Blog

JOEL SCHLEMOWITZ’ 78 RPM + VICTROLA DEMO + A stalwart figure on the New York A-G film scene, Joel visits the Coast for the first time to debut his knowing homage to the format that put pop music into the hands of the masses. His 16mm—occasionally hand-processed—feature is an inspired and inspiring love-letter to the gramophone and its discs, from their early days in the Teens/Twenties to the renewed fandom of contemporary enthusiasts. Interviews with cultural historians, collectors, and DJs are interwoven with generous samplings of vintage shellac sounds, from red-hot jazz to hillbilly ballads. Joel personally wind ups his own steampunk phonograph, inviting others to try, while complimentary 78s float freely through our time-warp. 

Come celebrate all things “Hate Man” on what would have been the 81st birthday weekend of who many felt was the nucleus of Berkeley’s street life for the past 50 years. MiDNiTES FOR MANiACS, ATA and 3rd i Films co-present Ivan Jaigirdar’s The Hate Man, Street Philosopher (2002) along with a slew of shorts and clips. “This moving portrait of a Berkeley street philosopher explores the Hate Man’s enigmatic life, including why, thirty years ago, he chose to quit, his job as a successful New York Times journalist, drop out of mainstream society and live in the streets. Challenging conventional notions of success, conformity, progress and morality, “Hate” lucidly discusses and defends his own “downward mobility” and personal theories of human communication among countless other issues.” Introduced by his nephew Jesse Hawthorne Ficks and director Ivan Jaigirdar.

CHIP LORD + ALEX COPPOLA + ED & PAULINE + This second iteration of our Focus-on-Locus is trained on sites outside of SF, starting with two in-person offerings from Chip (Ant Farm) Lord: Greetings from Amarillo ushers us into the colorful life of the Texas Panhandle, while the world premiere of his Dark Seagrams enacts an exacting architectural analysis of the celebrated Seagrams Bldg. in NYC, with music by Leonard Cohen (and free Seagrams toasts!). Christian Bruno/ Natalija Vekic’s long-awaited Ed & Paulinecasts its gaze onto the first art-cinema in Berkeley, run by Ed Landberg and Pauline Kael!! Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson) affords As Above, a blimp’s-eye view of Kabul, Diana Vidrascu’s camera explores Brittany’s dramatic topography, and Pablo Fiasco takes us on a tour of London via its graffiti. ALSO: Ellie Vanderlip delivers her desert diary Ocotillo! and Alex Coppola live-cues world musics to a triptych of silent amateur travelogs from Asia, Africa, and South America in Glimpses of the Global South.