Not a filmmaker? Come and hang out with us anyway. Enjoy the atmosphere, the art, the movies, the people, the refreshments

Submissions: Label all tapes w/ name, contact, title and length. Mail to: Openscreening, 992 Valencia, SF, 94110 1-2 week advance submissions strongly recommended. If not. . . it is all good. Max length: 15 min. Formats: DVD, miniDV/DVcam, VHS, beta, 8mm and 16mm All genres.

More Info: contact Katy at ataopenscreening@atasite.org or Programming@atasite.org

reception Jan 15th, 5-8pm

www.authorityoffice.com

 Right Window
www.rightwindow.com

 Zagreb School of Animated film

In the history of animated film, the Zagreb school played an outstandingly creative role. It brought together many artistic talents who all had a strong will for artistic experimenting. After couple attempts in classic, Disney like animation they soon lost interest and found no ispiration in it any more. Quite on the contrary, they’ve completely reversed its concept: they’ve created a space with only two dimensions (on a blank paper, which formed a background, flat two-dimensional characters found their place), instead of three-dimensional space which in Disney’s case had to create an illusion of the real space. Furthermore, the continuity of movement was reduced, broken and abstract ( in Disney’s case it was supposed to mimic a real-life movement). In their films, these authors challanged the laws of physics. They also made changes with the music they used – noises, sound effects and music were not just following movements any more, but had become a part of the film or even a counterpoint to scenes in the film. The Zagreb style of animation has determined stylized animation which relied on graphics or painting  which brought it closer to the art avantgarde. The Zagreb authors had brought existential and social questions into animated film, and dealt with themes such as old age, death, sickness, agression, all the things Disney carefully tried to avoid in his films.

 Zagreb School of Animated film represents a strong acquisition to the aesthetics of animated film. At the same time, in the school’s creative process, there wasn’t a single unique figurative style but the uniqness of material was based on the mentality of its author, and the authors were open to changes and influences from many different sides. This being said, although the School had one common style, at the same time there was a new, independent force within the School which, in the end, became the distinctive and recognizable style of the School.

 It is quite a unique phenomenon to witness a group of artists working together at one spot, contributing on different projects and at the same time maintaining and developing personal styles and work mode. Another interesting thing about the School is the highly developed sense of collectiveness among its memebers, which enabled the group of authors to work side by side, while exchanging ideas and collaborating, and despite their diametrical poetics, joining them in a common quest for new themes, new styles and new ways of production.

 Establishing a department of animated film in 1956. within Zagreb Film soon enabled the production of short author pieces, and gave a chance to the young, creative forces to show their potentials. As a result of this, their films soon became widly acclaimed at foreign festivals. Two years after the launch of the Department, a film Samac (Alone) by Vatroslav Mimica won a Grand Prix at the Venice festival. It was the first grand success of the School. The authors who came to work in this newly established department were Nikola Kostelac, Dušan Vukotić, Vatroslav Mimica, Vlado Kristl and Borivoj Dovniković-Bordo. However, the biggest success of the School was an Oscar for the best animated film, awarded to Dušan Vukotić’s film Surogat (Ersatz) in 1961. This was the first time a non-American film received an award in this category.

After Vukotić, Mimica and Kristl a new generation of authors came (from the mid 1960s till the end of 1970s) who had a more casual approach, namly while choosing their themes where they turned to playing around and implementing humor in their works. Ronald Holloway called them ‘punmen’, comparing animated films of Borivoj Dovniković, Pavle Štalter, Aleksandar Marks, Zlatko Bourek, Zlatko Grgić, Ante Zaninović, Milan Blažeković, Nedeljko Dragić, Dragutin Vunak and Boris Kolar with those of American silent comedies.

 In 1978. Zdenko Gašparović made a film Satiemania (Satiemania), the best film of Zagreb School according to many. This was the time of School’s third and last phase, with new authors such as Joško Marušić and Krešimir Zimonić.

However, during those times, the downfall of the School began as well. It was reflected in its creative and productive field. School’s financial problems started to interfere with the production of films, also problems of technical nature rose ( the lack of interest for implementing new technologies such as computers), as well as  those within production (the authors started to leave the Department). This all resulted in School’s closing during 1980s. Reestablishing of the School is no longer possible, but there wouldn’t be any purpose for it, as well.

Brent Cunningham is a writer, publisher and visual artist living in Oakland, California. His first book of poetry, Bird & Forest , was published by Ugly Duckling Presse in 2005. His second book, JOURNEY TO THE SUN, was published by Atelos Press in 2012. He currently works as the Operations Director at Small Press Distribution in Berkeley where he has been an employee since 1999. He and Neil Alger are the founders of Hooke Press, a chapbook press dedicated to publishing short runs of poetry, criticism, theory, writing and ephemera.

Tyrone Williams teaches literature and theory at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is the author of three books of poetry, including The Hero Project of the Century, c.c., and On Spec about which Craig Dworkin writes, “Tyrone Williams maps the social space of language with an unflinching ear: tracing the networks of unintended associations trailing behind words from different registers and plotting the vectors at which disparate planes of idiom and vernacular intersect.” His chapbooks include the recent prose eulogy ” Pink Tie.” A new book of “older” poetry, Adventures of Pi , is forthcoming from Dos Madres Press in 2011, and he has completed a manuscript of poetry commissioned by Atelos Books. For more information visit Tyrone Williams’ website.

Lyn Hejinian is a poet, essayist, and translator. Her groundbreaking book of poetry, MY LIFE, published by Sun & Moon/Green Integer, has had five reprintings from 1980-2002. Her most recent books include A BORDER COMEDY (Granary Books, 2001), SLOWLY and THE BEGINNER (both published by Tuumba Press, 2002), THE FATALIST (Omnidawn, 2003), SAGA/CIRCUS (Omnidawn, 2008), and THE BOOK OF A THOUSAND EYES (Omnidawn, 2012). The University of California Press published a collection of her essays entitled The Language of Inquiry in 2000. In the spring of 2007, she was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She teaches in the English Department at the University of California, Berkeley.

New work by Glenna Cole Allee, Molly Hankwitz and Linda G. Wilson

An exhibition of color photography and collaged objects, (Re)capture presents complimentary aesthetic approaches to the appearance and disappearance of culture and meaning in everyday life.

Glenna Cole Allee presents two digital c-prints of full size milk cows made entirely of butter.

http://glennacoleallee.com/home.html
microclimatecollective.com

This program is co-sponsored by Artist Television Access and the San Francisco Arab Film Festival. There are no limitations on length and no fees for submitting your film. For submission form and guidelines please send an email to menaexperimental@gmail.com. Deadline for submissions is Feb 1, 2012.

On Sat. December 17th, ATA Gallery hosts a benefit celebration for its flagship programming project, Other Cinema. Grounding the gallery’s media arts exhibitions for some 27 years, OC will be feted by such long-standing collaborators as Anne McGuire & Wobbly, once again joining forces as the vocalist/electronics duo Freddy McGuire; Kerry Laitala & John Davis’ live-cinema phantasmagoria, Greta Snider’s new black and white experiment; Bryan Boyce’s hilarious video wizardry, Bill Daniel historic S8 bike messenger jamboree, Jeffrey Skoller’s tell-all tabloid on Baldwin in his younger days, Jesse Drew’s media surprise, Archimedia’s duet, Goldwave’s ever-awesome opticals over Blackmonk’s groovy tunes, and others. Friends, fans, and followers are encouraged to demonstrate their support, and have a jolly good time doing it, with delicious atrocities from Christine Metropoulos’ Delicatrocities!
 
Please also pledge your support for the Other Cinema Kickstarter campaign, for lots of great art prizes. New rewards are pending, so keep an eye out!

 http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/othercinema/other-cinema-benefit
 
Showtime is 9PM. Admission is sliding-scale, from $6.66 to $99.99. 
 
www.othercinema.com

Thomas Carnacki is a purloined moniker attached to the recording and performing activities of Berkeley-based Gregory Scharpen, who emerges from the twin factory-farms of theatrical sound design and the oblique-concrete audio outfit irr. app. (ext.). Thomas Carnacki has performed on both coasts of the continent, and has convinced a sizable number of luminaries to shed their dignity and participate in the proceedings, with performances at Project Soundwave Festival, the 2008 Whitney Biennial, Illuminated Corridor, and on Neighborhood Public Radio. The core ensemble also includes Jesse Burson, James Kaiser, and Gregory Hagan.

Born in Tokyo, Sylvia Schedelbauer first moved to Berlin in 1993, where she has been based since. Her films negotiate the space between broader historical narratives and personal, psychological realms, mainly through poetic manipulations of found and archival film footage. Selected screenings include the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, the London Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, the Robert Flaherty International Film Seminar, and the Stan Brakhage Symposium. Awards include Best Sound Design at the Ann Arbor Film Festival (2010), the German Film Critics’ Award for Best Experimental Film (2008), and the VG Bildkunst Award (2007). For this night, she will be introducing and screening False Friends, Remote Intimacy, way fare, andSounding Glass.