Date: 2 November 2010 | Season: Plenty
PLENTY 1: THE END
Tuesday 2 November 2010, at 7pm
London E:vent Gallery
The screening series PLENTY proposes a new way of looking at artists’ films by showing only a single work, regardless of its duration. Each film is given the freedom to unfold on its own terms, and the viewer is given the time and space to consider it.
“Ladies and gentlemen. We asked you before to insert yourself into the cast, now we ask you to write this story. Here is a character. Here is the most beautiful music on earth. Here are some pictures. What is happening?”
THE END
Christopher Maclaine, USA, 1953, 16mm, b/w & colour, sound, 35 min
The End follows the last day on earth for six of ‘our friends’ living in the shadow of the atomic bomb. Cryptic camerawork and disjointed cutting conspire to salvage narrative from unrelated images, accompanied by a barely coherent rant of existential despair. The End is an anti-film infused with dark, ironic humour; deliciously inept and inadvertently glorious.
Christopher Maclaine (1923-75) was a marginal figure in the early beatnik scene of North Beach, San Francisco. He wrote poetry and prose, and made four films. Maclaine’s heavy use of amphetamines ultimately rendered him debilitated, resulting in hospital internments and early death.
PLENTY, a free monthly screening series selected by Mark Webber, forms part of the “Brief Habits” programme curated by Shama Khanna.
Date: 30 November 2010 | Season: Plenty
PLENTY 2: ÄGYPTEN
Tuesday 30 November 2010, at 7pm
London E:vent Gallery
The screening series PLENTY proposes a new way of looking at artists’ films by showing only a single work, regardless of its duration. Each film is given the freedom to unfold on its own terms, and the viewer is given the time and space to consider it.
ÄGYPTEN [EGYPT]
Kathrin Resetarits, Austria, 1997, 16mm, b/w, sound, 10 min
Ägypten takes viewers on a journey into the silent world of sign language, exploring visual communication between people of all ages. Children recount movie scenes and an expedition to the pyramids, a woman signs a traditional Viennese ballad and a group of pensioners socialise. The film uses the power of cinema to explore this theme with humour and compassion.
Kathrin Resetarits (born 1973) is a Viennese writer, actress and filmmaker. Her other films include Fremde (1999) and Ich Bin Ich (2006). She played a leading role in Barbara Albert’s Fallen (1997) and has worked as an assistant to Michael Haneke.
PLENTY, a free monthly screening series selected by Mark Webber, forms part of the “Brief Habits” programme curated by Shama Khanna.
Date: 11 January 2011 | Season: Plenty
PLENTY 3: COCULLO
Tuesday 11 January 2011, at 7pm
London E:vent Gallery
The screening series PLENTY proposes a new way of looking at artists’ films by showing only a single work, regardless of its duration. Each film is given the freedom to unfold on its own terms, and the viewer is given the time and space to consider it.
COCULLO
Nino Pezzella, Italy, 2000-06, 16mm, colour, sound, 30 min
Snakes alive! For the annual Festa dei Serpari in Cocullo, a statue of San Domenico is adorned with snakes and paraded through the village streets, escorted by bagpipes and a marching band. Traditional foods are prepared using time-honoured methods. Pezzella’s dynamic film collides sounds and images as it follows this extraordinary ritual and its participants.
Painter and filmmaker Nino Pezzella (born 1961, Wiesbaden) studied at the Städelschule, Frankfurt, where he now teaches life drawing. His current work documents the lives of the Femminielli in Naples.
PLENTY, a free monthly screening series selected by Mark Webber, forms part of the “Brief Habits” programme curated by Shama Khanna.
Date: 8 February 2011 | Season: Plenty
PLENTY 4: BARBARA’S BLINDNESS
Tuesday 8 February 2011, at 7pm
London E:vent Gallery
The screening series PLENTY proposes a new way of looking at artists’ films by showing only a single work, regardless of its duration. Each film is given the freedom to unfold on its own terms, and the viewer is given the time and space to consider it.
BARBARA’S BLINDNESS
Joyce Wieland & Betty Ferguson, Canada, 1965, 16mm, b/w, sound, 17 min
Constructed from found and stock footage, Barbara’s Blindness is a meditation on vision and adversity, drawing humour and pathos from a moralising educational film. “We started out with a dull film about a little blind girl named Mary and ended up with something that made us get crazy.”
Joyce Wieland (1931-88) was a pioneer of patriotic and feminist Canadian art. Though primarily known as a filmmaker, she was also a distinguished painter and mixed media artist. Wieland’s lifelong friend Betty Ferguson (born 1933) went on to make three found footage films of her own in the 1970s.
PLENTY, a free monthly screening series selected by Mark Webber, forms part of the “Brief Habits” programme curated by Shama Khanna.
Date: 8 March 2011 | Season: Plenty
PLENTY 5: O’ER THE LAND
Tuesday 8 March 2011, at 7pm
London E:vent Gallery
The screening series PLENTY proposes a new way of looking at artists’ films by showing only a single work, regardless of its duration. Each film is given the freedom to unfold on its own terms, and the viewer is given the time and space to consider it.
O’ER THE LAND
Deborah Stratman, USA, 2009, 16mm, colour, sound, 52 min
Marine Corps pilot William Rankin ejected from his jet into a severe thunderstorm, surviving lightening strikes in a 40-minute descent. 50 years later, his account is the starting point for a contemplation of American national identity that takes in Civil War re-enactments, high school football games, gun shows, firefighters and border patrols.
Deborah Stratman (born 1967) is a Chicago-based artist working in photography, sound, drawing and installation. Her films use experimental and documentary techniques to explore an interest in landscapes, mythologies and systems.
PLENTY, a free monthly screening series selected by Mark Webber, forms part of the “Brief Habits” programme curated by Shama Khanna.
Date: 12 April 2011 | Season: Plenty
PLENTY 6: PLASTIC HAIRCUT
Tuesday 12 April 2011, at 7pm
London E:vent Gallery
The screening series PLENTY proposes a new way of looking at artists’ films by showing only a single work, regardless of its duration. Each film is given the freedom to unfold on its own terms, and the viewer is given the time and space to consider it.
PLASTIC HAIRCUT
Robert Nelson, USA, 1963, 16mm, b/w, sound, 15 min
Two actors perform absurd actions in sets composed of geometric shapes. Two experts try to explain what it all means. Goofing off in positive/negative space, Robert Nelson and collaborators William T. Wiley, Ron Hudson, R.G. Davis and Steve Reich construct a spirited work that invokes Alfred Jarry, Dada and improvised theatre.
“None of us knew anything about making movies, but we all knew about art (namely that it had something to do with having a good time).” (Robert Nelson)
Robert Nelson (born 1930) was a key figure of the post-war independent film scene and one of the founders of Canyon Cinema. His belief that filmmaking should be primarily a fun activity created some of the most entertaining and infectious works of the American underground.
PLENTY, a free monthly screening series selected by Mark Webber, forms part of the “Brief Habits” programme curated by Shama Khanna.
Date: 31 May 2011 | Season: Plenty
PLENTY 7: FILMMAKERS’ HOLIDAY
Tuesday 31 May 2011, at 7pm
London E:vent Gallery
The screening series PLENTY proposes a new way of looking at artists’ films by showing only a single work, regardless of its duration. Each film is given the freedom to unfold on its own terms, and the viewer is given the time and space to consider it.
FILMMAKERS’ HOLIDAY
Johan van der Keuken, Netherlands, 1974, 16mm, b/w & colour, sound, 39 min
During a family holiday in the South of France, the filmmaker reflects on his life and career, interweaving excerpts from previous works, fragments of poetry, and the wartime memories of elderly neighbours. As he discovers the world through his son’s eyes, the film veers from the intimate to explore the universal motif of the passage from life to death.
“One of those small masterpieces one encounters by surprise.” (Jean-Paul Fargier, Cahiers du Cinéma)
The prolific documentary maker Johan van der Keuken (1938-2001) is also celebrated photographer. His 55 films, which have been shown in major retrospectives around the world, often explore themes of anthropology, ethnography and economics from a personal viewpoint.
PLENTY, a free monthly screening series selected by Mark Webber, forms part of the “Brief Habits” programme curated by Shama Khanna.
Date: 20 June 2011 | Season: Plenty
PLENTY 8: JOSEPH CORNELL
Monday 20 June 2011, at 7pm
London E:vent Gallery
The screening series PLENTY proposes a new way of looking at artists’ films by showing only a single work, regardless of its duration. Each film is given the freedom to unfold on its own terms, and the viewer is given the time and space to consider it.
THE AVIARY / NYMPHLIGHT / A FABLE FOR FOUNTAINS
Joseph Cornell & Rudy Burckhardt, USA, 1955-57, 16mm, b/w & colour, sound, 19 min
A trilogy of films, united on a single reel, which offer a magical glimpse at New York long since passed. In each, a young woman drifts through the city’s streets and parks, embodying the artists’ distinctive qualities of melancholia and childlike wonder.
“Joseph Cornell describes the marginal area where the conscious and the unconscious meet.” (P. Adams Sitney, Visionary Film)
The artist Joseph Cornell (1903-72) is best known for his enigmatic box constructions. His films likewise used found materials, but on occasion he employed filmmakers Rudy Burckhardt, Stan Brakhage or Larry Jordan to photograph original footage under his direction.
PLENTY, a free monthly screening series selected by Mark Webber, forms part of the “Brief Habits” programme curated by Shama Khanna.
Date: 26 July 2011 | Season: Plenty
PLENTY 9: BOUVIER AND PRUSAKOVA
Tuesday 26 July 2011, at 7pm
London X Marks The Bökship
The screening series PLENTY proposes a new way of looking at artists’ films by showing only a single work, regardless of its duration. Each film is given the freedom to unfold on its own terms, and the viewer is given the time and space to consider it.
BOUVIER AND PRUSAKOVA
Marya Alford, USA, 2005, 16mm, colour, sound, 25 min
To accompany images of cherry blossom against a radiant blue sky, a voice reads an autobiographical account of a relationship. The text is excerpted from the Warren Commission testimony of the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Titled by the maiden names of their widows, the film parallels the lives of both women.
Screening to coincide with the 70th birthday of Marina Oswald Porter.
Marya Alford (born 1979) studied at Otis College and USC, Los Angeles. She works primarily in photography and installation. Bouvier and Prusakova is her only film to date.
PLENTY, a free monthly screening series selected by Mark Webber, forms part of the “Brief Habits” programme curated by Shama Khanna.
Please note that this screening takes place at X Marks The Bökship, not at our regular venue.
Date: 30 August 2011 | Season: Plenty
PLENTY 10: UNNAMED FILM
Tuesday 30 August 2011, at 7pm
London E:vent Gallery
The screening series PLENTY proposes a new way of looking at artists’ films by showing only a single work, regardless of its duration. Each film is given the freedom to unfold on its own terms, and the viewer is given the time and space to consider it.
UNNAMED FILM
Naomi Uman, Ukraine, 2008, 16mm, colour, sound, 55 min
Naomi Uman stepped into the Ukranian time machine in 2006. 100 years after her grandparents emigrated to the USA, the filmmaker made the reverse journey and settled in a remote village. Her film diary documents her assimilation into the customs of an ageing community, and observes a rural way of life that has changed little over the centuries.
“A hybrid of lyrical and documentary forms, hers is a cinema equally attuned to the unique textures of small-gauge celluloid and the subtleties of cultural difference.” (Light Industry)
Naomi Uman’s work addresses themes of labour, geography, immigration, language and love. She continues to live in the Ukraine, where she makes films, paints, and grows vegetables and flowers.
PLENTY, a free monthly screening series selected by Mark Webber, forms part of the “Brief Habits” programme curated by Shama Khanna.
