The Blinding Light!! SHOWS
AUGUST
1999
 Friday July 30 8:30pm
THE BIG ANNIVERSARY
PARTY
Come on down and join in the celebrations as we toast the first
anniversary of North America's only full-time devoted underground cinema: The
Blinding Light!! With over 450 films fired across the screen, a staggering 6000
(and counting) members and many million kernels of corn popped, the future
looks, well, blinding. The festivities get under way at 8:30pm as we unwind
highlight clips from the past year's shows, blare decadent tunes for the jetset
courtesy of PHONIQUE, Vancouver's own saints of scratched celluloid soundtracks
and bumpin' obscurities, SCREEN multiple projections of visual ephemera and
strangeness, and GIVE AWAY a load of free passes, sassy new Blinding Light!!
t-shirts and more! But that's not all. BE A PART OF HISTORY, LEAVE YOUR MARK:
upon entering you will see a long strip of 16mm film layed out which we invite
you to scratch, scrape, punch, colour with a multitude of markers and otherwise
deface with your own hand. Before the night is over, we will roll it all up and
spin it through the projectors in an inspired dual mondovision presentation. BUT
THAT'S NOT ALL! Also watch for the unveiling of one, The Blinding Light!!'s
giganormous ëzine in which virtually every filmmaker who has shown work here
over the past year has contributed a page. A chunky hunk of anti-coffee table
printed matter and cinematic history, pick up your copy at the party for a
special discounted price!
 Saturday &
Sunday July 31/August 1 8:30pm
ARTPORN OR PORNART?
The
marriage of pornography and the avant-garde - as subversion, celebration and
critique has long been a controversial and favoured subject by the knee-jerk
right as well as the oft-indulgent left. Is it time to stop feeling guilty and
enjoy ourselves? Cum on down and check in to the boudoir to decide for yourself,
as we present a slew of contemporary films that fall into the art film
category (all made by men - hmmm...) up against a handful of genuine ë60 porn
peep shows on Super 8 and regular 8 which fall into the other art film
category... Scott Stark's NOEMA takes the awkward in between moments from
generic pornography to create mesmerizing rhythms and a literal breakdown of
pornography; Eric Prykowski's PORNGLES AD rubs a Pringles Potato Chip commercial
up against the classic BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR; Shawn Chapelle's XXX SPACEJUNK
takes his trademark rapidfire montage techniques to the limit as we zoom on
flesh to the point of stained-glass abstraction; Jacob Pander's now infamous THE
OPERATION uses infrared video technology to create a visually sumptuous
encounter between doctor and patient in a post-apocalyptic operating room.
Michael Turner blends a found black and white skin flick with a poetic
rumination on pornography in HEIRS TO A FELT FORTUNE; and R. Rihoto's WHAT TO DO
BEING BORING blendspixelvision with japanese comic books and porn.
Tuesday & Wednesday August 3/4 8:30pm
MR. SALESMAN!
We
are very pleased to present this Edison Classic - a collection of twisted ë50s
and ë60s industrial/educational films and contemporary works bent on the
capitalist obsession with SELLING and CONSUMING! Follow Jerry Miller on his
daily door-to-door rounds to uncover why his numbers have dropped and the
secrets to success and confidence in selling the American Dream in THE POWER OF
ENTHUSIASM. An ironic testament to the utopian economic ideals of corporate
America in the ë50s. Experience MARKETING CAREERS, a ë60s educational propoganda
film aimed at senior high school students and hosted by an absurdly enthusiastic
gameshow host/salesman type (who won't shut up). One big sell job on the
unlimited potential and complete viability of the American Dream (ha!), complete
with psychedelic visual fireworks and a wild soundtrack. PLUS: Eric Saks' DON
FROM LAKEWOOD, a haunting and hilarious extended prank phone call between Don
and a hapless used furniture salesman he targets, all shot on Pixelvision using
inventive puppets and cardboard cutouts. Also, Saks' YOU TALK/I BUY a mad
pixelrant film by a Used Car Salesman who could sell you anything! Come early
for the scratch film mix of Using Credit, a modish industrial that will fine
tune your credit card skills and have you in the poorhouse in no time!
 Thursday August 5 8:30pm
FRITZ LANG'S METROPOLIS
WITH
EYE OF NEWT COLLECTIVE!
The first in a monthly series of classic films
presented with live accompaniment by the Eye of Newt Collective, featuring Mark
Nodwell on Sax, Stefan Smulovitz on Bass and Andreas Hernandez on Samples and
Drums. EYE OF NEWT COLLECTIVE have performed for live dance, film and a host of
other cross-over collaboration with their trademark jazz experimentation-fused
ambience.
This evening the collective perform live to the silent classic
METROPOLIS. Fritz Lang's 1926 fear the future sci-fi extravaganza is an engaging
tale of freedom fighting, sexy robots and the ultimate in futuristic city
design. Featuring incredible sets and special effects, as well as a cinematic
architecture like no other METROPOLIS still stands as one of the greatest sci-fi
films of all time. Don't miss this astounding film and an astounding live
soundtrack!!
 Fri, Sat & Sun August 6/7/8 8:30pm
BRIAN
SPRINGER'S SPIN
WITH THE MARK TWAIN COMPANY
Pirated TV, exposed media
personalities and spin doctors revealed! Director Brian Springer spent two years
with a sattelite dish and a VCR lifting TV outtakes appropriated from network
satellite feeds to create this incisive and aggressive documentary revealing the
tightly spun fabric of television which silences public debate and furthers
intolerance of anyone outside the pack of journalists, politicians, spin doctors
and televangelists who manufacture the news. SPIN moves through the L.A.
rebellion and the floating TV talk-show called the 1992 presidential election
creating a devastating critique of television's profound manipulativeness in
the way it packages the news and politics. (Steven Holden). ALSO: Adam
Goldman's THE MARK TWAIN COMPANY, a deadpan study of the enterprises - both
wildly corporate and harmlessly small-town - which feed off the work, life, and
myth of Mark Twain (aka Samuel L. Clemens). A canny critical treatise on
relations between artists, estates, heirs, intellectual property, and public
memory....crucial insight into how artistic intentions are unexpectedly
transformed by historical forces. (Craig Baldwin)
 Tuesday
August 10 8:30pm
Back by popular demand: SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE
Withdrawn from circulation in 1984 and never before subtitled, legendary
Situationist Guy Debord's long-impossible to see film, SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE
(1973, 87 min.), returns by request! SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE is an intense and
densely packed ontage assembled out of detourned images from feature films,
pornography, commercials and news footage. Few groups have had as profound an
impact on French culture as the Situationist Internationale with its
unparalleled interrogation of political and cultural relations. While the
writing of leading Situationist Guy Debord has become the cornerstone of
postmodernism, his paintings, artist books, and films remain unknown. (Keith
Sanborn, translator/subtitles) Debord's analysis of a society suspended inside
the free space of the commodity infiltrates every frame. (Steve Seid, PFA)
 Wednesday August 11
THE 11th ANNUAL VANCOUVER QUEER FILM
& VIDEO FESTIVAL
Runs August 5-15 at various venues around town. For
full festival info call 688-WEST (ext 2014). NOTE: OUT ON SCREEN membership and
prices in effect!
7:30pm CLEANSING OUR QUEERNESS
A program of innovative
films and videos that look at the increased regulating and sanitizing of queer
lives. Program includes THE FRUIT MACHINE (Wrik Mead), THE FALL OF COMMUNISM AS
SEEN IN GAY PORNOGRAPHY (William E Jones), AMNESIA (Jerry Tartaglia), GAY SHAME
98 (Scott Berry), HOMOGENEITY (Lori Millan and Shawna Dempsey). The program will
begin with a selection of Super 8 films commissioned for ILLICIT ACTS, at last
year's MIX (NYC) FESTIVAL, curated and presented in person here by Stephen Kent
Jusick.
9:30pm QUEERS IN THE MILITARY
A look at thriving queerness in the
face of domination and conformity. Program includes: DISGRACEFUL CONDUCT (Eva
Webber), THE INTERROGATION (Lori Duggan), BIRCH (Steve Kokker), SANDO TO
SAMANTHA: AKA THE ART OF DIKVEL (Jack Lewis/Thulanie Phungula).
Thursday August 12 8:30pm
BYO8
Get that dang film down
here! With an 85% success rate (85% of BYO8 films are wholly watchable and
entertaining, while only 15% suck according to recent polls), we encourage you
to bring your secret masterpiece down for us all to feast our eyes on. Super 8,
16mm and VHS are the formats, 10 minutes is the maximum time (excerpts accepted)
and it's only $3 to get in if you're carrying! (membership is, of course,
required, and has its privileges.)
 Fri, Sat & Sun
August 13/14/15 8:30pm
BARBIE NATION: AN UNAUTHORIZED TOUR
BARBIE NATION: AN UNAUTHORISED TOUR is Susan Stern's meticulously
researched and wide-ranging examination of the social and personal impact of one
of the world's most recognisable icons: the Barbie Doll. BARBIE NATION examines
the lives and motivations of those obsessed with the doll ranging from adult
obsessive collectors to sex fetishists who pose their Barbies in an intriguing
range of set-ups in custom built dungeons! Barbie conventions, Barbie look-alike
contests, entire Barbie worlds and anti-Barbie protesters...they're all here.
Through interviews with founder of the giant Mattel Corporation Ruth Handler
(who named Ken and Barbie after her children), BARBIE NATION traces the changing
social consciousness of a generation and steps well away from the easy
exploitation angle. In fact, one of the film's most fascinating elements is
finding out what Ruth Handler pursued after being fired by Mattell... Featuring
clips from new and archival TV ads from around the world, interviews with those
obsessed by Barbie's power and those who have turned it into BIG business,
BARBIE NATION is a fascinating study of American culture and its reflection on
the most popular mass-marketed doll ever sold. PLUS: BITCH & BUTCH, the
pixelvision short featuring plastic dolls in a lesbian fantasy fresh out of
their store packaging!
 Tuesday &
Wednesday August 17/18 8:30pm
GUTTER PUNKS + STREET VIEWS
Director Brent Sims takes us deep into the world of day to day survival
for teenagers and young adults: so-called gutter punks. Through extremely
candid and honest interviews, GUTTER PUNKS explores the facade of freedom to lay
bare a barren landscape of frustration and alienation. Whether abused as
children, on the run, drifting or just trying street life on for size, these
souls simultaneously reject social acceptance while craving the comfort it has
to offer. Sims puts himself in the frontline of raw emotions as his subjects
explore their feelings toward each other, their environment and their future.
Set in New Orleans and forever surrounded by the good time artifice of a party
town, GUTTER PUNKS is never pandering and always powerful, extremely honest,
moving and wholly absorbing stuff. ALSO ON THE BILL: VIDEOS FROM STREET VIEWS
created during the Street Views program which took place at the Gulf Islands
Film and Television School (GIFTS) in the fall of '97 and '98. Funded by the
Vancouver Foundation, Street Views helped give street-involved youth the tools
to tell their stories and share their visions. Unscarred is a short piece about
abuse and two youth searching for resolution and a positive self-image.(Tara
Lynn Jacklin, Adrian Foxx); Please Consider This: Crucifix Talk Blues This ë98
Street Views production uses original hip-hop to ask difficult questions about
hate and redemption. (C.R. Avery, Toni Kewageshig, Gino Christopher); Maybe I'm
All Messed Up is the story of what drove 3 young people to the streets. An
inspirational and award winnning ë97 Street Views production. (Sarah Dolan,
Shannon Grass, Chris Twist Jones); Our Creation is a collage of dance and poetry
full of heart, soul and hope. (David Russell DeCoine, Melissa Kramer, Amber
McIntyre-Byatt). CO-PRESENTED BY AMES (Access to Media Education Society, a
registered non-profit organization dedicated to making media technology and
training accessible to communities and individuals whose voices are rarely heard
or seen in the mainstream media.
 Thursday August 19
8:30pm
THE ORGANIZATION MAN:The End of Society As We Know It
After a three month intensive period of lab work, and newly inspired by
amendments to the liquor laws, THE ORGANIZATION MAN brings the original
psycho-sonic-multimedia-freak-out back to the Blinding Light!! This time...they
are not alone. Brought to you as always by The Truth Channel in co-operation
with the GVRD, Charleton Heston, Joel Grey, Haskell Wexler, Creosote Initiatives
and Joe Carbury - THE ORGANIZATION MAN is sure to incite the usual Bacchic
frenzy.
What we're going for is a kind of Japanese businessman's luncheon
on acid. - Ed Martin (Sr.)
 Fri, Sat, Sun
August 20/21/22 8:30pm
STRIPPED & TEASED: TALES FROM VEGAS WOMEN
Though the title easily conjurs up images of Vegas a la Showgirls, and
while the film does feature a few scenes from Verhoeven's critique of America's
fame-whore mentality, STRIPPED & TEASED is in fact a very personal account
of the women behind the glittery faÁade that is Las Vegas. STRIPPED & TEASED
avoids all the stereotypes and cliches ordinarily associated with Vegas,
replacing exploitation film preconceptions with real and engrossing human drama.
Smartly paced and built in part from the filmmaker's own immersion into the City
of Tinsel, the film delves deeply into the lives and motivations of all of
Vegas' women: hostesses at Caesar's Palace, union bosses, exotic dancers, taxi
drivers, hotel maids, construction workers and, of course, showgirls. Along the
way, we discover that Las Vegas actually has one of the fastest growing
populations of any city in America today. The needs and desires of these women -
and the filmmaker herself - are curiously impacted by the artificial town they
have chosen to live in. Is the fantasy of a perfect life in the desert that
strong? How do regular folk function in a completely artificial city?
 Tuesday to Sunday August 24-29 8:30pm
MOTH
A live
multimedia dance performance choreographed by Shirka Urechko.
Don't miss
this incredible 6 day run of choreographer/dancer SHIRKA URECHKO's MOTH. Based
on the life cycle of one of nature's most misunderstood creatures, MOTH is
intimate, mesmerizing and highly energetic dance, integrating a powerful group
of performers with three of Vancouver's top visualists. Dancers include local
luminaries Sarah Brewer, Dean Makarenko, Steven Horwood and Shirka Urechko. MOTH
integrates live film and video elements by ORGANIZATION MAN member BRIAN
JOHNSON, Blinding Light!! founder and visualist Alex MacKenzie aka PHOSPHENE and
STARKLAND STUDIOS' BARRY C. PAUL. At the audio helm is Vancouver composer and
digital found sound experimentalist Nathan Isberg.
SEPTEMBER 1999
 Tue & Wed
August 31 & Sept 1 8:30pm
TRANSGRESSIVE CHICKS: LINDA FEESEY +
KIKA THORNE
Linda Feesey and Kika Thorne are two of Canada's most
respected celluloid saboteurs, digging their respective emulsion into sex, guns,
genderfucking and radical politics. Feesey's Regular 8 films - made solely with
the available equipment of her deceased father - are easily on par and often
surpass her American CINEMA OF TRANSGRESSION contemporaries. Feesey takes the
in-your-face mentality of this American underground movement and adds two parts
introspection and one part painful honesty, with exploitation aimed squarely at
the self. Her innovative use of double exposures, blurring frames and aggressive
soundtracks bleed together with images of self-mutilation, guns, knives, and
drug overdoses to create intensely personal, unrestrained and steadily
aggressive works of pain and assault. Kika Thorne has been producing work for
well over a decade. A prolific writer as well as image-maker, Thorne's films
stretch from her intensely personal and cunt-centric early works to her
simultaneously playful and serious politically spawned more recent videos.
Working with bare essentials Thorne uncovers the playful elements in both the
personal and the political, always serious but never losing sight of humour as a
mandatory antidote to the issues at hand. For this west-coast premiere screening
films by Linda Feesey will include selections from her FUCKHEAD FILM CYCLE, a
rarely seen two part series, including SUSIE Q, 7-11, TARGET PRACTICE WITH ORGAN
MEAT, DROWING and others. Works by Kika Thorne will include Mattress City
(Co-directed with Adrian Blackwell), October 25+26, 1996, Suspicious
(Co-directed with Kelly O'Brien), Yearbook, SCHOOL, DIVISION and others.
 Thursday September 2 8:30pm
CHARLIE CHAPLIN's
CITY LIGHTS
WITH EYE OF NEWT COLLECTIVE!
Don't miss the second
installment of Eye Of Newt Collective's intense and wildly inventive live
musical accompaniment to classic silent films. Charlie Chaplin's amazing CITY
LIGHTS is considered by most to be one of his greatest films and was his last
silent film. Once again displaying his incredible talent for balancing humour
and pathos, Chaplin plays his familiar Little Tramp character and falls in
love with a beautiful flower girl who is blind. Through a series of happy
accidents, he manages to get the money he needs to pay for the surgery which
will allow her to see...
 Friday September
3 8:30pm
THE DRIPPY GAZETTE LAUNCH PARTY!!
A new and exciting
monthly publication is finally here, loaded with comics, music and en'tainment!!
For the launch party, expect similar (but live) funtastic fun with: * LIVE
SCRATCH ANIMATION FEATURING AUDIOVISUAL MANIPULATIONS BY JULIAN, LSDJ, and ZERO
SQUARED. * SCREENINGS OF APOCALYPSE POOH AND BLUE PEANUTS COURTESY ROBIN BOUGIE.
* SHORT FILMS BY BLAINE THURIER, TED DAVE & NEMO * THE INIMITABLE ROBERT
DAYTON AS YOUR EMCEE * SPECIAL SURPRISE GUESTS AND MORE!!
 Saturday
& Sunday September 4/5 8:30pm
MARC MOSCATO'S ëZINED!
Zine
aesthetics are dissected, the zine network examined and participants are grilled
in Marc Moscato's rapid fire and ultra low-budget look at an uncontrolled,
uncompromising and unrestrained exchange of ideas and free press which seeks,
among many other things, to subvert the popular aesthetic of glossy publications
and to abuse other people's (usually corporations') photocopiers! This
wide-ranging and aesthetically exploding documentary could very well be
described as a film version of a fanzine, and herein lies its appeal. Moscato,
(creator of the GENERATION LATEX zine himself) speaks with an amazingly diverse
range of zine editors and producers whose photocopied diatribes range from a
devotion to art, things you find in the garbage, dance music, punk rock,
politics, satire, gender blurring and nothing in particular. Interviews feature
APE FANZINE, FREEFIXINS, MRR, PSYCHO MOTO, RIVERSIDE ART SCENE, THE SALIVATION
ARMY and loads of others. Technically, the whole production is fantastic and
shows the immense amount of work that went into it...humorous clips from old
movies are spliced in, they take the camera to the streets, and use lots of
video effects that do not get too overblown. FACTSHEET FIVE ALSO ON THE BILL: a
collection of zine-friendly shorts including the latest from San Fran's King of
Super 8 DANNY PLOTNICK entitled I, SOCKY and Russ Forster's latest shorts
including the provocatively silly CANDY IS DANDY, A $323 FILM, and his very
latest SNAPSHOT OLYMPIA. SPECIAL NOTATION YOU WILL WANT TO NOTE: In the
tradition of zine trading, bring TWO copies of your zine and get in for FREE
(membership still required!)
Thursday Sept. 9 to Sunday Sept.
19
THE VANCOUVER FRINGE FESTIVAL
The Fringe Festival takes
over the Blinding Light!! as a venue for the madness that is The Fringe. Check
their printed schedule for details and other participating venues, or call
257-0350, e-mail thefringe@ultranet.ca and check out their website at
www.vancouverfringe.com.
 Tuesday &
Wednesday September 21/22 8:30pm
FASHION VICTIMS
A modish
mix of retro films that point up our ongoing cultural obsession with all thing
trendy, of-the-moment and in vogue. Films include MS. SMILE, produced by
Paramount as a promotional for a Ms. Smile contest held in California in the
mid ë60s, and featuring a Beach-Boys-esque soundtrack and a lot of women in
bathing suits carrying cameras around and smiling smiling smiling! A TALE OF
GODS AND FASHION was produced by Dupont in the ë60s as a promotional vehicle for
a wide (and sometimes ugly) range of dacron, rayon, polyester and other
chemical-based apparel all dropped into a weird tale of love, pursuit and loss
narrated in a pseudo-greek style fable(!) LONELY BOY is the beautifully
conceived film which follows Canada's own Paul Anka as he is transformed into an
American pop idol, giving us a slice of early sixites fashion in the form of
screaming teenagers, clean-cut parents, music and Anka's nosejob. Z-BRICK: THE
QUALITY OF ELEGANCE explores the fashions in trendy wallcoverings - a lifestyle
choice, really. Must be seen to be believed!
 Thursday September
23 8:30pm
BYO8
Last chance to indulge yourself before we're
immersed in the Film Festival, so don't miss out! Bring your home movies, your
student films, your Digital video masterworks and more! We play ëem all!! 16mm,
Super 8 and VHS are our preferred formats (cued please!). Nothing over ten
minutes and only $3 to get in if you're carrying....
 Friday
September 24 to Friday October 8
THE VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FILM
FESTIVAL
Watch for special intimate screenings, directors talks, and
late night parties as we transform into an official venue for the Vancouver
International Film Festival. Call the festival at 685-0260 for more information
as the festival approaches, or pick up the festival guide and check out their
website at viff.org.
OCTOBER
1999
 Saturday & Sunday October 9/10
8:30pm
HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT AND BEYOND: THE FILMS OF JEFF KRULIK
AND FRIENDS
Jeff Krulik achieved cult status ten years ago as the man
behind the hilariously disturbing HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT. While HMPL has been
circulating for a long time on the underground circuit, Jeff has been busy
creating even wilder and more astounding slices of real life along with his band
of merry friends. We are pleased to present a special selection of some of the
strangest and most engaging underground films around in this collection of
Krulik films and beyond, including: Chuck (Devo rock video director) Statler's
seminal AINT WE HAVING FUN?; PUBLIC ACCESS GIBBERISH, Krulik's early public
access studio madness; KING OF PORN, featuring Ralph Whittington and his
incredible collection of Porn; KING OF THE FREAKS, a trailer for the story of
Johnny Eck the half-boy who appeared in the Tod Browning masterpiece Freaks;
MR. BLASSIE GOES TO WASHINGTON, wherein a loud-mouthed self-proclaimed king of
men professional wrestler is set loose on the streets of Washington, DC; ERNEST
BORGNINE ON TOUR - Ernest Borgnine behind the wheel of his 40 foot bus traveling
across America (a must-see if there ever was one); HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT, the
classic Krulik film of Judas Priest fans awaiting the concert while getting
drunk, high, and stupid; NEIL DIAMOND PARKING LOT - ten years later, the
follow-up!; I Created Lancelot Link, the trailer for this reminiscence with the
creators of LANCELOT LINK, a saturday morning TV show with chimps starring as
secret agents! PLUS: TRIBUTE TO MAL, ROCK AND ROLL PSYCHOSIS, MEET FANBOY, ?,
TV'S FROM OUTER SPACE (BUTCH WILLIS & THE ROCKS MUSIC VIDEO)
Tuesday & Wednesday October 12/13 8:30pm
The American
Underground Then and Now, Part 1:
JACK SMITH's FLAMING CREATURES
WITH
BRUCE BAILLIE'S P-32 PILOT and SALUTE
Vanguard Filmmaker, radical
photographer, seminal performance artist, Queer saint: Jack Smith was one of the
most accomplished and influential underground artists in the 1960s, 70s, and
80s, a key figure in the cultural history of Downtown film, performance, and
art. From the late 1950s until his death from A.I.D.S. in 1989, Smith was
chiefly recognized for his work in film and performance. Innovative and
idiosyncratic, Smith explored and developed a deceptively frivolous camp
aesthetic, importing allusions to B-Grade Hollywood films and elements of social
and political critique into the arena of high art. In FLAMING CREATURES, his
best known film, characters cavort in a setting reminiscent of the court of Ali
Baba, with a mood suggestive of the paintings of Heironymous Bosch. The film is
a quasi-documentary of Androgynes and Transvestites in which flaccid penises and
bouncing breasts are so ambiguously equated as to disarm any distinction between
male and female. In Flaming Creatures, Smith manages to combine the ornate
imagination of his youth with the realities of adult fantasy. (Stars Francis
Francine, Joel Markman, and others; sound by Tony Conrad). ALSO: Two recent
works by legendary American underground filmmaker Bruce Baillie. From the
creator of such seminal films as ALL MY LIFE, CASTRO STREET, MASS FOR THE DAKOTA
SIOUX and many others, come these two touching and engaging contemporary works
produced on video. Baillie currently lives in Washington State with his wife and
children and has recently enjoyed a renewed interest in his work with
retrospectives across America and works commissioned by the Venice Film festival
and others. A true poet of the cinema, Ballie is recognized for the lyrical and
moving quality of his films and celebrated for his ability to capture moments
and magic through the camera's lens with an innate understanding of composition
and light. P-32 PILOT is a gorgeous abstraction of light on a screen door, and
an experiment in the use of the negative image in video, a radical transition
for cinema's master of light. The film integrates the voice over of the very
pilot who is the subject of SALUTE. A touching and humorous tribute to a
recently deceased friend, as well as a nostalgiac recognition of the humour that
must be found in war in order to survive it, SALUTE is composed of footage from
both Hollywood War films and WW!! archives blended with Baillie himself
re-enacting the role of a pilot and reminiscing upon his childhood during the
war. An immersive and touching tribute to a friend and a time.
Thursday October 14 8:30pm
DZIGA VERTOV'S MAN WITH A MOVIE
CAMERA
WITH EYE OF NEWT COLLECTIVE!
Don't miss the third installment
of Eye Of Newt's always magical and evocative musical accompaniment to classic
silent films. This time around the Collective play with Dziga Vertoz's MAN WITH
A MOVIE CAMERA, the Russian City Symphony masterpiece from the influential
cameraman and Kino Eye founder. Featuring unparalleled camera techniques and
editing pyrotechnics, Vertov's 1929 classic presents a dazzling and
mind-expanding view of Moscow the City at an extremely memorable time of
artistic and radical experimention. Kaleidoscopic camera effects, architectural
abstractions, and rapid-fire montage elevates this dazzling film to moving
sculpture and abstract historical record. Don't miss out!
 Fri, Sat
& Sun October 15/16/17 8:30pm
SADIE BENNING'S FLAT IS BEAUTIFUL
Sadie Benning is best known for her lush and mesmerizing short
pixelvision films, created with the Fisher Price PXL 2000 toy camera.
Fascinating self studies of a young woman developing her ideas about her place
in the universe, Benning's shorts brought her to international attention as an
artist to watch out for. Daughter of well known and respected experimental
filmmaker James Benning (which certainly didn't hinder her access to the art
world) Sadie was screening her works at such prestigious institutions as the
Museum of Modern Art by the tender age of 17. We are pleased to present Sadie
Benning's first feature film FLAT IS BEAUTIFUL. An experimental, live-action
cartoon using masks, animation, subtitles, drawings and dramatic scenes to
investigate the psychic life of an androgynous eleven-year-old girl. Growing up
in a working class neighborhood with her single mother and gay roomate, Taylor
confronts the loneliness of living between masculine and feminine in a culture
obsessed with defining gender difference. Shifting between black and white film
and her trademark grainy pixelvision video, FLAT IS BEAUTIFUL explores the
internal and external worlds of sad people. Remarkable for its emotive
engagement and moments of pure poiesis (drag shadow dancing), as well as for its
extraordinary formalist push, Flat will be remembered as one of those rare
anomalies that inform the integrity and history of independent feature
filmmaking. (PleasureDome).
 Tuesday &
Wednesday October 19/20 8:30pm
The American Underground Then and Now,
Part 2:
STAN BRAKHAGE's ELEMENTARY PHRASES and ANTICIPATION OF THE NIGHT
Stan Brakhage has long been considered the greatest experimental
filmmaker alive today. Recognized for his incredible mastery of rhythm, colour
and movement, he has produced hundreds of films over the span of his thirty year
career. Phil Solomon (whose film REMAINS TO BE SEEN was shown here a few months
back) is truly a kindred spirit and has created an impressive and stunning body
of his own work with a particular focus on step-printing, a meticulous and
labour-intensive process of rephotographing frames of film one at a time.
ELEMENTARY PHRASES (38 min. silent 1994) is a hand-painted and elaborately
step-printed collaboration between these two giants of the underground, with
this screening being its first ever Western Canadian presentation. We are also
thrilled to be able to present a rare screening of ANTICIPATION OF THE NIGHT (43
min. silent), a very early and lyrical piece by Stan Brakhage. Made in 1958,
this piece is described here by the filmmaker himself: The daylight shadow of a
man in its movement evokes lights in the night. A rose bowl held in hand
reflects both sun and moon-like illumination. The opening of a doorway onto
trees anticipates the twilight into the night. A child is born on the lawn, born
of water with its promissory rainbow, and the wild rose. It becomes the moon and
the source of all light. Lights of the night become young children playing a
circular game. The moon moves over a pillared temple to which all lights return.
There is seen the sleep of innocents in their animal dreams, becoming the
amusement, their circular game, becoming the morning. The trees change colour
and lose their leaves for the morn, they become the complexity of branches in
which the shadow man hangs himself. Don't miss this extremely rare screening!
(NOTE: We are offering FREE admission on the second night if you attend on the
first for those who would like to see the films twice. Details at the door,
photo ID required).
 Thursday July 8
8:30pm
BYO8
Come on down for a good old fashioned night of
Bring Your Own Film - first films, found films, good films and bad films - we'll
take them all (Super 8, 16mm and VHS please). Get here early if you want to
screen as it's first come first serve! 10 minutes max (excerpts accepted) and $3
to get in if you're carrying...
 Fri, Sat & Sun
July 22/23/24 8:30pm
FUGAZI's INSTRUMENT
Hot on the heels of
INSTRUMENT, the film soundtrack on that everyone's top ten list comes the film
from whence it stems, a collaboration between Washington DC's FUGAZI and highly
respected film and video director Jem Cohen (whose short subjects we have shown
here at The Blinding Light!! in the recent past). The film covers the ten-year
period from the band's inception in 1987 to present day activities. Well known
for their anti-corporate stance as musicians, FUGAZI have managed to maintain
their integrity for over a decade as one of America's most impressive indie
bands, consistently refusing to make rock videos and remaining on their own
independent label all the while. Far from a traditional documentary, the project
is a musical document: a portrait of musicians at work. In director Jem Cohen's
words: With no desire on my part or the band's to create a factual career
survey or any kind of promotional vehicle, the project presented an opportunity
to cut things loose. Mixing sync-sound 16mm, Super-8, video, and a wide range of
archival formats, the piece includes concert footage, studio sessions, practice,
touring, interviews and portraits of audience members from around the country.
Pieceing it together over the course of about 5 years, I thought of bringing
dub to documentary—of a project where unadulterated real-time performances,
abstract, rough-hewn Super 8 collages and archival artifacts would collide and
conjoin in a way that honestly represented musical experience. The project was
edited with band members and extensively uses soundtrack elements provided by
Fugazi specifically for the film.
 Tuesday &
Wednesday October 26/27 8:30pm
HIGH STRANGE NEW MEXICO
The
fascination in UFO and extraterrestrial phenomena spawned by the X-Files has
given birth to a major industry of merchandising, publishing and of course TV
and film production. Starting from the premise that New Mexico holds a unique
place in the annals of UFO history, journalist Anthony DellaFlora and filmmaker
James Lujan delve into the state's treasure trove of flying saucer lore, from
centuries-old Native American myths and beliefs up through the present-day
preoccupation with the Roswell Incident, government conspiracy theories, and the
search for spiritual meaning in the skies. Along the way, they introduce viewers
to a subculture populated by obsessed enthusiasts, skeptics, cattle mutilation
investigators, academics, abductees and just plain folks whose lives have been
changed by their belief that they've had contact with extraterrestrials.
Folklore, 21st century neuroses and commercial imperatives collide to create a
truly unique culture. High Strange NEW MEXICO presents this culture, its
conflicts and its spirit through a smart and honest pop-cultural eye.
 Thursday & Friday October 28/29 8:30pm
CINEWORKS AND
VIDEO IN PRESENT
REFUSE...REWIND...REPLAY
Based on the historical
tradition of the Salon des RefusÈs, this co-presentation of Cineworks
Independent Filmmakers Society and Video In showcases an uncurated selection of
Canadian short films and videos recently rejected by the 1999 Vancouver
International Film Festival. We invite all film and videomakers whose work was
refused by the festival to send their films and videos to us. To be eligible for
the screening, work must be under 30 minutes in length, be in 16mm, Beta-Sp or
VHS screening formats, and be by Canadian media artists. This event will be
programmed through a lottery draw: films and videos and the order in which they
are shown will be determined by a draw made up of all the submissions. We will
show as many works as time allows. The deadline for submissions for this event
is October 1st, 1999. Call Caroline at 685-3841 for more info.
Sat & Sun October 30/31 8:30pm
SUKI HAWLEY & MICHAEL
GALINSKY's HALF COCKED
Wildly hailed as one of the few genuinely honest
portrayals of the Indie music scene, HALF-COCKED is the tale of a lost and
directionless Louisville teen named Tara who spontaneously decides to steal her
brother's band's van (and all the instruments) and hit the road with a clutch of
her friends in tow who are equally as lackadaisical. Pennyless and on the road,
they decide to call themselves TRUCKSTOP and start playing as a band to make
money. Not knowing the first thing about their inherited musical instruments,
they start off by being (thankfully) misinterpreted as an art rock band and
slowly learn the tools of their new trade, still on the run from he older
brother and the law. Featuring a cast made out of actual members from real bands
including RUBY FALLS, RODAN, THE GRIFTERS, CRAIN and others, the film can't help
but strike a genuine chord. (1996, 90min)
Still as good as the music is the
cinematography and smart camera placement - together Hawley and Galinsky know
how to make pictures shudder with feeling. -LA WEEKLY
It was very inspiring
to see such an accurate portrayal of indie hipster life. I'm still dumfounded by
its clarity and impressed anyone my age could make a film that good... -Kathy
Malloy, SNIPEHUNT
It doesn't seem too bold to say HALF-COCKED is an EASY
RIDER for the '90s and deserves as much attention. -ALTERNATIVE PRESS
Indie
rock's cinematic event of the season -NEW YORK PRESS, Pick of the Week
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