MAY 2002

NOTE: ALL MAYWORKS PRESENTATIONS REQUIRE EITHER A MAYWORKS OR A BLINDING LIGHT MEMBERSHIP (BOTH AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR). TICKETS FOR MAYWORKS EVENTS ARE $5-$11 sliding scale for a double bill and $5 for a single bill. All Mayworks events are a co-presentation of MAYWORKS, THE BLINDING LIGHT!! CINEMA, SFU PIRG and the presenting organizations. Check out the MAYWORKS GUIDE for more details on these events and others!

Wednesday May 1 8:30pm
MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY!
Kicking off MAYWORKS, Armed Rabble and Unofficial Opposition.com present a May Day evening of provincial opposition films featuring OCAP STRIKES BACK! The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty's jam-packed video distils over a decade of anti-poverty, anti-Harris activism into 22 minutes of interviews, anecdotes and previously unseen footage. Delve behind OCAP's high-profile public actions and hear about the tactics and principles that inspired them, and the case work that backs them up. You'll also see videos by local incognito kaka disturbers Guerrilla Media; the BC Rhino Party Propaganda Video; 77BC, Flick Harrison's mini-doc about Accountability Day and the unbalanced BC Legislature; video by the Toronto Video Activist Collective; and up-to-the-minute coverage of BC's Liberal disaster. Other entertaining and wacky provincial rebel shenanigans TBA. Proceeds to OCAP and People's Opposition. Check out OCAP at www.ocap.ca

Thursday May 2 7:30pm & 9pm
LABOUR RULES
7:30pm 12,000 MEN This powerful documentary brings alive the brave story of Cape Breton's union struggles in the coal and steel industries from the 1890s through the labour wars of the 1920s.The fight for decent wages and improved working conditions took on an urgency when the British Empire Steel Corporation, or BESCO, bought every single steel and coal company in Nova Scotia. When the Montreal-based company cut wages by a third, a long and bitter dispute began. The lockouts, picket lines and strikes were finally ended by brute force when provincial police and federal troops were sent in. The mine owners, however, were ultimately forced to recognize the union. (1978, 34 min) PLUS: ON STRIKE, the dramatic story of the Winnipeg General Strike in 1919 told through the recollections of the men and women who were there. This presentation traces the events leading up to the strike; the issues, the personalities and the divisions among the people of Winnipeg. It culminates with the riot of June 21, 1919 in which death and serious injury resulted. (1991, 20 min Dirs:Joe Macdonald, Clare Johnstone Gilsig)

9pm H-2 WORKER H-2 WORKER is a controversial expose of the travesty of justice that takes place around the shores of Florida's Lake Okeechobee-a situation which, until the film's release, has been one of America's best-kept secrets. There, for six months a year, over 10,000 men from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands perform the brutal task of cutting sugar cane by hand - a job so dangerous and low-paying that Americans refuse to do it. (70 mins, 16mm Dir: Stephanie Black)

Friday May 3 7:30pm
Black Cat Video presents
SABOT
The Second Annual Radical Political Video Festival A Mini-Festival of Shorts and Shocks
This year's festival is an action-packed three and a half hours; ten videos are presented which cover political protest and dissent on a multitude of social justice and environmental issues, the reality of living as a political activist and dissident in the "free" world, and how the government and "forces of evil" respond. The Independent Media Centre's satellite TV series NEWSREAL (March 2002 edition) opens the evening with stories from the frontlines of protest, from the city-wide student walkout in Philadelphia to battling the WEF in New York to protesting the US Air Force on airport runways in Ireland. Also screening: RELEASED, a half-hour documentary about women and prisons which features Angela Davis narrating a production that explores the personal and political of the prison industrial complex. Six video shorts and television productions which address issues of our auto-dependent society to genetic technology, the environment and animal rights, and the activists fighting back, particularly the grassroots and the underground movements. CAPITALIST WALLS is one of the best and most humorous documentaries on the Quebec City FTAA protests that Black Cat Video has come across. Nothing is more effective than on-the-street video combined with a healthy dose of satire to tell a story - starring Darth Vader! FUCK THE SYSTEM is an excellent video and music montage from anonymous green anarchist in Eugene, Oregon. This skilfully compiled document of anarchist rebellion in Eugene and around the world will have you laughing, crying and raging at the scenes depicted, and your feet won't stop moving to the excellent soundtrack! BLACK CAT VIDEO is an activist video screening project which seeks to acquire and present works of relevance and importance to Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the Gulf Island progressive, anarchist, and radical political communities.

Saturday, May 4 noon-4pm
CINEWORKS PRESENTS
The Personal Documentary Screening & Workshop With Kelley Baker
$25 Cineworks members $35 non-members
Please call Cineworks to register: 604-685-3841
In 1992 Kelley Baker had his first child so he decided to make a fun little film about it. The result, YOU'LL CHANGE, has been seen all over the world. Not bad for a little movie shot on short ends for less than $1000. He has now made 8 personal short films that have won numerous awards in film festivals around the world. This afternoon screening/workshop will feature Kelley's short point of view documentaries and the filmmaker will discuss how he takes the little moments in his life and makes award-winning films out of them for fun and profit. Also featuring: STOLEN TOYOTA, Chronicling the loss of the filmmaker's beloved Toyota pick-up truck; TALES FROM THE I-5 Life in the car driving between Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, California; ENOUGH WITH THE SALMON A look at "Northwest" family vacations in the 1960's, "when I ever wanted to do is visit that mecca known as Southern California" ...plus more!

Saturday May 4 8:30pm
The SUBSTANCE
Jarvis Nigelsky in person In this soon-to-be internationally distributed skateboard video, top Canadian riders push the limits of skateboarding in front of filmmaker jarvisNIGELSKY's lens. The SUBSTANCE features Jordan Hoffart, Nathan LaCoste, Russ Milligan, Mike Chalmers, Scott Reid, Randy Monchalin, Jordan Heron, Chris Haslam, Dustin Montie and with many other appearances. PLUS Other Surprises. Support the local Vancouver scene and come peek out this video before it hits the market... www.theSUBSTANCE.tv

Sunday May 5 3 pm, 8pm & 9pm
ASIAN HERITAGE MONTH FEST
3pm UNICEF presents UJELI
It is estimated that 40 percent of all Nepali women are married before the age of 14 years. And Nepal's maternal mortality rate of 850 per 100,000 live births is among the highest in the world. This film was produced for UNICEF Nepal. (Dir Deependra Gauchan, 1992, Nepal, 60 min) Discussion will follow with guest moderator Abi Sharma.

8pm INNOVATION IN ANIMATION: WAVE TWISTERS & SIJJIL Curated by Imtiaz Popat & Winston Xin DJ QBert brings his vision to the big screen in the film WAVE TWISTERS, an eye-popping, hip-hopping animated sci-fi/kung-fu epic synched skratch for skratch with his turntable masterpiece of the same name. WAVE TWISTERS follows the adventures of the Inner Space Dental Commander whose destiny it is to revive the four pillars of the hip-hop culture breaking and MCing, rapping, graffiti, and most importantly skratching. Together with his posse (Rubbish, Honey, and B-Boy Grandpa), the Dental Commander battles his way through an increasingly surreal collection of villains that includes an elite corps of turntable warriors, played by member of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz: QBert, Yogafrog, and D-Styles plus DJ Flare. Their electrifying performances blaze a path of destruction which stands between the Dental Commander and his nemesis, Lord Ook, the evil mastermind behind the plot to suppress and control the Lost Arts throughout Inner Space. Sampling from a wide variety of techniques (from traditional cell animation to 3D to live action to photo collage), Wave Twisters defines a unique visual style analogous to the supercharged cutting and skratching of a turntable DJ. (Michael Garon and Eric Henry, 2001, USA 46 min.) PLUS: SIJJIL In 1995 Yasmin P. Karim developed a unique animation technique to investigate the laws of quantum physics, Islamic geometry and the movement of particles. SIJJIL is a innovative animated film which explores the structure of aquarium rocks and sand. By using different colours and movements with an improvisational approach to single-frame animation, she is able to achieve a dynamic and poetic fluidity.

9 pm JOURNEY FOR LOTUS This insightful debut from Korean-Canadian documentarian Eunhee Cha seeks to unravel the tension that exists between the Japanese and the Koreans. The Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945 is a rarely discussed event of the 20th century, but it contains many of the disturbing hallmarks of colonization-control of the government and schools, forced cultural assimilation, violent suppression of dissent. Cha builds on her personal history to create a fascinating exploration of the roots and subsequent impact of this long-standing conflict. But more than merely detailing the traumas of the past, Journey for Lotus just as importantly explores the beacons of light from the period-the extraordinary people on both sides of the conflict who struggled to inspire, encourage and protect the powerless. Narrated by Sandra Oh the film mixes interviews, archival footage and journals from the time of the occupation to create a moving and illuminating portrait of a history that demands to be understood if the wounds it caused are to be healed. (Eunhee Cha, 2001, Vancouver, 58 min)

Tuesday May 7 8:30pm
OR ET JUSTE presents
ECLATS DE GAVROCHE (GAVROCHE ERUPTS)
Don't miss this special one night only presentation of OR ET JUSTE's ECLATS DE GAVROCHE. Created in Paris and now premiering in Vancouver, this multidisciplinary creation speaks a multitude of languages: visual (Super 8 projection), corporeal (dance), musical and vocal. The work is both intimate and expansive, seamlessly incorporating all mediums: Super 8 film is projected on the body, on an accordion, and a loosely hanging sheet ñ bringing the moving image to other dimensions; dance is used as a medium of emotion's concrete expression and an exploration of space and time. Spoken word and musical interludes draw us into the theatrical as well as the political. ECLATS DE GAVROCHE presents misery as a reality instead of a fatality, denouncing a system that excavates the moat between the miserable and...the others... Inspired by one of Victor Hugo's characters, Gavroche is a child of Les Miserables, a child of the street, but he is free ñ both provoking and mischievous.

Wednesday May 8 8:30pm
NEVERMIND THE BOLLOCKS, HERE'S THE WTO!
WITH KOHOUTEK (UK)
Based out of various bedrooms and outhouses throughout the UK, KOHOUTEK is a media collective that has been around since the late ë90s. Varying in number (between 3 and seven), and in medium, KOHOUTEK continue to search for that elusive big sponsor(!) We are pleased to have a member of the collective here in person to present two of their recent political works: WTO This film presents some of the reasons for the collapse of the WTO's 1999 meeting in Seattle, including peaceful street protest, civil society pressure and protest and non-cooperation from country representatives themselves. Shot inside the conference centre itself, this short is intended to provide a starting point for discussion. REMOTE CONTROL A film about the impact of the IMF and World Bank in the global South and the lack of attention these issues receive in the North. Shot in Prague in 2000, this piece focuses on the alternative summit and networks like People's Global Action. A discussion will follow the show with other WTO protest video included to contrast strategies and positions.

Thursday May 9 7:30pm & 9pm
A SENSE OF PLACE
7:30pm RUSH FOR SPOILS 1857-1914
With the discovery of gold the face of the province is changed: population explosion due to the influx of miners and later Asian and European immigrants; exploitation of labour as the miners build the Cariboo Road and the Chinese build the railway; British Columbia joins the Confederation in 1871; the native communities are decimated by smallpox and the Indian Act is made into law; discrimination against Sikhs, Chinese and the Japanese explodes in the riots of 1907 and the Komagata Maru incident of 1914. (1996, 24 mins) PLUS: A MIGRANT'S HEART Jatinder Verma was born in East Africa and went to England at the age of 14. His father left India sixty years ago and spent most of his working life on the railways, first in East Africa and then in the U.K. Verma explains through a trip back to India how he is caught between two worlds, struggling to preserve his cultural heritage while being acculturated into the lifeways of his adopted country. His story demonstrates how migrants think about their sense of place in relation to where they have come from, generating their own specific cultures as well as contributing to the process of cultural hybridization. (1996, 30 mins)

9pm LOS CANADIENSES
Between 1936 and 1939, over forty thousand volunteers from around the world fought to save Spain's constitutionally elected government. LOS CANADIENSES is about the 1200 Canadians in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion who joined that struggle. More than half of them never returned. Emotional, the film never lapses into sentimentality. Respectful, it is committed to the memory of those who truly believed in the cause of the Republic. (Eight awards, including Mannheim; New York and London.) (57 min, 1975)

Friday May 10 8:30pm
SERVING THE PEOPLE: JOURNALISM ON FILM
This evening's screening will feature LIVE FROM PALESTINE, the latest feature documentary by Rashid Masharawi, a prominent Palestinian filmmaker. His new film deals with the daily struggle of Palestinian radio broadcasters as they attempt to cover the intifada in the occupied Palestinian territories. Rashid was born in Shati refugee camp in Gaza and now heads the Cinema Production Centre in Ramallah, Palestine. His work includes feature films, shorts and documentaries, and his film Curfew was previously shown at the Vancouver Film Festival. Panel discussion follows: CANADIAN REPORTING: AN OBSTACLE TO INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY, Hosted by REDEYE, VOICE OF PALESTINE & CANPALNET

Saturday May 11 8:30pm
A TRIBE OF HIS OWN: THE JOURNALISM OF P. SAINATH
When government propaganda and corporate spin are increasingly presented as fact, as fewer and fewer corporations control the news, A TRIBE OF HIS OWN: THE JOURNALISM OF P. SAINATH reminds us what the news media can be. With a groundbreaking series of newspaper articles and a critically acclaimed book, Sainath has staked a claim as one of the world's most important journalists. A TRIBE OF HIS OWN follows Sainath to the Indian villages he writes about, and explores his contention, that Journalism is for people, not shareholders. Director Joe Moulins' work has been seen and heard in Canada on CBC TV, CBC Newsworld and CBC Radio. Panel discussion follows: Anti-poverty organizing and journalism in B.C. Hosted by Redeye and SANSAD.

Sunday May 12 8:30pm
JOINT EFFORT PRESENTS MOTHERS DAY BEHIND BARS
LOCKED IN - LOCKED OUT In Canada, 60% of women in prison are mothers and the majority of these women are the sole care-givers of their children. When a mother is sent to prison, her incarceration affects not only her life but the life of her children. This award winning documentary examines the myriad of issues faced by imprisoned mothers and their children. (Dir: Donna Davey Preece, 26 min)
TWICE CONDEMNED Against a backdrop of glaring lights, rattling keys and echoing hallways, women in prison reveal how their lives went wrong.  With a borrowed video camera, the women give us an insider's view of life behind bars.  TWICE CONDEMNED will provoke discussion on fundamental notions of right and wrong, free will, and the social responsibility for women in crisis. (Dir: Marie Cadieux, 54 min) JOINT EFFORT is a group of women who work from an abolitionist perspective to support women in prison.  For more information: www.vcn.bc.ca/august10/jointeffort.html

Tuesday May 14 8:30pm
Kat Kosiancic's BE MY JUNKIE SHADOW
NOTE: THIS SHOW REPLACES STRIP, originally scheduled)
A frank, straightforward and honest conversation with women living in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. These women are addicted to heroin or cocaine and some are sex trade workers, but these labels have often hidden their remarkable charm, strength, and intelligence from us. Vancouver Sun film critic Katherine Monk raved, "The film is bound to pull you in as one moves from ignorance to enlightenment through Kat's eyes. Together, we hear the first-hand stories that lead to a life on the street, addiction and often, prostitution. We also get a chance to see how strong these women are as we hear about their dreams and desires, which seem to grow stronger as their bodies grow weaker. In the end, we don't see nameless victims at all - but beautifully warm people hoping for redemption." Kosiancic will be present for discussion. Visit the site www.Ellavon.com for more information. (Photo: Leah Wiebe)

Wednesday May 15 7pm & 9:30pm
SPOTLIGHT ON OKA
7pm KANEHSATAKE: 270 YEARS OF RESISTANCE On a hot July day in 1990, an historic confrontation propelled Native issues in Kanehsatake and the village of Oka, QuÈbec, into the international spotlight and into the Canadian conscience. Director Alanis Obomsawin endured 78 nerve-wracking days and nights filming the armed stand-off between the Mohawks, the QuÈbec police and the Canadian army. A powerful feature-documentary emerges that takes you right into the action of an age-old aboriginal struggle. The result is a portrait of the people behind the barricades, providing insight into the Mohawks' unyielding determination to protect their land. (1993, 119 min)

9:30pm MY NAME IS KAHENTIIOSTA Arrested after the 78-day armed standoff during the 1990 Oka crisis, Kahentiiosta, a young Kahnawake Mohawk woman proud of her centuries-old heritage, is detained four days longer than the other women. Her crime? The prosecutor representing the Quebec government will not accept her aboriginal name. (1995, 29 min) PLUS: SPUDWRENCH - KAHNAWAKE MAN Meet Randy Horne, high steel worker from the Mohawk community of Kahnawake, near Montreal. As a defender of his people's culture and traditions, he was known as Spudwrench during the 1990 Oka crisis. Both a portrait of Horne and the generations of daring Mohawk construction workers that have preceded him, and a unique look behind the barricades at one man's impassioned defence of sacred territory. The third film in Alanis Obomsawin's series on the events of 1990. (1997, 57 min)

Thursday May 16 8:30pm
EYE OF NEWT PLAY LIVE TO THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI
EON (Eye Of Newt) are back for their monthly instalment of incredible live musical accompaniment to cinema. Featuring a broad range of instrumentation, sampling and an incredible array of film-specific composition, EON will mesmerize you with their smart mix of ambient and jazz influenced soundscapes. Tonight features Giorgio Magnanensi (electronics), Kelly Churko (guitar/electronics), Chris Kelly (sax/electronics) and Stefan Smulovitz (viola/theremin/waterphoine). THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, the oft-imitated and astounding classic of German expressionist filmmaking has long been considered to be the first true horror movie. Dr. Caligari is the archetype mad scientist out to do evil deeds with the aide of a sleepwalker named Cesare. Cesare murders those whom the Doctor fears are too close to uncovering his evil deeds.... a film which virtually invented the standard elements of classic horror - the mad scientist, the zombie and the helpless heroine - CALIGARI features awe-inspiring sets of the most expressionist kind, incredible lighting and astounding performances from the leads. A circus of genius film and horror design not to be missed!

Friday May 17 7:30pm & 9pm
A NIGHT OF INDIGENOUS FILM
7:30pm INCIDENT AT RESTIGOUCHE On June 11 and 20, 1981, the QuÈbec Provincial Police (QPP) raided Restigouche Reserve, QuÈbec. At issue were the salmon-fishing rights of the Micmac people. This film provides a historical perspective on the issue, and documents, with newsclips, photographs and interviews, the two police raids. An interview with former QuÈbec Minister of Fisheries Lucien Lessard explaining the motives of his decision complements the Micmacs' account of the event. A powerful film that puts justice on trial. (1984, 46 min)
BLOCKADE: ALGONQUINS DEFEND THE FOREST This film follows the Barriere Lake Algonquins as they take on the government and the logging industry in a struggle to save their traditional hunting grounds and way of life. Filmed on location during the period of the blockade, this film raises important questions about our attitudes toward the environment, the exploitation of our natural resources and the rights and treatment of Native people. (1990, 26 min)

9pm VILLAGE OF WIDOWS On August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. In the remote Great Bear region of Canada's Northwest Territorie all but four of the village elders who worked as coolies during the war years, transporting uranium ore south in gunnysack bags, have since died from radiation-related cancer. Village of Widows explores the practical and spiritual response of the Deline villager's struggle with this terrible legacy. (52 min, Dir: Peter Blow)

Saturday May 18 8:30pm
HARRY KEMBALL's MANWOMAN & THE PAPERBAG CATHOLIX
A spiritual Andy Warhol. Utilizing the purest idealism of the Sixties as his base matter, ManWoman alchemically transmutes eternal ideas such as Love and Death into technically dazzling post-Pop Art paradigms." RESEARCH
MANWOMAN is the infamous and fully tattooed BC-based visionary and transformational Pop artist. On a mission to educate about the sexual/spiritual experience, death, rebirth and ecstasy, he is also on a quest to cleanse the swastika of its marred status. Don't miss this rare chance to catch the original 16mm documentary on this local legend. Produced in 1975, this film is not only a slice of bizarre and thoroughly engaging local art history, but also a snapshot of a psychedelic and spiritual place and time. Featuring wild interpretations of MANWOMAN's artwork, psychotropic visuals and frank interviews, it is apparent why this artist continues to intrigue and shock with his art and vision. Director HARRY KEMBALL will appear in person to introduce the film.

Sunday May 19 8:30pm
SUNDAYS BY REQUEST
CHRIS WILCHA'S THE TARGET SHOOTS FIRST
A witty, audacious and fascinating look at the music industry.- Chicago Reader
Low key, low fi, and unpretentious. A dead-on, early 90s time capsule. - New York Press A film that has garnered a huge amount of media attention and screenings since we first premiered it several years ago, we are pleased to bring it back at your request! In 1993, Christopher Wilcha, a recent college graduate, took a job as a marketing assistant at Columbia House, the granddaddy of record clubs. Apparently, his qualifications for the job consisted of being a fan of the alternative rock group Nirvana, which was in the process of changing the face of the music industry. Somehow, he managed to videotape his entire tenure there, and the result is a personal video journal that puts a whole new spin on corporate America. Hired for an entry level position, circumstances conspire to create a short climb up the corporate ladder for our hero/videomaker. Soon, Chris' usefulness to the mail-order giant becomes apparentóhe finds himself in the hub of the creation of the grunge catalogue. Clueless bosses, feuds between the suits and the talentó Wilcha molds his 9-to-5 job into a hip, riveting and unlikely soap opera. (Christopher Wilcha, USA, 1999, 71 min)

Tuesday May 21 7:30pm
Asian Heritage Month Society Presents
The World Premiere of Shankar Borua's IF GOD BE WITH US
A film on the Naga Nation, a once free people. It traces the genesis of one of the least known conflicts, the Indo-Naga war. For the last 55 years the Naga people living at the tri-junction of India, China and Burma have resisted the occupation of their land. Today the Nagas are geographically divided between India and Burma, a division that the British brought about without the consent of the Nagas. Close to 200,000 Nagas have been killed during the course of the conflict. At the height of the war in the 1950's the Government of India through the Indian Army indulged in wide-scale abuses which surprisingly went unreported in the international media. Representations were made to the United Nations that also chose to remain silent. IF GOD BE WITH US is a tribute to the Naga resistance. (2002, India, 120 min) Shankar Borua will be in attendance for discussion after the film.

Wednesday May 22 8:30pm
EARLY WORKS BY RAY BRUCE
IN PERSON
Ray Bruce is a graduate of the Royal College of Art London in Film and Television (MA) where he worked with Steve Dwoskin and Peter Gidal, sometime members of the legendary London Film Coop. The works presented tonight were produced at the RCA and screened at the National Film Theatre, Serpentine Gallery, Annecy Film Festival and the ICA Gallery in the UK. Bruce's early works function as a survey of avant-garde interests and techniques, as well as evidencing a development of style over time. Built from found footage, camera trickery, sophisticated and meticulous animation, and a solid foundation in structural and conceptual imperatives, these works remind us of the original drive behind so much experimental work from this period and the restrictive nature of what is and is not acceptable and/or consumable today, to say nothing of their strong doses of humour and absurdity. Ray went on to work for PINK FLOYD, producing music video inserts for TV and Promotions (with Ex Sex Pistol Glen Matlock). Today he is a born-again 3D animator here in Vancouver where he lives and works, and currently teaches at ECIAD. Ray has promised us that he will tell tales of his experiences with The Floyd as well as screen his engaging and challenging works.

Thursday May 23 8:30pm
BYOB: BRING YOUR OWN FILM >ASIA
It's yet another night of our monthly call to all to bring down their home-made, found, semi-professional and nearly-finished work to try it all out on an audience and on the big screen. This month being Vancouver's ASIAN HERITAGE MONTH, we highlight Asian works (non-exclusively of course). Remember to keep it under 10 minutes (excerpts accepted), and that it's only $3 to get in if you're carrying (plus membership!).

Friday & Saturday May 24/25 8:30pm
OPENING WEEKEND GALA:
CBC RADIO 3's 120SECONDS.COM DIGITAL FILM FEST
TWO NIGHTS OF PARTIES, LIVE MUSIC, & SCREENINGS TO CELEBRATE THE ART OF THE DIGITAL SHORT!
FRIDAY After putting out a call for entries across the country, 120Seconds.com now brings you the best of the best in Canadian digital shorts. The screening will include film festival selections of everything from twisted flash animations to post-ironic love stories. Friday is the electronic night, starting off with a screening, followed by a live music set by audio-visual experimental whiz kids BEN NEVILLE and RANDY JONES on the joysticks and an opening night party to follow.  
SATURDAY The second night of the gala will also feature screenings, a party and music - but this time rock ën' roll! The legendary DESTROYER will take the stage tonight between the screening and the party. Note: screenings vary at each show, so come one night or both!

Sunday May 26 8:30pm
SUNDAYS BY REQUEST
ALAN ZWEIG'S VINYL
"The best Canadian film I saw at Hot Docs -NOW
Brilliant...poignant -TORONTO STAR Why collect stacks of records when you don't have the time to hear them? Experiencing conflicting emotions over his vinyl habit, kvetchy filmmaker Alan Zweig sets out to interview other disturbed pack rats, touring dingy, record-lined apartments, hoping to find answers. While penetrating the compulsions of an antisocial cadre of quirky hobbyists, Zweig's journey turns into a personal, comic exploration of guilt, obsession, and mouse-trapping. Years in the making, VINYL features a cast of hundreds, including Geoff Pevere, Daniel Richler, Don McKellar, Guy Maddin, and a man who wants to collect every single record ever made. (Hot Docs) If you've ever owned a record, see this film!

Tuesday & Wednesday May 28/29 8:30pm
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND:
JESUS CHRIST VAMPIRE HUNTER
Honourable Mention, Slamdance 2002
Campy, exotic and unfettered. It manages to take the spirit of low-budget gusto to the extreme. -Slamdance Film Festival
From Lee Demarbre comes this tale of the ultimate action hero: JESUS CHRIST! The second coming is upon us, and Jesus has returned to earth. But before he can get down to the serious business of judging the living and the dead, he has to contend with an army of vampires that can walk in the daylight. Combining Kung-Fu action with biblical prophecy and a liberal dose of humour, the film teams the Saviour with Mexican wrestling hero EL SANTOS against mythological horrors and science gone mad, while also managing to address contemporary sexual politics. And did we mention that it's a musical? Featuring an original score by Graham Collins and new music by LUCKY RON, DR. BRUCE MURPHY, JOHNNY VEGAS, FURNACEFACE, and THE HAMMERHEADS. (16mm 85 min 2001)

Thursday, Friday & Saturday May 30/31 & June 1 8:30pm
NARCOLEPTIC VIDEOGRAPHER PART 2
Once again Team Narcoleptic (lo-fibre.com) provides what the peoples of the future have been clamouring for all along: blissfully bizarre comedy strained through hyper-kinetic visuals. Videosketches vandalized across your mind. The usual gang of idiots (KEVIN SPENST, BRADEN JONES and company) madly plunge into the streets, toilets and outskirts of Vancouver to explore the lighter side of insanity. Featured are: FULL CONTACT RELIGION, THE WAKE-UP GUY, and many more.  And here's the gravy: live performances every night!

JUNE 2002

Sunday June 2 8:30pm
SUNDAYS BY REQUEST
THE AD AND THE EGO + NEGATIVLAND VIDEO COMPILATION!
The Ad and the Ego is the first comprehensive documentary on the cultural impact of advertising in America...It should be required viewing for every consumer - which means all of us. NEIL POSTMAN Harold Boihem's stunning THE AD AND THE EGO traces advertising's development from its largely descriptive 19th century origins through today's ads which eschew rational arguments for symbols and imagery playing directly to our emotions. Artfully intercutting clips from hundreds of familiar television ads with insights from Stuart Ewen, Jean Kilbourne, Richard Pollay, Sut Jhally, Bernard McGrane and other noted critics, the film performs a cultural psychoanalysis of late 20th century America and its principal inhabitants: Consumer Man and Woman. Making the critical connections between the rise of consumerism, environmental degradation and our blind commitment to economic growth at any cost, THE AD AND THE EGO brilliantly dismantles one of the ego's most comforting self-flatteries: that we are immune to advertising. Consider this your first real inoculation. (Leslie Savan, Village Voice Critic and Author, The Sponsored Life) PLUS: NEGATIVLAND videos including GIMME THE MERMAID featuring astounding re-interpretations of Disney's favourite icon, the now-classic and banned U2 video featuring Casey Casem making a complete ass of himself, and many others!

Tuesday June 4 8:30pm
DICKIN' AROUND
Returning after a month hiatus in rehab for cough syrup and Skittles addiction, Vancouver's top improvisers, Ian Boothby, Roger Fredericks, Diana Frances and Ray Gurrie take your suggestions and re-dub classic 1930s action serials and cartoons. Hilarious? You're damn right it is. We intend to see the show soon raves the Westender. Your subscription has run out, please renew, says the Province. This month, Dick Tracy, Jungle Girl and Buck Rogers plus prizes and surprises.

Wednesday & Thursday June 5/6 8:30pm
OLD AND NAKED: NEW VIDEOS BY DONIGAN CUMMING
Montreal-based artist Donigan Cumming is principally known for his large format photographic works of the old, ugly, neglected, sick, demented, and drunk. Simultaneously criticized as exploitative and celebrated as genuinely in touch with his subjects, Cumming's repellant and engaging video work brings sordid existences to life. His video work has won numerous awards and has been screened at the Museum of Modern Art's New Documentaries series, at the New York Video Festival, and at the 1998 Rotterdam Film Festival among many others. Cumming prods, interrogates and cajoles his subjects, capturing their tenacious dignity, creating a theater of the down-and-out. (Steve Seid, PFA) Screening tonight: MY DINNER WITH WEEGEE Two life stories are weaved together: the central figure, a man in his seventies named Marty, remembers the famous and infamous characters from his past, while Cumming contemplates life in his fifty-fourth year. (37 min 2001) IF ONLY I Colleen's life, in her on words, has been wretched. She was sexually abused by her father, betrayed by her husband, separated from her children, driven by her love for an heroine addict to attempted suicide. Colleen has survived by taking responsibility for her decisions and dreaming of a safer place. She has sometimes relied on the kindness of strangers. ...if only I marks another hot summer in crisis. Colleen presents herself, broken and whole, to the camera. (35 mins, 2000) PLUS: WRAP System failure: a man repeats the story of a prison stabbing as something goes wrong with the tape. (3 min 2000) DOCU-DUSTER To be a man, to be a hero, to be a wife: these voices in conflict inhabit the body of a documentary filmmaker as he re-enacts the climax of a western morality play, 3:10 to Yuma. (3 min 2000)

Friday June 7 8:30pm
FOURTH ANNUAL BIKE FILM NIGHT BIKE FILM NIGHT RETURNS!
The Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition and Momentum Magazine present the Fourth Annual Bike Film Night. Join the local cycling community for an evening of short cycling films to benefit cycling advocacy in the Lower Mainland. Laugh, gape and cry to new bike films and old favourites. Free carbs and many surprises await you!

Saturday & Sunday June 8/9 8:30pm
CHRIS CHASE PRESENTS SHORTS OF BREATH
Eleven experimental films, all found-footage, all 16mm. All breathtaking!! FEATURING FILMS BY BRUCE CONNER, MARTIN ARNOLD, JAY ROSENBLATT, AND MATT MCCORMICK. SHORTS OF BREATH is a 16mm festival of found-footage collage shorts including an excellent selection of half a dozen of the best works from Found Footage God BRUCE CONNER, two rarely screened shorts by Austrian optical printing fanatic MARTIN ARNOLD and works from two exciting experimental filmmakers who've emerged in the past ten years who use found footage to great effect, San Francisco filmmaker JAY ROSENBLATT and Portlander MATT MCCORMICK. Films to be screened include Conner's A MOVIE, COSMIC RAY, PERMIAN STRATA, TAKE THE 5:10 TO DREAMLAND, MONGOLOID, and VALSE TRISTE, Arnold's PIECE TOUCHEE and PASSAGE ¿ L'ACTE, Rosenblatt's SHORT OF BREATH and McCormick's VYROTONIN DECISION and SINCERELY, JOE P BEAR. Olympia-based curator CHRIS CHASE will appear to introduce the works.


Tuesday & Wednesday June 11/12 8:30pm
PUNK DOC:
STANDING BY YOURSELF
PLUS: NOBODY'S NOTHING
This astounding documentary puts reality TV to shame and reminds us of just how unreal that prefabricated situation-based dreck really is. STANDING BY YOURSELF tracks the movements and daily machinations of a group of outcast friends in their strip-mall New York State hometown. Using everything from closely mic-ed subjects to infrared video STANDING BY YOURSELF gets uncomfortably close to its subjects as they get drunk and high, squander money, rip-off their parents, and get in trouble with pretty much everyone in their paths as a conduit to simply having a good time. And yet, as we discover, these kids are smarter than their actions would let on... Simultaneously devastating and hilarious, the film manages to capture the daily rituals and mundanities of life in such engrossing proximity that everything becomes drama. Disturbing for its unabashed honesty, our cast of characters both love and despise each other, their very actions acknowledging the pressures inherent in a tightly bonded peer group. The fact that the filmmakers family is integral to this slice of life takes us that much closer to it all. (Josh Koury 57mins 2001 USA) Preceded by: Bridget Farr's NOBODY'S NOTHING Highlighting urban alienation through the literal scratching out of individuals, NOBODY'S NOTHING is a concentrated and defiant defense of individual identity in a world collapsing into high-velocity enchantments of technology and mass consumption. (Tom McSorley, Take One)

Friday to Sunday June 14-16
THEATRE IN THE RAW PRESENTS
LaVERNE ADAMS' MEDICINE
THEATRE IN THE RAW take over the BLINDING LIGHT for three nights to present LaVerne Adams' moving drama about five First Nations teenage girls sent to a BC Native residential school managed by nuns in th 1950s. A battle of wills and native traditions versus white, religious and traditional schooling begins to unfold as we witness how each of the girls manages to survive in a culture that is not their own. Panel discussions will follow the performance nightly. Call 604-708-5448 for showtimes and info.

Tuesday June 18 8:30pm
EYE OF NEWT PLAY LIVE TO WERNER HERZOG'S
LESSONS OF DARKNESS
Always rising to the challenge, EYE OF NEWT once again dazzle us with their incredible live musical accompaniment to moving image. Featured players tonight are Lisa Robertson (poetry), Kelly Churko (guitar/electronics), Masa Anzai (sax/electronics), Chris Kelly (sax/electronics), and Stefan Smulovitz (viola/electronics). In the aftermath of the Gulf War, retreating Iraqi soldiers left the oil fields of Kuwait a raging inferno. True to form as perhaps the world's most death-defying filmmaker, Werner Herzog and a small camera crew arrived on the scene to film the carnage. What resulted was LESSONS OF DARKNESS - less a simple documentary about an environmental catastrophe than it is an apocalyptic vision of hell, Herzog has created a science fiction film, in which our planet vanishes beneath pillars of flame, oceans of oil, and impenetrable clouds of smoke. PLUS: A BROTHER'S QUAY SURPRISE SHORT!

Wednesday June 19 8:30pm
BYO8: BRING YOUR OWN FILM
Come on down for a special Wednesday night edition of our monthly foray into anything and everything you bring along that's ripe for screening. We now accept DVD (for all you burners) as well as 16mm, VHS, Super 8 and Regular 8 film! Keep it under 10 minutes and...bring your family!

Thursday June 20 8:30pm
NEW (CINE) WORKS
The latest and greatest short film and video works from members of Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society, Vancouver's only filmmaker's co-op, and a venerable creative hotbed for new filmmaking talent in Vancouver for over twenty years! Directors will be in attendance, and a question-and-answer session will follow the screening.

Friday & Saturday June 21/22 8:30pm
DEEP BLUE FUNK FILMS PRESENTS
PINK FLOYD IN WONDERLAND
From the folks who brought you DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW and RADIOHEAD VS THE MATRIX comes this latest sound and image sync experiment. Walt Disney's classic ALICE IN WONDERLAND is synched up with PINK FLOYD's THE WALL and, well... strange things happen! Follow Alice down the rabbit hole and into uncharted territory for an incredible evening of astounding moments of synchronized serendipity and an entirely new way of looking at both the music and the movie.

WE ARE CLOSED the week of June 23-30 for RENOVATING and a HOLIDAY!

JULY 2002

Tuesday July 2 8:30pm
DICKIN' AROUND
Dicks and Bucks and Jungle Queens, oh my. Ian Boothby, Roger Fredericks, Diana Frances and Ray Gurrie thought it would be a good idea to cut the sound on 1930s action serials, cartoons and newsreels. Are the stars of Vancouver Theatresports, Rock Paper Scissors, The 11th Hour and Suckerpunch up to the challenge? You come down, give a suggestion and be the judge as you laugh your *** off. (The word *** is (c) Dickin' Around 2002.)This month, Dick Tracy, Jungle Girl and Buck Rogers plus prizes and surprises.

Wednesday July 3 8:30pm
INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY TELEVISION
ICTV returns with a brand new presentation and more discussion around Community television ñ it's not just two chairs, a potted plant and a static camera anymore. Community TV has changed its look with the new flexibility that digital video technology allows. So why is community TV disappearing from the lower mainland and what is being done to counter the silencing of the community voice from Vancouver TV? Come and see some recent material and participate in a discussion following the screening.

Thursday July 4 8:30pm
THE FANTASTIC PLANET
This is the astounding fully animated French/Czech science-fiction adventure based on the drawings of Roland Topor. THE FANTASTIC PLANET tells the tale of an alien world where diminutive humanoids are enslaved and kept as housepets and playthings by a race of giants. Eventually a humanoid decides to revolt... Originally brought to America in the early '70s through Roger Corman's New World Pictures European Acquisitions, the film was wildly successful on the B-movie circuit with the post-hippy trippers, seen as a metaphor for class struggle but best remembered for its eerie and beautiful animation and mesmerizing AIR meets early FLOYD soundtrack. (16mm 78 min 1973)

Friday & Saturday July 5/6 8:30pm
Canadian Premiere of Michael Dean's
D.I.Y. OR DIE: HOW TO SURVIVE AS AN INDEPENDENT ARTIST
PLUS: Danny Plotnick's TOUR TIPS
How do you make art without selling out? D.I.Y. OR DIE explores the methods and motivations of independent American artists working in different genres and mediums. Profiling a fascinating group of icons and unknowns working in various media including print, film, graphic art, performance art and music, the three-dozen interviewees are mavericks that operate outside of any studio system, are beholden to no one, and produce influential, quality art regardless of a continuous paycheck. Featuring interviews with IAN MACKAYE (FUGAZI), J MASCIS (DINOSAUR JR.), JOHN JOHN JESSE (DEMONIC EROTIC PAINTER), JIM ROSE (JIM ROSE SIDESHOW), JIM THIRWELL (FOETUS), LYDIA LUNCH, MIKE WATT (MINUTEMEN), RICHARD KERN (FILMMAKER), RON ASHTON (STOOGES), MADAGIN SHIVE (BONFIRE MADAGIN), DAVE BROCKIE (GWAR) and many others! ...delves into the motivations of American indie artists, whose ingenious methods open up autonomous zones within the morass of mass-media mediocrity. (Other Cinema) PLUS: DANNY PLOTNICK's TOUR TIPS, a cheap-o computer animation from the King of Super 8 describing the ups and downs (some disgusting!) of touring.

Sunday July 7 8:30pm
SUNDAYS BY REQUEST
BRIAN SPRINGER'S SPIN
Pirated TV, exposed media personalities and spin doctors revealed! Filmmaker Brian Springer monitored satellite-feed stations to glean 500 hours of raw footage of 1992's biggest stories, from the presidential campaign to the L.A. riots. SPIN captures moments never meant to be made public, such as CNN's Larry King casually discussing the lurid side effects of heart medication with then-President George Bush. This incisive and aggressive documentary reveals 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. A devastating critique of television's profound manipulation in the way it packages the news and politics. (Steven Holden).

Tuesday & Wednesday July 9/10 8:30pm
JEM COHEN'S AMBER CITY + BLOOD ORANGE SKY
We are pleased to present these two incredible and as-yet-unscreened-locally films from the director of BENJAMIN SMOKE and FUGAZI's INSTRUMENT. AMBER CITY is a portrait of an unnamed city in Italy. Sidestepping the tourist attractions that make the city famous, the film/video posits an almost imaginary place that may draw closer to the reality of its inhabitants. Using a voice-over narration that collages direct observation, literary texts, historical fact, local folklore, and a bit of sheer fabrication, the film/video melds documentary and narrative, past and present. Amber City reflects on the in-betweeness of places whose historical and geographical location renders their reality strangely invisible. ...underscores Cohen's complete self-assurance as a filmmaker (Holly Willis, The Independent) (48 mins 1999)
Plus: BLOOD ORANGE SKY A portrait of Catania, Sicily whose people live in the shadow of Mt. Aetna, an active volcano. The ocean at 5 a.m., the fish market, the distributor of pornographic films, the woodworker, the elephant statue, housing projects, the young girl in the orange sweater...The original soundtrack music was composed for the project by Mark Linkous of the band Sparklehorse.

Thursday July 11 8:30pm
EYE OF NEWT PLAY LIVE TO BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
Don't miss EYE OF NEWT's live soundtrack to this classic of the Russian cinema. Tonight's featured players are Ron Samworth on guitar, Brad Muirhead on trombone and tuba, Chris Kelly playing sax and electronics, and Stefan Smulovitz on viola and electronics. BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN is considered Eisenstein's best work and is the story of mutiny aboard the Russian battleship in 1905 which led to a civilian uprising against the Czar in Odessa and the resulting crackdown by troops loyal to the Czar. Famed for its film history-changing montage sequences and incredible cinematography this is a pure masterpiece. (71 mins 1925)

Friday July 12 8:30pm
MARUSYA BOCIURKIW'S UNSPOKEN TERRITORY
As we wrestle with anti-terrorist bills beiing tabled in the US and Canada almost a year after 9/11, UNSPOKEN TERRITORIES recalls disturbingly similar moments in Canada's past. With a mix of documentary, dramatic re-enactment and animation, the film questions official history and the seamless narratives of archived information. Juxtaposing lush landscape imagery with starkly rendered stories is a poetic, often humorous first-person narrative about growing up ethnic in an anglo world. Examining human rights abuses in North America's own back yard, the film takes us to the beautiful but desolate setting of a Ukrainian internment camp in 1915; the story of a Quebecker arrested under the War Measures Act in 1970; the anxiety of an Arab Canadian woman as she hears of innocent friends taken in for questioning by police. The film eerily asks the prescient question: could this happen again?

Saturday July 13 8pm
POWELL STREET FESTIVAL PRESENTS
SPATIAL POETICS: REDEFINING THE READING
Join us for an evening of collaborations, collisions, experiments & the spontaneous. The gathering of artists to co-produce works based on the notion of challenging ideas of ëreading'. To consider the process of communication: of both sending and receiving, the misreading, language and its complexities. Artists have been encouraged to work beyond their suggested discipline, consider their location, and yet speak from multiple spaces/places both new and revisited. This evening is a pre-event for the 2002 Powell Street Festival, which celebrates its 26th year with the theme Living Communities. Performances by: Grace Chan, Sook C. Kong, Laiwan, Minelle Mahtani, Ashok Mathur, Leo Quan, Mago Record's Noriko Tujiko from Tokyo, Japan & more! (MORE INFO: Powell Street office at 604-739-9388)

Sunday July 14 8:30pm
SUNDAYS BY REQUEST
FRIENDS FOREVER
* * * * (four stars) - Film Threat
FRIENDS FOREVER documents drummer/vocalist Nate and his partner, bassist/keyboardist Josh. The duo travel the country playing gigs directly out of their van while parked at the curb, using a bubble maker, smoke machine, fireworks and a light show to compliment their strange tunes. Refusing to play traditional musical venues, they prefer to risk incarceration by disrupting the neighbourhoods they invade. Stunned audiences either sit mesmerized or get out of the way of their spontaneous concerts. Filmmaker Ben Wolfinsohn follows the duo on their tour across America and his camera captures every key moment from their hilarious gigs, to the personal conflicts, to their scary groupies, and even their college radio appearances. Akin to a THIS IS SPINAL TAP for the indie-rock crowd, FRIENDS FOREVER makes a bigger impact simply because this is all for real! A jaw-dropping display of vehicular pyrotechnics and music... .rocking hard, and lighting shit ablaze. (Sound Unseen)

Tuesday July 16 8:30pm
FROM THE VAULTS!!
Tonight is the first in a proposed series of evenings in which we ask you to pick titles from our massive archive of strange and hilariously specific 16mm industrial, educational and training films ñ ranging in topic from meat-broiling techniques to sales strategies, hospital and police training, life-saving, nuclear fission, birthing techniques, lice removal and everything in between, these films were originally intended for very specific audiences in technical schools and other training facilities. With the element of time in mind, we will unleash a list of titles for films which are under 10 minutes to be made available at the cinema. Simply check off your choice at least a week prior to the show when you are in the neighborhood, and most votes wins a screening. Expect an eclectic and entertaining evening ñ who knows, you just might learn something...a list of the chosen films will be announced at the screening prior to reeling them up!

Wednesday July 17 8:30pm
ROCKACTION! 2
After the overwhelming response to our first ROCKACTION show, we are please to present a BRAND NEW SHOW of works made to the ROCKACTION credo: As a part of The Blinding Light's ongoing make work project we have asked some of our favourite media makers to create new films or videos as a response to and inevitably informed by the rock video. The rules: a) use a song - any song - as the soundtrack; b) limit the length of the piece to the length of the song; c) DO NOT make a rock video! Join us for this night of local and national newly commissioned ñ and rocking - works. Expect to laugh, cry and be mesmerized by this collection featuring classic as well as brand new and never before seen works by MAIJA MARTIN, MIKE HOOLBOOM, PATRICK HARRISON, KYLA SWEET, OLIVER HOCKENHULL, LO-FIBRE, JEANETTE ORDAS, KIM DAWN & SCOTT RUSSELL, JEREMY DRUMMOND and others. SPECIAL SURPRISE OPENING VIDEOS!

Thursday July 18 8:30pm
BYO8: BRING YOUR OWN FILM
It's the final Bring Your Own Film Night of the current calendar - don't miss your chance for big screen visibility and the praise and approval of your moving image peers. We can play DVD, 16mm, VHS, Super 8 and Regular 8mm film. Keep it under 10 minutes and feel free to scream at the screen!

Friday, Saturday & Sunday July 19/20/21 8:30pm
VICE MAGAZINE PRESENTS
TV CARNAGE WEEKEND!
THE FIRST AND ONLY WEST COAST PUBLIC SCREENING OF THE ENTIRE TV CARNAGE SERIES!!

FRIDAY: TV CARNAGE 1996 OUCH TELEVISION MY BRAIN HURTS This is the first of the series. Painstakingly created over the course of a week of being all hopped up on painkillers. It was the safest way to make this one without suffering from the pain of embarrassment being felt for events on this tape. It will make your hair perm and for those with perms or weaves get ready to look like one of the Nelson Bros. The tape bares witness to the state of television from the late 80's to 96. Charlton Heston was giving speeches at Desert storm tributes while George Bush stares into oblivion twirling a flag.   Kids dressed like the Village People without a single adult blinking a coked up eye. It is a time to remember over and over again. WARNING: Watching this entire tape all at once will cause you to have hallucinations usually associated with sweat lodges. The person next to you in the theatre may appear to transform into a grizzly bear with a wolf's head as they scream Holey shit.They actually did that?!?

SATURDAY: TV CARNAGE 1998 A RICH TRADITION OF MAGIC This is the second of the TV Carnage Series. It will make the most jaded, angst-ridden sod in any scene bust a nut. You will go from brood out loud to laugh out loud, as they watch Gary Coleman on Arsenio blaming his lack of dating on the AIDS epidemic. Or watching a Don Johnson mannequin blast through a brick wall that is adorned in a Mean Joe Green poster. You read that right! This seamless compilation of the most cringe inducing television is an intergalactic journey into some of the worse ideas ever created. It will serve as a guide for what not to do in daily life for the overwhelming number of citizens and celebrities who take their cues from TV on what to do in life. Try not to feel like you have your shit together after checking out some of these moments: A Three's Company alternate opening that will keep you awake for a week, KISS on Kids Are People Too and plenty more.

SUNDAY: TV CARNAGE 2G WHEN TELEVISION ATTACKS The bar is raised again with TV Carnage 2G. This is the same tape that premiered to a packed audience at a landmark Toronto Porn theatre. It recently enjoyed a successful city to city tour in the romantic settings of other porn theatres. How good is tape?? If you were to think in terms of fashion, this tape rivals the Acid Wash Jump Suit phenomenon in its ability to shock and amaze. If you think in terms of pizza slices, you will not believe some of the toppings on this Cringe lovers delight If you think in terms of  Should I get this or not? think, Should. Besides it's intro that is homage to the top-notch advances in 80's video toaster technology this tape is, as Brian Austin Green would say A one stop Carnival. Some of the toppings include: Steven Seagal on etiquette and AIDS, a hard sell on beanie babies as a secure investment, Chuck Norris and his ingenious, porn level, acting skills and lots more!

Tuesday & Wednesday July 23/24 8:30pm
SERBIA'S LOW-FI VIDEO
Don't miss this rare chance to check out the Serbian moving image underground! Based out of Serbia, LOW-FI VIDEO is a project with no expiry date, its mission being the advancement of the aesthetics of unpretentious cinema and the subversion of elitism in film. The project considers the video-technology boom a very useful ally in this struggle. During the first two years of its existence, the LOW-FI VIDEO project operated in Belgrade's Cinema REX. It organized monthly video programmes, screening domestic and foreign short films and soon moving on to support them by providing production services. By spring 1998 LOW-FI VIDEO had organized screenings in all the majorcenters in Serbia. In the summer of 1998, it teamed up with Subotica's KLJUN to help organize The Yugoslav Cheap Film Festival which has gone on to tour internationally. They continue to present screenings at various Belgrade locations and have so far shown 278 films by more than hundred Serbian filmmakers. Owing to the current political climate, the project now works under very difficult conditions, but the faith in their cinematic mission still keeps them very active. We are pleased to present a collection of their works created especially for this show. The collection is a broad ranging and engaging cross-section of style, interest and subject, including drama, animation, experimental, dancefilm, documentary and pure comedy. Find out what's going on in the minds of moving image artists on the other side of the world! (Special thanks to Milos Kukuric, Low-Fi Video)

Thursday July 25 8:30pm
FLICKS BY FLICK
Ten years ago this month, Flick Harrison became a videographer on CBC's Road Movies, the only series ever made entirely on Hi8 and seen by over 2 million people. Since then, he's become way less square (he thinks), but more radical in form, content and politics. See a decade of doc, drama, and industrial from around Canada and the world, with 3 world premieres and sneak previews.  THIS IS NOT A WAR is a segment of Harrison's documentary Camels Turbans Guns, about strategic Baluchistan and the oil-inspired Afghan war. SPOT THE WAR wanders a Vancouver neighbourhood for evidence that Canadian soldiers were on March 14, 2002, making their first kills since the Korean war, and SMALL TUXEDO BLOWJOB ADVENTURE examines the war from an oblique perspective. THE VICTORY PARTY, newly minted for this screening, is about an artist (Steven Wittek) who crucifies a failed revolutionary leader (Jeffrey Flieler) for the Victory celebration of evil dictator Maloney (Catherine Falkner). Don't miss images from Mexico's illegal border crossings, David Orchard in a private moment, black revivalists in Edmonton, Innu musicians in Labrador, jumping on Boxcars in Halifax, and sneak preview scenes of Flick's just-completed feature, LONGSHOT.

Friday & Saturday July 26/27 8:30pm
LUCKY BUM WEEKEND
BILL DANIEL & VANESSA RENWICK IN PERSON

FRIDAY: THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN IN THE MOON + SHORTS Don't miss this two-projector film/audio installation on the myths and histories of hobo graffiti! Receiving rave reviews in both the NY Times and Artforum, Bill Daniel's THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN IN THE MOON explores the practice of chalking up, drawing one's moniker on boxcars - a 100-year-old tradition among tramps and rail workers. Today, this art form has been taken up by a new breed of young artists, adding another layer of images and reference to the rolling steel canvases. The installation environment is constructed to resemble a hobo camp scene, complete with a campfire and moon which are rear-projected video screens that flicker with images of freight-hopping trips and interviews with tramps and rail graffiti artists. THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN IN THE MOON features legendary box car artists Herby, buz Blurr, and Bozo Texino, plus a tribute to Matokie Slaughter, a mysterious banjo-playing woman, whose beautiful drawings are seen on the side of freight trains from coast to coast. PLUS Steve Topping's astounding READING CANADA BACKWARDS, a cross-country freight train hopping Super 8 document (Coincidentally, Topping and Daniel have hopped trains together) and Daniel's own bizarre compilation of 16mm clips from his archive of train-related ephemera including NEGOTIATING HOGBACKS, RAIL SAFETY and more!

SATURDAY: ANCHOR OUTS + RICHART & THE HEIDLEBERG PROJECT Partially shot here in Vancouver on False Creek, Bill Daniel presents his second installation ANCHOR OUTS. Tonight some of the live-aboards out in Squatter Bay have towed their dingies ashore to have a campfire and tell stories about the anchor out life. They live aboard their boats, out of reach of landlords and tax collectors. They come from all walks of life and all political stripes, but all share a love of the nautical life and an anti-authoritarian philosophy. (BD) Originally commissioned for Melinda Stone's SINK OR SWIM group show in San Francisco, the piece presents an actual model sailboat on site, with sail acting as screen and incorporating collaged audio of interviews and field recordings. Also on the bill is Vanessa Renwick and Dawn Smallman's RICHART, first screened here to a sold out show at the Vancouver Underground Film Festival, RICHART is a collage and yard artist who has surrounded his house with towering sculptures made out of the town's discards. The people in his hometown of Centralia, WA regard him as a crackpot, not taking the time to find out that he is a most daring and passionate artist. Finally, COME UNTO ME, THE FACES OF TYREE GUYTON is the multi-award winning portrait of one artist who has created a massive junk art project in the heart of Detroit's blighted East Side. Since 1986, Tyree Guyton has transformed his entire block using thousands of gallons of paint and a cacophony of cast-away objects. The film tell the story of his struggle to create art from inner city rubble, even as he faces heated opposition from community and city council members who see it only as junk.

Sunday July 28 8:30pm
REVENGE OF THE MULTIPLEX GRAND!
After an extended hunkering down to a multitude of personal projects, touring around the globe, and otherwise keeping extremely busy, THE MULTIPLEX GRAND returns to the ranch for an evening of experimental sound and image renderings, aggressive electronic assaults and smooth digitally-rendered sounds and visions. Expect the unexpected. Plan ahead with an open mind ñ this evening may change your life forever! Special guests and surprise collaborations are, of course, de rigueur.

Tuesday & Wednesday July 29/30 8:30pm
THE RETURN OF THE SITUATIONISTS
With a multitude of requests for both of these classics of the Situationist movement, we thought we'd line 'em up for you back to back.

TUESDAY: REN… VI…NET'S CAN DIALECTICS BREAK BRICKS?
"Imagine a kung fu flick in which the martial artists spout Situationist aphorisms about conquering alienation while decadent bureaucrats ply the ironies of a stalled revolution. This is what you'll encounter in RenÈ ViÈnet's outrageous refashioning of a Chinese fisticuff film. An influential Situationist, ViÈnet stripped the soundtrack from a run-of-the-mill Hong Kong export and lathered on his own devastating dialogue...A brilliant, acerbic and riotous critique of the failure of socialism in which the martial artists counter ideological blows with theoretical thrusts from Debord, Reich and others...ViÈnet's target is also the mechanism of cinema and how it serves ideology." -PFA "...its humor comes not so much from its satire of an absurd film genre as from its undermining of the spectacle-spectator relation at the heart of an absurd society. In both its social-critical content and its self-critical form, it presents a striking contrast to the reformist whining and militant ranting that constitute most supposedly radical media. By turning the persuasive power of the medium against itself (characters criticize the plot, their own role in it, and the function of spectacles in general), it constantly counteracts the viewers' tendency to identify with the cinematic action, reminding them that the real adventure - or lack of it - is in their own lives." -Ken Knabb (1973 video 90min)

WEDNESDAY: GUY DEBORD'S SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE
Debord's incisive and unrelenting film SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE seems more relevant now than ever as it explores the very essence of our culture's sleep-walking complicity in maintaining an ignorance of the blood-soaked impact of commodity culture, while remaining in apolitical awe of its spectacle. SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE is an intense and densely packed montage 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)