Tag: archive

Iraqi Short Films by Mauro Andrizzi

Iraqi Short Films by Mauro Andrizzi

» More images

kino21’s series, How We Fight, presents international works that explore soldiering and depict the experience of war from the point of view of those on the ground.  From Argentina, Russia, Iraq, Germany, France, Holland and the U.S., several of these films are US premieres. On Thursday, September 25 we begin with Iraqi Short Films, a brand new compilation of videos shot in battle by soldiers and militia members in Iraq. Subsequent programs include video diaries of the battlefield and pre- or post-combat rumination, extended observational portraits and interview-based works.  There are depictions of Russian conscripts in Chechnya, PKK rebels in the mountains of Iraq, American veterans returned from Vietnam, and mercenaries and peacekeepers stationed across the globe, from Bosnia to Rwanda, from the Middle East to the USA.

---

“Methodological, well-targeted propaganda or unbridled outbursts, these images, in their own myopic, implacable, rough ways, relate the conflict. […]The daily life of a warrior captured in the harsh brutality of a visor made into a lens, without the relief of a counter shot.”—Jean-Pierre Rehm, FID Marseille

Iraqi Short Films by Argentine director Mauro Andrizzi is a compilation of short videos shot in the midst of war, whether by US or British soldiers, Iraqi militia members, or corporate workers. These are not “films” per se. They are a mix of slices of life recorded on video (many shot while firing on the enemy or being fired upon), pithy propaganda pieces, and soldiers’ visions of war as music video. They are crudely shot fragments, some rife with raw fear, some gloating over momentary victory. Filmed mainly as records, for friends, family, or fellow fighters, and at one point or another put on the web or on local television, the pieces were culled by Andrizzi over several months. Ranging from the banal to the intense, from the shocking to the darkly humorous, Andrizzi’s compilation depicts war as experienced, articulated, and vividly imagined by those actually fighting and dying in it. His addition of a handful of texts, from Mark Twain to C. Wright Mills to Dick Cheney, and sporadic manipulation of a few images suggests a bleak vision of this war’s inexorable chaos and horror. But it is a vision that combines the responsibility to look with critical empathy, analysis and a desire to comprehend some of its impact.

How We Fight: Conscripts, Mercenaries, Terrorists and Peacekeepers is presented with the generous support of the Potrero Nuevo Fund of the Tides Foundation, the LEF Foundation, the Arab Film Festival and Goethe Institut San Francisco.

» More images

The 12th Annual MadCat Women’s International Film Festival is just around the corner with two special events that celebrate its superlative history as a showcase for the finest work by women directors everywhere. September 19th at ATA, MadCat Looks Back: 8 Greats from the Festival Archives screens some of the most exciting 16mm films culled from past editions of MadCat. On September 23, Hear It to Believe It continues MadCat’s longstanding tradition of presenting silent films to live musical accompaniment under the stars at San Francisco’s outdoor venue El Rio.

This year marks a change at MadCat with a new schedule for the call for submissions and the announcement of an expanded touring program. MadCat’s open call is now exclusively for touring works, which will be selected by May 1, 2009, for a national tour to begin in Fall 2009. Submissions are accepted beginning in October. Although the schedule has changed, MadCat’s commitment to women directors and quality film is unwavering. As always, MadCat seeks films directed or co-directed by women that are produced ANY year. MadCat accepts ALL GENRES: experimental, documentary, animated, narrative, hybrid, etc. The Festival favors works that push the limits of genre and expand notions of visual storytelling. The expanded tour will stop in San Francisco as well as continue to reach audiences at venues around the country that in the past have included: Anthology Film Archives, Brown University, Harn Museum of Art, Harvard Film Archive, the New School, Pacific Film Archive, PRATT, and RISD Museum of Art, among others.

2008 Program: Sept 19 and 23
8 Greats from the MadCat Archives Artists’ Television Access, September 19, 7:30 pm
Some of the best 16mm films MadCat has screened over its twelve-year history are highlighted, including works by local talent Kerry Laitala, Angela Reginato, and Phoebe Tooke.

Hear It to Believe It El Rio, September 23, 8:30 pm
Continuing a long-running tradition, MadCat presents a series of silent 16mm films set to live music performed by local musicians, including bands Tartufi and Silian Rail. Learn more about these musicians at: http://www.tartufirock.net/ — http://www.myspace.com/silianrailmusic

SEE BELOW FOR DETAILED PROGRAM NOTES
MADCAT See Movies you won’t find anywhere else!
Founded in 1996, MadCat is the longest running women’s film festival in San Francisco and the only avant-garde women’s film festival in the United States. The festival is proud of its worldwide outreach and has presented films by women from around the globe, from Ireland to India and from Siberia to Spain. Annually culling through hundreds of entries, MadCat champions work by female directors who explore notions of visual storytelling and aims to entice audiences with out-of-the-ordinary groupings of films and videos. Screenings include thematic shorts programs, trailblazing documentaries, and slide presentations by local artists.

MadCat Women’s International Film Festival
Note new deadline schedule for 2008–2009
Early Bird Deadline: Nov 15, 2008
Late Bird Deadline: Jan 25, 2009
Tour Begins: September 2009
For information visit http://www.madcatfilmfestival.org

2008 MadCat Women’s International Film Festival
Program Notes

Program 1: MadCat Looks Back: 8 Greats from the Festival Archives
Screening Friday, September 19 at Artists’ Television Access

Orbit Kerry Laitala
2006 • 7 min • Color • 16mm • US Filmmaker in Person
Candy-apple light emissions tickle the retinas in this playful pulsation of mis-registered images created when a lab accidentally split the film from 16mm to regular 8. (screened at MadCat in 2006)

Winter Return Chelsea Walton
2006 • 1 min • Color • mini-DV • US • Filmmaker in Person
A moody stop-motion peek at a city. (screened at MadCat in 2006)

Contemplating the City (Contemplando La Ciudad) Angela Reginato
2005 • 3:30 min • B/W • 16mm • US/MX
Perfectly, without affect, a girl sings along with a pop tune, transporting herself through space and time to Mexico City circa 1978. (screened at MadCat in 2005)

Late Diane Cheklich
2003 • 7:38 min • B/W • 16mm • US
A collage of eerie, high-contrast shots of seedy hotels and Dial-A-Savior billboards flicker by as late-night radio evangelist Sister Agnes Phillips dispenses wisdom and hope to lost souls. (screened at MadCat in 2004)

Hotel City Phoebe Tooke
2004 • 16 min • B/W • 16mm • US • Filmmaker in Person
Four tenants living in SRO (single residence occupancy) hotels struggle to improve their lot. Through the Central City SRO Collaborative, they fight alongside other tenants and community members for better, safer conditions as well as address larger issues facing their neighborhoods. (screened at MadCat in 2004)

Historia del Desierto Celia Galan Julve
2002 • 6 min • Color • Beta • UK
Spanish with English subtitles
Set against the Chihuahua desert, artful stop-motion action illustrates the brutal crimes of the fictitious Rosita Guzm·n, a.k.a. La Mocha, who keeps her pursuers guessing for more than forty years. (screened at MadCat in 2003)

Vessel Wrestling Lisa Yu
2001 • 13 min • Color • 16mm • US
Jello, clay and human hair are the elements of this domestic space gone awry. Hairballs have a mind of their own and humans melt into light fixtures only to ooze out of the walls in erotic delight. (screened at MadCat in 2002)

Sorry, Brenda Samara Halperin
2000 • 3 min • B/W• 16mm • US • Filmmaker in Person
Using scenes from Beverly Hills 90210 shot on Super-8 off a television monitor and optically printed to 16mm, the filmmaker arranges a love affair between two unlikely characters. (screened at MadCat in 2001)

Program 2: Hear It to Believe It
Screening at El Rio on Tuesday, September 23 at 8:30 pm
Live musical accompaniment by Silian Rail and Tartufi

Observando el Cielo Jeanne Liotta
Soundtrack by Peggy Ahwesh
2007 • 19 min • Color • 16mm • US
Seven years of celestial field recordings gathered from the chaos of the cosmos are inscribed onto 16mm film. These naturally occurring VLF (very low frequency) radio recordings of the magnetosphere allow the universe to speak for itself. Chosen as one of the Top Ten Films of 2007 by Artforum and the Village Voice.

Air Sheri Wills
2008 • 6 min • Color • 16mm • US • West Coast Premiere
Mimicking the unpredictable and frequently serendipitous nature of watercolor paints as they run over a blank sheet of paper, these images unfold on the screen, become charged with life, then quickly disappear into a mysterious void.

Box Office Jenny Perlin
2007  • 2:25 min • B/W • 16mm • US • US Premiere
Shocking statistics highlight the hypocrisy of American foreign policy in Iraq.

Fallen Flags Amanda Christie
2007 • 8:10 min • Color • 16mm • Canada • US Premiere
A layered tapestry of filmed trains and underwater footage, this film explores fear, death, and transience through the traces of human voices set amid the flickering light and shadows of empty passenger cars.

Ecstatic Vessels Diane Kitchen
2008 • 20 min • Color • 16mm • US • Northern California Premiere
Fluid images of nature create a dreamlike palette of color and time, what fellow filmmaker Grant Wiedenfeld called, “A symphony of movement, color, focus, line.”

The Parable of the Tulip Painter and the Fly Charlotte Pryce
2008 • 3:50 min • Color • 16mm • US • Northern California Premiere
A philosophical quest drenched in luminous colors and sparkling light, this film was shot on color reversal and entirely hand-processed and re-printed on the optical printer.

Rough Cuts is a series of work-in-progress documentary screenings that are produced every other month by The LAB. Each evening one rough cut of a feature-length documentary will be screened, followed by a moderated conversation about the film led by guests who are either accomplished filmmakers or established film professionals.

Please RSVP to roughcutsrsvp@yahoo.com by Monday, September 15 at noon.

for info www.thelab.org/roughcuts

American Maverick – The Life and Times of Pete McCloskey
Produced and Directed by Rob Caughlan

At a time when the word “maverick” is increasingly heard this political season, it might be worth considering the life of Pete McCloskey—environmental crusader, politician, marine veteran, gadfly. As a presidential candidate, he led the charge to impeach President Nixon—before Watergate. As a Republican congressman, he co-founded the first Earth Day and co-authored the Endangered Species Act. And at age 78, he came out of retirement to wage one more unexpected, brave campaign. Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Paul Newman, American Maverick – The Life and Times of Pete McCloskey offers an unexpected portrait of a true American character.

Moderators – Michael Wilson and Natalie Zimmerman

Michael Wilson and Natalie Zimmerman recently formed Social Satisfaction Media and made their first feature-length documentary, “Silhouette City,” which premiered at the Miami International Film Festival. Wilson and Zimmerman’s other projects have included performance new media, installation and photography, and they have exhibited/performed at festival, museums, galleries and art centers throughout the world. They are currently artists in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts.