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TECHNIQUES OF THE OBSERVER: SHORT FILMS
For our second annual collaboration with the Portland International Film
Festival, we are pleased to present Techniques of the Observer, a program
of experimental, artistic explorations regarding the nature of observation
by seven filmmakers. Robert Todd’s Trauma Victim, shot roadside
between visits to maximum-security prisons, serves as a visual remark
on the condition of being held captive: a prisoner of this social landscape,
both outside both outside and in. Glow in the Dark (January—June)
is Chicago filmmaker Rebecca Meyers’ somnambulistic journey through
fields of light: window reflections, street lamps, full moons. Formal
abstractions of the Manhattan cityscape are viewed through the physical
and emotional blurrings of a rainstorm in Jim Jennings’ Elements.
Kathryn Ramey’s Endless Present: Biography of an Unknown Filmmaker
by Cornelius Thistle is an unconventional and multi-layered approach
to autobiography, incorporating hand-processed abstractions, ethnography,
and the works of anthropologist Ray Birdwistle and artist On Kawara. Filmed
entirely with a pinhole camera in Schaumburg, IL, Thomas Comerford’s
Figures in the Landscape comments on the relationship between land
use, suburban development, and the human history of the region. Louise
Bourque’s hand-manipulated abstraction of flora Jours en Fleurs
takes its name from the French-Canadian term for a girl’s coming-of-age.
Courtney Hoskins, having studied film and astrophysics, bridges the supposed
gap between the two fields in her optically dense studies of two of Jupiter’s
moons, Ganymede and Callisto.
FEBRUARY 24
Trauma Victim by Robert Todd [2002, 16mm, color, sound, 16 min]
Glow in the Dark (January–June) by Rebecca Meyers [16mm, color,
sound, 6 min]
Elements by Jim Jennings [2003, 16mm, color silent, 6min]
Endless Present: Biography of an Unknown Filmmaker by Cornelius Thistle
by Kathryn Ramey [2003, 16mm, color, sound, 30 min]
Figures in the Landscape by Thomas Comerford [2002, 16mm, color,
sound, 10 min]
Jours en Fleurs by Louise Borque [2003, 35mm, color, sound, 5 min]
Ganymede & Callisto by Courtney Hoskins [2003, 16mm, color,
sound, 7 min]
whitsell auditorium, 1219 sw park; 8:30pm [$8 general]
co-presented with northwest film center/piff
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PUBLIC HOUSING—Frederick Wiseman
Documentary maverick Frederick Wiseman, a former law professor, has
infamously turned his camera time and again to exposing the multi-faceted
ruptures within American institutions. Influenced heavily by the Cinema
Verité movement of the 50s, Wiseman works to capture the painful
and often overlooked realities of establishments as varied as a Massachusetts
psychiatric ward (Titicut Follies) to the daily life of inner-city
public education (High School). Public Housing is Wiseman’s
unflinching portrayal of life at the Ida B. Wells housing project in Chicago,
a raw exposition of the daily conflicts between residents and the bureaucratic
machinery to which they are continually subjected. With intimate detail
and an abiding dedication to his subject, Wiseman unearths the hidden
facets of institutions to find humanity and sites of unexpected beauty.
MARCH 9 + 10
Public Housing [1998, 16mm, color, sound, 198 min]
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THE TEXTURE OF MEMORY—PHIL SOLOMON
Currently teaching film at the University of Colorado, Phil Solomon has
been making films for a quarter of a century. His work has been exhibited
in major venues around the world. Characterized by dense layering and
dreamlike reminiscences of childhood, every aspect of Solomon’s films
house a complex visual and aural texture. The rich, organic spaces of
the frame come alive through chemical manipulation and the adherence of
exquisitely composed soundtracks. Solomon works like "an archaeologist
in reverse—throwing the dirt back on the relic, burying the artifacts
in order to yield the deeper meanings." He will be presenting ten
films spanning more than two decades; included in the programs will be
two parts of the work-in-progress Twilight Psalms—a seven-part film
elegy for the twentieth century. On Saturday March 27, Solomon will be
teaching an intensive workshop titled Film and Sound: Frame-by-Frame at
the Northwest Film Center. For more information, cont
act 503.221.1156
or www.nwfilm.org
–artist in attendance–
MARCH 25
Seasons... with Stan Brakhage [2002, 16mm, color, silent, 20 min]
Remains to be Seen [1994, 16mm, color, sound, 17 min]
The Exquisite Hour [1994, 16mm, color, sound, 14 min]
The Snowman [1995, 16mm, color, sound, 8 min]
Psalm II: Walk
ing Distance [1999, 16mm, color, sound, 23 min]
MARCH 26
Nocturne [1980/1989, 16mm, color, silent, 10 min]
What's Out Tonight Is Lost [1983, 16mm, color, silent, 8 min]
The Secret Garden [1988, 16mm, color, silent, 23 min]
Clepsydra [1992, 16mm, color, silent, 14 min]
Psalm III: Night of the Meek [2002, 16mm, b & w, sound, 23
min]
Concrescence with Stan Brakhage [1996, 16mm, color, silent, 3 min]
MARCH 27
Film and Sound: Frame-by-Frame [workshop at the NW Film Center]
www.nwfilm.org or 503.221.1156 for info
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CITY SLIVERS & FRESH KILLS—Gordon Matta-Clark
Organized by the San Francisco Cinematheque, City Slivers and Fresh Kills
brings together ten of Gordon Matta-Clark's rarely screened film works
from 1971-1977. Over the course of his short career (he died in 1978,
at the age of 34), Matta-Clark used his background and training as an
architect to branch out into deconstructivist explorations of space through
performance, sculpture, film, and photography. Primarily known for his
large cutting projects, wherein he would physically cut up abandoned buildings--splitting
them into pieces or carving large sectionals out of the interior, much
of Matta-Clark's work was temporary, leaving behind only films, photographs,
and drawings as testament to their existence. Included in this two-night
survey are Matta-Clark's performances, building deconstructions, and documents
of his work process. These films vary greatly in their investigations
of urban space; Clockshower, for instance, features Matta-Clark climbing
to the top of the Clocktower in Manhattan to wash and shave himself while
Conical Intersect documents the cutting of two houses for the 1975 Paris
Biennial.
APRIL 6
Tree Dance [1971, Super 8 taped on 16mm, b & w, silent, 9 min]
Fire Child [1971, Super 8 taped on 16mm, color, silent, 9 min]
Fresh Kill [1972, 16mm, color, soundtrack, 12 min]
Bingo [1974, Super 8 taped on 16mm, color, silent, 9 min]
Office Baroque [1977, 16mm, color, soundtrack, 40 min]
APRIL 7
Conical Intersect [1975, 16mm, color, silent, 18 min]
City Slivers [1976, 16mm, color, silent, 15 min]
Food [1972, 16mm, b & w, sound, 43 min]
Clockshower [1973, 16mm, color, silent, 13 min]
Day’s End [1975, Super 8 taped on 16mm, color, silent, 23
min]
this program was funded in part with the generous support of
new american art union • rapaport development company
gray purcell general contractor • holst architecture
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NEAR AND FAR—Two by Johan van der Keuken
global dialogues program I
Having completed more than fifty films, Dutch filmmaker Johan van der
Keuken (1938—2001) moved freely between photography and film, fiction
and nonfiction. Always working as his own cameraman, with his wife Noshka
van der Lely as sound operator, the pair traveled the globe to document
life and culture in Holland, India, Egypt, as well as the US. The White
Castle is the second part of van der Keuken’s North/South Triptych,
which examines the relationship between rich, industrialized countries
and poor, developing ones. This segment focuses on a community center
in an impoverished area of Columbus, Ohio and a pair of factories in the
Netherlands. In The Eye Above the Well, he focuses upon Kerala, a coastal
province in southwestern India. Following a moneylender on his daily rounds,
a group of dancing girls, and a village projectionist, van der Keuken
creates a poetic and serene portrait of a culture and the daily life within.
APRIL 21
The White Castle [1973, 16mm, color, sound, 78 min]
APRIl 22
The Eye Above the Well [1988, 16mm, color, sound, 90 min]
this program was funded in part with the generous support of
the regional arts and culture council
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MEDITATIONS ON REVOLUTION I-V—Robert Fenz
Meditations on Revolution is a series of five films exploring the tension
and pause preceding the eruptions of revolt. In these vignettes, revolution
is seen as a political and artistic phenomenon, as well as a contemporary
and historical one. Fenz films in such disparate, dense locations as Havana,
Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, and New York City. Part I: Lonely Planet
is structured as an improvisational homage to Cuba's endurance and captures
the serene rhythm of Havana's contemporary street life. Rochina, Latin
America’s largest shantytown located in Rio de Janeiro, is the filming
ground for Part II: The Space In Between. In Part III: Soledad, shots
of streets and subways in New York, Mexico, and San Cristobal de las Casas
are intertwined with images of revolutionary figures of the past. Part
IV: Greenville, MS captures the discipline of a boxer preparing for a
fight. Fenz’s most recent installment Part V: Foreign City is an
evocative portrait of New York jazz artist Marion Brown.
–artist in attendance—
MAY 4 + 5
Part I: Lonely Planet [1997, 16mm, b&w, silent, 12 min]
Part II: The Space In Between [1997, 16mm, b&w, silent, 8 min]
Part III: Soledad [2001, 16mm, b&w, silent, 14 min]
Part IV: Greenville, MS [2001, 16mm, b&w, silent, 29 min]
Part V: Foreign City [2003, 16mm, b&w, sound, 32 min]
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BORDERLANDS—Three by Chantal Akerman
Brussels-born filmmaker Chantal Akerman has been hailed by many as one
of the most important European directors of her generation. She has made
over thirty films, including the much-lauded Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du
Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Influenced by avant-garde filmmakers of the
60s, such as Michael Snow and Andy Warhol, and informed by both structuralism
and minimalism, many of her films experiment openly with narrative and
observe themes of identity, sexuality, and politics. D’Est is an
elegiac photographic essay documenting Akerman’s journey from East
Germany to Poland to Moscow shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union
and the reunification of Germany. There is no dialogue or commentary,
simply the stunning, atmospheric traces of a changing landscape a
nd the
uprooted lives that must change with it. Akerman has stated that Sud is,
in some ways, a counterpoint to D’Est as she ventures into the American
South, travelling into Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Georgia. Her
encounters with the rich literary landscape of William Faulkner first
founded her interest in the region, later augmented by news of the 1998
lynching of James Byrd Jr. by three white men in Jasper, Texas. In De
l’Autre Côté, Akerman turns her gaze to undocumented
immigration and US/Mexico border policy and, by interweaving eerily still
shots of the Mexican urban landscape with interviews of locals as well
as a US sheriff, creates a disquieting, compassionate, and beautiful film.
MAY 20
D’est (From the East) [1993, 16mm, color, sound, 110 min]
MAY 21
Sud (South) [1999, video, color, sound, 70 min]
MAY 22
De l’Autre Côté (From the Other Side) [2002,
video, color, sound, 99 min]
this program was funded in part with the generous support of
gus van sant & the regional arts and culture council
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