Blog

  • OpenScreening

    Open Screening

    See fresh perspectives and formula shattering techniques in film and video art from the Bay Area and beyond! Open Screening accepts one hour of shorts every month on an open revolving basis. Live local bands open every show, and the refreshments are darn good.

    FREE admission for exhibitors

    7pm: Door/Bar
    7:30 Music
    8pm: Projector

    OS Submission Info:
    * Cue and label all tapes w/ name, contact, title and length.
    * Mail dubs to: “openscreening”, 992 Valencia, SF, 94110
    * 1-2 week advance submissions strongly recommended
    * Email inquiries do not guarantee a space. Tapes do
    * Max trt: 20m
    * DVD, miniDV/DVcam, sVHS, sm beta, 8mm and 16mm
    * All genres. Student, “in progress”, and segments welcome
    * Info: contact meg @ openscreening@hotmail.com

    ABOUT OPEN SCREENING:
    Open Screening is a noncompetitive and uncensored exhibition of short films and videos where artists and lay persons can experience cinema’s innovative foundations first hand. Most exhibitors are students and established filmmakers wishing to test run a new piece. Because the program is arranged on a first come – first served basis, themes are incidental, and style and subject matter varies tremendously from month to month and film to film.
    For further information, contact Megan Miller at openscreening@hotmail.com

  • How to Fix the World

    How to Fix the World

    Program:

    Boond: In 6 Tellings
    Anuradha Chandra
    2004 14min Color MiniDV
    US Premiere Boond tells a mythical fable of a drop of water that turns into a man. The story is told by four women from around the world. Their interpretation and retelling of this ancient tale reveals the multiple meanings of the story. In a time when communities are collapsing under the pressures of modern life, Boond explores the possibility of resurrecting lost oral traditions and finding spaces to communicate despite differences.

    Farm-In-The-City
    EE Miller & Bernadine Mellis
    2003 5min Color MiniDV US
    World Premiere, Filmmaker in Person! 8mm footage combined with the interview of a woman who imagines giant possibilities, environmental and social utopia and ecstatic collaboration and struggle.

    Floods, Ghosts and Contamination
    Jenny Stark
    2004 13:45min B/W BetaSP US
    N. CA Premiere The film uses the old Mexican folktale of “La Llorona” as a backdrop to depictions of two disasters in Texas, one caused by a flood associated with the building of a dam on the Rio Grande River and the other caused by environmental contamination near an old Air Force base in San Antonio.

    Landscapes in Alphabetical Order
    Katherin McInnis
    2003 1min Color MiniDV US
    Filmmaker in Person! In this scenic montage McInnis examines the ways moving images are coded, organized- and archived by using film stills from the Prelinger Archives that were filed under the keyword “landscape.”

    Fan (a lovel story)
    Lori Samsel
    2003 5min Color BetaSP US CA Premiere
    An animated look at the love between a girl and her fan.

    Monument
    Amy Harrison
    2003 1:34min Color MiniDV US Theatrical Premiere, Filmmaker in Person!
    An animated pile of stones works as a parable of the earth’s response to the build up of thousands of years of human activity.

    How to Fix the World
    Jacqueline Goss
    2004 28min Color BetaSP US
    CA Premiere
    Based on Soviet psychologist A.R. Luria’s research on Central Asian collective farms in the 1930’s, How To Fix The World illustrates the cultural conflicts between speaking and writing, drawing and photography, and Soviet Socialism and Islam. Digital animations based on Max Penson’s early 20th century photographs play against a backdrop of 21st century footage of Uzbekistan, where Luria originally conducted these humorous, conflicting and revealing conversations with the Muslim farmers of Central Asia.

    The MadCat Women’s International Film Festival seeks to exhibit provocative and visionary works that are original in their use of the medium. The festival’s goal is to emphasize innovative works by women that challenge the use of sound and image and explore notions of visual storytelling. This international festival advances an alternative vision by emphasizing work that exploits the medium.

    http://www.madcatfilmfestival.org

  • Joe Biel’s “A Hundred Dollars and a T-Shirt”

    Joe Biel

    » More images

    A Hundred Dollars and a T-Shirt: A video documentary about zines in the Northwest US (65 mins.) is a new documentary by Joe Biel, co-owner, Microcosm Publishing and publisher of The Stolen Sharpie Revolution. The documentary is a cultural analysis of what causes zine makers to tick; what the hell zines are, why people make zines, the origin of zines, the resources and community available for zine makers, and the future of zines. The video contains interviews with about 70 zine makers, ex-zine makers, and readers from the northwest, with footage from the Portland Zine Symposium, other zine events and activities bringing zine culture to life. For people with a new interest in zines as well as pros and novices, the video sparks untapped creativity and new interest in zine making and reading.  Artwork by Cristy Road and music by J Church, Fer De Lance, and Defiance, OH! Collaborators include Rev. Phil Sano, Basil Shadid, and Joe Biel.

    The SF Zine Fest runs from saturday – sunday, september 4th and 5th from 10am-4pm at Cellspace, 2050 Bryant street in San Francisco.

    For more information about Microcosm Publishing, go to http://microcosmpublishing.com.

    Also, join Biel and others at the San Jose Museum of Art on Saturday, September 11, 2004 for “The Whys and Hows of the Zine Revolution“.