Tag: archive

“AS ABOVE, SO BELOW”, NEW VIDEO WORK by AARON RIETZ

A psychedelic audiovisual journey into a mindscape known as “California”, this piece traverses the city, the desert, the coast, and the synaptic highways that connect them, treating them all equally as sites of revelation and discovery. The primary theme is the relationship of landscape to consciousness, or, physical to mental, exterior to interior. Starring birds, turbines, a giant alien boulder, city lights, and mother ocean.
http://aaronrietz.blogspot.com/

A COLLECTION OF MUSIC VIDEOS by BOB THAYER

Bob Thayer is a producer and a musician who resides in San Francisco. He has been making films for over ten years that deal with themes of music, war and most recently, the beach. Bob works with both super 8 mm film as well as digital video and he finds creativity where these two worlds meet. The collection of films put together for ATA is a compilation of music videos (for Little Wings, The Dedications, & Rad Cloud) that are very surf-y, california-y, and most importantly entertaining. Bob’s work is always rhythmic, musical, and doused with humor. Currently, Bob plays music in a surf band called Rad Cloud that you can find playing house parties and clubs in the bay area.
http://californiabobby.blogspot.com/

+ LIVE APPEARANCE from GRAND LAKE !!!

Grand Lake is Jameson Swanagon (guitar), Caleb Nichols (vocals, bass), Ryan Parks (drum(s), guitar) and Erika Pipkin (rhodes, organ, vocals). Comprised of three California natives, and one southern belle from Birmingham, Alabama. This exciting new indie quartet came together in October 2008, began rehearsals at home soon after, and recorded a dynamic, dramatic, and infectious 8 song EP in only 3 days. Mainly penned by Nichols (formerly of Port O’Brien & The Bloody Heads), this first collection of tunes deal with themes of love and loss, but not from the typical hetero-male perspective of most indie bands. Augmented by a pair of haunting instrumental compositions by Swanagon, sparkling, smoky pop vocals by Pipkin, and minimal, deconstructed rhythms by Parks, the tentatively titled “Nevermint EP” is a dazzling debut from this adventurous new Bay Area group.
http://www.myspace.com/grandlakemusic/

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

*People Who Do Noise* is a film about the experimental music of Portland, Oregon. Extensive interviews and intimate performance footage provide an intense portrait of the motivations, emotions, and ideas that go into this uncompromising, sometimes brutal musical form. Covering a wide range of artists and styles, the film features everything from the absurdist free-improvisations of genre-pioneers Smegma, to the harsh-noise assaults of Oscillating Innards and everything in between. With an unflinching cinematic style, the film defies any trend-setting or commercial representation, opting instead for a stark portrayal of a musical underground at its most genuine and vital. For the subjects of the film, noise music is a way of life; a life in opposition to the tidy, orderly, and vacuous pop-culture experience. directed by Adam Cornelius (2008, 82 min.)

“*Notes on Breakcore* is a warts-and-all rave-doc about the international breakcore scene starring a lot of badly dressed men with terrible haircuts talking about a style of electronic dance music that, when played at high volume, is the kind of savage racket that’s used to gently coax answers out of inmates at Guantanamo Bay. […] Breakcore is the bastard hate child of jungle, happy hardcore, techno, electronica, acid house, ragga, electro and dub. When it’s done well, by nutjobs like Venetian Snares for instance, it can be the most euphoric music in the world.” (–*VICE* Magazine). (directed by Bertram Koenighofer & David Kleinl, 2006, 30min.)