Views From Views

The world of experimental film has become a very interesting place for me lately. More words on that later. First, I wanted to post some pictures that I took at my screening, which took place on October 7th.

The setting: The Walter Reade Theater. This is where the Views from the Avant-Garde portion of the New York film festival plays. Before the programs start, we all gather in the gallery. I was very pleased to see that the program in which my film was playing was sold out:

I recognized a few faces, but as I said, I feel that I have become estranged from this world. A group in which I once felt so at home and seemed so welcoming to me seems at once elitist and alienating to me now. So I did what any normal person would do. I went to the bathroom with my iPhone to do some quick e-mails and take photos of my fish purse:

What? Wouldn't you do that?

After bonding with my fish, I decided the two of us needed to get to the theatre before the films started:

So yeah. Then the films started and I stopped taking photos and playing with my toys. Great program. Great films, all around, actually. I've exhausted all of my past strength to write detailed critiques about avant-garde films, though. I might write about a couple yet... It just always took a great deal of effort to write about these works and I kind of felt that the energy was lost. Again, more on that later.

I was kind of surprised by how many of these works were digital this year. Much of the experimental film world has been fairly "anti-video" for a while. With the exception of the occasional hiss at the video projector (yes, someone actually hissed), it seems like this "rule" might be beginning to bend (this is the avant-garde, after all- we're supposed to be all about bending the rules). Though I have been doing a lot of video work lately, my film was shown on 16mm. Unfortunately, the 16mm projector bulb was having "issues" which resulted in my already dark film being projected MUCH too dim. I've grown out of my "artist throwing a fit" stage and have accepted the uncertainties of working in the medium I have chosen. Besides finding it somewhat unfortunate, I simply let it go.

Besides, there was a director's party to get to and wine to be had:

Lots and lots and lots of wine!!


I really didn't drink all that much wine. I just liked the way my phone's camera handles reflected light in low-light situations. Now, for stars (the movie kind that don't emit their own light making them actually uninteresting subjects for my camera phone):

Jason Schwartzman!

Not really. I thought it was him, but I'm really bad at the whole "identifying people" thing. But I swear this is Wes Anderson:

Huh? Huh?! Forget it. I have no real pictures in this category. They actually kicked us out rather early, but this being New York, we just moved to a new bar.

Most of these folks are filmmakers whose films were in the Avant-Garde program, but I will spare them from being identified by my text here (that makes it Googleable and, let's face it, some people don't want a fuzzy strangely-lit picture of themselves popping up on the Internet when stalkers Google their name).

Finally, I snapped a couple of photos of graffiti outside of the restaraunt. A friend of mine asked me to snap a couple of shots because she thought it was beautiful. I agreed:

Sweet Intuition - Part 2

This second part consists of about 7200 16mm frames of the film "Amelie" (a more "professional" romantic fairytale view of Paris, but a parallel one).

Each frame was cut out, stacked in order, placed in bundles of 24, labeled and then individually re-pasted (in order) on strips of 35mm film that had been flashed with colored lights and scratched. These strips hung in my lab for two days while the glue dried, then they were spliced together to form the complete five minute film below.

This film celebrated an anniversary of sorts this last Saturday. I participated, in my way, in my friend's annual all-night meditation. I stayed up until 5:00 AM cutting my 16mm frames in my own quasi-meditation.

Click on the above image to see the quicktime movie or go to Sweet Intuition on blip.tv for the flash video version.

Poor little Callisto...

...experiencing technical difficulties. Where did Callisto go? My original file is gone! :(

(Non video types, skip to the end of this paragraph) I'm trying to get the digital recording from the betacam back online. I copied it to a digital 8mm tape, but got rid of that camera, so I can't recapture the video. I ordered a digital 8 camera from ebay but wound up with... a camera that records to DVDs? Not at all what I need. There, nerd talk over.

I FINALLY have the camera now and plan to get that and other neglected videos back online (including one that didn't even make it onto the DVD). In the meantime, I will shamelessly plug myself here:



Come vote for Snowbird on "The Lot!" http://films.thelot.com/films/28908

"Wait," you ask, "didn't I already vote for this film once?"

Well, how would I know? Who are you? And how in the world did you just type that above?

Yes, this film is up on the IFC, and yes, I begged my blog viewership to go and vote for it there (that's right, all ten of you- according to feedburner statistics, anyway). BUT this time, I might win $1 million development from Steven Spielberg to make my first feature AND I would be on the equivalent of American Idol for filmmakers. Just think about it, you could be watching TV and saying, "wow! I actually know that very sad, sad person!!"

Plus, there is now a 45 second introduction before the film that includes drawings and a moving, talking me (unlike the stationary me in the upper right who just produces text).

Okay, you have been sufficiently coerced. End transmission...