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Bearded Child Film Festival Myles Reif Performing Arts CenterGrand Rapids, Minnesota Screening Schedule Friday and Saturday, August 6 and 7, 2004 Friday, Aug 6
- A 16-minute joyride for your optical system. Left and right
screens fight it out for dominance. Sometimes they collaborate on a rhythmic
pattern, sometimes they don't. The pace quickens, relaxes, becomes tense again.
Hold on to your eyeballs. 2. Postindustrial Symphony (16 Minutes)
- While the original symphony films of the 1920s celebrated the life of the
modern industrial city, "Postindustrial Symphony", a visual essay contrasting
downtown Durham,NC and its neighboring Research Triangle Park, represents the
transition to a new type of urban geography. 3. 50 Feet That Shook The World (3 Minutes)
- This stop-motion homage to the silent, Russian classics takes a twisted
look at the ongoing war between film and video. (Imagine Jan Svankmajer remaking
Potemkin!) This film was made for LA Flicker's "Attack of the 50 Foot Reels"
(1 roll of Super 8 film, edited in camera, sound created without seeing the
footage!) 4. Souvenir From Africa (8 Minutes)
- In quarantine, the protagonist leads a lonely immigrant existence. Based on a story by the Dutch writer W.F. Herman's "Zign God was een Mens".
- Maps circularly explores the separations of "time" and "space" in an organic
universe that does not acknowledge the division of these human-made concepts.
- A visual poem, a dream-like voyage that slowly hovers from a dandelion to a traffic cloverleaf to a highway at night. Different experimental animation techniques emphasize the musical orchestration that creates a unusual meditative and at times ominous atmosphere.
- The modern individual -in this case three women imprisoned by the glass
and concrete of a sleek high-rise structures- appears isolated from reality,
unable to connect with itself or its surroundings. The women are modern geisha's,
with excessive, smudged make-up, and limbs covered in blood. After trying to
fill the void with glamour, they lie down in silence, realizing that innocence
has been lost. And brushing your teeth afterwords doesn't scrub away the taste
of sin. 'As I lick your lips, they turn to stone,' sing Chicks on 8. This Is The Bike Ride To Work (10 Minutes)
- The bike ride to work is swiftly and slowly, dreamily documented with stories
of real life scenes along the way as the bike ride heroine is thinking them.
When was the last time you rode your bike and noticed the neighborhood? It's
all true you know. 9. He, She, We Us,and They (3 Minutes)
- A sound piece with video, inspired by Robert Morris' "Box With The Sound
Of It's Own Making". Pronouns are used as empty variables; shifters, interacting
together in a narrative that seems senseless. Words become sounds. The narration
flows over images of wood being worked with woodworking tools. The use of tools,
and the interplay of the common words that structure our inter-relationships
are put into play together. Language and tools blur together. Language, seen
as a tool, forms the image of a world: the world pictured as the formation of
material; mere material at the disposal of tools. This video is about such a
world. 10. This Is Being Black, This Is Being White (4 Minutes)
- The film purposes a structure where meaning exists or can be thought through
as opposed to being thought of. Ideally the viewer will arrive at the conclusion,
via one of two thought paths, that prejudice or discrimination is not logical
or possible given the sameness or difference of individuals of different tonal
skin variations. 11. Reckless Eyeballing (12 Minutes)
- During the Jim Crow era in the United States, black men were prosecuted or
lynched for looking at white women. This crime was known as "reckless eyeballing."
Referencing the lurid melodrama of Blaxploitation and D.W. Griffith's "Birth
of a Nation" as well as Angela Davis, Medusa, Othello, photometry (the science
of light measurement) and psychoanalysis, "Reckless Eyeballing" is an optically
printed, hand-processed film about light, shadow, fear, desire and illicit gazes.
- A film based on the Fibonacci Spiral, a geometric spiral which uses the Fibonacci
Numbers (0,1,1,2,3,5,18...) as its dimensions. The director was experimenting
to see what 'mathematical perfection' would look like on film. 9pm- Experimental Program #2: Recollections and Transmutations 13. Hojas de Maiz (10 minutes)
**This hand-made experimental film will be shown silent, with a live soundtrack
by Kai Stenlund, a local musician. 14. Gulliver's Travels (3 Minutes)
- Held hostage by her dolls, a girl is forced into a showdown between good
and evil in this offbeat, stop-motion - Contact: www.smokehousefilms.com;
- An animated meditation on the Defenestration of Prague, the spark which began
the Thirty Years War. Richly layered images explore the worlds of nature, humanity,
and heaven during this moment. 16. Ten Years Turkey (8.5 minutes)
- A summary of a ten year project of double-stuffing turkeys; as a taxidermy
centerpiece for the stuffed turkey on the dinner platter.
- The establishment condemns the visionary.
- A feverish reverie in which images glimpsed from a train window become lodged
in a dream-like world of menace and beauty. 19. Structural Filmwaste, Dissolution 1 (4 Minutes)
- An abstract look at daily living while attempting to portray the surreal
mind. 21. And Happiness Everywhere (7 Minutes)
22. Not Too Much Remember (11 Minutes)
- Maybe it's the CIA and the LSD they gave "Richard", or America and its vast
imagery screwed into our brains and restructuring our identity. Whatever "it"
is, get ready for a found footage film that deconstructs the mighty power of
narratives and their pervasive effect on the formation of consciousness. 23. Closer To Heaven (15 Minutes)
- Urban ghosts collide, abandoned umbrellas tumble down the streets, my father
calls again and again to say good-bye. A film about loss, longing and changing
weather. "Closer to Heaven" is a good-bye poem and homage to my father. 1hr. 30min. 11pm- Cult Classics
- A shocking expose' on the reality
behind the cubical. WATCH; as ALIENS use our corporate American culture to breed
stupidity and EVIL!! 25. Mort's Big Surprise (3 Minutes)
- Mort has a big surprise for Cross, but the surprise Cross has for Mort is,
well, a lot bigger.
- Three monsters find themselves in need of money. So they find some jobs.
- In this experimental video human skin serves as a metaphor for the surface
of the earth. Just as the ultraviolet rays of a tanning booth sear the skin
and sows the seeds of cancer, relentless development threatens to kill the earth.
What appears to move is still. What appears united is separate. What appears
healthy is ill. What appears productive is destructive. 28. You Define Single File (6 Minutes)
- Is is a cryptic, symbol laden message from space? Or is it an earthly occult
message from the past? You decide. 29. Season's Greetings (2 Minutes)
- The holidays are a time for warmth, joy, magic and surprises. A heartwarming
holiday fantasy from the creator of 2003s "Flesh Orgy
of the Zombie Totem". 30. Jurassic Park 4 & 5 (22 Minutes)
- Damian Crowbar and Lesotho Develop, two investigators of the Enigma of Quadratic Caveza, came to the conclusion that birds can fly higher than computers. Having stated that, they run away to become sailors on Icebreaker Potemkin, but by mistake they board the Orient Express and end up in Paris, working as cleaning ladies in High Class Bordello. Not knowing what sex is all about, they discover only too late, that they are late and 9 months later they are four. Their sons, Damian Crowbar Jr. and Lesotho Develop Jr, turn 18 in 18 years and die in stampede. 31. Pandora's Paradox (24 Minutes)
- An old woman gives birth to a giant toe, which once fed milk, hatches into
a young boy whose mind is forever fucked one fateful night when he walks in
on his parents’ rendition of "Dial K for Kinky." Determined to escape the sexual
and mental abuse of the scene, he decides to return home to the womb but quickly
learns that getting back there, doesn't come without a price
- A romantic comedy about life, love, and loyalty. Only it's not funny. And
there's lots of blood. 1hr. 20min. Saturday, August 7 6pm- A Tribute to Wesley Willis 33. Wesley Willis: The Daddy of Rock'N'Roll (60 Minutes)
- "I'm Wesley Willis, I'm 36 years old. I play music and do art. I have schizophrenia.
I have chronic schizophrenia. I had it since 1989. Roger Lee Carpenter asked
me for $600. He told me, that if I don't give him $600, he was going to blow
my brains out. That's when I started hearing demons. I have three demons: Nervewrecker,
Heartbreaker and Meansucker. The demons tell me I'm a jerk, a bum and an asshole.
I yell, I scream, I holler at people on buses- but when I'm with friends, it's
a joyride." 7:15pm- Narrative Shorts Program- "Behind Closed Doors" 34. Dave Callaham: Writer's Reel (7 Minutes)
- Dave Callaham wants to be a writer... It's not going very well. Starring B- movie action hero Al Leong. 35. Tom Hits His Head (8 Minutes)
- Ever since Tom hit his head he's been getting dizzy spells, indulging in
eBay, and having conversations with the devil. This film is a comedic short
film about a not-so-funny time in the director's own life.
- An aging seaman, a young girl and butterflies. The macabre tale of a remote
fishing village.
- Cats is an experimental narrative inspired by Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics
of Space. A lonely woman collides with her past and confronts her memories through
her interactions with the architecture of her house.
- A fifty-year-old man takes great
care in preparing his fruit snacks. An apple a day may keep the doctor away
for some, but not all. 38. The Guilt Trip (14 Minutes)
- A stop-motion road movie starring Jesus and Mary Magdalene, with the Pope
in hot pursuit. 39. Fundamentals of the Stoma (20 Minutes)
- Four characters inhabit Film Noir landscapes of decaying buildings and surreal
speech patterns. Motivations are oblique, postures are severe, and chain-smoking
is mandatory. The Occupant investigates a Stoma, Executioner Bremer torments
a Paralytic, and the Commander plots our collective doom. Themes of scapegoating
emerge. Allusions to World War 2 seep out. 40. Someone Is Watching Me (2 Minutes)
- What starts as a bath , ends with screaming. 41. One Nation Under Tommy (15 Minutes)
- Conceived, produced, and assembled by Roger Beebe - Adapting the children's
game known as "grapevine" or "telephone", "One Nation Under Tommy" is a mutation/deformation/liberation
of a cynically patriotic Tommy Hilfiger commercial. The commercial was given
to a writer who wrote a script from it that was then given to a filmmaker who
made a film of that script which was then passed to another writer, etc. We
did that 5 times over two years and "One Nation Under Tommy" is the result. Special Screening:
-In the spring of 1999, the Family Learning Channel commissioned animator Don Hertzfeldt to produce promotional segments for their network. The cartoons were completed in 5 weeks. The Family Learning Channel rejected all of them upon review, and they were never aired... 9:15pm- Minnesotans With Movie Cameras
44. Essence of a Film (11 Minutes)
- When we put a tape into our VCR, it always feels like the first half-hour
of the movie is previews and trailers. That is the essence of a movie. Of course,
a movie must also have a feature presentation, and some credits. So we stuck
those at the end when we were done with everything else.
- Two men share their faith. 46. Cothernus Conliquefactus (4 Minutes)
- Animated short of the happenings of a ninja and a crow.
- To most people, a well-balanced breakfast is an important start of every
day. But to some, it is law. And like the flag and apple pie, it's worth fighting
for. So what happens when three roommates wake up to just one waffle? Armageddon,
Quantum Petshop style! 48. Just Kids Growing Up and/or None of Them Turned Out
To Be Killers (18 Minutes)
- This is an experimental narrative of three pre-teen boys "playing guns"
filmed from the perspective of one of the kids. It was edited and had music
added to it ten years later by the same person who originally filmed it. 49. Cookies For Satan (11 Minutes)
- A brief moment of unconscious self-realization. 1hr. 30min. 11pm- Festival Closing
-To close out this year's festival, we've invited Minneapolis filmmaker Jason Wade to Grand Rapids. With the help of multiple projections and wild on- stage theatrics, his work is raw, explosive, and always predictable. Strap your ears back and enjoy. |
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Main
film. **This film was made for LA Flicker's "attack of the 50 Foot Reels" (1
roll of Super 8 film, edited IN camera, sound created WITHOUT seeing the footage!)
- Contact:
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A four-month, intimate journal in which the filmmaker considers her conflicting
emotions about being a newly married, thirty-something woman trying to negotiate
between being an artist, being a wife, and, potentially, becoming a mother.
47. Bullets Over Breakfast (11 Minutes)
