Friday, December 19, 2008
Chicago at Christmas Time.
With all this snow, I don't know what to do with myself. My boots are leaking, making three pairs of socks soaked by the time I step into the nightmare I call "clothing retail in downtown Chicago mass produced by women who are shop-a-holics and shouldn't be spending that kind of money with economy, where in the hell do you get the money anyways" work. Although, that was the best run-on sentence I have wrote this year. I need something to keep me warm! The zipper on my coat splits every time I step onto the bus. A quick fix is needed, although I have no solutions. I called my mother, she was no help. I don't have the money or the time to fix it. My sewing machine is no where to be found. I have to wear a dress to work today that is missing the bottom hem. I forgot to fix it before I moved, oops. I am lost in a misty sea of finding a record that I am almost positive does not exist. It would make the perfect Christmas gift. People driving in this weather makes my stomach turn along with the smell of cinnamon. I can not fathom why I still do the things I do on a daily basis. I wish I could take more days off then I can afford to see more people back in the OH. This is all becoming too familiar to me, why is there not an exchange here yet? I need something more than what I bargained for.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Screening at The Nightingale in Wicker Park
Nightingale Theater
1084 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL
www.nightingaletheatre.org
December 6th, 7pm
Curators: Sasha Samochina, Danielle Kramer
Contact:
Address: 2539 W. Altgeld, #3 East / Chicago, IL 60647
Phone: 253-279-3593 (sasha); 330-354-1454 (danielle)
Email: cloudshasha@gmail.com; dkramer1@gmail.com
Basic Info:
Title: Youthful Perspectives: Obsessions, Obstacles, and Growing Up Pop
Description:
This collection of work explores the experience of growing up engulfed in television and music culture. The imprint is sometimes subliminal, blurring the boundaries of reality in our memories and stories. We identify, communicate, and express with bits of digested media. Advertisements that our childhood sponge-like minds have absorbed float in and out as we daydream. Many consciously collect in an attempt to recreate these memories, feeding the longing of nostalgia fed by years of media culture. We chose these pieces for their exploration into these media memories, examining how they shape our ideas and identities, helping us discover who we are, and sometimes who we are not.
Identity Crisis (1990, 3:00, DVD) -- Mindy Faber
Seven-year-old Kendra plays dress-up to act out ten stereotypical female personas introduced by simple names handwritten on title cards. Perpetuated through movies, television and music, labels like Southern Bell, Smart Lady, and Movie Star are easily assumed by Kendra at such an early age. The outtakes quickly reveal her true complexity beyond these cookie-cutter identities as she rebels against performing and being primped for these conventional roles.
Ballet Suit (2006, 3:11, DVD) -- Sasha Samochina
Sasha Samochina revisits her trunk of childhood memories of ballet, birthday parties and pop star admiration.
9 Minutes of Kaunaus (2007, 6:30, DVD) -- Dani Leventhal
Dani Leventhal chats with young Domas Darguzs in a Lithuanian synagogue as he shares amazing tales of what he is learning in school. Stories of his brother serving as an Israeli soldier become infused with fantastic encounters as his imagination blurs the boundaries of fiction and reality.
Transitional Objects (2000, 19:00, DVD) Jennifer Montgomery
"Begun as a consideration of the upgrading from manual to digital film editing techniques, Transitional Objects explores the anxiety and loss inevitable in such a transition while also suggesting the consequences of other life transitions. The video takes its title from D.W. Winnicott's theory of children's use of transitional objects to negotiate the gaps between internal reality and the shared reality of people and things."
-Carl Bogner, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Target (1999, 8:30, DVD) -- Animal Charm
A man with a fully bandaged face drives aimlessly through a shopping center parking lot while Carol King plays a sad song on the radio. Recycled imagery of television advertisements, family portraits and animal footage switch channels in a wandering daydream as this mysterious movie scene drives on without a Target.
Lullaby (1999, 18:00, DVD) -- Jennifer Reeder
“Driven to the beat of Madonna's song Lucky Star, modified from its original pop rhythm to a lethargically slow pace, Lullaby explores the hopes and dreams of a teenage Jennifer Reeder as she develops into adulthood. Using actual diary entries from her teenage journal, intermixed with excerpts from the writings of Judy Blume - staple reading for most young girls coming of age in the early 1980s to the present - the artist places her youthful desires and inspirations in text, as well as visual, form on the screen.”
-- John D. Spiak
A Love Story Part 1 & 2 (3:20, DVD) -- Kali Heitholt
Screen printed images of Bob Dylan flash across the screen to recreate the nostalgia of a memory through repetitious excerpts of song.
Light is Waiting (2007, 11:00, DVD) -- Michael Robinson
“A very special episode of television's Full House devours itself from the inside out, excavating a hypnotic nightmare of a culture lost at sea. Tropes of video art and family entertainment face off in a luminous orgy neither can survive.”
--Michael Robinson
Formats Screened: DVD
Projection Staff: Christy LeMaster
Atmosphere: casual
Speakers: Sasha Samochina & Danielle Kramer
Introduction: Sasha Samochina & Danielle Kramer
Program Notes: Provided by Curators
1084 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago,IL
www.nightingaletheatre.org
December 6th, 7pm
Curators: Sasha Samochina, Danielle Kramer
Contact:
Address: 2539 W. Altgeld, #3 East / Chicago, IL 60647
Phone: 253-279-3593 (sasha); 330-354-1454 (danielle)
Email: cloudshasha@gmail.com; dkramer1@gmail.com
Basic Info:
Title: Youthful Perspectives: Obsessions, Obstacles, and Growing Up Pop
Description:
This collection of work explores the experience of growing up engulfed in television and music culture. The imprint is sometimes subliminal, blurring the boundaries of reality in our memories and stories. We identify, communicate, and express with bits of digested media. Advertisements that our childhood sponge-like minds have absorbed float in and out as we daydream. Many consciously collect in an attempt to recreate these memories, feeding the longing of nostalgia fed by years of media culture. We chose these pieces for their exploration into these media memories, examining how they shape our ideas and identities, helping us discover who we are, and sometimes who we are not.
Identity Crisis (1990, 3:00, DVD) -- Mindy Faber
Seven-year-old Kendra plays dress-up to act out ten stereotypical female personas introduced by simple names handwritten on title cards. Perpetuated through movies, television and music, labels like Southern Bell, Smart Lady, and Movie Star are easily assumed by Kendra at such an early age. The outtakes quickly reveal her true complexity beyond these cookie-cutter identities as she rebels against performing and being primped for these conventional roles.
Ballet Suit (2006, 3:11, DVD) -- Sasha Samochina
Sasha Samochina revisits her trunk of childhood memories of ballet, birthday parties and pop star admiration.
9 Minutes of Kaunaus (2007, 6:30, DVD) -- Dani Leventhal
Dani Leventhal chats with young Domas Darguzs in a Lithuanian synagogue as he shares amazing tales of what he is learning in school. Stories of his brother serving as an Israeli soldier become infused with fantastic encounters as his imagination blurs the boundaries of fiction and reality.
Transitional Objects (2000, 19:00, DVD) Jennifer Montgomery
"Begun as a consideration of the upgrading from manual to digital film editing techniques, Transitional Objects explores the anxiety and loss inevitable in such a transition while also suggesting the consequences of other life transitions. The video takes its title from D.W. Winnicott's theory of children's use of transitional objects to negotiate the gaps between internal reality and the shared reality of people and things."
-Carl Bogner, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Target (1999, 8:30, DVD) -- Animal Charm
A man with a fully bandaged face drives aimlessly through a shopping center parking lot while Carol King plays a sad song on the radio. Recycled imagery of television advertisements, family portraits and animal footage switch channels in a wandering daydream as this mysterious movie scene drives on without a Target.
Lullaby (1999, 18:00, DVD) -- Jennifer Reeder
“Driven to the beat of Madonna's song Lucky Star, modified from its original pop rhythm to a lethargically slow pace, Lullaby explores the hopes and dreams of a teenage Jennifer Reeder as she develops into adulthood. Using actual diary entries from her teenage journal, intermixed with excerpts from the writings of Judy Blume - staple reading for most young girls coming of age in the early 1980s to the present - the artist places her youthful desires and inspirations in text, as well as visual, form on the screen.”
-- John D. Spiak
A Love Story Part 1 & 2 (3:20, DVD) -- Kali Heitholt
Screen printed images of Bob Dylan flash across the screen to recreate the nostalgia of a memory through repetitious excerpts of song.
Light is Waiting (2007, 11:00, DVD) -- Michael Robinson
“A very special episode of television's Full House devours itself from the inside out, excavating a hypnotic nightmare of a culture lost at sea. Tropes of video art and family entertainment face off in a luminous orgy neither can survive.”
--Michael Robinson
Formats Screened: DVD
Projection Staff: Christy LeMaster
Atmosphere: casual
Speakers: Sasha Samochina & Danielle Kramer
Introduction: Sasha Samochina & Danielle Kramer
Program Notes: Provided by Curators
Sunrise
I was granted a window seat for once, and all the times I have spent between two large bodies in quiet discomfort was worth the break through the clouds as we rose above the thick blanket. Below was gray and gloom, but what a gift it was for those beyond the Cumulus ground. The moment we broke through the clouds, the sun snapped from the horizon with bands of white, yellow and blue light a bursting ball of proud yellow fire. This moment was more than a scene, it was an action in time produced by the movement of the earth around the sun and us around the earth. It lasted but a few seconds, but it filled me and I sat with my head against the window for a while, watching the white cotton candy stand surprisingly still below us. Holes began to break to reveal the patchwork of geometric farmland below. A dirty gust of gray air moved in to soil the view of the yellow morning sun until we were enveloped with a layer of Nimbostratus and the moment was done.
I wonder who else had noticed?
I wonder who else had noticed?
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Telluride Film Festival: Case Study
Nestled in a box canyon in the southwest corner of the Rocky Mountains, the Telluride Film Festival has peacefully resided for the last thirty-five years . Know for its secrecy, every year the program list is withheld until the first evening of the festival, avoiding the frenzied hype many other festivals are known for. The entire event is packed into one long weekend, full of films, parties, panel discussions, workshops and tributes . The festival is an opportunity for enjoyment rather than competition. There are no awards or prizes; only salutes and appreciations. Attendees come in good faith in place of with business. This quiet mountainside celebration is a breath of fresh air for many festival-goers in the industry .
The audience of over 2,000 is comprised of interns, volunteers, and anyone else willing to drop $500-$2500 per pass . Out of fairness, there are no free rides for press. The festival is open to all with equal opportunity. This year over seventy celebrities made the pilgrimage to Telluride. Eager film students find themselves moseying to the next screening alongside world-renowned filmmakers also enjoying the laid-back celebrations and clean mountain air Telluride has to offer . This relaxed atmosphere and casual celebrity approachability have been eminent to the gathering since its genesis. In 1974, Michael Webb of The Washington Post, recalling the excitement of dramatic guests, including Gloria Swanson, Francis Ford Coppola and Leni Riefenstahl, wrote “The best thing about Telluride were the moments of easy contact with the famous and knowledgeable in the heady mountain air. ” It is clear that this festival as celebration rather than celebrity has always been an essential part of the mission to set the Telluride Film Festival apart from the hustle and bustle well known to its sister cinematic gatherings.
The program screens anything and everything, premiering new films for discovery, hosting tributes to the greats, and programming shows that revive yesterday’s films sometimes too soon forgotten . Guest directors give the program a new feel every year. Anthony Kaufman in Filmmaker writes of when guest director Peter Sellars “shaped the 1999 program with several older experimental works .” The rediscovery of bygone films not only serves the as an ode to the past, but also sets an historical context by which to view the selections of films of today.
The festival reviews feature lengths and shorts, Hollywood and Independent, combing the world for its best and brightest new stars. Mr. Busy of Sight and Sound praises Telluride’s audience for being “film literate,” talking about films in a way that is different from the critics and cinephiles. They neither talk up an art film because it is an art film, nor dismiss a mainstream film because it is mainstream . No matter who came first, the festival or the audience, Telluride’s selections are well received year after year by viewers hungry for the films caught by a wide net of programming that considers all possibilities born into the cinematic world.
Bibliography
Busy, Mr. “Venice, Berlin and Cannes are dead. Long live…Telluride,” Sight and Sound, ns13 no11 N 2003.
Heller, Sarah A., “In a Box (Canyon) and on a Line: The 32nd Telluride Film Festival, September 2-5, 2005,” Senses of Cinema, November 2005, http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/06/38/telluride2005.html (accessed October 28, 2008).
Kaufman, Anthony, “Telluride Film Festival,” Filmmaker, Fall 1999, http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/fall1999/fests.php#top (accessed October 28, 2008).
Langdon, Matt, “The Telluride Film Festival,” Filmmaker, Oct. 14, 1996, http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/archives/online_features/telluride96.php (accessed October 28, 2008).
Phillips, Rob, “Why Women Rule: 34th Telluride Film Festival, 31 August – 3 September 2007,” Senses of Cinema, http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/08/46/telluride-ff-2007.html (accessed October 28, 2008).
Telluride Film Festival, National Film Preserve, Ltd, http://telluridefilmfestival.org/show (accessed October 28, 2008).
The audience of over 2,000 is comprised of interns, volunteers, and anyone else willing to drop $500-$2500 per pass . Out of fairness, there are no free rides for press. The festival is open to all with equal opportunity. This year over seventy celebrities made the pilgrimage to Telluride. Eager film students find themselves moseying to the next screening alongside world-renowned filmmakers also enjoying the laid-back celebrations and clean mountain air Telluride has to offer . This relaxed atmosphere and casual celebrity approachability have been eminent to the gathering since its genesis. In 1974, Michael Webb of The Washington Post, recalling the excitement of dramatic guests, including Gloria Swanson, Francis Ford Coppola and Leni Riefenstahl, wrote “The best thing about Telluride were the moments of easy contact with the famous and knowledgeable in the heady mountain air. ” It is clear that this festival as celebration rather than celebrity has always been an essential part of the mission to set the Telluride Film Festival apart from the hustle and bustle well known to its sister cinematic gatherings.
The program screens anything and everything, premiering new films for discovery, hosting tributes to the greats, and programming shows that revive yesterday’s films sometimes too soon forgotten . Guest directors give the program a new feel every year. Anthony Kaufman in Filmmaker writes of when guest director Peter Sellars “shaped the 1999 program with several older experimental works .” The rediscovery of bygone films not only serves the as an ode to the past, but also sets an historical context by which to view the selections of films of today.
The festival reviews feature lengths and shorts, Hollywood and Independent, combing the world for its best and brightest new stars. Mr. Busy of Sight and Sound praises Telluride’s audience for being “film literate,” talking about films in a way that is different from the critics and cinephiles. They neither talk up an art film because it is an art film, nor dismiss a mainstream film because it is mainstream . No matter who came first, the festival or the audience, Telluride’s selections are well received year after year by viewers hungry for the films caught by a wide net of programming that considers all possibilities born into the cinematic world.
Bibliography
Busy, Mr. “Venice, Berlin and Cannes are dead. Long live…Telluride,” Sight and Sound, ns13 no11 N 2003.
Heller, Sarah A., “In a Box (Canyon) and on a Line: The 32nd Telluride Film Festival, September 2-5, 2005,” Senses of Cinema, November 2005, http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/06/38/telluride2005.html (accessed October 28, 2008).
Kaufman, Anthony, “Telluride Film Festival,” Filmmaker, Fall 1999, http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/fall1999/fests.php#top (accessed October 28, 2008).
Langdon, Matt, “The Telluride Film Festival,” Filmmaker, Oct. 14, 1996, http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/archives/online_features/telluride96.php (accessed October 28, 2008).
Phillips, Rob, “Why Women Rule: 34th Telluride Film Festival, 31 August – 3 September 2007,” Senses of Cinema, http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/festivals/08/46/telluride-ff-2007.html (accessed October 28, 2008).
Telluride Film Festival, National Film Preserve, Ltd, http://telluridefilmfestival.org/show (accessed October 28, 2008).
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