Roots & Culture
I program film and video screenings at Roots & Culture gallery in Chicago. Opened in November 2006 by Eric May, Roots & Culture is a hub of varied creative activity in Chicago, including gallery space, artists studios, parties and sometimes catering.
October 13
On Saturday October 13, Roots and Culture gallery will be hosting a screening of work by current students in the film & video graduate program at CalArts. Vera Brunner-Sung, a CalArts MFA student who arranged the showcase, will be presenting the work.
Confronting Paradise is a program of short films and videos from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Last summer, The Museum of Modern Art screened Tomorrowland: CalArts in Moving Pictures – a 30-year retrospective of student work from CalArts. Confronting Paradise picks up whereTomorrowland ended, with new 16mm, super-8 and video work that challenges the bounds of contemporary American film and video culture.
The CalArts film and video program “has consistently produced work that is at once intimate, inventive, and technically sophisticated,” noted Tomorrowland’s curator Joshua Siegel. The 14 current students and recent graduates of CalArts’ MFA program featured in Confronting Paradise continue to forge new creative pathways. “The work ranges from observational and essay-based documentary to abstract narrative forms,” said programmer Vera Brunner-Sung. “Above all, it is defined by its persistent level of inquiry into the world, and uniquely personal vision.” (VBS)
Confronting Paradise
Highlighting recent graduate film and video work from CalArts
Presented by Vera Brunner-Sung
Saturday, October 13
7:30 pm
Roots & Culture gallery
1034 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago
Admission free
Program
NAOKO IS TRYING TO TEACH ME HOW TO MAKE “TONKATSU” IN ONE MINUTE
Sompot Chidgasornpongse
2006, 1:00, mini-dv
Naoko is trying to teach me how to make "Tonkatsu" in 1 minute.
NAOMI & IRVING
Laura Bouza
2007, 4:00, 16mm on mini-dv, BW
Naomi and Irving share their routines.
AGUSTÍN
Alexandra Cuesta
2006, 1:00, 16mm on DVD
The sound of the afternoon in a neighbor’s workshop.
FOOTNOTES TO A HOUSE OF LOVE
Laida Lertxundi
2007, 13:00, 16mm on DVD
A series of minimally arranged scenes in the California desert in which there is a constant play between sound and image, on frame off frame. There is an effort to create the space of a story, without a story, partly by the use of natural/diegetic sound. The film is laboriously honouring play. Love is felt as a force that remains almost off the frame and determines the arrangement of the figures in the landscape.
WAYWARD PILGRIMS
Taylor Greeson & Seth Stewart
2007, 6:30, super-8 on dvcam
What begins as a short documentary about a polygamous Mormon Fundamentalist community soon meanders unexpectedly as caprice, uncertainty, and commercialism force the two young filmmakers to reexamine their intentions and the uncharted territory of their own relationship.
JUAN'S YARD (VAL VERDE, 91384)
Aleigh Lewis
2007, 8:00, mini-dv
An observation of three goats whose spontaneity and naughtiness are rivaled only by the neighborhood children who come to heckle and tease them. The goat's owner, Juan Mendez, raises them to maintain a connection to his land and food despite his suburban surroundings in Southern California.
THOKA
Thorbjorg Jonsdottir
2007, 5:00, 16mm on mini-dv
A short story that takes place in a house by the ocean.
SOLIPSIS
Vera Brunner-Sung
2007, 10:00, mini-dv
Your hometown changes a lot over the years. Where do you put your memories?
SALT LICK
Michelle Dean
2007, 1:00, 16mm on mini-dv
A man, a deer head, and a motel room.
AM/PM
Brigid McCaffrey
2007, 9:00, 16mm on mini-dv
Off hours spent on the western frontier, a young Sikh immigrant lays out his choices.
EXACTLY DO THEY DO
Cristina Hortigüela
2007, 7:00, mini-dv
An exploration of movement through the rhythm of Gertrude Stein’s audio and text (“The Making of Americans” and “If I Told Him”). Different characters appear in a room fading, overlapping and leaving the frame: “inside becomes outside.”
SPEECH MEMORY
Caroline Key
2007, 23:00, 16mm on DVD
Father and daughter discuss the lives of past generations, and in doing so, attempt to reach some common understanding on the shifting complexities of history, identity, and memory.
TRT: 1:28
Fall 2007
We wrapped up our Zummer Tapez screening series on August 25 with a tape by Bill Brown. Thanks to Bill, Victor and Chris for their fantastic tapes! Plans are in the works for another mixtape series in the future.
Screenings for the fall include programs of films by Eric Patrick, Tom Comerford, and a showcase of current graduate student work from CalArts presented by Vera Brunner-Sung. More details and dates on these shows soon.
Summer 2007: Zummer Tapez at Roots & Culture.
June 30, July 28, and August 25, 2007
All screenings at 8:30 pm, no charge.
Roots & Culture contemporary art center
1034 N. Milwaukee Ave.
During the summer of 2007, Andy Roche and I are hosting a three-part video screening series at Roots & Culture titled Zummer Tapez. The goal for the screenings is to present work by a lineup of particularly interesting artists, and to provide these artists with a forum for a more social and entertaining artist talk. Each installment of the series features a VHS or MiniDV mixtape created specifically for the screening. The artists have been invited to create one-hour tapes that showcase their influences and interests as well as examples of their own work. Each artist will introduce his tape and provide comments during the screenings.
Be on the lookout for our Zummer Tapez posters, designed by Lilli Carré and silkscreened by Alana Bailey.
Schedule of screenings:
June 30, 8:30 pm, Chris Sullivan.
Chicago animator Chris Sullivan will dig into his bag of tricks in order to show off a few gems from his favorite films, and will to be staging some theatrical performances in conjunction with his mixtape. Chris has been working on animations, films, and performances for over twenty years. His past films include Landscape With the Fall of Icarus and Master of Ceremonies, and his current project Consuming Spirits is nearing completion.
July 28, 8:30 pm, Victor Cayro.
The work of comics artist Victor Cayro has been featured in the compilations Kramer’s Ergot and Project: Superior. His dense and meticulous drawings fuse gun-toting cybernetics with the Crumb-ish worldview of an obsessive overgrown teenager, and evoke a peculiar but effective empathy. There’s really no safe bets when Victor’s tape hits the deck.
August 25, 8:30 pm, Bill Brown.
Bill Brown’s films are quirky documentaries based on his travels across America. Using interview tactics, diaristic commentary and patient observation of the landscape, Bill investigates sites of historical interest as well as those with little importance at all. His films Buffalo Common, Confederation Park and Roswell have received numerous awards at numerous festivals.
Past screenings.
