBT points to an elaborate system of duplication underlying the film’s structure, seen in shots and sequences as well as themes (north and south, father and daughter, real and imaginary).” –Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER

Bruce Baillie’s journey through “the dark wood encountered in the middle of life’s journey” (Dante), with references to Bardo Thodol. A major work from one of the great poets of cinema.

Bruce Baillie
MASS FOR THE DAKOTA SIOUX (1963-64, 20 min, 16mm, b&w)
QUIXOTE (1964-65, 45 min, 16mm)
CASTRO STREET (1966, 10 min, 16mm)
ALL MY LIFE (1966, 3 min, 16mm)
VALENTIN DE LAS SIERRAS (1968, 10 min, 16mm)
Meditations on America by a filmmaker whom Willard van Dyke once called the most American of all contemporary filmmakers. Annette Michelson has referred to Bruce Baillie as one of the few American political filmmakers.
Douglass Crockwell
GLENS FALLS SEQUENCE (1964, 8 min, 16mm)
“The basic idea was to paint continuing pictures on various layers with plastic paint, adding at times and removing at times, and to a certain extent these early attempts were successful.” –D.C.
Total running time: ca. 100 min.

(EL PICO)
Two friends, Paco & Urko, get addicted to heroin at the same time. To get their daily doses, they will do anything: stealing, lying, and even killing their dealer. Their voyage into the underworld of drugs in Bilbao during the 1980s takes place in a distinct political context. Paco is the son of Chief Torrecuadrada of the National Police (Guardia Civil), while Urko is the son of Martin Aramendia, the leader of a left wing, pro-independence Basque party, ‘Herri Batasuna’.

(LABERINTO DE PASIONES)
“This is an early and rather choice effort from Almodóvar, his second feature, made before he went slick and lost much of his funkiness. The varied cast of characters includes a onetime nymphomaniac named Sexilia who’s a member of a rock band, a gay Arab prince, a Lacanian psychotherapist, and assorted transvestites, punks, and Iranian fundamentalists. Cheerfully slapdash and high-spirited in the farcical John Waters manner….” –Jonathan Rosenbaum, CHICAGO READER

PLEASE NOTE: We are very sorry to announce that, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are not able to screen LABYRINTH OF PASSION on 35mm, but will have to project it from video.  We apologize for this unavoidable format change.

SPECIAL SCREENINGS!
Anthology is overjoyed to present this new film by Jonas Mekas, a tribute to the dear, departed Mars Bar. Our neighbor ever since we moved to the Second Avenue Courthouse building in 1988, the Mars Bar represented an undiluted blast of the old East Village, keeping alive the punk sensibility and anarchic attitude that’s increasingly a thing of the past in this part of the city. Destined to be replaced by yet another glass condo building, and taking a piece of our heart with it to the grave, the Mars Bar nevertheless lives on through Mekas’s lens!

“For some twenty years, Mars Bar, at the corner of First Street and Second Avenue, Manhattan, has been my bar. That’s where we went for beer and tequila whenever we had to take a break from our work at Anthology Film Archives, and it was also a bar where most of those who came to see movies at Anthology ended up after the shows. We always had a great time at Mars Bar. It was always open, there was always the jukebox, and very often there was no electricity, and it was old and messy and it didn’t want to be any other way – it was the last escape place left in downtown New York. So this is my love letter to it, to my Mars Bar. Mars Bar as I knew it.” –J.M.

(ARREBATO)
Iván Zulueta’s masterpiece, a cult film in Spanish cinema, RAPTURE has been unfairly overlooked outside of Spain.
“His bizarre, baroque film – self-conscious, psychedelic, and brimming with sex and drugs – concerns a hack director of horror films who has just finished his latest grade-B vampire movie when he receives a package containing a reel of film, an audiotape, and a key. RAPTURE is a full-length film as hypnotic as they come, charged with a certain mysticism and eliciting numerous readings – an indisputable (and indisputably odd) masterwork….” –Pacific Cinemathèque

DESISTFILM (1954, 7 min, 16mm, sound)
REFLECTIONS ON BLACK (1955, 12 min, 16mm, sound)
THE WONDER RING (1955, 4 min, 16mm)
FLESH OF MORNING (1956, 25 min, 16mm)
DAYBREAK AND WHITEYE (1957, 8 min, 16mm)
WINDOW WATER BABY MOVING (1959, 12 min, 16mm)
Films made during the early, “psychodramatic” period of one of modern cinema’s greatest innovators, including two of his early experiments with sound.
Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

A masterwork in which all of Brakhage’s techniques achieve a complex synthesis to produce one of cinema’s supreme epic poems.
“The film breathes and is an organic and surging thing… it is a colossal lyrical adventure-dance of image in every variation of color.” –Michael McClure, ARTFORUM

NEWFILMMAKER PRESENTS ANOTHER DOUBLE FEATURE NITE

DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Phil Hopper THE ROAD HOME  (2010, 70 minutes, video)
Follows a small group of America’s newest war veterans, young men and women who have returned home as amputees.

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Nathan Marcus MENTAL PATIENCE (2011, 14 minutes, video)
Jodi Lin BORTE QUEEN OF TIBET (2011, 17 minutes, video)
Nathan Zen-Sapien THE P.A.C.T (2012, 26 minutes, video)

FIRST FEATURE PRESENTATION
Kurtis David Harder
CODY FITZ
2011, 85 minutes, video.
Three friends plan a trip to a cabin, where things start to fall apart….

SECOND FEATURE PRESENTATION
Nathaniel Katzman
I WANT TO KILL MYSELF
2011, 85 minutes, video.
When his friend Coop is almost charged with a DUI, James decides to fake an attempted suicide to get him out of it. When this goes wrong he ends up sentenced to an out-patient recovery group for a strange bunch of suicidal people.

–Saturday, April 14, Documentary Series at 6:00, Short Film Program at 7:15, First Feature at 8:30, Second Feature at 10:15.

SPECIAL SCREENINGS!
Anthology is overjoyed to present this new film by Jonas Mekas, a tribute to the dear, departed Mars Bar. Our neighbor ever since we moved to the Second Avenue Courthouse building in 1988, the Mars Bar represented an undiluted blast of the old East Village, keeping alive the punk sensibility and anarchic attitude that’s increasingly a thing of the past in this part of the city. Destined to be replaced by yet another glass condo building, and taking a piece of our heart with it to the grave, the Mars Bar nevertheless lives on through Mekas’s lens!

“For some twenty years, Mars Bar, at the corner of First Street and Second Avenue, Manhattan, has been my bar. That’s where we went for beer and tequila whenever we had to take a break from our work at Anthology Film Archives, and it was also a bar where most of those who came to see movies at Anthology ended up after the shows. We always had a great time at Mars Bar. It was always open, there was always the jukebox, and very often there was no electricity, and it was old and messy and it didn’t want to be any other way – it was the last escape place left in downtown New York. So this is my love letter to it, to my Mars Bar. Mars Bar as I knew it.” –J.M.

EYES
1970, 36 min, 16mm, silent.
“After wishing for years to be given-the-opportunity of filming some of the more ‘mystical’ occupations of our Times – some of the more obscure Public Figures which the average imagination turns into ‘bogeymen’... viz.: Policemen, Doctors, Soldiers, Politicians, etc.: – I was at last permitted to ride in a Pittsburgh police car, camera in hand, the final several days of September 1970.” –S.B.
&
DEUS EX
1971, 34 min, 16mm, silent.
“I have been many times very ill in hospitals; and I drew on all that experience while making DEUS EX in West Penn. Hospital of Pittsburgh; but I was especially inspired by the memory of one incident in an emergency room of San Francisco’s Mission District: while waiting for medical help, I had held myself together by reading an April-May 1965 issue of ‘Poetry Magazine’: and the following lines from Charles Olson’s ‘Cole’s Island’ had especially centered the experience, ‘touchstone’ of DEUS EX, for me: Charles begins the poem with the statement ‘I met Death –’ And then: ‘He didn’t bother me, or say anything. Which is / not surprising, a person might not, in the circumstances; / or at most a nod or something. Or they would. But they wouldn’t, / or you wouldn’t think to either, / it was Death. And / He certainly was, the moment I saw him.’” –S.B.
&
THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE’S OWN EYES
1971, 32 min, 16mm, silent.
“…Brakhage, entering, with his camera, one of the forbidden, terrific locations of our culture, the autopsy room. It is a place wherein, inversely, life is cherished, for it exists to affirm that no one of us may die without our knowing exactly why. All of us, in the person of the coroner, must see that, for ourselves, with our own eyes. It is a room full of appalling particular intimacies, the last ditch of individuation. Here our vague nightmare of mortality acquires the names and faces of others.” –Hollis Frampton
Total running time: ca. 105 minutes.

NEWFILMMAKERS PRESENTS ANOTHER NIGHT OF FILMS

FIRST SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Holly Buechel SPEED OF FENCING (2011, 3 minutes, video)
Ganrielle Lansner WISHING… (2011, 5 minutes, video)
Lauren Nadler ONE LAST SHOT (2011, 9 minutes, video)
Avivit Bar-Yosef BABY GRAND (2011, 12 minutes, video)
Weston Middleton CIVIL (2011, 15 minutes, 35mm)

SECOND SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Lara Celenza MIRAGES (2011, 9 minutes, video)
Brian Goodwin PB&J (2011, 11 minutes, video)
Gleb Osatinski PISCES OF AN UNCONSCIOUS MIND (2011, 18 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Jonah Green
OTHER PEOPLE
2011, 93 minutes, video.
Four young adults have led a life sealed off from the rest of the city in a NYC loft. As the outside world creeps in, they are forced to see their makeshift family for what it is: a house of cards built on fear, loneliness, and a shared sense of loss.

–Sunday, April 15, First Shorts Program at 6:00, Second Shorts Program at 7:00, Feature Presentation at 8:00.

“SONG 1: Portrait of a lady. SONGS 2 & 3: Fire and a mind’s movement in remembering. SONG 4: Three girls playing with a ball. Hand painted. SONG 5: A childbirth song. SONG 6: The painted veil via moth-death. SONG 7: San Francisco. SONG 8: Sea creatures. SONG 9: Wedding source and substance. SONG 10: Sitting around. SONG 11: Fires, windows, an insect, a lyre of rain scratches. SONG 12: Verticals and shadows caught in glass traps. SONG 13: A travel song of scenes and horizontals. SONG 14: Molds, paints and crystals.” –S.B.

SPECIAL SCREENINGS!
Anthology is overjoyed to present this new film by Jonas Mekas, a tribute to the dear, departed Mars Bar. Our neighbor ever since we moved to the Second Avenue Courthouse building in 1988, the Mars Bar represented an undiluted blast of the old East Village, keeping alive the punk sensibility and anarchic attitude that’s increasingly a thing of the past in this part of the city. Destined to be replaced by yet another glass condo building, and taking a piece of our heart with it to the grave, the Mars Bar nevertheless lives on through Mekas’s lens!

“For some twenty years, Mars Bar, at the corner of First Street and Second Avenue, Manhattan, has been my bar. That’s where we went for beer and tequila whenever we had to take a break from our work at Anthology Film Archives, and it was also a bar where most of those who came to see movies at Anthology ended up after the shows. We always had a great time at Mars Bar. It was always open, there was always the jukebox, and very often there was no electricity, and it was old and messy and it didn’t want to be any other way – it was the last escape place left in downtown New York. So this is my love letter to it, to my Mars Bar. Mars Bar as I knew it.” –J.M.

David Cort & Mary Curtis Ratcliff
MAYDAY REALTIME
1971, 60 minutes, video.
On May Day, 1971, Vietnam War protesters from all over the country flooded into Washington, DC for a massive convergence. President Nixon was so intimidated by their call for a peaceful and non-violent action that he called in the National Guard to disperse them. David Cort, Mary Curtis Ratcliff, and the Videofreex, among 50 or so early indie videomakers in the Mayday Video Collective, used portable video equipment to record many of the events on the ground in an early video vérité documentary. MAYDAY REALTIME is a dramatic raw tape with astounding footage that brings viewers inside the protest as it happens with direct immediacy. As we near the General Strike called for May 1st, 2012, we screen this classic of video art in order to draw the comparison between it, and the relationship of protesters and police in the 1970s, with today’s live streamers, who in a similar style broadcast from the front lines of pro-worker protests today.

MAYDAY REALTIME, by David Cort and Mary Curtis Ratcliff (Videofreex), is courtesy of Videofreex Archive @ vdb.org

All tickets are FREE!

NEWFILMMAKERS CELEBRATES EARTH DAY

DOCUMENTARY SERIES
William Head WE ARE ILLUMINATED (2010, 13 minutes, video)
Maryanne Galvin URBAN ODYSSEY (2011, 47 minutes, video)

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Tijana Petrovic BACK TO THE LAND (2010, 5 minutes, video)
Elizabeth Henry SUSAN’S HORSES (2010, 6 minutes, video)
Jared Varava TUMBLEWEED! (2011, 7 minutes, video)
Kim Sheridan WHAT’S UP (2010, 8 minutes, video)
Joshua Palazzi THE APPROACH (2010, 8 minutes, video)
Joe Fenstermaker THE MODERN MYSTERY OF GREEN MAN (2011, 34 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Alyssa Fedele
FAMILY OF THE WA’A
2011, 89 minutes, video.
A group paddles a Hawaiian outrigger canoe 1750 miles across the length of the Hawaiian archipelago to honor a sacred promise to their leader, Kimokeo. This unprecedented voyage across vast expanses of open water mirrors Kimokeo’s personal and spiritual transformation from a troubled youth to a man worthy of the respect of his people.

–Wednesday, April 18, Documentary Series at 6:00, Short Film Program at 7:15, Feature Presentation at 8:45.

Experimental cinema has had a rich and dynamic existence in the socialist Yugoslavia. It developed steadily starting in the late 1950s, largely in the context of a vibrant network of amateur cine-clubs, and through fertile cross-pollination with avant-garde tendencies in visual and performative arts, especially the so-called New Art Practices of the 1960s and 70s. The Yugoslav experimental film scene was poly-centric but integrated. The cine-clubs provided filmmakers with resources to practically test their often strikingly innovative and daring ideas. Festivals, competitions, national and international programs of avant-garde cinema were held in different parts of the country (GEFF in Zagreb, MAFAF in Pula, Alternatives in Belgrade, and more), showcasing a range of personal poetics, formal approaches, and individual and collaborative modes of production. Extensive theoretical discussions about the nature of the film medium frequently took place at these gatherings, involving filmmakers, critics, artists, and scholars not only from Yugoslavia, but also from elsewhere in Europe and the United States.

This program – organized on the occasion of the publication of Pavle Levi’s new book, CINEMA BY OTHER MEANS (Oxford University Press) – presents some highlights from the history of experimental film in the formerly Yugoslav lands. Many of the works included here have never before been screened in the U.S.
Pavle Levi will be here in person to present the program.

We are grateful to the following for their help and support: Miodrag Milošević, Hrvoje Turković, Jurij Meden, Shannon McLachlan, Željko Radivoj, Bojana Piškur, Mark Urbanek, Tijana Petrović, Davorin Marc, Miroslav Bata Petrović, Amir Muratović, and Vanja Hraste.

The original formats are listed below; however, due to the fragile and often unique nature of most of these films, they will be screened from video.

Tomislav Gotovac THE MORNING OF A FAUN (1963, 7 minutes, 16mm)
Tomislav Gotovac CIRCLE (JUTKEVICH-COUNT) (1964, 7 minutes, 16mm)
Gotovac is a figure of seminal importance in the history of Yugoslav cinema. He was a versatile filmmaker, conceptual and performance artist, and a hardcore cinephile (“As soon as I open my eyes in the morning, I see film”). Since the 1960s, his avant-garde practices have greatly inspired generations of filmmakers and artists. This program features two of Gotovac’s key (proto-)structural works built, respectively, around the fixed and the gyrating camera’s field of vision.

Mihovil Pansini K-3, OR CLEAR SKY WITHOUT A CLOUD (1963, 3 minutes, 16mm)
This short is a prime example of the “antifilm” tendency, which developed in the early 1960s and became one of the defining tropes of Yugoslav experimental cinema. Pansini was not only a practitioner, but also the foremost theoretician of “antifilm”.

Ivan Martinac I’M MAD (1967, 5 minutes, Super-8mm)
“Space is never primary in the film. Time is. … Therefore, it is also not the event but the cut that is primary.” –I.M.

Ana Nuša Dragan SOME INFORMATION (1968, 2 minutes, 8mm)
A string of self-sufficient images, records of events and situations involving the filmmaker. Nuša Dragan’s interest was in casting diverse social and communication processes as so many types of cinematic relations.

Slobodan Šijan HANDMADE (1971, 1.5 minutes, 8mm)
This is a rugged artisanal miniature, a vibrant piece of raw film matter from a filmmaker whose career has successfully unfolded on parallel tracks – in the realm of experimental art, as well as in the mainstream of feature-length narrative cinema.

Ivica Matić CLASSIFIEDS (IN MEMORIAM) (1971, 6 minutes, 16mm)
A provocative and disturbing film, edited as if under the sign of Freud’s claim that the unconscious “knows no contradiction.”

Vladimir Petek ENCOUNTERS (1963, 5 minutes, 35mm)
Petek’s extravagant cinematic portrait of a young woman is grounded in extensive interrogation of the nature of the medium.

Miodrag Tarana & Mirko Avramović FROM ME TO YOU (1972, 3.5 minutes, 8mm)
A playful exchange involving two cameras.

Nikola Djurić THE RAVEN (1973, 5 minutes, 16mm)
This lyrical exercise in bird-watching developed from Djurić’s work on a self-made optical printer.

Radoslav Vladić MARINELA (1974, 4 minutes, 16mm)
Vladić’s films are shot with much precision and attention to visual detail. In this work, subject matter and cinematographic technique are whimsically matched. While the record spins, the camera incessantly pans across the room.

Miodrag Milošević LAST TANGO IN PARIS (1983, 6 minutes [short version], 16mm)
“This is my attempt to analyze a favorite film. … I shot it off a television screen. … It is a Bertolucci film, but cleansed of everything I did not like about it.” –M.M.

 Želimir Žilnik INVENTORY (1975, 9 minutes, 16mm)
A political-materialist documentary in the structural mode, made by a veteran of Yugoslav engaged (“black wave”) cinema. The film’s subject matter is guest-workers in Munich, Germany.

Davorin Marc BITE ME. ONCE ALREADY (1977-80, 1.5 minutes, Super-8mm)
“The effect of teeth on a strip of film.” Made by Marc and a group of friends.

Bojan Jovanović TURMOIL (1982, 13 minutes, 16mm)
Politics of film form is, quite literally, the subject of Jovanović’s exploration. Taking as his starting point some footage of street scenes in early-1980s Kosovo, the filmmaker systematically disrupts the legibility of the image. Flicker, scratching, re-filming (over- and under-exposure), slow motion, frozen/burning frames, and the film losing its loop, all become symptoms of the rising socio-political tensions in the region.

Miroslav Bata Petrović PURE FILM: MEMENTO OF GEFF (1984, 5 minutes, 16mm)
Made some two decades after the idea of “antifilm” was originally elaborated, this playful homage insists on the continued relevance of its impulse toward radical reductivism.
Total running time: ca. 90 minutes.

U.S. THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!
Special thanks to Adam Sekuler (Northwest Film Forum).

JEAN GENTIL narrates the struggles – both material and philosophical – of an educated, deeply religious Haitian immigrant as he travels throughout the Dominican Republic, in search of work as well as a deeper meaning. Centering on the remarkable figure of Jean Remy Genty, playing a role closely modeled on his own life, the film traces his path from the city of Santo Domingo into the countryside, as this former French teacher is forced to find any possible means of subsistence. Though possessed of a profound dignity and stoicism, he is nevertheless severely tested by discrimination, exploitation, loneliness, and despair. Husband-and-wife filmmakers Guzmán and Cárdenas, along with the deeply compelling Genty, have created a remarkable portrait of a man struggling to survive, not only financially but spiritually, in a harsh world.

“Imbued with a naturalistic grace, this quietly desperate and deeply sympathetic portrait speaks volumes about the trials of humanity. Strikingly honest and poignant scenes transform the thin and frail Jean into a saint of sorts, an apostle whose despair lingers on the brink of consuming him. Shot on location in Santo Domingo and the surrounding countryside, the filmmakers apply their naturalistic style and intuitive eye to the island in its devastated state following the January 2010 earthquake. … You’ll find yourself frustrated and saddened by Jean’s plight, but his steadfast dignity ultimately inspires.” –Christine Davila, SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Directors Guzmán & Cárdenas will be here in person on Monday and Tuesday, April 23 & 24!

LABORATORY: VIDEO BY CECILIA DOUGHERTY

FILMMAKER IN PERSON ON FRIDAY, APRIL 20, IN DIALOGUE WITH CRITIC ED HALTER!
A venerable video artist who has been active since the mid-1980s, Cecilia Dougherty’s continually evolving work is too-rarely seen in comprehensive solo programs. Armed with an acutely inquisitive mind, an awareness of the plasticity of the medium, and a strongly feminist viewpoint, Dougherty’s works are pleasantly demanding and awash with visual pleasures. She fuses a fixation with literature, theater, words, and writers with equally far-reaching interests in video processing and the possibility of speaking with images. These three programs offer a career overview that mixes older works – some very rarely screened – with more recent pieces, and many of the tapes are brand-new digital transfers. Dougherty will introduce each screening and have a conversation with critic Ed Halter after Program 1. Additionally, the presentation of JOE-JOE (Program 3) will feature a live reading of playwright Joe Orton’s 1965 play LOOT by Gary Indiana, Eileen Myles, and Lynne Tillman.

Special thanks to Jon Shibata (Pacific Film Archive), Jennifer Lange (Wexner Center for the Arts), Anthology’s Digital Archivist Erik Piil, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for their support and preservation efforts.

PROGRAM 1:
IN A STATION, PETALS (2011, 13 minutes, video, silent)
This video is created from hundreds of stills sourced from TV shows that I used to watch. I targeted small corners of the frame or scene, and since I was looking so closely, began to notice how race and gender stereotypes are contained in the tiny moments of the pixels.

LAURIE (1998, 11 minutes, video)
The first in a series of video portraits of writers, this was inspired by Laurie Weeks’s uncanny ability to simultaneously embody her characters and write them from a clear distance. The text in question is a few paragraphs from a draft of the novel ZIPPER MOUTH, published last fall by the Feminist Press.

LESLIE (1998, 11 minutes, video)
A portrait of the West Coast poet Leslie Scalapino, who left an unmatched legacy of literature, poetry, and ideas when she died in 2010. The text is from AS: ALL OCCURRENCE IN STRUCTURE, UNSEEN – (DEER NIGHT).

EILEEN (2000, 10 minutes, video)
This video is an unabashed fan letter to poet Eileen Myles. I shot the movie as I imagined Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie shooting PULL MY DAISY, a film that left an impression on me chiefly of the struggle between form and formlessness, plan and improvisation, sketch and story.

KEVIN & CEDAR (2002, 8.5 minutes, video)
I went to visit Kevin Killian’s South of Market apartment in San Francisco to shoot a portrait of him, and when I arrived he had a guest, poet Cedar Sigo. While they had corresponded earlier, they were meeting that day for the first time. Cedar agreed to participate in our video shoot.

GONE (2001, 37 minutes, video)
A two-channel video based on Episode No. 2 of producer Craig Gilbert’s AN AMERICAN FAMILY, the landmark 1970s Public Television cinéma vérité documentary about the Loud family of Santa Barbara, California. The second episode of the series follows mother Pat Loud’s arrival in New York, where she spends the week with her son Lance, who is living at the Chelsea Hotel. Much of the dialogue in GONE is based on the actual dialogue in the original series.
Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.

Following the program, Dougherty will take part in a discussion with critic Ed Halter.

SPECIAL SCREENING!

ICON EYE
2012, 57 minutes, video.
ICON EYE documents the time young California musicians Cameron Stallones (aka Sun Araw) and M. Geddes Gengras spent in the Portmore neighborhood outside of Kingston, Jamaica collaborating with the astonishing Rastafarian dub reggae vocal group The Congos. ICON EYE is a dream-like companion piece to an album of intergenerational communion and creation. The film, presented here as part of Unsound Festival New York, will be followed by a discussion featuring principal players in the project.

LABORATORY: VIDEO BY CECILIA DOUGHERTY
A venerable video artist who has been active since the mid-1980s, Cecilia Dougherty’s continually evolving work is too-rarely seen in comprehensive solo programs. Armed with an acutely inquisitive mind, an awareness of the plasticity of the medium, and a strongly feminist viewpoint, Dougherty’s works are pleasantly demanding and awash with visual pleasures. She fuses a fixation with literature, theater, words, and writers with equally far-reaching interests in video processing and the possibility of speaking with images. These three programs offer a career overview that mixes older works – some very rarely screened – with more recent pieces, and many of the tapes are brand-new digital transfers. Dougherty will introduce each screening and have a conversation with critic Ed Halter after Program 1. Additionally, the presentation of JOE-JOE will feature a live reading of playwright Joe Orton’s 1965 play LOOT by Gary Indiana, Eileen Myles, and Lynne Tillman.

Special thanks to Jon Shibata (Pacific Film Archive), Jennifer Lange (Wexner Center for the Arts), Anthology’s Digital Archivist Erik Piil, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for their support and preservation efforts.

PROGRAM 2:
COAT OF ARMS (1987, 16 minutes, slow scan remote video capture, silent)
This piece is an enjoyment of the artifice of video – its colors, shapes, and electronic games.

THE THIRD SPACE (2009, 27 minutes, video)
This piece grew out of my photo blog, QUOTIDIAN NEW YORK, which I used as a portable studio to record and archive pictures I took on my daily rounds.

CLAUDIA (1987, 8 minutes, video)
An examination of the possibility that anything as marginal to society as lesbian sex can be placed within a context of a normal life, domestic architecture, and mundane perspective – not an exercise in invisibility, but as an examination of everyday life itself.

MY FAILURE TO ASSIMILATE (1995, 20 minutes, video)
An essay and a documentary examining the failure of society to accept feminist ideologies to a point where feminism could have an appreciable, lasting, or functional effect on the lives of ordinary women as a class.

Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

U.S. THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!
Special thanks to Adam Sekuler (Northwest Film Forum).

JEAN GENTIL narrates the struggles – both material and philosophical – of an educated, deeply religious Haitian immigrant as he travels throughout the Dominican Republic, in search of work as well as a deeper meaning. Centering on the remarkable figure of Jean Remy Genty, playing a role closely modeled on his own life, the film traces his path from the city of Santo Domingo into the countryside, as this former French teacher is forced to find any possible means of subsistence. Though possessed of a profound dignity and stoicism, he is nevertheless severely tested by discrimination, exploitation, loneliness, and despair. Husband-and-wife filmmakers Guzmán and Cárdenas, along with the deeply compelling Genty, have created a remarkable portrait of a man struggling to survive, not only financially but spiritually, in a harsh world.

“Imbued with a naturalistic grace, this quietly desperate and deeply sympathetic portrait speaks volumes about the trials of humanity. Strikingly honest and poignant scenes transform the thin and frail Jean into a saint of sorts, an apostle whose despair lingers on the brink of consuming him. Shot on location in Santo Domingo and the surrounding countryside, the filmmakers apply their naturalistic style and intuitive eye to the island in its devastated state following the January 2010 earthquake. … You’ll find yourself frustrated and saddened by Jean’s plight, but his steadfast dignity ultimately inspires.” –Christine Davila, SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Directors Guzmán & Cárdenas will be here in person on Monday and Tuesday, April 23 & 24!

LABORATORY: VIDEO BY CECILIA DOUGHERTY
A venerable video artist who has been active since the mid-1980s, Cecilia Dougherty’s continually evolving work is too-rarely seen in comprehensive solo programs. Armed with an acutely inquisitive mind, an awareness of the plasticity of the medium, and a strongly feminist viewpoint, Dougherty’s works are pleasantly demanding and awash with visual pleasures. She fuses a fixation with literature, theater, words, and writers with equally far-reaching interests in video processing and the possibility of speaking with images. These three programs offer a career overview that mixes older works – some very rarely screened – with more recent pieces, and many of the tapes are brand-new digital transfers. Dougherty will introduce each screening and have a conversation with critic Ed Halter after Program 1. Additionally, the presentation of JOE-JOE will feature a live reading of playwright Joe Orton’s 1965 play LOOT by Gary Indiana, Eileen Myles, and Lynne Tillman.

Special thanks to Jon Shibata (Pacific Film Archive), Jennifer Lange (Wexner Center for the Arts), Anthology’s Digital Archivist Erik Piil, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for their support and preservation efforts.

PROGRAM 3:
OCCUPY WALL STREET REDUX (2011, 14.5 minutes, video, silent)
Impressions, regressions, confessions. A sampling of direct democracy; thinking of times past, and takin’ it to the streets. It’s not a documentary, so it doesn’t have to pretend to be objective. Footage from OWS NYC Sept-Nov 2011.

THE DRAMA OF THE GIFTED CHILD (1992, 5.5 minutes, video)
Inspired by psychologist Alice Miller’s book THE DRAMA OF THE GIFTED CHILD: THE SEARCH FOR THE TRUE SELF. While not an adaptation of the book, my video is an essay on the transference phenomenon, narcissism, and the desire for a sense of self-worth based on the needs of peers and the standards of others.

JOE-JOE
1993, 52 minutes, video. Co-directed and co-produced by Leslie Singer and Cecilia Dougherty.
An adaptation of the diaries of 1960s British bad-boy playwright Joe Orton. This may be an entirely new genre of biopic, as JOE-JOE presents Orton not as one talented gay rogue, but as two fabulous and talented gay women, both named Joe Orton.
With a live reading of playwright Joe Orton’s 1965 play LOOT by Gary Indiana, Eileen Myles, and Lynne Tillman!

Total running time: ca. 80 minutes.

Unless otherwise noted, all films are silent.
ANTICIPATION OF THE NIGHT (1958, 40 min, 16mm)
CAT’S CRADLE (1959, 6 min, 16mm)
SIRIUS REMEMBERED (1959, 12 min, 16mm)
THE DEAD (1960, 11 min, 16mm)
MOTHLIGHT (1963, 4 min, 16mm)
BLUE MOSES (1963, 11 min, 16mm, b&w, sound)
With ANTICIPATION OF THE NIGHT, Brakhage leaves psychodrama and enters the “closed-eye vision” period. This program also contains a unique example of a film made without a camera, MOTHLIGHT, and one of Brakhage’s few sound (and ‘acted’) films, BLUE MOSES.
Total running time: ca. 90 min.

U.S. THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!
Special thanks to Adam Sekuler (Northwest Film Forum).

JEAN GENTIL narrates the struggles – both material and philosophical – of an educated, deeply religious Haitian immigrant as he travels throughout the Dominican Republic, in search of work as well as a deeper meaning. Centering on the remarkable figure of Jean Remy Genty, playing a role closely modeled on his own life, the film traces his path from the city of Santo Domingo into the countryside, as this former French teacher is forced to find any possible means of subsistence. Though possessed of a profound dignity and stoicism, he is nevertheless severely tested by discrimination, exploitation, loneliness, and despair. Husband-and-wife filmmakers Guzmán and Cárdenas, along with the deeply compelling Genty, have created a remarkable portrait of a man struggling to survive, not only financially but spiritually, in a harsh world.

“Imbued with a naturalistic grace, this quietly desperate and deeply sympathetic portrait speaks volumes about the trials of humanity. Strikingly honest and poignant scenes transform the thin and frail Jean into a saint of sorts, an apostle whose despair lingers on the brink of consuming him. Shot on location in Santo Domingo and the surrounding countryside, the filmmakers apply their naturalistic style and intuitive eye to the island in its devastated state following the January 2010 earthquake. … You’ll find yourself frustrated and saddened by Jean’s plight, but his steadfast dignity ultimately inspires.” –Christine Davila, SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Directors Guzmán & Cárdenas will be here in person on Monday and Tuesday, April 23 & 24!

Brakhage’s tour-de-force exploration of refracted light in an ashtray. “All that is, is light.” –Dun Scotus Erigena

All films are silent.
LOVING (1956, 4 min, 16mm)
PASHT (1965, 5 min, 16mm)
FIRE OF WATERS (1965, 10 min, 16mm, b&w, sound)
THE HORSEMAN, THE WOMAN AND THE MOTH (1968, 19 min, 16mm)
THE WEIR-FALCON SAGA (1970, 29 min, 16mm)
SEXUAL MEDITATION #1: MOTEL (1970, 7 min, 16mm)
SEXUAL MEDITATION: ROOM WITH A VIEW (1971, 4 min, 16mm, b&w)
THE SHORES OF PHOS: A FABLE (1972, 10 min, 16mm)
A selection from some of Brakhage’s most densely mysterious works.
Total running time: ca. 95 min.

U.S. THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!
Special thanks to Adam Sekuler (Northwest Film Forum).

JEAN GENTIL narrates the struggles – both material and philosophical – of an educated, deeply religious Haitian immigrant as he travels throughout the Dominican Republic, in search of work as well as a deeper meaning. Centering on the remarkable figure of Jean Remy Genty, playing a role closely modeled on his own life, the film traces his path from the city of Santo Domingo into the countryside, as this former French teacher is forced to find any possible means of subsistence. Though possessed of a profound dignity and stoicism, he is nevertheless severely tested by discrimination, exploitation, loneliness, and despair. Husband-and-wife filmmakers Guzmán and Cárdenas, along with the deeply compelling Genty, have created a remarkable portrait of a man struggling to survive, not only financially but spiritually, in a harsh world.

“Imbued with a naturalistic grace, this quietly desperate and deeply sympathetic portrait speaks volumes about the trials of humanity. Strikingly honest and poignant scenes transform the thin and frail Jean into a saint of sorts, an apostle whose despair lingers on the brink of consuming him. Shot on location in Santo Domingo and the surrounding countryside, the filmmakers apply their naturalistic style and intuitive eye to the island in its devastated state following the January 2010 earthquake. … You’ll find yourself frustrated and saddened by Jean’s plight, but his steadfast dignity ultimately inspires.” –Christine Davila, SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Directors Guzmán & Cárdenas will be here in person on Monday and Tuesday, April 23 & 24!

NYWIFT's Member Screening Series provides members with the opportunity to show their work in a theatrical setting. Screenings take place at Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Avenue (at 2nd Street). There will by a Q&A following the screening, and an after-party with cash bar and complimentary food at Dempsey's Pub, 61 2nd Avenue (between 3rd and 4th Streets).

Join us for a screening of Price Check, a feature produced by NYWIFT member Dolly Hall. Starring Parker Posey and Eric Mabiusa, this smart, honest comedy examines who we think we are and what we’re willing to do for the life we think we deserve.

Price Check (93 minutes)
Pete Cozy has found himself a house in the suburbs and a job in the pricing department of a middling supermarket chain. Pete's job allows him to spend quality time with his wife and young son and, despite the fact that they are drowning in debts, they appear happy. Everything changes when Pete gets a new boss, the beautiful, high-powered, fast-talking Susan Felders. With Susan's influence, Pete finds himself on the executive track, something that both surprises and excites him. The more his salary increases, the more he has to perform at work—and the less time he gets to spend with his family. At the same time, his relationship with his boss begins to cross the line of professional etiquette. Both become enamored with one another, creating tension in the workplace and in his personal home life.

Dolly Hall, named a "Producer to watch" by Variety, began her producing career in 1990. Her producing credits include such award-­winning films as Maria Maggenti’s The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love, Scott Silver’s johns, Alex Sichel’s All Over Me, Tim Blake Nelson’s Eye of God, Lisa Cholodenko’s High Art, Mark Christopher’s 54, Gary Winick’s Tadpole, and Lisa Picard is Famous, directed by Griffin Dunne and produced by Hall and Mira Sorvino. In July 2009, Lion’s Gate released Five Fingers, which Hall produced for writer–director Laurence Mailkin. She is preparing to take Michael Walker’s Price Check to the Sundance Film Festival for its world premiere. Hall and Walker are casting Walker's next feature, A Maid’s Room.

U.S. THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!
Special thanks to Adam Sekuler (Northwest Film Forum).

JEAN GENTIL narrates the struggles – both material and philosophical – of an educated, deeply religious Haitian immigrant as he travels throughout the Dominican Republic, in search of work as well as a deeper meaning. Centering on the remarkable figure of Jean Remy Genty, playing a role closely modeled on his own life, the film traces his path from the city of Santo Domingo into the countryside, as this former French teacher is forced to find any possible means of subsistence. Though possessed of a profound dignity and stoicism, he is nevertheless severely tested by discrimination, exploitation, loneliness, and despair. Husband-and-wife filmmakers Guzmán and Cárdenas, along with the deeply compelling Genty, have created a remarkable portrait of a man struggling to survive, not only financially but spiritually, in a harsh world.

“Imbued with a naturalistic grace, this quietly desperate and deeply sympathetic portrait speaks volumes about the trials of humanity. Strikingly honest and poignant scenes transform the thin and frail Jean into a saint of sorts, an apostle whose despair lingers on the brink of consuming him. Shot on location in Santo Domingo and the surrounding countryside, the filmmakers apply their naturalistic style and intuitive eye to the island in its devastated state following the January 2010 earthquake. … You’ll find yourself frustrated and saddened by Jean’s plight, but his steadfast dignity ultimately inspires.” –Christine Davila, SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Directors Guzmán & Cárdenas will be here in person on Monday and Tuesday, April 23 & 24!

NEWFILMMAKERS WELCOMES THE MIDDLE EAST FILMMAKERS GROUP

Details TBA; visit www.newfilmmakers.com for updates.

–Wednesday, April 25 at 6:00.

U.S. THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!
Special thanks to Adam Sekuler (Northwest Film Forum).

JEAN GENTIL narrates the struggles – both material and philosophical – of an educated, deeply religious Haitian immigrant as he travels throughout the Dominican Republic, in search of work as well as a deeper meaning. Centering on the remarkable figure of Jean Remy Genty, playing a role closely modeled on his own life, the film traces his path from the city of Santo Domingo into the countryside, as this former French teacher is forced to find any possible means of subsistence. Though possessed of a profound dignity and stoicism, he is nevertheless severely tested by discrimination, exploitation, loneliness, and despair. Husband-and-wife filmmakers Guzmán and Cárdenas, along with the deeply compelling Genty, have created a remarkable portrait of a man struggling to survive, not only financially but spiritually, in a harsh world.

“Imbued with a naturalistic grace, this quietly desperate and deeply sympathetic portrait speaks volumes about the trials of humanity. Strikingly honest and poignant scenes transform the thin and frail Jean into a saint of sorts, an apostle whose despair lingers on the brink of consuming him. Shot on location in Santo Domingo and the surrounding countryside, the filmmakers apply their naturalistic style and intuitive eye to the island in its devastated state following the January 2010 earthquake. … You’ll find yourself frustrated and saddened by Jean’s plight, but his steadfast dignity ultimately inspires.” –Christine Davila, SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Directors Guzmán & Cárdenas will be here in person on Monday and Tuesday, April 23 & 24!

“This is one of [Bene’s] masterpieces. … CAPRICCI – melodramatic, wildly expressionist, and opaque – includes a bloody, endless fight between two men brandishing hammer and sickle, poisoned Christ paintings that kill the beholder, impotent sex by a lecherous old man coughing his lungs out over a tantalizing nude woman, killings, car crashes, explosions, and raging fires, all accompanied by operatic arias, constantly moving cameras, and violent montage. Vulgar black humor, eroticism, and anarchic action mingle in this swirl of color and incessant motion – a tour de force of expressionist filmmaking.” –Amos Vogel, FILM AS A SUBVERSIVE ART
With:
IL BAROCCO LECCESE (1968, 6 minutes, 35mm)

U.S. THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!
Special thanks to Adam Sekuler (Northwest Film Forum).

JEAN GENTIL narrates the struggles – both material and philosophical – of an educated, deeply religious Haitian immigrant as he travels throughout the Dominican Republic, in search of work as well as a deeper meaning. Centering on the remarkable figure of Jean Remy Genty, playing a role closely modeled on his own life, the film traces his path from the city of Santo Domingo into the countryside, as this former French teacher is forced to find any possible means of subsistence. Though possessed of a profound dignity and stoicism, he is nevertheless severely tested by discrimination, exploitation, loneliness, and despair. Husband-and-wife filmmakers Guzmán and Cárdenas, along with the deeply compelling Genty, have created a remarkable portrait of a man struggling to survive, not only financially but spiritually, in a harsh world.

“Imbued with a naturalistic grace, this quietly desperate and deeply sympathetic portrait speaks volumes about the trials of humanity. Strikingly honest and poignant scenes transform the thin and frail Jean into a saint of sorts, an apostle whose despair lingers on the brink of consuming him. Shot on location in Santo Domingo and the surrounding countryside, the filmmakers apply their naturalistic style and intuitive eye to the island in its devastated state following the January 2010 earthquake. … You’ll find yourself frustrated and saddened by Jean’s plight, but his steadfast dignity ultimately inspires.” –Christine Davila, SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Directors Guzmán & Cárdenas will be here in person on Monday and Tuesday, April 23 & 24!

“Although this DON GIOVANNI includes snippets of the music from Mozart’s opera of the same name, the film is not a staging of the opera but rather a radical re-working of the Don Juan legend. After a prologue that alludes to the many conquests of Don Juan, the rest of the film concentrates on a peculiar kind of love triangle, in which the mother of a young girl competes with the Don for her daughter’s attention. Bene’s DON GIOVANNI could be considered a ‘queer’ film, mounting as it does a satiric attack on several of the institutions of modern sexuality: binary gender difference, the nuclear family, the machismo of male sexual prowess, and the Oedipal complex itself.” –HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE

Owes less to Oscar Wilde than to Bene’s life-long infatuation with Italian pop art in all its gaudy excessiveness. All traces of ‘reality’ have been banished from this near-indescribable romp through Bene’s cinematic universe. Highlighted by exuberantly tacky set design, eye-burning colors, and ever-changing illumination, in this film disorientation is the norm. This is certainly the only version of Wilde’s text to feature a man nailing himself to a flashing neon cross, or in which the eponymous vixen literally peels the skin from the face of King Herod as an act of seduction, precipitating his – and the film’s – final descent into utter madness. As for the Dance of the Seven Veils, the pinnacle of outrageousness in most productions, the sequence here is, ironically enough, the most quietly lyrical of the entire film.

PROGRAM 1:
THE GREAT BLONDINO PREVIEW (1967, 4 minutes, 16mm)
William Allan & Bruce Nauman FISHING FOR ASIAN CARP (1967, 3 minutes, 16mm. Sound by Robert Nelson.)
HOT LEATHERETTE (1967, 5 minutes, 16mm, b&w)
GRATEFUL DEAD (1967, 8 minutes, 16mm)
MORE (1971/98, 20 minutes, 16mm, b&w)
THE GREAT BLONDINO (with William T. Wiley, 1967, 43 minutes, 16mm, b&w/color)
Total running time: ca. 90 minutes.

(UN AMLETO DI MENO)
“Bene’s version of HAMLET celebrates the power and beauty of Shakespeare’s theatricality, while attempting to strip the piece of the morbid piety that has come to cling to it over the centuries. The film radically condenses most of the action of the play and further deforms the text: lines are repeated; original passages inserted; the ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy is not delivered by Hamlet but read – in an extremely abbreviated version – by Horatio; Polonius quotes Freud’s INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS. This film then is perhaps the best example of what Bene called his aesthetic/strategy of contestation. Bene also incorporates a critique of the play’s sexual politics: the male characters sport elaborate and even ludicrous costumes, while the women wear outfits that reveal more than they cover.” –HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE
With:
HERMITAGE (1968, 24 minutes, 35mm)

(NOSTRA SIGNORA DEI TURCHI)

The film is presented here in a 142-minute version; newly restored by the Cineteca Nazionale from the original negatives, this version predates the shorter, 126-minute edit created for submission to the Mostra Internazionale del Cinema di Venezia in 1968.
Bene adapted his own novel for his debut feature, in which he stars as a writer possessed with visions by turns outrageous, violent, religious, and sexual. Stylistically baroque, disjunctive, and aggressively nonlinear, OUR LADY OF THE TURKS is a sui generis classic of absurdist cinema.

“With CAPRICCI, this is the most hallucinatory and original masterpiece yet created by Bene; an explosion of neo-expressionism (with surrealist overtones) unequalled on the contemporary screen. The inspired, exasperating madness of this possessed moralist carries him beyond rage into black humor and grotesque burlesque, aimed at the dead-weight of a reactionary cultural matrix. … [Alberto] Moravia refers to Bene’s work as ‘desecration by dissociation, pushed beyond the point of schizophrenic delirium’ and to the over-all effect of this film as that of a grotesque, delirious lynching. How else [to] ‘explain’ scenes such as Bene, a knight in full armor, stubbornly attempting to make love to a nude woman (still involved with dishes) to the accompaniment of great clanking;… [or] driven insane perhaps by obsessions and visions, permitting himself to be raped by an eager Madonna who afterwards smokes in bed while reading magazines, halo in place.” –Amos Vogel, FILM AS A SUBVERSIVE ART

PROGRAM 2:
OH DEM WATERMELONS (1965, 11 minutes, 16mm)
DEEP WESTURN (1973, 5 minutes, 16mm, b&w/color)
THE OFF-HANDED JAPE (with William T. Wiley, 1967, 8 minutes, 16mm)
Chris Langdon PICASSO (1973, 3 minutes, 16mm, b&w)
LIMITATIONS (1988, 9 minutes, 16mm, b&w)
PENNY BRIGHT & JIMMY WITHERSPOON (1967, 4 minutes, 16mm)
THE AWFUL BACKLASH (with William Allan, 1967, 14 minutes, 16mm, b&w)
BLEU SHUT (1970, 33 minutes, 16mm, b&w/color)
Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.

“Although this DON GIOVANNI includes snippets of the music from Mozart’s opera of the same name, the film is not a staging of the opera but rather a radical re-working of the Don Juan legend. After a prologue that alludes to the many conquests of Don Juan, the rest of the film concentrates on a peculiar kind of love triangle, in which the mother of a young girl competes with the Don for her daughter’s attention. Bene’s DON GIOVANNI could be considered a ‘queer’ film, mounting as it does a satiric attack on several of the institutions of modern sexuality: binary gender difference, the nuclear family, the machismo of male sexual prowess, and the Oedipal complex itself.” –HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE

PROGRAM 3:
SUITE CALIFORNIA STOPS & PASSES PART 1: TIJUANA TO HOLLYWOOD VIA DEATH VALLEY
1976, 46 minutes, 16mm, b&w/color.
&
SUITE CALIFORNIA STOPS & PASSES PART 2: SAN FRANCISCO TO THE SIERRA NEVADAS & BACK AGAIN
1978, 48 minutes, 16mm, b&w/color.
Total running time: ca. 100 minutes.

“This is one of [Bene’s] masterpieces. … CAPRICCI – melodramatic, wildly expressionist, and opaque – includes a bloody, endless fight between two men brandishing hammer and sickle, poisoned Christ paintings that kill the beholder, impotent sex by a lecherous old man coughing his lungs out over a tantalizing nude woman, killings, car crashes, explosions, and raging fires, all accompanied by operatic arias, constantly moving cameras, and violent montage. Vulgar black humor, eroticism, and anarchic action mingle in this swirl of color and incessant motion – a tour de force of expressionist filmmaking.” –Amos Vogel, FILM AS A SUBVERSIVE ART
With:
IL BAROCCO LECCESE (1968, 6 minutes, 35mm)

With the exception of BREATHING, all of the films in this program were preserved by Anthology with generous support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. 
FORM PHASES I (1952, 2 min, 16mm)
FORM PHASES II (1953, 2 min, 16mm)
UN MIRACLE (1954, 30 sec, 35mm, Made with Pontus Hulten)
RECREATION (1956, 1.5 min, 35mm)
A MAN AND HIS DOG OUT FOR AIR (1957, 2 min, 35mm)
JAMESTOWN BALOOS (1957, 6 min, 35mm)
LE MOUVEMENT (1957, 14 min, 35mm)
EYEWASH (1959, 3 min, 35mm)
EYEWASH (ALTERNATIVE VERSION) (1959, 3 min, 35mm)
BLAZES (1961, 3 min, 35mm)
PAT’S BIRTHDAY (1962, 13 minutes, 16mm)
BREATHING (1963, 5 minutes, 16mm)
66 (1966, 5.5 min, 35mm)
69 (1969, 4.5 min, 35mm)
Total running time: ca. 70 min.

Owes less to Oscar Wilde than to Bene’s life-long infatuation with Italian pop art in all its gaudy excessiveness. All traces of ‘reality’ have been banished from this near-indescribable romp through Bene’s cinematic universe. Highlighted by exuberantly tacky set design, eye-burning colors, and ever-changing illumination, in this film disorientation is the norm. This is certainly the only version of Wilde’s text to feature a man nailing himself to a flashing neon cross, or in which the eponymous vixen literally peels the skin from the face of King Herod as an act of seduction, precipitating his – and the film’s – final descent into utter madness. As for the Dance of the Seven Veils, the pinnacle of outrageousness in most productions, the sequence here is, ironically enough, the most quietly lyrical of the entire film.

With the exception of GULLS AND BUOYS, all of the films in this program were preserved by Anthology with generous support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
70 (1970, 5 min, 35mm)
77 (1970, 6.5 min, 35mm)
FIST FIGHT (1964, 9 min, 35mm)
GULLS AND BUOYS (1972, 8 min, 16mm)
FUJI (1974, 9 min, 35mm)
SWISS ARMY KNIFE WITH RAT AND PIGEON (1981, 6.5 min, 35mm)
BANG (1986, 10 min, 35mm)
Total running time: ca. 60 min.

(UN AMLETO DI MENO)
“Bene’s version of HAMLET celebrates the power and beauty of Shakespeare’s theatricality, while attempting to strip the piece of the morbid piety that has come to cling to it over the centuries. The film radically condenses most of the action of the play and further deforms the text: lines are repeated; original passages inserted; the ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy is not delivered by Hamlet but read – in an extremely abbreviated version – by Horatio; Polonius quotes Freud’s INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS. This film then is perhaps the best example of what Bene called his aesthetic/strategy of contestation. Bene also incorporates a critique of the play’s sexual politics: the male characters sport elaborate and even ludicrous costumes, while the women wear outfits that reveal more than they cover.” –HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE
With:
HERMITAGE (1968, 24 minutes, 35mm)

PROGRAM 4:
Marcy Saude ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES 1: HANDMADE HOME (2012, 6 minutes, b&w/color)
KING DAVID (with Mike Henderson, 1970-73/2003, 8 minutes, 16mm)
HAMLET ACT (1982, 22 minutes, 16mm, b&w)
SPECIAL WARNING (1999, 5 minutes, 16mm, b&w/color)
&
HAULING TOTO BIG
1997, 46 minutes, 16mm, b&w.
Total running time: ca. 90 minutes.

(NOSTRA SIGNORA DEI TURCHI)

The film is presented here in a 142-minute version; newly restored by the Cineteca Nazionale from the original negatives, this version predates the shorter, 126-minute edit created for submission to the Mostra Internazionale del Cinema di Venezia in 1968.
Bene adapted his own novel for his debut feature, in which he stars as a writer possessed with visions by turns outrageous, violent, religious, and sexual. Stylistically baroque, disjunctive, and aggressively nonlinear, OUR LADY OF THE TURKS is a sui generis classic of absurdist cinema.

“With CAPRICCI, this is the most hallucinatory and original masterpiece yet created by Bene; an explosion of neo-expressionism (with surrealist overtones) unequalled on the contemporary screen. The inspired, exasperating madness of this possessed moralist carries him beyond rage into black humor and grotesque burlesque, aimed at the dead-weight of a reactionary cultural matrix. … [Alberto] Moravia refers to Bene’s work as ‘desecration by dissociation, pushed beyond the point of schizophrenic delirium’ and to the over-all effect of this film as that of a grotesque, delirious lynching. How else [to] ‘explain’ scenes such as Bene, a knight in full armor, stubbornly attempting to make love to a nude woman (still involved with dishes) to the accompaniment of great clanking;… [or] driven insane perhaps by obsessions and visions, permitting himself to be raped by an eager Madonna who afterwards smokes in bed while reading magazines, halo in place.” –Amos Vogel, FILM AS A SUBVERSIVE ART

PROGRAM 5:
Marian Wallace
THE COUNTER CULTURE HOUR WITH GUEST: ROBERT NELSON
2011, 58 minutes, video.
“Robert Nelson came by the RE/Search office, and this video documents the visit and conversation between Robert and (mostly) V. Vale. I was having technical difficulties, but couldn’t let Robert know or he would probably have ‘had to go’ right away, so the documentation also includes me ‘pretending nothing was wrong’ to stretch out the visit as long as possible. THE COUNTER CULTURE HOUR, hosted by V. Vale, appears monthly on public access TV in San Francisco.” –M.W.

SPECIAL BOOK RELEASE EVENT!
Since 1970, Amy Greenfield has been making films about how human motion can be used to express ideas and physical dynamism through cinema. Space, time, and the body are the ingredients of her film and video works, which she has used to make intensely edited experiences for audiences. “Experiences” because the viewer is engaged as an active participant in watching and feeling what happens on screen. In ELEMENT we struggle through a sea of viscous mud with her. In TRANSPORT she and a male partner are lifted aloft on a crumbling hillside. DOWNTOWN GODDESS delves into the mind of a stripper-poet. MUSEic OF THE BODY emerged from a Fluxus performance at Anthology. WILDFIRE crosses a century of cinema in slow motion, accelerated motion, multiple exposures, digital movement, and more.

This screening marks the publication of the book FLESH INTO LIGHT (Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press), an overview of Greenfield’s career by Anthology’s own Robert Haller. After the screening, both Greenfield and Haller will be here to discuss the book and the films, and a reception will follow.

ELEMENT (1973, 12 minutes, 16mm)
TRANSPORT (1971, 8 minutes, 16mm)
BODYSONGS: TOUCH AND CLOSEUP NUDES (1979/2012, 8 minutes, video. World premiere!)
DOWNTOWN GODDESS (1996, 10 minutes, video)
MUSEic OF THE BODY (2009, 10 minutes, video)
WILDFIRE (2002, 11 minutes, 35mm) Total running time: ca. 65 minutes, plus discussion.