Anthology Film Archives

Distributed in the UK by David C. Stone and Barbara Stone.
Often credited as being Britain’s first ever punk movie, Jarman’s JUBILEE is an unequivocally powerful, arresting, and irreverent film that transports Queen Elizabeth I through time to witness the future disintegration of her kingdom, as marauding female punks roam a violent landscape. A thrilling synergy of sight and sound, featuring a score by Brian Eno and performances by luminaries such as Adam Ant and Richard O’Brien, it remains among Jarman’s most committed and fiery works.

“Joyce Wieland’s four films PIERRE VALLIÈRES, A & B IN ONTARIO, SOLIDARITY and BIRDS AT SUNRISE were created when the Canadian Women’s Movement was at its most visible and vocal. They were made as a direct response to hegemony, colonialism, sexism, imperialism and the destruction of the environment – issues that feminists across the country were writing about, protesting about, lobbying around and, in Wieland’s case, making films about.” –Allyson Mitchell

PIERRE VALLIÈRES (1972, 32.5 minutes, 16mm)
SOLIDARITY (1973, 10.5 minutes, 16mm)
A & B IN ONTARIO (with Hollis Frampton) (1984, 16 minutes, 16mm, b&w)
BIRDS AT SUNRISE (1986, 10 minutes, 16mm)
Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

THE FAR SHORE
1976, 105 minutes, 35mm.
A consummate expression of Wieland’s artistic sensibility, a gorgeous, painterly film, formal in conception, deliberate in its flagrant symbolism (the rigid imposition of WASP power on French-Canadian culture) and portrayal of Canadian myths (the mystery of Tom Thomson’s drowning in Algonquin Park), and exuding romantic naturalism. This northern love story, rooted in the landscape of the Group of Seven and the realities of the Canadian experience, is a tale of passion both carnal and artistic.
“A vast and epic meditation on all those ‘big’ themes that constantly abound: gender, romance, ethnicity, nationality, French-English relations, and the unsavory relationship between art and commerce. … This is a rare opportunity to experience a seminal oeuvre in the history of Canadian film by one of our country’s most diverse, powerful, patriotic, and renowned artists. The film is not only an agitational look at some of the most omnipresent issues in Canadian popular culture and social life, but also a gorgeous painterly visual object that deserves the full attention of ears and eyes.” –TIFF CINEMATHEQUE

Newsreel
COLUMBIA REVOLT
1968, 50 minutes, 16mm-to-video, b&w. Co-presented by Third World Newsreel.
David and Barbara Stone were involved with the political filmmaking collective Newsreel in the late 60s, and David was particularly instrumental in helping to edit and distribute this film, a record of one of the first campus revolts of the Civil Rights/Vietnam War era. Narrated by one of the student rebels, this detailed eyewitness account of the event galvanized other campus revolts around the country.
&
Barbara Stone & David C. Stone
COMPAÑERAS AND COMPAÑEROS
1970, 47 minutes, 16mm. In Spanish with English subtitles. Edited by Adolfas Mekas.
The only film directed by David Stone, in collaboration with his wife Barbara and Adolfas Mekas, is this documentary about the Cuban revolution. Having spent five months living in Cuba, the Stones chose to portray the country’s society through the words and experiences of young Cubans. In frank and open discussions, these young compañeras and compañeros explain their third-world consciousness, their theories on guerrilla warfare, their faith, and their commitment toward building Che’s New Man.
“[This] is, above all and quite uniquely, a modern political work. That is to say, it offers not merely a transcription of aspiration and achievement, but more urgently, the tracing of the formation and development of a revolutionary consciousness.” –Annette Michelson

COMPAÑERAS AND COMPAÑEROS also screens on Sunday, October 23 at 6:30, as part of the Adolfas Mekas retrospective.

Distributed in the UK by David C. Stone and Barbara Stone.
“Oshima rose to the challenge of creating a genuinely grown-up ‘adult movie’ by reinterpreting Japan’s most famous sex-crime. In 1936, Kichizo, an innkeeper in the Tokyo suburbs, left his wife and began a torrid affair with one of his employees, a young woman named Sada. When Kichizo died in an erotic climax and Sada was put on trial for his murder, the ‘crime’ gripped the entire nation. Sensuously scored and designed, Oshima’s film stays close to the facts but exalts the power of the imagination. He shows the lovers retreating from the world into their own sexual fantasies – and finds everything from childish play and Oedipal passions to a secret death-wish at the heart of those fantasies.” –Tony Rayns, BFI

After numerous arrests for obscenity, in 1965 Lenny Bruce, America’s most controversial comedian, could only get bookings in San Francisco. This rare performance documentation captures his second-to-last live concert, in which he rails against the charges filed against him in his most recent court case, using the judge’s docket as a framing device for presenting some of his most famous bits, and directly addressing the hypocrisy of dividing comedy from high art.

Distributed in the UK by David C. Stone and Barbara Stone.
Jarman made his feature-film debut with this highly controversial view of the life of the martyred Roman soldier who was sent into exile, tortured, and killed. Jarman’s highly personal style pays tribute to the great classic painters of the Renaissance, demonstrating his uncompromising cinematographic style and at the same time revealing a poetic exploration of homoerotic nudity and sexuality.

Produced by David C. Stone and Barbara Stone.
A many-faceted portrait of those individuals who sought radical solutions to social problems in the United States during the 1960s and 70s, MILESTONES cuts back and forth between six major story lines and more than fifty characters, and across a vast landscape to explore the lifestyles and attitudes of those survivors of the American left who faced both personal and historic transitions in the period following the Vietnam War. Shot in a documentary style, the film ends with an actual childbirth, which serves in part to symbolize the birth of new forms of cultural resistance and of renewed faith in the possibility of progressive action.
“MILESTONES is as carefully arranged as a piece of music. …[U]sing images, emotions and, most frequently, words as themes, it bursts with unexpected life.” –Vincent Canby, NEW YORK TIMES

ALL DIVIDED SELVES, the new film by artist Luke Fowler, considers the legacy of radical psychiatrist R.D. Laing. Following his celebrated WHAT YOU SEE IS WHERE YOU’RE AT (2001) and BOGMAN PALMJAGUAR (2007), this is the third of Fowler’s works invested in the reconfiguration of self and society proposed by Laing. Developed during his 2010 residency at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, the film will have its premiere screening at Anthology on November 3, 2011, followed by an installation at CCS Bard from November 9-December 23, 2011. The project will then travel to Inverleith House in Edinburgh on Feb 2012. Fowler’s residency at Bard and the new film were both made possible with support from Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg and Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg.
For more info, visit www.bard.edu/ccs.

Luke Fowler
ALL DIVIDED SELVES
2011, ca. 90 minutes (work-in-progress), video.
The social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s were spearheaded by the charismatic, guru-like figure of R.D. Laing. In “The Politics of Experience” (1967) Laing argued that normality entailed adjusting ourselves to the mystification of an alienating and depersonalizing world. Thus, those society labels as ‘mentally ill’ are in fact ‘hyper-sane’ travelers, conducting an inner voyage through aeonic time. Looking variously at the media representations of psychiatry and Laing’s own shifting viewpoints, the film is constructed equally from archival material and footage of the filmmaker’s daily life.

The first-ever comedy concert film, and still arguably the best, RICHARD PRYOR: LIVE IN CONCERT features the iconic artist in top form, using his foul-mouthed, wildly imaginative style to skewer issues of race and class, deliver impersonations of everyone from his grandmother to a pet monkey, and above all, ruthlessly deconstruct his own past mistakes with the daring and rawness that he was known for.

Distributed in the UK by David C. Stone and Barbara Stone.
In this rarely-screened film by the important UK avant-garde filmmaker Stephen Dwoskin, “an unfulfilled man renders himself to the unrealized sensuality of four women. In his drifting search he fails and fades in the same loneliness as the women. The film is the reality and a metaphor for the intensities of sexual experience.” –S.D.
“His camera is a never-static instrument of his intrusion into the fantasy/reality of the relationships he is dealing with and forming. … TIMES FOR is one of the few erotic masterpieces.” –NATIONAL FILM THEATRE, LONDON

Considered by many hardcore Henenlotter fans to be his finest, BRAIN DAMAGE is a wild yet cohesive patchwork of addiction-fueled mania, set in the disgusting glory of late-80s NYC. Brian meets Aylmer, a mysterious, ancient, snake-like (ok, phallic) parasitic creature that lives off of brain juice, which it consumes by poking a fang into the host’s spine. The reward (or bait) that Aylmer offers for his meals is an overpowering color-soaked mind-trip that proves to be quite addictive. Gory, goopy, and hilarious, BRAIN DAMAGE is also somehow personal and touching. It’s perhaps the best example of Henenlotter’s extraordinary ability to make us sympathize with characters who are insurmountably separated from society by deformity and dementia. Featuring spectacularly funny (and uncredited) voice work from none other than John Zacharley! Drastically cut in its original theatrical release, BRAIN DAMAGE will be theatrically screened here totally uncut for the first time.

Frank Henenlotter will be here in person for a Q&A after both shows!

This film takes us on an extraordinary journey to the remote Tribal Belt of the Northwest Frontier of Pakistan. To enter this world, Gittoes dresses in local costume and agrees to become an actor in the low-budget Pashto Telie Movie industry. Teaming up with Pashto action and comedy stars, they make the ‘last telie movie’ – an over-the-top action drama, played out in what must be one of the craziest of film locations.
In this unpredictable documentary-drama hybrid, the Telie Movies – with their hilarious combination of American movie culture, village storytelling traditions, and Bollywood style – are intercut with the real-life drama of Gittoes’s extreme journey into the no-go zone of the Taliban-controlled Tribal Belt.

Filmed on location in Nicaragua, this film focuses on six women who recount their struggles during the Sandinista Revolution and their reliance on writing poetry in order to cope.
“This is a salute to the women and poetry of Nicaragua – a toast to the power of verse and the indomitable courage of the female fighters who, throughout their country’s history, have in many cases, fought their battles with the lyrical pen until they were able to do it by force of arms.” –David Leser, WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN

Easily Henenlotter’s most comedic film, FRANKENHOOKER still packs a wallop of 42nd St. sleaze, coated in bright purple slime. It’s the weird tale of Jeffery Franken (played by the hilarious James Lorinz of STREET TRASH and PUNCH THE CLOCK), a med school drop out who tragically loses his bride-to-be in a remote-control lawnmower accident. His love for her runs so deep, however, that he devises a way to get her back – and with a better body this time. Traveling from suburban New Jersey into Manhattan to find specimens for his fiancée’s reanimation, he crosses paths with tough guy pimp Zorro, and the downward spiral of fun and freakiness goes full speed from there on out. It’s Henenlotter’s twist on BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and his version has a lot more prostitutes than James Whale’s. Not to mention “Supercrack”…

Frank Henenlotter will be here in person to introduce both shows!

The war in Iraq continues to be explored and dissected from many different angles, but in this film Gittoes ventures into the war-torn country to explore firsthand how music plays a part in the lives of the soldiers involved in the conflict. The film showcases spontaneous musical performances by a cast of battle-weary soldiers, with the sounds of gunfire and bursting mortar shells forming a frightening backdrop. American culture came to Iraq wired into its tanks and helicopters, a live soundtrack to war with songs such as “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor”, “Round Out”, “The Tank”, and “Bombs over Baghdad” memorized by every soldier and forever linked to the violent events that accompany them.
“Music, often pumped through tank and Humvee sound systems into individual helmets, has become a soldier’s chief means of personalizing, justifying, heightening, and denying the experience of war. Mr. Gittoes has made a strong movie about [this subject].” –NEW YORK TIMES

The cult classic that started it all, painstakingly restored this year to its intended specifications and now completely remastered. Duane Bradley has a relationship with his twin brother that most people would consider odd – after all, Duane was born with his brother Belial growing out of his right ribcage. Yes, it’s disgusting – that’s what their father thought too, so he hired some unscrupulous doctors to sever the boys’ ties. Henenlotter’s debut is the most bizarre tale of brotherly love ever committed to film, and a brilliant, low-budget time capsule of Times Square and NYC in all its early-80s scum and glory – seeing the streets as they were then is worth the price of admission alone. Due to painfully scarce prints, BASKET CASE hasn’t been screened theatrically (possibly at all) since its 80s stint as a real-deal NYC Midnight Movie. We won’t tell you what’s in the basket though…you’ll have to see for yourself.

The screening on Sunday, Nov 6 will be introduced by director Frank Henenlotter and actress Beverly Bonner!

In the follow-up to SOUNDTRACK TO WAR, his film about music and war in Iraq, Gittoes turns to the murky underbelly of the Land of the Free. RAMPAGE is another journey into the forbidden zone, this time addressing America’s war in Iraq via its own backyard: a tough Miami ‘hood.
“Gittoes draws together musical ambition, family ties, and several definitions of war in this vital package. … A sobering reflection on U.S. domestic affairs threaded through the story of hip-hopping brothers in an ultra-dangerous Florida ‘hood.” –Richard Kuipers, VARIETY

Sequels can be tricky business. Duplicating the original film’s storyline almost never works, but departing from its style isn’t a solution either. Henenlotter pulls off the impossible here with a wildly original follow up that maintains the first film’s strong characters. Kevin Van Hentenryck returns as Duane Bradley, still toting around his big ol’ basket. This time he escapes the confines of the concrete jungle for a nice relaxing stay with Granny Ruth, perfectly played by legendary jazz vocalist Annie Ross, of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Granny Ruth has a soft spot for nature’s special ones, and she knows that other folks don’t share her point of view. So she’s worked hard to secretly operate a safe haven for freaks – lots of freaks – and lovingly takes Duane and Belial under her wing. But, as outsiders get wind of who might be hiding out at Granny Ruth’s, the boys’ sibling rivalry kicks into high gear again and the real freakshow begins.

The screening on Saturday, Nov 5 will be introduced by director Frank Henenlotter and the film's star, Kevin Van Hentenryck!

This film takes us on an extraordinary journey to the remote Tribal Belt of the Northwest Frontier of Pakistan. To enter this world, Gittoes dresses in local costume and agrees to become an actor in the low-budget Pashto Telie Movie industry. Teaming up with Pashto action and comedy stars, they make the ‘last telie movie’ – an over-the-top action drama, played out in what must be one of the craziest of film locations.
In this unpredictable documentary-drama hybrid, the Telie Movies – with their hilarious combination of American movie culture, village storytelling traditions, and Bollywood style – are intercut with the real-life drama of Gittoes’s extreme journey into the no-go zone of the Taliban-controlled Tribal Belt.

Easily Henenlotter’s most comedic film, FRANKENHOOKER still packs a wallop of 42nd St. sleaze, coated in bright purple slime. It’s the weird tale of Jeffery Franken (played by the hilarious James Lorinz of STREET TRASH and PUNCH THE CLOCK), a med school drop out who tragically loses his bride-to-be in a remote-control lawnmower accident. His love for her runs so deep, however, that he devises a way to get her back – and with a better body this time. Traveling from suburban New Jersey into Manhattan to find specimens for his fiancée’s reanimation, he crosses paths with tough guy pimp Zorro, and the downward spiral of fun and freakiness goes full speed from there on out. It’s Henenlotter’s twist on BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and his version has a lot more prostitutes than James Whale’s. Not to mention “Supercrack”…

Frank Henenlotter will be here in person to introduce both shows!

In Afghanistan the most dangerous thing you can do is to fall in love. In this society of strictly arranged marriages more lovers are murdered by their own families than soldiers killed in the war.
A young filmmaker, Hamza, falls in love with Jasmin, the daughter of the owner of Love City, a lavish Wedding Hall. The owner is very rich and protective of his daughter. He tells Hamza that he must give up his career as an actor and director before he can even be considered for Jasmin’s hand. When Jasmin is promised to a cousin and a wedding arranged with short notice, the two lovers decide to have their own secret wedding…

Considered by many hardcore Henenlotter fans to be his finest, BRAIN DAMAGE is a wild yet cohesive patchwork of addiction-fueled mania, set in the disgusting glory of late-80s NYC. Brian meets Aylmer, a mysterious, ancient, snake-like (ok, phallic) parasitic creature that lives off of brain juice, which it consumes by poking a fang into the host’s spine. The reward (or bait) that Aylmer offers for his meals is an overpowering color-soaked mind-trip that proves to be quite addictive. Gory, goopy, and hilarious, BRAIN DAMAGE is also somehow personal and touching. It’s perhaps the best example of Henenlotter’s extraordinary ability to make us sympathize with characters who are insurmountably separated from society by deformity and dementia. Featuring spectacularly funny (and uncredited) voice work from none other than John Zacharley! Drastically cut in its original theatrical release, BRAIN DAMAGE will be theatrically screened here totally uncut for the first time.

Frank Henenlotter will be here in person for a Q&A after both shows!

Asma, the eldest daughter of a Wedding Hall owner is coming home to Afghanistan from her University in Peshawar, Pakistan when she and her girlfriend Ghuty are kidnapped. They are saved by two men: Asma’s cousin Ikram, who has always loved her, and a playboy, Karim. Karim is the owner of a fancy restaurant and has a reputation as a gangster. Asma falls for Karim while she is creating a Talk Show based on the Oprah Winfrey model. She soon discovers Karim is a fake and a criminal and realizes she has made a big mistake. Ikram forgives her and helps her to use her Talk Show to bring Karim and his corrupt gangster network down.

The cult classic that started it all, painstakingly restored this year to its intended specifications and now completely remastered. Duane Bradley has a relationship with his twin brother that most people would consider odd – after all, Duane was born with his brother Belial growing out of his right ribcage. Yes, it’s disgusting – that’s what their father thought too, so he hired some unscrupulous doctors to sever the boys’ ties. Henenlotter’s debut is the most bizarre tale of brotherly love ever committed to film, and a brilliant, low-budget time capsule of Times Square and NYC in all its early-80s scum and glory – seeing the streets as they were then is worth the price of admission alone. Due to painfully scarce prints, BASKET CASE hasn’t been screened theatrically (possibly at all) since its 80s stint as a real-deal NYC Midnight Movie. We won’t tell you what’s in the basket though…you’ll have to see for yourself.

The screening on Sunday, Nov 6 will be introduced by director Frank Henenlotter and actress Beverly Bonner!

Sequels can be tricky business. Duplicating the original film’s storyline almost never works, but departing from its style isn’t a solution either. Henenlotter pulls off the impossible here with a wildly original follow up that maintains the first film’s strong characters. Kevin Van Hentenryck returns as Duane Bradley, still toting around his big ol’ basket. This time he escapes the confines of the concrete jungle for a nice relaxing stay with Granny Ruth, perfectly played by legendary jazz vocalist Annie Ross, of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Granny Ruth has a soft spot for nature’s special ones, and she knows that other folks don’t share her point of view. So she’s worked hard to secretly operate a safe haven for freaks – lots of freaks – and lovingly takes Duane and Belial under her wing. But, as outsiders get wind of who might be hiding out at Granny Ruth’s, the boys’ sibling rivalry kicks into high gear again and the real freakshow begins.

The screening on Saturday, Nov 5 will be introduced by director Frank Henenlotter and the film's star, Kevin Van Hentenryck!

Ghuty, an American girl brought up by Afghan parents who have fled as refugees and made good in the U.S., returns to Afghanistan and creates a love song dedication show on local Jalalabad radio. A mysterious woman, Shandana, calls in to tell her sad love story, and as a result she and her former lover, a tailor named Khan, are reunited. At the same time, talk show host Asma falls in love with Zaki, an Afghan translator for the U.S. forces. Soon Asma’s mother arrives to force her daughter to return to Ohio, only to discover that Zaki is the son of a man she was in love with until they were separated by the war with the Russians. When these characters return to their native village they find that all their pasts are interconnected.

Inspired by Lenny Bruce’s incendiary attitude toward censors and middle-class values, some 1970s comedians brought obscenity to a whole new level. Albert Brooks pioneered a kind of anti-comedy in which the joke was frequently how bad the jokes were – in AUDIENCE RESEARCH for example, he investigates why no one thinks his films are funny. And through a series of brilliant conceptual acts that toyed with character and expectation, Andy Kaufman pushed the audience to extreme new levels, paving the way for the “put-on” comedy style of Sacha Baron Cohen and others.

Albert Brooks ALBERT BROOKS’ FAMOUS SCHOOL FOR COMEDIANS (1972, ca. 10 minutes, video)
Albert Brooks AUDIENCE RESEARCH (1976, 7 minutes, video)
Andy Kaufman SELECTED WORKS (1975-82, ca. 45 minutes, video)
Additional works to be announced.

In the 70s, several Golden State artists began making minimalist videos of themselves performing humorous conceptual experiments. Whether through deadpan monologues (William Wegman), comic task-based structures (John Baldessari), absurd comments and confessions (Cynthia Maughan), or psychologically-charged role-playing (Eleanor Antin), all of these artists played in some way with the delivery style of stand-up.

William Wegman VARIOUS WORKS (1970-78, ca. 20 minutes, video)
Cynthia Maughan VARIOUS WORKS (1973-78, ca. 10 minutes, video)
John Baldessari BALDESSARI SINGS LEWITT (1972, 13 minutes, video)
Eleanor Antin THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL BALLET (1975, 26 minutes, video)
Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

NEWFILMMAKERS GETS COLD FEET

DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM
Trent Tooley & Jackie Garry
NO TIME FOR COLD FEET
2008, 110 minutes, video.
NO TIME FOR COLD FEET is a documentary on the annual St. Paul Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt. For four years filmmakers Trent Tooley and Jackie Garry followed fanatic medallion hunters in their quest to find the "Holy Grail of Saint Paul" – the King Boreas Treasure Medallion. For twelve grueling days and aided only by a cryptic daily clue, hunters brave the harsh winter, digging through ice and snow, skipping school or work to dig all day and foregoing sleep to dig all night in search of the elusive medallion's $10,000 reward. The film was shot during the 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 treasure hunts, and also contains an epilogue to give a post-2004 hunt update.  Two-time medallion winner Jake Ingebrigtson will be present for the screening!

WOMEN FILMMAKERS SERIES
Curated by Lili White. For program details, visit www.newfilmmakers.com.

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Shundell Prasad
FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
2011, 100 minutes, 16mm.
A rebellious teenage girl, struggling to navigate her troubled adolescence, receives shocking news about her father and embarks on a journey from NY to Guyana to discover the truth about her family’s mysterious past.

–Documentary at 6:00, Women Filmmakers at 8:15, Feature at 9:30.

NEWFILMMAKERS GOES BACK TO SCHOOL

DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM
Brian Sizensky
BULLYCAM
2011, 84 minutes, video.

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Richie Siegel ABSENT (2011, 7 minutes, video)
David Daudelin ONLY WAY OUT (2011, 9 minutes, video)
Brian Velsor FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS (2011, 13 minutes, video)
Yoav Netanyahu HEAD ABOVE WATER (2011, 21 minutes, video)
Morgan Evans THE REST OF CAESAR (2010, 22 minutes, video

FEATURE PRESENTATION
James Mann
DESERT SON
2010, 92 minutes, video.
A teenage boy is abandoned in the desert by his stepfather. He struggles against the odds for days, surviving just long enough to make his way to an abandoned mining town inhabited by two mysterious orphans.

–Documentaries at 6:00, Short Film Program at 7:45, Feature at 9:15.

The 21st Annual N.I.C.E. Film Festival (New italian Cinema Events) kicks off in the City from November 10 to 13 with 6 New York premieres. This year's will present some of the best up-and-coming films created by the next generation of new independent Italian directors. Most screenings will be followed by Q&As with the directors flying from Italy to meet with all of you!

Click here for more info!

The Images Festival is the largest festival in North America for experimental and independent moving image culture, showcasing the innovative edge of international contemporary media art both on and off the screen through film, video, installation art, music, and performance. From Super-8 and hand-tinted celluloid to the latest video art, Images has presented thousands of films and media-based projects since 1988. Images is committed to an expanded concept of film and video practice: alongside theatrical screenings, the festival presents groundbreaking live performances, media art installations in galleries across Toronto, and new media projects. The festival goes out of its way and over the edge to provide Toronto with an annual extravaganza of vanguard image making.
For more information and our full archive, please visit www.imagesfestival.com.

SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT
Copies. Interpretations. Copies of copies. Interpretations of interpretations. Alterations, appropriations, and repeating patterns. From structural and formal mechanisms that trigger a persistence of vision, to performances that critique through mimesis, these works examine the production and consumption of images, and the ways in which authorship and originality contextualize and define them.

Duane Linklater IT’S HARD TO GET IN MY SYSTEM (Canada, 2010, 6 minutes, video)
Sitting side-by-side, a cellist plays back a version of a traditional Cree song to Linklater, and though we see the artist vocalize the song, only the sound of the cello is audible.

Oliver Laric VERSIONS (Germany, 2010, 9 minutes, video)
A dense visual essay on the manufacturing of images and authorship.

Simon Payne POINT LINE PLANE (UK, 2010, 8 minutes, video)
A continually moving grid of black, white, and grey lines produces an illusion of depth and perspective as the lines shift from negative to positive.

Gloria Nava BLACK SWAN MAKEUP TUTORIAL (USA, 2011, 4 minutes, video)
Takes on the problematic and stereotypical character played by Natalie Portman in the recent film BLACK SWAN.

Lewis Klahr WEDNESDAY MORNING TWO A.M. (USA, 2010, 7 minutes, video)
The first in a series of new works by L.A. animator Klahr, this film is set to the sparse and atmospheric soundtrack of “I’ll Never Leave” by The Shangri-Las.

Jesse McLean MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS (USA, 2010, 20 minutes, video)
“Out of the blue, I bought my first television. I kept the TV on all the time.” –Andy Warhol

Jodie Mack RAD PLAID (USA, 2010, 6 minutes, 16mm, silent)
Meticulously photographed swatches of fabrics are rapidly intercut, their orientations shifting to create a rhythmic, pulsing grid of pattern where the rigidity of its form is countered by the DIY aesthetic of the textiles.

Total running time: ca. 65 minutes.

The 21st Annual N.I.C.E. Film Festival (New italian Cinema Events) kicks off in the City from November 10 to 13 with 6 New York premieres. This year's will present some of the best up-and-coming films created by the next generation of new independent Italian directors. Most screenings will be followed by Q&As with the directors flying from Italy to meet with all of you!

Click here for more info!

(NACHTSCHICHTEN)

Presented by the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. Special thanks to Katharina Meißnitzer (Mischief Films).

When night descends over wintry Berlin, not everyone is asleep. Graffiti artists use the darkness for tagging train cars, and railway security officers monitor the yards for intruders. Two young women from a homeless shelter ride around Berlin in a van, looking for the regulars who need a sandwich and hot coffee, and maybe a warm bed. A young DJ rides the subway with her sketchbook, alone in the night. A lone sleepless man wanders through the bitter cold night brightened by the moon. There he finds calm and consolation.
In her remarkable new feature documentary, Ivette Löcker follows the people who venture out into the night, creating a hauntingly beautiful film steeped in dark urban spaces. A portrait of an alternative world, NIGHT SHIFTS reveals those who are invisible during the day, accompanying them on their nocturnal paths through the metropolis, which are marked by pragmatic routines, desires, and dangers.

“It was my intention to explore cinematically the tension between a pragmatic routine by which the night is spent or organized and the existential desires and fears that seem to be inevitably evoked. Through lengthy observations and conversations with the people involved, we discover the tensions and ambiguities but also the promising freedoms that their way of life opens up. The moments in which we can sense despair, fear, and desperation, or the struggle against them, reveal how fragile the night’s freedoms are.” –I.L.

Fernand Léger & Dudley Murphy
BALLET MÉCANIQUE  (1924, 19 minutes, 35mm, b&w, silent. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives.)
René Clair & Francis Picabia
ENTR’ACTE (1924, 22 minutes, 35mm, b&w)
Man Ray
LE RETOUR À LA RAISON (1923, 2 minutes, 16mm, b&w, silent)
ÉTOILE DE MER (1927, 13 minutes, 16mm, b&w, silent)
EMAK BAKIA (1927, 18 minutes, 35mm, b&w, silent)
Marcel Duchamp & Man Ray
ANEMIC CINEMA (1926, 7 minutes, 35mm, b&w, silent)
Total running time: ca. 85 minutes.

75 minutes, video.
As part of Performa 11’s Fluxus Weekend, artist, filmmaker, and Anthology Film Archives Founder and Artistic Director Jonas Mekas has selected a dozen Fluxus-related performances, anecdotes, and diaristic notes from the materials in his video archives for this special presentation. Nam June Paik performs in Times Square, Ben Vautier presents a theory of Fluxus and comments on his early performances in Nice, John Lennon and Yoko Ono join George Maciunas on a trip up the Hudson River, Joseph Beuys sings, and more, in an illuminating, entertaining, and highly personal tribute by Mekas to this influential period.
Fluxus Weekend, presented by Performa, is an intensive 72-hour program in Lower Manhattan honoring the movement’s history and prompting the making of new Fluxus actions, objects, music, film, and ideas for the 21st century, with projects ranging in size from large events to small-scale gestures.

The 21st Annual N.I.C.E. Film Festival (New italian Cinema Events) kicks off in the City from November 10 to 13 with 6 New York premieres. This year's will present some of the best up-and-coming films created by the next generation of new independent Italian directors. Most screenings will be followed by Q&As with the directors flying from Italy to meet with all of you!

Click here for more info!

(NACHTSCHICHTEN)

Presented by the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. Special thanks to Katharina Meißnitzer (Mischief Films).

When night descends over wintry Berlin, not everyone is asleep. Graffiti artists use the darkness for tagging train cars, and railway security officers monitor the yards for intruders. Two young women from a homeless shelter ride around Berlin in a van, looking for the regulars who need a sandwich and hot coffee, and maybe a warm bed. A young DJ rides the subway with her sketchbook, alone in the night. A lone sleepless man wanders through the bitter cold night brightened by the moon. There he finds calm and consolation.
In her remarkable new feature documentary, Ivette Löcker follows the people who venture out into the night, creating a hauntingly beautiful film steeped in dark urban spaces. A portrait of an alternative world, NIGHT SHIFTS reveals those who are invisible during the day, accompanying them on their nocturnal paths through the metropolis, which are marked by pragmatic routines, desires, and dangers.

“It was my intention to explore cinematically the tension between a pragmatic routine by which the night is spent or organized and the existential desires and fears that seem to be inevitably evoked. Through lengthy observations and conversations with the people involved, we discover the tensions and ambiguities but also the promising freedoms that their way of life opens up. The moments in which we can sense despair, fear, and desperation, or the struggle against them, reveal how fragile the night’s freedoms are.” –I.L.

“The few facts that are known about Maclaine are, at best, sketchy. He was a published poet, a sort of down and out San Francisco bohemian who later became one of the psychic casualties of that scene. His last years were spent at Sunnyacres, a state mental hospital in Fairfield, California. These films, along with Ron Rice’s, are clearly the most significant work to come out of the beat period.” –J.J. Murphy
All films preserved by Anthology Film Archives.
THE MAN WHO INVENTED GOLD (1957, 14 minutes, 16mm)
BEAT (1958, 6 minutes, 16mm)
SCOTCH HOP (1959, 5.5 minutes, 16mm)
THE END (1953, 35 minutes, 16mm)
“Six stories of people on the last day of their lives. Most are about to commit suicide, or some metaphorical equivalent, but the mushroom cloud with which the film begins and ends reminds us that, as Maclaine's voice intones on the sound track, we await ‘the grand suicide of the human race’ – his conceit is that his characters have reached the end of their personal ropes the day before a nuclear holocaust. Throughout the film he compares the dehumanizing effects of mass culture to the dehumanizing effects of personal despair, weaving these two threads together until the mannequins he films in store windows, the anonymous people he films on the street, and his characters all seem variations on the same half-living, half-dead persona.” –Fred Camper
Total running time: ca. 65 minutes.

(NACHTSCHICHTEN)

Presented by the Austrian Cultural Forum New York. Special thanks to Katharina Meißnitzer (Mischief Films).

When night descends over wintry Berlin, not everyone is asleep. Graffiti artists use the darkness for tagging train cars, and railway security officers monitor the yards for intruders. Two young women from a homeless shelter ride around Berlin in a van, looking for the regulars who need a sandwich and hot coffee, and maybe a warm bed. A young DJ rides the subway with her sketchbook, alone in the night. A lone sleepless man wanders through the bitter cold night brightened by the moon. There he finds calm and consolation.
In her remarkable new feature documentary, Ivette Löcker follows the people who venture out into the night, creating a hauntingly beautiful film steeped in dark urban spaces. A portrait of an alternative world, NIGHT SHIFTS reveals those who are invisible during the day, accompanying them on their nocturnal paths through the metropolis, which are marked by pragmatic routines, desires, and dangers.

“It was my intention to explore cinematically the tension between a pragmatic routine by which the night is spent or organized and the existential desires and fears that seem to be inevitably evoked. Through lengthy observations and conversations with the people involved, we discover the tensions and ambiguities but also the promising freedoms that their way of life opens up. The moments in which we can sense despair, fear, and desperation, or the struggle against them, reveal how fragile the night’s freedoms are.” –I.L.

The 21st Annual N.I.C.E. Film Festival (New italian Cinema Events) kicks off in the City from November 10 to 13 with 6 New York premieres. This year's will present some of the best up-and-coming films created by the next generation of new independent Italian directors. Most screenings will be followed by Q&As with the directors flying from Italy to meet with all of you!

Click here for more info!

One visual artist who moved from the art world toward mainstream comedy was Michael Smith. MIKE'S TALENT SHOW, a variety show hosted by Smith and featuring a wide range of comedy, music, and performance acts, was presented at comedy clubs like Caroline's and the Bottom Line, and later optioned by HBO. A little later, the multi-talented composer, musician, and performer Doug Skinner worked with Smith to create the hilarious DOUG AND MIKE’S ADULT ENTERTAINMENT, a puppet-centered variety, emceed by Skinner and Smith, that was performed both at downtown galleries and comedy venues. A little earlier, performer and writer Eric Bogosian (who also at one point participated in MIKE'S TALENT SHOW) had traveled an opposite route, crossing from acting into the art world and then back again, beginning with his character Ricky Paul, a Lenny Bruce-inspired entertainer who spent his time on stage ranting about contemporary problems, offending audiences in art world hangouts like The Mudd Club.

Michael Smith
Excerpts from MIKE'S TALENT SHOW
1985-89, ca. 20 minutes, video.

Michael Smith
Excerpts from DOUG AND MIKE’S ADULT ENTERTAINMENT
1991-96, ca. 30 minutes, video.

Eric Bogosian
Excerpts from THE RICKY PAUL SHOW
1979, ca. 20 minutes, video.

Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

This program will feature a wide variety of short works by some of the artists and stand-up comedians working in the area between these two disciplines, including the stand-up-inspired ramblings of Harry Dodge and Stanya Kahn, the hilariously graphic monologues of Karen Finley, the deadpan put-on routines of Zach Galifianakis, the self-consciously obscene performances of Reggie Watts, and a conceptual collaboration between Jon Dore and Rory Scovel.

NEWFILMMAKERS GOES TO THE THEATER

DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM
Bif Alp THE FABULOUS JALOPY (2011, 7 minutes, video)
&
Shaun Irons
IS ANYONE READY?
2011, 104 minutes, video.

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Robert DeMaio THE CATCH (2011, 10 minutes, video)
DW Gibson PANTS DOWN (2010, 22 minutes, video)
Erica Scoppettuolo PAY YOUR RESPECTS (2011, 32 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Colin Rivera
THE END OF SOMETHING
2010, 104 minutes, video.
When a waning audience base, encroaching urban development, and a crippling economy threaten to shutter a small Black Box theater in Brooklyn, the remaining company members send out a call for help, bringing in old blood and gambling on new creative partners to put on one last show.

–Documentaries at 6:00, Short Film Program at 8:15, Feature at 9:30.

JOANS ON THE BEACH:
AN EVENING MARKING THE LAUNCH OF “JOAN’S DIGEST: A FILM QUARTERLY”
To celebrate the launch of the new online feminist film journal, JOAN’S DIGEST: A FILM QUARTERLY, we present two of our favorite Joans on the Beach. Which Joan do you prefer, Crawford or Bennett? We’ll happily spend a lifetime trying to decide between these two complicated ladies. This new journal steps away from the hubris and voyeurism of reviews to focus instead on long and personal relationships with the cinema, how we live with film over time and how it forms our sense of self. At its inception, all of the contributors to the journal are women (though this may later expand to a looser definition of femaleness), and we look forward to following in the tradition of the great 70s and 80s feminist film journals such as CAMERA OBSCURA, WOMEN IN FILM, and JUMP CUT, to shake the film criticism community from a staid and male-dominated path.
The JOAN’S DIGEST launch event, hosted by the journal’s editor, Miriam Bale, will take place on Thursday, November 17, with repeat screenings of the two films on Monday, November 21.

Joseph Pevney
FEMALE ON THE BEACH
1955, 100 minutes, 35mm.
Is anything in cinema more frightening and sublime than Joan Crawford in her 50s phase? JOHNNY GUITAR, SUDDEN FEAR, TORCH SONG, AUTUMN LEAVES, and this, perhaps the most perverse and the least frequently screened. Joan moves into a beach house where a woman has recently committed suicide. The neighbors are creepily accommodating, including a hunky blonde beach bum (Jeff Chandler). Witness Joan on the sand, slightly drunk and in stilettos, and the layers of corrosive subtext in her delivery of lines like, “I have a nasty imagination, and I’d like to be left alone with it.”

Fresh, innovative, and thoughtful films about…wrestling? As his website states, “Charles Fairbanks is a wrestler and filmmaker. His recent work focuses on pro wrestling in Mexico, where the artist fights as the One-Eyed Cat with a camera built into his mask.” What else do we need to say? With only a few small films under his belt Fairbanks has managed to make a big impact at festivals around the world. Tonight we welcome the filmmaker, who visits us from his home in Mexico, for an evening of entertaining and heartfelt short films that are extremely easy to enjoy and very hard to forget.

PIONEERS (2009, 35 minutes, video)
A portrait of industrial agriculture and new-age spirituality, focusing on the artist’s parents, PIONEERS is also an unwitting self-portrait of a director returning to the place of his upbringing (Lexington, Nebraska), where he feels both the comforts of home and the alienating weight of the past.

THE MEN (2010, 3 minutes, video)
Documents the fighter’s perspective in submission wrestling: an immersive experience between intimacy and violence.

WRESTLING WITH MY FATHER (2010, 4.5 minutes, video)
“My father was a wrestler before me. You never stop being a wrestler.” –C.F.

IRMA (2010, 12 minutes, video)
An intimate musical portrait of Irma Gonzalez, the former world champion of women’s professional wrestling. Featuring original music written and performed by Ms. Gonzalez, Irma’s story surges with love and deceit, masculine strength, feminine charms, and an extraordinary sense of humor.

FLEXING MUSCLES (2010, 23 minutes, video)
Mexican wrestling – Lucha Libre – has recently become a global commodity, consumed worldwide. FLEXING MUSCLES asks, what does production look like when the product is identity – masked, gendered, and variously complex? To make this film, Fairbanks wrestled as El Gato Tuerto – The One-Eyed Cat – the eye being a camera built into the mask of this wrestler-cinéaste.

Total running time: ca. 85 minutes.

JOANS ON THE BEACH:
AN EVENING MARKING THE LAUNCH OF “JOAN’S DIGEST: A FILM QUARTERLY”
To celebrate the launch of the new online feminist film journal, JOAN’S DIGEST: A FILM QUARTERLY, we present two of our favorite Joans on the Beach. Which Joan do you prefer, Crawford or Bennett? We’ll happily spend a lifetime trying to decide between these two complicated ladies. This new journal steps away from the hubris and voyeurism of reviews to focus instead on long and personal relationships with the cinema, how we live with film over time and how it forms our sense of self. At its inception, all of the contributors to the journal are women (though this may later expand to a looser definition of femaleness), and we look forward to following in the tradition of the great 70s and 80s feminist film journals such as CAMERA OBSCURA, WOMEN IN FILM, and JUMP CUT, to shake the film criticism community from a staid and male-dominated path.

The JOAN’S DIGEST launch event, hosted by the journal’s editor, Miriam Bale, will take place on Thursday, November 17, with repeat screenings of the two films on Monday, November 21.

Jean Renoir
THE WOMAN ON THE BEACH
1947, 71 minutes, 35mm.
Renoir’s only American noir, which he described as “the sort of avant-garde film which would have found its niche a quarter of a century earlier, between NOSFERATU THE VAMPIRE and CALIGARI.” A post-war trauma nightmare veiled in ocean foam and fog, it is also a genuinely romantic film about two damaged people. Earthy and desperate Robert Ryan is the Coast Guard officer who gets embroiled in a love triangle with the ultimate good-bad girl, Joan Bennett. Jacques Rivette remarked, “If there is such a thing as pure cinema it is to be found in THE WOMAN ON THE BEACH.”

Distributed by Milestone Films; special thanks to Dennis Doros & Amy Heller.
A cult film from the 1970s, lost for years and now newly restored, CHAC: THE RAIN GOD is based on a combination of ritual and legends from the Popul Vuh, as well as Tzeltal and Mayan stories. This gorgeous film, shot in the Chiapas region of Mexico by Chilean director Rolando Klein, focuses on a small Tzeltal village during a terrible drought. Desperate for relief, thirteen men set out on a quest to save their people from starvation. They seek a solitary Diviner who lives in the mountains and knows the ways of the Ancients; they hope that he can summon Chac, the Rain God. The Diviner takes them far from their own land on a strange journey, a trek that challenges their beliefs and even their saint.
CHAC is magical, mystical, and intensely visual. A dazzling portrait of a Native American spiritual quest, it is a visionary masterpiece as powerful and revolutionary as WALKABOUT, EL TOPO, and AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD.

“A suspenseful, even hypnotic parable of faith, doubt, and sacrifice. The unselfconscious performances writer-director Rolando Klein has managed to elicit from his non-professional cast are as astonishing as this highly demanding film’s lush, exotic beauty.”–Kevin Thomas, LOS ANGELES TIMES

“Mr. Klein shows real ability in obtaining simple, direct, unselfconscious performances from his Indian actors. They all perform with that kind of natural absorption that often eludes amateurs.” –Vincent Canby, NEW YORK TIMES

TATTOO
1975, 18 minutes, 16mm-to-video.
TATTOO can be seen as a statement against conventional beauty. Influenced by the imagery of painter, sculptor, and printmaker Allen Jones, it examines the art of tattooing and its role in the rise of alternative culture. Featuring interviews with tattoo artists and their clients and exploring the fascination with and reasons behind ‘body art’, for over 15 years it remained virtually the only documentary on this subject.

DRESSING FOR PLEASURE
1977, 25 minutes, 16mm-to-video.
Banned by London Weekend Television, this film explores the fetishizing of latex, leather, and rubber clothing, and centers around Atomage – the infamous fetishist magazine – and Sex, Vivienne Westwood’s and Malcolm McLaren’s King’s Road emporium, the only shop to openly sell latex fetish-wear and a well-known hangout for punks, including, of course, the Sex Pistols. A unique and fascinating documentary of a frantically creative period in British history.

BRITANNIA
1979, 25 minutes, 16mm-to-video.
A group of volunteers work on the restoration of an old locomotive. This unashamedly poetic documentary draws strongly on the theme of resurrection as Britannia rises like a phoenix from the ashes of its desolate resting place. Inspired by the work of British filmmaker Humphrey Jennings, once described as British cinema’s only real poet.

Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

ARROWS
1980, 35 minutes, 35mm-to-video.
The self-assured and phenomenally successful darts champion Eric Bristow is portrayed in this film as a modern-day gunslinger, moving from town to town, exhibition match to exhibition match, challenging the local heroes in the pubs and working men’s clubs of Britain. Influenced by one of Samson’s favorite film characters – Tully, the hero of John Huston’s 1972 film FAT CITY – this is far more than just a film about a sports celebrity.

THE SKIN HORSE
1983, 55 minutes, 16mm-to-video.
In this unique, award-winning documentary, people with disabilities talk about their sexuality and sexual needs. With powerful references to Browning’s FREAKS and Lynch’s THE ELEPHANT MAN, the film questions society’s views on disability and takes a critical look at the mechanics of institutionalization.

Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.

Distributed by Milestone Films; special thanks to Dennis Doros & Amy Heller.
A cult film from the 1970s, lost for years and now newly restored, CHAC: THE RAIN GOD is based on a combination of ritual and legends from the Popul Vuh, as well as Tzeltal and Mayan stories. This gorgeous film, shot in the Chiapas region of Mexico by Chilean director Rolando Klein, focuses on a small Tzeltal village during a terrible drought. Desperate for relief, thirteen men set out on a quest to save their people from starvation. They seek a solitary Diviner who lives in the mountains and knows the ways of the Ancients; they hope that he can summon Chac, the Rain God. The Diviner takes them far from their own land on a strange journey, a trek that challenges their beliefs and even their saint.
CHAC is magical, mystical, and intensely visual. A dazzling portrait of a Native American spiritual quest, it is a visionary masterpiece as powerful and revolutionary as WALKABOUT, EL TOPO, and AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD.

“A suspenseful, even hypnotic parable of faith, doubt, and sacrifice. The unselfconscious performances writer-director Rolando Klein has managed to elicit from his non-professional cast are as astonishing as this highly demanding film’s lush, exotic beauty.”–Kevin Thomas, LOS ANGELES TIMES

“Mr. Klein shows real ability in obtaining simple, direct, unselfconscious performances from his Indian actors. They all perform with that kind of natural absorption that often eludes amateurs.” –Vincent Canby, NEW YORK TIMES

ARROWS
1980, 35 minutes, 35mm-to-video.
The self-assured and phenomenally successful darts champion Eric Bristow is portrayed in this film as a modern-day gunslinger, moving from town to town, exhibition match to exhibition match, challenging the local heroes in the pubs and working men’s clubs of Britain. Influenced by one of Samson’s favorite film characters – Tully, the hero of John Huston’s 1972 film FAT CITY – this is far more than just a film about a sports celebrity.

THE SKIN HORSE
1983, 55 minutes, 16mm-to-video.
In this unique, award-winning documentary, people with disabilities talk about their sexuality and sexual needs. With powerful references to Browning’s FREAKS and Lynch’s THE ELEPHANT MAN, the film questions society’s views on disability and takes a critical look at the mechanics of institutionalization.

Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.

TATTOO
1975, 18 minutes, 16mm-to-video.
TATTOO can be seen as a statement against conventional beauty. Influenced by the imagery of painter, sculptor, and printmaker Allen Jones, it examines the art of tattooing and its role in the rise of alternative culture. Featuring interviews with tattoo artists and their clients and exploring the fascination with and reasons behind ‘body art’, for over 15 years it remained virtually the only documentary on this subject.

DRESSING FOR PLEASURE
1977, 25 minutes, 16mm-to-video.
Banned by London Weekend Television, this film explores the fetishizing of latex, leather, and rubber clothing, and centers around Atomage – the infamous fetishist magazine – and Sex, Vivienne Westwood’s and Malcolm McLaren’s King’s Road emporium, the only shop to openly sell latex fetish-wear and a well-known hangout for punks, including, of course, the Sex Pistols. A unique and fascinating documentary of a frantically creative period in British history.

BRITANNIA
1979, 25 minutes, 16mm-to-video.
A group of volunteers work on the restoration of an old locomotive. This unashamedly poetic documentary draws strongly on the theme of resurrection as Britannia rises like a phoenix from the ashes of its desolate resting place. Inspired by the work of British filmmaker Humphrey Jennings, once described as British cinema’s only real poet.

Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

Distributed by Milestone Films; special thanks to Dennis Doros & Amy Heller.
A cult film from the 1970s, lost for years and now newly restored, CHAC: THE RAIN GOD is based on a combination of ritual and legends from the Popul Vuh, as well as Tzeltal and Mayan stories. This gorgeous film, shot in the Chiapas region of Mexico by Chilean director Rolando Klein, focuses on a small Tzeltal village during a terrible drought. Desperate for relief, thirteen men set out on a quest to save their people from starvation. They seek a solitary Diviner who lives in the mountains and knows the ways of the Ancients; they hope that he can summon Chac, the Rain God. The Diviner takes them far from their own land on a strange journey, a trek that challenges their beliefs and even their saint.
CHAC is magical, mystical, and intensely visual. A dazzling portrait of a Native American spiritual quest, it is a visionary masterpiece as powerful and revolutionary as WALKABOUT, EL TOPO, and AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD.

“A suspenseful, even hypnotic parable of faith, doubt, and sacrifice. The unselfconscious performances writer-director Rolando Klein has managed to elicit from his non-professional cast are as astonishing as this highly demanding film’s lush, exotic beauty.”–Kevin Thomas, LOS ANGELES TIMES

“Mr. Klein shows real ability in obtaining simple, direct, unselfconscious performances from his Indian actors. They all perform with that kind of natural absorption that often eludes amateurs.” –Vincent Canby, NEW YORK TIMES

TATTOO
1975, 18 minutes, 16mm-to-video.
TATTOO can be seen as a statement against conventional beauty. Influenced by the imagery of painter, sculptor, and printmaker Allen Jones, it examines the art of tattooing and its role in the rise of alternative culture. Featuring interviews with tattoo artists and their clients and exploring the fascination with and reasons behind ‘body art’, for over 15 years it remained virtually the only documentary on this subject.

DRESSING FOR PLEASURE
1977, 25 minutes, 16mm-to-video.
Banned by London Weekend Television, this film explores the fetishizing of latex, leather, and rubber clothing, and centers around Atomage – the infamous fetishist magazine – and Sex, Vivienne Westwood’s and Malcolm McLaren’s King’s Road emporium, the only shop to openly sell latex fetish-wear and a well-known hangout for punks, including, of course, the Sex Pistols. A unique and fascinating documentary of a frantically creative period in British history.

BRITANNIA
1979, 25 minutes, 16mm-to-video.
A group of volunteers work on the restoration of an old locomotive. This unashamedly poetic documentary draws strongly on the theme of resurrection as Britannia rises like a phoenix from the ashes of its desolate resting place. Inspired by the work of British filmmaker Humphrey Jennings, once described as British cinema’s only real poet.

Total running time: ca. 75 minutes.

ARROWS
1980, 35 minutes, 35mm-to-video.
The self-assured and phenomenally successful darts champion Eric Bristow is portrayed in this film as a modern-day gunslinger, moving from town to town, exhibition match to exhibition match, challenging the local heroes in the pubs and working men’s clubs of Britain. Influenced by one of Samson’s favorite film characters – Tully, the hero of John Huston’s 1972 film FAT CITY – this is far more than just a film about a sports celebrity.

THE SKIN HORSE
1983, 55 minutes, 16mm-to-video.
In this unique, award-winning documentary, people with disabilities talk about their sexuality and sexual needs. With powerful references to Browning’s FREAKS and Lynch’s THE ELEPHANT MAN, the film questions society’s views on disability and takes a critical look at the mechanics of institutionalization.

Total running time: ca. 95 minutes.

JOANS ON THE BEACH:
AN EVENING MARKING THE LAUNCH OF “JOAN’S DIGEST: A FILM QUARTERLY”
To celebrate the launch of the new online feminist film journal, JOAN’S DIGEST: A FILM QUARTERLY, we present two of our favorite Joans on the Beach. Which Joan do you prefer, Crawford or Bennett? We’ll happily spend a lifetime trying to decide between these two complicated ladies. This new journal steps away from the hubris and voyeurism of reviews to focus instead on long and personal relationships with the cinema, how we live with film over time and how it forms our sense of self. At its inception, all of the contributors to the journal are women (though this may later expand to a looser definition of femaleness), and we look forward to following in the tradition of the great 70s and 80s feminist film journals such as CAMERA OBSCURA, WOMEN IN FILM, and JUMP CUT, to shake the film criticism community from a staid and male-dominated path.

The JOAN’S DIGEST launch event, hosted by the journal’s editor, Miriam Bale, will take place on Thursday, November 17, with repeat screenings of the two films on Monday, November 21.

Jean Renoir
THE WOMAN ON THE BEACH
1947, 71 minutes, 35mm.
Renoir’s only American noir, which he described as “the sort of avant-garde film which would have found its niche a quarter of a century earlier, between NOSFERATU THE VAMPIRE and CALIGARI.” A post-war trauma nightmare veiled in ocean foam and fog, it is also a genuinely romantic film about two damaged people. Earthy and desperate Robert Ryan is the Coast Guard officer who gets embroiled in a love triangle with the ultimate good-bad girl, Joan Bennett. Jacques Rivette remarked, “If there is such a thing as pure cinema it is to be found in THE WOMAN ON THE BEACH.”

NIGHT SKY A film by Alison O’Daniel
Art in General opens its 30th anniversary season with the exhibition, Walking Forward – Running Past a constellation of works that investigate our complicated and intricate relationship to chronology. In conjunction with Performa 11 <http://11.performa-arts.org/artists/alison-odaniel> , Alison O’Daniel’s film, Night Sky, transitions from a trailer in the gallery into its feature-length debut at Anthology Film Archives.

November 21, 2011, 8pm
Live sign language score by Lisa Reynolds

November 22, 2011, 8pm
Live music score by Ethan Frederick Greene

Presented in conjunction with Performa 11 <http://11.performa-arts.org/artists/alison-odaniel>

Free admission with RSVP, to reserve tickets please email jon@artingeneral.org

JOANS ON THE BEACH:
AN EVENING MARKING THE LAUNCH OF “JOAN’S DIGEST: A FILM QUARTERLY”
To celebrate the launch of the new online feminist film journal, JOAN’S DIGEST: A FILM QUARTERLY, we present two of our favorite Joans on the Beach. Which Joan do you prefer, Crawford or Bennett? We’ll happily spend a lifetime trying to decide between these two complicated ladies. This new journal steps away from the hubris and voyeurism of reviews to focus instead on long and personal relationships with the cinema, how we live with film over time and how it forms our sense of self. At its inception, all of the contributors to the journal are women (though this may later expand to a looser definition of femaleness), and we look forward to following in the tradition of the great 70s and 80s feminist film journals such as CAMERA OBSCURA, WOMEN IN FILM, and JUMP CUT, to shake the film criticism community from a staid and male-dominated path.
The JOAN’S DIGEST launch event, hosted by the journal’s editor, Miriam Bale, will take place on Thursday, November 17, with repeat screenings of the two films on Monday, November 21.

Joseph Pevney
FEMALE ON THE BEACH
1955, 100 minutes, 35mm.
Is anything in cinema more frightening and sublime than Joan Crawford in her 50s phase? JOHNNY GUITAR, SUDDEN FEAR, TORCH SONG, AUTUMN LEAVES, and this, perhaps the most perverse and the least frequently screened. Joan moves into a beach house where a woman has recently committed suicide. The neighbors are creepily accommodating, including a hunky blonde beach bum (Jeff Chandler). Witness Joan on the sand, slightly drunk and in stilettos, and the layers of corrosive subtext in her delivery of lines like, “I have a nasty imagination, and I’d like to be left alone with it.”

JOANS ON THE BEACH:
AN EVENING MARKING THE LAUNCH OF “JOAN’S DIGEST: A FILM QUARTERLY”
To celebrate the launch of the new online feminist film journal, JOAN’S DIGEST: A FILM QUARTERLY, we present two of our favorite Joans on the Beach. Which Joan do you prefer, Crawford or Bennett? We’ll happily spend a lifetime trying to decide between these two complicated ladies. This new journal steps away from the hubris and voyeurism of reviews to focus instead on long and personal relationships with the cinema, how we live with film over time and how it forms our sense of self. At its inception, all of the contributors to the journal are women (though this may later expand to a looser definition of femaleness), and we look forward to following in the tradition of the great 70s and 80s feminist film journals such as CAMERA OBSCURA, WOMEN IN FILM, and JUMP CUT, to shake the film criticism community from a staid and male-dominated path.

The JOAN’S DIGEST launch event, hosted by the journal’s editor, Miriam Bale, will take place on Thursday, November 17, with repeat screenings of the two films on Monday, November 21.

Jean Renoir
THE WOMAN ON THE BEACH
1947, 71 minutes, 35mm.
Renoir’s only American noir, which he described as “the sort of avant-garde film which would have found its niche a quarter of a century earlier, between NOSFERATU THE VAMPIRE and CALIGARI.” A post-war trauma nightmare veiled in ocean foam and fog, it is also a genuinely romantic film about two damaged people. Earthy and desperate Robert Ryan is the Coast Guard officer who gets embroiled in a love triangle with the ultimate good-bad girl, Joan Bennett. Jacques Rivette remarked, “If there is such a thing as pure cinema it is to be found in THE WOMAN ON THE BEACH.”

NIGHT SKY A film by Alison O’Daniel
Art in General opens its 30th anniversary season with the exhibition, Walking Forward – Running Past a constellation of works that investigate our complicated and intricate relationship to chronology. In conjunction with Performa 11 <http://11.performa-arts.org/artists/alison-odaniel> , Alison O’Daniel’s film, Night Sky, transitions from a trailer in the gallery into its feature-length debut at Anthology Film Archives.

November 21, 2011, 8pm
Live sign language score by Lisa Reynolds

November 22, 2011, 8pm
Live music score by Ethan Frederick Greene

Presented in conjunction with Performa 11 <http://11.performa-arts.org/artists/alison-odaniel>

Free admission with RSVP, to reserve tickets please email jon@artingeneral.org

JOANS ON THE BEACH:
AN EVENING MARKING THE LAUNCH OF “JOAN’S DIGEST: A FILM QUARTERLY”
To celebrate the launch of the new online feminist film journal, JOAN’S DIGEST: A FILM QUARTERLY, we present two of our favorite Joans on the Beach. Which Joan do you prefer, Crawford or Bennett? We’ll happily spend a lifetime trying to decide between these two complicated ladies. This new journal steps away from the hubris and voyeurism of reviews to focus instead on long and personal relationships with the cinema, how we live with film over time and how it forms our sense of self. At its inception, all of the contributors to the journal are women (though this may later expand to a looser definition of femaleness), and we look forward to following in the tradition of the great 70s and 80s feminist film journals such as CAMERA OBSCURA, WOMEN IN FILM, and JUMP CUT, to shake the film criticism community from a staid and male-dominated path.
The JOAN’S DIGEST launch event, hosted by the journal’s editor, Miriam Bale, will take place on Thursday, November 17, with repeat screenings of the two films on Monday, November 21.

Joseph Pevney
FEMALE ON THE BEACH
1955, 100 minutes, 35mm.
Is anything in cinema more frightening and sublime than Joan Crawford in her 50s phase? JOHNNY GUITAR, SUDDEN FEAR, TORCH SONG, AUTUMN LEAVES, and this, perhaps the most perverse and the least frequently screened. Joan moves into a beach house where a woman has recently committed suicide. The neighbors are creepily accommodating, including a hunky blonde beach bum (Jeff Chandler). Witness Joan on the sand, slightly drunk and in stilettos, and the layers of corrosive subtext in her delivery of lines like, “I have a nasty imagination, and I’d like to be left alone with it.”

NEWFILMMAKERS TALKS TURKEY

DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM
Clea Stone GRANDMA’S GIBLETS (2009, 5 minutes, video)
Cora Berchem BLACK FRIDAY DOCUMENTARY (2010, 37 minutes, video)

SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Stephen S. Scarpulla REACTION (2010, 6 minutes, video)
Jenny Hatchadorian SOMETHING I DID (2010, 8 minutes, video)
Alexander Moir THE LAST MAN (2010, 10 minutes, video)
Matt Jay ANY DAY NOW (2011, 35 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Erik Peter Carlson
TRANSATLANTIC COFFEE
2011, 104 minutes, video.
A classic tale of boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl…only the boy is a 41-year-old clown and the girl is a teenage stripper from London.

Documentaries at 6:00, Short Film Program at 7:00, Feature at 8:15.

Dwinell Grant
COMPOSITION #2 CONTRATHEMIS
1941, 5 minutes, 16mm, color, silent.
“An attempt to develop visual abstract themes and to counterpoint them in a planned, formal composition.” –D.G.
“Austere and chaste combinations, with subtle manipulation of structure, density and rhythm.”–William Moritz
STOP MOTION TESTS
1942, 3 minutes, 16mm, color, silent.
A self-portrait.
COLOR SEQUENCE
1943, 3 minutes, 16mm, color, silent.
“Pure solid-color frames which fade, mutate and flicker. A research into color rhythms and perceptual phenomena.” –William Moritz

Ken Jacobs
LITTLE STABS AT HAPPINESS
1959-63, 18 minutes, 16mm, color. Featuring Jack Smith.
“Material was cut in as it came out of the camera, embarrassing moments intact. 100’ rolls timed well with music on old 78s. I was interested in immediacy, a sense of ease, and an art where suffering was acknowledged but not trivialized with dramatics. Whimsy was our achievement as well as breaking out of step.” –K.J.

Ken Jacobs & Bob Fleischner
BLONDE COBRA
1959-63, 35 minutes, 16-to-35mm blow-up, b&w/color. Featuring Jack Smith.
Preserved by Anthology, with the generous support of The Film Foundation, The National Film Preservation Foundation, Simon Lund and Cineric, Inc.
“BLONDE COBRA is an erratic narrative – no, not really a narrative, it’s only stretched out in time for convenience of delivery. It’s a look in on an exploding life, on a man of imagination suffering pre-fashionable Lower East Side deprivation and consumed with American 1950s, 40s, 30s disgust. Silly, self-pitying, guilt-strictured and yet triumphing – on one level – over the situation with style… enticing us into an absurd moral posture the better to dismiss us with a regal ‘screw off.’” –K.J.

Total running time: ca. 70 minutes.

An absolute masterpiece from one of the most inspiring innovators of modern cinema.
“Original 1905 film shot and probably directed by G.W. ‘Billy’ Bitzer, rescued via a paper print filed for copyright purposes with the Library of Congress. It is most reverently examined here, absolutely loved, with a new movie, almost as a side effect, coming into being.” –K.J.

Jean Genet
UN CHANT D’AMOUR
1950, 26 minutes, 16mm, b&w, silent.
Jean Genet’s poetic expression of male eroticism pitted against the confines of prison cells and a homophobic state… a powerfully resonant work that explores individual freedom and the laws of desire.
Robert Frank & Alfred Leslie
PULL MY DAISY
1959, 28 minutes, 35mm, b&w.
A largely spontaneous experiment, arranged in 1959 by Robert Frank along with Alfred Leslie. They enlisted the participation of Jack Kerouac, who offered in place of an original screenplay a stage play he’d never finished writing, “The Beat Generation.” The plot is based on an incident in the life of Neal Cassady and his wife Carolyn. They’re raising a family and trying to fit in with their suburban neighbors, and one night they invite a respectable neighborhood bishop over for dinner. But Neal’s Beat friends crash the party, and that Marx Brothers-like scenario is the closest thing the film has to a storyline.
Total running time: ca. 60 minutes.

All films in this program are b&w and silent.
THE CONJUROR / L’ILLUSIONISTE FIN DE SIÈCLE (1899, 1 min, 35mm)
TRIP TO THE MOON / VOYAGE DANS LA LUNE (1902, 12 min, 35mm)
THE PALACE OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS / LE PALAIS DES MILLE ET UNE NUITS (1905, 21 min, 35mm)
DELIRIUM IN A STUDIO / ALI BARBOUYOU ALI BOUF À L’HUILE (1907, 5 min, 35mm)
MERRY FROLICS OF SATAN / LES QUATRES CENT FARCES DU DIABLE (1906, 18 min, 35mm)
Magician, master of special effects, Méliès broke with the realistic (Lumière) mode of cinema and celebrated unlimited fantasy and artificiality (in its best sense).
Total running time: ca. 60 min.

The films on this program are hand-tinted and silent.
THE CASCADE OF FIRE / LA CASCADE DE FEU (1904, 3 min, 35mm)
A DIABOLICAL TENANT / UN LOCATAIRE DIABOLIQUE (1909, 8 min, 35mm)
THE HUNCHBACK FAIRY / LA FÉE CARABOSSE (1906, 13 min, 35mm)
VOYAGE ACROSS THE IMPOSSIBLE / LE VOYAGE À TRAVERS L’IMPOSSIBLE (1904, 20 min, 35mm)
Total running time: ca. 50 min.

All films in this program are b&w and silent.
EXTRAORDINARY ILLUSIONS / ILLUSIONS FUNAMBULESQUES (1903, 3 min, 16mm)
THE ENCHANTED WELL / LE PUITS FANTASTIQUE (1903, 3 min, 16mm)
THE APPARITION / LE REVENANT (1903, 3 min, 16mm)
TUNNEL UNDER THE CHANNEL / LE TUNNEL SOUS LA MANCHE (1907, 25 min, 35mm)
SIGHTSEEING THROUGH WHISKY / PAUVRE JEAN OU LES MESAVENTURES D’UN BUVEUR (1909, 5 min, 35mm)
THE DOCTOR’S SECRET / HYDROTHÉRAPIE FANTASTIQUE (1909, 11 min, 35mm)
Total running time: ca. 55 min.

In January 2010, Anthology began hosting monthly screenings organized by New York Women in Film and Television. These screenings include works by NYWIFT members as well as from women filmmakers around the world.
Films included in the series must be directed, co-directed, produced, written, edited, or shot by women. Whenever possible, the filmmakers are present for a Q&A following the screening, as well as an after-party with cash bar and complimentary food.
The preeminent entertainment industry association for women in New York City, NYWIFT supports women calling the shots in film, television, and digital media. NYWIFT energizes the careers of women in entertainment by illuminating their achievements, providing training and professional development activities, and advocating for equity. Our membership comprises more than 2,000 women and men working both above and below the line. NYWIFT is part of a network of 40 Women-in-Film organizations worldwide, representing more than 10,000 members.
Screening details to be announced – please visit: www.nywift.org for program updates.

NEWFILMMAKERS DEALS WITH THE FINANCIAL CRISIS WITH DRUGS

DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM
Rebecca Fogel MORTGAGE MAYHEM: LIVING INSIDE FRAUD (2011, 25 minutes, video)
&
Brett Schwatz
MASHED MEDIA
2010, 56 minutes, video.

FIRST SHORT FILM PROGRAM
About business.
Charlotte Rabate WONDERCHILD (2010, 3 minutes, 16mm)
Reinaldo Marcus Green THE INTERVIEW (2011, 7 minutes, video)
Alex Willemin AMERICAN KAROSHI (2011, 13 minutes, video)
Hyunsoo Moon BAIL OUT (2010, 17 minutes, video)

SECOND SHORT FILM PROGRAM
About drugs.
Craig Thompson SHOT TO HELL (2011, 6 minutes, video)
Jensen Mishan THE WIRESOME (2011, 12 minutes, video)
Igor Yankilevich THE RAINBOW ROOM (2010, 19 minutes, video)
Charles Dente THE NEW DEAL (2011, 20 minutes, video)

FEATURE PRESENTATION
Paul Myers
5 SHELLS
2011, 97 minutes, video.
After a global financial apocalypse, a young girl must protect her older sister as they walk across a wasteland in search of a new home.

Documentaries at 6:00, First Shorts Program at 7:30, Second Shorts Program at 8:30, Feature at 9:45.