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From the folks who brought you the Hoedown and the Brodown now comes the Pronoun Schmonoun Showdown.  Join us for an evening of films and discussion around gender variance including, but not limited to: trans, two-spirit and other “non-traditionally” gendered creatures.  All proceeds go to benefit Pronoun Schmonoun, an organization working to raise funds and awareness about trans and gender variant healthcare issues.   There’s something for everyone in this collection of films, from the person who’s just recently touched on some curiosity around gender difference, to the seasoned shape shifting tranny who’s been around the old gender block a few times. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and go home and change into a skirt and tie.  Drinks will be available.

$5-10 sliding scale with no one turned away for lack of funds.  For more info go to http://www.pronounschmonoun.org 

You won’t want to miss the off beat and hilarious comedy of the Sunday Night Blues players at their best. Sunday Night Blues will be showing their highly acclaimed short films on the big screen at the ATA Theater. The provocative photos of Joseph Alvarado will be featured before the show. info: SundayNightBlues.com

 

 

Eschewing the facile irony in vogue among their peers, these two young Chicagoans use fragmentary and disparate pairings of image and sound to create thought-provoking commentaries on displacement and alienation in our culture. The strongest of these seven videos is Finn’s chilling Super-Max (2003), a tour of maximum security prisons shot from a moving car, their hulking forms framed by telephone poles and power lines that divide landscape and sky. The concluding voice-over, making reference to Lewis and Clark, implicitly equates the European occupation of this continent with imprisonment. Rank’s best contribution, Team (2003), turns football into a macho theater of the absurd: in one scene a coach derogates certain uniform numbers as “femme.” 73 min.

Capsule by Fred Camper

From the Chicago Reader

Friday, March 28, 2003

 

FILMMAKER BIOS:

Jim Finn (b. 1968, St. Louis) lives in Chicago and makes videos using 16mm film, mini dv and vhs. His work has screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, New York Underground Film Festival, Cinematexas, and the Museo Tamayo de Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City. His work has appeared on the PBS show “EGG the Arts”, on the Spanish TVE show, “Metropolis”, and in Harper’s magazine. He is also co-organizer of the experimental 2003 Video Mundi festival at the Chicago Cultural Center.

 

Dean Rank studied film and video at the University of Illinois Chicago. His work has been screened at the Thaw Film Festival in Iowa City, the Aurora Picture Show in Houston, Blinding Light in Vancouver, Vox Populi in Philadelphia, and the Butcher Shop Gallery in Chicago. His last project was an experimental music video for the band Shipping News, which screened at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. On this tour he is premiering his short film opus, Team.

 

 

THE PROGRAM:

wüstenspringmaus (Jim Finn, 3 min, 16mm on video, 2002): “The Golden Age of Hollywood takes on the history and evolution of this delightful household pet”— International Film Festival Rotterdam

Portraits (Dean Rank, 2 min, video, 2000): Dean Rank portrays men at work and play.

 

super-max (Jim Finn, 13 min, 16mm, mini dv, 2003): The “concentration model” of prison building: “This combine is the key to the political power of the known universe.”

Portraits (Dean Rank, 2 min, video, 2000)

Diagram (Dean Rank , 14 min, 16mm on video, 1998): Auditions, dancing, and sprinting.

comunista! (Jim Finn, 3.5 min, 16mm  on video, 2001): “You’re invited to Jim’s party. Snake optional.”—Cinematexas Festival

Portraits (Dean Rank, 2 min, video, 2000)

Decision 80 (Jim Finn, 10 min, video, 2003): “In that other future I see despair.”

Portraits (Dean Rank, 2 min, video, 2000)

el güero (Jim Finn, 3 min, 16mm on video, 2001): “Young people always forward!”

Team (Dean Rank, 20 min, 16mm on video, 2003): Uniformed men and the sport they love.

 

 

for tour info:     www.jimfinn.org/menandanimalstour