Portland Documentary & eXperimental Film Festival

Orland Nutt's "Equanimous Passage"

2009-05-12T13:24:00.000-07:00

The film that won the Peripheral Produce Invitational:

Equanimous Passage from Orland Nutt on Vimeo.

Karaoke Throwdown at the Holocene!

2009-05-10T15:17:00.000-07:00

I was impressed by everyone's immense talent! So much fun!

Matt!

Holly!
gretchen workin' hard

whoa. that was a lot of fun to sing, but watching the women give birth was intense!
ben coonley!

Go Cat!

RiP: A Remix Manifesto

2009-05-09T19:47:00.001-07:00

Brett Gaylor has created an inspiring and informative film about the subject of Copyrights. Or, as his film energetically demonstrates, what have become Copywrongs.

The most public contemporary debates about the subject of copyright infringement, fair use, and "the public good" have not gone outside of the entertainment industry. RiP takes the topic out of the courtroom and to the streets and this makes it one of the best documents I've seen on the subject.

The film is thorough, though I was surprised to see no reference to John Oswald's Plunderphonics project or Chumbawamba's Jesus H Christ album, but Gaylor more than makes up for these exclusions by providing an historical analysis which goes back to before the Gutenberg Bible yet also returns to the present by discussing not only new content creation by artists like Girl Talk and culture jammers such as Negativland, but also life and death matters illuminated by Brazil's renegade stance regarding the production of generic HIV pharmaceuticals they legally had no right to produce. By including this last topic within his debate he demonstrates the need to weigh the issue of private ownership rights–which have really become corporate ownership rights–against the damage too tight control can have on the lives of individuals.

One of the best segments of the film traces Walt Disney's creative dependence on art created as far back as the 1600s. As one of the main forces behind the revision of the Copyright Act in the 90's, the Disney Corporation receives an appropriately large amount of Gaylor's attention, including numerous examples of their egregious behavior provided by someone who loves Disney enough to maintain a Season's Pass to Disneyland and be a member of the Mickey Mouse Club.

Throughout the film Gaylor reminds the audience that what he is including on screen, but more so in the audio track, subjects both him and the audience to punitive judgments. He also digs deep enough to show the complicity of the United States government in a deliberate plan to separate intellectual activity from production, an action which has woefully backfired. The result of this plan to "elevate" the United States above production by outsourcing those services to developing nations has helped to amplify the current economic damages to both parties: the developing nations who are required to adopt American copyright laws and enforcement practices in order to import to this country and an American nation which has so abstracted its contributions to international exchange as to become entirely dependent upon those developing nations to provide its most basic needs.

Gaylor keeps the film amazingly focused and incisive considering how far reaching his topics go. He accomplishes this by repeatedly returning to the impact of decisions made in the 80's and 90's upon contemporary lives but, perhaps even more effectively, by framing the discussion within the framework of attempts to control and criminalize the general population and how those populations refuse to be controlled. Heady stuff, but delivered with panache and great wit.

Peggy Ahwesh Interviews

2009-05-09T17:07:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of editing an audio interview with Peggy Ahwesh. The first part, on the subject of her Sunday workshop, has been posted here:

http://web.me.com/voxoculi/Peggy_Ahwesh_Interviews/PEGGY_AHWESH_INTERVIEWS.html

I hope to have the much longer film discussion posted shortly.

PDX/NW Film Center 3D Workshop

2009-05-09T16:08:00.000-07:00

3 Cheers 4 the Third Dimension (in 3-D):

day 4: local filmmakers take over!

2009-05-09T11:54:00.001-07:00

Hello!

I hope that everyone had fun at the Karaoke Throwdown last night. It was a rager. I stayed until they were practically pushing me out the door. Photos are forthcoming.

It's beautiful out today! I plan on sunning myself at least 20 minutes before I head down to the Clinton Street Theater for Shorts Program #2.

I don't want mean to pick favorites, but I am particularly excited about today's programs. There will be Shorts Programs #2 and #3, featuring local and national filmmakers, and then California Company Town, with filmmaker Lee Ann Schmitt in attendance. I know a day in sun is tempting but this is may be your only chance to see a handful of these amazing films!

Also, a reminder, the Peripheral Produce Invitational is expected to sellout. So get there early. There will also be bingo, a past time I can't resist.

Rush-N-Disco

2009-05-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

Alicia McDaid and Greg Arden's group Rush N' Disco are a duo to be reckoned with. They bring comedy and performance art to a new level that brings out the tears. I haven't laughed that much in a while.

testing 1 2 3

2009-05-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hooliganship sound check at the Holocene. This show is gonna be awesome!

Jacob testing out karaoke. kicked some serious ass this afternoon!

day 3: ready to party!

2009-05-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

I hope that everyone has been enjoying the festival. I had to work all day so I missed the two incredible (early) event of the day.

Just a reminder to everyone that the Peggy Ahwesh program starts in a little under an hour and she'll be in attendance tonight, so it's definitely not one to be missed. I saw some of her work years ago and am excited for this collection of films (old and new.)

After that, the Karoake Throwdown will be happening at Holocene. This event is A LOT of fun and was a hit last year! There will also be performances by Rush-N-Disco and Hooliganship. Expect twittering throughout!

a night at the festival

2009-05-08T16:26:00.001-07:00

RiP: A Remix Manifesto screening

2009-05-08T16:26:00.000-07:00

I wondered how much this film would be relevant to me. As an artist I don't deal with copyright issues on a daily basis, in practice maybe not theory at least but...... this battle recently was thrown into my face by a recent heated debate about what defined "stealing" and what is appropriate. Should filmmakers create their own music for all of their films? Is borrowing music to make a project without getting consent illegal? Or moreover morally okay? These questions have been thrown around recently. As I watched this film unfold, I realized that for myself creativity is limited by rules, and we all must conclude for our own personal use what is appropriate to follow and what is oppressive. And no matter what our choice is, stand by our beliefs and don't back down. Progression can only happen with a fight. I am choosing creativity and swimming through the rest.

I highly recommend this film. It is truly inspiring.

so much on day 2

2009-05-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

Ben Coonley is a genius. His powerpoint last night which involved a lot a dialogue with his cat Otto was amazing. If you were not able to check it out here is a small portion of what you missed.

Shorts Program #1 - Battle Scars: New Experimental Documentaries

2009-05-08T11:06:00.001-07:00

Apologies are due for not getting my morning coffee before attending this screening. Skipping that coffee prevented me from staying attentive during what may have been one of the strongest pieces in this program, Adaptation Fever. Hopefully someone else will comment on this piece or I will get a chance to see it again on a screener copy so I can do the work justice.

There were several pieces in this program I liked a lot. Poor Audrey and Still Life with Ho Chi Minh were the standouts, though I also liked The Sixtus Project quite a bit. A Film Far Beyond God was, for me, completely impenetrable and, in certain assumed conventions (the references to masculine bravado/machismo, Che Guevara, Jim Morrison and Arthur Rimbaud), came across as utterly pretentious. I did not care for this film at all, even on a technical level, as its use of cinematography and superimposition seemed no more than arbitrary. As for the topic of pre-Islamic gods, how that subject relates to anything in this film is beyond me.

Poor Audrey, in contrast, is a beautiful, concise, carefully constructed and emotionally resonant portrait piece. At first it appears to be about the tragedy of Hank Williams life and the superficially possessive reactions after his death. But the real tragedy revealed is Audrey's, Williams wife, who suffered much the same fate and disparagements as Yoko Ono (and, I'm sure, a number of other "wives of famous men"). Great use of minimal imagery for maximum impact. I also really like that this film only hints at the story behind the story. The film makes you wonder rather than causing you to feel like you "know."

Still Life with Ho Chi Minh is another excellent short film. Using untranslated conversations with Minh's personal photographer, the film applies superimposed dirt and filmic debris quite effectively as a metaphor for difficult times and the fragments of history which manage to be passed along in place of the "whole" story. I found the decision to not provide subtitles to be an excellent one as it forced me to concentrate on the footage and the emotional tenor of the voice of the photographer. Like Poor Audrey, a beautiful film I'd like to see again.

The Sixtus Project is quite minimal in its construction. Consisting solely of long takes of docking and unloading ships and a diaristic voiceover, the film manages to quite successfully evoke an attempt at communication between the filmmaker and a man nearing and reaching the end of his life. There are successes and failures within these attempts, but ultimately the film reminds us that we all die alone and that the experience of death is, in many ways, only about the survivor's attempts to find solace by projecting their own desires upon the person who has passed.

If I get an opportunity to watch Adaptation Fever while fully attentive and not nodding off–which I hope I do before the festival is over–I will add to this post.

pdx soup

2009-05-08T10:42:00.000-07:00

the fine folks from the PDX Soup Night project swung by the PDX Film Fest with some delicious free soup! PDX hearts PDX!!!

Talking Points & Talking Ponies: An Evening with Ben Coonley

2009-05-08T10:18:00.000-07:00

Ben Coonley is a sharp and very funny fellow. His Remapping the Apparatus lecture was hilarious and a great critique on corporate/academic speak as manifested through Powerpoint templates. I particularly enjoyed his developed sense of word puns, one of which included his cat Otto, who is also Coonley's Tech Support Guru, demonstrating his Ottomatic Powerpoint templates as a helpful tool for more powerful and effective communication.

Needless to say, the lecture went gloriously askew, even getting a bit raunchy with boob bouncing and butt flexing gif animations. But mixed within the laughter came Otto's life story, which I found to be surprisingly affecting and a wonderful extension of the ideas commonly expressed through the allegory of Plato's Cave. Otto's presence echoed a sweet little moment I experienced between the earlier screening and Coonley's show where I met on the street just up from the theater the most talkative cat I've ever encountered. If this had happened after Coonley's show I would have thought I was hallucinating.

Most of Coonley's work addresses media critique through humor. The strongest pieces included 3D Trick Pony, Valentine for Perfect Strangers (another Otto contribution), and Appropriation Piece. The Russian version of Perfect Strangers would have been fun randomly discovered online, but screened within this program it proved to be excessively redundant. Personally, I found The Best Gifts and The Future of Metal to be completely boring, even if I could reason out the point of their inclusion.

So a little more info about the pieces I liked the most.

3D Trick Pony, really created and screened in anaglyph 3D, offered up a great analysis of the supposed Kuleshov Effect–the idea that montage can drive our emotional response to the films we are watching. Much critical theory of this sort, especially when approached as an abstract concept, debases analysis to the point of absurdity. Coonley demonstrates this by applying the explicit terminology of the theory to a scene involving an expressionless stuffed pony intercut with a Dachsund running across an empty yard. By removing emotive intra-frame content (I am thinking here of the Odessa sequence in Battleship: Potempkin) and relying solely on Kuleshov's description of how one shot affects our emotional response to the next, Coonley demonstrates both how influential human expression is to our cognitive processes and how necessary "reading" a face is to our ability to communicate in any effective manner.

Valentine for Perfect Strangers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETQ0urHjSIk) moved into the realm of seeking connection through internet personals and hyper-idealized human connection as expressed in the horrible sitcom Perfect Strangers [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Strangers_(TV_series)], a television show which made Three's Company look like brain surgery. Otto is again at his best here, and his efforts to appropriate the model provided by Perfect Strangers by placing his Rat plaything's head into scenes taken from the opening of the sitcom and other media extravaganzas is hilarious but ultimately quite vacuous, which might just be the point. Michael Almereyda dealt with the subject of online avatars more powerfully and subtly in his film Happy Here and Now, but Coonley's approach gets to the heart of the matter more quickly and in a more explicitly humorous manner.

Appropriation Piece, in addition to Coonley's lecture, was the highlight of the screening. In this video Coonley advises a talking garbage can on a class assignment to create a video demonstrating the concept of appropriation. This is a very funny and astute piece with great usage of puns and the ambiguity of words heard versus words said. I don't want to give away the jokes because that will destroy the pleasures of this piece, but Coonley deserves induction into Oulipo for creating this hilarious exchange.

Hungry PDX Film Festers go check out Gladstone Coffee

2009-05-08T07:23:00.001-07:00

Hey filmmakers, check your goodies bag (excellent little package this year as usual) it has a coupon for 5.00 off at Gladstone Coffee, we had the "Margherita" pie and it was mighty damn tasty, they also have beer as well as Stumptown Coffee. If you are going in a group they will even let you pony in together and use the collective coupon towards a whole pie!

Bruce Conner: In Memorium (part 2)

2009-05-08T00:53:00.000-07:00

This program fell into these three personally defined groupings–

Music Videos: Mongoloid and America is Waiting

Meditations on America: Crossroads, Take the 5:10 to Dreamland, Valse Triste

Abstract Incantations: Looking for Mushrooms (long version) and Easter Morning

It was fun to again see the first Conner films I ever saw, Mongoloid and America is Waiting. These works still stand out as exceptions to the rule as far as music videos go. As entertainment, I recommend them highly for their use of rhythm and humor. But in the context of the rest of the Conner films I've seen this weekend they are lightweight pieces. Fortunately they were grouped together at the beginning of the program as this allowed Crossroads, Take the 5:10 to Dreamland, Valse Triste, Looking for Mushrooms (long version) and Easter Morning to emerge as the completely unique and deeply powerful pieces they are.

Following upon the Music Videos, the "Meditations," as I choose to call them, dramatically altered the mood of the evening. Each of these films passed along a somber, melancholy, and even a little bit of nostalgic energy. There is simply no more appropriate word I can use to describe Crossroads than somber. Conner seems to remove himself almost entirely from the editorial process with this film, at least in comparison to his other more kinetic films. It is as if he tapped into the National Archives and simply assembled, one after the other, multiple camera angles of a single event. The film is long, deliberately and appropriately so. The final shot is almost completely monotone, just a big wall of grey, though the dark shape of a ship eventually appears in the foreground as the camera recording the moment either drifts to the left or the ship drifts to the right. That the footage depicts military tests in the South Pacific, a place of intensely vibrant and verdant colors, only adds to the horror of such annihilating power. This version of the film contained only Terry Riley's music, though Patrick Gleeson's name remains in the credits (apparently a unique version of the film). Limiting the score to Riley's minimalist composition made the film feel like a single whole and I wonder if I would feel differently about the film seeing the music duties shared between two composers as it is usually shown. As it is, I loved this film and felt its placement in the program order helped me to gradually move into the headspace of the films which followed. Situating this film at this location in the program order is inspired programming.

I happened to be revisiting Raul Ruiz's Poetics of Cinema yesterday (http://tinyurl.com/djupv9) before I came into town for this second Conner screening. As Crossroads was screening two passages from Ruiz's book forcefully rose up in my mind:

"Don Ramon distinguishes between the historic and the legendary elements of this tale, and traces its origins to Italy and Syria; but in the end he decides that perhaps the story happened several times, in Syria, in Italy, and also in Spain. It is, in other words, what is known as an Immortal Story. It travels the centuries in search of victims in which to be embodied." [emphasis added]

"One of the most fertile inventions of our imagination is the figure we give to the cosmos, even though it loses its human substance to become a celestial form at one with the universe. How many simpler cases do we not find in nature? Faces appear in the clouds. the stars, the stones, sometimes in chemical reactions, in damp patches on walls. Wherever we turn, a human figure is composing or decomposing (as Blake says, 'All landscapes are a man seen from a distance.')" [emphasis added]

Apparently this latter thought also entered the minds of the group sitting behind me. As soon as the film ended they began talking about how they started looking for faces in the mushroom clouds. To my ears it seemed boredom provoked their mental wanderings. I'd like to think instead that Conner's pushing the limits of duration provoked them to a meditative state that will feed them ideas for a long time to come.

While the first quote mentioned above comes from Ruiz's discussion of a legend of murder and betrayal, I include it here because it sent a chill of predestination through my body. The thought that we, as a species, are trapped within a story we cannot escape is a frightening and incredibly bleak thought. What Conner achieves with Crossroads is the invention (acknowledgment?) of a new "Immortal Story," one that Robert Oppenheimer himself called forth when he quoted from the Bhagavad-gita after the first atomic explosion. "I have become death, the destroyer of worlds" he repeated to the rolling cameras (http://tinyurl.com/cnx47l). If only those words had entered our cultural heritage and social conscience as decisively as that first atomic explosion....

Take the 5:10 to Dreamland and Valse Triste continued these meditations on American practices, cultural hegemony, and "lifestyle" desires. Take the 5:10 to Dreamland starts with a boy climbing into bed, turning off his light, and quickly going to sleep. Immediately we are dropped into what appear to be his night dreams, which depend entirely upon the world he inhabits and the culturally-defined images which have been passed along to him. One of the simple aspects of this film I liked most was that there was no "soft dissolve" or "blur the image" transition to signify entering the dream state. The shift was as sharp as an off/on switch. I think we like to believe every choice we make is conscious, if not deliberate–a manifestation of the desire to control our own existence rather than feeling controlled by the culture we inhabit and that inhabits us. 5:10 shows this to be the desire versus actuality it really is by revealing how everything we encounter and everything we experience comes to color our existence, often in ways we are never quite fully conscious of. In this sense, 5:10 struck me as an analysis of external influences. Valse Triste, which translates as Sad Waltzes, seemed a much more personal exploration. Compared to the descriptive and somewhat distanced qualities of 5:10, Valse Triste is defined through its experiential character in a present-tense exposition. While it too was concerned with a past–one of the reasons I bring up nostalgia–there was a geniality of presentation which differentiates Valse Trise from all Conner's previous work. Looking at this film from this vantage point marks Valse Triste as a significant shift in Conner's work, from outright critique to an attempt to share an essentially unique experience. It also offers a conceptual transition toward films to come, which in this program included Looking For Mushrooms (long version) and Easter Morning. If any of Conner's films suggest a naturally developing human being interested in discovery rather than riding upon achievements of the past, Valse Triste is the one that does this for me.

Which brings me to what I am calling the Abstract Incantations, the two films Looking For Mushrooms (long version) and Easter Morning. A friend studying Hinduism once summarized the four life stages of Vedic philosophy for me in a way I cannot even attempt to repeat with my limited knowledge of the subject. But as I watched these two films the memory of that summary reentered my consciousness. I have, however, discovered this description of these Stages (http://tinyurl.com/czwuob):

1. Brahmacharya: - This stage is the first one and it begins at the age of 20 and extends up

to 25 years. This is the time when man leads the life of student and practices celibacy. The

motto of this phase is to train man to discipline himself. This is the perfect time to inculcate

values like self-restraint, knowledge and obedience.

2. Grihastha: - At this point of time man needs to pay heed to his social and family life. This

phase begins from 25 and lasts till 60 years. Grihastha is a crucial stage in one`s life where

man has to balance both his familial and social duties. He is married and manages his

household and at the same time looks after the needs of the world outside. This is the first

stage where he puts his knowledge to use. He has to discharge the duties of a son, brother,

husband, father and a member of the community. From here he moves onto the next stage.

3. Vanaprastha: - This is the step to Partial renunciation. This stage ushers in the life of man

at an age of 50 and lasts till he is 74. His children are grown up and he slowly moves away for

the material ties. It is his age for retirement and starts walking on a path that will lead him to

the Divine.

4. Sannyasa: The last stage in his life comes when he completely snaps off his worldly ties.

This phase begins at 74 and lasts till he dies. He is completely free from the emotional

attachments. It is at this age that he becomes an ascetic and completely dedicates his life to

serve God.

While I certainly don't wish to impose any religious doctrine upon Conner–his "beliefs" or lack thereof are none of my business and ultimately irrelevant to his work in my opinion–or apply some kind of beatific "sainthood" to his life and career, I do see some striking points of reference between these middle two Vedic Life Stages and Conner's film career.

Grihastha:

1958-1976 - A Movie through Crossroads (25 years old to 43 years old)

1977-1982 - 5:10 through America Is Waiting (44 years old to 49 years old)

Vanaprastha:

1995-2006 - Television Assassination through Easter Sunday (62 years old to 73 years old)

Searching for any specific meaning from these final two films in the program seems pointless. In making this assertion I don't mean to suggest the films are pointless or valueless. I would say the exact opposite is the case. Searching for Mushrooms (long version) and Easter Sunday are gorgeous works, full of color, motion and, most importantly for me, an attempt to share firsthand experience rather than describe or critique it. There is, of course, no way for me to truly have shared the physical and mental experiences of the Bruce Conner who recorded the images which moved into the compositions these films became unless I had been there with him. And even then, I'd argue that such a sharing is ultimately impossible since our individual perceptions represent an accumulation of personal experience (as 5:10 and Valse Triste so magnificently demonstrate). In other words, the film I'd make, being in the same place at the same time as Conner was when he captured his images, would inevitably be different than his. But this is what attracts me to such personal cinematic output. Rather than seeking the "culturally shared" experience of a narrative thread that has existed for centuries (those Immortal Stories Ruiz mentions) as is the presupposition of narrative/commercial and much documentary cinema, works like these final two films by Conner push me to appreciate our individuality and uniqueness. In such a presentation I see potential rather than the trap of predestination. That, for me, is a revolutionary act which celebrates life rather than trying to control it.

RiP: A Remix Manifesto

2009-05-07T23:59:00.000-07:00

Text remixed from the festival program: http://pdxfilmfest.com/2009/schedule/rip_a_remix_manifesto

A pop control Minister shattering unprecedented Brazilian footage explores copyright. RiP: A Remix Manifesto is integral for anyone downloading illegal Piper Stones. Gilberto Gregg and filmmaker Cory Jammie were closing Cultural activist DNA and Industry favelas.

Which alarm barons draw Open engineer war songs? are giants rearranging revolutionaries and Muddy wall sharing Association charts?

mash-up complexities sued Digital battle users in Pittsburgh and Brazil. Although Lawrence is able to build central robber Affairs with challenging, global mom producers.

RiP allowed culture thresholds to Remix frontier Waters successfully.

Another Willamette Week write up

2009-05-07T15:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the papers do get it right. Check out their recommendations:

http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3526/12534/?SOURCE=RSS#continue

Willamette Week Review of Deelay Ceelay

2009-05-07T15:47:00.000-07:00

Awesome review of the Deelay Ceelay performance last night on Local Cut.

Check it out:

http://blogs.wweek.com/music/2009/05/07/live-review-deelay-ceelay-wednesday-may-6-gallery-homeland/

day 2 is go!

2009-05-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had fun at the opening party last night. Thanks to Gallery HOMELAND. Thanks to the artists. Thanks to Pabst. The party was off the chain!

Don't forget the first program starts early today -- Battle Scars: New Experimental Documentaries at 4! Ben Cooley will be presenting at 7.

I'm getting really pumped for RiP: A Remix Manifesto later on this evening. I highly recommend seeing it if you're interested in digital copyright, sample-based music, the musician Girl Talk, etc. The film actually inspired me to become more informed about open source content and the work of Lawerence Lessig. I'll be watching it a second time!

Also, check out the blog Media Futurist for more relevant information on the copyright in the digital age.

picts from last night

2009-05-07T13:10:00.001-07:00

the memories are fuzzy, but this much i know...

BUM EQUIPMENT OPENING PART 1

2009-05-07T12:56:00.002-07:00

BUM EQUIPMENT OPENING!

2009-05-07T12:52:00.000-07:00

DEELAY CEELAY JAMS

2009-05-07T12:50:00.001-07:00

Introduction to Bruce Conner

2009-05-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited for tonight!

I have to admit, prior to today, I was not familiar with Bruce Conner's work. I know, I know, I've been living under a rock. That said, I love Internet research, so I have been making the effort to get better acquainted with artists involved in the festival. For those of you who are curious about the program tonight but are not entirely convinced, I highly recommend reading Bruce Conner's wikipedia page. I discovered that "Conner was among the first to use pop music for film sound tracks" and that many of his films being shown tonight are collaborations with musicians, including Devo, Brian Eno/David Byrne, and Terry Riley. !!! See David Bryant's Wednesday post about the Bruce Conner warm up screening for a more detailed analysis of Conner's work.

I will be sure to report back about the program later on this evening.

Also, don't forget about the Opening Night Party at galleryHOMELAND, featuring the unveiling of Bum Equipment and an installation and peformance by (one of my recent favorites') Deelay Ceelay.

Opening Night - Bruce Conner: In Memorium, part 1

2009-05-06T06:11:00.000-07:00

The PDX Film Festival started tonight with the first of two programs concentrating on the film work of Bruce Conner. This post will likely ramble a bit, but that seems appropriate given Conner's penchant for deliberate contrariness (to be forthright, a trait I greatly admire).

I've seen most of the films screened tonight, some of them numerous times. In the past I have been most fond of the Conner films which I refer to as cinematically joyful. Included in this category are Cosmic Ray and, especially, Breakaway. I consider Breakaway to be one of the "freest" and most unabashedly joyful films I've encountered in 30 years of film viewing. To this day I want to get up and dance along with the film, and actually did so when I checked it out from the Donnell Library in the mid 80s. Yet, as much as I enjoyed seeing these two films again, tonight I found myself drawn to the more historically focused films, in particular, Report, Marilyn Times Five, and The White Rose.

Many of the films in the first program have entered the filmmaker's zeitgeist whether some of the filmmakers aping/echoing/honoring Conner's work realize the source of their inspiration or not. I find this reality simultaneously humorous and sad for a variety of reasons and this perception might explain why Conner once said to Michelle Silva, the representative of the Conner Family Trust in attendance at this screening, "I'm called the Father of MTV but I want a blood test; and if I am the father of MTV I should have used a thicker condom."

Conner's work, as could be said of MTV, epitomizes a societal gestalt, and a particularly America-centric one at that. But the difference between the two avenues of expression are extreme. Whereas MTV's agenda is commodity and commercialization, Conner's more contemplative films–among which I include A Movie, Report, and Marilyn Times Five–consciously mine (and undermine) images which at this point in time have become so iconic as to practically be mundane (which causes me to wonder whether someone first viewing his films today can truly appreciate the impact these films must have had during the early years of their existence). These two sources of imagistic bombast (Conner and MTV) also approach their subjects from opposite ends of the spectrum: MTV from emptiness and a "lack" needing to be filled, Conner from a fullness which easily displays an overabundance described with the determined patience of Georges Bataille's writings on religion, erotism, death and sacrifice. While both could be described as holding a mirror to society, Conner does not shy from the death mask which hovers behind the craving for eternal youth.

Perhaps this historical specificity is a conundrum Conner's work cannot escape, for cinema does exist within time and contextually shifts based upon events which occur between the time of the creation of a particular film and when we have an opportunity to see it. Does this mean Conner's films have or will become irrelevant as they age? Personally, I don't thinks so, though I do expect they will be appreciated for different reasons today than they were when they premiered, and tomorrow for different reasons than we might appreciate them for today. I don't believe they will become irrelevant because the heart behind the films is so clearly on display. These are not "objective" films. They are deeply personal films, which is striking considering how much of the content of several of the films draw upon pre-existing footage and events where Conner had no direct participation. For me this indicates a filmmaker trying to regain control of the depiction of historical events which have been reduced to news bites and fragments disassociated from any direct connection to the time in which they occurred. In other words, Conner's work is directly opposed to the emptiness I associate with the MTV-vised "surfacing" of such television series as CSI where death is just another event to montage the hell out of. Where those mediums of expression lay pavement, Conner tends a real garden containing weeds, flowers and food.

A syllogism of our time is that "History is Written by the Victors." It is apparent that Conner's was a voice decrying such cynicism, adamantly refusing to bow to or accept such a passive position. This perception might explain why the most surprising film of the evening for me was The White Rose.

I am tempted to call The White Rose a devotional film, a phrase which sticks in my mouth because of the religious connotations typically associated with the word devotional. Yet, to rest for a moment upon the trenchant groundwork of Nathanial Dorsky's Devotional Cinema, this film is so full of love, loyalty and enthusiasm for its subject matter that devotional is perhaps the only appropriate word to apply. As with so many of Conner's films, this was made by a filmmaker who obviously and without apology cared deeply about the subject matter he chose to emphasize. He honors not only the art and the artist responsible for the painting being moved, but also the caretakers responsible for moving it. The shot of the moving van driving away near the end of the film, its crew lounging in the back after strenuous but delicate work, provokes a sense of longing, loss, and the changes that inevitably come with the passage of time (another ode to mortality?). As the truck pulls away one could be tempted to wave goodbye as if to a lover pursuing a new journey which does not include us. The imagery and dramatic progression are strong enough to evoke Brion Gysin's proclamation that we are all "Here To Go."

The subject of Conner's "fetishizing" the erotic came up during after show questions. All art making is fetishistic to some degree, but I suspect this is a question which comes up regularly with a number of Conner's films. Yet the posing of this question seems significantly if not completely off target in relation to the appearance of women in films such as Breakaway, Cosmic Ray, Marilyn Times Five and Vivian. I include Vivian in this quartet deliberately. Though it includes no nudity or "erotic" dancing Vivian does include similar visual tropes of dressing, costuming, "showing off" and even "encasing." However, from my point of view, Conner never fetishizes. He adores. And, in this adoration his films are liberating for his creative collaborators and the viewers of his films. I find absolutely nothing excessive or irrational in his depiction of nudity (both terms are part of the definition of fetishize). In three of the films mentioned it is quite obvious the women are experiencing as much joy in the act of creation as Conner is. And in the fourth mentioned–Marilyn Times Five, which is formed entirely from a pre-existing stripper film–Conner so deliberately interrupts flow and "climax" as to remind this viewer how prevalent, pervasive and predictable and required such depictions are. Each of these films is fully conscious, aware and alive, never merely subject to or victim of a demanding obsession. Marilyn does include elements of sensuality, but even sinking into that sensation is undermined through disruption, visual repetition and the repeated use, to the point of absurdity, of Marilyn Monroe singing I'm Through With Love. There is a suggestion of an untapped "more" in Marilyn Times Five that has more in common with Peggy Lee's Is That All There Is than it does with a Marilyn typically associated with I Want to Be Loved By You ("and nobody else but you"). These are intelligent films that dispute a victimized or victimizing objectification/subjectification. I consider them fully "conscious" films, perfectly aware of their intent and wholly comfortable in the body they inhabit. They certainly share more with films directed by Candida Royale or the writings of Susie Bright than they do with either a new VIVID release or psuedo-liberating film such as Thelma and Louise. I find it exhilarating that the women appearing in Conner's films needn't suffer the slap of an imposed and debilitating dose of narrative tragedy, that they can revel in their own joy without fear of punishment.

Due to the time I was born and came of age (I am a cusp child, half hippy, half punk) I've associated many of Conner's films with the nihilism of punk. And even though I adamantly take the position that the nihilistic energy of those late 70s/early 80s years provoked intensely positive results, in so narrowly contemplating Conner's films I believe I've done a disservice to him and his work.

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2009-05-05T16:37:00.000-07:00

is this thing working?

blink twice if you can hear me.

and speaking of blogs, check out Shawn Levy’s nice little write up!

2009-05-05T16:14:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone and welcome to the 2009 PDX Film Festival blog! Stay tuned over the next week as a flurry of postings appear before your eyes documenting the full, live experience that is PDX Fest 2009. We have enlisted a fabulous gang of local bloggers, critics and artists as well as some of our very own participating filmmakers to help share the PDX Fest experience with the masses through their own unique blogging sensibilities. We look forward to watching this multi-perspective portrait of this year's festival take shape over the coming days.

For all the details about this year's festival and the films and events we have on tap, head to our brand new website - www.pdxfilmfest.com.

Hope to see all of you at the festival!

xoxo

TEAM PDX

Getting ready

2009-05-04T08:33:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I am currently just about jumping out of my morning slippers in eager anticipation of this year's PDX Film Fest to kick off. On Tuesday May 5th I am going to catch the 1st half of the Bruce Conner in Memorium at the Whitsell brought you by the PDX Film Fest! + Cinema Project + Northwest Film Center then on Wednesday I'll be picking up my friend and 2009 Peripheral Produce Invitational competitor Katja Straub from the airport and I imagine that we'll probably head directly to the opening night screening which is the 2nd half of the Bruce Conner in Memorium program at the Clinton St. Theater. You can reference a little write up on my thoughts on the Conner retrospective show I caught in Austin that the Austin Film Society put on at the Alamo Draft House back last November here, I am very stoked they are kicking the fest off with this very fine program.

Later on that same evening we'll jam up the street to galleryHomeland to sneak a first peak at this year's installation portion of the Fest, BUM Equipment which is being curated by Cartune Xprez, I have no doubt that it will be an electronic gawk fest of epic proportions - I wonder if 3D glasses will be necessary? I'm also highly eager to see what will go down at this year's Experimental Filmmaker Karaoke Throwdown Take II on May 8th at Holocene, I had a great time making a karaoke video for this year's event and you can read a little blog action about that adventure right here.

Hope to see you all out there on Wednesday evening, more updates coming soon!

- Karl Lind.