CROSSROADS FESTIVAL: MAY 12 – 15, 2011
SFMOMA & Victoria Theatre
[Festival Pass: members: $30/ non-members: $50]
Festival Pass provides a single admission to every screening in Crossroads
Order a Festival Pass here.
CROSSROADS, Program 1: Radical Light: Cinematheque at 50
curated by Steve Anker and Steve Polta
Thursday, May 12 at 7pm
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third Street
[Tickets: members: $5 / non-members: $10]
Order advance tickets here.
CROSSROADS opens with a conclusion to Radical Light, a screening series presented jointly by Cinematheque and Pacific Film Archive from Fall 2010 – Spring 2011. Radical Light, which coincided with the PFA’s publication of the same name, celebrates the rich and varied history of experimental film and alternative film and video in the Bay area, from 1945-2000. This opening screening of Cinematheque’s festival celebrates this history, and marks the Fiftieth Anniversary of Cinematheque founder Bruce Baillie’s first-ever film screening, a screening which led directly to the present-day institutions San Francisco Cinematheque and Canyon Cinema. This screening highlights lesser-known avant-garde gems from this proud history.
SCREENING: Tung (1966) by Bruce Baillie; The White Rose (1967) by Bruce Conner; Trekkerriff (1984/2011) (*world premiere*) by Will Hindle; Remembrance Time (1998) by Minsu Yang; Archimedes‚ Screw (1996) by Scott Stark; Chinatown Sketch (1998) by Timoleon Wilkins; Me & Bruce & Art (1966) by Ben Van Meter; Flight (1997) by Greta Snider; Time Being (1991) by Gunvor Nelson; Savings the Proof (1979) by Karen Holmes
CROSSROADS, Program 2: The Sublime is Now: Films of Jeanne Liotta
Jeanne Liotta in person
Friday, May 13 at 7pm
Victoria Theatre
2961 16th Street at Mission
[Tickets: members: $5 / non-members: $10]
Order advance tickets here.
Jeanne Liotta, currently teaching at the University of Colorado at Boulder, was born and raised in New York City, the native home of her down-to-earth yet far-reaching speculative cinema. Her latest body of work takes place in a constellation of mediums investigating the cosmic landscape, at a curious intersection of art, science, and natural philosophy. Crossroads this year presents the West Coast premiere of her highly acclaimed Crosswalk, which, in documenting eight years of Easter processions through Loisada NYC, documents the intersections of the spiritual and the secular. Also screening: Observando al Cielo, a poetic exploration of the deliriously reeling heavens, confronting art and astronomy, the 2 projector work Some Day This May No Longer Exist, Loretta, Eclipse, Observando al Cielo and many other titles.
CROSSROADS, Program 3: The Chilling Montage of Crimson Repression!
Curated by Steve Polta
Friday, May 13 at 9pm
Victoria Theatre
2961 16th Street at Mission
[Tickets: members: $5 / non-members: $10]
Order advance tickets here.
Anticipating the Pacific Film Archive’s major retrospective of the films of George and Mike Kuchar (June 10-25), we tonight unearth a 1967 George Kuchar classic Eclipse of the Sun Virgin, a morbidly hilarious full color screamfest, a teenaged dream date turned upside-down. The Eclipse of Kuchar is preceded by an appropriately garish congregation of equally sordid shorts, all ruminations on pop flops and moldering Americana.
SCREENING: Drifting (2010) by Malic Amalya; 28.IV.81 (Descending Figures) (2011) by Christopher Harris; The Third Body (2007) by Peggy Ahwesh; Format (2010) by Christine Lucy Latimer; Drunk on the Couch by Luther Price; Kindless Villain (2010) by Janie Geiser; Boys of Summer (2009) by Alee Peoples; young, (2010) by Dale Hoyt; Eclipse of the Sun Virgin (1967) by George Kuchar
CROSSROADS, Program 4: Observers Observed
curated by Jonathan Marlow
Saturday, May 14 at 12 noon
Victoria Theatre
2961 16th Street at Mission
[Tickets:members: $5 / non-members: $10]
Order advance tickets here.
“Space, like time, engenders forgetfulness; but it does so by setting us bodily free from our surroundings and giving us back our primitive, unattached state. Yes, it can even, in the twinkling of an eye, make something like a vagabond of the pedant and Philistine. Time, we say, is Lethe; but change of air is a similar draught, and, if it works less thoroughly, does so more quickly.” (Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain)
SCREENING: The Idea of North (1967, excerpt) by Glenn Gould; Hand Held Day (1975) by Gary Beydler; The Anthem (2006) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul; In the Cul de Sac (2010) by Raina Kim; Dust Studies (2010) by Michael Gitlin; Imperceptihole (2010) by Lori Felker and Robert Todd; Get Out of the Car (2010) by Thom Andersen; Light From the Mesa (2010) by Paul Clipson
CROSSROADS, Program 5: Two Roads Diverged
curated by Jonathan Marlow
Saturday, May 14 at 2:30pm
Victoria Theatre
2961 16th Street at Mission
[Tickets:members: $5 / non-members: $10]
Order advance tickets here.
“Two roads ran apart into the woods and sadly I could not travel both, even if I could. Down I looked, where one bent, and then the other, suitably straight and more ideal, perhaps, because it was grass-like and desired wear. It exceeded the interests there. Both carried the mornings evenly, stepped into the sheets of black where I regarded another day! Nevertheless, being able, one way leads away and I doubted if I would return at all. I explain this with relief, therefore, in time. Two roads ran apart into the woods and I took that rarely traveled path and differentiated between complete.” (Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken, translated from English to German and back again)
SCREENING: Conjuror’s Box (2010) by Kerry Laitala; Beyond Enchantment (2010) by Lawrence Jordan; Heliotropes (2010) by Michael Langan; Posthaste Perennial Pattern (2010) by Jodie Mack; Perchance (2008) by Caryn Cline; February 2008 & June 1967 (2010) by Mark Toscano; Place for Landing (2010) by Shambhavi Kaul; A Thousand Julys (2010) by Lewis Klahr; Solar Sight (2011) by Lawrence Jordan; Alpsee (1994) by Matthias Muller
CROSSROADS, Program 6: Celebrating Robert Nelson
Saturday, May 14 at 4:30pm
Victoria Theatre
2961 16th Street at Mission
[Tickets:members: $5 / non-members: $10]
Order advance tickets here.
Robert Nelson is a Bay Area treasure and filmmaking legend. Known for prankster experimentalism and on-the-spot invention, the films of San Francisco native Robert Nelson are among the defining landmarks of the post-Beat American underground of the 1960s and 70s. Cinematheque is proud to honor Robert Nelson with this screening of classic and lesser-known films. [Please note: Robert Nelson’s presence at this screening is not confirmed]
SCREENING: The Great Blondino (made with William C. Wiley, 1967)
King David (made with Mike Henderson, 1970, re-edited 2003)
Special Warning (1974/1998)
The Awful Backlash (made with William Allan, 1967)
CROSSROADS, Program 7: Apparent Motion–Celebrating the Art of Projection
Saturday, May 14 at 8:30pm
Victoria Theatre
2961 16th Street at Mission
[Tickets:members: $5 / non-members: $10]
Order advance tickets here.
Apparent Motion celebrates the art of live image projection—the cinematic exhibition apparatus exposed as a primal light and sound machine, an invention without a future, ripe for rediscovery. Working with modified or distressed film projectors as if they were musical instruments or with live manipulation (even mutilation) of projected film (or even directly with the exalted beam of light itself), Alex MacKenzie (of Vancouver BC) and the duo of Amanda Dawn Christie and Elli Hearte fuse image and sound into profound site-specific (yet cinematic) experiences. Also on the sound/image synesthesia tip is the East Bay composer/video artist Kenneth Atchley, whose jpeg navigations and sine wave compositions open the show.
SCREENING:
the wooden lightbox: a secret art of seeing (2007-2011) by Alex MacKenzie; www.alexmackenzie.com
Transmissions (2010) by Amanda Dawn Christie and Elli Hearte www.amandadawnchristic.ca
turtle (2009-2011) by Kenneth Atchley www.katch.com
CROSSROADS, Program 8: Playback
curated by Lauren Sorensen
Sunday, May 15 at 2:30pm
Victoria Theatre
2961 16th Street at Mission
[Tickets:members: $5 / non-members: $10]
Order advance tickets here.
A program made up of musicality and shape-shiftings, this nest of films and videos tie together disparate themes and atmospheres, following a tonal thread that is both playful and observational. Each piece in turn uses a place, artifact, musical quality, or performance as a foundation and environment, building up to and cohering the work’s own resonance and energy. (Lauren Sorensen)
SCREENING:
In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails (2010) by Fern Silva; The Eye And the Ear (1944-45) by Stefan and Franciszka Themerson; Sequences (2009) by Jae Kyung Kim; 724 14th St. (2010) by Ching Yi Tseng; Very Similar To (2009) by Alexander Stewart with Peter Miller; Cry When It Happens/Llora Cuando te Pase (2010) by Laida Lertxundi; Performing marmarth (2010) by Rick Bahto; Lark’s Tongue in Aspics (2010) by David Shushan; Joshua City (2011) by Kevin T. Allen; Night Walks (2011) by George Monteleone; Vineland (2009) by Laura Kraning; Glass Face (1975) by Gary Beydler
CROSSROADS, Program 9: the realms of transience
curated by Steve Polta
Sunday, May 15 at 4:30pm
Victoria Theatre
2961 16th Street at Mission
[Tickets:members: $5 / non-members: $10]
Order advance tickets here.
SCREENING:
SHU (Blue Hour Lullaby) (2007) by Phillip Lachenmann; Frequency Mass (2011) by John Davis; The Sower Arepo as Works a Wheel (2010) by Marcy Saude; In the Swim (2010) by Michael Walsh; Fallen Flags (2007) by Amanda Dawn Christie; Drifter (2010) by Timoleon Wilkins
CROSSROADS, Program 10: The Observers
curated by Jonathan Marlow
Sunday, May 15 at 7:30pm
Victoria Theatre
2961 16th Street at Mission
[Tickets:members: $5 / non-members: $10]
Order advance tickets here.
“As they observed the various and contrasted figures that made up the assemblage, each man looking like a caricature of himself, in the unsteady light that flickered over him, they came mutually to the conclusion, that an odder society had never met, in city or wilderness, on mountain or plain.”
-Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Great Carbuncle
SCREENING:
Trypps 7 (Badlands) (2010) by Ben Russell
The Observers (2011) by Jacqueline Goss