Category Archives: film

Creation Myth by Robert Todd

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Robert Todd – Creation Myth (2007, 39.3MB, 5:46)

Robert Todd is a master of 16mm. With an enormous
catalog behind him and no sign of his work ceasing in
the near future, Todd is slowly migrating his work onto
his personal website.
What a treat for us.

This piece, Creation Myth, is one of several I will repost
here over time, to show respect for these subtle, moving
visions.

Todd says: “Love of sky, love of earth and air, with
water helping us along form the backdrop to this
reflection of life-essence and its evolution.”

And, full disclosure: Rob has previously been my
professor, and I personally consider him one of
the kindest, most knowledgeable and professional
working artists under whom I have had the privilege
of studying. I wish I had been better able to absorb
his teachings at the time. He is truly a Bolex genius.

PES – Early movies for the web

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dogsofwar
Dogs of War (2002, 4.1MB, 50 sec.)

whittlinwood1
Whittlin

Me and Rubyfruit

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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.

Boxers

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Boxers
‘Boxers

Roundhay Remix

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Roundhay Remix
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.

MOON CRASH by Claudia Tomaz and Kevin Walsh

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moon_crush
MOON CRASH (2008, 58 MB, 4:42 min.)

“MOON CRASH is a 360 degree immersive experience using DJ sets
and mutant slides, painted live with video projections.
All visuals are painted on acetate using slide mounts, vitrail glass paint
and drops of water. The paints are solvent based and don

Shotgun Stories

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Jeff Nichols – Shotgun Stories (2008, 10.3MB, 1:50)

Shotgun Stories tells the tale of two families with the
same father. One, in which the children are named
Kid, Boy, and Son, came before dad sobered up and
found Jesus. The second, his marriage to a beautiful
woman who had four more boys, was his do-over.
After his death, an explosive feud breaks out between
the grown half-siblings.
It opened to rave reviews, and from the chilling
trailer alone, I can see why.

My Temporary Visiting Position From The Sunset Terrace Bar – Carlo Zanni

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my_temporary_visiting
My Temporary Visiting Position From The Sunset Terrace Bar (2008, 30 MB, 4:10 min.)

“Set in the city of Ahlen, Germany, “My Temporary Visiting Position From The Sunset Terrace Bar“, imitates an amateur’s film of the landscape framed at sunset.
While the city strip is pre recorded the sky is captured in real time from a webcam shooting the sky of Naples (Italy) at sunset and as such, always changing.
The work, confronting themes such as exile, migration and border control, is enhanced by a poem by the esteemed author Ghada Samman and music by the international band Gotan Project and legendary composer Gabriel Yared.”

Clip from the beautiful project by Carlo Zanni.

Standard Operating Procedure

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Errol Morris – Standard Operating Procedure (2008, 11.2MB, 2:00)

We don’t hide our love for Errol Morris – see here
and here – but there’s no need for us to apologize.
The man is a genius. His latest feature, Standard
Operating Procedure, interviews Abu Ghraib prison
guards and tells the story behind the now-infamous
photographs of abuse from the prison, uncovered in
2003. Dubbed a “nonfiction horror film” by Morris,
this investigative film, much like A Thin Blue Line,
helped Morris once again dig deeper into a crime
file, this one just more contemporary.

When you see a picture, you don’t see outside the frame.

With the frightening pictures as a jumping off point,
Morris interviews those involved with the scandal to
get the whole story.
Can’t wait to see this one.

Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli

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Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli – SHE:contaminated (2005, 33.5MB, 13:58)

Brooklyn-based Anna Chiaretta Lavatelli works in
video and super 8 film.
An explanation of SHE:contaminated:

An examination of cellular abnormalities in video and
super 8mm film in which the three identities of the
character SHE confront the nature of their malformation,
and the affected woman they have collectively become.

I find this piece so moving, particularly the openly segment.
Her metaphors are completely brilliant and resonate with me,
perhaps mostly as a woman but also as an artist.
Also a huge fan of her supposedly poor compression –
love the idea, love the execution.

Me and You and Everyone We Know

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Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005, 27.3MB, 2:43)

Trailer for the brilliant 2005 film
Lovely and humorous teaser for an equally delightful movie
From female mastermind Miranda July

Aileen McCormack – Carla Cope

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carla_cope
Carla Cope (2004, 14.5 MB, 5:30 min.)

‘In loose response to 9/11, a woman in New York talks about
her life against a backdrop of old film footage. She describes in
circuitous manner two of her ex-boyfriends who were first responders.
A pulsing beat provides the driving rhythm of urban life’.

From ‘Too Much Freedom’ by freewaves.org

Paris 1983

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Iris Piers – Paris 1983 (2005, 33.3MB, 2:39)

8mm film of her parents in Paris from 1983,
reedited by Iris Piers, who was in utero at the time.
Music by Vincent Delerm.
via [PAM]

Meshes of the Afternoon

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Maya Deren – Meshes of the Afternoon (1943, 99.4MB, 13:30)

A fabulous old film about the subconscious and
the psychology of film noir,
Deren’s first major avant-garde work, a seminal piece,
made with her collaborator (and later husband)
Alexander (Hackenschmied) Hammid.
Originally a silent film without dialog,
music was composed for the piece
in 1959 by Deren’s third husband Teiji Ito.

No Country For Old Men

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No Country For Old Men
No Country For Old Men (trailer) (2007, 15 MB, 2:30 min.)

“Based on the acclaimed novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Cormac McCarthy.
The film simultaneously strips down the American crime drama and broadens
its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily
contemporary as this morning�s headlines.”
From – Miramax Films. directed by the Coen Brothers.

Tinjail

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stillproject07
Still Project 07 (2007, 5.7MB, 1:29 min)

Half of the splendid & indispensable MTAA, whose work we feature here
whenever possible – conceptualist pranksters with a rare (for the territory)
& self deprecating human warmth – Mark River makes interesting video stuff
(amongst other things) on his Tinjail site.
A lot of them are kind of multi-channel (go look) & don’t fit the dvblog format.
This one does & is excellent too..
Here’s his preamble to it:

‘The wild blue yonder, the decent, la jetee, fearless, street fight,
loud QUIET loud, a sound of thunder, enemy at the gate, so wrong they

Quiet City

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Quiet City (2007, 11.2MB, 1:52)

Stunning, reflective trailer for Quiet City,
a movie by Aaron Katz, available from Benten Films.
These are my favorite kinds of films.
I love living in – being in – cities, but I prefer them
when they are their most silent and empty.
Text loosely taken from the Apple trailer site, edited by me:
Together, Samantha and Charlie, two somewhat aimless youths,
share twenty-four hours drifting from late night diners, to city parks,
to abandoned apartments, to a party and art gallery deep in the heart
of industrial Brooklyn. Delicately realized with generous humanity,
Quiet City offers hope for intimate connection in a world that grows
larger by the day.

Almodovar – Volver trailer

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Volver trailer
Volver trailer (2006, 30 MB, 1:38 min)

A long time ago I sat stony faced and unmoved through the much lauded
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown & concluded,
quite wrongly, that Almodovar was not for me.
In 2006 about him by Bob Light in the UK Socialist Worker
prompted me to go & see his latest movie, Volver,
& I’m so glad I did – it’s simply magnificent.
Since then I’ve done a bit of catching up.

Eyes on the Fair Use of the Prize

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Eyes on the Fair Use of the Prize (2006, 20.9MB, 2:19)

Another important, striking piece from the
Media That Matters Film Festival 6.
The filmmaker, Jacob Caggiano, is a young man who I
believe is even younger than me, and according to him,
the whole short film came together at the last minute.
I think this is a beautiful effort.

Body of War

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Body of War (2007, 16.8MB, 2:30)

Trailer for the forthcoming documentary about
paralyzed Iraqi veteran Tomas Young’s fight to tell
the truth about the war.
Sad and informative, not to be missed.
Produced by Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue,
original music by Eddie Vedder.

Mohammed Rafi – Jaan Pehechan Ho

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jan pehechaan
Jaan Pehechan Ho (1966, 55.4MB, 5:33 min)

Clip from the 1966 film Gumnaam sung by
Bollywood legend Mohammed Rafi, which you might
recognise from the opening sequence of Ghost World.
There’s the full lyrics & several translations here.
From WFMU’s Beware of the Blog

A Record on Celluloid on 7 Reels

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Mes Amis
Mes Amis (2007, 37.8MB, 7:35 min)

Giles Perkins, from the excellent onsuper8.org
(whose own great work we’ve shown, last week & previously)
pointed this one out to us.
Gorgeous he said, and he was right.
Comes from here & there’s a discussion here.

“Psych-Out” Movie Trailer

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psych_out
Psych-Out, trailer (1968, 8.8MB, 2:56 min.)

A look at the psychedelic world of the 1960’s flower children.
With Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Dean Stockwell, Susan Strasberg.
Directed by Richard Rush. – from Bedazzled.tv.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy

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kennedy assassination
Kennedy Assassination (1963, 300k, 28 sec.)

“The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the
United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas,
at 12:30 p.m. CST (18:30 UTC).
John F. Kennedy was fatally wounded by gunshots while riding with his wife
Jacqueline in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza.
The assassination is still the subject of widespread speculation and has spawned
numerous conspiracy theories.” – from wikipedia.

Close-up, extract from the Zapruder Film.

The Ties That Bind – Su Friedrich

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Friedrich
Su Friedrich – The Ties That Bind (1984, 14.2MB, 4:03)

From the classic avant-garde filmmaker; a found-footage,
personal and historical documentary reflection on wartime
and Friedrich’s mother’s coming of age in Nazi Germany,
presented here during yet another period of unrest
in our uncertain world.

The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema

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The Pervert
The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema -Trailer (2007, 8.97MB, 1:06 min.)

Slavoj Žižek, philosophy’s PT Barnum, struts his stuff
con shed-loads of brio in this Sophie Fiennes directed opus.
Doesn’t seem to be much genuinely new (the terrible fate of
the celebrity academic being to be lionised for what we already
know they’re going to do/say) but still vastly entertaining.

László Moholy-Nagy

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moholy_nagy
Lichtspiel Schwarz, Weiss, Grau (clip) (1932, 12MB, 1:39 min.)

“Lichtspiel Schwarz, Weiss, Grau”, a doc concerning Moholy-Nagy’s kinetic sculpture,
the Light Space-Modulator. Moholy-Nagy believed the motion picture played a significant
role as both art & investigative tool.
‘Painting, photography, and film are parts of one problem although their techniques
may be entirely different. They belong to the same realm; that is, to visual expression,
where cross-fertilizations are possible.’
László Moholy-Nagy

The Movie Movie – Errol Morris

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moviemovie
The Movie Movie (2002, 17MB, 4:16 min.)

A four-minute film produced by documentary filmmaker Errol Morris featuring
quick-cut interviews with celebrities and regular folks alike was screened
during the opening segment of the Academy Awards in 2002. The film, which
was introduced by Tom Cruise, featured such luminaries as First Lady Laura Bush,
former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, writer Susan Sontag, Phillip Glass,
Iggy Pop of the Stooges, Lou Reed, Donald Trump, Walter Cronkite and the Rev.
Al Sharpton. Morris interviewed close to 120 subjects in New York, Los Angeles and Boston.

Hal Hartley – Fay Grim trailer

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Fay Grim trailer
Fay Grim trailer (2007, 10.7MB, 1:54 min)

In the case of Hal Hartley I feel so at odds with the world’s
apparent consensus that I fear for the balance of my mind.
Why is he not feted as one of the world’s smartest & most inventive directors?
Why did folk briefly seem to understand in the early nineties that something
special was going on, then bizarrely seem almost immediately to forget about it?
It beats me, it defeats me.
Here is the trailer for Fay Grim, touted by some as Hartley’s return to form
Me I think he never lost it.
Yes – it has moments that feel eggy, awkward and mystifying but
then so does La Divina Commedia.

Joseph Chomiak – point of view

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pointofview
point of view (2006, 11.3MB, 2:06 min.)

A silent B/W short by Joseph Chomiak –
a terrifying story of a man that finds a viewfinder that can look
into another time and place. From undergroundfilm.