Scandal – trailer (1950, 7.7MB, 1:38 min)
The Idiot – trailer (1951, 6.3MB, 1:22 min)
Don’t know whether these are the original, or re-edited, trailers
but they’re wonderful, wonderful.
Watch and marvel.
I know neither of these films but I can’t wait to get my sweaty
palms on the DVDs from Eureka Cinema’s Masters of Cinema series.
europe-vloggercon (2005, 6.7MB, 1:35 min.)
by Anders from – randomshow.com.
also, history and Video blogging.
“Senses and memories of motherhood evoked by visiting Birkenau
(Auschwitz II) in Poland July 2008.”
I wonder whether memorialising the Holocaust isn’t too important a job to be
left to artists.
Anders Weberg’s piece is as well made as one would expect from him
and I have no doubt it is a sincere response.
Does it tell us anything new, though?
Does it contribute to any understanding which will make
repetition less likely?
As we get further away in time isn’t it the facts we have
to insist upon & isn’t there a danger that art -especially well made
art -aestheticises and dilutes?
Read the Primo Levi book. It sets the bar very high.
a couple waltzing – spinning disc (1893, 4MB, 2 sec. loop)
a couple waltzing – mirror simulation (1893, 2.4MB, 2 sec. loop)
Endlessly fascinating work from luminary Eadweard Muybridge.
Read more here. See more here.
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
In the Turbine Hall in 2006 and Realityfilm presented
a ‘psychoanalytical, cinematic cabaret’ with live music by
The Real Tuesday Weld providing a new original score for the
film
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
Pall Thayer – Inaugurationanimation (2009, 300MB, 49:56)
As far as I know, none of us at DVblog have become
infected with Obamania. Doesn’t mean we don’t
appreciate the fine art of the remix or dig hope.
First, from Bram Crevits of Cinamatics,
Obama’s Berlin speech, composed entirely of video shot
on cell phones. Remember when the gaze was
given to us by the TV news? Now we give it back.
Second, from Pall Thayer, a silent
animation piece of the entire inauguration.
Free to download and remix as you like. We like.
Both of these pieces surprise and amaze me by the
amount of work they must have taken to compile.
Painstaking, no? Unless these gentlemen know
something I do not, these are labor-intensive pieces
in their own respective ways. Lovely and timely.
Gunvor Nelson – My Name Is Oona (1969, 26.9MB, 9:12)
Historic piece from the Swedish filmmaker about her daughter.
Typical of Gunvor’s work, this film addresses themes about
nature, childhood, and maintains an ethereal quality.
Excellent early piece from a uniquely talented woman.
Criss Cross (2003, 95MB, 7:42 min.)
The extraordinary ICP orchestra put Monk’s Criss Cross
through its paces.
All good, but just wait for the Misha Mengelberg piano solo.
Piano players everywhere: weep. Everyone else just relish.
Bliss.
Stephen Slappe – 3 out of 4 (2005, 1.6MB, 0:45)
Short, rather humorous piece from Stephen Slappe,
which simultaneously celebrates large, antiquated rotating
advertisements and laments the disappearance of the four
basic food groups.
The Ghost of You Lingers (2007, 22.9MB, 3:34)
Everything Hits At Once (2001, 17.8MB, 4:03)
Being objective about Spoon is hard for me. We have history.
I was way younger than I’ll admit when I bought Girls Can Tell,
upon its release.
Soon after followed a deep love for their range and growth as a band.
I watched band members come in and go out, Britt Daniel and Jim Eno
ultimately the utensil glue.
I went to shows. I screamed. I took pictures. I didn’t take video.
I tried to stay in the moments.
I still do these things. I went to a concert of theirs a few months back
and didn’t even take my camera inside.
They don’t come through my current town of residence as much, but when
they do, I’ll be there. I have every EP and 7″ single they’ve made.
It is important.
I watch these videos and I think about what it all means.
I don’t know who made any of these, which makes me an ignorant curator
and fan, but that praise isn’t the goal this time for me.
I just want to share some nice videos that mean something to me.
(Why else would I bother doing this at all?)
To follow a band, to know you wouldn’t make a documentary about them
if given the opportunity because it would forever alter your deep relationship
with who you believe them to be and what you believe their music means.
To watch, to listen as corporate radio realizes their greatness. It only took
eleven years. Twelve?
You see the videos that others make and think, okay. It is here. That’s okay.
These are better than okay.
Cindy Sherman – Doll Clothes (1975, 21.2MB, 2:24)
One of Cindy Sherman’s first Super 8 films.
An excellent early view into the overtly
feminine, introspective work of the artist
that would later follow.
David Byrne – Report from L.A. (1986, 49MB, 4:30 min.)
Phillip Glass – Mad Rush (1986, 29MB, 3:17 min.)
Both of these pieces, although incredibly different in feel and nature, were
preformed for the “multidisciplinary event” which showcased “experimental
video, film, visual art, performance and music in a theatrical framework”.
Shot at New York City’s infamous Kitchen, and broadcast on television sets
across the states in 1986, the production “reflects a moment when art centers
were experimenting with new modes of presenting the arts for television.”
Read more and see more here.
“More fun than you can shake your stick at”
New York Times Special Edition (2008, 16.2MB, 2:12 min)
Self-explanatory movie giving background & reaction
to the day before yesterday’s visionary prank ( &
how often do you hear those two words together?)
by those visionary pranksters The Yes Men.
More here.
Breathtaking & inspiring.
A Portrait of Arthur Russell (trailer) (2008, 7MB, 2:11 min.)
“Wild Combination is Matt Wolf’s acclaimed documentary on seminal
avant-garde composer, singer-songwriter, cellist, and disco producer
Arthur Russell. Before his death in 1992, Arthur created music that
spanned both pop and the transcendent possibilities of abstract art.
The film incorporates rare archival footage and commentary from
Arthur’s family, friends, collaborators and admirers, including
Philip Glass, Allen Ginsberg, Jens Lekman, and many more.”
Sharon Hayes – Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) Screeds #13, 16, 20 & 29 (2002, 7.4MB, 2:49)
Between 2001 and 2002, artist Sharon Hayes
reenacted four tapes from the SLA Patty Hearst
abduction in 1974. These respeakings were
performed before an audience, mostly memorized,
but the audience was instructed to correct or feed
Hayes a line when she made a mistake.
Entertaining, reflective, and somewhat moving.
A real treat whether you lived through the original
events or not.
I know we featured the folks at Sporkworld only recently
but they just posted this and it’s wonderful
– & somewhat topical…
Watch it all – it’s deadly serious but Millie Niss
makes her points with the kind of comic timing
many would kill for.
John Baldessari – I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art (1971, 135.3MB, 13:13)
One of my favorite older pieces from legendary artist
John Baldessari. Commissioned in ’71 to make an
installation piece, Baldessari couldn’t make the trip
and instructed students to write on the walls in his
place. Inspired by their results – that they covered
the gallery with this phrase – he made this video,
following his usual path of pointing out irony in art.
Look for follow-up pieces like “Teaching A Plant The
Alphabet” if you have the time. Classic.
Via the indispensable UbuWeb
Thibaut Is Singing On Oberstein Road (2008, 15.5MB, 2:36 min)
Rules of Engagement (2008, 18.1MB, 2:15 min)
Tremendous work from Robert Croma.
The Iraq piece is harrowing but you should watch it nonetheless.
The Thibaut piece is simply exhilarating.
I was trying to figure out what exactly makes this work so outstanding.
I don’t think it’s just the fact that it is technically so good (although it is).
It’s to do with Croma’s taste, judgement & instinct, or at least how he
deploys these to tell us something, or rather to intuit-to-us something
about being a human being.
You couldn’t make a rule of it, for that would render it inert & mechanical,
but, loosely, in these two pieces, it seems to me to lie in a going-beyond
-the-expected – a process with its heart in the little codas which open
out the pieces in a quite extraordinary way.
So the Iraq piece, though supremely well done, is initially not a
million miles away from much other remix type work, but it is the final
calling-to-attention, the framing, of the gait of one of the people
whom we have just seen obliterated that re-doubles its horror
but also creates the tiniest ground for hope in the inescapable
(thanks to Croma) clear recognition of our common humanity.
A similar process occurs in the Thibaut piece
– its potency initially seems to reside in the simplicity of the
camera exploring the still, the conjunction of the new and old
imaging technology and the simple & moving fact of evocation
of time passed.
It’s beautiful; and many would have been tempted to leave it there.
The final section is a risk – it could have have the opposite effect
to what it actually does; it could have closed off, made pat.
Here perhaps the technical fluency does play a defining role but the
effect is the exact opposite of closure -we’re left, once again, in a very
different way, filled with a sense of the mystery & complexity & possibility
(& the fragility) of being human.
3 of 7(2002, 74.7MB, 4:00 min)
Two (from a series of seven) heartbreakingly beautiful, lump-in-the-throat-evocative
lyric poems about being young, disguised as music video/documentaries.
Dan Canyon is a natural filmmaker. He so is.
What more to say, except nice to see Blackheef pronounced correctly?
ABBA – Take a Chance on Me (1978, 9.9MB, 3:55)
I have an unnatural obsession with ABBA, and thankfully,
Doron already posted one of their classic and amazing
music videos.
Let’s break this one down a little, though it’s clearly enjoyable
without my commentary.
First off, the ABBA couples broke up, but at least they didn’t
go the way of my favorite stateside 70’s quartet, Fleetwood
Mac. No reason to partner-swap, folks.
Anni-Frid (Frida – the brunette) tends to be my favorite.
In this video, we find her repeatedly half-winking and
jumping in place.
Also, I would like to own her blue sweater and those boots.
When she puts on those yellow headphones and starts
dancing for Benny, I can totally understand why he ends up
chasing after her in the last few moments of the video. Her
moves, at times, make this whole video.
The cross-fades between lovers faces are priceless.
Isn’t it also pretty amazing when Agnetha throws her head
back and that giant red spotlight takes her place on the word
“magic”? It is magic.
With the screen cut into quadrants and that unbeatable soft
focus, I could not be more serious when I say this is music
video history worth preserving.
Violin Power (clip, 1978, 2.1MB, 1:17 min)
The Vasulkas, husband & wife team Woody & Steina,
have devoted over thirty years to an intensive exploration
of the possibilities of electronic image making.
It
Sadie Benning – Me and Rubyfruit (1990, 24.9MB, 5:40)
Classically beautiful and poignant video-diary-esque
early work from the innovative Sadie Benning. Me
and Rubyfruit, a reinterpretation of Rita Mae Brown’s
Rubyfruit Jungle, finds Benning lamenting the limitations
of being a young lesbian woman in modern culture.
Roughly sixteen when she made this piece, it was shot
on a Fisher-Price Pixelvision 2000 camera, making the
intense grainy footage all the more raw.
Roundhay Remix (2006, 15.6MB, 1.57 min.)
A beautiful remix of the Roundhay Garden Scene,
from 1888, one of the first films ever made.
From Pouringdown.
By Mica.
Daryl Wein – Sex Positive (2008, 16MB, 2:43)
Groundbreaking film from 24-year-old Daryl Wein.
I hate it when people mention my youthful age, but
I think since I know my motivations for doing it, I’ll
just accept that we all mean it as a compliment.
Wein’s portrait of 1980s AIDS activist Richard Berkowitz
is such a contribution to our modern understanding of the
history of AIDS and gay rights activism. One of the first
to speak out about the need for safe sex in the gay
community, Berkowitz was ridiculed and ostracized.
This excellent documentary finds Berkowitz today and
revisits his time as an S&M sex worker before becoming
an outspoken critic of the AIDS epidemic. Much of the older
footage is also courtesy of Berkowitz.
An outstanding collaboration.
Toby Segaran – WalMart Growth (2008, 6.6MB, 0:46)
Toby Segaran isn’t a media artist – he’s actually
a software developer and writer. But, he made
this excellent video clip of American WalMart growth
from 1962 to the present on his off time at work,
and the way I see it, the best work sometimes
happens when you, well, aren’t working. Similar
to these videos made with the processing language.
