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À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma

[At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul]
(José Mojica Marins, 1964, 105 min)
Coffin Joe, an undertaker, believes in the “continuity of the blood.” A sadist, he prowls the city in search of a woman to bear him an immortal child, while terrorizing people.

Zé do Caixão está a procura da mulher perfeita pra dar luz a seu filho, e aterroriza uma pequena cidade com suas práticas sadísticas.

Amor Só de Mãe [Love from Mother Only]
(Dennison Ramalho, 2003, Brasil, 21 mins)
A macabre tale of lust, motherly affection and macumba shot with conviction and style.
Uma história macabre de amor de mãe.

Brazilian voices of cinema

Brazil helped pioneer filmmaking in the Americas, screening its first film in Rio de Janeiro all the way back in 1897, and its first documentary in 1903. The approach for this series was to strike a balance between art house and commercial film and, by covering different eras, genres and styles, touch  upon various cornerstones of Brazilian cinema.  Silent film began in Brazil with Antônio Leal’s thriller “Os  Estranguladores” (1906); followed by Humberto Mauro’s “Brasa Dormida” (1928)  and “Ganga Bruta” (1933); Adalbert Kememy’s avant-garde “Sao Paulo: Sinfonia de una Metropoli” (1929); and Mario Peixoto’s avant-garde “Limite” (1930).

In the ‘40s Brazilian cinema became overrun by Hollywood films. Companhia Cinematografica de Veracruz, a replica of the American studio system, produced mostly melodramas – Lima Barreto’s “O Cangaçeiro” (1953) obtained critical and financial success. In the ‘60s a movement called Cinema Novo came to dominate for two decades.  A move away from the Hollywood production style, it was led by intellectuals like Glauber Rocha — “Antonio das Mortes” (1969) — who sought to create a distinctly Brazilian mode of filmmaking. In 1967, Ozualdo Candeias’ “A Margem” gave birth to Cinema Marginal, that sought to represent the life of society’s forgotten people. “Cinema Novo was a movie a little individualistic,” said José Mojica Marins,  a marginais on his own whose Zé do Caixão (Coffin Joe) horror b-movies would become cult classics.

The creation of Embrafilme, a government agency in charge of financing and  distribution, allowed Brazilian cinema to flourish during the 1970s and  ‘80s. Bruno Barreto’s “Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos” (1976) and Carlos Diegues’ “Bye Bye Brasil” (1980) belong to this period.  Embrafilme’s dissolution in 1990 nearly stopped cinematic output in Brazil altogether. Still, figures like Walter Salles, Fernando Meirelles and Karim Ainouz — “Madame Satã” (2002) — were able to produce films despite the adversities.

We are accompanying the series with shorts by three emerging local voices: Carolina Moraes-Liu, Rita Piffer and Savana Vagueiro, along with shorts by  renowned Brazilian filmmakers Jorge Furtado, Dennison Ramalho and Carlos Vergara. A lot of voices to choose from that leave the door open for a second  installment next year. We hope you enjoy the programs.

—Colectivo Cinema Errante

Ever want to kick back and let some of your best friends entertain you?  Join us for an evening of show and tell + dance, smile, new and surreal weekending at ATA .  Bringing together some of the most creative people in the Bay art and music communities, DADADANCEPARTY wants to open your Memorial Day weekend on the right foot.  The lineup includes visual artists, poets, dancers, musicians, DJs and other conceptual magicians, all of whom have something new to show you.  Stop by for drinks, chats and arts — we promise you’ll leave smiling.

Artist bios:
Joshua Kit Clayton is an artist, musician, and computer programmer, living and working in San Francisco. He is a graduate of the Bard College MFA program in Film/Video. He produces dance music for post-rave casualties both on his own and in the band Pigeon Funk. He is responsible for the development of Jitter, a video and 3d graphics extension to Cycling ’74’s Max visual programming environment. His performance and video based projects explore communication, speculation, value, directive, and the space between artist and audience.

LANA VORONINA: GRANNY ON THE MOVE AND FARM LIFE, POST POISON OAK

mu fa or is a multifarious organism comprised of two people, Magenta and Wobbly. Magenta sings abstract and improvised vocals into a microphone
and Wobbly samples and multiplies those vocals into a forest menagerie. A tracking shot of an eagle flying through a valley of mirrors and listening
to its own songs reflected back into the sky.

MAX is a live stream performance asking questions with multiple answers/ answerers. Visual and audio poems inspired by the physical and online audience, filtered through computer and human processing. Orchestrated by Caitlin Denny, Dmitri Svistula, and Nicole Ginelli.
Sophia Wang and Brontez Purnell began collaborating as dancers and choreographers in 2010.  With the Brontez Purnell Dance Company, they have performed at the Berkeley Art Museum, SOMArts and LoBot Gallery, where they presented their first collaboratively choreographed work. Brontez has worked with several Bay Area performers and choreographers, including Jesse Hewitt, Eric Kupers, Amara Smith and Nina Haft, with whom he is completing a dance degree at Cal State East Bay. Sophia has danced for choreographer Hentyle Yapp in an original piece for the Berkeley Dance Project at U.C. Berkeley, where she is completing a doctoral dissertation on postwar and contemporary American poetry. Brontez makes music with his band, The Younger Lovers, as well as zines and dance films; Sophia makes documentary photography and dances in those dance films.
Sara Wintz is a writer living in Oakland, California. Her poetry, non-fiction, and criticism can be found in Jacket, 6×6, The Poetry Project Newsletter, Try!, Physical Poets, Model Homes and Ceptuetics. Last year she worked as a contributing editor for the first issue of Emergency Index, an annual print publication from Ugly Duckling Presse documenting new performance in the words of its creators. Her first book, WALKING ACROSS A FIELD WE ARE FOCUSED ON AT THIS TIME NOW, is forthcoming also from Ugly Duckling Presse.

Geeta Dayal writes frequently on the intersections between sound, visual art, and technology. She is the recent recipient of a major grant from Creative Capital | The Andy Warhol Foundation in the Arts Writers Program. Her first book, Another Green World, on the musician Brian Eno, was published by Continuum in 2009. She is currently a Culture editor at Wired, and has written over 150 articles and reviews for major publications, including Frieze, Bookforum, The Wire, The Village Voice, The New York Times, The International Herald-Tribune, Print, Wired, Rhizome, and many more. She has taught several courses as a lecturer in new media and journalism at the University of California – Berkeley, Fordham University, and the State University of New York.  She’s also a rad DJ.

Dominique Leone makes pop, prog, experimental, classical, electronic, dance and improvised music.  He leads at least a couple of bands on his own, regularly plays with Ava Mendoza, Aaron Novik and Jordan Glenn, DJs, and has performed with William Winant, Matmos, Lindstrom, Kevin Blechdom, Wobbly among many others.  He has remixed Max Tundra, Steve Reich, R.Stevie Moore and others, and has appeared on records by Boredoms, Mungolian Jetset and Matmos.  He has written about music for Pitchfork, Allmusic, PASTE and many other places.  His most recent project was a new production of Igor Stravinsky’s Les Noces. http://www.dominiqueleone.com