SFCINEMATHEQUE

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Thursday, December 8, 1983, 8:00 pm

Robert Attanasio

SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE

800 Chestnut Street

San Francisco, CA, 94133

Light Source, 1978, 16mm; Wall, 1980, 16mm; Burn The Screen, 1981, 16mm; Rubber Crutches, 1979-82, S8mm; Lensound, 1982, S8mm; In The Beginning Was The End, 1981, S8mm; Rat Race, 1981, S8mm.

New York filmmaker Attanasio has been making Super 8mm and 16mm films since 1973, also incorporating film into several live performances created during this period. He has written of his work: “I suppose you could say my films are conceptual documentaries full of contradictions unique to film. Some people maintain this medium is pure illusion. Others feel it can provide us with a glimpse of reality. I would like to think my films shatter the illusion of reality by using the filmmaking process truthfully. I consider the films essentially anti-illusionistic performances”

J. Hoberman has written of Rat Race,  “Funny and pointed—mildly daring vérité and pure Super 8. Here Attanasio fights his way through car after car on the rush hour Lexington IRT, carrying an outsized tape recorder that blasts out nothing but Bob Marley’s ‘Rat Race’…”