06.27.08
Posted in Cinema, Events at 3:02 pm by Spencer
Well, Hal Ashby won’t be there in person, mostly ’cause he died in 1988. But comedian Bobcat Goldthwait will be introducing Hal Ashby’s fine directorial debut, The Landlord (1970), on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 at the Northwest Film Forum. This will be preceded by a reception with Bobcat at the Grey Gallery right around the corner. More details about the special event are available on the NWFF web site.
Advance tickets only, at a special price (proceeds benefit the non-profit NWFF), available online via BrownPaperTickets.com.
The special event kicks-off Hal Ashby’s Commingling Seventies, a fantastic series of screenings of the director’s work from the 1970s, every one of them briliant and a classic. It’s pretty amazing to see the line up and realize he made them one after the other, all in the space of just nine years — a stunning run of artistry that anyone would envy. The screenings (all on 35mm) are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays only, through July and late August. Don’t miss a single one. Series passes are available.
The Landlord (1970) — Tues. 7/1 and Wed. 7/2
Harold and Maude (1971) — Tues. 7/8 and Wed. 7/9
The Last Detail (1973) — Tues. 7/15 and Wed. 7/16; the novel’s author, Darryl Ponicsan, will introduce the 7:30 screening on 7/15
Shampoo (1975) — Tues. 7/29 and Wed. 7/30
Bound for Glory (1976) — Tues. 8/5 and Wed. 8/6
Coming Home (1978) — Tues. 8/12 and Wed. 8/13
Being There (1979) — Tues. 8/19 and Wed. 8/20
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06.06.08
Posted in Cinema, Music, Events, Cinema History, 16mm Film at 11:12 pm by Spencer
Film collector extraordinaire and Washington expat Dennis Nyback is back in town with a mind-boggling series of programs devoted to music films, playing for the next week at the Grand Illusion Cinema (at the corner of 50th and University Way).
Many of the programs are one-show-only, so pay attention and carpe diem. Here’s the details courtesy of the Grand Illusion’s mailing list (which you should subscribe to via the web site, all the way at the bottom of the homepage):
On Friday, June 6th is ZERO TO MTV is a series of three minute musical shorts from 1914-1984 Contrary to popular belief, the three minute film short was not invented by MTV. Conversely, the very first sound films made were three minute music shorts. This program starts with an Edison test film made in 1914. It continues through the twenties with test films made by Lee DeForest, Fox-Case and Movietone. The thirties portion features Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and others. The forties feature shorts made by the Soundies company. In the fifties there are Snader Telescriptions. In the sixties Scopitones appeared. The program will end with 35mm shorts featuring Kiss, Motley Crue, Deep People and others. Friday June 6th at 7pm & 9pm
On Saturday, June 7th is THE HIGH LONESOME SOUND, a program of musical films by John Cohen, who traveled to the backwoods and hinterlands of America filming musicians. This program features his films THE HIGH LONESOME SOUND and MUSICAL HOLDOUTS. Musicians include Roscoe Holcomb, Bill Monroe and many others. See notes at http://www.johncohenworks.com/films/filmslist.html#4 Saturday June 7th at 7pm ONLY
Also on Saturday, June 7th is CHARLIE IS MY DARLING. This is a great and one of kind look at the Rolling Stones filmed during their tour of Ireland in 1965. It never had a wide release. The last time it was shown in Seattle was at the Pike Street Cinema in 1993. The short with it will be a production film on the making of the Beatles’ YELLOW SUBMARINE. Saturday June 7th at 9pm ONLY
On Sunday, June 8th is HILLBILLIES IN HOLLYWOOD. A fabulous bunch of Hillbilly, Cowboy, Hawaiian, Rockabilly, and other acts. Expect to have a foot stomping, Wa-Hooing great time! Sunday June 8th at 7pm ONLY
Also on Sunday June 8th is BOOGIE WOOGIE BOOGIE WOOGIE BOGGIE WOOGIE. There was a big Boogie Woogie craze in the 1940s. This program is made up filmed performers and cartoons. The performers include Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson in the great BOOGIE WOOGIE DREAM. It also features Lena Horne and Teddy Wilson. Maurice Rocco does Rumboogie. Ray Bradley with Freddy Slack does Boardwalk Boogie. Sunday June 8th at 9pm ONLY
On Monday, June 9th is JAZZ IN THE 1920’s. This program features two awesome films made by the enigmatic Dudley Murphy in 1929. You should look him up. They are BLACK AND TAN with Duke Ellington and ST. LOUIS BLUES with Bessie Smith. Also: Eddie Peabody and His College Chums (1928) with Hal Kemp’s band, Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. Monday June 9th at 7pm ONLY
Also on Monday, June 9th is HARLEM IN THE THIRTIES. Several of these films are suppressed due to racial content. This a very rare chance to see the greatness in them. Included performers will be Cab Calloway , Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters (in the film BUBBLING OVER), The Mills Blue Rhythm Band, and others. Monday June 9th at 9pm ONLY
Tuesday, June 10th features RADIO DAYS 1929-1944. All shorts featuring radio stations and people at home listening to radios. Included will be THE BLACK NETWORK (Nicholas Brothers), CAP’N HENRY’S SHOWBOAT (Annette Hanshaw), Cab Calloway (HI DE HO), RADIO SALUTES (Ruth Etting), Rudy Vallee, Kate Smith, and others. Tuesday June 10th at 7pm ONLY
Tuesday, June 10th also features VAUDEVILLE DELUXE. This program is highly recommended by Travis Stewart who wrote “NO APPLAUSE, JUST THROW MONEY”. I screened it for him in NY. It features vaudeville performers, both black and white, from 1928 (Gus Visser, the Man With the Duck) to 1937. You get to see W.C. Fields juggle, Roy Smeck play the uke, rope skippers, singers, Chaz Chase eating everything, and finally, Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers with Slim Gaillard and Slam Stewart. Tuesday June 10th at 9pm ONLY
Wednesday, June 11th is THE SOUND OF JAZZ (plus some Bebop). In 1957 CBS brought together the greatest assemblage of jazz talent ever brought together for a one hour live broadcast. The kinescope of it provided much of the footage in A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM. Here it is seen in full, including original commercials. Thelonious Monk, Billie Holliday, Coleman Hawkins, Count Basie, many more. Also on the program will be JAZZ DANCE (1954), Booker Little with Max Roach (1962) and more. Wednesday June 11th at 7pm ONLY
Wednesday, June 11th also has SOUNDIE PANORAMA. A lot of greatness and also some musical atrocities. Soundie films were shown in jukebox-like devices called a Mills Pan-O-Ram. Wednesday June 11th at 9pm ONLY
And finally, Thursday, June 12th is the infamous SCOPITONE A GO-GO. A hit in New York at the Cinema Village. The show that started the Scopitone buying craze. Eddie Vedder came to the Scopitone shows at the Pike Street Cinema and bought his own Scopitone machine. Thursday June 12th at 7pm & 9pm
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05.16.08
Posted in Cinema, Events, Silent Films, Cinema History, Sci-Fi and Horror Flix, 16mm Film at 11:14 pm by Spencer
Last night’s Sprocket Society show at the Northwest Film Forum — Georges Méliès: Impossible Voyager — went really well, and we packed the house. Thanks to everyone who came (especially the young ‘uns). I hope you had as much fun as I did.
Unfortunately it was so well attended, we ran out of program booklets (sorry again, folks). So for those of who missed out, or are just interested passers-by, you can download a PDF of the full program notes (1.9mb) here or at the Sprocket Society site.
Thanks again to Climax Golden Twins for contributing their excellent live mix of 78s, to Dave Shepard at Film Preservation Associates for permission to read his translation of Méliès’ original narration for The Impossible Voyage, and to Mike Whybark for the loan of his vintage tux and tails.
Oh, one note of clarification in case anyone was wondering. One of the local papers said we were to play a recording of Méliès himself reading the narration. While this would have been wonderful, it was not the case and I’m not quite sure how the misunderstanding came about since it was not in the press release. I guess I wasn’t quite emphatic enough about the live performance aspect. Ah well.
To the best of my knowledge, there are no recordings of Méliès reading or performing any of his many narrations for his films. In the case of The Impossible Voyage in particular, Dave Shepard worked with a number of scholars from around the world to assemble and translate the narration from surviving texts. (I made a few minor edits of my own to smooth some phrasings.) When I spoke (briefly) with Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films about this general topic while at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival last summer, he made no mention of any such recordings of Méliès but did say that the Cinémathèque Française had apparently published some as a book or booklet some years past.
Much more than this I don’t know. So I reckon I should poke around and see what I can learn about it, wot?
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05.08.08
Posted in Cinema, Events, Silent Films, Cinema History, Sci-Fi and Horror Flix, Seattle Stuff, 16mm Film at 12:52 am by Spencer
Announcing a very special event co-presented by The Sprocket Society and the Northwest Film Forum
GEORGES MÉLIÈS: IMPOSSIBLE VOYAGER
Special effects epics from 1901-1912
Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 8:00 PM — One show only!
At the Northwest Film Forum — 1515 12th Avenue (on Capital Hill at Pike)
(206) 329-2629
$8.50 general admission / $5 NWFF members / $6 kids under 12 & seniors
Advance tickets available online via BrownPaperTickets.com
A special celebration of the mad filmic genius of Georges Méliès, the father of special effects, featuring rare 16mm film prints of his greatest sci-fi, fantasy and adventure epics…all presented with unusual musical accompaniment!
INCLUDING!
A rare presentation of The Impossible Voyage (1904) with a live performance of the original narration penned by Méliès himself plus music provided by Climax Golden Twins playing 78 rpm records on actual Victrolas, right there in the theater!
PLUS!
Six more great films, all presented with non-traditional musical recordings including free jazz by the Hal Russell NRG Ensemble, the Master Musicians of Jajouka, The Residents (in a special remix by Scott Colburn), demented Dada scat-jazz by Fred Lane, and more! Featuring…
- A Trip to the Moon (1901) — rare extended version!
- The Kingdom of the Fairies (1903) — rare “complete” version!
- The Palace of Arabian Nights (1905) — stunning acrobatic sets!
- Paris to Monte Carlo (1905) — with hand-colored scenes!
- The Merry Frolics of Satan (1906) — beautifully tinted!
- Conquest of the Pole (1912) — his last masterpiece in a (kinda) rare French version!
Learn more and see a bunch of photos, including rare behind-the-scenes shots and production drawings, at the Sprocket Society web site. You can also download the official press release (PDF, 112kb).
Hope to see you there… A splendid time is guaranteed for all!
(Poster design by Brian Alter.)
(This program is not affiliated with Flicker Alley, though I encourage you to check out their new Méliès DVD box set!)
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04.06.08
Posted in Cinema, Music, Events, Experimental Film, Seattle Stuff, 16mm Film at 6:43 pm by Spencer
This coming Sunday at the Rendezvous, the Sprocket Society presents a special event featuring original works by Los Angeles filmmaker and noted restorationist ROSS LIPMAN, plus live music by Seattle’s own RUBY THICKET and THE PHILISTINE LIBERATION ORCHESTRA.
Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 7:00 PM
The JewelBox Theater at the Rendezvous
2322 2nd Avenue, Seattle (in Belltown)
$5 suggested donation
More info at the Sprocket Society web site.
KEEP WARM, BURN BRITAIN! is Ross Lipman’s personal memoir of the London anarchist squatters movement during the 1980s. A work-in-progress, Ross will present it as a Magic Lantern slide show with live narration plus recorded music by legendary street performer Thoth (who was the subject of a 2002 Oscar-winning documentary short).
Lipman is internationally known for his film/video and performance work, as well his writings and restorations of independent cinema. His 16mm and 35mm experimental films have screened throughout the world at venues such as London International Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives (NYC), the Los Angeles Film Forum, the San Francisco Cinematheque, Sixpackfilm/Top-Kino (Vienna), AMIA (Austin, Minneapolis), Chinese Taipei Film Archive (Taiwan), and many others. This is his Seattle debut.
Lipman is also one of the world’s leading figures in the restoration of independent cinema. Working at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, he has restored films by John Cassavetes, Kenneth Anger, John Sayles, Emile de Antonio, and others. In 2007, the National Society of Film Critics gave Lipman their Film Heritage Award “for the restoration of Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep and other independent films.”
Also on the program are several of Ross’ earlier experimental shorts and and documentaries:
10-17-88 (1989, 16mm)
An optically printed collage of found and archival footage, with audio collage by John (Ruby Thicket) Shaw.
AFTERNOON IN BOTTLE VILLAGE (2007, DV)
A requiem for Grandma Prisbrey’s famous cathedral of light, built entirely of glass bottles, pencils, and industrial detritus. With a score improvised on a broken piano by Jodie Baltazar (aka Monotrona).
THE GIFT: MICHAEL BARRISH SCREEN TEST (1997, Super-8)
A screen test for a film that was never made, a feature-length narrative about the unbridgeable gap and connection between a father and son.
PLUS!
Live music by RUBY THICKET
Featuring John Shaw (vocals, guitar, bass, harmonica), Mac McClure (bowed saw and vocals), Bob Barraza (drums, shakuhachi flute, ukulele, and vocals), Jillian Graham (vocals and rhythm guitar), and Jim Graham (bass). Download sample MP3s from their CD You Never Know What You’ll See.
And the sultry cacophony of THE PHILISTINE LIBERATION ORCHESTRA
Lounge and show standards crooned (or c-ruined?) over free improvised accompaniment. Featuring the velvet pipes of John Shaw backed by composer Bill Potter on guitar-synth, the lovely and talented David Milford on fiddle, members of Ruby Thicket, and other surprise guests. The set list includes songs associated with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Kate Smith, Robert Goulet, Man of La Mancha, and Woody Guthrie.
Hope to see you there!
PS — Ross Lipman will be presenting at the Pop Conference at EMP this Friday, April 11. He will give his lecture “Mingus, Cassavetes, and the Politics of Improv”, using film clips, texts, and still photographs to examine the complex and explosive collaboration of John Cassavetes and Charles Mingus for the film Shadows (1959) at a pivotal moment in the history of independent cinema, jazz, and race relations. More info is online at the Pop Conference web site.
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03.10.08
Posted in Music, Events, Friends and Family, Avant Experiwhosis at 10:23 pm by Spencer
Beginning in May 2008 the surviving members of Sun City Girls, Alan and Richard Bishop, are embarking on a tour of the US and Canada called “The Brothers Unconnected: A tribute to the Sun City Girls and Charles Gocher.”
The tour begins in Seattle on Sunday, May 18 at The Triple Door. (Tickets are available online.)
As followers of the legendary band know, drummer Charles Gocher died of cancer in February 2007. A private memorial was held shortly after. With this tour, Alan and Rick make good on their solemn vow to publicly honor Charlie, his memory, and his immense talent.
Most dates will feature an opening 40 minute film of Charles Gocher’s video works, which are equal parts demented, brilliant, hilarious, and inventive. This will be followed by two acoustic sets of Alan and Rick playing selected songs from the impossibly voluminous catalog of Sun City Girls material created during their 27 year history together.
Listed below are the dates announced as I write this, and more will be announced as they are confirmed. For the very latest information please consult the official Sun City Girls web site.
Whatever you do don’t miss it, and while you’re there have a shot of cheap scotch for Charlie.
5.18.08 - Seattle, WA - Triple Door
5.19.08 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir
5.21.08 - San Francsico, CA - Slim’s
5.23.08 - Phoenix, AZ - Modified
5.25.08 - Los Angeles , CA - Echoplex
5.27.08 - Sacramento, CA - TBA
6.14.08 - Chicago, IL - Lakeshore Theater
6.15.08 - Louisville, KY - TBA
6.18.08 - Montreal, QC - La Sala Rosa
6.19.08 - Cambridge, MA - The Brattle Theater
6.20.08 - Portland, ME - SPACE
6.21.08 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s
6.22.08 - New York , NY - Knitting Factory
6.24.08 - Pittsburgh, PA - Andy Warhol Gallery
6.25.08 - Washington, D.C. - Black Cat
6.26.08 - Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle
6.27.08 - Atlanta, GA - TBA
More Dates coming: Austin, Tucson, San Diego and more.
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02.28.08
Posted in Cinema, Events, Sci-Fi and Horror Flix, Early Sound Cinema, 16mm Film at 11:17 pm by Spencer
This Tuesday night, March 4, at 8 PM the Northwest Film Forum and The Sprocket Society join forces to bring an ultra-rare screening of The Mysterious Island (1929), the nearly-lost science fiction epic from the dawn of the sound era. Also playing is a rare early sound cartoon by the Fleischer brothers, Noah’s Lark, released the same year. The screening is part of NWFF’s quarterly Search and Rescue series, devoted to showing rare film prints from educational and private archives. The prints come from my personal collection, and I will be introducing the screening.
As extra temptation, libations will be served after the films and if you’re a member of NWFF (and you should be), admission is free.
The Mysterious Island is one of the great rarities of early science fiction film. For decades, serious fans have suffered taunting glimpses by way of jaw-dropping stills published in fan magazines like the late, great Famous Monsters of Filmland. These tantalizing images evinced art direction and effects so wondrous for their time that one nearly ached to see it. Well, now you can be one of the lucky few to see the whole shebang.
No sci-fi film fan should miss this show.
The 1929 version of The Mysterious Island was never released to home video, has never restored by the studio, and only a single reel of its original tinted and Technicolor glory is known survive (in the UCLA film archives, where it languishes in their fire-proof nitrate film vaults, not far from possibly the only surviving set of its Vitaphone discs). Today, only a small handful of black-and-white prints are known to survive, probably only on 16mm and mainly in the hands of private collectors. Every couple years or so, TCM airs it for a single showing at inconvenient times, like Sunday at 11:30 PM. Bootleg copies of these cablecasts now circulate on BitTorrent and DVD-Rs from grey-market video dealers…but it is almost never actually projected in anything resembling a theater.
The Mysterious Island was intended to be MGM’s high-budget answer to First National’s hit The Lost World (1925) and UFA’s Metropolis (1926). It was originally budgeted at a million dollars, shot in the early two-strip Technicolor process that debuted with Douglas Fairbanks’ The Black Pirate (1925), and was to feature extended sequences of cutting-edge undersea cinematography by J. Ernest Williamson, who provided such astonishing work for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1919). But the production was seemingly cursed — churning through countless rewrites that led it ever further from its source material, three different directors, and no less than three hurricanes that thoroughly destroyed the expensive underwater sets in the Bahamas. As it limped to completion, the advent of sound changed everything and necessitated a cast change and still more rewrites and reshooting.
It finally premiered as a part-talkie in October 1929 — three years late, a reported $3 million over budget (what is it with the threes?), and minus much of Williamson’s artistry — just a few weeks before the stock market crash that precipitated the Great Depression. Despite positive reviews in the popular and industry press (including the NY Times and Variety), The Mysterious Island bombed at the box office and earned back only a tiny fraction of its production costs. The whole affair was so notorious that no major studio would touch science fiction again for years and film itself, in a kind of punishment, vanished into the vaults to rot.
As a result, film fans and scholars were largely denied the opportunity to see The Mysterious Island. 16mm prints were reportedly struck sometime during the 1950s for TV distribution; tonight’s print is said to have been struck ca. 1977, but almost certainly came from the same master elements used 30 years earlier.
In recent years, the 1929 Mysterious Island has garnered a reputation as MST3K fodder but, while hardly the acme of filmmaking art and suffering from a somewhat tortured plot betraying its tenure in rewrite hell, the film is much better than the wags would have it. It is elevated by no small measure by the still-amazing art direction of Cedric Gibbons (who later helped realize the classic The Wizard of Oz), which reaches its peak in the final reels of the film. Picture if you will: retro-futurist brass diving suits like something out of Alien, armies of diminutive mer-men looking like undersea Martians, giant sea monster, and other visual wonderments hard to describe.
The accompanying cartoon, Noah’s Lark, was released by competing studio Paramount the very same month. It is the first Paramount “Talkartoon” ever released by the Fleischer brothers, but it is hardly their first foray into sound animation. Indeed, by that late date they were already veterans in the emergent technology. Beginning in 1924 (three years before The Jazz Singer), the already-successful Fleischers produced more than 30 sound animated shorts for Lee DeForests’ Phonofilm company. Most of those were sing-along films that originated the famous “bouncing ball.” Noah’s Lark followed the Fleischer tradition of unscripted visual improvisation, with animation by Al Eugster.
This is a screening not to be missed by fans of science fiction, and/or early sound film.
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01.28.08
Posted in Cinema, Events, Silent Films, Animation at 10:29 pm by Spencer
The Northwest Film Forum’s third annual Children’s Film Festival is now underway (running through Feb. 3) and, as always, is chock full of great stuff from all over the world for everyone to enjoy, regardless of birth date. But I thought I should call a couple things in particular to your attention.
Note that you can buy advance tickets online for any screening at the Children’s Film Festival via the Brown Paper Tickets site.
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
As I write this, you have only two more chances to catch this: Thursday, Jan. 31 at 8 PM and Sunday, Feb. 1 and 1 PM. And you absolutely must catch it for so many reasons. One, it’s an absolute masterpiece. Released in 1926, The Adventures of Prince Achmed is probably the first feature-length animated film ever made. But it’s very, very far from being mere film school castor oil — as you might can tell from the images above, it’s also easily among the most beautiful animated films ever made, especially in its original tinted presentation as is being shown at the festival. Working in stop-motion-animation, filmmaker Lotte Reiniger’s incredibly detailed, layered, cut-out silhouettes have to be seen to be believed. It is absolutely magical (as befitting its story source), evoking a parallel universe every bit as enveloping, sensuous and psychedelic as those crafted by Terry Gilliam or Jean-Pierre Jeunet decades later.
Two, they’re showing a pristine 35mm tinted print! This is an incredibly rare opportunity to see this remarkable film in its fully-restored glory that no DVD or HD-TV will ever do justice to.
Third, it is being presented with a specially-commissioned score performed live by its composers, Miles and Karina. There is little better in this world than seeing a masterpiece of silent cinema shown with live accompaniment. Well okay, yeah, sex is (usually) better…but don’t tell the kids (yet).
Please, please, please do yourself a favor and make a point of seeing this film during this engagement.
Will Vinton on the History of Claymation and 3-D Animation
Once only: Saturday, Feb. 2 at 1 PM
Tickets at the door: $10 NWFF members / $12 General Public
These days Will Vinton is, alas, probably best known for commercials featuring singing raisins and talking candy. But when he’s not making rent (actually, even when he is), Will is one of the great animation talents of film history — and a program of his earlier work is mentioned below. But this event is a rare chance to hear the tale from the master’s own lips…and you’d be a fool to miss it.
With clips from different stages of development that led to the creation of Will Vinton Studios and to the popularity of computer animation, Will Vinton will share his personal odyssey of film projects as it relates to the growth of all forms of 3D animation. Key developments include: 1) experimentation and clay, 2) perfecting Claymation, 3) characterization and digital tools, 4) getting back to 3D animation’s roots.
Animated Genius: Films of Will Vinton
Only one chance left to see this, but Mr. Vinton will be in attendance: Saturday, Feb. 2 at 3 PM.
A program of Vinton’s earlier short Claymation films, many of them rarely screened:
Legacy (1979, 7 min)
The Creation (1981, 9 min)
Mountain Music (1976, 9 min)
A Christmas Gift (1980, 8 min)
Rip Van Winkle (1978, 27 min)
Not many filmmakers kick off their careers by winning an Academy Award (for Closed Mondays). Even fewer go on to breathe life into characters that become icons of animation. Fewer still achieve stunning commercial success with inventions like the California Raisins and M&M’s “Red & Yellow.” Will Vinton has done all that, in addition to founding and managing one of the most respected animation studios in history, Will Vinton Studios. Join us for this retrospective of early films by Will Vinton, and you’ll see why this boundlessly energetic and creative animator from Portland went on to win virtually every film and television award given to filmmakers. Northwest Film Forum is proud to salute Will Vinton — a world renowned Claymation pioneer who has created some of the most innovative animation in history, and who continues to break new ground under the banner of his new company, Freewill Entertainment.
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01.15.08
Posted in Music, Events, Friends and Family, Avant Experiwhosis, Seattle Stuff at 11:01 pm by Spencer
Not to dis any of the other performers (all of them outstanding and well worth your lousy half-a-sawbuck all on their lonesome), but I think they would agree it goes without saying that The act to catch is Alvarius B (aka Alan Bishop from Sun City Girls), who will be playing only his third solo show ever. If you haven’t heard his albums (or perhaps his collaborative releases with Cerberus Shoal and Dylan Nyoukis) you’re missing out. (Although: the SCG site offers the recent CD re-issue of his first album.) If you’re in town for this show Thursday night, you shouldn’t miss out even more. So what if it’s a school night? Everyone else at work will prolly have a hangover, too — only yours will be cooler.
There’s more about the line-up (including links to their various web sites) at The Rendezvous’ own web site.
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12.09.07
Posted in Cinema, Events, Artniss, Experimental Film at 10:02 pm by Spencer
Coming up this weekend (Fri. Dec. 14 - Sun. Dec. 16), the Northwest Film Forum is hosting A Clockwork Reduction Live, an ambitious new conceptual multimedia project by Seattle School, the same folks that organized the amazing MOTEL event back in September. The full scoop — including the all-star cast — is below, and meanwhile you can get advance tickets via BrownPaperTickets.com.
A CLOCKWORK REDUCTION LIVE
A Conceptual Project By Seattle School
Northwest Film Forum
1515 12th Ave. (on Capitol Hill, between Pike and Pine)
Fri. Dec. 14 & Sat. Dec. 15 @ 8 PM - the main event
Sun. Dec. 16 @ 8 PM - screening of the finished work
FEATURING:
Virginia Bogert - Tootie Pie
Sue Corcoran - She’s a Dog
Daniel Gildark - Cthulhu
Kris Kristensen - Inheritance
Christian Palmer - Forcefields
Lynn Shelton - We Go Way Back
WITH:
Rob Millis - Climax Golden Twins
Jacob Stone - Punch Drunk Productions
Kris Moon - Fourthcity
AND:
Aaron Allshouse, JD Barton, Kyle Bliss, Danielle Gibeson, Dustin Kemp, Abby Klein, Caitlin Ngo, and more …
Six years before Stanley Kubrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, Andy Warhol adapted the Anthony Burgess novel for his classic, black and white Factory film, VINYL. [You can rent the original at Scarecrow, albeit only on PAL.] In homage to Warhol, Seattle School will transform the entire Northwest Film Forum building for a unique Factory-style recreation of the film. This grand, live happening restages the film in parts, with simultaneous live performance, filming, and screening in our two cinemas and lobby.
Northwest filmmakers Lynn Shelton, Daniel Gildark, Virginia Bogert, Sue Corcoran, Christian Palmer and Kris Kristensen will direct models cum actors in cinema 1. Their footage will be projected live in cinema 2, where the audience intervenes in the creative process and composers (including Rob Millis of Climax Golden Twins) perform an improvised score. In the lobby, VJs (including Jacob Stone of Opticlash and Kris Moon from the Decibel Festival) will merge and edit the video and audio feeds from both cinemas in real time, creating a live finished film projected onto a translucent screen.
The audience can move around freely between rooms throughout the evening, witnessing the different stages of the event’s unique filmmaking process. The event ends when the final new interpretation of VINYL is complete. In keeping with Seattle School tradition, everyone is invited to stay after for fresh waffles (and yes, there will be Cool Whip.)
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