Video Cat (2009, 11 MB, 1:34 min)
Aguas De Maio (2009, 9 MB, 1:19 min)
Two videos from earlier this year by Regina C
Category Archives: documentary
The Commoners – by Jessica Bardsley & Penny Lane
The Commoners (Excerpt, 2009, 37 MB, 1:25 min)
“In 1890, one man had the idea to collect every bird ever mentioned in Shakespeare
and release them into Central Park. The only bird to survive in the New World was the European
Starling, now one of the commonest birds in America. Its introduction is now widely considered
a major environmental disaster.
The Commoners is a moving image essay about starlings, poetry, and the purist rhetoric used
to describe “invasive species.” It is also about the paths people forge through history, intentionally
or not, as they attempt to change the natural world.”
Written & directed by Jessica Bardsley & Penny Lane.
From video_dumbo 2009.
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Wal-Mart (2005, 9.4 MB, 2:48 min)
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price was the documentary film sensation
that’s changing the largest company on earth. The film features the
deeply personal stories and everyday lives of families and communities
struggling to survive in a Wal-Mart world.
It’s an emotional journey that will challenge the way you think, feel.. and shop.
Directed by Robert Greenwald.
THE HERETICS – the story of the Women
THE HERETICS (2009, 124 MB, 10:08 min)
THE HERETICS, A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics
A Game of Petanque with Sam Renseiw
Patafilm 718 (2009, 30.9 MB, 2:40 min)
The Petanque Discussion (2009, 9.8 MB, 53 secs)
All his work is great but we can’t publish him every day
so we wait for the very finest.
Two Petanque themed beauties, the second
being a Lumière masterclass.
Poems for Pictopia
Poems for Pictopia(2009, 83.5 MB, 8:00 min)
Deft & winsome documentary from Gabriel Shalom
(whose own very deft work DVblog regulars will
have come across before) and Patrizia Kommerell
featuring goings-on and personalities from this year’s
Pictoplasma in Berlin.
MTAA and Mike Koller – iPhone Drum Circle
iPhone Drum Circle (2009, 40 MB, 5:10 min)
On Sunday September 20 at 2pm, MTAA, Mike Koller and friends set out
a brightly colored blanket surround by a circle of chairs at McCarren Park,
Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They had amplified iPhones on which they have
downloaded touchscreen drum and bongo applications and they “jammed.”
iPhone Drum Circle (aka IPDC)
video_dumbo 2009
Unknown Court TV (2009, 13 MB, 3:16 min)
by Eileen Maxson.
DU3L@ G4NRYU 15L4ND (2009, 14 MB, 2:30 min)
by Jon Rafman.
Works from the magnificent video_dumbo 2009,
A weekend long screening of new contemporary video art, video installations and more.
From Sep.25 – Sep.27 In Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY.
Owen O’Toole – Super8 films
Frames (1985, 31 MB, 6:25 min)
Early experimental Super8 films by Owen O’Toole.
Short interview with him here.
Dave Milner – Redmires to Hillsborough and Back
Redmires to Hillsborough and Back (2008, 274MB 21:09 min)
I love this piece, partly for sentimental reasons in that it
features the town (and in fact at two points the street)
of my birth and upbringing, but it’s not simply that.
I like the formal device upon which Dave Milner hangs this austere
& accurate portrait of a greyish October Sheffield.
Austere, but not without warmth or humour: Milner’s tussle with his SatNav,
his under the breath impatience at the traffic & the various other small
en-route mishaps lend a three dimensionality and a narrative forward
motion to what could be easily have been either a dry exercise or simply
a bit of ,for want of a better word, internet folk art…
Milner’s site, with both contemporary and (slightly) historical photos
of Sheffield and other places is compelling too.
Again, I plead guilty to a personal interest in the places times and
themes but it’s the thoroughness devoted to an evocation of place
and time that is both effective and moving.
Everyone I can think of who has died
Everyone I can think of who has died (2009, 49MB, 6:24 min.)
Edward Picot is writing the names of all the
people he can think of who have died onto leaves,
then floating them down a stream near his house.
What Makes Me White?
What Makes Me White? (2009, 9.4MB, 3:21)
New short film by award-winning director A.M. Sands
about race, privilege, memory, and experience.
What Makes Me White? official site.
Reynald Drouhin – Stamina
Thomson & Craighead – Template Cinema – RealTime
Short Film about Nothing (Realtime. 3:40 min.)
Template Cinema– is a networked installation by –
Thomson & Craighead.
It generates lo-fi movies made from existing data
appropriated in realtime from the world wide web.
Watch a sample movie.
Chasin’ Gus’ Ghost
Chasin’ Gus’ Ghost (2007, 70.2MB, 5:48)
Blame this post on my current obsession with jug bands
(fact: one generation back, most of my family was from
the sticks). Or blame it on my desire to bridge old and new
media. A trailer oddly lacking actual jug footage, still a nice
montage.
Official site here
Prince – The Artist – Cinnamon Girl and American Bandstand
Genesis P-Orridge – 24
Genesis P-Orridge (2005, 20MB, 4:30 min.)
In this video, seminal rocker and radical body artist Genesis P-Orridge,
talks about early music experiments.
By Mica Scalin.
Kevin Smith – Clerks 2 – the Movie
The Making of Kaboom – PES
Making of Kaboom (2005, 15.5 MB, 5:07 min.)
Filmmaker Adam Pesapane a.k.a. PES,
featured on Dvblog – here, here & here,
makes phenomenal stop-motion animation videos.
In this video he explains some of his thought process and
how his choice of objects to give deeper meaning to his works.
By Mica Scalin.
When Clouds Clear
When Clouds Clear (2008, 15.3MB, 2:26)
Directed by Anne Slick and Danielle Bernstein,
When Clouds Clear is a remarkably intimate portrait
of a tiny Ecuadorian village’s struggle against
mining companies that seek to take over (and destroy)
the land they have long cultivated as their home.
Shot on a lovely mix of Super 8, 16mm, and video
to show the complexities of different viewpoints, the
film is one of the most beautiful I have had the
privilege of viewing this year.
Millie Niss – Commercial Spots
Commercial Spots (2006, 8.4MB)
Archive sutff from the Sporkworld stable, this time from Millie Niss & it has
all the hallmarks that make Sporkworld work such an unalloyed pleasure.
Manifestly bullshit free, apparently straightforward but with onion like layers,
this one wonderfully highlights Niss
Must Read After My Death
Must Read After My Death – Morgan Dews (2007, 23.9MB, 1:47)
When a Hartford couple turns to psychiatry for help
with their marriage in 1960, things quickly spiral out
of control. Couples counseling, individual and group
therapy and 24-hour marathon sessions ensue. Their
four children suffer and are given their own psychiatrists.
Pills are prescribed, people are institutionalized, shock-therapy
is administered. This is an intimate story in the family
stapelia ophelia
Stapelia Ophelia (2005, 2.7MB, 1:23 min.)
‘The corpse flower’ in the window is getting louder, I can hardly
think. There is no running away from the smell, the sound is
deafening if you listen closely. The flowers keep coming back, I
cannot stop them. There is wind & rain as well, now, as I am seeing
the clip much later, the elements without which the day would be void.
Passage to Ill – Nathaniel Stern
Passage to Ill (1999, 5.5MB, 2:34 min)
“Passage to Ill was one of the first pieces I wrote as “hektor“,
playing the cynical romantic and trying to get in bed with “Ill”
(a punny nickname for a real person).
After seeing me perform it at the Nuyorican poet
4:33 – Rocketboom Daily with Amanda Congdon
rb_06_apr_26 (2006, 26.5MB, 4:33 min.)
Sublimity & wit from Amanda Congdon.
from rocketboom, April 26, 2006.
Earth to Earth – Nick Scott
Earth to Earth (2005, 23MB, 3:22 min.)
“This film was made according to the hardcore rules of Straight8, which gives
filmmakers a single roll of Super8, forcing them to edit in camera and shoot
every shot as a first take. You submit the exposed cartridge plus a separately
recorded soundtrack and hope that the two match up. Luckily ours turned out
OK and it was selected one of the straight8 Cannes finalists in 2005.
The idea came from having a crappy DVD player which kept skipping and I was
overcome by an incredible desire to drive a garden fork through the front of it –
you can see the result in the background.
We had great fun shooting the film, during which time it snowed heavily
Invisible People
Invisible People – Larry (2008, 48.6MB, 9:21)
Invisible People is a new project from Mark Horvath
that documents homelessness in Los Angeles. The
interviews are unedited, and it can honestly be hard
to watch some of them – but isn’t that the point?
The site comes with a warning:
Caution: some content may be offensive. Our hope is
you’ll get mad enough to do something.
This particular interview is one of my favorites, as Larry
is charismatic and Mark was able to capture that easily.
But I’d encourage you to go watch the others as well.
Mark himself is in a rough financial situation that might
soon land him back on the streets too.
Seems we are often our own best advocates.
Urban Eden by Millie Niss
Urban Eden (2006, 5MB, 1:50 min.)
“This movie takes place in the “Urban Eden” of the IBM Building’s Public
Atrium & Sculpture Gallery. The soundtrack consists of quotes involving the
words, “apple” and “Eden.” Ironic, isn’t it, that the IBM Building is decorated
with sculpted Apples as if they were promoting a rival company’s products….”
by Millie Niss from sporkworld.
More from Les Filmistes
La vitesse – Toma (2005, 7MB, 1 min.)
La Vitesse – Raphael (2005, 6.8 MB, 1 min.)
La telephon portable – Linda (2005, 5.6MB, 1 min.)
Another round of videos from Les Filmistes Associ
By Mica.