July 18, 19 and 26 – The Robert Frank Film Series!

The Robert Frank Film Series

This July we co-present this exciting three-part series in conjunction with MOCA and Cinefamily.  The first of four screenings was held on June 21 at MOCA, and the final three will be held at the Silent Movie Theatre (July 18) and the Egyptian Theater (July 19 and 26).  Please note that times and locations vary from our normal programming.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Robert Frank’s landmark publication, The Americans, and in conjunction with MOCA’s exhibition From the Permanent Collection: Robert Frank’s “The Americans,” MOCA collaborates with Cinefamily and Los Angeles Filmforum to present a rare series of films by and about the renowned photographer. This series is curated by Adam Hyman.

July 18 – Early Films by Robert Frank (at the Silent Movie Theatre)

July 19 – Films By and About Robert Frank (at the Egyptian Theater)

July 26 – Recent Films by Robert Frank (at the Egyptian Theater)

July 26 – Recent Films by Robert Frank

Sunday July 26, 2009, 7:30 pm

At the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90028 (at Las Palmas).  Reserve seats by sending an email to lafilmforum@yahoo.com.  TICKETS $10 general; $6 seniors/students; free to Filmforum members, cash or check only at the door.  Please note that you cannot buy tickets ahead of time, only reserve, and that tickets are not available through the Egyptian Theater website.

Los Angeles Filmforum and MOCA present
Recent Films by Robert Frank

True Story (2004)

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Robert Frank’s landmark publication, The Americans, and in conjunction with MOCA’s exhibition From the Permanent Collection: Robert Frank’s “The Americans,” MOCA collaborates with Cinefamily and Los Angeles Filmforum to present a rare series of films by and about the renowned photographer.

The first screening on June 21 at MOCA was entitled Portraits of Robert Frank, while the second screening on July 18 at the Silent Movie Theatre will feature Frank’s early work.  The third screening, at the Egyptian on July 19, features Films By and About Robert Frank.  And for this final screening, MOCA and Los Angeles Filmforum present a selection of Robert Frank’s newest films, some never screened in Los Angeles.

The Present (1996, 24 min., 35mm) is a thoughtful self-portrait in which Frank contemplates his relationships, his daughter’s death, his son’s mental illness, and his own work.

I Remember (1998, color, 5 min., video), Frank recreates his visit to the home of Alfred Stieglitz, with wife June Leaf playing Georgia O’Keeffe, artist Jerome Sother playing Frank, and Frank himself in the role of Stieglitz.

Paper Route (2002)

Paper Route (2002, 23 min., video) finds Frank accompanying Robert MacMillan on his early-morning paper route in rural Nova Scotia, creating a video portrait of the lives of ordinary people.

True Story (2004)

True Story (2004, color and b/w, 26 min., video), returns to familiar themes of memory and loss, as the artist candidly reflects on his work, his wife’s artwork, and letters written by his son, Pablo, who died in 1994.

July 19 – Films by and about Robert Frank

Sunday July 19 2009, 7:30 pm

At the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90028 (at Las Palmas).  Reserve seats by sending an email to lafilmforum@yahoo.com.  TICKETS $10 general; $6 seniors/students; free to Filmforum members, cash or check only at the door.  Please note that you cannot buy tickets ahead of time, only reserve, and that tickets are not available through the Egyptian Theater website.

Los Angeles Filmforum and MOCA present
Films By and About Robert Frank

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Robert Frank’s landmark publication, The Americans, and in conjunction with MOCA’s exhibition From the Permanent Collection: Robert Frank’s The Americans, MOCA collaborates with Cinefamily and Los Angeles Filmforum to present a rare series of films by and about the renowned photographer.

The first screening, Portraits of Robert Frank, was held at MOCA on June 21.  The second screening featuring Frank’s early films will be held at the Silent Movie Theatre on Saturday July 18.  This third of four screenings features Films By and About Robert Frank.  It includes:

Fire in the East: A Portrait of Robert Frank (1986, color, 28 min, video) which looks at four decades of Frank’s life and career and includes interviews with such collaborators as Allen Ginsberg and Jonas Mekas.

O. K. End Here (1963, b/w, 30 min, 35mm) Frank’s portrait of a New York City couple spending an intimate Sunday together, was honored with the grand prize at the 1963 Bergamo Film Festival.

Flamingo (1997, 7 min., video) is Frank’s video diary of the construction of a new foundation for his house in a remote area of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Sanyu (1999, 27 min., 35mm), Frank memorializes his friend Sanyu (1901–1964), an important Chinese artist who died in anonymity in Paris.

Don’t miss the third Frank show on Sunday July 26th at the Egyptian Theatre!

July 18 – Early Films by Robert Frank (at the Silent Movie Theatre)

Saturday July 18, 2009, 7:30 pm

At the Silent Movie Theatre, 611 N. Fairfax (at Melrose)

Los Angeles Filmforum and Cinefamily present
Early Films by Robert Frank

** PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE IN DATE, LOCATION AND PRICE **

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Robert Frank’s landmark publication, The Americans, and in conjunction with MOCA’s exhibition From the Permanent Collection: Robert Frank’s “The Americans,” MOCA collaborates with Cinefamily and Los Angeles Filmforum to present a rare series of films by and about the renowned photographer.

For this second screening of four, MOCA and Cinefamily present an evening of early films by Robert Frank. Films will include:

Pull My Daisy (1959, b/w, 28 min.), directed by Frank and Alfred Leslie from a script by Jack Kerouac, is a classic work of avant-garde cinema, revolving around a group of poets (Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, and Gregory Corso) who question a bishop (Richard Bellamy) and his mother (Alice Neel) about art, poetry, and everyday life.

Me and My Brother (1965-68, re-edited 1997, b/w and color, 91 min.), Frank’s first feature-length film, blends documentary footage of Ginsberg and Orlovsky with fictional constructs as it explores the inner and outer worlds of Julius Orlovsky, a catatonic who silently observes the world around him. The film was re-edited in 1997 to mark Ginsberg’s passing.

Admission for this screening is $12.  Visit http://www.cinefamily.org for details.

June 21 – Sarah Pucill at the Echo Park Film Center

Sunday June 21, 2009, 7:30 pm

Echo Park Film Center and Los Angeles Filmforum present
Sarah Pucill: Taken by the Frame – Los Angeles premieres!
At the Echo Park Film Center
1200 N. Alvarado Street (@ Sunset Blvd)  Los Angeles, CA 90026

Stages of Mourning

213-484-8846
info@echoparkfilmcenter.org

http://www.echoparkfilmcenter.org/

The Echo Park Film Center and Los Angeles Filmforum host British artist, photographer  and filmmaker Sarah Pucill. Pucill’s films and photographs play with boundaries of self and other, frequently involving mirrors or mirroring and strong performances.  Sometimes rigorously formal, other times humorously enamored with the possibilities of light, surfaces, and bodies, while exploring the range of possibilities vested in the camera.  Los Angeles premieres of all works from this award-winning experimental filmmaker.

Tonight we’ll be screening:
You Be Mother (1990, 7 min., 16mm, color)
Best Experimental Film Award, Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Germany
Best Innovation Award, Atlanta Film Festival, USA
Milk and Glass (1993, 10 min., 16mm, color)
Stages of Mourning (2004, 17 min., 16mm, color)
Taking My Skin (2006, 35 min., 16mm, b&w)
Marion McMahon Award, Images Festival, Toronto, Canada (2007)
Fall In Frame (2009, 18 min., 16mm, color)

Fall in Frame

“The process of making is the starting point for my work, in which space and point of view have been longstanding concerns as has the (female) body. In my early short films and photographs I explored the relation between the body and domestic space. I worked with photomontage in You Be Mother, Milk and Glass, and later in Swollen Stigma and Cast, with wide-angle point-of-view shots and a macro lens. Developed out of this, my films from Stages of Mourning onward have incorporated a performance that is important with regard to its symbolic and cathartic value. There is an existential element to the slow pacing of the performance that confronts the viewer (and performer) with what it means to be in front of a camera, where the moment is being marked as an image outside of time. This approach to filmmaking runs counter to commercial film techniques, where the actual place of filming (the pro-filmic) is not only not repressed but is brought to the fore as a central characteristic of the film.” – Sarah Pucill

You Be Mother

More on Sarah Pucill:

http://sarahpucill.co.uk/

Sarah Pucill’s films have been screened at major international film festivals including: London Film Festival, Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Osnabruck Media Arts Festival and Montreal Festival of New Cinema.  Television broadcasts include: BSB TV Australia (Mirrored Measure, 1996; bought by BSB), Carlton Television (Backcomb, 1995; funded by Carlton), Granada TV (You Be Mother, 1990).   Retrospective screenings include the Tate, the Lux and N.W.Here in London and the Millennium Film in New York.  This June a retrospective of her films which will premier her recent film Fall In Frame, 2009, will tour North America at venues including Anthology Film Archives, NY, MassArt Film Society, Boston and Pleasure Dome Toronto.

Funded by AHRC and the Arts Council, her previous film Blind Light, 2007 premiered at Millennium Film, NY in 07 and was shown at the European Media Arts Festival Osnabruck, Aurora Art Festival, Norwich and at the Louise T Blouin Foundation in 08.  Taking My Skin was recipient of the Marion McMahon Award at the Images Festival in Toronto 2007 and was shown as part of ‘Mother Cuts: Experiments in Film, Video & Photography’ at New Jersey University Gallery in 2008 together with work by Mona Hatoum and Mary Kelly.

Sarah Pucill lives and works in London and is Senior Lecturer at University of Westminster since 2000. Her work is distributed through Lux, The British Film Institute (BFI), British Council, New York Film-Makers’ Cooperative, Canyon Cinema, the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC) and Light Cone Paris.

An essay by Sarah Pucill on her work:

http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=359043&Itemid=755

Filmography
Fall In Frame (2009, 18 min., 16mm, color)
Blind Light (2007, 22 min., 16mm, color)
Just Like All The Rest (2007, 7 min., DV, color) Collaboration with Marcia Farquhar 12 Shooters
Taking My Skin (2006, 35 min., 16mm, b&w)
Marion McMahon Award, Images Festival, Toronto, Canada (2007)
Stages of Mourning (2004, 20 min., 16mm, color)
Cast (2000, 17 min., 16mm, b&w)
Swollen Stigma (1998, 20 min., 16mm, color)
Mirrored Measure (1996, 10 min., 16mm, b&w)
Backcomb (1995, 6 min., 16mm, color)
Milk and Glass (1993, 10 min., 16mm, color)
You Be Mother (1990, 7 min., 16mm, color)
Best Experimental Film Award, Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Germany
Best Innovation Award, Atlanta Film Festival, USA
‘Wicked Women and Wayward Girls’, BFI compilation tape, distributed by Connoisseur Video

June 7 – The Festival of (In)Appropriation

Sunday June 7, 2009, 7:30 pm

At the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood

Los Angeles Filmforum presents
The Festival of (In)appropriation: Contemporary Found Footage Filmmaking (click for full show page)
Curated by Jaimie Baron and Andrew Hall

Flicker On Off (2008)

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.

In this program, we bring together a selection of recent films that appropriate footage from diverse sources in vastly different ways. Our goal in choosing these films is to show the range of approaches contemporary filmmakers are taking in repurposing found materials. Indeed, tonight’s films push the boundaries of the “found footage” film, raising questions about how we define “found footage” filmmaking in an era in which ever more materials are available for reuse in ever more complex ways. We believe that together, these films reveal how (in)appropriation is flourishing at this social and historical moment. – Jaimie Baron and Andrew Hall

Khan (2008)

Khan by Daniel Martinico (2008, video, color, sound, 15-min. loop)
“William Shatner, twitching and tweaking in various poses, occasionally screaming out Khan’s name.” (Daniel Martinico)

The Blockbuster Tapes by Daniel Martinico (2008, video, 5 min.)
“This ‘film’ serves as the documentation of a project completed between 1999-2002. Over a period of 3 years, over 100 videos were rented from Blockbuster, manipulated, re-recorded back onto tape, and returned to the store.” (Daniel Martinico)

Through these Trackless Waters by Elizabeth Henry (2007, 16mm, color, sound, 12:30 min.)
“In the tradition of the collage film, a series of fragments add up to a meditation on the state of nature in which ecology of mind meets ecology of earth, and vice versa.” (Elizabeth Henry)

Time Away (2007)

Utopia Variations by Gregg Biermann (2008, video, sound, 5 min.)
“Utopia Variations is part of a series of video works that use the computational capacity of computers to transform iconic moments in works of classical Hollywood cinema. In this piece the “over the rainbow” sequence from The Wizard of Oz moves forward from the beginning and backwards from the end in half second intercuts. This gradually builds to a 25 voice split-screen canon in which each voice is slightly out of synch. The resulting matrix is mesmerizing, kaleidoscopic.” (Gregg Biermann)

Time Away by Aubriand a.k.a. Carole O’Brien (2007, video, color, sound, 7:15 min.)
“Roads as far as the eye can see. Signposts are glimpsed and people from another time are lost, en route to inner worlds of the mind…Debating the nature of time, three voices navigate the continuously moving space and lead us through grief to the transformative end of the road: time away changes what you thought you knew.” (Aubriand)

The Game by Tasman Richardson (2007, video, color, sound, 3:52 min.)
“A world of remote control warfare, hyper-reality, and military crafted videogames for recruitment. Emilio Estevez, Matthew Broderick and even Burroughs join in. All edits are strictly JAWA style, a.k.a. what you see is what you hear and the edits are 100% responsible for the rhythm and melody. Nothing added and nothing synched. Most importantly, this is done entirely with manual cut and paste and layering. No triggers, no shortcuts. Pure JAWA.” (Tasman Richardson)

Her Heart is Washed in Water and Then Weighed (Sasha Waters Freyer, 2006, 12:45 min., 16mm)
“Her Heart is Washed in Water and Then Weighed is a meditation on motherhood and mortality that takes its title from a procedure in the autopsying of a human corpse. Subtle juxtapositions evoke parallels between static monuments and living families and suggests what is lost to time and age.” (Sasha Waters)

TB TX Dance by Roger Beebe (2006, 16mm, 2:30 min.)
“The background of the image is made of patterns of dots directly laser printed on clear leader. That background also doubles as an optical soundtrack with different pitches created by the density of the dots. The dots were inspired by the stockings Toni Basil (‘Antonia Christina Basilotta’) wore in Bruce Conner’s Breakaway in 1966, which also serves as the source footage for the dancer in the film. Toni Basil herself is a source of inspiration for all 30-somethings who haven’t yet made enough of their lives. (She was 39 when ‘Mickey’ was a hit in 1982.” (Roger Beebe)

Untitled (“Tiny Bits”) by Sandra Gibson (2009, 16mm, color, silent, 3 min.)
“Bits and Pieces of film are chopped up and reconfigured in the optical printer. A ‘slide show’ of sorts that moves from fast-to-slow to slow down the tempo of perception.” (Sandra Gibson)

windshield baby gameboy movie (2009)

windshield baby gameboy movie by Clint Enns, (2009, video, color, sound, 1:47 min.)
“Images of a car crash are digitally interpreted using a Nintendo Gameboy Camera. This video is an attempt to demonstrate the inherently dehumanized nature of video game images.” (Clint Enns)

Intermittent Delight by Akosua Adoma Owusu (2006, 4:20 min.)
“Intermittent Delight juxtaposes close-ups of batik textiles, fashion and design from the 1950s and 1960s, images of men weaving and women sewing in Ghana, and fragments of a Westinghouse 1960s commercial – aimed to instruct women on the how-to of refrigerator decoration. Constructed from a combination of 1960s Afrobeat, traditional Asanta Adwa music, and field recordings of West African men and women producing cloths and garments, the soundtrack pulls the piece together and imbues it with a jolty and festive tone.” (Akosua Adoma Owusu)

Intermittent Delight (2006)

Flicker On Off by Caroline Koebel (2008, video, b&w and color, sound, 20:12 min.)
“Flicker On Off is a trilogy applying the idiom of experimental film and artist’s video to big budget movies in order to speak about world affairs in which could be described as an alternative format.” (Caroline Koebel) Part I: Repeat Photography and the Albedo Effect (8:12 min.), Part II: Sunroof (Bhutto Benazir Assassination) (6:10 min.), Part III: All the House (Haditha Massacre) (5:50 min.)

Speechless by Scott Stark (2008, 16mm, color, sound, 13 min.)
“3D photographs of human vulvae are animated and interwoven with surfaces and textures from natural and human-made environments. The genital images were taken from a set of Viewmaster 3D reels that accompanied a textbook entitled The Clitoris, published in 1976 by two medical professionals.” (Scott Stark) Sound by Greg Headley.
*Note: This film is extremely graphic and probably not appropriate for children. In addition, the editing made at least one of the curators feel sick to her stomach.

Total Running Time (with 10 min. intermission): 100 min.

This screening series is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.