Takahiko Iimura City-Wide Retrospective including shows at Filmforum on March 1 & 8

FILMMAKER/ARTIST TAKAHIKO IIMURA APPEARING
IN LOS ANGELES CITY-WIDE RETROSPECTIVE, FEBRUARY 27 – MARCH 9, 2009

The Japanese filmmaker and artist Takahiko Iimura will be the subject of an unprecedented ten-day multi-venue celebration in Southern California, with Iimura in person, from February 27 to March 9, 2009.  This series of events was organized by Adam Hyman of Los Angeles Filmforum and made possible by a grant from the Japan Foundation.

Iimura will make in-person public appearances at Los Angeles Filmforum, the UCLA Film & Television Archive, REDCAT, the University of Southern California East Asian Studies Center and School of Cinematic Arts, Cal Arts Bijou Theatre, and UC Irvine.  He will also be conducting student workshops at UCLA and USC.

Takahiko Iimura

“To review all of Iimura’s work is an important occasion for all who are concerned with the development and pleasures of cinema as an art.” — Jonas Mekas (Director, Anthology Film Archives, New York)

Takahiko Iimura is considered one of the most influential and important experimental filmmakers of our time. In an era of the explosion of Underground Film in the States, Iimura, almost alone in Tokyo, began making experimental film just reading the news from abroad without actually seeing them. His work explores wide range of experiments from poetic cinema with Dadaist and Surrealist influence and Absurdist filmic play in the 1960’s through more formal and conceptual investigations in the 1970’s and the later. He is also a widely established international artist, having numerous exhibitions including installation and performance in Japan, the USA, and Europe.

One of his early films, “Onan”, was awarded Special Prize at the legendary Brussels International Experimental Film Festival, l964.  He has continued working through the present, creating a fruitful and far-ranging oeuvre in multiple manifestations exploring light, space, time, nature, semiology, philosophy, and technology with the background of Japanese arts.  Recently he has been involved in using the computer, publishing multimedia CD-ROMs/DVDs combining film, video, graphics, text, and animation.  http://www.takaiimura.com/

Takahiko Iimura will be in person at ALL screenings.  The series was organized by Adam Hyman of Los Angeles Filmforum.  This is an unparalleled example of cooperation among Southern California screening organizations and universities.  Full program notes for the Filmforum shows to be posted separately.
These programs supported by a grant from the Japan Foundation.    http://www.jflalc.org/

Los Angeles Filmforum is the city’s longest-running organization that screens non-commercial experimental and avant-garde films and video art, documentaries, and animation. 2009 is its 33rd year.

SUMMARY OF EVENTS

Friday Feb 27, 7:30 pm – Venue: UCLA Film & Television Archive at the Billy Wilder Theater
Admission $10 general online, $9 general at window, $8 students/seniors/Cineclub members
The Billy Wilder Theater is located in the Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., at the northeast corner of the intersection of Wilshire and Westwood Blvds., just east of the 405. Parking is $3 in the lot under the theater. Enter from Westwood Blvd., just north of Wilshire.

http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/public/calendar/calendar_f.html

“FILM POEMS”: 1960-70s
Iro (Colors)  (1962, 16mm (8mm Blow Up), color, Music: Yasunao Tone, 12 min.)
Taka and Ako (1966, 16mm (8mm Blow Up), b/w, silent, 16FPS, 15 min.)
White Calligraphy  (1967, 16mm, b/w, silent, 11 min.)
Kiri (Fog)  (1970, 16mm (8mm Blow Up), b/w, silent, 16FPS, 7 min.)
Film Strips I  (1970, 16mm, b/w, silent, 11.5 min.)
Film Strips II  (1970, 16mm, b/w, silent, 13.5 min.)
The Pacific Ocean  (1971, 16mm (8mm Blow Up), color, silent, 16FPS, 13 min.)
Total 83 min.

Sunday March 1, 7:00 pm– Venue: Los Angeles Filmforum (at the Egyptian Theater)
Admission $10 general, $6 students/seniors, free for Filmforum members
At the Egyptian theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. at Las Palmas, Los Angeles CA 90028
Parking on streets, or validated, 4 hours for $2 at the City lot at the Hollywood & Highland complex

http://lafilmforum.wordpress.com/

For reservations, email the name & number in your party to lafilmforum@yahoo.com

On Eye Rape

“60s EXPERIMENTS”: Early experimental films from 60s
Kuzu (Junk) (1962, 16mm, b/w, sound, Music: Takehisa Kosugi, 10 min.)
Ai (Love) (1962, 16mm, b/w, sound by Yoko Ono, 15 min.)
On Eye Rape (1962, 16mm, b/w, silent, 10 min.)
A Dance Party in the Kingdom of Lilliput No. 1 (1964, 16mm, b/w, sound, 14 min.)
Onan (1963, 16mm, B/W, 7min., Music: Yasunao Tone)

“EARLY CONCEPTUAL VIDEOS” (DVD, 23 min. total) – Early conceptual videos from 70s (DVD)
Includes A Chair (1970, 6 min.), Blinking (1970, 2 min.), Time Tunnel (1971, 5 min.) Man and Woman (1971, 2 min.), Visual Logic (and Illogic) (1977, 8 min.)
Total 72 min.

Tuesday March 3, 7:00 pm – Venue: The California Institute of the Arts (Bijou Theater)
California Institute of the Arts – 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355 (661) 255.1050
Exit on McBean Parway on the 5 North, then turn to the right on McBean.
Admission Free
From “60s EXPERIMENTS”:
Kuzu (Junk) (1962, 16mm, b/w, sound, Music: Takehisa Kosugi, 10 Min.)
Ai (Love) (1962, 16mm, b/w, sound by Yoko Ono, 15 Min.,)

Ai (Love)

On Eye Rape (1962, 16mm, b/w, silent, 10 Min.)
A Dance Party in the Kingdom of Lilliput No. 1 (1964, 16mm, b/w, sound, 14 Min.)

PERFORMANCE/MYSELF (Or Video Identity) (1972-1995, DVD, 7 pieces, total 29 min.) which includes
Self Identity (1972, 1 min. extract)
Double Identity (1979, 1.5 min. extract)
Double Portrait ( 1973-1987, 5 min.)
I Love You (1973-1987, 4.5 min.)
This Is A Camera Which Shoots This (1982-1995, 5 min.)
As I See You You See Me (1990-1995, 7 min.)
I Am A Viewer, You Are A Viewer (1981, 4 min.)
Total: 78 min.

Wednesday March 4, 12:00 pm – Venue: UC IRVINE
Admission Free
UC Irvine Humanities Instructional Building 135
Programs Sponsored by the UCI Center for Asian Studies and the UCI  Program in Visual Studies.
For further information about the Irvine shows. Please email jmhall@uci.edu

Map: Download a free UCI Campus map at: http://www.uci.edu/campusmap
Directions: From the 405 or I-5, exit Jamboree and go west. Turn LEFT on Campus Dr. Turn RIGHT onto the UCI Campus at W. Peltason Drive. The Pereira  Parking Structure is on your left and the Humanities Instructional Building is right in front of you.
From SR73, exit University Dr. and go EAST. Turn RIGHT on Campus Dr.
Turn RIGHT onto the UCI Campus at W. Peltason Drive. The Pereira  Parking Structure is on your left.
Parking is available in the Pereira Parking Structure.

New York Day and Night

“LANDSCAPE FILMS-WORKS FROM THE 1980s”
Air’s Rock – [DVD, including Moments at the Rock, (1984, color, sound, 12 min.) and A Rock in the Light (1985/2008, 18 min. Music: Haruyuki Suzuki, 2008)]
New York Hotsprings (1984, DVD, b/w, 10 min. Part of Experiments in New York)
New York Day and Night  (1989, DVD, color, Music: Takehisa Kosugi, 58 min.)
Total:  90 min.

Wednesday March 4, 8:00 pm – Venue: UC IRVINE
Admission Free
UC Irvine Humanities Hall 178
Programs Sponsored by the UCI Center for Asian Studies and the UCI Program in Visual Studies.
Map: Download a free UCI Campus map at: http://www.uci.edu/campusmap
Directions: From the 405 or I-5, exit Jamboree and go west. Turn LEFT on Campus  Dr. Turn RIGHT onto the UCI Campus at W. Peltason Drive. The Pereira  Parking Structure is on your left and the Humanities Instructional Building is right in front of you.
From SR73, exit University Dr. and go EAST. Turn RIGHT on Campus Dr.
Turn RIGHT onto the UCI Campus at W. Peltason Drive. The Pereira  Parking Structure is on your left.
Parking is available in the Pereira Parking Structure.

Selections from “FILM POEMS”: 1960-70s
Iro (Colors)  (1962, 16mm (8mm Blow Up), color, Music: Yasunao Tone, 12min.)
Taka and Ako (1966, 16mm(8mm Blow Up), black and white, silent, 16FPS, 15 min.)
White Calligraphy  (1967, 16mm, black and white, silent, 11 min.)
Kiri (Fog)  (1970, 16mm(8mm Blow Up), black and white, silent, 16FPS, 7 min.)
Film Strips I  (1970, 16mm, black and white, silent, 11.5 min.)

Onan (1963, 16mm, B/W, 7min., Music: Yasunao Tone)

And from early conceptual videos:
PERFORMANCE/MYSELF (Or Video Identity) ( 1972-1995, DVD, 7 pieces, total 29 min.) which includes
Self Identity (1972, 1 min. extract)
Double Identity (1979, 1.5 min.extract)
Double Portrait ( 1973-1987, 5 min.)
I Love You (1973-1987, 4.5 min.)
This Is A Camera Which Shoots This (1982-1995, 5 min.)
As I See You You See Me (1990-1995, 7 min.)
I Am A Viewer, You Are A Viewer (1981, 4 min.)

Thursday March 5, 2:30 –  Venue: University of Southern California

Social Sciences Building, room B-40
Free and open to the public.  Reception for filmmaker at 5 PM, followed by USC Cinematheque screening at 7 PM.  Social Sciences Building is central on campus, across from Taper Hall.
Campus map (F4): http://www.usc.edu/private/about/visit_usc/USC_UPC_map_color.pdf
Parking is available for $8. Enter campus through Gate #3 off of Figueroa St. and USC McCarthy Way. Off-campus metered parking is also available on Jefferson Blvd. and Figueroa St.
For more information and to RSVP for the workshop, please send email to eascrsvp@usc.edu or call 213-740-2991.
Program Sponsored by the East Asian Studies Center

A WORKSHOP & PRESENTATION WITH “MA: A JAPANESE CONCEPT” (DVD)
Ma: Space/Time In The Garden Of Ryoan-Ji (1989, 16mm, Color, Music: Takehisa Kosugi, 16 min.)
The Making Of “Ma” In Ryoan-Ji (1989, B/W and Color, 8 min., Sound);
Ma : The Stones Have Moved (2004, B/W and Color, 10 min., Silent);
Ma (Intervals) (1977, B&W and Color, 10 min., Excerpt out of 22 min.,)
Total 44 min

Thursday March 5, 7:00 pm  – Venue: University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (Cinematheque 108 Theater, George Lucas Building, 1st floor)
Admission free

“WORKS FROM THE LATE 1960s – EARLY1970s”
Filmmakers (1969, 28min., Portrait of filmmakers: Andy Warhol, Stan Vanderbeek, Stan Brackage, Jonas Mekas, Jack Smith, and Takahiko Iimura)
In the River (1971, 16mm, color, sound, 12min/revised, 2009)
Shutter (1971, 16mm, b/w, Music: Keijiro Satoh,  25min.)
1 To 60 Seconds  (1973, 16mm, b/w, 31min.)
Total 96min.

Sunday March 8, 7:00 pm – Venue: Los Angeles Filmforum (at the Egyptian Theater)
Admission $10 general, $6 students/seniors, free for Filmforum members
At the Egyptian theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. at Las Palmas, Los Angeles CA 90028
Parking on streets, or validated, 4 hours for $2 at the City lot at the Hollywood & Highland complex

http://lafilmforum.wordpress.com/

For reservations, email the name & number in your party to lafilmforum@yahoo.com

Aiueonn

“RECENT WORKS”
John Cage Performs James Joyce (1985, DVD, color, 15min, Music: John Cage)
Aiueonn Six Features (1982-1994,DVD, 15 min.)
Observer/Observed and Other Works of Video Semiology (1976 (First Version), B/W, DVD, 22 min,)
Seeing / Hearing / Speaking (2002, DVD, b/w, 33 min.)
I Am (Not) Seen (2003, DVD, color, 5min. Music; Makoto Sato)
Total 90 min.

I Am (Not) Seen

Monday March 9, 8:30 pm – Venue: REDCAT (Roy & Edna Disney Cal Arts Theatre)
Admission $9 general, $7 students, $5 Cal Arts students, faculty& staff
REDCAT is located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles at 631 W. 2nd St., on the northeast corner of the intersection with Hope St. We are housed in the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex but have our own separate street entrance on 2nd St.
Tickets may be purchased by calling 213.237.2800 or at www.redcat.org or in person at the REDCAT Box Office on the corner of 2nd and Hope Streets (30 minutes free parking with validation). Box Office Hours: Tue-Sat | noon–6 pm and two hours prior to curtain.
Funded in part with generous support from Wendy Keys and Donald Pels.

“ON TIME IN FILM, 1970s”
2 Min. 46 Sec. 16 Frames (100feet) (from Model, Reel 1, 1972, 16mm, black and white, sound, 9 min,)
24 Frames Per Second (1975, 16mm, B&W, 12 min.)
Timed 1,2,3 (from Models, Reel 1, 1972, 16mm, B/W, 11 min., Sound)
One Frame Duration (1977, 16mm, B/W, 12 min., Sound)
+ & – (Plus and Minus) (1973, 16mm, B/W, 26 min, Sound)
I Am (Not) Seen (2003, DVD, color, 5 min. Music; Makoto Sato)
Total 75 min.

February 15 – Binaural: New Media Art from the Nodar Artist Residency Center in Portugal

Sunday February 15, 2009, 7:00 pm

Los Angeles Filmforum presents
Binaural: New Media Art from the Nodar Artist Residency Center in Portugal
At the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. at Las Palmas
With Maile Colbert and Rui Costa in person!

Binaural - Nodar, Portugal

Binaural is a Portuguese media arts collective that promotes the exploration and research in sound, visual and new media arts, focusing on the crossing of media and languages and on the articulation between artistic production and the surrounding context, particularly through its activities in the rural space of Nodar.

Binaural runs Nodar Artist Residency Center, located in an ancestral rural mountain community of northern Portugal. Through an annual program of residencies, are organized and produced the development of media arts projects from international artists, followed by public presentations in the surrounding villages. The resident artists are encouraged to establish interactions with the place, its inhabitants, geographic space and memory.

“Contos do Paiva”  by Martin Clarke and Alicja Rogalska (England, Poland)[2007, 23’, DVD]

Los Angeles Premiere!

Martin’s sound work involves travel and the capturing of specific sonic spaces, and he is particularly interested in catching and reproducing a kind of “distilled” sense of place”.

Contos do Paiva

Alicja’s photographic practice is to a great extent participatory, which is to say that she likes to involve her subjects as much as possible in the creative process.

Joining these two work perspectives, the artists during their residency in Nodar produced a series of audio-visual plateaus based on video footage and sound recordings taken from the surrounding area and of local people.

Each as a staged imaged with an emphasis on the creation of magical atmosphere in order to represent and create a set of alternative mythologies of the place and its people.

Martin Clarke is a sound artist, recordist and filmmaker, based in Birmingham since 2003. His work makes use of environmental material to create semi abstract non-representational spaces where sounds are treated as though filmed, with varying depths of field and images are treated as sounds, layered and composed. Recent projects include participation in The Sound of Snow and Ice for Gruenrekorder, The Urban Lighthouse for Architecture Week 2006, and Voyager, a large-scale sound and video work.

Alicja Rogalska is an artist from Poland, based in the UK since 2006. Her work utilises participation, photography and installation but she is currently planning projects that involve use of performance and video. Alicja has been working internationally for a number of years, managing and delivering arts projects in Poland, Sweden and the UK. One of her current projects includes collaborations with women from diverse backgrounds across the West Midlands to create self-portraits.

“Souvenirs de Carmella” by Vered Dror (Israel) [2007, 11’, DVD]  Los Angeles premiere!

Souvenirs de Carmella

A fiction character of an Israeli merchant arriving in the village, opening a small souvenir stand in the center of the village, selling souvenirs- postcards, key holders, little flags. The images on the souvenirs are of the village itself, of people living there and different moments that were captured in the eye of the camera. The Israeli merchant speaks to her clients in her own mother tongue, which is Hebrew, a language, that is a kind of Gibberish to the people of the village. The public does not know the merchant is an actor.

In my work I wish to touch the people of Nodar, to question and express the fear of loosing their tradition and the will and need to preserve it.

By placing a non-Nodar, non-Portuguese, non-European merchant to sell memories of Nodar, I wish to create a space of extreme expression of the situation and conflict the inhabitants of Nodar are experiencing. The character – a very out going sales woman, represents both the immigrant who does not belong and does not speak the language of the area and of the intruder, the one that enters the private space of the village and threatens its known orders.

Vered Dror is a visual artist using a range of artistic mediums, combining performing arts. She was born in Tel Aviv, studied and lived in Jerusalem and now have returned to Tel Aviv. In her work Vered Dror explores the relationship between the Public Sphere and the Private people acting their life within it, by playing with the borders between the two and with the way they feed each other.

She often chooses to focus on the ’simple’ people, whose life lie on the ever changing border, which moves between private and socio-political spheres. Their identity is constantly forming and reforming through resistance and acceptance.

These themes can be found in her works, from the latest “Private Home” in which she stamps 3D Brielle graffiti naming and marking “private ” sleeping areas of homeless people, to “Street Tales” (Neighborhood Projects, Train Theater, Jerusalem, 2006) were different places in a neighborhood were newly named according to inhabitants private stories and memories of the area. In “Balcony Tales” (San Salvario mon Amour, Torino, 2005) Inhabitants of one building, were being connected through their balconies by laundry lines and baskets, and were invited to exchange memories, foods etc.

“Over the Eyes”  by Maile Colbert (Portugal, US) [2007, 20’, DVD]

Our sense of identity, of who we are and what we have done, is tied to our life of memory. But a vivid and detailed memory may be based upon inaccurate reconstruction of facts, or self-created impressions that appear to have actually occurred. Continuity of memory is no guarantee of truth; disruption of memory is no guarantee of falsity. Memory is believed to be a reconstructed phenomenon, and so can be strongly influenced by expectation, emotions, the implied beliefs of others, inappropriate interpretation, or desired outcome. Is the measure of a life well lived based on the quality of memories?

Over the Eyes

Then what of missing memory? Of a trauma that forces the memory into repression, or forces a disassociation, or a false memory…invented memories taken as true due to gaps in memory.

“Over The Eyes”, inspired by the old saying…”to pull the wool over the eyes”, is a multimedia installation made in October 2007 for a residency based in Nodar, Portugal.

My desire was to create an environment that, using all of the senses, provokes the viewer into thought and contemplation about the mystery of memory. One of Nodar’s main industries is wool. I talked talk with local people about the process of sheep shearing and weaving, recording the conversations. This was incorporated into the sound design of the installation, along with field recordings of the area, and text on physiological, biological, and psychological aspects to memory creation and destruction in humans. For the environment, I used local wool which I wove and felt to create a structure of “gray matter”, much like our minds.

Within these passages I projected images of found home movies, discarded recorded “memories” from thrift stores and junk yards, methodically being erased by a super-imposed act of sheep shearing.

Maile Colbert is a filmmaker, video, and sound artist recently relocated from Los Angeles, US to Lisbon, Portugal. She is currently working for the art organization Binaural. She holds a BFA in The Studio for Interrelated Media from Massachusetts College of Art, and a MFA in Integrated Media/Film and Video from the California Institute of the Arts. She has had multiple screenings, exhibits, and shows, including The New York Film Festival, LACE Gallery, MOMA New York, Los Angeles CountyMuseum of Art, the REDCAT Theater in Los Angeles, The Portland International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival, the Störung Festival in Barcelona, the Teatra Municipal in Guarda, the Observitori Festival in Valencia, and has performed and screened widely in Japan, Europe, Mexico, and the States.

“Nodar Flowlines : Sonzo-Paiva Conflux”  by John Grzinich (US, Estonia) [2008, 16’, DVD]

My interest was to carry out a sonic and visual survey of the landscape around Nodar through a series of site-specific recording sessions. In particular I attempted to compare and contrast the geographic lines caused by the natural water flows towards the river at the bottom of the valley versus the man-made aqueduct that transverses the vertical lines and brings water into the village. Both of these phenomena actually rely on natural forces yet one was created for a specific purpose for the local inhabitants.

Using this theme of natural flow lines, I constructed two distinct audio-visual “narratives” based on the two types of landscapes shaped by water and humans. The surveys include recording methods that stem from the types of flow, that is, I drew inspiration from the behavior patterns of how the flows shape the landscape.

The base sound material relies on the use of ambient sounds, found objects, (natural and man-made materials), and human intervention (improvisation and performance). The visual material focuses on still shots of micro and macro materials and forms in conjunction with the location based activity. These sound and video documents were catalogued and edited afterwards into two part video work that reflects and shows the “flowlines” locations and process. The screening will include one of these two films (“Sonzo – Paiva Conflux”).

John Grzinich is a mixed-media artist who has worked primarily with sound composition, performance and installation since the early 1990s. He has performed and worked on projects extensively throughout Europe and the US and has published a number of CDs of his compositions on such labels as Staalplaat (NL), Edition Sonoro (UK), SIRR (PT), CUT (CH), CMR (NZ), erewhon (BE), Intransitive Recordings (US), Orogenetics (US), Elevator Bath (US), Pale-Disc (JP), Digital Narcis (JP), and Cloud of Statics (CH).

Currently John is a project and media lab coordinator for MoKS – Center for Art and Social Practice, an artist-run international residency center and project space in southeast Estonia.

February 8 & 11 – South Main, by Kelly Parker

Los Angeles Filmforum presents South Main – A Documentary Film by Kelly Parker   ** Los Angeles premiere!**

Kelly Parker, Latisha Fikes, Tajuana Green in person as schedules permit

Multiple screenings!

Sunday February 8, 2009, 7:00 pm

At the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. at Las Palmas

Wednesday February 11, 2009, 6:30 and 8:30 pm

At KAOS Network 4343 Leimert Blvd. at 43rd Place (2 blocks east of Crenshaw Blvd.)

SOUTH MAIN (2008, 77 minutes, video) is an intimate portrait of three single African American mothers as they struggle to raise their families and regain their lives after a government imposed relocation and closure of their apartment complex in South Los Angeles.

Produced, directed, and edited by Kelly Parker With: Latisha Fikes, Tajuana Green, Tena McConico.

Parker delves into a largely unseen section of our city focusing a clear eye upon the travails of three women, cast with their families out of an apartment complex deemed unsafe in 2004 by the government due to the local gang activity. The tactic chosen by our city to diffuse this gang activity: demolish the complex and force all the families to find new residences. As we begin a new presidency and hear calls for reborn political and community activity, this is the sort of film that must be seen so we can gain an understanding of the problems being confronted. But the film is no mere propaganda or liberal plea. In her locked off shots and long takes, Parker imparts the dignity of the women and the range of their difficulties, as they stave off homelessness and confront the mindless violence that wracks their neighborhood. Superb filmmaking, the kind that raises the viewer’s consciousness and should be viewed by all Angeleños.

South Main

South Main premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2008 and has screened at The London Film Festival, The Shadow Documentary Film Festival, Detroit Docs IFF and Creteil International Women’s Film Festival. More at http://www.southmainfilm.com/

“Parker observes their struggles to recreate their lives with rigor, compassion and complicity. Her static camera self-consciously creates ‘a space of time filled with moving,’ as Gertrude Stein once defined cinema. There are not great revelations, just moments of great intensity and great beauty as in a Pedro Costa film.” – Thom Andersen

“An unblinking, deeply resonant look at three women and their families navigating a government-imposed relocation in an underprivileged section of Los Angeles, confident docu “South Main” marbles furious rigor with streaks of clear-eyed compassion…”- Eddie Cockrell, Variety

“No lurid wallowing in myths of the ghetto, no conjuring up of the “social powder-keg,” no social kitsch, but instead a participatory, exact view, concentrating on the women themselves. Precise, strictly framed images result from this, which neither accuse us nor appeal to us, but that simply show. Images from the underclass, telling of poverty and the precarious living conditions on the social periphery. Images from America at the beginning of the 21st century.” -Birgit Kohler, Berlin Film Festival

South Main - demolition

Director’s Statement:

Three years ago I read an article in the Los Angeles Times about the City of Los Angeles’ plans to close down an apartment complex due to gang violence. The article noted numerous injuries and gang-related deaths at the complex and explained that, despite the dangerous living conditions, the residents didn’t want to move their families out. I moved a lot as a child while being raised by a single mother in government subsidized housing. With few resources, we lived in a state of constant displacement. I could understand why not wanting to move could keep someone in a potentially dangerous place. At this time my mother, who was living in Florida, was in a desperate financial situation and had just been evicted, leaving her homeless. My personal relationship with the struggles of single motherhood mixed with financial instability propelled me into this project. I knew when I started shooting that I didn’t want to fall back on typical or sensationalized images. My goal was to respect and show the reality of the women’s situations, not to romanticize them or push viewers emotionally. I came to realize that the way to make a film about the actuality of their day-to-day lives was to be patient with time, to mediate the footage as little as possible, and to not be judgmental. SOUTH MAIN is about spending time with the families. — Kelly Parker

Kelly Parker lives and works in Los Angeles. After studying Economics and Management Theory at the Hogeschool voor Economics Studies in Rotterdam, she moved back to Detroit, her hometown, to pursue video and new media at the College for Creative Studies. Upon receiving her BFA in 2003, she was commissioned by the German Federal Cultural Foundation to make a film about mobility in Detroit for the Shrinking Cities exhibition, an ongoing academic and artistic investigation into postindustrial, decaying urban regions. The resulting short documentary, Coda Motor City, 2004, has been shown at museums and galleries such as, the Kunst-Werke in Berlin, the Pratt-Manhattan Gallery in NYC, and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. SOUTH MAIN, Parker’s first feature was completed during her studies at California Institute of the Arts, where she received an MFA in 2008.

Call for Entries for the Festival of (In)appropriation

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Los Angeles Filmforum invites film and videomakers to take part in the 2009 FESTIVAL OF (IN)APPROPRIATION.

WHO: All film and videomakers

WHAT: Call for entries for the Festival of (In)appropriation

WHEN: Entries must be received by April 1, 2009.

WHERE: Send submissions to Jaimie Baron, 10480 National Blvd. #308, Los Angeles, CA 90034

Whether you call it collage, compilation, found footage, detournement, or recycled cinema, the incorporation of previously shot materials into new artworks is a practice that has generated novel juxtapositions of elements which have produced new meanings and ideas that may not have been intended by the original makers, that are, in other words “inappropriate.” This act of appropriation may produce revelation that leads viewers to reconsider the relationship between past and present, here and there, intention and subversion. Fortunately for our purposes, the past decade has seen the emergence of a wealth of new sources for audiovisual materials that can be appropriated into new works. In addition to official state and commercial archives, vernacular archives, home movie collections, and digital archives have provided fascinating source material that may be repurposed in such a way as to give it new meanings and resonances.

Thus, Los Angeles Filmforum invites submissions for a Festival of (In)appropriation, open to all works that appropriate film or video footage and repurpose it in “inappropriate” ways. We will consider both films and videos, including works that are made up entirely of found footage and those that only use small segments of appropriated material. Particular consideration will be given to films that repurpose materials in an inventive way and to films that are under twenty minutes long. We will only accept work finished in 2006 or later. The Festival of (In)appropriation will take place in June 2009. Curated by Jaimie Baron and Andrew Hall

Guidelines:

• Submission deadline: April 1, 2009

• Please send all submissions in DVD format to: Jaimie Baron, 10480 National Blvd. #308, Los Angeles, CA 90034

• Submissions must be 20 minutes or less and must contain some form of “(in)appropriation.”

• Acceptable submission formats: DVD and VHS • Acceptable exhibition formats: mini-DV, DV-Cam, 16mm film, 35mm film, DVD (but discouraged, since DVD is not a reliable projection medium).

• Please include: title, filmmaker, running time, a 30-word or less synopsis, and contact information (phone and email).

• No submission fee, but please send only good films ☺