Jury Thomas Beard (top), New York, is a founder and director of Light Industry, a venue for film and electronic art in Brooklyn. He has organized screenings and exhibitions for Art in General, Artists Space, PERFORMA, the Museum of Modern Art New York and Tate Modern. He recently co-curated the cinema for Greater New York 2010 at MoMA PS1 and is currently at work on the film program for the 2012 Whitney Biennial. William Raban (middle), London UK, has been making films since 1970. Included among the many international presentations of his films are retrospective screenings at the Museum of Modern Art New York, the IFF Rotterdam, and this year’s Media City (see pp. 11-13). Raban was the manager of the London Filmmakers Co-op workshop from 1972 to 1976 and is currently Reader in Film at University of the Arts, London. Originally from Japan, Daichi Saito (lower), Montréal, studied literature and philosophy in the USA and Hindi and Sanskrit in India before turning to film. He is a co-founder of Double Negative, a Montréal-based film collective dedicated to experimental filmmaking. His films have screened at prominent festivals around the world and his most recent project Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis (2009) won the Grand Prize at Media City in 2010. ——————————
Don’t miss the Media City closing party on Saturday, May 28 at phog lounge when the award-winning films from this year’s festival will be announced by the jury.
TUESDAY MAY 24
TUES MAY 24 • 8 PM • JAAP PIETERS AT DFT
6
Jaap Pieters tour organized by Media City in co-operation with Double Negative (Montréal), Early Monthly Segments (Toronto) and the Burton Theatre and the Detroit Film Theatre (Detroit).
The Eye of Amsterdam, Super 8mm retrospective Tues May 24, 8 pm at Detroit Film Theatre (5200 Woodward) tickets $5 US or free with Media City of FDFT pass filmmaker in attendance Dutch artist Jaap Pieters is a stalwart specialist of Super 8mm filmmaking, creating dozens of films on the small-gauge “amateur” medium over the course of three decades. Confining himself to the duration of a 3-minute Super 8 reel, working with minimal equipment and manipulation, most of Pieters’s films are shot from the window of his Amsterdam apartment and concentrate on a single subject— unusual happenings on the sidewalk, or the recurring appearance of peculiar individuals. Well-known in Europe – where his films are seen regularly at a bewildering variety of microcinemas and alternative venues as well as at major festivals such as the IFF Rotterdam – Pieters’s ephemeral creations rarely find their way to North American screens. Media City is pleased to present an extensive selection of Jaap Pieters’s films, chosen by the filmmaker himself to fit the occasion and enlivened by the presence and commentary of the artist.
TUES MAY 24 • 8 PM • JAAP PIETERS AT DFT
Jaap Pieters
7
WEDNESDAY MAY 25
10
England
For the last 25 years, the films of William Raban have been concerned with documenting the changing face of east London, combining experimental methods of construction with a strongly political, documentary approach. This program presents five of Raban’s films made since 1992, including the “Under the Tower” trilogy (Sundial, A13 and Island Race) and the complementary films MM and Beating the Bridges. A discussion with the filmmaker follows the screening. William Raban has made films since 1970. A small selection of the many venues to have presented his work include the storied Knokke-le-zoute Experimental Film Festival in Belgium (1975), multiple screenings at the Berlin, London and Oberhausen International Film Festivals, exhibitions at the Tate, Serpentine and Whitechapel Galleries in London, at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and at Documenta 6 (1977, Kassel). He has had retrospective screenings at the IFF Rotterdam and the Museum of Modern Art New York. Raban was the manager of the London Filmmakers Co-op workshop from 1972 to 1976, was Senior Lecturer in Film at St. Martin’s from 1976 to 1989, was a member of the editorial board of Vertigo from 1994-2001, and is currently Reader in Film at University of the Arts, London. He has lived in the Docklands region of east London for more than thirty years.
WED MAY 25 • 7:30 PM • WILLIAM RABAN
Under the Tower: films of William Raban
Island Race
11
A13
WED MAY 25 • 7:30 PM • WILLIAM RABAN
12
Sundial
video, 1 min, 1992
“Raban’s homage to the [then] bankrupt Canary Wharf Tower – London’s conspicuous monument to the Thatcher years – ironically suggests it might have found a purpose as a means of telling the time. As his camera repositions itself to track the sweep of the sun, Raban incidentally documents the old East End, which the docklands development was supposed to replace.” — David Curtis
A13
video, 12 min, 1994
“Filmed around London’s Isle of Dogs, weaving imagery and sounds of the arteries of the city in with shots of its workers and the gleaming monuments left behind by the Thatcher boom years.” — Simon Field
Island Race
video, 28 min, 1996
Filmed on the streets of the East End of London between spring 1994 and summer 1995, Island Race contrasts everyday events with actions by right wing extremists, counter anti-racist demonstrations, the funeral of a gangland leader, and street parties celebrating Victory in Europe Day. A look at English national identity in the mid-1990s.
MM
video, 11 min, 1998
From the wealthy suburbs of west London, the Thames flows past the landmarks at Chelsea, Westminster and the City, to the industrial flatlands beyond Dartford Bridge. The thirty bridges spanning the river provide a range of acoustic space that is featured on the soundtrack by ambient reverb and Paul Burwell’s live percussion score.
MM
video, 13 min, 2002
Like an alien spacecraft landed on a poisoned wasteland, the Millennium Dome makes a fitting tribute to the works of New Labour. Taking the dome as a potent architectural symbol of the new millennium, MM is a meditation upon time, reflecting upon the changing landscape in London’s East End. ——————————
“Making films is about showing people things, not telling them how to interpret the world.” —William Raban William Raban’s newest film About Now MMX (2010) screens in Media City’s International Program 4 on Friday, May 27 at 7:30 pm (see page 38).
WED MAY 25 • 7:30 PM • WILLIAM RABAN
Beating the Bridges
13
WED MAY 25 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 1
14
Flag Mountain John Smith
England, video, 8 min, 2010
A view across the border in Nicosia, the divided capital of Cyprus, from the rooftops of the Greek Cypriot south to the mountains of the Turkish Republic in the north. Moving between macro and micro perspectives, Flag Mountain sets dramatic spectacle against everyday life as the inhabitants of both sides of the city go about their daily business. Since 1972, John Smith has made over fifty film, video and installation works that have been shown in galleries, cinemas and on television throughout the world and awarded major prizes at many international film festivals. Recent retrospectives of his films have been held at the International Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, the Tampere Short Film Festival and at other festivals in Uppsala, Glasgow, La Rochelle, Regensburg and Winterthur. Recent exhibitions include the Berlin Biennial (2010) and the Venice Biennale (2007). This is his first appearance at Media City. He lives in London, where he is Professor of Fine Art at the University of East London.
Adnan Softic Germany/Bosnia and Herzegovina, video, 13 min, 2009 The viewer is placed in the situation of an external observer who seemingly has a function to fulfil in a remedial act of vengeance. But the notion gradually arises that things are not so simple. A reflection on manipulation and authenticity. A Sarajevo native, Adnan Softic studied at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. He has created nine films since 1995 which have screened at an eclectic range of venues including the International Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, the Museo de Arte Moderno in Quito, Ecuador and the Golden Poodle Club in Hamburg. This is his first appearance at Media City.
WED MAY 25 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 1
Ground Control
15
WED MAY 25 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 1
16
In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails Fern Silva
USA, video, 13.5 min, 2010
“Creation and destruction, as seen in the tiny turtles crawling their way to the sea, or heard in the crackling of a Geiger counter as a masked man sprays plants with pesticides. Revelers in Bahia parade through the streets, a gnatsized Mercury passes across the surface of the sun, and men slowly make their way up the giant steps of an ancient temple. The film resides in a well of deep time, history swallowed by the life of the planet.” — Genevieve Yue, Reverse Shot Fern Silva studied at the Massachussets College of Art and Bard College. He has made more than a dozen films since 2005 which have screened at venues including the IFF Rotterdam, the “Views from the Avant-Garde” program at the New York Film Festival, the Images Festival (Toronto), the World Film Festival of Bangkok and at MoMA PS1. This is his first appearance at Media City. He lives in Brooklyn.
Pieter Geenen
Belgium, video, 23.5 min, 2011
Emerging at dawn, two mountains appear to be in dialogue with each other. It is a dialogue between two nations, with historical, political, biblical and utopian connotations. This dialogue is based on testimonies and eyewitnesses from both sides of a conflict going back to the early 20th century. Pieter Geenen holds a postgraduate degree in Transmedia from the Hogeschool Sint-Lukas in Brussels. His video work has screened at international festivals including Images (Toronto), EMAF (Osnabrück), Courtisane (Gent), the “Views from the Avant-Garde” program at the New York Film Festival and at the 15th Media City in 2009. He lives in Brussels.
WED MAY 25 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 1
Relocation
17
WED MAY 25 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 1
18
Square and Mountain Nick Collins
England, 16mm, 4 min, 2010
A public square in a Greek village, from mid-afternoon to nightfall. The space depicted is formal in the foreground, mundane in the middle distance and grand in its mountain backdrop. Since 1976 Nick Collins has been making films which have been shown widely at international festivals, including recent screenings at Image Forum (Tokyo), the International Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, EX-iS (Seoul) and at Media City’s 13th and 16th editions. He lives in Lewes, Sussex.
THURSDAY MAY 26
THURS MAY 26 • 6 PM • REGIONAL ARTISTS
Regional Artists Program curated by Brandon Walley
Vismic Rhythm Steven Smith
Detroit, video, 3 min, 2010
It’s where children go to laugh. It’s when you stare at the shore at dusk and know everything will be OK. It’s a way of clearing one’s mind by over-stimulating it.
A Movie by Jen Proctor Jennifer Proctor
Ann Arbor, video, 12 min, 2010
A loving remake of Bruce Conner’s seminal found-footage film A Movie (1958) using material taken from YouTube and LiveLeak
The Natural Ted Kennedy
20
The Natural
Ann Arbor, video, 4 min, 2010
Man’s struggle with disasters of his own making, manifested in a burning minivan.
Matt Rossoni
London, 16mm, 5.5 min, 2010
Representations of masculinity in advertising.
Blow Their Hearts Out Rhonda Rudnick
Grosse Pte. Woods, video, 4.5 min, 2011
The beautiful brutality of horse racing.
Aestival Chantal Vien
Windsor, video, 3 min, 2010
A journey around Windsor. The places explored represent small wonders of the city that tend to be overlooked or ignored.
Anima Scripps Gary Schwartz
Detroit, video, 5.5 min, 2010
Under the exquisite care of the City of Detroit, Scripps Mansion burned to the ground. As artist-in-residence at the Scripps Estate, Schwartz created this animated stop-motion/time lapse video using a camera obscura.
THURS MAY 26 • 6 PM • REGIONAL ARTISTS
Anima Scripps (production still c/o Victor Pytko)
6-13/16
21
THURS MAY 26 • 6 PM • REGIONAL ARTISTS
Northside Windo w Justin Langlois
Ride This Country
Windsor, video, 9.5 min, 2011
Details of everyday objects and the play of light, enhanced with resonating and melodic undertones generated from customized software.
From Scratch Kelsey Haas
London, 16mm, 13 min, 2010
Images of domesticity trace the transmission and deterioration of matrilineal traditions. Hand-made techniques, including physically sewing the film, create an object which is both a tactile artifact and a fragile memory.
Ride This Country Joshua Romphf
London, 16mm, 7.5 min, 2010
The interplay of man, machine and landscape during a long day of work.
Echoes in a Shallow Bay Scott Northrup
22 A haunting at sea.
Dearborn, video, 11 min, 2011
THURS MAY 26 • 7:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 2
24
Forms Are Not Self-Subsistent Substances Samantha Rebello
England, 16mm, 23 min, 2010
“And indeed the question which was raised of old and is raised now and always, and is always the subject of doubt, viz. what being is, is just the question, what is substance?” — Aristotle, Metaphysics, VII-I Flesh, milk and meat are the subjects of an attempt to understand “substance” with medieval imagery. Bestiary illuminations, Romanesque carvings, medieval bells and living things reveal the strangeness and violence of being. Samantha Rebello has been working in film and sound since 2004. Her work has screened at venues such as the IFF Rotterdam, the London FF, the Images Festival (Toronto) and at the Serpentine and Whitechapel Galleries in London. Her films received a solo screening as part of the “Light Reading” series at no.w.here (London) and her film The Object Which Thinks Us: OBJECT 1 (2007) won the Best Film at the Aurora Film Festival (Norwich) in 2008. This is her first appearance at Media City. She lives in London.
David Gatten
USA, 16mm, 13 min, 2011
The Matter Propounded employs an early 20th-century “tablet of Jupiter” system for attempting to tell the future. Divided into four sections – Instructions, Questions, Answers, and Conclusions – the film invites viewers to draw their own conclusions about the questions we ask of the world and the answers we find for ourselves. The films of David Gatten have been screened at venues such as the Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley), the Cinémathèque Française (Paris), Anthology Film Archives (New York) and Image Forum (Tokyo), and at international film festivals including those in Rotterdam, New York, London, and Ann Arbor. They have also been seen at five editions of Media City since 2002, winning three Honourable Mentions and a Grand Prize in 2005 for The Great Art of Knowing (2004). His films are in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. He lives in Shedtown, Colorado.
THURS MAY 26 • 7:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 2
The Matter Propounded, of Its Possibility or Impossibility, Treated in Four Parts
25
THURS MAY 26 • 7:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 2
26
I Will Forget This Day Alina Rudnitskaya
Russia, video, 25 min, 2011
A decision, administered according to procedure. Alina Rudnitskaya attended the Academy of Aerospace Engineering and then studied film at the University of Arts and Culture in St. Petersburg. She has made thirteen films since 1999, screening at prominent festivals including IDFA (Amsterdam), the Tampere Short Film Festival, and the London Film Festival. Major awards include a Principal Prize and First Prize from the International Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen for Bitch Academy (2007) and Civil Status (2005), and a National Prize for the Best Russian Documentary film for Besame Mucho (2006). In 2010 her films received a solo screening in the “Conversations at the Edge” series at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This is her first appearance at Media City. She lives in St. Petersburg.
Gutes Ende (Bliss) and Heidi Kim at W Hong Kong Hotel Friedl vom Gröller (Kubelka)
Austria, 16mm, 2010
Gutes Ende (3 min) shows the artist’s mother as an old woman: “[A] farewell vignette… silent, brittle, stumbling, awkwardly direct [and] proud of its imperfections.” — Harry Tomicek Heidi Kim (3 min) is an enigmatic portrait shot in a high-rise overlooking Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. Friedl vom Gröller (Kubelka) studied industrial photography in Vienna. She has had solo exhibitions of her photographic works at museums and galleries including the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig (Vienna) and the Frankfurter Kunstverein. She made her first films in the late 1960s, which have screened at venues such as the Munich Film Museum, the IFF Rotterdam, Anthology Film Archives, the Austrian Filmmuseum and many others, including a retrospective screening and photographic exhibition as part of the 16th Media City in 2010. In 1990 she founded the School for Artistic Photography in Vienna, followed by the School for Independent Film in 2006. She lives in Vienna.
THURS MAY 26 • 7:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 2
Heidi Kimm
27
THURS MAY 26 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 3
28
Three Portraits Ute Aurand
Paulina
Germany, 16mm, 13 min, 2011
Paulina (5 min) and Franz (5 min) are the filmmaker’s two godchildren, whom she has filmed since they were very young. Paulina Buda is now 15 and Franz von Lecke 26 years old. Maria (3 min) is Aurand’s close friend, the filmmaker Maria Lang. She lives in the countryside of southern Germany. We see her gardening and visiting an exhibition of women impressionist painters. Ute Aurand studied at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie, Berlin. She has made more than thirty films since 1985 which have been widely screened internationally at venues such as Anthology Film Archives (New York), the Toronto IFF and at Media City’s 15th and 16th editions, winning the festival’s Grand Prize for her film In die Erde Gebaut (2008). Since 1989 she has curated numerous film events for Kino Arsenal and Filmkunsthaus Babylon in Berlin, and has held various teaching positions at universities including the Hochschule der Künste Hamburg and the Hochschule für Gestaltung, Zürich. She lives in Berlin.
Jonathan Schwartz
USA, 16mm, 11 min, 2011
A dividing line, a division of light, gestures and glances, a body of water, against two continents, amidst a time of reflection and a moment from Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad: “I saw a dog of this kind start to nibble at a flea – a fly attracted his attention, and he made a snatch at him; the flea called for him once more, and that forever unsettled him; he looked sadly at his flea-pasture, then sadly looked at his bald spot. Then he heaved a sigh and dropped his head resignedly upon his paws. He was not equal to the situation.” Jonathan Schwartz makes films and other sound/image projects. Some of these projects have shown at such venues as the IFF Rotterdam, the “Views from the Avant-Garde” program at the New York FIlm Festival, the Images Festival (Toronto), the Ann Arbor Film Festival and the London Film Festival. This is his first appearance at Media City. He lives in Brattleboro, Vermont.
THURS MAY 26 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 3
Between Gold
29
THURS MAY 26 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 3
30
Envíos Jeannette Muñoz
Switzerland/Chile, 16mm
The Envíos are a series of epistolary artworks which the artist dedicates and mails to her friends. Each Envío is a consignment in a small cardboard box including a film or a photograph and a description of its content. This selection includes: Envío 13 for Claudia Muñoz, Santiago de Chile Envío 5 for Cristobalina Huaiquián, Santiago de Chile Envío 8 for Helga Fanderl, Paris Envío 24 for Helga Fanderl, France Envío 23 for Robert Beavers, Zumikon Suisse Envío 25 for Varinia Canto Vila, Bruxelles
2 min, 2009 2 min, 2006 2 min, 2009 3 min, 2010 6 min, 2010 4 min, 2011
Jeannette Muñoz studied visual arts at Universidad de Chile in Santiago. She has made 16mm films since 2000, which have screened at venues such as Kino Arsenal (Berlin), the Aurora Festival (Norwich) and Q-02 Werkplaats (Brussels). This is her first appearance at Media City. She divides her time between Zürich and Santiago.
Robert Fenz
USA, 16mm, 30 min, 2011
Filmmaker Robert Fenz returned to the locations of three classic films made by the pioneering American ethnographic filmmaker Robert Gardner. Dead Birds (1964) was filmed in West Papua, Rivers of Sand (1974) was filmed in Ethiopia and Forest of Bliss (1986) was filmed in Benares, India. Correspondence is not meant as a straightforward commentary on Gardners’s films, but is instead an attempt to trigger memory by referring to previously recorded events, places and peoples. Robert Fenz has been recognized with many prizes and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a DAAD reisdency in Berlin and the Grand Prize at Media City in 2004 for his film Meditations on Revolution Part 5 – Foreign City (2003). His films have been exhibited at the 2002 and 2008 Whitney Biennials and in retrospective screenings at the Locarno FF, the Cinémathèque Française (Paris), the IFF Rotterdam, the Museum of Modern Art New York, the Harvard Film Archive and at the 15th Media City in 2009. He has taught filmmaking at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the School for Independent Filmmaking (Vienna) and most recently at Emily Carr University of Art & Design (Vancouver).
THURS MAY 26 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 3
Correspondence
31
FRIDAY MAY 27
FRI MAY 27 • 3 PM • SILVI SIMON at AGW
34
Filmatruc à verres Silvi Simon
Pierre
France, 16mm and sculptural installation
Friday, May 27, 3 pm Discussion with the artist at the AGW Exhibition continues to June 19, 2011 Silvi Simon’s Filmatrucs are a series of sculptural film projections that have incorporated materials such as piano wire, fishbowls, mirrors and electric train motors. The most recent Filmatrucs exploit the reflective and refractive properties of carefully suspended glass panes to diffuse and scatter overlapping planes of images, creating a wall-to-wall projection environment. Sound is supplied by the rattle of 16mm film projectors and the chime of the glass panels striking each other. Silvi Simon works with 16mm and Super 8mm film in cinematic, performative and gallery contexts. She learned techniques of artisanal filmmaking at Atélier MTK, an experimental film laboratory in Grenoble. As a member of the Strasbourg-based collective Burstscratch, she has presented live film performances at venues across Europe, including VideoEx (Zürich) and the IFF Rotterdam. Her film installations have been exhibited at venues such as the L6 Kunsthaus (Freiburg), the Film Gallery (Paris) and Cinema Nova (Brussels). This exhibition of the FIlmatrucs organized by Media City and the AGW is the first presentation of her work in North America. She lives in Strasbourg.
Oiseaux
2009
150 glass pieces suspended around a metal frame, which collectively reflect an image around a 360° radius. The projected image is taken from a deteriorated 1930s-era film in which the characters throw stones. Viewers find themselves surrounded by these images in a soundscape of rattling glass.
Filmatruc à verres n°2, Oiseaux
2009
A metal ball, driven by a motor, from which is suspended hundreds of glass pieces pointing in all directions. Lenses are positioned so that the images are reflected by a fraction of the glass onto the wall and the ceiling. The projected image is a flock of birds.
Photos: Markus Reck
FRI MAY 27 • 3 PM • SILVI SIMON at AGW
Filmatruc à verres n°1, Pierre
35
FRI MAY 27 • 7:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 4
36
If I Were Buried at a Street Corner Maija Blåfield
Finland, video, 5.5 min, 2011
A city as observed from an outsider’s perspective. The hierarchy, logic and utility of the surroundings are laid aside. Monuments appear in the trash and on the asphalt. Maija Blåfield is a graduate of the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts. She makes drawings, installations, photographs and films which have been exhibited at venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Helsinki) and Sparwasser HQ (Berlin), and at film festivals including the Tampere Film Festival, Hamburg Short Film Festival and the Split Festival of New Film and Video. This is her first appearance at Media City. She lives in Helsinki.
Robert Fenz
USA, 16mm, 34 min, 2011
Borders (and all the politics attending the drawing of borders) exist to keep some people in (by granting or refusing citizenship) and others out. This film is an attempt to capture the presence of people otherwise denied the political right to be at home in some place that is their home, where they have their roots, where they have their being: Palestinians and Israelis in the contested Middle East; Africans in France, Cubans on the island of Cuba (their right to rule themselves denied by foreign powers). Robert Fenz has been recognized with many prizes and awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a DAAD reisdency in Berlin and the Grand Prize at Media City in 2004 for his film Meditations on Revolution Part 5 – Foreign City (2003). His films have been exhibited at the 2002 and 2008 Whitney Biennials and in retrospective screenings at the Locarno FF, the Cinémathèque Française (Paris), the IFF Rotterdam, the Museum of Modern Art New York, the Harvard Film Archive and at the 15th Media City in 2009. He has taught filmmaking at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the School for Independent Filmmaking (Vienna) and most recently at Emily Carr University of Art & Design (Vancouver).
FRI MAY 27 • 7:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 4
The Sole of the Foot
37
FRI MAY 27 • 7:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 4
38
About Now MMX William Raban
England, video, 28 min, 2010
“Raban’s film could be read as a dialectic of the city and its image, an argument between how it is and how it might be re-imagined. By shifting between the material space of urbanism and the architecture of the film frame, About Now MMX aims for a more reflexive viewing experience, fracturing the spatial relations of the city into an activity of movement and dynamism.” — Gareth Polmeer “Raban’s film About Now MMX is hardly optimistic, but he’s created here a new cognitive screen-map of what our gut instincts already tell us about the dehumanization of the crapulent capitalism of the early 21st century, strangely beautiful for such an unsettling portrayal.” — Michael Chanan For biography of William Raban see page 11.
Nicky Hamlyn
England, 16mm, 10 min, 2010
The facades of a large building that houses tobacco-curing ovens. The nearuniform framing, and the relationship of the shots to each other, is determined by the regular forms of the building, and by the intention that the film be a complete record of the building’s outer surfaces. The sound is a single continuous recording made inside the shed from a fixed position. Thus a contrasting relationship between outside and inside is established through a corresponding relationship between image and sound. The film was shot in Spedalicchio, a hamlet in rural Umbria, Italy. In 2012 the subsidies given to tobacco producers in the EU will end, and buildings like this will either be converted to other uses or fall into disrepair. Nicky Hamlyn was workshop organizer for the London Filmmakers’ Co-op in the late 1970s. He has made more than fifty films and videos since 1974 which have been widely exhibited internationally, including at five previous editions of Media City and in recent solo screenings at the Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley) and Double Negative (Montréal). He writes regularly for Film Quarterly and his book Film Art Phenomenon was published by the British Film Institute in 2003. He lives in Lewes, Sussex and teaches at the University College for the Creative Arts, Maidstone.
FRI MAY 27 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 5
Tobacco Shed
39
FRI MAY 27 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 5
40
Cinematographie Philipp Fleischmann
Austria, 16mm, 6 min, 2009
A large camera obscura was constructed in the shape of a torus, with multiple exposure holes. In the camera, two 16mm strips were placed next to each other, one exposed by the outer space and one exposed by the inner space, photographing the apparatus itself. Exposed simultaneously, each frame is therefore not a consecutive recording of time, but instead collectively form a continuous image of one instant. A filmic standstill – but in projection the image is equivalent to a tracking shot. A revision of the correlation between movement and non-movement and also spectator and screen. Philipp Fleischmann studied at Friedl Kubelka’s School for Independent Filmmaking in Vienna and is currently studying at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. His work in film, video and installation has been exhibited at venues including Vienna Secession, the “Wavelengths” program at the Toronto IFF, Anthology Film Archives (New York), IDFA Amsterdam and the Ann Arbor FF. This is his first appearance at Media City. He lives in Vienna.
Nick Collins
England, 16mm, 5.5 min, 2010
A particularly cinematic building: a Roman baths and palace complex in the middle of an olive grove near Kalamata in the Peloponnese. Views through the dark chambers of the ruins survey the ingress of light in peculiar shapes. Since 1976 Nick Collins has been making films which have screened widely at international festivals, including recent screenings at Image Forum (Tokyo), the International Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, EXiS (Seoul) and at Media City’s 13th and 16th editions. He lives in Lewes, Sussex.
FRI MAY 27 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 5
Loutra / Baths
41
FRI MAY 27 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 5
42
Concrete & Samples III Carrara Aglaia Konrad
Belgium/Austria, video, 19.5 min, 2009
Concrete & Samples is a series of three films on sculptural architecture. The third installment, Carrara, shows the famous Italian marble quarry, with its “sculpted” landscape, temporary architecture and art-historical references. The environment itself assumes the role of protagonist, with the camera proposing narratives through its travel and observation. Aglaia Konrad is originally from Salzburg, studied at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht and now lives in Brussels. She has recently begun working in film after an extensive career in photography, which has included exhibitions at venues such as Documenta X (1997, Kassel), the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam) and the 2000 Shanghai Biennial. She is the recipient of the Camera Austria Preis der Stadt Graz and her book Desert Cities (2008) received the 2009 Infinity Award of the International Center for Photography for the best photographic book of the year. This is her first appearance at Media City. She teaches at the Hogeschool Sint-Lukas.
Robert Todd
USA, 16mm, 7 min, 2010
Bridges between blocks of space, figures in motion, planes holding us and taking us, spanning and obscuring the built environment. Robert Todd has made more than 45 films and videos since 1985, while teaching at Emerson College and working as a film editor in Boston. His films have screened at venues including the “Views from the Avant-Garde” program at the New York FF, the IFF Rotterdam, Cinematheque Ontario and at Media City’s 10th through 16th editions, winning a Third Prize in 2007.
FRI MAY 27 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 5
Bridges: Blocks
43
FRI MAY 27 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 5
44
Constellations Helga Fanderl
Güterzüge (Freight Trains) Kreuzung (Intersection) Chatham St. E. Im Brunnen (In a Fountain) Hochzeitswalzer (Wedding Waltz) Voodoo Gasometer I Kakibaum (Persimmon Tree) Gelbe Blätter (Yellow Leaves) Sonntagsspaziergänger (Sunday Stroll) Rost (Rust) Gläser (Glasses) Laub (Autumn Leaves) Gravitation II
Laub
France/Germany, S8mm 2 min, 2009 1 min, 2009 3 min, 2009 1 min, 2010 1 min, 2007 3 min, 2010 2 min, 2010 1 min, 2011 1 min, 2010 1 min, 2010 3 min, 2010 2 min, 2011 1 min, 2010 3 min, 2010
Helga Fanderl studied at the Stadeschule Frankfurt and at Cooper Union, New York. Her films have screened at venues including the the Deutches FIlmmuseum (Frankfurt), Kino Arsenal (Berlin), the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), three previous editions of Media City, and were the subject of a major retrospective in the “Views from the Avant-Garde” program at the 2010 New York Film Festival. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt and the Louvre (Paris).
SATURDAY MAY 28
SAT MAY 28 • 7:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 6
46
Tokyo – Ebisu Tomonari Nishikawa
Japan, 16mm, 5 min, 2010
The JR (Japan Railway) Yamanote Line is one of Japan’s busiest, including twenty-nine stations and running as a loop. Views from the platforms of ten stations on the Yamanote Line are presented here, from Tokyo station to Ebisu station, clockwise. In-camera operations and a layered soundtrack magnify the sense of actual events at the locations. Tomonari Nishikawa has made more than a dozen films which have screened at venues including the “Views from the Avant-Garde” program at the New York FF, the Berlinale, the Toronto IFF and at three previous editions of Media City, winning an Honourable Mention in 2008. He has worked as a guest curator for the Yebisu International Festival for Art and Alternative Visions in Tokyo. A Tokyo native, he is currently teaching as a visiting artist at Binghamton University in Ithaca, New York.
Jim Jennings
USA, 16mm, 12 min, 2011
A visual rendering of the noise of a vibrant neighbourhood in Queens, New York. The elevated subway clacking overhead, impassioned shouts emanating from Speaker’s Corner, excited conversations in various languages, rumbling engines, hawking vendors – and the filmmaker, undetected amid all the noise, finding its silent rhythms and melody. A New York City native, Jim Jennings has made more than thirty films since the mid-1970s, almost all of which depict and interpret the streets and neighbourhoods of New York. His films have screened at numerous international venues and festivals including the “Views from the Avant-Garde” program at the New York FF, the “Wavelengths” program at the Toronto IFF, a retrospective screening at the 2010 IFF Rotterdam and at four previous editions of Media City. He lives in New York City.
SAT MAY 28 • 7:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 6
Jackson Heights
47
SAT MAY 28 • 7:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 6
48
Va Regarde – 2 Philippe Cote
France, S8mm, 27 min, 2009
Images of Nepal and India. « A l’origine de ces départs, il y a l’aspiration dans un renouvellement de mon cinéma, dans la recherche de nouvelles lumières, de nouveaux espaces, de nouveaux rapports... vers un cinéma plus proche du documentaire poétique: etre là et regarder, inscrire la durée, ne pas chercher à forcer les choses qui se présentent. » — PC Philippe Cote has made more than a dozen films since 1998 which have screened at numerous festivals and venues including the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), VideoEx (Zürich), Image Forum (Tokyo) and at the 11th and 14th editions of Media City. He is a founding member of the film co-operative L’ETNA, an artisanal lab formed in 1997 in Paris, where he lives.
Kevin J. Everson
USA, 16mm, 11.5 min, 2010
One man’s struggle with his automobile. Over the past fifteen years Kevin J. Everson has completed several feature films and about fifty short 16mm, 35mm and digital films about the working class culture of Black Americans and other people of African descent. His films focus on “conditions, tasks, gestures, and materials in these communities” and “the relentlessness of everyday life.” (KJE) Everson’s work has been widely shown at venues including the Sundance FF, IFF Rotterdam, the International Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, the Museum of Modern Art New York, the Whitney Museum (New York), Whitechapel Gallery (London), the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), the Images Festival (Toronto) and at the 15th and 16th editions of Media City. He is the recipient of Guggenheim, Creative Capital and NEA Fellowships and an American Academy in Rome Prize. Originally from Mansfield, Ohio, he now lives in Charlottesville where he teaches at the University of Virginia.
SAT MAY 28 • 7:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 6
The Prichard
49
SAT MAY 28 • 7:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 6
50
After Morning Robert Todd
USA, 16mm, 3 min, 2010
A single roll, shot through the turnings of a breaking day. Robert Todd has made more than 45 films and videos since 1985, while teaching at Emerson College and working as a film editor in Boston. His films have screened at venues including the “Views from the Avant-Garde” program at the New York FF, the IFF Rotterdam, Cinematheque Ontario and at Media City’s 10th through 16th editions, winning Third Prize in 2007.
Tomonari Nishikawa
Japan, 16mm, 10 min, 2010
Following on Tokyo – Ebisu (see page 46), this film shows the exits of twenty stations on the JR Yamanote Line, from Shibuya station to Tokyo station, clockwise. Masking and multiple exposures show the movements of people and vehicles on the street with the train station signs in the background. Tomonari Nishikawa has made more than a dozen films which have screened at venues including the “Views from the Avant-Garde” program at the New York FF, the Berlinale, the Toronto IFF and at three previous editions of Media City, winning an Honourable Mention in 2008. He has worked as a guest curator for the Yebisu International Festival for Art and Alternative Visions in Tokyo. A Tokyo native, he is currently teaching as a visiting artist at Binghamton University in Ithaca, New York.
SAT MAY 28 • 7:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 6
Shibuya – Tokyo
51
SAT MAY 28 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 7
52
Resonance Karen Johannesen
USA, S8mm, 3 min, 2010
Resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate with larger amplitudes at some frequencies than at others. These are known as the system’s resonant frequencies. At these frequencies, even small periodic forces can produce large amplitude oscillations, because the system stores vibrational energy. Karen Johannesen studied at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has made thirteen films since 2001, all on Super 8mm, which have screened at venues such as the San Francisco Cinematheque, Anthology Film Archives (New York), the Images Festival (Toronto), and were included in the smallgauge retrospective “Big as Life” organized by the Museum of Modern Art New York. This is her third apearance at Media City; her film Light Speed (2007) won 3rd Prize at the festival’s 15th edition in 2009. She lives in Chicago. ———————————————— Born in Peru, Rose Lowder (opposite) studied at La Escuela de Bellas Artes (Lima) and then at Chelsea School of Art in London. She has made over fifty films since the mid-1970s which have screened at most of the world’s important venues for experimental fims, including four previous editions of Media City. After moving to France, she co-founded Les Archives du Film Expérimental d’Avignon (AFEA) in 1981. She lives in Avignon and is an associate professor at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Rose Lowder
France, 16mm, 2005-09
The most recent collection of the artist’s Bouquets series. All were filmed at ecological sites. Each Bouquet is exactly one minute long (1440 frames, with the exception of Bouquet 16, which contains an additional 23 frames/almost 1 second). Movement and transformation of images are created through their arrangement during filming. Bouquet 11 – Oasis de la Roche Bleue, near Plaisans, Drôme Bouquet 12 – Farm de la Mhotte, Saint Menoux, Allier Bouquet 13 – Site agroécologique de la Baraque, Aujac, Gard Bouquet 14 – Le Vieil Eclis, Asserac, Loire-Atlantique Bouquet 15 – Azienda Agricola Cascina Piola, Serra-Capriglio, Asti, Nord Monferrato, Piedmonte, Italy Bouquet 16 – Silvai Confiture, Haute Bléone, Prads, Basses-Alpes Bouquet 17 – Hôtel-Pension Beau-Site, Chemin sur Martigny, Switzerland Bouquet 18 – Farm de Crozefond, Saint Aubin, Lot et Garonne Bouquet 19 – Les Jardins du Marais, Parc Naturel Régional de Brière, Hoscas, Loire Atlantique Bouquet 20– Site agroécologique de la Baraque, Aujac, Gard
SAT MAY 28 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 7
Bouquets 11 – 20
53
SAT MAY 28 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 7
54
These Hammers Don’t Hurt Us Michael Robinson
USA, video, 13 min, 2010
Tired of underworld and overworld alike, Isis escorts her favourite son on their final curtain call down the Nile, leaving a neon wake of shattered tombs and sparkling sarcophagi. Michael Robinson studied film and photography at Ithaca College and the University of Illinois. His film and video works have screened at numerous international venues including the IFF Rotterdam, the “Views from the AvantGarde” program at the New York FF, the Viennale, the International Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen and three previous editions of Media City. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Cinema at Binghamton University, New York.
Simon Payne
England, video, 10 min, 2010
Ten variations of four transitions transform the screen from one field of clashing complementary colours to another via radiating, sweeping, swinging and twisting graphic dividing lines. The course of these transitions is interrupted from the offset, but after a minute or so it is only a frenetic motion that the eye is able to track. Simon Payne holds a PhD from the Royal College of Art. His work has been shown in numerous festivals and venues including Anthology Film Archives (New York), the IFF Rotterdam, EMAF (Osnabrück), Pacific Film Archives (Berkeley) and the 2009 and 2010 editions of Media City. The Serpentine and Whitechapel Galleries in London have also exhibited his work, as has Tate Modern, for which he also curated a series of programs entitled “Colour Field Films and Videos” in 2008. He lives in London where he is Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Studies at Anglia Ruskin University.
SAT MAY 28 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 7
Vice Versa Et Cetera
55
SAT MAY 28 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 7
56
Trypps #7 (Badlands) Ben Russell
USA, video, 9.5 min, 2010
“[A]n intimate long take of an young woman’s LSD trip in the Badlands National Park descends into a psychedelic abstraction of the expansive desert landscape. Concerned with notions of the romantic sublime, phenomenological experience and secular spiritualism, [Trypps #7] continues Russell’s investigation into the possibilities of the cinema as a site for transcendence.” — Michael Green, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Ben Russell is an itinerant photographer and filmmaker whose work has been presented in spaces ranging from 14th century Belgian monasteries to Japanese cinematheques, from police station basements to outdoor punk squats, in bathtubs in Chicago and on boats in Vienna, in Parisian storefronts and at the 2009 edition of Media City. He has had solo screenings at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the IFF Rotterdam, the Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus) and the Museum of Modern Art New York. A 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, he lives in Chicago where he teaches at the University of Illinois.
Bruce McClure
USA, 3 x 16mm, 20 min, 2011
Three common time loops, metered as one translucent to three frames of emulsion, with accents arising from their insides. Nested within each is a deficient partner, cut from the same womb, but with a caesura marked by extra frames between one pair of its luminous ornaments. Cycling, polar coordinates are rendered rectangular on the screen making waves with a beginning and an end. Bruce McClure is an architect, licensed to practice in New York in 1992. In 1994 he began working with stroboscopic discs as an entry to cinematic pursuits. Since 1995 his film and projector performances have been exhibited at numerous international venues including the IFF Rotterdam, the “Views from the Avant-Garde” program at the New York FF and at every edition of Media City since 2002, winning several awards, including the festival’s Grand Prize in 2006 for his multi-projector performance Nethergate. He is the recipient of a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in Brooklyn.
SAT MAY 28 • 9:30 PM • INTL PROGRAM 7
Double Pipes
57
Thanks in no particular order: Vesa Puhakka and Mikko Mällinen at AV-Arkki (Helsinki), Marie Logie at Auguste Orts (Brussels), Mikhail Zheleznikov at the St. Petersburg Documentary Film Studio, Christophe Bichon and Baptiste Degas at Light Cone (Paris), Madeleine Molyneaux at Picture Palace Pictures (New York), Gil Leung and Mike Sperlinger at Lux (London UK), Tess Takahashi and Michael Zryd (Toronto), Volko Kamensky (Hamburg), Leif Magne Tangen (Leipzig), Susan Oxtoby at the Pacific FIlm Archive (Berkeley), David Dinnell and Donald Harrison at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Anna Abrahams and Peter van Hoof at Eye Film Institute (Amsterdam), Erwin van ‘t Hart at the IFF Rotterdam, Andréa Picard at the Toronto IFF, Tom Taylor at Pleasure Dome (Toronto), Scott Miller Berry and Pablo de Ocampo at the Images Festival (Toronto), Karim Shimsal at IndieLisboa, Larissa Fan at CFMDC (Toronto), Ralph McKay at Sixpack Film/Eye Film Institute Americas (Marfa TX), Ruth Rienstra, Michaela Grill at Sixpack FIlm (Vienna), Mark McElhatten at the New York Film Festival, Élodie Gallina at CEAAC (Strasbourg), Nate Cummings (New York), Peter Storer at the Austrian Cultural Forum (Ottawa), Mark Haslam at the Ontario Arts Council, Michelle Stanley at the Canada Council for the Arts. LOCALLY: Dan Bombardier at The Printhouse, Mark Boscariol at Chanoso’s & Oishii, Adam Fox at CJAM Radio, Louise Jones at Jones & Co., Dan at Vermouth, Jay at FM Lounge, Frank & Tom at Phog, Carly Nikita, Ted Kennedy at 327 Braun Court, Scott Northrup at CCS, Kate Fox at WFCU, Debbie Lamkie at Caesars Windsor, Paul Huston at The Night Move, Lori Baldassi at Blackburn Radio, Sarah Beveridge at SB Contemporary, Brad Robitaille at Greg Monforton & Partners, John at Courtesy Bicycles, Adriano Ciotoli at the City of Windsor, Angelo Marignani at Milk, Tony Mosna, Catharine Mastin and Nicole McCabe at the AGW, Debi Croucher at the DWBIA, Brenda Pelkey and Julie Sando at the University of Windsor, Peter Coady at WIFF, James and Jason at klever design, Rosita Blackman-Smith at Travelodge, Dave Asher, Mandy Salter, Peggy and Mercedes Dorner, Thomas MacDonald at FedEx, Phil Beaudoin, Grace Manias, and extra thanks to all the festival’s hardworking volunteers and to all those who opened their homes to billet guests. Distribution Sources
Bouquets 11-20 (Lowder) from Light Cone, Paris. Concrete and Samples III Carrara (Konrad) from Auguste Orts, Brussels. Gutes Ende/Bliss and Heidi Kim (Vom Gröller) from Sixpack Film, Vienna. I Will Forget This Day (Rudnitskaya) from St. Petersburg Documentary Film Studio. If I Were Buried at a Street Corner (Blåfield) from AV-Arkki, Helsinki. The Prichard (Everson) from Picture Palace Pictures, New York. Tobacco Shed (Hamlyn) from CFMDC, Toronto. All other exhibition materials courtesy the artists. Special thanks to Lux (London) and the Eye Film Institute (Amsterdam) for their valuable assistance with the programs of William Raban and Jaap Pieters, respectively.
Catalogue Notes
Media cited are those of this exhibition; acquisition media or other projection formats may differ. Durations are rounded to the nearest 30 seconds. Descriptions are provided by the artists unless another source is cited. Films of William Raban and Jaap Pieters are not in competition. Cover image: Simon Payne, Vice Versa Et Cetera.