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Revolutionary art is ours! At a time when our freedoms of speech are being restricted and corporate control of expression abounds, revolution can be as simple as giving art away. The artists in this show, from the Bay Area all the way to Canada, Kansas, New Hampshire, New York and Chicago, are using their voices against war and consumerism — not for money, but for you. The celebration will include revolutionary music, video, poetry, and performances by local artists who refuse to shut up, including the blissful rock of Diskarte Namin, heart-wrenching harmonies of Samsara, and a sneak preview trailer for Art as Revolution, a not-for-profit documentary project about political artists in the BayArea. Via free raffle, audience members will take home all of the Free Art! originals straight from the gallery walls. Post-party, the visual and text-based work will be placed in the public domain, and will be downloadable online for anyone to use. More information: http://artistactionnetwork.org.

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Join us for an evening of films and videos with these visiting Northwest filmmakers:

BRIDGET IRISH will be moonlighting tonight from tour – projecting films with Olympia band Liarbird – to screen shorts from her collection of work in Super 8, 16mm, and video. From the weight of anxiety to the feather-light elation of climbing altitude, this hour-long program includes site and experience portraits made in Olympia and San Francisco – such as: Shot at Bernie’s Garage (16mm, b&w, with song by Liarbird, 3 mins) and SFO (Super 8, color, soundtrack by Growing, 20 mins) – with performative video pieces involving snapping dogs and pushing heavy furniture, naked, up a flight of
narrow stairs…

BRYAN CONNOLLY will be premiering his made-for-t.v. pilot show to the Bay Area: Detective Eddie Morris doesn’t mess around when it comes to solving a murder.  He won’t leave the scene until all the cards have been played. Detective Perkins knows how to file and he does it with a cat-like skill. Detective Delores makes a cup of joe so mean, even a hardened criminal can’t stomach it. Together these three will stop at nothing to show that crime doesn’t pay in THE SAVAGE PLACE. (2002: DV, color, sound, 22 Minutes) Rated G.

ARTISTS’ BIOS…

Bridget Irish, an Olympia-based artist, studied at The Evergreen State
College (BA) and SFAI (MFA), returning to her hometown from San Francisco in 1999. She performs and exhibits solo and collaboratively (as with Kathryn Williamson; Dr Frockrocket; and B.C.), as well as screening her own and others’ work in moving image, locally and nationally. Bridget organized, curated and presented film/video programs for such festivals as: Ladyfest Olympia (also performance art/spoken word; 2000), Progression Project One (BSU, ID), and Homo-A-GoGo (Olympia, 2002). Currently, she is developing FILMANDDESTROY.org : a poly-feminist/visual culture critique net-zine and curatorial-exhibition project for moving image and performance/art by queer, het and gender-variant gals.

Bridget may be contacted at filmanddestroy@riseup.net .

Bryan Connolly, transplanted to the Northwest from Long Island at the tender age of 4, and a graduate of Humpty Dumpty Preschool in Tacoma, WA, is an Olympia-based narrative filmmaker. Bryan has been writing scripts, acting and directing films since the age of 14. He founded the first film club at his high school and completed his first feature-length film – THE GREAT AMERICAN DISEASE – before his 21st birthday. This fall, he will be co-curating/hosting the Olympia Film Festival’s marathon event – All Freakin’ Night – for the fourth year, with sometimes writing partner, Zack Carlson.

Bryan may be reached at sideburnsandbarley@yahoo.com

Both filmmakers have screened work at the Olympia Film Festival and recently in Seattle’s Emerald Reels’ Satellites 2003 – North Meets South.

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Anarcho Country Cinema merges anarchist politics with traditional old time themes of heartbreak, love, labor, social protest, crime, and revolution. The program challenges the assumptions that cinema has to be made with lots of money, that art has to be geared towards major urban centers, and that movies have to provoke emotion over thought. Whether destroying stolen images from classical movies, dismembering pictures of his family and friends, or finding insight within the texts of a terrorist, Harris’s movies attempt to undermine binary assumptions and create unlikely, unwilled collaborations.

Chicago based artist Kyle Harris is a teacher, media activist, curator, and video maker. He is currently touring Anarcho Country Cinema to venues across the United States. Harris curates with the nomadic microcinema Discount Cinema, executes public art projects with Chicago County Fair, facilitates workshops for youth media activists at Video Machete, and teaches film aesthetics at Columbia College. His work has shown in museums, festivals, microcinemas, bars, and living rooms internationally.