Anthology Film Archives

WELCOME TO OUR THIRD ANNUAL NEWFILMMAKERS SUMMER FEST
Our six day NewFilmmakers Summer Fest 2011 will again screen over fifty new films about sex, love, and everything else. We debut a new Summer Shorts Series and continue our Urban Reality Series, which is a popular part of our regular weekly series. We hope to see you at Anthology.

DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Rahul Chadha THE BUZZ-A-RAMA 500 (2011, 6 minutes, video)
Sean Roman THE GREAT CONEY ISLAND EGG TOSS (2011, 9 minutes, video)
Miguel Cima DIG COMICS! (2009, 19 minutes, video)
Carole Ricciardelli THE LIFE YOU LIVE (2011, 30 minutes, video)

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Sara Leal RUNAWAY (2011, 2 minutes, video)
Lucia Hinojosa GET DRUNK (2010, 3 minutes, video)
Jeffrey Williams HOLD THE MAYO (2011, 8 minutes, video)
Michele Chivu AMERICAN HOME (2010, 11 minutes, video)
Doron Max Hagay ERICA WEXLER IS ONLINE (2010, 14 minutes, video)
Ryan Gielen TWO (2010, 17 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Alex Pucci, Pete Jacelone & Draven Gonzalez
ROAD HELL
2011, 90 minutes, video.
A feature length horror anthology that encompasses three classic horror genres. Set in a PSYCHO-like motel, with an inn-keeper host who makes Norman Bates appear almost normal, the film includes tales of vampire lust, childhood monsters lurking deep in the woods, and the antics of a vigilante zombie exterminator.

Made in collaboration with Victor Bockris and Andrew Wylie.

“In 1973 Victor Bockris and Andrew Wylie took me to Fighter’s Heaven, Muhammad Ali’s training camp in Deerlake, Pennsylvania, to videotape their interview with Ali. A few months later I came back to Deerlake with Ali’s friend Bernie and filmed some more training sessions, and Ali’s weekend with visits from children and tourists.
This film is about spending 2 hours with Muhammad Ali. It is about watching an athlete, a poet, and a philosopher, a dancer and choreographer, the first and last fine artist of boxing, and an adorer of children. It also captures the champion’s sense of humor.
The  excerpts of this video were shown on Manhattan Cable Public Access in 1973, and then lost in my archives. In 2010 I edited this new version.” –A.P.

“The film is…a monument to the 1970s. It was a decade in which the heavyweight champion of the world would give such intimate access to a filmmaker who spent most of his time documenting the chic glam of the New York underground. And a decade in which a video pioneer, who normally filmed cutting-edge comedies, would focus on a celebration of Ali. It was the beginning of the Beat Punk Age, that time defined by cross-cultural, cross-generational collaborations between the Beat Generation writers of the fifties, the Counterculture Stars of the sixties, and the Punk Rockers of the seventies. This warm, intimate, revealing and at times starkly beautiful film reminds us of a time when art movements and artists set the tone, and when the silver-tongued Ali dazzled the world and made us proud to be American.” –Victor Bockris

This screening coincides with the debut of Anton Perich’s new series of electric paintings and new video, at Microscope Gallery in Bushwick, on view June 12-July 3. For more info, please visit: www.microscopegallery.com.

Unless otherwise noted, all films are silent.
DESISTFILM (1954, 7 minutes, 16mm, b&w, sound)
REFLECTIONS ON BLACK (1955, 12 minutes, 16mm, b&w, sound)
THE WONDER RING (1955, 4 minutes, 16mm)
FLESH OF MORNING (1956, 25 minutes, 16mm, b&w)
DAYBREAK AND WHITEYE (1957, 8 minutes, 16mm)
WINDOW WATER BABY MOVING (1959, 12 minutes, 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.

ANIMATION SERIES
Nicholas Avedisian-Cohen JON CAANDY (2011, 1 minute, video)
Joonki Park FRIDAY NIGHT TIGHTS (2010, 4 minutes, video)
Tobias Stretch THE LANGUAGE (2010, 6 minutes, video)
Craya Plate THE READING (2010, 22 minutes, video)

FIRST SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Bernd Porr BIG BOOTS (2009, 4 minutes, video)
Natalia Provatas CANARY SUICIDES (2010, 5 minutes, video)
Joshua Martin DUEL (2011, 6 minutes, video)
Kazuyuki Akashi PRESS (2010, 20 minutes, video)
Chelsea Marino THE RETREAT (2010, 30 minutes, video)

SECOND SHORT FILM PROGRAM
William Sullivan APATHY AND DELIRIUM (2010, 19 minutes, video)
Michael Vass THE OLD WAY (2011, 13 minutes, video)
Matthew Perkins LIFE IN SHORT (2011, 22 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Aaron Mark
RANDOM UNRELATED PROJECTS
2010, 91 minutes, video.
These random unrelated stories – concerning an anonymous suicide threat, a gay man marrying a woman, and a social networking website mishap – share nothing other than an author, Manhattan, and many of the same actors.

DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Sofian Khan BROTHER ROB (2011, 15 minutes, video)
Evangeline Griego GOD WILLING (2010, 72 minutes, video)

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
OMG, Another Christian Sex Nite
Tanya Meronk THE JESUS PICTURE (2011, 22 minutes, video)
Connor Owens DANTE (2011, 23 minutes, 16mm)
Dan Kowalski MARTY AND DOUG’S NEW RELIGION (2010, 40 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Derek Stonebarger
I. M. CARAVAGGIO
2010, 92 minutes, video.
Set in the seedy and rarely photographed ghetto of Las Vegas known as ‘Naked City’, this film narrates the rise and fall of a modern day Master, Ian Milano, who works and lives as 17th Century Italian Painter Caravaggio in order to forge his artistic genius and unlock his own sociopathic nature.

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

DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Charles Fairbanks IRMA (2010, 13 minutes, video)
Cecilia Vicuna KON KON (2010, 54 minutes, video)

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Jon Jones EL TORERO Y LA TORA (2011, 4 minutes, video)
Ruben Rodriguez VICTIM: THE KRISTEN AUBIN STORY (2010, 7 minutes, video)
Alejandro Hernandez Vera LA CONCLUSION DE QUEVEDO (2011, 11 minutes, video)
Jorge Rodríguez Mazzini ESTO ES SOLIDARIDAD (2011, 13 minutes, video)
Angel Alvarez EL REGALO (2011, 14 minutes, video)
Juan Cruz Castells DESIDERIUM (2011, 20 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Fernando Gil
THAT THING
2010, 81 minutes, video.
In a world where the bullet is the standard unit of measurement for the distance between life and death, a grizzled undercover police detective and a street-smart newspaper reporter find out the hard way what it means to be in love.

Even today, the Northwest remains an outpost of lumberjacks, fishermen, and pioneers. This shorts program delivers the region’s pioneering spirit with nine short films, curated by Northwest Film Forum’s program director Adam Sekuler, that offer a glimpse into the experimental practices of filmmakers from the Emerald City of Seattle, WA. Carving out new territory in the timberland of cinema these films explore juxtapositions of place and space, past and present, personal and impersonal, literal and figurative, and, as with all great cinema, the intentional and unintentional.

All works in this program are on digital video.

C.W. Winter TIME LAPSE MOTION PICTURE NO. 4 (SEATTLE) (2011, 6 minutes)
A subtle shift of pixels in a hotel room is the ultimate in subtle examination of space and time. Commissioned by Northwest Film Forum.

Britta Johnson CRASHING WAVES (2010, 7 minutes)
Castaways perform strange tasks on a deserted shore. Are they gods, or have they been driven mad by their predicament?

Luke Sieczek SPACE, THE AIR, THE RIVER, THE LEAF (2009, 12 minutes)
Using a mixture of interpretive strategies – from documentary observation, expressionistic abstraction, improvisational music, and dance – this film explores the passage of water as it undergoes a series of natural filtering processes.

Serge Gregory WHEN HERONS DREAM (2009, 11 minutes)
Imagines the perspective of a great blue heron as it moves through the seasons and a Northwest landscape shaped by water.

Karn Junkinsmith & Adam Sekuler INTERPRETIVE SITE: HANFORD REACH (2011, 7 minutes)

Gretchen Burger UNWRAPPING (2010, 9 minutes)
Drawing on nine years of boxing training, UNWRAPPING is an exploration of how memory and emotion manifest to shape the body’s alignment and movement.

Alexandra Roxo THE HEART IS WHAT REMAINS (2009, 13 minutes)
Two lovers meet and experience the birth, life, and death of love.

Curtis Taylor CHURCH WEATHER (2009, 10 minutes)
Exploring contemplation and perception, CHURCH WEATHER follows a woman on her way home, who hears the radio broadcast of a sacred choir, triggering her repressed awareness of the connected, hidden mechanics of all things.

Drew Christie THE MAN WHO SHOT THE MAN WHO SHOT LINCOLN (2010, 5 minutes)
An animated interpretation of the strange life of Boston Corbett.

Total running time: ca. 85 minutes.

Unlike exploitation films in the seventies, Urban Reality films are produced by the people in them and are the next trend in filmmaking. Subjects range from drugs to horror to personal relationships and are filmed in peoples homes and on their local streets.

DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Linda Friend STYLE & GRACE (2010, 42 minutes, video)

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Michael Fequiere TRAUM (2011, 12 minutes, 16mm)
Duwon Anthony MISSING PICTURE (2010, 20 minutes, video)
Robert Fernandez UNA CALLE SIN SALIDA (2010, 19 minutes, video)
Jason Mignot EQUALIZERS (2010, 27 minutes, video)
CJ Richter BILLY BOB THE MOVIE (2011, 28 minutes, video)

DOUBLE FEATURE PRESENTATION
Jeff Edmond
THE EMPTY MAN
2010, 49 minutes, video.
A character driven story about two brothers.
&
Coleen Innis
DRIVVEN
2010, 75 minutes, video.
A quiet town is plagued by mysterious disappearances.

DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Kacper Jarecki PAIN & SUFFERING (2011, 13 minutes, video)
Emily Keslor HOMEPLACE (2010, 42 minutes, video)

FIRST SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Lori Elberg THE CINDERELLIS’ (2011, 7 minutes, video)
Eleonore Dailly PARADISE PALMS (2011, 10 minutes, video)
Winston James VICTIM 27 (2010, 10 minutes, video)
Nick Spuhler INCOMPLETECONTROL (2011, 12 minutes, video)
Ines Portugal A WOMAN IN THE SUN (2011, 18 minutes, 16mm)

SECOND SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Talia Alberts EMMA AND REID (2010, 10 minutes, video)
Danny Aiello TRIO (2009, 14 minutes, video)
Brian Quist THIS IS POETRY (2010, 15 minutes, video)
Violetta D’Agata Hartmann AFTER DARK (2010, 19 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Josh Sternlicht
FOOL IN A BUBBLE
2011, 81 minutes, video.
Explores the journey and conflicts of cult Durban musician/poet, Syd Kitchen, as he records a landmark album in New York with South African musicians from Paul Simon’s GRACELAND album.

SPECIAL PROGRAM
With Third World Newsreel
Third World Newsreel (TWN) is an alternative media arts organization that fosters the creation, appreciation, and dissemination of independent film and video by and about people of color. TWN promotes the self-representation of traditionally marginalized groups as well as the negotiated representation of those groups by artists who work in solidarity with them. For more information, please visit www.twn.org.

FIRST SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Jeong Cha CREAM FOR ME (2010, 8 minutes, video)
Hiroshi Hara FOR JIE (2010, 9 minutes, video)
Chloe Zhao BENACHIN (2010, 10 minutes video)
Haley Bueschlen YIYI (2010, 10 minutes, video)

SECOND SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Ju-young Moon COLIN HUGGINS (2010, 22 minutes, video)
Retsu Mototoshi CHANGING TRADITION (2011, 26 minutes, video)
Albert Leung TIME STOPPER (2010, 27 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Konrad Aderer
ENEMY ALIEN
2010, 81 minutes, video.
A Japanese American filmmaker finds echoes of his own family’s WWII internment as he gets involved in the struggle to free Farouk, a Palestinian activist arrested in a post-9/11 sweep of Muslim immigrants.

In conjunction with the exhibition TIME AGAIN on view at SculptureCenter through July 25, SculptureCenter and Anthology Film Archives present a screening series that further explores the language of repetition central to the exhibition, bringing together works that destabilize conventional ways of seeing and consider what is past and what is present. Engaging gesture, image sequence, material affect, and displaced narrative, the works on view create disjunctions with the way the time of the present is experienced, challenging our understanding of what it means to be contemporaries.

Organized by Isla Leaver-Yap and SculptureCenter Curator Fionn Meade.

PROGRAM 1:
The performing body and political subject present themselves via acts of estrangement, reversal, ritualized behavior, and fragmentation. Linear time and narrative denouement are replaced with the desire to be re-regarded, touched, and felt.

This screening will be followed by a conversation between artists Leslie Thornton and Lisa Oppenheim.

Shahryar Nashat ONE MORE TIME WITH JAMES (2009, 4 minutes, video)
Joan Jonas GLASS PUZZLE (1973, 15 minutes, video, b&w)
Leslie Thornton STRANGE SPACE (1992, 4 minutes, video)
Leslie Thornton THE LAST TIME I SAW RON (1994, 12 minutes, video)
Laure Prouvost MONOLOG (2009, 9 minutes, video)
James Richards MISTY BOUNDARIES: FADES AND DISSOLVES (2009, 4 minutes, video)
Ed Atkins DEATH MASK II: THE SCENT (2010, 8.5 minutes, video)
Rosalind Nashashibi THE STATES OF THINGS (2000, 4 minutes, 16mm-to-video)
Total running time: ca. 65 minutes.

NEWFILMMAKERS ENDS SUMMERFEST 2011 AND BEGINS ITS WEEKLY SUMMER SCHEDULE WITH OUR FILM OF THE MONTH PRESENTATION

SPECIAL PROGRAM
With Reel To Reel Film School
Jimmy Peguero THE ADVENTURES OF FLYING BOY AND FLOATING GIRL (2010, 5 minutes, video)
Bryan De Leon A CRECER COMO UNA PERSONA (2010, 7 minutes, video)

FIRST SHORT FILM PROGRAM
About High School
Philip Snyder A FAREWELL TO ARMS (2010, 7 minutes, video)
Ted Fendt QUITTERS CAN’T BE CHOOSERS (2011, 7 minutes, 16mm)
Lara Gallagher STAGE TWO (2011, 12 minutes, video)
Matt Kazman FLAGPOLE (2010, 22 minutes, video)
Arcady Golubovich ENOUGH (2011, 15 minutes, video)

SECOND SHORT FILM PROGRAM
About New York
John Trigonis CERISE (2010, 22 minutes, video)
Russell Greene EASY STREET (2011, 23 minutes, video)
Christopher Piccione PATH TO PROLOGUE (2011, 30 minutes, video)

FILM OF THE MONTH PRESENTATION
This is the best selling film on NewFilmmakers Online in December.
Fiona Cochrane
RACHEL: A PERFECT LIFE
2009, 90 minutes, video.
Rachel is a single mother and a very resilient young woman who has faced many problems in her life. Now she wants brain surgery to rid her of the epilepsy that is ruling her life. This intimate observational documentary follows her through the assessment process and the subsequent brain surgery.

In conjunction with the exhibition TIME AGAIN on view at SculptureCenter through July 25, SculptureCenter and Anthology Film Archives present a screening series that further explores the language of repetition central to the exhibition, bringing together works that destabilize conventional ways of seeing and consider what is past and what is present. Engaging gesture, image sequence, material affect, and displaced narrative, the works on view create disjunctions with the way the time of the present is experienced, challenging our understanding of what it means to be contemporaries.

Organized by Isla Leaver-Yap and SculptureCenter Curator Fionn Meade.

PROGRAM 2:
Archival and historical settings are re-animated only to be undone. In the films presented history is not engaged as stable and singular, nor is it a place of redress or amendment. Rather, it is an unfolding place to be occupied, used, redirected, and put back in motion.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with artist and filmmaker William E. Jones and SculptureCenter Curator Fionn Meade.

Emily Wardill DESCARTES’ DAUGHTER (2008, 10 minutes, 16mm)
Ursula Mayer LUNCH IN FUR (2008, 7 minutes, 16mm-to-video)
Hito Steyerl NOVEMBER (2004, 25 minutes, video)
Deimantas Narkevičius REVISITING SOLARIS (2006, 18 minutes, 35mm-to-video)
Matthew Buckingham FALSE FUTURE (2007, 10 minutes, 16mm)
Shahryar Nashat TODAY (2010, 5 minutes, video)
Olga Chernysheva THE TRAIN (2003, 7.5 minutes, video, b&w)
Total running time: ca. 90 minutes.

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.

(JUNTOS)

An intimate and off-beat portrait of a strained relationship, JUNTOS features Gabino Rodríguez as a young man in search of his lost dog and the cause of the widening rift with his moody girlfriend. Pereda makes humorous use of the cramped, dysfunctional apartment where most of the film takes place, staging dead-pan gags that recall the meditative comedy of Tsai Ming-liang. Among Pereda’s most abstract and emotionally nuanced films, JUNTOS ends in a rhapsodic extended scene that pulls the film deep into a verdant wilderness and towards unknown mysteries.

(VERANO DE GOLIAT)

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by FiGa Films.

The subject of a full retrospective this calendar, Nicolás Pereda has established himself as one of contemporary Mexican cinema’s most gifted young filmmakers. Concurrently with our retrospective, we present the theatrical premiere run of his newest film, SUMMER OF GOLIATH, which finds Pereda calling once again on the talents of his perpetual muses, Teresa Sanchez and Gabino Rodríguez. This time, though, the setting has shifted from an urban to a rural one, and Pereda’s experimental inclinations have become particularly pronounced, above all through the complex and shifting relationship between documentary and fictional elements, and his use of a wide variety of narrative modes.

Set in Huilotepec, a community in the Mexican countryside, SUMMER OF GOLIATH revolves around three characters: Teresa, who embarks on a mission to determine why her husband has suddenly abandoned her; her son Gabino, who is in the military and spends his time conducting car searches, as well as intimidating the locals, with his fellow soldier Alberto; and 16-year-old Oscar – nicknamed Goliath – who is socially outcast because of a rumor that he killed his girlfriend. Dominated by Teresa’s wanderings and her interactions with the town’s inhabitants, SUMMER OF GOLIATH hauntingly depicts a community suffering from the effects of lost loved ones, broken promises, disconnection, and eternal longing.

“Pereda depicts the frustrations of a rural Mexican community through a variety of narrative conceits, ranging from documentary-style interviews with the characters to staging the same scene in different settings…. Violence – including a murder that’s supposedly been committed by the teenage title character – seems to lurk everywhere, but Pereda offsets it with a deep affection for the characters; his portrait of small-town desperation never feels patronizing.” –Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, CHICAGO READER

WHERE ARE THEIR STORIES / ¿DÓNDE ESTÁN SUS HISTORIAS?
2007, 73 minutes, 35mm. In Spanish with English subtitles.
Pereda’s debut feature showcases his carefully restrained narrative and visual style with its meticulously understated story of a young man trying to prevent his uncles from selling his elderly grandmother’s farm. With Pereda’s regular actors Teresa Sanchez and Gabino Rodríguez making their first appearance in the mother and son roles they have played in four films to date, WHERE ARE THEIR STORIES? also introduces the theme of family which unites the films, here by revealing subtle, ironic parallels between the boy’s rural home and the relatively luxurious Mexico City home where his mother works as a live-in maid.

Screening with:
INTERVIEW WITH THE EARTH / ENTREVISTA CON LA TIERRA (2009, 18 minutes, video. In Spanish with English subtitles.)
One of Pereda’s finest accomplishments, this short film is a mesmerizing study of grief that traces the echoes of a child’s accidental death across the lives of his friends and their families.

(VERANO DE GOLIAT)

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by FiGa Films.

The subject of a full retrospective this calendar, Nicolás Pereda has established himself as one of contemporary Mexican cinema’s most gifted young filmmakers. Concurrently with our retrospective, we present the theatrical premiere run of his newest film, SUMMER OF GOLIATH, which finds Pereda calling once again on the talents of his perpetual muses, Teresa Sanchez and Gabino Rodríguez. This time, though, the setting has shifted from an urban to a rural one, and Pereda’s experimental inclinations have become particularly pronounced, above all through the complex and shifting relationship between documentary and fictional elements, and his use of a wide variety of narrative modes.

Set in Huilotepec, a community in the Mexican countryside, SUMMER OF GOLIATH revolves around three characters: Teresa, who embarks on a mission to determine why her husband has suddenly abandoned her; her son Gabino, who is in the military and spends his time conducting car searches, as well as intimidating the locals, with his fellow soldier Alberto; and 16-year-old Oscar – nicknamed Goliath – who is socially outcast because of a rumor that he killed his girlfriend. Dominated by Teresa’s wanderings and her interactions with the town’s inhabitants, SUMMER OF GOLIATH hauntingly depicts a community suffering from the effects of lost loved ones, broken promises, disconnection, and eternal longing.

“Pereda depicts the frustrations of a rural Mexican community through a variety of narrative conceits, ranging from documentary-style interviews with the characters to staging the same scene in different settings…. Violence – including a murder that’s supposedly been committed by the teenage title character – seems to lurk everywhere, but Pereda offsets it with a deep affection for the characters; his portrait of small-town desperation never feels patronizing.” –Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, CHICAGO READER

Gabino Rodríguez returns as an itinerant mover, working from the streets of Mexico City with his partner and living with his beleaguered mother, played once again by Teresa Sanchez. Their home life is marked by an undercurrent of tension, thanks to the absence of Gabino’s aloof older brother and his unmentioned father. Pereda’s most tightly structured and intricately plotted feature, PERPETUUM MOBILE fully punctures the drifting rhythm of Rodríguez’s casual pursuit of a career with the series of intense and almost satirically telenovela-esque domestic vignettes encountered by the movers.

(TODO EN FIN, EL SILENCIO LO OCUPABA)

Pereda’s background in video installation is clearly revealed in this, his most formally radical work – a meticulously staged reading of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s classic poem, “Primer sueño”, with celebrated Mexican actress and director Jesusa Rodríguez portraying the legendary writer reciting her spellbinding poetry in various strikingly theatrical poses. Shot in high-contrast b&w during the filming of an educational television program about Sor Juana, it reinvents the original film from the margins, transforming the struggle of Pereda and his crew to find the ideal shadow and camera angle into abstract and mesmerizing drama.

(VERANO DE GOLIAT)

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by FiGa Films.

The subject of a full retrospective this calendar, Nicolás Pereda has established himself as one of contemporary Mexican cinema’s most gifted young filmmakers. Concurrently with our retrospective, we present the theatrical premiere run of his newest film, SUMMER OF GOLIATH, which finds Pereda calling once again on the talents of his perpetual muses, Teresa Sanchez and Gabino Rodríguez. This time, though, the setting has shifted from an urban to a rural one, and Pereda’s experimental inclinations have become particularly pronounced, above all through the complex and shifting relationship between documentary and fictional elements, and his use of a wide variety of narrative modes.

Set in Huilotepec, a community in the Mexican countryside, SUMMER OF GOLIATH revolves around three characters: Teresa, who embarks on a mission to determine why her husband has suddenly abandoned her; her son Gabino, who is in the military and spends his time conducting car searches, as well as intimidating the locals, with his fellow soldier Alberto; and 16-year-old Oscar – nicknamed Goliath – who is socially outcast because of a rumor that he killed his girlfriend. Dominated by Teresa’s wanderings and her interactions with the town’s inhabitants, SUMMER OF GOLIATH hauntingly depicts a community suffering from the effects of lost loved ones, broken promises, disconnection, and eternal longing.

“Pereda depicts the frustrations of a rural Mexican community through a variety of narrative conceits, ranging from documentary-style interviews with the characters to staging the same scene in different settings…. Violence – including a murder that’s supposedly been committed by the teenage title character – seems to lurk everywhere, but Pereda offsets it with a deep affection for the characters; his portrait of small-town desperation never feels patronizing.” –Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, CHICAGO READER

WHERE ARE THEIR STORIES / ¿DÓNDE ESTÁN SUS HISTORIAS?
2007, 73 minutes, 35mm. In Spanish with English subtitles.
Pereda’s debut feature showcases his carefully restrained narrative and visual style with its meticulously understated story of a young man trying to prevent his uncles from selling his elderly grandmother’s farm. With Pereda’s regular actors Teresa Sanchez and Gabino Rodríguez making their first appearance in the mother and son roles they have played in four films to date, WHERE ARE THEIR STORIES? also introduces the theme of family which unites the films, here by revealing subtle, ironic parallels between the boy’s rural home and the relatively luxurious Mexico City home where his mother works as a live-in maid.

Screening with:
INTERVIEW WITH THE EARTH / ENTREVISTA CON LA TIERRA (2009, 18 minutes, video. In Spanish with English subtitles.)
One of Pereda’s finest accomplishments, this short film is a mesmerizing study of grief that traces the echoes of a child’s accidental death across the lives of his friends and their families.

Gabino Rodríguez returns as an itinerant mover, working from the streets of Mexico City with his partner and living with his beleaguered mother, played once again by Teresa Sanchez. Their home life is marked by an undercurrent of tension, thanks to the absence of Gabino’s aloof older brother and his unmentioned father. Pereda’s most tightly structured and intricately plotted feature, PERPETUUM MOBILE fully punctures the drifting rhythm of Rodríguez’s casual pursuit of a career with the series of intense and almost satirically telenovela-esque domestic vignettes encountered by the movers.

(TODO EN FIN, EL SILENCIO LO OCUPABA)

Pereda’s background in video installation is clearly revealed in this, his most formally radical work – a meticulously staged reading of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s classic poem, “Primer sueño”, with celebrated Mexican actress and director Jesusa Rodríguez portraying the legendary writer reciting her spellbinding poetry in various strikingly theatrical poses. Shot in high-contrast b&w during the filming of an educational television program about Sor Juana, it reinvents the original film from the margins, transforming the struggle of Pereda and his crew to find the ideal shadow and camera angle into abstract and mesmerizing drama.

(VERANO DE GOLIAT)

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by FiGa Films.

The subject of a full retrospective this calendar, Nicolás Pereda has established himself as one of contemporary Mexican cinema’s most gifted young filmmakers. Concurrently with our retrospective, we present the theatrical premiere run of his newest film, SUMMER OF GOLIATH, which finds Pereda calling once again on the talents of his perpetual muses, Teresa Sanchez and Gabino Rodríguez. This time, though, the setting has shifted from an urban to a rural one, and Pereda’s experimental inclinations have become particularly pronounced, above all through the complex and shifting relationship between documentary and fictional elements, and his use of a wide variety of narrative modes.

Set in Huilotepec, a community in the Mexican countryside, SUMMER OF GOLIATH revolves around three characters: Teresa, who embarks on a mission to determine why her husband has suddenly abandoned her; her son Gabino, who is in the military and spends his time conducting car searches, as well as intimidating the locals, with his fellow soldier Alberto; and 16-year-old Oscar – nicknamed Goliath – who is socially outcast because of a rumor that he killed his girlfriend. Dominated by Teresa’s wanderings and her interactions with the town’s inhabitants, SUMMER OF GOLIATH hauntingly depicts a community suffering from the effects of lost loved ones, broken promises, disconnection, and eternal longing.

“Pereda depicts the frustrations of a rural Mexican community through a variety of narrative conceits, ranging from documentary-style interviews with the characters to staging the same scene in different settings…. Violence – including a murder that’s supposedly been committed by the teenage title character – seems to lurk everywhere, but Pereda offsets it with a deep affection for the characters; his portrait of small-town desperation never feels patronizing.” –Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, CHICAGO READER

(JUNTOS)

An intimate and off-beat portrait of a strained relationship, JUNTOS features Gabino Rodríguez as a young man in search of his lost dog and the cause of the widening rift with his moody girlfriend. Pereda makes humorous use of the cramped, dysfunctional apartment where most of the film takes place, staging dead-pan gags that recall the meditative comedy of Tsai Ming-liang. Among Pereda’s most abstract and emotionally nuanced films, JUNTOS ends in a rhapsodic extended scene that pulls the film deep into a verdant wilderness and towards unknown mysteries.

Gabino Rodríguez returns as an itinerant mover, working from the streets of Mexico City with his partner and living with his beleaguered mother, played once again by Teresa Sanchez. Their home life is marked by an undercurrent of tension, thanks to the absence of Gabino’s aloof older brother and his unmentioned father. Pereda’s most tightly structured and intricately plotted feature, PERPETUUM MOBILE fully punctures the drifting rhythm of Rodríguez’s casual pursuit of a career with the series of intense and almost satirically telenovela-esque domestic vignettes encountered by the movers.

(VERANO DE GOLIAT)

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by FiGa Films.

The subject of a full retrospective this calendar, Nicolás Pereda has established himself as one of contemporary Mexican cinema’s most gifted young filmmakers. Concurrently with our retrospective, we present the theatrical premiere run of his newest film, SUMMER OF GOLIATH, which finds Pereda calling once again on the talents of his perpetual muses, Teresa Sanchez and Gabino Rodríguez. This time, though, the setting has shifted from an urban to a rural one, and Pereda’s experimental inclinations have become particularly pronounced, above all through the complex and shifting relationship between documentary and fictional elements, and his use of a wide variety of narrative modes.

Set in Huilotepec, a community in the Mexican countryside, SUMMER OF GOLIATH revolves around three characters: Teresa, who embarks on a mission to determine why her husband has suddenly abandoned her; her son Gabino, who is in the military and spends his time conducting car searches, as well as intimidating the locals, with his fellow soldier Alberto; and 16-year-old Oscar – nicknamed Goliath – who is socially outcast because of a rumor that he killed his girlfriend. Dominated by Teresa’s wanderings and her interactions with the town’s inhabitants, SUMMER OF GOLIATH hauntingly depicts a community suffering from the effects of lost loved ones, broken promises, disconnection, and eternal longing.

“Pereda depicts the frustrations of a rural Mexican community through a variety of narrative conceits, ranging from documentary-style interviews with the characters to staging the same scene in different settings…. Violence – including a murder that’s supposedly been committed by the teenage title character – seems to lurk everywhere, but Pereda offsets it with a deep affection for the characters; his portrait of small-town desperation never feels patronizing.” –Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, CHICAGO READER

WHERE ARE THEIR STORIES / ¿DÓNDE ESTÁN SUS HISTORIAS?
2007, 73 minutes, 35mm. In Spanish with English subtitles.
Pereda’s debut feature showcases his carefully restrained narrative and visual style with its meticulously understated story of a young man trying to prevent his uncles from selling his elderly grandmother’s farm. With Pereda’s regular actors Teresa Sanchez and Gabino Rodríguez making their first appearance in the mother and son roles they have played in four films to date, WHERE ARE THEIR STORIES? also introduces the theme of family which unites the films, here by revealing subtle, ironic parallels between the boy’s rural home and the relatively luxurious Mexico City home where his mother works as a live-in maid.

Screening with:
INTERVIEW WITH THE EARTH / ENTREVISTA CON LA TIERRA (2009, 18 minutes, video. In Spanish with English subtitles.)
One of Pereda’s finest accomplishments, this short film is a mesmerizing study of grief that traces the echoes of a child’s accidental death across the lives of his friends and their families.

NEWFILMMAKERS CELEBRATES BASTILLE DAY

FIRST SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Joshua Hawks DO YOU SPEAK FRENCH? (2010, 3 minutes, video)
Martin Thibaudeau BANC PUBLIC (2011, 5 minutes, video)
Girimohan Coneti LOST DREAMS, USED MARKERS (2010, 12 minutes, video)
Farouk Thoyer PRIVATE HUNTING GROUNDS (2004, 19 minutes, 8mm)
Jossy Mayor UN CAFÉ POUR L’AMERIQUE (2009, 20 minutes, video)

SECOND SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Paul Briottet SO LONG, JUNE (2010, 35 minutes, video)
Lorian James Delman HOMECOMING (2010, 45 minutes, 16mm)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Silvia Maglioni & Graeme Thomson
FACS OF LIFE
2009, 116 minutes, video.
Maglioni and Thomson are co-founders of Terminal Beach, a cross-media arts platform investigating new configurations of image, sound, text, and spectatorship. Their first feature film draws on encounters with a number of former students of Gilles Deleuze, navigating between the terrains of documentary, fiction, essay, and video art to explore aspects of Deleuze’s philosophical legacy.

(VERANO DE GOLIAT)

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by FiGa Films.

The subject of a full retrospective this calendar, Nicolás Pereda has established himself as one of contemporary Mexican cinema’s most gifted young filmmakers. Concurrently with our retrospective, we present the theatrical premiere run of his newest film, SUMMER OF GOLIATH, which finds Pereda calling once again on the talents of his perpetual muses, Teresa Sanchez and Gabino Rodríguez. This time, though, the setting has shifted from an urban to a rural one, and Pereda’s experimental inclinations have become particularly pronounced, above all through the complex and shifting relationship between documentary and fictional elements, and his use of a wide variety of narrative modes.

Set in Huilotepec, a community in the Mexican countryside, SUMMER OF GOLIATH revolves around three characters: Teresa, who embarks on a mission to determine why her husband has suddenly abandoned her; her son Gabino, who is in the military and spends his time conducting car searches, as well as intimidating the locals, with his fellow soldier Alberto; and 16-year-old Oscar – nicknamed Goliath – who is socially outcast because of a rumor that he killed his girlfriend. Dominated by Teresa’s wanderings and her interactions with the town’s inhabitants, SUMMER OF GOLIATH hauntingly depicts a community suffering from the effects of lost loved ones, broken promises, disconnection, and eternal longing.

“Pereda depicts the frustrations of a rural Mexican community through a variety of narrative conceits, ranging from documentary-style interviews with the characters to staging the same scene in different settings…. Violence – including a murder that’s supposedly been committed by the teenage title character – seems to lurk everywhere, but Pereda offsets it with a deep affection for the characters; his portrait of small-town desperation never feels patronizing.” –Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, CHICAGO READER

(JUNTOS)

An intimate and off-beat portrait of a strained relationship, JUNTOS features Gabino Rodríguez as a young man in search of his lost dog and the cause of the widening rift with his moody girlfriend. Pereda makes humorous use of the cramped, dysfunctional apartment where most of the film takes place, staging dead-pan gags that recall the meditative comedy of Tsai Ming-liang. Among Pereda’s most abstract and emotionally nuanced films, JUNTOS ends in a rhapsodic extended scene that pulls the film deep into a verdant wilderness and towards unknown mysteries.

(VERANO DE GOLIAT)

NEW YORK THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!

Distributed by FiGa Films.

The subject of a full retrospective this calendar, Nicolás Pereda has established himself as one of contemporary Mexican cinema’s most gifted young filmmakers. Concurrently with our retrospective, we present the theatrical premiere run of his newest film, SUMMER OF GOLIATH, which finds Pereda calling once again on the talents of his perpetual muses, Teresa Sanchez and Gabino Rodríguez. This time, though, the setting has shifted from an urban to a rural one, and Pereda’s experimental inclinations have become particularly pronounced, above all through the complex and shifting relationship between documentary and fictional elements, and his use of a wide variety of narrative modes.

Set in Huilotepec, a community in the Mexican countryside, SUMMER OF GOLIATH revolves around three characters: Teresa, who embarks on a mission to determine why her husband has suddenly abandoned her; her son Gabino, who is in the military and spends his time conducting car searches, as well as intimidating the locals, with his fellow soldier Alberto; and 16-year-old Oscar – nicknamed Goliath – who is socially outcast because of a rumor that he killed his girlfriend. Dominated by Teresa’s wanderings and her interactions with the town’s inhabitants, SUMMER OF GOLIATH hauntingly depicts a community suffering from the effects of lost loved ones, broken promises, disconnection, and eternal longing.

“Pereda depicts the frustrations of a rural Mexican community through a variety of narrative conceits, ranging from documentary-style interviews with the characters to staging the same scene in different settings…. Violence – including a murder that’s supposedly been committed by the teenage title character – seems to lurk everywhere, but Pereda offsets it with a deep affection for the characters; his portrait of small-town desperation never feels patronizing.” –Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, CHICAGO READER

(TODO EN FIN, EL SILENCIO LO OCUPABA)

Pereda’s background in video installation is clearly revealed in this, his most formally radical work – a meticulously staged reading of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s classic poem, “Primer sueño”, with celebrated Mexican actress and director Jesusa Rodríguez portraying the legendary writer reciting her spellbinding poetry in various strikingly theatrical poses. Shot in high-contrast b&w during the filming of an educational television program about Sor Juana, it reinvents the original film from the margins, transforming the struggle of Pereda and his crew to find the ideal shadow and camera angle into abstract and mesmerizing drama.

With Richard Burton, Ian McShane, Nigel Davenport, and Fiona Shaw.

“Less a crime thriller than a fascinating study in psychosis, Tuchner’s feature debut combines the East End’s Ronnie Kray with WHITE HEAT’s Cody Jarrett to create cruel, mother-fixated homosexual gangster Vic Dakin. A genuine (and rare) character study by Burton, VILLAIN offers up an authentic milieu – that of the plausible crime kingpin who rules through fear, charisma and unpredictability. If Burton’s accent occasionally wavers, his menace does not.” –BFI

PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately, we were unable to secure a 35mm print of VILLAIN - as a result we will be screening the film on video.  We apologize for any inconvenience.  All other films in the William Lustig Presents series will be screening from 35mm.

The Experimental Television Center is a unique video art production studio in Owego, NY. Since its founding by Ralph Hocking in 1971, ETC has been providing artists with access to the tools of video art production through residencies and grants. The studio includes several one-of-a-kind pieces of video processing equipment, including a custom-built Dave Jones Colorizer and 8 Channel Video Sequencer, the Paik/Abe Raster Synthesizer or ‘Wobbulator’, and a custom Dan Sandin Image Processor, among others. This year, after over 40 years of service in the media arts field, Ralph (Director) and Sherry Miller Hocking (Assistant Director) are retiring and closing the Center down.

Working together with The Standby Program, we have selected a group of videos by artists who are alumni of both ETC and Standby. Many of these tapes have been preserved through Standby’s Video Preservation Program, and they are each wonderfully rich examples of works that could not have been made possible without the visionary support of ETC.

Very special thanks to Ralph Hocking and Sherry Miller Hocking (ETC), and Maria Venuto (The Standby Program).

All works in this program were created on and will be projected from video.

Nicholas Ray WE CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN (1976, 5-minute excerpt)
Gary Hill EARTH PULSE (1975, 5.5 minutes)
Caspar Stracke ETC, etc (2007, 6 minutes)
Jason Livingston LAKE AFFECT (2007, 2 minutes)
Shalom Gorewitz DELTA VISIONS (1980, 4.5 minutes)
Matthew Schlanger BUG-EYED RAMROD (1984, 5 minutes)
Julie Harrison & Carol Parkinson TRANSMIGRATION (1987-89, 10 minutes)
Connie Coleman & Alan Powell GENDER ROLLS (1987, 3.5 minutes)
Megan Roberts & Raymond Ghirardo GODZILLA HEY (1988, 2.5 minutes)
Alex Hahn DIRT SITE (1990, 16 minutes)
David Blair WAX OR THE DISCOVERY OF TELEVISION AMONG THE BEES (1991, 13.5-minute excerpt)
Bianca Bob Miller RED M&Ms (1988, 4 minutes)
Lynne Sachs & Mark Street XY CHROMOSOME PROJECT (2007, 12 minutes)
Total running time: ca. 100 minutes.

With Barry Newman, Suzy Kendall, John Vernon, and Ben Kingsley.

Following the death of his family in an airplane crash, a man plots an elaborate revenge scheme on those responsible. By setting himself up as a criminal, he plans to get close to a certain tycoon who has been approached by the culprits to help them retrieve the cargo of the lost plane.

With Burt Reynolds, Aldo Sambrell, and Fernando Rey.

Burt Reynolds (himself part Indian) is Joe, the lone-wolf Navajo, in one of his first lead movie roles. When his wife is butchered by scalphunters led by the ultra-cruel Aldo Sambrell, Joe agrees to help the neighboring town recover the gold shipment that was stolen by the lawless bunch. Ennio Morricone (under the pseudonym Leo Nichols) contributes a score that ranks alongside THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY as one of his most exhilarating.

With Franco Nero, Jack Palance, and Tony Musante.

In 1915 Mexico, a Polish gun-for-hire (spaghetti Western superstar Franco Nero) is enlisted to transport silver to a mine in Texas, only to find that Mexican revolutionary Musante has taken control. Switching sides, the hired gun finds himself teaching the rebel leader how to put his revolutionary ideas into practice, but his idealistic fervor is tested when the men’s firepower gathers them a personal fortune. Featuring a bizarre performance by Jack Palance as a prissy bounty hunter with a sadistic sense of humor, and a typically amazing score by Ennio Morricone, this is a classic spaghetti Western.

“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.

With Peter Falk, Warren Oates, Peter Boyle, Gena Rowlands, and Paul Sorvino.

A breezy crime caper with Peter Falk as the leader of a gang of petty criminals who manage to heist $30,000 from a Brink’s security van and can’t understand why it goes relatively unnoticed, only to end up planning the robbery of a lifetime when they discover just how lackluster security is at their headquarters. Based on actual events which took place in 50s Boston, this boasts endearingly rogue-ish robbers, skillfully-directed action, and the kind of colorful characters that always enliven this kind of movie. One of Friedkin’s more light-hearted movies, and also one of his most enjoyable.

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.

With Dennis Hopper, Warren Oates, and Peter Boyle. Archival print courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

“A gentle little fable about the mechanization of the West and its effects on a small-time outlaw (Hopper). Frawley neatly revitalizes the classic townspeople-gunfighter-wilderness formula and adds just enough bizarre and wry touches to keep up with 70s revisionist attitudes regarding the movie western. Funny at times, always modest, the film makes its comments on industrialization, civilization, and even modern urban sexual mores in a relaxed way – and Kid Blue even escapes on mad preacher/inventor Peter Boyle’s ‘aerocycle’ (that’s really riding off into the sunset). Excellent support from Warren Oates (as always) and Ben Johnson.” –Don Druker, CHICAGO READER

With Peter Falk, Warren Oates, Peter Boyle, Gena Rowlands, and Paul Sorvino.

A breezy crime caper with Peter Falk as the leader of a gang of petty criminals who manage to heist $30,000 from a Brink’s security van and can’t understand why it goes relatively unnoticed, only to end up planning the robbery of a lifetime when they discover just how lackluster security is at their headquarters. Based on actual events which took place in 50s Boston, this boasts endearingly rogue-ish robbers, skillfully-directed action, and the kind of colorful characters that always enliven this kind of movie. One of Friedkin’s more light-hearted movies, and also one of his most enjoyable.

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

With Ron Leibman, David Selby, and Sheila Frazier.

“Little seen and hugely underrated, this serio-comic crime caper was Gordon Parks’s follow up to his two hugely successful SHAFT films. Based on the true life exploits of NYPD officers David Greenberg and Robert Hantz, dubbed ‘Batman and Robin’ by New York reporters, the film falls somewhere between the corruption scandal of SERPICO and the absurdist humor of CATCH 22. The great screenplay is scripted by none other than Lorenzo Semple Jr., who is also responsible ironically for the 1966 BATMAN TV series and the 1980 version of FLASH GORDON.” –Edgar Wright

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.

With Cliff Gorman and Joseph Bologna.

“Racy script by Donald Westlake about two of New York’s finest who decide that their uniforms and badges give them an ideal camouflage for pursuing extra-legal activities. They proceed to perpetrate one of the most spectacular securities heists Wall Street has ever seen. There’s an added twist as the cops also try to rip off the Mafia men to whom they’re supposed to fence the proceeds of their crime.” –TIME OUT

With Barry Newman, Suzy Kendall, John Vernon, and Ben Kingsley.

Following the death of his family in an airplane crash, a man plots an elaborate revenge scheme on those responsible. By setting himself up as a criminal, he plans to get close to a certain tycoon who has been approached by the culprits to help them retrieve the cargo of the lost plane.

With Richard Burton, Ian McShane, Nigel Davenport, and Fiona Shaw.

“Less a crime thriller than a fascinating study in psychosis, Tuchner’s feature debut combines the East End’s Ronnie Kray with WHITE HEAT’s Cody Jarrett to create cruel, mother-fixated homosexual gangster Vic Dakin. A genuine (and rare) character study by Burton, VILLAIN offers up an authentic milieu – that of the plausible crime kingpin who rules through fear, charisma and unpredictability. If Burton’s accent occasionally wavers, his menace does not.” –BFI

PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately, we were unable to secure a 35mm print of VILLAIN - as a result we will be screening the film on video.  We apologize for any inconvenience.  All other films in the William Lustig Presents series will be screening from 35mm.

With Franco Nero, Jack Palance, and Tony Musante.

In 1915 Mexico, a Polish gun-for-hire (spaghetti Western superstar Franco Nero) is enlisted to transport silver to a mine in Texas, only to find that Mexican revolutionary Musante has taken control. Switching sides, the hired gun finds himself teaching the rebel leader how to put his revolutionary ideas into practice, but his idealistic fervor is tested when the men’s firepower gathers them a personal fortune. Featuring a bizarre performance by Jack Palance as a prissy bounty hunter with a sadistic sense of humor, and a typically amazing score by Ennio Morricone, this is a classic spaghetti Western.

With Burt Reynolds, Aldo Sambrell, and Fernando Rey.

Burt Reynolds (himself part Indian) is Joe, the lone-wolf Navajo, in one of his first lead movie roles. When his wife is butchered by scalphunters led by the ultra-cruel Aldo Sambrell, Joe agrees to help the neighboring town recover the gold shipment that was stolen by the lawless bunch. Ennio Morricone (under the pseudonym Leo Nichols) contributes a score that ranks alongside THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY as one of his most exhilarating.

NEWFILMMAKERS WELCOMES THE SEATTLE EXPERIMENTAL ANIMATION TEAM

SPECIAL PRESENTATION
With the Seattle Experimental Animation Team
Britta Johnson CRASHING WAVES (2011, 7 minutes)
Stefan Gruber BOTH WORLDS (2011, 10 minutes)
Clyde Petersen THE DIRTY STREET (2010, 5 minutes)Davis Limbach LOOPFORMS (2010, 5 minutes)
Drew Christie THE MAN WHO SHOT THE MAN WHO SHOT LINCOLN (2010, 5 minutes)
Salise Hughes SOMEWHERE (2010, 4 minutes)
Sarah Jane Lapp CHRONICLES OF A PROFESSIONAL EULOGIST (2009, 7 minutes)
Webster Crowell PARASOL (2008, 9 minutes)
Aaron Wendel DWELLINGS (2010, 4 minutes)
Tess Martin PLAIN FACE (2011, 11 minutes)
Brice Bickford THE COMIC THAT FRENCHES YOUR MIND (2008, 5 minutes)

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Peter Valente BABALON’S DREAM (2010, 1 minute, video)
Massimiliano Battistella LA PANCHINA (2010, 4 minutes, video)
Beatrice Benders I CALL SHOTGUN! (2011, 8 minutes, video)
Peter Valente INVISIBLE SURFACES (2010, 9 minutes, video)
Eric Laplante THE TRACK MEET (2009, 11 minutes, video)
Jennie Allen SUNDAY (2011, 24 minutes, video)
Heruhito Naka INTO THE NEW WORLD (2011, 25 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
John-Christopher Khoury
THE PILL
2011, 88 minutes, video.
Worried that he has gotten the free-spirited Mindy pregnant after an unprotected one-night stand, Fred feigns romantic interest and sticks by her side for twelve hours to make sure she takes both doses of the morning-after pill.

With Tony Musante and Martin Sheen. Archival print courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

This 1967 film follows a group of ordinary New Yorkers and two psychopathic thugs (Tony Musante and Martin Sheen) on a nightmarish train ride across the darkened landscape of the city. Filmed in part surreptitiously (thanks to the MTA’s refusal to permit the filmmakers to shoot in the subway), THE INCIDENT features an incredible cast, including Sheen in his first film role, Musante, Ed McMahon, Beau Bridges, Ruby Dee, Jan Sterling, Brock Peters, Donna Mills, Gary Merrill, and Thelma Ritter in her last role. Reflecting the social, political, and cultural unrest of its era, it is an American post-noir classic.

With George C. Scott, Tony Musante, Trish Van Devere, and Colleen Dewhurst.

George C. Scott stars as Harry Garmes, an aging mob driver hoping to make one last big haul and retire. Garmes is persuaded by his old cronies to drive an escaped criminal (Musante) and his girlfriend (Van Devere) across Spain to safety, but of course things don’t go as planned. Though John Huston was originally slated to direct, he was replaced after a series of confrontations with Fleischer, who turned out a terrific, no-nonsense 70s crime flick, boasting taut action sequences, gorgeous cinematography from Sven Nykvist, and a great performance from Scott, starring alongside both his then-wife, Colleen Dewhurst, and his wife-to-be, Trish Van Devere.

With Richard Burton, Ian McShane, Nigel Davenport, and Fiona Shaw.

“Less a crime thriller than a fascinating study in psychosis, Tuchner’s feature debut combines the East End’s Ronnie Kray with WHITE HEAT’s Cody Jarrett to create cruel, mother-fixated homosexual gangster Vic Dakin. A genuine (and rare) character study by Burton, VILLAIN offers up an authentic milieu – that of the plausible crime kingpin who rules through fear, charisma and unpredictability. If Burton’s accent occasionally wavers, his menace does not.” –BFI

PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately, we were unable to secure a 35mm print of VILLAIN - as a result we will be screening the film on video.  We apologize for any inconvenience.  All other films in the William Lustig Presents series will be screening from 35mm.

NIPPON RE-READ: RADICAL FRAGMENTS AND ABSTRACTIONS FROM JAPAN, PROGRAM 1

A benefit for the Japanese disaster relief.
Kinema Nippon is a series of fund-raising screenings that present curated programs of experimental films, video art, and Japanese classics, held in several international cities in collaboration with local film and art institutions. By presenting film and video work to celebrate the visionary cinema of Japan, Kinema Nippon mobilizes the moving image as a catalyst for cultural awareness and unity during this crucial time. All proceeds from the U.S. events will be channeled through Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund (www.japansociety.org/earthquake), and in Europe through Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum Berlin (www.jdzb.de).
Kinema Nippon is organized by Aily Nash and Nine Yamamoto-Masson.
Ticket prices for this special benefit event will be $9 for each program and $15 for both.
Please note: original formats are listed below, but all works will be shown on video for these screenings.

NIPPON RE-READ: RADICAL FRAGMENTS AND ABSTRACTIONS FROM JAPAN
A spectrum of experimental moving image works from Japan, ranging from late-60s to contemporary works, are presented in Kinema Nippon’s two-part program. Although varying greatly in their formal and aesthetic concerns, the works all rigorously reexamine the everyday through their respective experiments and innovations in their medium. Abstractions of the mundane are seen in the graphic films in Program 1, which deal directly with the materiality of their medium rather than focusing on a visual referent. In WHITE CALLIGRAPHY RE-READ (1967), Takahiko Iimura activates the Japanese characters of the Kojiki, the earliest Japanese historical chronicle, by deconstructing text into its constitutive graphic ciphers. These works, including LIKA by Stom Sogo and STILL IN COSMOS (2009) by Takashi Makino, direct the attention of the viewer to the pictorial, emphasizing more painterly concerns, digital and celluloid textures, the visceral correlation of sound and image, and of flatness vs. representational depth. The works in Program 2 offer a poetic investigation into the fragmentary experience of the quotidian by eschewing narrative and rendering cultural images and references to unveil the uncanny within the familiar. Tomonari Nishikawa’s in-camera manipulation of bustling metro hubs in SHIBUYA-TOKYO and TOKYO-EBISU (2010), as well as Kano’s pensive meditations on quintessential Japanese subjects, form a counterpoint to Toshio Matsumoto’s split-screen filmic hallucination of the late-60s underground, FOR THE DAMAGED RIGHT EYE (1969), which was made in conjunction with his seminal feature FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES (1969).

NIPPON RE-READ, PROGRAM 1
Takahiko Iimura WHITE CALLIGRAPHY RE-READ (1967, 12 minutes, 16mm)
Takashi Makino STILL IN COSMOS (2009, 18 minutes, 35mm/16mm/DV. Music by Jim O’Rourke.)
Yoi Suzuki, et al. SEE-SEA-SAW (2010, 10 minutes, 16mm)
Stom Sogo LIKA (LICRE) (2007, 26 minutes, video)
Daisuke Nose DOWN THE LINE (2000, 2.5 minutes, video)
Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

With Barry Newman, Suzy Kendall, John Vernon, and Ben Kingsley.

Following the death of his family in an airplane crash, a man plots an elaborate revenge scheme on those responsible. By setting himself up as a criminal, he plans to get close to a certain tycoon who has been approached by the culprits to help them retrieve the cargo of the lost plane.

NIPPON RE-READ: RADICAL FRAGMENTS AND ABSTRACTIONS FROM JAPAN, PROGRAM 2

KINEMA NIPPON: MOVING IMAGES FROM JAPAN
A benefit for the Japanese disaster relief.
Kinema Nippon is a series of fund-raising screenings that present curated programs of experimental films, video art, and Japanese classics, held in several international cities in collaboration with local film and art institutions. By presenting film and video work to celebrate the visionary cinema of Japan, Kinema Nippon mobilizes the moving image as a catalyst for cultural awareness and unity during this crucial time. All proceeds from the U.S. events will be channeled through Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund (www.japansociety.org/earthquake), and in Europe through Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum Berlin (www.jdzb.de).
Kinema Nippon is organized by Aily Nash and Nine Yamamoto-Masson.
Ticket prices for this special benefit event will be $9 for each program and $15 for both.
Please note: original formats are listed below, but all works will be shown on video for these screenings.

NIPPON RE-READ: RADICAL FRAGMENTS AND ABSTRACTIONS FROM JAPAN
A spectrum of experimental moving image works from Japan, ranging from late-60s to contemporary works, are presented in Kinema Nippon’s two-part program. Although varying greatly in their formal and aesthetic concerns, the works all rigorously reexamine the everyday through their respective experiments and innovations in their medium. Abstractions of the mundane are seen in the graphic films in Program 1, which deal directly with the materiality of their medium rather than focusing on a visual referent. In WHITE CALLIGRAPHY RE-READ (1967), Takahiko Iimura activates the Japanese characters of the Kojiki, the earliest Japanese historical chronicle, by deconstructing text into its constitutive graphic ciphers. These works, including LIKA by Stom Sogo and STILL IN COSMOS (2009) by Takashi Makino, direct the attention of the viewer to the pictorial, emphasizing more painterly concerns, digital and celluloid textures, the visceral correlation of sound and image, and of flatness vs. representational depth. The works in Program 2 offer a poetic investigation into the fragmentary experience of the quotidian by eschewing narrative and rendering cultural images and references to unveil the uncanny within the familiar. Tomonari Nishikawa’s in-camera manipulation of bustling metro hubs in SHIBUYA-TOKYO and TOKYO-EBISU (2010), as well as Kano’s pensive meditations on quintessential Japanese subjects, form a counterpoint to Toshio Matsumoto’s split-screen filmic hallucination of the late-60s underground, FOR THE DAMAGED RIGHT EYE (1969), which was made in conjunction with his seminal feature FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES (1969).

NIPPON RE-READ, PROGRAM 2
Tomonari Nishikawa SHIBUYA – TOKYO (2010, 10 minutes, 16mm)
Tomonari Nishikawa TOKYO – EBISU (2010, 5 minutes, 16mm)
Eriko Sonoda KAGI (2005, 7 minutes, 8mm)
Toshio Matsumoto FOR THE DAMAGED RIGHT EYE (1969, 12 minutes, 16mm)
Shiho Kano SHINONOME OMOGO ISHIZUCHI (2008, 15 minutes, DV)
Shinkan Tamaki ONE RECORD ON DECEMBER (2007, 6.5 minutes, 16mm)
Daisuke Nose TIME FOR RADIO EXERCISE (2003, 11.5 minutes, video)
Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

With Dennis Hopper, Warren Oates, and Peter Boyle. Archival print courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

“A gentle little fable about the mechanization of the West and its effects on a small-time outlaw (Hopper). Frawley neatly revitalizes the classic townspeople-gunfighter-wilderness formula and adds just enough bizarre and wry touches to keep up with 70s revisionist attitudes regarding the movie western. Funny at times, always modest, the film makes its comments on industrialization, civilization, and even modern urban sexual mores in a relaxed way – and Kid Blue even escapes on mad preacher/inventor Peter Boyle’s ‘aerocycle’ (that’s really riding off into the sunset). Excellent support from Warren Oates (as always) and Ben Johnson.” –Don Druker, CHICAGO READER

NEW/IMPROVED/INSTITUTIONAL/QUALITY
Each quarterly calendar at Anthology is filled with hundreds of films and videos all grouped into a number of series or categories. Along with preservation screenings, theatrical premieres, thematic series, and auteur and actor retrospectives, we’re equally dedicated to presenting new and recent work by individuals operating at the vanguard of non-commercial cinema. Each month, under the rubric NEW/IMPROVED/INSTITUTIONAL/QUALITY, we showcase at least one such program, focusing on moving-image artists who are emerging, at their peak, or long-established but still prolific.

This calendar’s programs feature the work of Peter Bo Rappmund, film preservationist and filmmaker Ross Lipman, and, from the UK, Beatrice Gibson.

Anthology gratefully acknowledges support for this program from the Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds Program, which is supported by public funds from the Electronic Media and Film Program of the New York State Council on the Arts.

JULY:
Peter Bo Rappmund
PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY
2010, 63 minutes, digital video.

This mesmerizing high-definition digital video follows the Los Angeles water supply from its Eastern Sierra Nevada source through the alien channels of the Los Angeles River all the way to its eventual Pacific deposit. Constructed entirely from single-frame photographic images, combined with sound recordings of the sun by Thomas Ashcraft, PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY is a strikingly conceived and fully accomplished work. Reminiscent of the work of James Benning and Thom Andersen (both of whom Rappmund studied with at CalArts), in its formal qualities as well as its concern with the social and political dimensions of landscape, it nevertheless establishes Rappmund as a gifted filmmaker with a highly distinctive sensibility.

“[T]he sheer inexorableness of these images seals PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY as a praiseworthy head movie. The immersive ‘trip’ structure may not satisfy environmentalist agendas for the river, though it would be silly to think that any exhaustive document of Los Angeles’s water could ever be apolitical. Rappmund explains, ‘I didn’t want to be too didactic, but I tried to construct something that would at least pique the curiosity of some as to how semi-arid land can support 13 million people.’ PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY finally rests on the notion that in order to understand a landscape, it may be necessary to be overwhelmed by it.” –Max Goldberg, CINEMA SCOPE

With Peter Falk, Warren Oates, Peter Boyle, Gena Rowlands, and Paul Sorvino.

A breezy crime caper with Peter Falk as the leader of a gang of petty criminals who manage to heist $30,000 from a Brink’s security van and can’t understand why it goes relatively unnoticed, only to end up planning the robbery of a lifetime when they discover just how lackluster security is at their headquarters. Based on actual events which took place in 50s Boston, this boasts endearingly rogue-ish robbers, skillfully-directed action, and the kind of colorful characters that always enliven this kind of movie. One of Friedkin’s more light-hearted movies, and also one of his most enjoyable.

FOUR IN THE AFTERNOON (1951, 15 min, 16mm, b&w)
THE PLEASURE GARDEN (1953, 38 min, 35mm, b&w)
THE BED (1968, 19 min, 16mm)
HIGH KUKUS (1974, 3 min, 16mm)
Four films by an American avant-garde film pioneer. His films are celebrations of the joy of living. If there is such a thing as American Zen, Broughton is the master of it.
Total running time: ca. 80 min.

With George C. Scott, Tony Musante, Trish Van Devere, and Colleen Dewhurst.

George C. Scott stars as Harry Garmes, an aging mob driver hoping to make one last big haul and retire. Garmes is persuaded by his old cronies to drive an escaped criminal (Musante) and his girlfriend (Van Devere) across Spain to safety, but of course things don’t go as planned. Though John Huston was originally slated to direct, he was replaced after a series of confrontations with Fleischer, who turned out a terrific, no-nonsense 70s crime flick, boasting taut action sequences, gorgeous cinematography from Sven Nykvist, and a great performance from Scott, starring alongside both his then-wife, Colleen Dewhurst, and his wife-to-be, Trish Van Devere.

THE GOLDEN POSITIONS (1970, 32 min, 16mm)
DREAMWOOD (1972, 45 min, 16mm)
TESTAMENT (1974, 20 min, 16mm)
Total running time: ca. 100 min.

With Cliff Gorman and Joseph Bologna.

“Racy script by Donald Westlake about two of New York’s finest who decide that their uniforms and badges give them an ideal camouflage for pursuing extra-legal activities. They proceed to perpetrate one of the most spectacular securities heists Wall Street has ever seen. There’s an added twist as the cops also try to rip off the Mafia men to whom they’re supposed to fence the proceeds of their crime.” –TIME OUT

NEW/IMPROVED/INSTITUTIONAL/QUALITY
Each quarterly calendar at Anthology is filled with hundreds of films and videos all grouped into a number of series or categories. Along with preservation screenings, theatrical premieres, thematic series, and auteur and actor retrospectives, we’re equally dedicated to presenting new and recent work by individuals operating at the vanguard of non-commercial cinema. Each month, under the rubric NEW/IMPROVED/INSTITUTIONAL/QUALITY, we showcase at least one such program, focusing on moving-image artists who are emerging, at their peak, or long-established but still prolific.

This calendar’s programs feature the work of Peter Bo Rappmund, film preservationist and filmmaker Ross Lipman, and, from the UK, Beatrice Gibson.

Anthology gratefully acknowledges support for this program from the Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds Program, which is supported by public funds from the Electronic Media and Film Program of the New York State Council on the Arts.

JULY:
Peter Bo Rappmund
PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY
2010, 63 minutes, digital video.

This mesmerizing high-definition digital video follows the Los Angeles water supply from its Eastern Sierra Nevada source through the alien channels of the Los Angeles River all the way to its eventual Pacific deposit. Constructed entirely from single-frame photographic images, combined with sound recordings of the sun by Thomas Ashcraft, PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY is a strikingly conceived and fully accomplished work. Reminiscent of the work of James Benning and Thom Andersen (both of whom Rappmund studied with at CalArts), in its formal qualities as well as its concern with the social and political dimensions of landscape, it nevertheless establishes Rappmund as a gifted filmmaker with a highly distinctive sensibility.

“[T]he sheer inexorableness of these images seals PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY as a praiseworthy head movie. The immersive ‘trip’ structure may not satisfy environmentalist agendas for the river, though it would be silly to think that any exhaustive document of Los Angeles’s water could ever be apolitical. Rappmund explains, ‘I didn’t want to be too didactic, but I tried to construct something that would at least pique the curiosity of some as to how semi-arid land can support 13 million people.’ PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY finally rests on the notion that in order to understand a landscape, it may be necessary to be overwhelmed by it.” –Max Goldberg, CINEMA SCOPE

With Ron Leibman, David Selby, and Sheila Frazier.

“Little seen and hugely underrated, this serio-comic crime caper was Gordon Parks’s follow up to his two hugely successful SHAFT films. Based on the true life exploits of NYPD officers David Greenberg and Robert Hantz, dubbed ‘Batman and Robin’ by New York reporters, the film falls somewhere between the corruption scandal of SERPICO and the absurdist humor of CATCH 22. The great screenplay is scripted by none other than Lorenzo Semple Jr., who is also responsible ironically for the 1966 BATMAN TV series and the 1980 version of FLASH GORDON.” –Edgar Wright

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 minutes, 16mm)
FORM PHASES II (1953, 2 minutes, 16mm)
UN MIRACLE (1954, 30 seconds, 35mm) Made with Pontus Hulten.
RECREATION (1956, 1.5 minutes, 35mm)
A MAN AND HIS DOG OUT FOR AIR (1957, 2 minutes, 35mm)
JAMESTOWN BALOOS (1957, 6 minutes, 35mm)
LE MOUVEMENT (1957, 14 minutes, 35mm)
EYEWASH (1959, 3 minutes, 35mm)
EYEWASH (ALTERNATIVE VERSION) (1959, 3 minutes, 35mm)
BLAZES (1961, 3 minutes, 35mm)
PAT’S BIRTHDAY (1962, 13 minutes, 16mm)
BREATHING (1963, 5 minutes, 16mm)
66 (1966, 5.5 minutes, 35mm)
69 (1969, 4.5 minutes, 35mm)
The happy, joyful, playful abstractionist of the avant-garde.
Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.

With Cliff Gorman and Joseph Bologna.

“Racy script by Donald Westlake about two of New York’s finest who decide that their uniforms and badges give them an ideal camouflage for pursuing extra-legal activities. They proceed to perpetrate one of the most spectacular securities heists Wall Street has ever seen. There’s an added twist as the cops also try to rip off the Mafia men to whom they’re supposed to fence the proceeds of their crime.” –TIME OUT

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 minutes, 35mm)
77 (1970, 6.5 minutes, 35mm)
FIST FIGHT (1964, 9 minutes, 35mm)
GULLS AND BUOYS (1972, 8 minutes, 16mm)
FUJI (1974, 9 minutes, 35mm)
SWISS ARMY KNIFE WITH RAT AND PIGEON (1981, 6.5 minutes, 35mm)
BANG (1986, 10 minutes, 35mm)
Total running time: ca. 60 minutes.

With George C. Scott, Tony Musante, Trish Van Devere, and Colleen Dewhurst.

George C. Scott stars as Harry Garmes, an aging mob driver hoping to make one last big haul and retire. Garmes is persuaded by his old cronies to drive an escaped criminal (Musante) and his girlfriend (Van Devere) across Spain to safety, but of course things don’t go as planned. Though John Huston was originally slated to direct, he was replaced after a series of confrontations with Fleischer, who turned out a terrific, no-nonsense 70s crime flick, boasting taut action sequences, gorgeous cinematography from Sven Nykvist, and a great performance from Scott, starring alongside both his then-wife, Colleen Dewhurst, and his wife-to-be, Trish Van Devere.

NEW/IMPROVED/INSTITUTIONAL/QUALITY
Each quarterly calendar at Anthology is filled with hundreds of films and videos all grouped into a number of series or categories. Along with preservation screenings, theatrical premieres, thematic series, and auteur and actor retrospectives, we’re equally dedicated to presenting new and recent work by individuals operating at the vanguard of non-commercial cinema. Each month, under the rubric NEW/IMPROVED/INSTITUTIONAL/QUALITY, we showcase at least one such program, focusing on moving-image artists who are emerging, at their peak, or long-established but still prolific.

This calendar’s programs feature the work of Peter Bo Rappmund, film preservationist and filmmaker Ross Lipman, and, from the UK, Beatrice Gibson.

Anthology gratefully acknowledges support for this program from the Experimental Television Center’s Presentation Funds Program, which is supported by public funds from the Electronic Media and Film Program of the New York State Council on the Arts.

JULY:
Peter Bo Rappmund
PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY
2010, 63 minutes, digital video.

This mesmerizing high-definition digital video follows the Los Angeles water supply from its Eastern Sierra Nevada source through the alien channels of the Los Angeles River all the way to its eventual Pacific deposit. Constructed entirely from single-frame photographic images, combined with sound recordings of the sun by Thomas Ashcraft, PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY is a strikingly conceived and fully accomplished work. Reminiscent of the work of James Benning and Thom Andersen (both of whom Rappmund studied with at CalArts), in its formal qualities as well as its concern with the social and political dimensions of landscape, it nevertheless establishes Rappmund as a gifted filmmaker with a highly distinctive sensibility.

“[T]he sheer inexorableness of these images seals PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY as a praiseworthy head movie. The immersive ‘trip’ structure may not satisfy environmentalist agendas for the river, though it would be silly to think that any exhaustive document of Los Angeles’s water could ever be apolitical. Rappmund explains, ‘I didn’t want to be too didactic, but I tried to construct something that would at least pique the curiosity of some as to how semi-arid land can support 13 million people.’ PSYCHOHYDROGRAPHY finally rests on the notion that in order to understand a landscape, it may be necessary to be overwhelmed by it.” –Max Goldberg, CINEMA SCOPE

With Tony Musante and Martin Sheen. Archival print courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

This 1967 film follows a group of ordinary New Yorkers and two psychopathic thugs (Tony Musante and Martin Sheen) on a nightmarish train ride across the darkened landscape of the city. Filmed in part surreptitiously (thanks to the MTA’s refusal to permit the filmmakers to shoot in the subway), THE INCIDENT features an incredible cast, including Sheen in his first film role, Musante, Ed McMahon, Beau Bridges, Ruby Dee, Jan Sterling, Brock Peters, Donna Mills, Gary Merrill, and Thelma Ritter in her last role. Reflecting the social, political, and cultural unrest of its era, it is an American post-noir classic.

With Burt Reynolds, Aldo Sambrell, and Fernando Rey.

Burt Reynolds (himself part Indian) is Joe, the lone-wolf Navajo, in one of his first lead movie roles. When his wife is butchered by scalphunters led by the ultra-cruel Aldo Sambrell, Joe agrees to help the neighboring town recover the gold shipment that was stolen by the lawless bunch. Ennio Morricone (under the pseudonym Leo Nichols) contributes a score that ranks alongside THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY as one of his most exhilarating.

With Franco Nero, Jack Palance, and Tony Musante.

In 1915 Mexico, a Polish gun-for-hire (spaghetti Western superstar Franco Nero) is enlisted to transport silver to a mine in Texas, only to find that Mexican revolutionary Musante has taken control. Switching sides, the hired gun finds himself teaching the rebel leader how to put his revolutionary ideas into practice, but his idealistic fervor is tested when the men’s firepower gathers them a personal fortune. Featuring a bizarre performance by Jack Palance as a prissy bounty hunter with a sadistic sense of humor, and a typically amazing score by Ennio Morricone, this is a classic spaghetti Western.

NEWFILMMAKERS WELCOMES THE WOMEN’S FILMMAKER GROUP

FIRST SHORT FILM PROGRAM
About Birth
Elizabeth Newman HATCHED: A TALE OF GREAT EGG-SPECTATIONS (2011, 6 minutes, video)
Lindsay Ellis THE A-WORD (2010, 27 minutes, video)

SECOND SHORT FILM PROGRAM
About Death
James P. Gannon THREE ENVELOPES (2011, 15 minutes, video)
Stephen Scott Scarpulla REACTION (2011, 6 minutes, video)
James Perkins GRAVE ENCOUNTER (2011, 9 minutes, video)
Brooke Sebold AFTER THE SNOW (2010, 9 minutes, video)
David Evan Giles WAITING FOR THE TURNING OF THE EARTH (2011, 23 minutes, video)

SPECIAL PROGRAM
The Women’s Filmmaker Group and EYE:AM presents ANOTHER EXPERIMENT by WOMEN. Curated by Lili White.
Gia Michael EVERY MORNING WE WERE AWAKENED (2011, 5 minutes, video)
Liliana Resnick SORROW (2011, 14 minutes, 16mm)
Kathryn Ramey YANQUI WALKER & THE OPTICAL REVOLUTION (2010, 33 minutes, 16mm)
Jennifer Proctor A MOVIE BY JEN PROCTOR (2011, 12 minutes, video)
Carolyn Radlo & Alanna Simone RICE RELIEF (2011, 3 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Gregg Grossman
RELATED BY BIRTH
2011, 74 minutes, video.
Explores the differences and similarities of Birthmothers, Adoptive Parents, and Adoptees and how each has been affected by the adoption process.

Buñuel’s unsentimental view of Mexico’s poor, with equal parts of cruelty and surrealism. A sort of sequel to LAND WITHOUT BREAD.

Please note: our Essential Cinema screenings of LOS OLVIDADOS have in the past been unsubtitled, but for this round of the cycle we will be showing the film with English subtitles!

With Teri Garr, Frederic Forrest, Raul Julia, Nastassja Kinski, and Harry Dean Stanton.

Teri Garr and Frederic Forrest star as domestic partners who break up and take foreign lovers (Raul Julia and Nastassja Kinski, respectively) during a wild 4th of July weekend in Vegas. This rectangular love story is a musical in structure, even though the leads don’t sing; instead, their emotions are articulated on the soundtrack through overlaid lyric commentary by Crystal Gayle and Tom Waits. Taglined “a new kind of old-fashioned romance”, ONE FROM THE HEART was Coppola’s experiment in producing a movie in the style of the Old Hollywood studio system. With its vast sets of the Vegas Strip and McCarran Airport, hundreds of dancing extras, and Gene Kelly consulting on the choreography, it was the first and last megaproduction for the short-lived Zoetrope Hollywood.

Conventional attempts at plot synopsis wither in the face of L’ÂGE D’OR. In Buñuel’s words, “The story is a sequence of moral and surrealist aesthetics. The sexual instinct and the sense of death form the substance of the film. It is a romantic film performed in full surrealistic frenzy.”

Please note: our Essential Cinema screenings of L’ÂGE D’OR have in the past been unsubtitled, but for this round of the cycle we will be showing the film with English subtitles!

With Susan Tyrrell and The Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo.

“A freak musical that manages to synthesize ingredients of virtually every other midnight movie hit into the cheerful consistency of bad-taste vaudeville. Inspired by TV reruns like Betty Boop and Flash Gordon, and abetted by such counterculture standbys as the dwarf Hervé Villechaize (FANTASY ISLAND), Susan Tyrrell (FAT CITY), and Viva, this bargain-basement HELLZAPOPPIN’ – one-third animated and the rest shot in a studio that combines the expressionism of DR. CALIGARI and the flakiness of R. Crumb – revels in hyperbolic racial, cultural, and musical stereotypes, converging in the giddy Cab Calloway-style numbers performed by the band Oingo Boingo.” –Jonathan Rosenbaum, MIDNIGHT MOVIE

Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman (who later scored most of Tim Burton’s films) plays Satan. Richard Elfman had the film colorized in 2008, to reflect his original vision.

With John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, and Aretha Franklin.

Belushi and Aykroyd star in this early big-screen manifestation of an SNL sketch as Jake and Elwood Blues, two brothers on a “mission from God” to save their old Catholic orphanage the only way they know how: by reuniting their R&B band for a benefit concert and tour. Along the way, they dodge lawmen of every kind, neo-Nazis, and crazy ex-girlfriends. Featuring performances by James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Ray Charles at their funky, late-70s best, Landis’s deadpan musical farce is graceful even when a dozen police cars are smashing into each other.

With Prince, Apollonia Kotero, Morris Day, and Clarence Williams III.

Prince finds rock stardom while racing around Minneapolis on a purple motorcycle – pedestrians beware!

“Strutting across a spectrum of feminine coquettishness and masculine dynamism, Prince is as incendiary an icon as has ever existed on film. He has Dietrich’s campy glamour and self-allure, genuine musicianship and a singing and performance style to match all the musical legends. … With Prince dancing upon layers of musical history and style and Albert Magnoli consciously evoking the show-within-a-show staging of CABARET and the kinetics of MEAN STREETS and TAXI DRIVER, PURPLE RAIN is like a whirling cultural vortex.” –Armond White, THE RESISTANCE

René Clair and Francis Picabia ENTR’ACTE (1924, 22 minutes, 35mm)
A masterpiece of Dada and a feat of cinema magic. Made as intermission entertainment for the Ballet Suédois from an impromptu scene by Francis Picabia.
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1928, 22 minutes, 35mm)
Twenty-two minutes of pure, scandalous dream-imagery, a stream of images from which anything that could be given a rational meaning was rigorously excluded. It’s still the unsurpassed masterpiece of the surrealist cinema.
Luis Buñuel LAND WITHOUT BREAD / LAS HURDES: TIERRA SIN PAN (1932, 28 minutes, 35mm. With English narration.)
“A documentary describing, matter-of-factly, a region of Spain so ravaged by epidemic poverty that there our worst fantasies find their objective correlative.” –Raymond Durgnat
Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

With David Bowie, Ray Davies, and Sade.

Rarely revived, based on Colin MacInnes’s 1958 novel of the same name.

“[A] movie about style – the 50s roots of 80s clothes and music, echoed through 40s musicals. Set in a neon-bright London in 1958, it has some of the 40s artifice of boys and girls bursting into song, yet is full of 80s rock stars and 70s survivors like David Bowie and Ray Davies. Looking through these layers of time, this flashy, extravagant rock musical elevates style to a symptom and cause of social change.” –Caryn James, NEW YORK TIMES

Preceded by…a 35mm Bowie surprise!

LAUGHING GAS (1914, 16 minutes, 16mm)
DOUGH AND DYNAMITE (1914, 33 minutes, 35mm)
A WOMAN (1915, 20 minutes, 16mm)
Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

With Malcolm McDowell, Allen Garfield, Daniel Stern, Ed Begley Jr., and Lou Reed. Archival print courtesy of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Allan Arkush’s ROCK ‘N’ ROLL HIGH SCHOOL was about tearing down an institution. GET CRAZY is about saving one: the Saturn Theater, modeled after the Fillmore East in NYC, where Arkush worked as a bouncer and learned to shoot concert footage. Rapid-fire sight-gags and a dozen plots revolve around a New Year’s Eve rock show at the Saturn. Ed Begley Jr. and Fabian launch a conspiracy against the management, McDowell does his own vocals as a codpiece-wearing Jagger-type, Maui Wowie somehow gets into the water supply, and Lou Reed spends the entire movie riding in a cab. Title track by Sparks.

With Dolly Parton, Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, and Charles Durning.

The most commercially successful musical of the 80s, this Broadway adaptation depicts a fantasy of brothel life as a rootin’ tootin’ bachelorette party that never ends. The story is based on an actual mid-70s media circus, when a ‘watchdog’ reporter led a televised crusade to compel the state of Texas to shut down a long-running cathouse. Those willing to suspend disbelief will find a wholesome message in this pre-code-flavored fable about a libertarian (Dolly, that is) battling sexual hypocrisy in public policy. Songs include “Hard Candy Christmas”, the original “I Will Always Love You”, “The Sidestep”, an ode to gubernatorial doublespeak that earned Charles Durning an Oscar nomination, and “The Aggie Song”, the best jocksploitation number since GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES.

SHANGHAIED (1915, 30 minutes, 16mm)
POLICE (1916, 34 minutes, 16mm)
THE FIREMAN (1916, 32 minutes, 16mm)
Total running time: ca. 100 minutes.

With Guy Davis, Rae Dawn Chong, and Saundra Santiago.

Shot on location in the South Bronx, BEAT STREET is about a teenage DJ/MC, his b-boy kid brother, their graffiti-artist friend, and the tagalong who wants to be everybody’s agent. Coolly received in the States, it was one of the first films to introduce hip-hop culture to an international audience.

“WILD STYLE and STYLE WARS clued Hollywood producers into a potential market for hip-hop-themed movies. … Prowling the Roxy, the producers – Harry Belafonte and David Picker – gathered a DJ, rap, and dance A-list: DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, Jazzy Jay, Zulu Queens Lisa Lee and Sha Rock, Mellie Mel, The Treacherous Three, Doug E. Fresh, Rock Steady Crew, the New York Breakers, the Magnificent Force. On paper, this was the historical equivalent of landing Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, the Nicholas Brothers, Honi Coles and Cholly Atkins, and Whitey’s International Hoppers for a feature film about jazz.” –Jeff Chang, CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP

ONE A.M. (1916, 34 minutes, 16mm)
EASY STREET (1917, 19 minutes, 16mm)
THE IDLE CLASS (1921, 32 minutes, 16mm)
Total running time: ca. 90 minutes.

With David Byrne, John Goodman, and Spalding Gray.

Credited as “Narrator/Lip-syncher/Talking Heads Singer”, David Byrne also co-wrote and directed this episodic story about two days in the life of a fictional North Texas exurb, Virgil, where the inhabitants are planning a sesquicentennial parade and talent show called “A Celebration of Specialness.” All the tunes are Heads compositions performed by townspeople; among them is John Goodman, as an aspirant singer looking for a wife. For all its technophilic optimism, TRUE STORIES evokes the gravity of its more melancholy precedents, Thorton Wilder’s OUR TOWN and Robert Altman’s NASHVILLE.