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A series of films that explore the search for understanding, whether of war, hunting or the nature of community. Using a documentary interview with a young Bosnian immigrant as her soundscape and hand-painted animation as her pallet Sheila Sofian allows the viewer to experience the violence and tragedy one boy’s family endured in A Conversation with Haris. With dignity and maturity beyond his 11 years Haris recounts his life and the family members he lost Standing at Ground Zero . (SF Premiere, by Chris Willging) uses one mans experiences during World War II to create a stirring story of war, accountability and humanity. Warren Kreml was only a teenager when he was drafted; through his retelling of the events he experienced and through the use of archival footage the viewer is taken on a journey through Nagasaki just after the atomic bomb was detonated. With haunting original music and the calm and thoughtful words of one soldier turned pastor, Standing at Ground Zero is an honest and intimate story of transcendence and forgiveness. The Hunter’s Guide by Kerry Hustwit documents the age-old ritual of hunting in a stunningly shot, meditative documentary thatreveals the beauty, the horror and the camaraderie of hunting. Cinema verité footage of hunting and images of the hunter painting delicate portraits of his prey are intercut with audio interviews of the filmmaker’s father as he talks about his love of this “sport” and his daughter’s history of trying to deter him from his passion. Hustwit’s film is an attempt to understand her father’s obsession and explore this ceremonial act of killing. Right Road Lost by Victoria Gamburg chronicles the life of Phil Rios and his history and participation as a soldier in the Vietnam War and as a National Guardsman in the Persian Gulf. Using photos from his own collection Rios tells the chilling story of an operation in the Persian Gulf. “We were going in there to kick out an evil person and restore democracy,” but what happened would haunt him for years to come.

For more info,
MadCat Film Festival
www.somaglow.com/madcat
415 436-9523

PENUMBRA: A Total Eclipse of ATA
screening and closing party on the 22nd of Sept. 7:00pm –

$5
gallery and window open throughout the month
Artists Television Access – 992 Valencia @ 21st (415.824.3890)

Filmic by nature, their ephemerality unfolding in time like a smoke
ring, once almost solid, dissolved to a mere wisp; the bewitching
quality of shadows interacts with the world in an intimate way. They are
allowed to mingle with objects, to envelope them. Shadows can be
illusion. They lend dimension to vision. During the month of September,
Penumbra slowly transforms the Artists Television Access into a
cinematic sonata in three parts, culminating with a closing party and
night of films and performance on the 22nd.

The ATA storefront window, installed earlier in the month, becomes a
dream machine casting shadows on the white papered walls, surrounded by
a curtain of eculyptus branches, blowing softly in an artificial wind. A
soft strobe peeling back layers from the usual street parade. A long ago
memory of what exists behind the eyelids. The installation slowly
becomes visible as the sky darkens.

The gallery is host to an exhibition of work exploring the nature of
shadow and light with photography and assemblage. Somewhere between the
realm of complete darkness and total illumination, these works reveal
dimension, obscure depth, expose the invisible and the minute, trace the
outlines of time, find color in the banal. Featuring dioramas by bay
area artist John O’Malley, whose current work “recreates fragments of
American landscapes both real and imagined” (O’Malley). The dioramas,
when viewed through a lens, resemble the slightly hazy images of a
memory. A pastoral pastime come to life in miniature. Photographer
Susannah Hays explores time and the nature of photography, with
photograms and photographs making celestial forms from the very
ordinary, charting the heavens with a nod to Newton. Shadows are not
just shades of grey. A sublime color balance can transform the seemingly
commonplace into a careful study of depth and warmth. Kathryn Hillier’s
photographs evoke a strong sense of place and time. Ann Chamberlain’s
Small Comfort, an installation of x-rayed toys (including a teletubby),
is almost frightening, revealing both the invisible and the unspeakable.
The specter of what once seemed so comforting debunked by the scientific
method. Also in the gallery will be selected prints from the mini-pin
project, an on-going pinhole photography project with a populist
approach, using recycled 35mm film cannisters and visitor participation.
A closing party correlates with a film screening.

Sunday the 22nd will be a night of films and performances. Shadows on
the wall, shadows of the sun, and shadows of the past. Exposing the
ghostly images that exist in our dreams and sunburned visions. Illusions
of the ordinary and tales involving the birth of cinema, the horror of
self perambulation, and the giddy glory of performances done for the
first time. Thomas Comerford (Chicago), gives us ILLA CAMERA OBSCVRA
(The Dark Room), a pinhole film which “examines the camera obscura-the
dark room-as metaphor for cinema and as site for shifts in perception
and understanding perception. Part of a series of films made with
pinhole cameras and found/homemade noise machines”. Fred Camper of the
Chicago Reader called this film, “…a strong meditation on the tenuous
nature of filmed images”. Also from Chicago, Rebecca Meyers will screen
how to sleep (winds), a film descibed by Meyers as “An open dormant
landscape, waiting”. This is a 16mm, color film meditating on wind, and
the combination of sound and image. The bay area’s own Ken Paul
Rosenthal gives us his film, I, My Bike , a cinepoem about city biking,
childhood obsessions, wishes for death, and the spector of history.
Featuring vintage shots of Market Street, vignetted against a crowd of
bicyclists. Sheri Wills (Providence RI), will open and close the show
with a pair of color photogram films, Anodyne and Acetylene. Showing new
film work will be Jeff Warrin (silt, SF), Louis Recoder (NYC), and
Alexis Bravos (SF). Plus, a few surprises.