San Francisco Cinematheque Program Notes

96 Pages·1997·3.8 MB·English

by  San Francisco Cinematheque

San
Francisco
Cinematheque
Program Notes
1997
From the collection ofthe
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Prelinger
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San Francisco, California
2007
San Francisco Cinematheque
1997 Program Notes
San Francisco Cinematheque
480Potrero Avenue
San Francisco, California
94110
Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: 415 558 0455
Email: [email protected]
www.sfcinematheque.org

San Francisco Cinematheque
Director
Steve Anker
Associate Director
Joel Shepard
AssociateDirector/Curator
Irina Leimbacher
Interim ManagingDirector
Elise Hurwitz
ProgramNoteBookProducer
Mesbah
Targol
Program Note Editors/Coordinators
Jeff Lambert
Irina Leimbacher
Steve Polta
Smith Patrick
Board ofDirectors
Stefan Ferreira Oliver Marina McDougall
Kerri Condron Sandra Peters
Linda Gibson Julia Segrove-Jaurigui
Elise Hurwitz Laura Takeshita
Wendy Levy
Program Co-Sponsers
Castro Theatre San Francisco International Gay and
Cine Accion Lesbian Film Festival
National Asian American San Francisco International Film
Telecommunications Association Festival
(NAATA) San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
New Langton Arts The Spiros Vyronis Center for the
Pacific Film Archive Study of Hellenism
Proyecto Contrasido por Vida Temenos, Inc.
Roxie Theatre Verba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco Art Institute
Guest Curators and Co-Curators
Robert Beavers Eduardo Morell and Mark Wilson
Bruce Cooper Bruce and Amanda Posner
Kathy Geritz Charlotte Pryce
Jerome Hiler Janelle Rodriguez
Ed Jones Daniel Schott and Charles Lofton
Wendy Levy and Jay Rosenblatt Jerry Tartaglia
Aline Mare Timoleon Wilkins
Cover: ifyou stand with yourback to the slowing ofthe speedoflight in waterby Julie Murray

TableofContents
VISIBLETRACES: FROMTHEBAY & HARD AS HELL: THELOSTGAY EROTICA OF
BEYOND—NEWFILMS FRED HALSTED 24
I 1
HIDDENTALES: FROMTHEBAY & SUFRIEDRICH'SHIDEANDSEEK 25
BEYOND—NEWFILMS 2 2
MURDERandmurderby YvonneRainer 26
SHADOWLAND 3
FIRSTPERSONFILMS FROMCOLORADO 26
LAND OFSILENCEANDDARKNESSand THOSE
HEARINGAIDS WHISTLE 5 THREEWOMEN,THREEVOICES 28
B/SIDEby ABIGAILCHILD 6 FILMS BYCASWELL,ROSS &JONES 30
PANDAEMONIUMandSTIGMATAFILMS BY DONNACAMERON: ARETROSPECTIVE
LESLIEASAKOGLADSJ0 7 (1984-1997) 31
RICHARD MYERS'MOVINGPICTURES 8 GEORGEANDMIKEKUCHAR'SREFLECTIONS
FROMA CINEMATIC CESSPOOL 32
REFLECTINGTIME 9
PHANTOM CINEMA 34
THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT 10
PROYECTOCONTRASIDAPORVIDA
WOMAN/BODY/FUNCTION 11 PRESENTA: FIVEREVOLUTIONARY
FILMS ABOUT "FAMTLIAYPASI6N" 36
WhenMotherComesHomeforChristmas... 12
ChantalAkerman'sNIGHTANDDAY 37
SECRETTHOUGHTS: THEFILMS OFMARIE
MENKEN 12 FORDANIELbyErnieGehr 38
Early Animation fromthe SilentEra 16 FILM &VIDEOWORKBYBETHB 39
UNSTABLEMIRRORS: FILMS BYPELLE THECINEMAOFOWENLAND 41
LOWE
17
STIFFAND VEGAS: ACavehZahedi Double
CITY SYMPHONY: FILMS BYDOMINIC Feature 43
ANGERAME 18 RTVERGLASS: ARTVERBALLETINFOUR
SEASONS 45
IMAGES OFDISPLACEMENT 20
HARSH70sREALITY: FILMS BYROBERT
DREYER'S ORDETandPETERHERWrTZ' FRANK&ALANARKIN 46
WINTERDREAMUEDER 21
WHITELIGHT/WHITEHEAT: THEPOWEROF WHYLIVEHERE?AND OTHERFILMS BY
35MM 24 MARKSTREET 46
PASTIMPERFECT: FILMS BY SUFRIEDRICH 24 SPECTACULARWOMEN 47

VISIBLE TRACES
FROMTHEBAY & BEYOND—NEWFILMSI
Thursday, February 6, 1 9 9 7—C e n t e r fo r the Arts
We begin our New Year with two programs celebrating recent films from the Bay Area and around the country,
most ofwhichare premiering or being shown at the Cinematheque forthe first time. Tonight's selection includes
Jennifer Reeves' high-energy emulsion manipulated The Girl's Nervy; Steve Polta's sensory conundrum Picture
Window, Jeremy Coleman's subtle visual poem Dust ofthe Water, Timoleon Wilkins' MM, a meditation on his
birth and death and that of film; Jeanne Liotta's tracing of mortality and nothingness Ceci N'est Pas, Mark
LaPore's beautiful but troubling cultural portraitA Depression in the Bay ofBengal, and one of Stan Brakhage's
finesthandpaintedefforts, The "b"Series.
The Girl'sNervy (1995) by JenniferReeves; 16mm, color, sound,5 minutes
A study ofthe single frame andrhythmsthatcan bereadby the eye. Constructedby cutting, pasting, and painting
both clearfilmandfilmedimages. (JR)
Picture Window (1996) by StevePolta; super 8, color, 2channel sound, 12minutes
Picture Window is composed ofequal parts, sound, and light which operate together towards the establishment of
a specific temporal situation. What is done with this time is ultimately dependent on each viewer. The title can,
however, be thoughtofas asuggestionas well as adescription. (SP)
Dustofthe Water (1996)byJeremyColeman; 16mm, color, silent, 5.5 minutes
A filmoftension betweenprogress andnature. This filmis aworkinprogress. (JC)
MM
(1996) byTimoleonWilkins; 16mm, color, sound, 8minutes
MM
is a film bom spontaneously out ofthe dark corners offear and desperation. I was spinning out of control
toward an unknown future and new millennium when this footage congealed in a manner guided solely by
properties of emotional release. Bruce Conner ap—pears as the mythical pilot of our journey and the narrative
follows asimpleplot: birth, lifeandpotential deatli forbothmyselfandforcinema. (TW)
CeciN'estPas (1996) byJeanneLiotta; super8 (at 12fps), b&w, silent, 6minutes
"The trace function of death and nothing." Hand developed and unedited except for titles, this roll lived in my
camera from March to May 1995: atrip toNew Orleans, a train ride, the death ofa dear friend. This film is the
authorofitself; it's trace function leavesme behind. DedicatedtoB.W., in all its absence. (JL)
A Depression in the Bay ofBengal (1996) by Mark LaPore (Voice-over: Venita Kapur); 16mm, color, sound, 28
minutes
I went to Sri Lanka with the idea that I would remake Basil Wright's 1934 documentary Song of Ceylon. After
spending three months there I realizedjust how impossible that would be. Wright's film was formally innovative
and visually brilliant but his experience was not to be revisited. Each ofthe places in which he filmed still exist,
but thirteen years ofethnic war have coloredthe way in which those places can be perceived. I have made a film
about traveling and living in a distant place, which looks at aspects ofdaily life, and where the war shadows the
quotidian with adarkandrumbling step. (ML)
SanFranciscoCinematheque
The "b"Series (1995) by Stan Brakhage; 16mm, color, silent, 15 minutes
This film is a series offive little hand-painted and elaborately step-printed sections which are individually titled
but so inter-related I've decided they should always be shown in this order together, but each such a distinction of
the essentially un-nameable subject matter they variously facet that they should retain the character of individual
pieces within theirsharedcontext...acontextI've attemptedtorepresentby asmall "b" formy name "Brakhage."
The film begins with Old Testament, a 2 1/2 minute historical section titled "Retrospect: The Passover" an—d its
evolution of forms is meant to suggest the Biblical story from which the Jewish religious rituals evolve an
essentially blue-green phosphorescence offorms finally in flight through, yes, parted seas ofpaint and "armies of
the night," as onemightputit.
—
"Blue Black: Introspection" is, then, the painted meditation upon the previous section its forms rhythmically
interspersed with some stately pauses ofsolid thoughtful darkness, likejewels ofidea embedded in black velvet.
Itis about2minutes in length. Itbegins withsuggestions of"landscape."
The 3.5 minute "Blood Drama" section pulses with red, involves glyphic stitches of red amidst its phosphors of
blue-greens, all forms tending to take thought-forms of the previous section through to recognition of internal
body, the bloodymeatofbeinghuman.
The 4th section "IamAfraid: and ThisIsMy Fear"is a direct reaction to the 3rd section. The "spark" ofa "sky-
scape" leads to the subsequent evolution ofthe same forms in "mental flight," as it were. It is approximately 3
minutes.
The 5th and final section is the culmination of all previous visuals, the (by now) very recognizable forms of the
original story, ofinward speculation on narrative, ofthe disruption in a sense ofa spill, or spell, ofblood, the non-
narrative thought-flight from all this, now (in Finale) becomes an almost unbearable complexity of forms taking
on a beseeming "weight" orthickeningofthose inter-woven shapes. It is an appropriately titled 3 minute section
"
called "Sorrowing. (This sectiondedicatedtoGregoryMarkopoulos)
This work was complexly printed off strips of film which were primarily painted in order to achieve negative
color. (SB)
HIDDEN TALES
FROMTHEBAY & BEYOND—NEWFILMS2
—
Sunday, February 9 1997 San Francisco Art Institute
,
Tonight'sprogramis the secondin a seriescelebratingrecent filmsfromthe BayAreaandaroundthe country. By
varyingmeans, from historical documentation tophilosophical pondering, tonight's films offer glimpses ofstories
hidden beneaththe surfaces ofeveryday life.
AndDreamofBlueandVioletHorses (1996)byTamy Ojala; 16mm, color, silent, 12minutes
And Dream ofBlue and Violet Horses is an optically-printed film exploring spiritual quest for self-identity and
deliverance throughthe interpretationofdreams andimagination....unrestrainedmemories arise and elucidate how
my fantasies bestowme withthepowerandthecourage tofunctionandadjustinthe grownup world. (TO)