Program Archive: 1999 New York Video Festival
LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL 99
small lies, Big Truth
The History of Glamour
in.side.out
Transit Riders of the Earth / ARISE! Walk Dog Eat Donut
THE EMPEROR JONES
My Parents Read Dreams I've Had About Them
Mark Roth
All Smiles and Sadness
2 Spellbound
These days the thought of video brings to mind up-to-the minute concepts like high-tech and digital, words being bandied about with reckless abandon. But video is now, in the short history of the moving image, an almost classical notion. Whatever new electronic innovations may come our way that seem to make the work different and exciting, we must always remember that the raison d'etre is the art, not the technology.
The artists represented in the festival this year and whose work you will see in the coming week use the technology to present their ideas, and it is the ideas of creative people that make the work so different, exciting and new. Join us this time out to make the acquaintance of videomakers new to the festival, to see new work by many old friends, and to revel in this "instant classic": ideas. Organized by Marian Masone, Gavin Smith, and Jocelyn Taylor, with special thanks to Graham Leggat. We are grateful for the support of AIVF and The Independent. Thanks also to: Tony DiScenza, Lia Gangitano, Leah Gilliam, Keith Griffiths, Carmen Kovens, Mark Rappaport, Minda Martin, Mark McElhattan, Steve Seid, Stephen Vitiello, Bart Weiss, Kim Whitener, and Erica Zalinsky.
LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL 99
For the fourth year, the Film Society is proud to present the video festival
as a part of the Lincoln Center Festival. For more Lincoln Center Festival 98 information, call
(212) 875-5928 or visit
www.LincolnCenter.org/festival
.
SOCIETY OF SPECTACLE
We hold this truth to be self-evident -- we can't get enough of that funky stuff.
Johnny Take a Dive
(Jennifer Reeder, USA, 1999, 14m)
An MTV songtress embodies temptation and mystery, magnifying the hype of seduction and sexuality.
small lies, Big Truth
(Shelly Silver, USA, 1999, 15m)
In turn funny, disturbing and glisteningly beautiful, small lies, Big Truth
is a video about love, relationships and the joys and banality of sex in
the late 20th century. It also touches on such issues as morality,
voyeurism, nature vs. culture and power, as four couples read fragments
from the testimony of William Jefferson Clinton & Monica S. Lewinsky.
Evil and Pop Culture
(Cane CapoVolto, Italy, 1998, 16m)
Hints of a gruesome side to the sexy allure of these music sensations offers a shock to the system.
"Take That, Abba and Elvis Presley:
In three of their videoclips we can perceive the sign of the 'Rising Scorpio' which corrupts what is inside and leaves the surface untouched. In 1947 Aleister Crowley wrote: 'there is a level of Pain beyond which Pop Music cannot retain consciousness.' "
The History of Glamour
(Theresa Duncan, USA, 1999, 40m)
Collaborating with artists Karen Kilimnik and Jeremy Blake, animator Theresa Duncan tells the story of the rise and rise of the fabulously outrageous, Chanel-sipping Charles Valentine, who comes to the big city to find fame and fortune by any means necessary.
Theresa Duncan--downtown director and creator of Twentieth Century Fox's animated cult classic video game "Chop Suey"--makes her animated film debut with The History of Glamour. Written and directed by Ms. Duncan and featuring art by contemporary artists Jeremy Blake and Karen Kilimnik, "Glamour" is a quirky tale about an Ohio farm girl androgynously named Charles Valentine who works hard to become a rock 'n' roll icon only to find that fame doesn't suit her. The story follows the adolescent Charles as she attempts to forge her own identity rather than become a victim of, or shill for, designer clothing and other material goods. Duncan has cleverly woven her message into the story. Initially Charles finds glamour liberating but then, as her career and fame progress, she finds that it becomes increasingly imprisoning. When Charles' mother's beauty parlor burns down, we see the lipsticks melt into an unglamorous mess. Charles voices her own dissatisfaction through her rock lyrics: "I got a call from a magazine yesterday, I think it was called Interview. I said, 'Thursday is out, but how about never? Is never good for you?' " Eventually, young Charles chucks it all to become a reclusive writer. "She goes from 'glamour' to 'grammar.' " Duncan explains. Soundtrack features seven original songs by DJ Kashmir, Clifford LeCuyer, Brendan Canty of Fugazi, and Kathi Wilcox of Bikini Kill.
Fri July 16: 4pm
Sat July 17: 8pm
OUTER AND INNER SPACE
Contemplating landscape in and out of time.
Moorings
(Michael Ginsburg, USA, 1999, 5m)
Ginsburg wrenches and teases extraordinary kinetic and spatial possibilities from the proverbial tree in the forest.
in.side.out
(Scott Stark, USA, 1999, 10m)
Setting in motion the fixity and confinement of home against the transformation and liberation of an adjacent tract, Stark rhymes gesture across time and space.
A Tropical Story
(Alfred Guzzetti, USA, 1999, 9m)
Fleetly edited images and sounds of stunning clarity suggest the push and pull of a vivid present and inner recollection, "a lesson on thinking of something and being far away from it and seeing other things entirely."
Transit Riders of the Earth / ARISE! Walk Dog Eat Donut
(Ken Kobland, USA, 1999, 30m)
Footage shot from the New York IRT and the Berlin S-Bahn are shifted and shuffled, interpenetrating in space and time with enthralling dexterity, leaving us "adrift between the familiar and the strange," while personal diary entries, a Russian ballad and dubbed dialogue from 81/2 are rehearsed to conjure a sense of futility and impasse in the mundane rituals of daily life.
Amber City
(Jem Cohen, USA, 1999, 48m):
Shooting in his characteristically discreet, translucent pictoral mode, Jem Cohen presents a succession of brief glimpses of an unnamed Italian city, its inhabitants, architecture and artworks. By turns formal and impressionistic, this dreamy accumulation of images evokes the interior life and "inbetween-ness" of places "whose historical and geographical location renders its reality strangely invisible."
"AMBER CITY is a portrait of an unnamed city in Italy. Sidestepping the tourist attractions that make that city famous, the film/video posits an "almost" imaginary place that may draw closer to the reality of its inhabitants.
Using a voice-over narration that collages direct observation, literary texts, historical fact, local folklore, and a bit of sheer fabrication, the film / video melds documentary and narrative, past and present. Visuals range from verite street footage to formal portraits of residents, to an unusual type of time-lapse cinematography that allows filming in the etremely low light of night landscapes and museum interiors."--Jem Cohen
Fri July 16: 6:15pm
Mon July 19: 4pm
Special Event:
The Wooster Group presents
THE EMPEROR JONES
Famed for their experimental productions, The Wooster Group broke though taboo upon taboo in their acclaimed production of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, written in 1921. This expressionistic classic tells the story of the unraveling of Brutus Jones, a black American, who takes flight from the island natives he has exploited but is thwarted by his own haunting visions. The piece is directed by Elizabeth LeCompte and performed by Kate Valk and Willem Dafoe. Now, in a collaborative effort between The Wooster Group and videomaker Chris Kondek, this gender- and race-bending achievement has been transposed to video, and in the process transformed. This is not a mere documentation of a play, but a new creation that maintains an intense theatricality while combining the methodology of video with the Group's continued exploration of mask in American theatrical iconography. Using chromakey technology, Kondek integrates video elements from the stage production with newfound elements, ranging from old black-and-white movies to Hi-8 vacation footage, setting up a dialogue between contrasting modes of representation. Under LeCompte's direction, Kate Valk's Emperor will blow you away. This special presentation will be followed by a panel featuring LeCompte, Kondek and Valk, to discuss the many layers--theatrical, critical, and technical--of this extraordinary work.
Fri July 16: 9pm
FAMILY MATTERS
Ah, the challenges of working with a group of closely knit people.
Spank
(Diane Nerwen, USA, 1998, 8m)
A study of behavior
modification.
My Parents Read Dreams I've Had About Them
(Neil Goldberg, USA, 1998, 9m)
Two Long Island parents recite their son's dreams about death, babies, Jerry Lewis and more, with humorous and tender results.
No Concept But Good Sense
(Pilar Wiley, USA, 1998, 5m)
Quirky visions of memory and fantasy move back and forth from childhood to the present.
"For me, this video provided a forum in which to reinvent a sense of identity and heritage, to fabricate a continuity with a 'cultural' past by knitting together various moments and fragments to which I had access."--Pilar Wiley
2 into 1
(Gillian Wearing, UK, 1997, 5m)
In a lip-synched switcheroo Mom and her kids reflect on the ties that bind.
Generation Loss
(Sean Bokenkamp, USA, 1997, 13m)
Stylishly degenerated home movies sorrowfully express the deterioration of a father-son relationship to meaningless formality.
A Part of Me
(Carl Callam, UK, 1998, 20m)
A British Black man observes how his white foster family and his biological Jamaican mom squirm when questioned about the cultural and racial complexities of his life.
Shifting Positions
(Kathy High, USA, 1999, 28m)
A trilogy of episodes about a dutiful daughter who returns to the familial memories embedded in her childhood home and in the days before her father's passing, witnesses his frailty.
Sat July 17: 1
Sun July 18: 6pm
THEY DON'T MAKE 'EM LIKE THEY USED TO
Or do they? In a return of the repressed, you can't keep a good movie down.
Mark Roth
(Animal Charm, USA, 1999, 4m) and
Marbles
(Animal Charm, USA, 1999, 6m):
A Washington Behind Closed Doors suspenser and a summer camp frolic from found footage tricksters Rich Bott and Jim Fetterly.
All Smiles and Sadness
(Anne McGuire, USA, 1999, 8m)
Featuring a haunting performance by George Kuchar, McGuire's first foray into dramatic narrative can be described as disembodied daytime TV as written by Dr. Seuss and directed by Guy (Careful) Maddin.
2 Spellbound
(Les LeVeque, USA, 1999, 8m)
A Hitchcockian Rorschach test.
Ode
(Kelly Reichardt, USA, 1999, 50m)
A modern update of the Billy Joe McAllister legend, this unsentimental yet lyrical and tender dramatic narrative from the writer-director of River of Grass follows the first faltering steps of two teenagers in love and the social and emotional pressures that bear down on them. Featuring remarkably naturalistic and soulful performances from Heather Gottlieb and Kevin Poole, and music specially written by Yo La Tengo and Will Oldham.
Sat July 17: 3:30pm
Mon July 19: 6:15pm
