Tag: archive

“Gaza Strip” pushes the viewer headlong into the tumult of the Israeli-occupied Gaza, examining the lives and views of ordinary Palestinians. The central character is Mohammed Hejazi, a 13-year-old paperboy in Gaza City, one of the young “stone-throwers” who risk their lives throwing rocks at Israeli tanks across the barbwire fences. As the camera floats through the Gaza Strip, we encounter signs of the occupation everywhere: crowds of Palestinians are making their way along the beach on foot, donkey carts and tractor trailers when the Israeli soldiers close the roads. The Palestinians interviewed as they pass by reveal a common internal conflict, between anger at the Israeli occupation and the desire to live in peace.

74 minutes, Arabic w/ English subtitles, 2001          
         

       Kodachrome 40 has been the film of choice for Super 8 filmmakers for forty years. In May Kodak announced it would stop making the film.  Artists around the world were devastated.   Mike Missiaen invites you to celebrate the life and mourn the passing of this irreplacable film stock.  Ten of his super 8 films will be shown.  The films will be accompanied by LPs for a delicious analog experience. 

       Kent Howie, internationally reknowned artist and man-about-town, says Missiaen’s films are “lyrically stunning and poetically brilliant, like a passing cloud from a slow-moving train.” Come see for yourself.

             Northern Minnesota’s Bearded Child Film Festival will be taking the nation by storm this Fall with a selection of experimental, low-budget, and extremely bizarre short films. For the past five years, the festival has thrived within the obscurity of Grand Rapids, Minnesota– a mill town of under 8000 people located 150 miles northwest of Minneapolis. In order to develop a niche within the crowded world of festivals, the Bearded Child specifically seeks out work that is often “too weird” or too “lo-fi” for many festivals. The festival has encouraged filmmakers to push the boundaries of corporate film culture, while entertaining local crowds of pseudo-lumberjacks and old women in the process– a curious venture to be sure. According to Dan Anderson, festival founder, the festival was a near wash back in 2002– in large part due to an area fiddle contest taking place that same weekend.
              “I’m not sure if anyone really understands the festival up here, but at least they seem to appreciate it,” says Anderson. “People are so polite here, that it’s actually kind of hard to tell…”
              “It’s really about giving them the option more than anything else. Plus, there are very few festivals out there that show anything really crazy– we try to tap as far into the fringe as possible.”
                After five years of obscurity, the Bearded Child Film Festival will spend the next three months criss-crossing the nation with a selection of “All Star” films from the past five years. While the tour will hit major cities such as San Francisco, Montreal, and New York, their main focus is on smaller towns and rural areas. “Cultural missionary work!” says Anderson. The tour will hits such sites as Kirksville, Missouri and Harrison, Arkansas, along with several stops in the Deep South. The tour will kick off at the Burning Man Festival in late August, and will continue well into the Christmas holidays. To assist in travel expenses, Anderson will be selling wild rice roadside out of a 1978 Chevy van during off days. “Even Brakhage needed to work for a living!” he says.
              Attendees should expect a mix of experimental films, oddball comedies, and the bizarre. Many of the films have never been shown outside of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. “Craziness is our number one priority. After that, it better really rock our socks!”
             

Bearded Child Film Festival Tour
Grand Rapids, Minnesota
www.beardedchild.com