Harvard Film Archive
Place Over Time. Recent Work by James Benning
“The artist is someone who pays attention and reports back.” – J.B.
“Over the past thirty-five years James Benning (b. 1942) has played a central role in the history of American independent cinema by offering his rigorously structured yet wonderfully graceful films as extended meditations on the American landscape and its social and environmental histories. Benning’s life and work have been shaped by his passionate wanderlust—born in Milwaukee, he lived for intervals in Colorado, the Missouri Ozarks, Illinois and Oklahoma before settling in Val Verde, California in 1987, with car and motorcycle journeys around the country generating such films as I-94 (1975) and Four Corners (1997). His career has been equally restless, ranging from his early experimentation with an avant-garde aesthetic to his embrace, during the 1980s and 90s, of explicitly autobiographical elements and increased human content. With his ‘California Trilogy‘ (2000-2001) Benning entered a new phase, refining his formalist style and political concerns while distilling his abiding interest in place and exacting organizational structures. The different phases of Benning’s career inform his more recent work, presented in this program, which looks at and listens to the world with an acuity grounded in Benning’s firm convictions that duration and a rigorous formal aesthetic can give way to films that allow us to see differently and to read the inscription of the political into the places that surround us.”
http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2009marapr/benning.html#rr
000000000000000
Orphans West
Los Angeles Filmforum and Cinefamily bring the Orphan Film Symposium to Los Angeles
Where: The Silent Movie Theatre, 611 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles
When: Saturday, May 2 & Sunday, May 3, 2009
Los Angeles Filmforum, Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts will present a retrospective of the Orphan Film Symposium to the historic Silent Movie Theatre on May 2 and 3.
The Orphan Film Symposium has had six incarnations since its start in 1999 at the University of South Carolina. Founder Dan Streible has since developed the symposium into a favorite of AMIA members, filmmakers, and historians. The event is now organized at and by NYU as a project of its Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program. The biennial draws sold out crowds from around the world (18 nations were represented at the 2008 symposium).
For the uninitiated, ‘orphan’ works are those which are outside of the mainstream and often have no known origin or copyright, or were at one point considered ‘lost’ and without a formal repository to preserve them. These include home movies, amateur and educational films, industrial and sponsored films, experimental films, and newsreels. Presenters at the symposium speak about restoration and research projects, their processes of discovery for these films and videos, followed by screenings of the works.
Undoubtedly, newcomers to the Orphans phenomenon are curious as to what stories and treasures the early incarnations of the symposium uncovered. For those curious parties, Los Angeles organizations LA Filmforum and Cinefamily worked with NYU and Dan Streible to coordinate a two-day retrospective event on May 2 and 3 at the historic Silent Movie Theatre at 611 N. Fairfax. The event will feature five shows, each with selected presentations and screenings from all six previous symposia. Orphans founder Dan Streible will be present along with an amazing lineup of presenters and films.”
Admission is $13 per show. For $65, patrons will receive a pass to all five shows in the symposium, free soda and popcorn AND a dinner and wine reception on Saturday night between the first and second shows.
To view the full lineup of shows, presenters and films, visit the Orphans West page at http://www.lafilmforum.org/OrphansWest/Program/Program.html
000000000000000000
A Philadelphia Tribute to Helen Hill
Event: The Handmade Magic of Helen Hill
What: Festival
Host: Community Screen
Start Time: Thursday, May 7 at 7:00pm
End Time: Saturday, May 9 at 8:00pm
Where: International House
“The Handmade Magic of Helen Hill (1970 – 2007) celebrates the life and legacy of an extraordinary experimental filmmaker and animator. Helen Hill’s murder (one of six in a single day) in the wake of Hurricane Katrina prompted civic outrage that culminated in the March Against Violence on City Hall by thousands of New Orleanians.
A teacher and champion of do-it-yourself filmmaking techniques who delighted in personal expression and innovation, her whimsical animation encouraged anyone with an idea (or a pot-bellied pig) to put it to film. This tribute features a selection of Hill’s experimental works and home movies along with of her early inspirations, Lotte Reiniger’s fantastic The Adventures of Prince Achmed with live score. Discover a remarkable artist taken from the world too soon.
This program is a collaboration of International House Philadelphia, Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association (PIFVA), Big Blue Marble Bookstore and Community Screen.”
