Invisible Cinema

Kittypie -- screening at Monkeytown, Dec. 5!

Meow, y'all!  Just an fyi, that my new painted super 8 to video, KITTYPIE, will be screening in The New Vision Cinema Series, curated by Mike Park, on Wednesday, December 5 at Monkeytown!  This program includes 18 film/video artists, among them a few of my favorites:   Nisi Jacobs, Athena Soules, Tim Reardon, Marianna Ellenberg, Mike Kuchar, Ross McLaren, and soooo much more!  Please stop by to check out Monkeytown's 4 screen room, say hello, and have a drink on a pillowy ivory couch with me!  :) 

Wed., Dec. 5, New Vision Cinema Series @ Monkeytown
58 N. 3rd St.
(btw. Kent & Wythe)
L train to Bedford Ave, Brooklyn!

Admission: $5, $10 minimum, 8:30 p.m.

The reason I write . . .

"The reason I write
is to make something
as beautiful as you are"

-- Leonard Cohen

   

Letters to a Young Artist - Part 2

Tonight I discovered that the editors of Letters to a Young Artist are friends with my friend, Brian from Boston! He's been mentioning these curators for years, although we've never met.  With only a few connections to the art world, I have approximately 1 degree of separation from the people who created this book.  Kind of freaky!

Anyway, the last essay of the collection is written by Joseph Grigely, and in it he discusses Keats's idea of Negative Capability:

"Keats described Negative Capability as a way of being, 'wherein one is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.'" 

Along with the uncertainties, Mysteries, and doubts, I struggle with the marginalization of contemporary experimental cinema in online discussion.  :)  (I know that some of you know that I struggle with this!) So I am giving myself permission to no longer attempt to fix or solve or correct or chastise or even analyze this situation.  If I'm letting myself off the hook, then all of you writers are off the hook too!  That means no more of my meltdowns in the comments fields!  No more of my interfering as self-appointed editor and whistle-blower!  No more irritable reaching after fact and reason!  I've become a bit obsessed over the lack of documentation of contemporary experimental cinema, and it's not enjoyable.  It's better to be obsessed about creative things, like making films & videos of flowers, cats, and children.

And one last question . . . who knows, maybe along with the wonderful & creative writing that is happening on experimental cinema, the films will do more of the talking? 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Letters to a Young Artist

I have to give it up for the print media today!  :)  I discovered this book, Letters to a Young Artist, and it is truly beautiful, wise, and only in print!  I sooo recommend, and it is totally worth $15!  Inspired by the great Rilke, this collection includes the response of 23 artists to a fictional letter from a young artist.  There are so many excerpts to choose from, i.e. John Baldessari, The Guerilla Girls, Yvonne Rainer, but I think Yoko Ono inspired me maybe the most.  And by the way, when I say the word "artist" I also mean "writer"!  :)

"To a Young Artist

... You as an artist will unfold the mystery of life and share it with the world.  It may just be two people your work will communicate to.  Don't be upset.  Be upset if you are not happy with your work.  Never be upset about how many people have seen it, or how many reviews it has received.  Your work will exist and keep influencing the world.  Moreover, your work will keep changing the very configuration of our world no matter what kind of attention it gets or doesn't get.  So even when you are an unknown artist, be caring of what you make and what you give out.  Your work, no matter what, affects the world, and in return, it brings back 10 times what you've given out.  If you give out junk, you get back junk.  If you give out confusion, you will give yourself confusion.  If you give out something beautiful, you will get back 10 times more beauty in your life.  That's how it works.  Your are now like a tree in the park.  Your existence is making the city breathe well.  So relax and be yourself.  Don't try to be anything but yourself.  Rely on your instinct and inspiration.  Go with it!"  -- Yoko Ono

It's love . . .

So remember when I said that it was over?  You know, when I quit the blogosphere last year?  I take that back now.  Sorry!  See how things can change?

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Animated Life by Jeff Scher in the NYT

Have you been noticing the experimental cinema in the NYT?  It's true!  The filmmaker and artist, Jeff Scher, has a blog affiliated with the NYT "Opinion" section with several of his films embedded on-line.  I must admit, the marketing has been brilliant!  Notice how the videos appear with the artist's own descriptions - very lovely! - without a headline even mentioning experimental cinema or cinema or avant-garde or movies.  Maybe this is one creative solution to exposing experimental film/video? :)  (Sometimes it is best to catch people completely off guard . . . )

A big kiss to the NYT!  I strongly encourage you to include more blogs as a part of your publication.  Yes, I am available, darlings . . .

This still is from Yours by Jeff Scher.  This work is a perfect slice of experimental film life right now, November 2007!

What Doug Said . . .

In April 2006, I curated a beautiful cinema program with Bradley Eros, entitled Aerodynamics of the Hovering Hummingbird.  The entire program was inspired by a paper of the same title published in Nature 453 (2005) by Doug Warrick and his colleagues at Oregon State University.

Doug was unable to attend our screening, but he provided a statement for me to read at the beginning of the program.  It was so beautiful, and I have never forgotten it. 

When you read the following speech, I would like for you to consider James Benning's recent essay, Life in Film.  The two works seem to intersect . . .

*******

(FYI, when I write about cinema, I'm trying to write about this!)

*******

"Here's a little something to represent me:

How flight happens  - for birds, insects, people - has always occupied me.
My understanding of it was limited to theory; my empirical proof was based
on deduction, and a few sensations - a hand out the car window, or on the
controls of an airplane - that provided me with tangible evidence that the
air was out there doing the things the theoreticians said.  This technology,
Digital Particle Image Velocimetry, has been much more that an analytical
tool; it is providing me with the powerful experience of seeing that which I
had always only felt or suspected or been told.  In that such experiences
are the intent of the filmmaker's art, my colleagues and I are pleased to
share the artistry of the rufous hummingbird."

                                                               -- Douglas R. Warrick