Film & Video
Art Thoughtz takes down Damien Hirst
Posted January 17, 2012 by roger_peet in Film & Video
Hennessy Youngman, the row-home raconteur, does his inimitable part here dissecting and dismantling the awful schlock-art masturbator Damien Hirst, he of "embalmed shark in formaldehyde" fame. This is a hilarious and timely send up of a culture creature sunk so deep in the santorum of his own rich-idiot self-satisfaction that he can barely breathe, and who soon will drown in the sea of cheap money and bad ideas he claims as his "medium".
Dara Greenwald turned me on to Art Thoughtz- this is a toast to her wit and wisdom.
Dara Greenwald's Video Work
Posted January 13, 2012 by shaun in Inspiration
Video was only one medium in Dara's amazing body of work, but every bit of her brilliance, sharp social and political critique, and raucous sense of humor comes through in the videos she made. Last November, Dara and Todd Chandler spent an afternoon going through her hard drives and consolidating over 20 videos in an effort to catalog them online. They're going up on a Vimeo page - right now there are 16 pieces on there and the rest will be uploaded soon. Please watch, share, and screen widely.
Ghosts in the Machines
Posted December 28, 2011 by roger_peet in Film & Video
Adam Curtis, the BBC filmmaker behind a series of amazing documentaries like The Power of Nightmares and Machines of Loving Grace, has a great entry on his blog this week. He calls it a "ghost story for Christmas" and it's typical Curtis: insightful dissection of the weird realities that our spectacular culture creates and feeds to itself in strange ways. This entry in particular is about a BBC TV show called Ghostwatch, a fictional drama about poltergeists and ghost-hunters that provoked a massive reaction from the British public when it was shown in 1992: people thought it was real, just as happened with the War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938. Curtis breaks down the social psychology of this phenomenon in his inimitable way, demonstrating that the ghosts we fear now live inside our media, populating the fictions we build there, feeding our fear back to us like a shrieking amplifier.
Occupy Our Homes- East New York
Posted December 14, 2011 by k_c_ in Inspiration
On December 6th a group of over 1,000 went on a tour of East New York, Brooklyn, a neighborhood immensely affected by predator lending and foreclosures. It was a powerful event that the community supported and neighbors came out to tell the stories of their own foreclosures and evictions. The following video illustrates the culmination of the day, occupying a new home for a previously houseless family!
"Oakland, October 25" by David Colagiovanni
Posted December 2, 2011 by shaun in Film & Video
Jerstin Crosby over at Acid Rain Productions sent me this jarring and amazing rotoscope animation by David Colagiovanni from their upcoming cable access TV episode (which will run only this short video on a loop for half an hour).
Frans Masereel's The Idea, Animated
Posted October 27, 2011 by molly_fair in Film & Video
For many political graphic artists, illustrators, and printmakers, the work of Frans Masereel is a huge inspiration. He pioneered the "novel without words", books consisting solely of his woodcuts, a predecessor of the graphic novel which has influenced artists such as Clifford Harper and Eric Drooker.
One of his earliest novels The Idea depicts a writer who summons forth an idea manifested in the form of a nude woman springing from his head. She escapes into the world, challenging the social order and inciting passionate action.
I stumbled onto an animated adaptation of The Idea, which is absolutely phenomenal, directed by the visionary animator Berthold Bartosch.
This Space Available
Posted October 19, 2011 by jmacphee in Film & Video
A new documentary is coming out about about popular resistance to the corporate domination of our visual landscape. I don't know much about it, but it looks interesting, and debuts in New York City in early November. Below is from the film's press release:
This Space Available
A documentary film directed by Gwenaelle Gobe
World Premiere at IFC Center/ New York
Saturday November 5th, 7:00 PM
Tuesday November 8th, 1:15 PM
Billboards and commercial messages dominate the public space like never before. But is a movement taking shape to reverse this trend? In This Space Available, filmmaker Gwenaëlle Gobé says yes. Influenced by the writing of her father, Marc Gobé (Emotional Branding), this new director brings energy and urgency to stories of people around the world fighting to reclaim their public spaces from visual pollution.
Witness for Peace: Faces of Migration
Posted October 17, 2011 by shaun in Interviews
Witness for Peace works to educate Americans about the negative impacts of U.S.policy in Latin America. One of the clear impacts of neo-liberal trade policies is a huge spike in Mexican migration to the U.S. The Witness for Peace Mexico Team recently produced a series of three videos called "Faces of Migration" which explore some of the lesser discussed aspects of the migration phenomenon. These videos feature interviews with people in Oaxaca and Veracruz states, two of the places with high rates of out-migration due to economic necessity...
Far From Afghanistan October Edition
Posted October 8, 2011 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Five in-process segments of the film Far From Afghanistan are streaming live for this week only on Farfromafghanistan.org and Fandor.com. Check them out!
Tonight! Crash Course on the Collective Process
Posted October 6, 2011 by molly_fair in Events
Hey NYC folks who want a break from occupying Wall St. - come see justseedster Dara Greenwald present over at Union Docs Tonight!
Crash Course on the Collective Process
Thursday, October 6 at 7:00pm,
Union Docs, 322 Union Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211
$10 suggested
The evening, part of the Congress of Collectives, will consist of two parts. In part one, Dara Greenwald will present and discuss videos that document collective creative actions. In part two, three radical art collectives, Voina, Red Channels, and Paper Tiger Television, will screen recent videos and discuss their collective process.
Far From Afghanistan
Posted October 4, 2011 by jmacphee in Film & Video
I've been doing some design work for an amazing film project called Far From Afghanistan. They need to raise a bunch of money to finish the film, which is a document of the past ten years of war, both in Afghanistan and here at home in the US (and a nod to the 1967 French film Far from Vietnam). PLEASE check out their fundraising drive HERE, and think about chipping in.
For extra encouragement, I'm going to be screenprinting a couple different promotional posters for the film, which will likely be very limited and only be available through the Far From Afghanistan Kickstarter campaign. To the right is a draft of one of the designs...
New Episode of It's the End of the World...
Posted October 3, 2011 by jmacphee in Film & Video
"If a Tree Falls" Tues. Night (9.13) on PBS
Posted September 12, 2011 by shaun
Watch the full episode. See more POV.
If you haven't had the chance to check out "If a Tree Falls" yet, it's screening on PBS tomorrow night and I highly recommend it. While the film focuses primarily on Daniel McGowen's case, there's quite a bit in this film to ruminate on. Don't let me spoil it for you, make the time to see it for yourself and discuss! This Tuesday, September 13th, at 10pm on PBS.
Anonymous Video: Facebook is going Down.
Posted September 6, 2011 by santi in Film & Video
The hacktivist collective Anonymous released the following video, promising to shut down Facebook on the 5th of November of 2011 for the sake of privacy and a response to state control.
Even if another cyber social network may follow I wish them total success.
John Greyson's BDS Videos
Posted September 1, 2011 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
John Greyson, a Toronto-based filmmaker and activist, has been making a series of great videos in support of the BDS Movement (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions against Israel). He's also been on the flotilla's to Gaza. (There is an interview with him HERE.)His videos are a great amalgamation of found footage, pop culture, documentary, and activist video. This one here is one of the best:
Tonight screening of Madame X: An Absolute Ruler
Posted August 22, 2011 by molly_fair in Events
Red Channels presents:
Madame X: An Absolute Ruler
MONDAY AUGUST 22, 2011, 7 pm
200 Hudson Street, NY, NY
$10
This is something-this is extreme- the Outlaw-the Misfits- this is what I was looking for! - Betty Brillo
The notorious pirate ruler Madame X places a print ad, calling on women to escape their boring lives and promising "gold, love and adventure" to all who come aboard her ship, the Orlando. A motley crew including a housewife, diva and artist (played by Yvonne Rainer) embark on a quest for self-transformation, which quickly heads towards destruction as they are subjected to Madame X's sadistic, erotic escapades. Director Ulrike Ottinger's Madame X is a surreal subversion of the swashbuckler genre that challenges notions of feminism, sexuality, and liberation.
dir. Ulrike Ottinger, 141 min. 1977, 16mm print
What is Planet of the Apes in a World without Black Power?
Posted August 12, 2011 by jmacphee in Film & Video
I must admit, I ran out to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes the day it came out. I've been a life long fan of Planet of the Apes, but I honestly can't remember what initially drew me to the movies as a teenager. Maybe it was the Philip K. Dick-like pretzel of time travel and alternate reality shifts, maybe it was simply the irresistible combination of science fiction and old-school primitive fantasy with loin clothes and sword fights (a la Conan), but I've had a deep affection for the whole thing ever since. It's amazing to me that a 1963 French sci-fi book originally translated as Monkey Planet could turn into 7 feature films, a TV series, an animated cartoon, dozens of spin-off serial novels and comic books, as well as lines of toys and other merchandise tie-ins.
It wasn't until I went back and watched all the films again later that I realized what makes them so interesting and compelling is not the hokey special effects (yeah, yeah, I know they were miles ahead of their time…) or Charlton Heston's terrible acting, but the strange Hollywood channeling of white fear about Black Power.
Think about it, Planet of the Apes is a world run by violent, rage-filled, and seemingly irrational dark-skinned apes (clearly men in ape costumes), who have created a slave trade of (almost entirely) white humans, who are not simply silenced by their oppression, but ignorant, brutal, and literally mute, unable to speak! Apparently Black people in power leads to white people becoming completely stupid. I suppose in some ways that prediction has come true. Obama being elected—hardly Black Power!—has created an army of white nut jobs babbling incoherently about birth certificates.
Tonight Screening of The Communard's Pipe
Posted August 2, 2011 by molly_fair in Events
Tonight Red Channels presents:
The Communard's Pipe
dir. Kote Marjanishvili, 1929, 50 minutes
Tuesday, August 2, 2011 - 9:30PM
Spectacle Theater
124 South 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211
$5
Set during the Paris Commune of 1871, A father takes his young son to the barricades and is killed. The boy is then captured (refuses to part w/ his father's pipe) and taken to the prison at Versailles where he is tormented by the ladies of the bourgeoisie, treated as a wild child.
Featuring live musical accompaniment by Silver Process:
Joe Merolla - violoncello
Coralie Lonfat - electronics
Chuck Bettis - electronics
with very special guests Nonoko Yoshida - alto saxophone
& David Pearson - soprano saxophone
Listen to Silver Process here
Land of Destiny Screening in NYC
Posted July 14, 2011 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Our friend Brett Story is coming to NYC next week to screen her new film! Come check it out!:
Land of Destiny
Presented by DCTV, in a co-presentation with Red Channels
Tuesday, July 19th, 7:30pm (doors open at 7pm)
DCTV, 87 Lafayette St, NYC
screening followed by a Q&A with the director
tickets:
$6 / DCTV & Red Channels Members
$8 / Shooting People, DocuClub, NYWIFT, IFP Members, and students with ID
$10 / General
you can see a trailer and get more details HERE.
Armed with Art: A New Revolution is Necessary – Art & Resistance in Mexico Film Short
Posted June 13, 2011 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Covering contemporary art movements across Mexico, Armed with Art examines the integral nature art plays in creating cultural spaces of resistance and change.A great short film about various collectives, currently in Mexico. Focusing on collectives spawned by the APPO social movement in Oaxaca in 2006 to Zapatista support collectives of D.F. These are artists that have worked, tirelessly, for the movement. It is fantastic for this piece to be translated to English and allow their efforts to receive greater exposure.
In solidarity with many artists in Mexico, we exhibit, display, and sell much of the work that finds its way across the border.
Check out
High Peaks, Low Coal
Posted May 23, 2011 by k_c_ in Events
Our friend and collaborator Laura Scheinkopf is putting on this benefit tomorrow for the March on Blair Mountain. Come check it out!
Tuesday, May 24
7-10pm
@ The Commons
388 Atlantic Avenue, between Bond and Hoyt
High Peaks, Low Coal
New York Loves Mountains hosts a screening of the new documentary Low Coal, an exploration of the sacrifices made by Appalachian communities living with deep mining and Mountaintop Removal. The film's director, Jordan Freeman, along with former union coal miner and environmental activist Chuck Nelson, will be present for a talk-back after the screening. The discussion will be followed by a concert featuring local musician Morgan O'Kane (who played the score for the film).
Funds raised will be directed towards the March on Blair Mountain, a unifying rally in West Virginia from June 5-11th, 2011, which calls for historical preservation of Blair Mountain and an end to Mountaintop Removal.
This year commemorates the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest open class war in U.S. history, when 10,000 coal miners rose against the rule of the coal operators and fought for the basic right to live and work in decent conditions.
For more information visit www.appalachiarising.org.
$10 suggested.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=214345141918646
Screening of New Babylon and Hay! Market Research May 4
Posted May 3, 2011 by molly_fair in Events
Hey friends! Come check out this screening we're doing!
Red Channels and Spectacle Theater present:
New Babylon
(dir. Grigori Kozintsev & Leonid Trauberg,1929, 120 minutes)
silent film with live score by Silver Process
screened with short Hay! Market Research (dir. Dara Greenwald, 2003, 3 minutes) to commemorate the Haymarket Riot
Wed. May 4th, 9:30 PM
at Spectacle Theater
124 South 3rd. St. (off of Bedford Ave.), in Brooklyn
Set during the Paris Commune of 1871, Louise, a clerk in a fancy Paris store becomes politicized and joins the Communards...
From Screenslate, "...New Babylon manages to capture the spirit of a Lautrec image brought to life. The depictions of Paris cabarets and communes account for the most startling mis-en-scénes in all cinema, and from the smoke-filled dancehalls to rain-soaked executions, it’s difficult to imagine Moulin Rouge and Blade Runner without it. But beyond mere aesthetics, New Babylon an incredibly moving and sophisticated political film, one that sidesteps the contemporary polemics of Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Vertov et al and addresses workers’ struggle through the 1871 Paris Commune...though Shostakovich created a score for New Babylon‘s initial release, The Spectacle features a live score by The Silver Process tonight. Sacrilege, but it should be noted the conductor at the original 1928 performance was so wasted and confused by the unorthodox instrumental combinations that it was a complete disaster. So really, this can only be an improvement."
Watershed-Amy Mall and Sherwin Ovid
Posted April 22, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Environment
Watershed - Amy Mall and Sherwin Ovid from Laura Klein on Vimeo.
This video, filmed and directed by Laura Klein, documents an art and ecology project by Amy Mall and Sherwin Ovid, one of 12 intervention projects that took place in Milwaukee during July of 2010 for the project Watershed: Art, Activism, and Community Engagement, organized by Nicolas Lampert and Raoul Deal. I will post other short documentary films from Watershed in the coming weeks.
Amy Mall and Sherwin Ovid write "Our conversations with elder Wisconsin dairy farmer John Kinsman explored the topic of water in the rural landscape. His land is at the peak of three watersheds. In stark contrast to factory farming situations, Kinsman’s small pasture-fed dairy farm exists in a paradigm where the earth is honored, ecological balance respected, animals are given a healthy long life, and manure is considered a resource rather than a waste product. The trees he planted over 50 years ago and woodlands that he maintains heal and restore natural ponds and streams. We visited his land, recorded his stories, and responded through art making to create images that correlate with his storytelling."
April 17- last day of our Collectively Made Film and Video series!
Posted April 17, 2011 by molly_fair in Events
Our Friendships are Constructed on the Basis of Conflict: collectively produced film and video presented by Red Channels and Spectacle Theater:
Sunday, April 17
at Spectacle Theater
124 South 3rd Street (between Bedford and Berry)
Brooklyn, NY
Sunday is the final day for our series- come join the marathon with us! Skip Blumberg of TVTV (and Videofreex) will be there to discuss Four More Years.
3PM program:
—Traveling with Hibakusha: Across Generations – Takashi Kunimoto, NDS, 2010
5PM program:
—Garbage – Newsreel, 1968, 10 minutes
—GIs Take Manhattan: Operation First Casualty – Meerket Media Collective, 2007, 5 minutes
—Anarchists Liberate the Deflating World – Glass Bead Collective, 2009, 9 minutes
—People’s Firehouse – Newsreel, 1979, 25 minutes
7PM program:
—Everything has been done – Azorro Group, 2003, 6 minutes
—Proto Media Primer – Raindance, 1970, 16 minutes
—Four More Years – TVTV, 1972, 61 minutes
—discussion with Skip Blumberg of TVTV
9PM program:
—Truth to Power- Glass Bead Collective, 2011, 7 minutes
—And the War Has Only Just Begun, Imaginary Party, 2001
—Get Rid of Yourself – Bernadette Corporation, 61 minutes- 2003
Program description:
Collectively Made Film and Video Series, April 16 schedule
Posted April 16, 2011 by molly_fair in Events
Saturday is a full day for our series- come join the marathon with us! Our Friendships are Constructed on the Basis of Conflict: collectively produced film and video presented by Red Channels and Spectacle Theater:
Saturday, April 16
at Spectacle Theater
124 South 3rd Street (between Bedford and Berry)
Brooklyn, NY
3PM
A collective brunch- we will meet at the theater and probably go get breakfast burritos somewhere.
5PM
—Inciting to Riot – Pacific Street Films, 1970, 35 minutes
—Taiwan: The Generation After Martial Law – Green Team, 1986, 58 minutes
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 103 minutes | Digital Projection
7PM
—Mill-in – Newsreel, 1968, 12 minutes
—Ipimpi – Pacific Street Films, 1971, 10 minutes
—Help the Child, Help Your Country! – Voina, 2010, 2 minutes
—Por los circuitos de la Precariedad Feminina – Precarias a la Deriva, 2003
— and some other stuff!
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 74 minutes | Digital Projection
9PM
—Rhodia 4×8 – Groupe Medvedkine, 1969, 3 minutes
—Shut the Fuck Up – General Idea, 1984, 14 minutes
—Handsworth Songs – John Akomfrah, Black Audio Film Collective, 1986, 58 minutes
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 75 minutes | Digital Projection
Program description and collective bios:
Collectively Made Film and Video Series, April 15 schedule
Posted April 15, 2011 by molly_fair in Events
Here is the schedule for night three of our series Our Friendships are Constructed on the Basis of Conflict: collectively produced film and video presented by Red Channels and Spectacle Theater:
Friday, April 15
at Spectacle Theater
124 South 3rd Street (between Bedford and Berry)
Brooklyn, NY
We decided to do this series out of our interest in the collective process, and what happens when artists intentionally share authorship of their work. I am excited to announce the screening of Nightcleaners I, rarely shown in the U.S.
7PM
-Sandwiched – Chto Delat?, 2004, 11 minutes
- Angry Sandwich People - Chto Delat?, 2004-2005, 8 minutes
—Nightcleaners I– Berwick Street Collective, 1972-1975, 90 minutes
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 109 minutes | Digital Projection
9PM
-Lincoln Hospital – Newsreel, 1970. 12 minutes
-Blood of the Condor – Jorge Sanjines, Groupo Ukamau, 1969, 74 minutes
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 86 minutes | Digital Projection
Collectively Made Film and Video Series: April 14 schedule
Posted April 14, 2011 by molly_fair in Events
Here is the schedule for night two of our series Our Friendships are Constructed on the Basis of Conflict: collectively made films and videos presented by Red Channels and Spectacle Theater:
The namesake of our series is from Chto Delat's "Builders" which is screening tonight!
Thursday, April 14
at Spectacle Theater
124 South 3rd Street (between Bedford and Berry)
Brooklyn, NY
We decided to do this series out of our interest in the collective process, and what happens when artists intentionally share authorship of their work.
7PM
—Builders – Chto Delat?, 2005, 8 minutes
—Media Primer (Schneider) – Raindance, 1970, 23 minutes
—Processed World Reads Processed World – Paper Tiger Television, 1985, 28 minutes
—Street Sheet – Paper Tiger Television, 1993, 28 minutes
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes | Digital Projection
Discussion with members of Paper Tiger Television and Marty Lucas of Paper Tiger and professor at Hunter College.
9PM
—Detroit Workers News Special 1932: Ford Massacre – Workers Film and Photo League, 1932, 7 minutes
—Northern Lights – Rob Nilsson & John Hanson, Cine Manifest, 1978, 97 minutes
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 104 minutes | Digital Projection
Collectively Made Film and Video: April 13 program
Posted April 13, 2011 by molly_fair in Events
Tonight kicks off a series of collectively made film and video presented by Red Channels and Spectacle Theater!
April 13-17, 2011
Spectacle Theater
124 South 3rd Street (between Bedford and Berry)
Brooklyn, NY
We decided to do this series out of our interest in the collective process, and what happens when artists intentionally share authorship of their work.
Screening Wed., April 13:
All films in tonight's programs are silent with live musical accompaniment
Our Friendships are Constructed on the Basis of Conflict: Collectively Made Film and Video, April 13-17
Posted April 12, 2011 by molly_fair in Events
This Wed. kicks off a series of collectively made film and video presented by Red Channels and Spectacle Theater!
April 13-17, 2011
Spectacle Theater
124 South 3rd Street (between Bedford and Berry)
Brooklyn, NY
We decided to do this series out of our interest in the collective process, and what happens when artists intentionally share authorship of their work (how this actually plays out may be different, will egos be crushed?). The programs feature the work of artists from around the world and span over a century! See the full schedule here. Later in the week we are screening work by Paper Tiger, Black Film Audio Collective, Newsreel, the Bernadette Corporation, and many more!
Screening Wed., April 17:
All films are silent with live musical accompaniment
7PM
—San Francisco Earthquake and Fire 1906 – Red Channels, 2009, 17 minutes
—La Commune – Armand Guerra, La Coopérative du Cinéma du Peuple, 1914, 19 minutes
—Yamamoto Senji’s Farewell Ceremony - Prokino, 1929, 2 minutes
—Yamamoto Senji Watanabe Masanosuke Worker-Farmer Funeral - Prokino, 1929, 11 minutes
—Twelfth Annual Tokyo May Day - Prokino, 1931, 7 minutes
—Workers Film and Photo League newsreel, TBA
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 75 minutes | Digital Projection
Live Music by
Yuriko Huguchi (tenor saxophone)
Coralie Lonfat (laptop electronics)
Chuck Bettis (laptop electronics)
Joe Merolla (violincello)
9PM
—Cinétracts – 1968, 75 minutes
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 75 minutes | Digital Projection
Live Music by
Ras Moche (saxophone)
Ken Silverman (guitar)
Vanessa Renwick's two-night NYC retrospective
Posted April 6, 2011 by jmacphee in Film & Video
A long time friend of Justseeds, filmmaker Vanessa Renwick has two-night retrospective (April 10-11) coming up in NYC!
Program 1: "The Oregon Department of Kickass" at UnionDocs
Sunday, April 10 at 7:30pm, $9 suggested donation.
Program 2: "Mix Me A Walk" at Anthology Film Archives (a Flaherty NYC event)
Monday April 11th at 7:30 PM, $9/$6 for Anthology members.
One of the cornerstones of Portland's remarkably fecund scene for moving-image art.
—Ed Halter, Rhizome
Filmmaker and curator Vanessa Renwick invites us to contemplate death, and to do so with a proper mix of wrenching horror and ecstatic wonder.
—Holly Willis, L.A. Times
Jeff Koons Must Die!!
Posted April 4, 2011 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Jeff Koons Must Die!!! The Video Game from Hunter Jonakin on Vimeo.
"Jeff Koons is one of the most polarizing and well known contemporary artists living today. He attempts to elevate the banal by constructing large metal sculptures that resemble balloon animals, oil paintings that contain subject matter derived from digital collage, and large-scale pornographic photographs featuring the artist and his former wife, to name a few. All of Koons’s art is constructed by assistants. In general, viewers love or hate Koons and his work, and that is why he was chosen as the subject matter for this piece."
It's critiques like this that give me a real appreciation for video game makers. Koons is the best example of the times we live in. Art production so influenced by the market, its sole purpose is to accrue value. Totally vapid and devoid of anything to say, it reflects the content of large box stores and parking lots across the USA. Who the hell wants any of that crap anyhow? Baffles me.
Another game worth checking out is Faith Fighter, by MolleIndustria. Enjoy.
Dancing for Dara Screening in DC
Posted March 19, 2011 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Radio CPR and friends present... a benefit for the fabulous artist and activist Dara Greenwald, our dear friend who is battling cancer.
SPOONBOY + + + folk-punk favorite
DANCING FOR DARA + + + film shorts*
BUBBLING WELL + + + (acoustic melodies)
Friday, March 25th
8:00 PM
La Casa (3166 Mt. Pleasant St. NW, WDC)
$5-20 sliding scale
Tasty treats also available for the snacking.
*Video Data Bank of Chicago has assembled a program of exciting videos by internationally recognized artists who have donated their work to benefit Dara:
Pink Bloque, DANCING IN THE STREET (excerpts) (Domestic Violence Awareness Month Rally), October 2003 to end, 8:00—14:00
Ben Coonley, ONE TRICK PONY, 2002, 4:50
Tara Matiek, OPERATION INVERT, 2003, 12:30
Caspar Stracke & Gabriela Monroy, KULESHOV SUKIYAKI, 2004, 2:58
Melinda Stone & Igor Vamos, SUGGESTED PHOTO SPOTS, 1997, 10:00
Jim Finn, SHARAMBABA, 1999, 3:00
Jem Cohen, LITTLE FLAGS, 2000, 6:30
Paul Chan, UNTITLED VIDEO ON LYNNE STEWART AND HER CONVICTION, THE LAW AND POETRY, 2006, 17:30
Dara Greenwald with Ona Mirkinson, THE PACKAGE, 2010, 12:00
Learn more about Dara's work here: http://www.daragreenwald.com/.
Dara Greenwald Benefit/Josh MacPhee Exhibit (Pittsburgh)
Posted March 2, 2011 by shaun in Events
Join us this Saturday (March 5) in Pittsburgh for a three part event celebrating Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee, and help us raise funds to help them both! We've hung a huge exhibit of Josh's print work at our distribution headquarters in Lawrenceville, and we're open throughout the afternoon for anyone to drop in, check it out, and maybe pick up some prints and books. We'll be moving up the hill to the Brillobox for a video screening and dance party in the evening! Details below the cut:
Chicago Anarchist Film Fest 2011
Posted February 26, 2011 by jmacphee in Calls for Art
The Chicago Anarchist Film Fest is looking for films to show during its 11th annual festival this coming May:
For the 11th year the Chicago Anarchist Film Festival will present a sample of films culled from mainstream sources, rediscovered classics and the works of filmmakers engaged in providing entertainment, documenting social change, and projecting a world that could be. Chicago Anarchist Film Festival organizers seek un- and under-distributed films and videos to include in the May 2011 Chicago Anarchist Film Festival. We also welcome suggestions for titles that may inadvertently allow anarchy to seep through the cracks of the status quo. Movie collage, music videos and trailers for works-in-progress will also be considered. This is a film festival with an anarchist vision. We invite you to share your images and stories that reveal and invigorate a rich anarchist presence in society.
You can find out more, and download an entry form, HERE.
Anarchist Film Archive
Posted January 29, 2011 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Stuart Christie has relaunched his Anarchist Film Archive, it is much easier to use, and has a ton of rare and hard to find material. Check it out now, HERE!
¡Tatic Presente!
Posted January 27, 2011 by dylanminer in Film & Video
Bishop Samuel Ruíz passed into the Spirit World on Monday. Ruiz, known by many in Chiapas as Tatic, was a supporter of the Zapatistas and their struggle for collective autonomy. ¡Tatic Presente!
If a Tree Falls at Sundance
Posted January 21, 2011 by jmacphee in Film & Video
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, a new film about environmental activist and political prisoner Daniel McGowen, is playing at this years Sundance Film Festival. You can read more HERE, and check out the little promo video below:
Army of Shadows/L'armée des ombres
Posted January 10, 2011 by k_c_ in Film & Video
I was just recently able to see Army of Shadows(1969), directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, for a second time at NYC's Film Forum.
The film is adapted from Joseph Kessel’s Army of Shadows, an account of the author’s experience in the French Resistance, published in London, in 1943.
Army of Shadows follows Gerbier and the members of his small cell (it is 1942, before the rise of the maquis guerrilla bands, and the number of active Resistance fighters is only in the hundreds) as they are arrested, tortured, imprisoned, find a way to escape or to engineer the escape of others, and eventually murdered, in some cases by the Nazis, in others by their own comrades, who have judged them a danger to security. "Those who come to the film with expectations of romantic heroes and daring action sequences that culminate in uplifting endings, that is, will be bewildered and disappointed by Melville’s rigorous focus on process rather than action and by the pessimism that tempers his characters as individuals and comrades in arms." -Amy Taubin from Criterion
The film is an incredible piece of art that illustrates the discipline and organization of the French Resistance. I left the theater feeling quite somber and curious about what kind of political climate inspires social struggle. Will humans resist without a clear fascist threat? Are clandestine activities impossible under the modern surveillance state?
Army of Shadows evokes so many questions, and daydreams, of how we could organize resistance to the multiplicity of social and ecological ills, today. This film is inspiring and can be an example of the level of commitment that coordinated resistance can attain.
Mommy's Little Monster
Posted January 8, 2011 by molly_fair in Film & Video
A while back I saw my friends Noah Apple and Colin Atrophy, collectively the Puppet State Players, perform a brilliant satirical puppet show on a street corner in Brooklyn. I proposed to them that we do a video version, and Mommy's Little Monster was born. Enjoy this coming of age story of a teenage monster and how he gains a critical view of the factory farming of human beings. Love, danger, and food fights ensue.
Mommy's Little Monster from molly fair on Vimeo.
Media Literacy / Two Videos
Posted November 29, 2010 by meredith_stern in Film & Video
Two videos passed along to me by my band mate Hilary who is the Executive Director of Girls Rock! RI. She has taught classes to youth on media literacy which are totally amazing, and in her quest she found these two videos which she passed on to me, which I would like to critique.
You'll have to search these out online, since I can't embed them.
Rozbrat Billboard Action
Posted November 20, 2010 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
Just got this from a friend in Poland. Folks connected to Rozbrat, the longest running squat in the country (in Poznan), took some billboard real estate for their own use. The message roughly translates to: "Rozbrat is Here to Stay! Sołacz for them is just another business." Sołacz is the area Rozbrat is located in, and the squat is under threat of eviction because of development plans for the neighborhood.
End the Housing Crisis in Melbourne
Posted November 3, 2010 by jmacphee in In the News
Friends in Melbourne have been organizing against anti-low income housing policies in Melbourne, and produced this new video in lead up to a big protest on Nov. 12:
Chevron Must Think We're All Stupid
Posted October 29, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
I'm not sure what one might call this, its created before it could be considered a reappropriation. The Yes Men, Rainforest Action Network, and Amazon Watch install bunk Chevron advertisements.
Well executed.
http://chevronthinkswerestupid.org/chevronthinkswerestupid.org/
From the Chevron Thinks We're Stupid site:
When Chevron rolled out its fancy new "We Agree" ad campaign, we were ready for them. We had only the tiniest fraction of Chevron’s budget — the company typically spends as much as $90 million on an ad campaign like this — but we had the element of surprise, and we were determined to press our advantage.Before Chevron’s press release announcing the campaign could hit reporters’ inboxes, we sent out a press release of our own... on the company's behalf. The company’s own press release was guaranteed to be full of greenwash. We wanted ours to be a bit more truthful. It featured quotes from real employees, but in this case they were describing a campaign we might actually be inclined to agree with:
"Chevron is making a clean break from the past by taking direct responsibility for our own actions," said Rhonda Zygocki, Chevron vice president of Policy, Government and Public Affairs.
Chris Stain Mural for No Longer Empty
Posted October 19, 2010 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Here is a video of the mural Chris and I rocked out, in four hours, just before the DUMBO Arts Festival.
No Longer Empty is a not for profit organization that orchestrates public art exhibitions in vacated storefronts and properties. Conceived as an artistic response to our present economic condition, No Longer Empty core mission is to revitalize empty spaces and areas around the venues by bringing thoughtful, high-caliber art installations with accompanying programming to the public.
Rebel Diaz Video "Libertad"
Posted September 24, 2010 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Hip-Hop activists Rebel Diaz, based out of the Bronx, have a new video- Libertad.
Go Forth (and Step In It): Levi's and All Those Frontiers The Rest of Us Can't See
Posted July 16, 2010 by shaun
"We were taught how the pioneers went into the West. They opened their eyes, and made up what things could be."
On the minds and tongues of several of my friends and cohorts lately has been Levi's unveiling of their new ad campaign focusing on the near-to-Pittsburgh borough of Braddock, PA. Rumors that Levi's was throwing cash at Braddock-based projects and hiring local models turned out to be true, yet somehow the end product of their presence in the city has left most of us feeling a little more ill than we had anticipated.
Much has been written about Braddock in national news, touting the decimated city as a destination for young artists/entrepenuers and an example of innovative local government striving to build anew in the (very real) rubble of the old. For many, Braddock is iconic in it's present stature, and the historical injuries wrought upon the borough by profit-motivated power mongers continued most recently as UPMC withdrew it's Braddock hospital facility this January - managing also to remove the only ATM and cafeteria from the city.
Broken Social Scene-Meet me in the basement fan video
Posted July 16, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
A video to take you into the weekend:
"This video was made as a response to the G20 Summit in Toronto June, 2010."
Broken Social Scene-Meet me in the basement (from their latest album, Forgiveness Rock Record)
The rest speaks for itself. It was sent to us by a lover of our music who wants to remain anonymous. We are very proud to share this mash-up with you.- Broken Social Scene
A sped up version of the news cycle, not exactly sure what media like this is supposed to provoke. How does condensing this material repurpose it from news to social commentary?
I've always got so many questions, and looking for folks with answers!
La Commune screeening in NYC
Posted July 15, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Peter Watkins is one of the more interesting antiauthoritarian political filmmakers of the last 40 years, and his most recent film, La Commune, is screening this Saturday at 16Beaver in NYC. This is a rare opportunity to watch this film as intended: all at once (it's long!) and with a group, with discussion to during and after, and over a meal! Here's the details:
What: Screening, Discussion, and Dinner
Where: 16Beaver Street, 4th Floor
When: Saturday 07.17.10 at 11:30 am
Who: Free and open to all
BP loves art, hates earth?
Posted June 30, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Friends over in the UK have been organizing like mad to call attention to BP's funding of the Tate Modern Museum, and their use of arts funding to put a happy face on their insanely destructive oil extraction activities. It's interesting when artists attempt to organize from within the art world, it seems like the activities of Art Not Oil are some of the highest profile since the Guerilla Girls back in the 80s and 90s. Check out what Art Not Oil has been up to HERE and HERE. Here is a video of their last action, oil-y birds and balloons in the Tate!!
Waves of Change
Posted June 15, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Dee Dee Halleck of Paper Tiger TV and Deep Dish TV has been working on a mapping/survey of community media projects from around the world. An interesting and useful project, you can check out a cool world map of community media HERE, and learn more HERE.
Jim Finn Retrospective in NYC
Posted May 27, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
My friend Jim Finn is having a retrospective of his amazing films at Anthology Film Archives in New York starting tonight! I love Jim's films, so I was really excited when he asked me to design the poster and postcards for the screenings (poster to the right). If you are in NYC, definitely go check out his films, a full schedule is available HERE. Jim's films are a giant blender full of science fiction, language lessons, Shakespeare, utopian modernism, and all the strange and fascinating things that can come from resisting capitalism.
Citizen Orson Welles and the International Association for the Protection of the Individual Against Officialdom
Posted May 3, 2010 by molly_fair in Art & Politics
A few weeks ago I attended the Orphan Film Symposium and was blown away by a screening of an episode of a series called The Orson Welles Sketch Book. Made for BBC television in 1955, Orson Welles’ Sketch Book was a series of six weekly fifteen-minute episodes in the form of intimate monologues augmented by Welles’ own illustrations from his sketchbook. I don't want to give it all away, but here Welles addresses the issues of racism, government surveillance, police brutality, and politics of border crossing and identification. His delivery and performance are incredible. Here it is in two parts:
Providence Talk & Screening April 27 & 28
Posted April 26, 2010 by dara_g in Events
I will be in Providence, RI this week doing a talk on Tuesday (April 27, 6:30pm
Michael P. Metcalf Auditorium, Chace Center, RISD Museum, 20 North Main Street) and Paige Sarlin and I have organized a screening (Wednesday April 28, 2010, 9:30 PM, Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street) which Josh MacPhee designed the poster for. More info on our screening below. Also event invite HERE.
Happy Earth Day from John Fekner
Posted April 22, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
John Fekner just passed this video along to us, a remix of a piece from 1981. To read more info, go HERE.
Videofreex Screening Tonight
Posted April 19, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
Videofreex
Curated by Dara Greenwald
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 7:30pm
Light Industry, 177 Livingston Street, Brooklyn
Light Industry presents a survey of work by seminal guerrilla television outfit Videofreex, featuring a number of newly restored tapes. The screening will be introduced by Dara Greenwald, who assisted with the acquisition and preservation of this collection by Video Data Bank.
Celebrating and Collaborating
Posted April 14, 2010 by dylanminer in Justseeds Collective Projects
A short interview that Fiona Smith, a student-activist, filmed and edited addressing the current Justseeds exhibition 'Celebrating and Collaborating' at LookOut! Gallery, Michigan State University.
REVIEW: Exit Through the Gift Shop
Posted April 13, 2010 by jmacphee in Reviews
REVIEW
Exit Through the Gift Shop
A Banksy Film
I never pegged Banksy as a fan of gothic novels, but he and his crew do a pretty good Shelley. Exit Through the Gift Shop is a witty remake of Frankenstein, with Los Angeles vintage clothing shop owner come videographer come street artist Thierry Guetta playing the monster. We see mild-mannered Thierry move from an obsession with filming everything in his life, to an obsession with filming street artists, to Banksy reinventing him into a street artist out of control, "Mr. Brain Wash." But more on that later.
From the beginning of the most recent street art explosion, Banksy has been the thinking man's street artist. He (and his crew, he clearly doesn't do much without a large support team, so for sake of argument, when I use the name Banksy here, I mean the collection of people that conceptualize, build, and install the artworks and events signed with the name "Banksy") is the latest in a long line of counter-culture British satirists, from Jonathan Swift to Malcolm McClaren to Crass to the KLF, but like these greats before him, his cultural attacks on the status quo have hit the limits of their effectiveness. And he seems smart enough to know it. In some ways this film seems like part of the process of any cultural producer working through the challenging questions facing anyone with a deeply ambivalent relationship to capitalism. On the one hand war, torture, government surveillance, greed, poverty, apartheid, and genocide are all products of contemporary capitalism, and Banksy takes them all on in his own way. On the other, the ability to pull art stunts off across the globe is just as much a product of this very same system. Nothing illustrates this better than Banksy's glib listing of the Disney Land rides he enjoyed while Thierry was in the Disney security dungeon being questioned for four hours after filming Banksy's placement of a life-size orange-jumpsuited Guantanamo Bay prisoner doll into one of the rides.
Making Waves/Haciendo Ondas
Posted March 31, 2010 by k_c_ in Inspiration
Some friends from the Prometheus Radio Project and Palabra Radio are touring around the United States right now to "promote the use of radio as a tool for participatory communication that facilitates community organizing". They've been traveling for a few weeks, through the South, and are currently in Texas. You can check the Making Waves blog to see, and hear, about the various groups that they've encountered in the dozen locations they've already visited. This is a group of very dedicated media-makers that advocate radio as a tool to organize for social justice.
They are facilitating bilingual workshops on:
Analysis of corporate media: In this workshop participants will analyze the media and discuss the impacts that media has on our daily lives. Through participatory exercises people will have an opportunity to experiment with creative forms of communication.Participatory Radio as a tool for community organizing: Making radio is more than transmitters and djays and strikes right in the heart of community organizing. This workshop helps groups to spell out the pieces-often invisible-that are need to construct participatory radio.
IVAW protest recruiting stations in Madison with Mud Stencils
Posted March 18, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
IVAW taking mud stencils to the recruiters in Madison, Wisconsin from Dan S Wang on Vimeo.
Dan S. Wang has shared some incredible video footage of an IVAW mud stenciling action in Madison, Wisconsin that took place on March 17th, 2010 - the anniversary date of the bombing of Baghdad. Aaron Hughes, along with Madison IVAW chapter members Todd Dennis and Nathan Toth, placed anti-war mud stencils at the front doors of military recruitment stations in Madison.
Transformazium Music Video
Posted March 11, 2010 by k_c_ in Film & Video
An endearing animation about a project some friends have been creating in Braddock, PA. I can't say I feel the same about Braddock. The sound of the steel mill and the polluted environment are thankfully absent. Regardless the folks involved are in a category of the most dedicated and hardworking peeps I know, and they know creative folks, watch it!
Transformazium Music Video from Joshua Tonies on Vimeo.
Transformazium: uses the creative process and locally identified resources to transform ideas into tangible social and economic benefits. Our collaborative arts programming and skill-building workshops connect communities stratified by class, race and age and expand upon existing community networks and resources, while rendering models of possibility for other post-industrial cities.
Avram Finkelstein: Silence=Death Project
Posted March 9, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
My friend Chris Bravo just sent along this great short video/interview piece with Avram Finkelstein, one of the early AIDS activists in NYC and member of the Silence=Death Project. It's a really nice short piece where he explores the relationship between image making and negotiations with the power structure:
Logorama
Posted March 6, 2010 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Clever, and nominated for the Academy Awards best animated short
[Oscars 2010 Mejor Cortometraje] - Logorama
Logorama short film Logorama is a 15 min animated short made using only Trade Mark Logos as characters and scenarios. It was made with 2,500 logos, by the French Animation Studiom H5 and Minuit Productions.
Blockadesong
Posted February 18, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Strange and hilarious video I found on RebelArt. Karen Eliot and the Antifa Swingers!
The Story of Cap & Trade
Posted February 18, 2010 by k_c_
While doing some research on tar sands(see below for info) for the Justseeds 2010 portfolio-Resourced, I came across this video. From the folks that produced the "Story of Stuff", is the Story of Cap and Trade. It was produced for last Decembers UN climate talks that happened in Copenhagen. The website is incredibly user friendly, making materials easily available for download. A good example of how a website can disseminate media for campaigns.
The Story of Cap & Trade from Story of Stuff Project on Vimeo.
The Story of Cap & Trade is a fast-paced, fact-filled look at the leading climate solution being discussed at Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill. Host Annie Leonard introduces the energy traders and Wall Street financiers at the heart of this scheme and reveals the "devils in the details" in current cap and trade proposals: free permits to big polluters, fake offsets and distraction from what’s really required to tackle the climate crisis. If you’ve heard about cap and trade, but aren’t sure how it works (or who benefits), this is the film is for you.
New Gil Scott-Heron!
Posted February 13, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
A handful of us over here in Justseeds NYC have a thing for Gil Scott-Heron, and no shit, he has his first record out in almost 20 years!!! His voice is really haggard, but pretty damn amazing...
Chris Stain at work
Posted February 11, 2010 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Chris Stain paints Flowers for January's Take 5ive event. Music by Cory Hillis.
Here's Chris' newest print in the Justseeds store.
You can see a bunch of other new prints Chris has available on his BigCartel store.
ADM Tries to Take Down Funny Video; Big Business Has No Solutions; Now What?
Posted February 6, 2010 by k_c_
Davos Annual Meeting 2010 - ADM CEO Patricia Woertz from World Economic Forum on Vimeo.
A legal complaint from agribusiness giant ADM has resulted in the removal from Youtube of a fake video of ADM's CEO making over-honest pronouncements.(The video is still available here, here, and, for download and reposting, here.)
Last week, the filmmaking team behind The End of Poverty? partnered with the Yes Men to create a parallel, imaginary World Economic Forum in which world leaders came up with real solutions to poverty. The leaders seemed, in a series of videos, to be supporting a set of initiatives based on 10 Solutions to End Poverty, a petition for which the filmmakers are trying to get ten million signatures by the end of 2010.
Boycott of Iran Film Festival
Posted January 26, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Iranian filmmakers have called for a boycott of this years Fajr Film Festival in Tehran, Iran in hopes of pressuring the government to ease up on repression and release political prisoners, some of whom are filmmakers. Other international artists are supporting the boycott, including Ken Loach, one of my favorite contemporary directors, whose new film "Looking for Eric" was supposed to play the fest. More info can be found HERE and HERE.
Creative Violation: The Rebel Art of the Street Stencil
Posted January 12, 2010 by k_c_ in Film & Video
This popped up in the inbox today, you may recognize some Justseedsers.
Creative Violation documents the exploding underground art form of the street stencil and explores its roots in political street art, industrial signage and graffiti. These illicit spray paint markings, not to be confused with traditional graffiti tagging, steal the language and techniques of advertising and turn them against the imperatives of the mass market, punctuating the urban landscape in cities across the world.
Check it out on IMDb.
Its also available for purchase at: http://ffh.films.com/id/15958/Creative_Violation_The_Rebel_Art_of_the_Street_Stencil.htm
Avatar-same old story
Posted January 5, 2010 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Just saw Avatar tonight. I appreciated the anti-capitalist, pro-environment message, its too bad it comes in the tired narrative of whitey coming to save the natives. It was exciting, the CGI was entertaining and helped numb the brain enough to deal with the bad dialogue.
The movie represents the characters relationship to Capitalism as a permeating factor in life's choices and lays bare its systemic view towards nature-resources to be extracted, to make objects for consumption, leading to profits/wealth for a few (late night simplicity for ya).
So what should one do about it? Well, the conscientious objection of one character during a "battle" scene still leads to the incredible devastation of the indigenous characters homeland. The real resolution portrayed in the film is-direct action and armed resistance.
From this portrayal I wonder if this film is capable of encouraging civil society and our governing institutions to expand the definitions of "resistance", reducing those of "terrorism". Because identifying with the films protagonists aligns one to many of the animal & environmental activists, and political prisoners incarcerated in the United States today. But that's a lot to expect from art, isn't it?
I also question "if a gabillion dollars was given to make a film from a perspective other than the white male hero, what would it look like?"
I guess we'll find out when that story can sell over a billion dollars in cinema tickets, worldwide!
Star Non-violent Civil Disobediences
Posted December 21, 2009 by roger_peet in Film & Video
Here's a little gem that Icky forwarded to me, which is oh-so apropos in the aftermath of the Great Failure of the Copenhagen Forum. Keep on telling yourselves you can fix it! All the self-righteous self-aggrandizing and moral outrage is positively hilarious to watch for those of us who've kicked the hope habit. Especially when people start chanting "Reclaim Power!" Since when have any of you had any power? And what on Earth would you do with it? When I say "Humans", you say "Out"! "Humans!" "Out!" Take it away, Derrick!
Roads Through Palestine: Driving the Geography of War
Posted December 17, 2009 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Our pal Brett Story's film Roads Through Palestine can be viewed online now. It's an impressive collection of imagery captured in the West Bank over 2003-5, I believe.
I came across the video on Art Threat, where Rob Maguire says:
Billowing smoke pours from a bus, as a fire crew attempts to douse the flames. Long, aching lines of motionless vehicles sit at one of Israel’s hated checkpoints. Two men habitually pray on the road alongside their stopped car. A lone helicopter hovers overhead, reinforcing the reality of perpetual occupation.Roads Through Palestine is a cinematic portrait of life in the West Bank, and an intimate reflection on the geography of war. The short film, directed by Brett Story with music by Stefan Christoff, features scenes that are eerie and evocative, yet painfully commonplace.
Having spent time in the West Bank myself, I recalled the outrage I felt every time I was trapped at the checkpoint, where a handful of teenaged occupiers unjustly stood between us travelers and our destinations. But the feel of the 11-minute piece, with its muted colours and choppy, slow motion picture, more closely reflects the banal humiliation suffered by the Palestinian people day in and day out, for whom occupation is not a novelty, but a 40-year curse.
Banner project video
Posted December 16, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Justseeds member Roger was caught on video printing letters for the Climate Change March in Copenhagen. Roger posted some stills from the project HERE a week back or so, but I just stumbled on this video, for those interested:
Deep Dish TV Holiday Sale
Posted December 14, 2009 by dara_g in Film & Video
Deep Dish TV is doing some fund raising which includes a 50% off sale on their DIY Media Series: Movement Perspectives.
The following is from their email:
2009: Deep Dish TV continues its 23 year commitment to using new technologies to produce and distribute video that educates, inspires, and- most importantly- activates. If there were any doubts that this country needs a robust and far reaching independent media network, it should be dispelled by the latest round of doublespeak and distortion that justifies the continued occupation of Iraq and the military escalation in Afghanistan.
Deep Dish TV provides FREE independent, critical programming to public access TV stations, satellite TV, and streaming online on YouTube, Blip TV, Facebook, and of course www.deepdishtv.org. Please support our work by making a donation or by purchasing DVDs as a gifts for yourself or your friends and family.
Students in the Streets
Posted December 8, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
Wheeler Hall at UC Berkeley was occupied again today, and halfway across the globe students from AmirKabir Uniiversity in Tehran tore the gates off their school! Check out the video below:
Amilcar Cabral!
Posted December 7, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Tonight the African Diaspora Film Fest in NYC is showing a hard to see documentary about 1960s/70s African revolutionary Amilcar Cabral (which is playing with a doc about Frantz Fanon as well!). It's rare to be able to see any footage of or about Cabral, so this is a rare treat. Cabral's book Return to the Source contains a number of interesting essays exploring the connections between African liberation (particularly in his native Guinea Bissou) and culture. Details about the film and screening are HERE.
(The image is by Beth Gutelius, from Reproduce & Revolt, and as printed on a t-shirt by Liberation Ink, still available HERE.)
Nuart looking for a few things
Posted December 1, 2009 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Justseeds members Chris Stain and Swoon recently traveled to Stavanger, Norway to participate in the Nuart Street Art Festival. The folks that organized the festival are creating a documentary and have posted this request, below, for some advice on distribution.
We're currently looking for distribution and screenings of our fabulous up close and personal street art documentary, Eloquent Vandals. Get in touch if you have any smart ideas about how we can get it out there.
Nuart is an annual international street art festival based in Stavanger on the West Coast of Norway. From the first week of September an international team of street artists start to leave their mark on the city's walls as well as contribute to a one month long indoor exhibition.
Occupied Berkeley: The Taking Of Wheeler Hall
Posted November 30, 2009 by k_c_ in Film & Video
A handful of my favorite media-making friends were in California documenting the recent actions over the "austerity measures" in the California University system.
Brandon Jourdan has some strong feeling about these actions being the beginning of a serious movement. We shall see
What is Democracy?
Posted November 29, 2009 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Oliver Ressler has a new, interesting looking documentary out. Right now you need to be in Vienna or Ljubljana to see it (see below for dates and locations), but hopefully it will circulate farther soon:
WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?
A film by Oliver Ressler
118 min., 2009
“What is democracy?” is not one question, but is actually two questions. On the one hand, the question relates to conditions of the current, parliamentary representative democracies that are scrutinized critically in this project. On the other hand, the question traces different approaches to what a more democratic system might look like and which organizational forms it could take.
Animating Chickens
Posted November 25, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
New animated print videos by my friend Nathan Meltz. These are amazing, defininitely take the 15 minutes to watch them!!!
Bulldozed at Mix 22
Posted November 14, 2009 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Our friends Vanessa Renwick and Jem Cohen have short films in a screening at the New York City Mix Fest going on right now. Here's the info on Bulldozed:
Gentrification is the talk of the town. It is rapidly changing the demographics and aesthetics of every major city in the world. It is apparent and controversial, but it is by no means new. From Brooklyn to Berlin to Nova Scotia, the films in this program trace different histories of gentrification and corporate takeover from the late 1960s to present day. Some are tender, delicate tributes to histories and landmarks erased and the communities disappeared and displaced. Others turn the lens inward towards the artist, examining personal longing for “home” and examining its elusive nature. There is humor, spirit and courage in these films to search for what was, to hold one’s ground and to celebrate the vibrancy that survives vacancy.
Curated by the Festival Programming Committee. TRT: 78 min.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Films by Vanessa Renwick, Jem Cohen, Leigh (Jen) Fisher, Liss Platt, Dana C. Inkster, Niklas Goldbach, Jack Waters, Samara Halperin.
More info HERE.
The first Independent Media and Video World Festival ~ Solidarity Has No Borders ~ In Memory of Brad Will. October 27th – November 30. 2009.
Posted October 27, 2009 by santi in Film & Video
The first Independent Media and Video World Festival ~ Solidarity Has No Borders ~ In Memory of Brad Will. October 27th – November 30. 2009.
Invitation.
To all video and media activist, film makers, alternative and independent media journalist, radio activist and technicians, web activist, progressive audiovisual workers, and all peoples of the world in general, an invitation to participate in the first ever Independent Media and Video World Festival: Solidarity has No Borders-In Memory of Brad Will. The Festival begins October 27th, the day video activist Bradley Roland Will was assassinated by gunmen men protected by the Mexican government while carrying out his work as an independent media video reporter during the Oaxacan uprisings, and ends on November 29, the tenth anniversary of the indymedia.org project, born during the WTO protest in Seattle.
Political Cinema.... part deux
Posted October 17, 2009 by icky in Art & Politics
"Les miettes " (Crumbs) directed by Pieree Pinaud in 2007.
I projected this silent film last night at my work, in a program of new French shorts. It's a beautifully made, aesthetically retro, allegory about capitalism, solidarity, and (even) the necessity of armed self-defense.
Well worth a half hour of your time!
"The Fire This Time" NYC Screening
Posted October 14, 2009 by molly_fair in Film & Video
Thursday, October 15, 2009
NYU's Kimmel Center
60 Washington Square South, room 914 at 8 p.m.
Doors will open at 7:30.
This event is free and open to the public, but please bring a valid, state issued ID to show at the door.
There will be screening of a 'sneak peak' of the film The Fire Next Time, followed by a panel discussion moderated by CBS and LOGO's 365 Gay News anchor, Chagmion Antione, with grassroots community organizers from FIERCE, the Audre Lorde Project and the filmmakers. The Fire This Time is a documentary directed by my friend Blair Doroshwalther about the New Jersey 7 (also known as the NJ 4).
In August, 2006 seven young African-American lesbian women from Newark, New Jersey were enjoying a night out in the gay-friendly West Village neighborhood of New York City. As they walked down the street, they were sexually harrassed by a man named Duane Buckle. When they told him they were not interested, and that they were lesbians, Buckle verbally attacked them using homophobic slurs, and physically assaulted them. In a not uncommon travesty of justice, the New Jersey Seven, as they came to be called, were sent to prison for defending themselves. 3 of the women accepted plea bargains and on June 14th, 2007 Venice Brown, Terrain Dandridge, Patreese Johnson, and Renata Hill received sentences ranging from 3 1/2 to 11 years in prison.The Fire This Time tells the story of the seven women’s trial and prison sentences, and the years-long fight by relatives and activists to get the women released. Along the way, the film reveals in devastating detail how the media, homophobia, and racism all work together in American culture to stigmatize and victimize gay people of color.
Please come out and show your support!
The Fire This Time The Film from blair doroshwalther on Vimeo.
Made In Palestine
Posted October 1, 2009 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Here is video exploring many different aspects of the Keffiyah; its history, colonization, the appropriation of symbols of resistance. and how Palestinian businesses are affected by the global market.
Watch the first part of Made In Palestine on Youtube.
Here is Part 2:
One might conclude, from this video, that the behavior of Israel is consistent with other colonizers throughout history.
Here in NYC and the USA the pattern found on the Keffiyah has been used by the fashion industry making it contextless, and significant only in its trend. Attractive people from all backgrounds enjoy wearing the scarves and may not know its reference to Palestinian resistance.
This "decontextualization" becomes more and more common, since everything is
capable of being commodified, that is when revolutionary cultural expressions are sold to the dominant, and mainstream, culture.
How does this effect or change the way people struggle?
Red & Blue
Posted September 27, 2009 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
A great short document of a circus action in Christiania, in Copenhagen. Thanks to Nils Vest (long time Christianian and filmmaker) for sending this along....
Blu & David Ellis timelapse collaboration
Posted September 26, 2009 by k_c_ in Inspiration
If you haven't checked it out already, David Ellis and BLU have created a collaborative timelapse video while partaking in the Fame Festival in Italy.
COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.
Both artists have produced similar videos, David, having collaborated with a group called the Barnstormers as well as many of his own projects. This was the first time these two artists have worked together. The video is interesting and enjoyable, visually. There is so much context and information that I wish was available along with the it. I have obvious questions about the logistics of such a piece and place, as well as the purpose and intention behind the collaboration. Maybe there's an interesting interview out there somewhere that will explain everything I have to inquire about...
Crude:The Real Price of Oil
Posted September 7, 2009 by k_c_ in Film & Video
Crude: The Real Price of Oil will be screening in NYC at
September 9-22, 2009
IFC Center
323 6th Ave at W3rd St
With dates all around the USA and Canada between September through December. Look at First Run Features to see if its playing near you.
Three years in the making, this cinéma-vérité feature from acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial environmental lawsuits on the planet. The inside story of the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case, Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama, set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film subverts the conventions of advocacy filmmaking, exploring a complicated situation from all angles while bringing an important story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.The landmark case takes place in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador, pitting 30,000 indigenous and colonial rainforest dwellers against the U.S. oil giant Chevron. The plaintiffs claim that Texaco – which merged with Chevron in 2001 – spent three decades systematically contaminating one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, poisoning the water, air and land. The plaintiffs allege that the pollution has created a “death zone” in an area the size of the Rhode Island, resulting in increased rates of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and a multiplicity of other health ailments. They further allege that the oil operations in the region contributed to the destruction of indigenous peoples and irrevocably impacted their traditional way of life. Chevron vociferously fights the claims, charging that the case is a complete fabrication, perpetrated by “environmental con men” who are seeking to line their pockets with the company’s billions.
Creative Violation
Posted September 4, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
Chris Stain, Shaun Slifer and I are all featured in Creative Violation, a cool short film about street stenciling made by Andrew Stevenson that's quietly been making the rounds at small and progressive film festivals. It's now showing at Urbanity, a film series in Calgary put on by the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers and Truck Contemporary Art Society.
Here's a trailer for the film:
Strike Anywhere
Posted July 25, 2009 by jmacphee in Film & Video
My friends Benj Gerdes and Jennifer Hayashida have just finished up an interesting video they've been working on for awhile called Strike Anywhere. Strike Anywhere takes as its direct subject Ivar Krueger, the match king of Sweden, who in the 1930s used financial markets to create matchstick monopolies in at least 34 countries, and become one of the richest men in the entire world. On a broader scale, the piece is a meditation on early finance capital, how me got into the mess we're in now, how it makes us feel, and where we go from here. The video is traveling around European art spaces right now, but if you're not going to be in Germany or Sweden in the next month, you can watch the entire 32 minute film on Benj's website here.
Panther films
Posted July 16, 2009 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Molly found this, but I don't think either of us wanted to re-type all the info, so I'm just re-posting this pdf announcement for Black Panther films in relation to the upcoming Emory Douglas exhibition at the New Museum here in NYC:
Tuff Stuff from the Buff
Posted July 14, 2009 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Justseeds fellow traveler Marc Moscato is about to head out on 2 week Northwest bike tour showing a collection of short films and videos by artists in his hometown of Buffalo, NY. Riding along with David Gracon (and organized with Julie Perini), Marc will bring Tough Stuff from the Buff to a dozen theaters, all ages venues and non-traditional spaces throughout the Pacific Northwest this July-August.
Here's the dates:
July 17-18 Anacortes, WA | What the Heck Fest
July 19 Bellingham, WA | TBA
July 20 Vancouver, BC | Pacific Cinematheque
July 21 Vancouver, BC | Spartacus Bookstore
July 22 Nanaimo, BC | Outdoor show at CHLY
July 24 Victoria, BC | Open Space Gallery
July 26 Port Townsend, WA | The Boiler Room
July 27 Langley, WA | private screening
July 28 Seattle, WA | The Vita Warehouse
July 29 Tacoma, WA | private screening
July 30 Olympia, WA | Olympia All Ages Project
July 31 Chehalis, WA | The Matrix
August 2 Portland, OR | The Waypost
According to Marc:
Tough Stuff from the Buff highlights Buffalo’s DIY media arts community, focusing on works that blur the lines between video art, personal documentary and media activism. Representing a diverse group of artists, from accomplished media makers to youth-produced projects, the collection reflects the city’s public spaces, political struggles and its resiliency under late capitalism. Tough Stuff from the Buff acknowledges the origins of this tradition, while focusing on contemporary examples of those persevering against the odds of creating media in a dying rustbelt town. A website (tuffstuffbuff.wordpress.com) will be regularly updated, with photos, video and stories from the road.
Testure: Animal Torture, Skinny Puppy video edit
Posted June 20, 2009 by roger_peet
All the talk of waterboarding, stress positions, walling, psychological assault etcetera, has put me in the mood for a little perspective. Bush endorsed "enhanced" techniques, Obama hasn't put a stop to them, oh! The wringing of hands. Folks, torture is normal. Waterboarding is for the weak. Let's have a look at some REAL torture, of the sort that culture demands. This is some of the worst shit ever.
Click here to have an unpleasant experience.
Bill Daniel/Shaun Slifer quick n' dirty tour...
Posted June 2, 2009 by shaun in Justseeds Collective Projects
Here's the schedule for the tour I'm headed out on with Bill Daniel this week. We'll be showing Bill's film "Who is Bozo Texino?", as well as putting up a couple shows of Bill's work along the way. I'll be opening for his film with a short presentation about a couple of current projects of mine. If you're in any of these spots, drop in!
June 5 -> St. Louis, MO - Cranky Yellow
June 6 -> St. Louis, MO - Black Bear Bakery
June 7-9 -> Dallas, then Austin, then back to Dallas... (that's in Texas, no gigs there)
June 10 -> Shreveport, LA - Danzell House (? house show ?)
June 11-12 -> Little Rock, AK - Chaulk Legends @ Arkansas Community Arts Cooperative (w/ Buz Blurr aka Colossus of Roads) (pictured below)
June 13 -> Nashville, TN - Little Hamilton Collective / Firebrand Infoshop
June 14 -> Knoxville, TN ?
Sydney Anarchist Film Festival
Posted May 29, 2009 by jmacphee in Film & Video
The two anarchist bookstores and infoshops in Sydney Australia, Jura and Black Rose Books, have put together the first Sydney Anarchist Film Festival. They are showing 14 great films over June 5th-8th. The films include tasty rarities as well as anarchist smash hits.
Film Festival Program
Friday 5th June:
-> 6pm: An evening of local short films (at Black Rose)
Saturday 6th June:
-> 12pm: Manufacturing Consent (Jura); Living Utopia (Black Rose)
-> 3pm: Angry Brigade (Jura); Viva Zapata (Black Rose)
-> 6pm: Born in Flames (Jura); Panther (Black Rose)
Sunday 7th June:
-> 12pm: Paris is Burning (Jura); This Revolution (Black Rose)
-> 3pm: Libertarias (Jura); Land and Freedom (Black Rose)
-> 6pm: Free Voice of Labour (Jura); The Weather Underground (Black Rose)
Monday 8th June:
-> 6pm: Lucio Anarquista (Jura)
For full details and descriptions of each film go to: http://www.jura.org.au/filmfestival
Tickets are only $8 per film ($5 concession) or get a gold pass to the entire festival for $30 ($25 concession).
Richard Porton/Arena in NYC
Posted May 28, 2009 by jmacphee in Events
Richard Porton, editor of the recently published Arena: On Anarchist Cinema, will be presenting in New York City on Friday. Anarchist cinema is a difficult idea, but Porton will unravel this history - from film collectives formed in the early twentieth century to contemporary video activism. Join Porton for discussion and showing of movies made by anarchist or having anarchist impetus. Porton is also the author of the great book Film and the Anarchist Imagination.
Friday, May 29th @ 7pm
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington
Arena can be found in our store here.
Palestine film events in the metro Detroit area
Posted February 21, 2009 by bec_young in Film & Video
There are some really interesting films regarding Palestine coming up in Southeast Michigan. Tonight will be the second showing of a one-hour film called Once a Wall, a Ripple Remains by Tirtza Even, a University of Michigan professor originally from Jerusalem. I saw the first showing of this film in and was very moved. The film uses still photos Even took while in Palestine in 1998, and uses digital animation to make the images move and interact. Her work seems to play with the idea of the wall as a metaphor, as she undermines our idea of what is real or unreal - people that seem real become cardboard cutouts, or become transparent so that they are only outlines. The host for this event is a fabulous new gallery in Hamtramck, called 2739 Edwin. I also saw a really inspiring show of papercuts about Palestine at the same gallery last Fall, by Detroit area artist Toby Millman.
The Arab American National Museum in Dearborn is hosting a film series called Chronicles of a Refugee. Here is a description from their website: "Chronicles of a Refugee is a six-part documentary series created by Perla Issa, Aseel Mansour and Adam Shapiro looking at the global Palestinian refugee experience over the last 60 years. Filmed in over 15 countries, with more than 250 interviews of Palestinian refugees who have lived in over 25 countries, the series aims to provoke debate concerning strategy and asks: ‘What makes the most sense for a strategy to achieve Palestinian rights as part of a vibrant and viable Palestinian national movement?’" Today at 4 pm, Episode 3 of the series will be shown; Episode 4 will be shown March 11 at 6:30 pm.
Also on Wednesday, March 11 is the debut of the first ever Ann Arbor Palestine Film Fest! According to the organizers: "The Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival showcases films about Palestine and by Palestinian directors. Educating through the screen arts, the film festival amplifies the voice of the Palestinian people as a nation and a diaspora. The film festival is an independent and non-sectarian organization." The festival runs through Saturday, March 14.
Our City Dreams
Posted February 11, 2009 by k_c_ in Film & Video
For those in NYC there is a documentary film called Our City Dreams, which profiles 5 women artists in NYC. One of which is Justseeds member Swoon.
Filmed over the course of two years, OUR CITY DREAMS is an invitation to visit the creative spaces of five women artists, each of whom possesses her own energy, drive and passion. These women, who span different decades and represent diverse cultures, have one thing in common beyond making art: the city to which they have journeyed and now call home - New York.
You can catch it at the Film Forum
February 4-18, 2009
209 W Houston St
New York, NY 10014
There are Q&A's with Chiara Clemente, the filmmaker, Thursday, February 12, 6:00 show and Tuesday, February 17, 6:00 show.
You can watch the trailer at First Run Features.
Incite! Journal online
Posted January 4, 2009 by jmacphee in Film & Video
My friend Brett Kashmere has recently released the first online issue of Incite! journal of experimental media & radical aesthetics. The theme of the first issue is "Manifest," and there's a ton of material in the first issue online, and they are hoping to release a print edition. There something in here for lots of different interests but it is heavily bent towards experimental film and video. Here's how Brett describes the contents:
In this issue:
* Legendary collage filmmaker and programmer Craig Baldwin talks with Steve Polta about the 70s avant-garde, Baldwin's college years, political activism, and midnight screenings: all of which lead him to filmmaking and to his unique curatorial aesthetic.* In a strong diatribe against capital-driven mainstream cinema, the famed American independent film impresario Jonas Mekas celebrates the pioneering avant-garde and its connections to the heavenly.
Bill Daniel Projection / Audio Performance
Posted December 5, 2008 by mary_tremonte in Events
From Justseeds buddy Bill Daniel, hobo filmmaker. You can still catch his installation "The Great Depression" for another month at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.
"Hello Friends,
I'm writing to you today to tell you about two musical projection performance deallies that I'm organizing at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. The first will be this Saturday, Dec 6th, and will feature an improvisional performance by Jim Lingo, Josh Tanzer and Jarret Fate, who will be sonically interacting with the audio from a big reel of 16mm post-industrial found film oddities. The show will transpire in the gallery space where I currently have a photo/video installation up, called The Great Depression.
The other performance will be Jan 10th at the Melwood Screening Room and will feature Centipede Eest performing a live score to a collection of film and video collected from the American Road."
Saturday December 6
Doors at 7:00, performance at 8:00
FREE all ages
Pittsburgh Filmmakers
477 Melwood Ave
412-681-5449
Check out this sweet, though slightly inaccurate, review of The Great Depression in Pittsburgh's City Paper here
It’s the End of the World as We Know It
Posted December 3, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
If you are in NYC, come out to our big Justseeds show at the Brecht Forum tomorrow night, Thursday Dec 4th! After our event, cruise over to The Change You Want to See in Williamsburg for this video program!:
IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
The Change You Want To See Gallery
Thursday, December 4, 8pm
84 Havemeyer Street, at Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn NY 11211
Since its humble beginnings in 1994, subMedia has grown from a small group of determined filmmakers into a grassroots network of socially and politically engaged artists and individuals. subMedia scrutinizes popular culture and media through the production of film, performance art, video, music and zines.Equal parts performance and protest, an attitude of art following action defines subMedia’s productions. From the regularly released and highly produced video blog “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”, to the collaborative documentary Ground Noise & Static, their work injects a radical analysis into the culture in a most entertaining way.
Please join subMedia founder, director and producer Franklin López (aka The Stimulator) as he steps out from behind the talking boxes to tour us through a video montage of his latest works, mixing culture jamming, news, radical commentary, music and action.
Many Yeses, One No: Confronting Corporate Globalization
Posted November 20, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Short Notice, this one is tomorrow in NYC:
Many Yeses, One No: Confronting Corporate Globalization
A Retrospective Film Screening and Panel Discussion
November 21st, 7pm
Labowitz Theater
715 Broadway, NYC
Free and open to the public.
As the anniversary of the Seattle protests against the WTO approaches,
the world economic system- a system whose logic and shape has been
defined by neoliberal economic theory- is in ruins, and the United
States has elected a new president that many people hope and expect
will bring about "real Change."
What does this mean for a movement that seems to have seen its
heyday, but whose critique of the problem- neoliberalism run amok-
now seems more salient, and more urgently needed, than ever? If we
were to look at the Global Justice Movement, or Alter-Globalization
Movement, as historians, what lessons might we learn from this
history? How can these lessons be applied to the current moment?
Films to be Excerpted:
Breaking the Bank (2000)
Showdown in Seattle (1999)
Fourth World War (2003)
It's A Riot (1989)
The Debt Game (1992)
A Cry for Freedom and Democracy (1994)
Total screening time will be approximately 45 minutes, to be followed
by panelist remarks, and audience Q and A.
The Panel:
Sameer Dosssani, Brooke Lehman, Ritty Lukose, Manuel Pérez-Rocha, Rick Rowley,
David Solnit.
Moderated by Stephen Duncombe.
Support Renata Hill of the NJ4 Thursday! Queer Docs Friday!
Posted November 19, 2008 by molly_fair in Events
One of the NJ4 defendants, Renata Hill is having a hearing tomorrow and FIERCE! is mobilizing a support crew:
Thursday November 20, 10AM
Meet outside 100 Centre Street, NYC
(Part 91 - 15th Floor)
Judge McLaughlin
On August 18, 2006, seven young African American lesbian women from Newark, New Jersey came to Manhattan’s West Village for a night out. A man named Dwayne Buckle harassed and assaulted the young women, making sexist and homophobic comments to them as well as lewd advances and telling one of the women that he would “F—k her straight.” A physical altercation ensued, and two men came to the aid of the women. One of the men stabbed Buckle, and then left the scene. The women continued on their way and were arrested shortly after. The trial that took place was a farce, the judge was condescending and offensive, the media demonized the women as a "lesbian wolf-pack", there was never a search for the two men who stabbed Buckle, requests for forensic testing on the supposed weapon were ignored as was footage from a surveillance camera that clearly showed Buckle was the perpetrator. After a year-long trip through the legal system, three women of the women- Chenese Loyal, Khymesha Coates, Lania Daniels took plea bargains and the other four were convicted of crimes and given shocking prison sentences in April 2007. Terrain Dandridge was sentenced to three and a half years behind bars; Venice Brown, five years; Renata Hill, eight years; and Patreese Johnson, was sentenced to an unbelievable 11 years. Terrain Dandridge’s case was overturned, all her charges were dropped and she was released on June 21st, 2008. She has recently been speaking out with her family and with supporters such as Angela Davis in San Francisco and in NY.
For more info, there is an excellent article Re-Thinking "The Norm" In Police/Prison Violence & Gender Violence: Critical Lessons from the New Jersey 7 in the most recent issue of Left Turn Magazine by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence & FIERCE! that addresses issues of violence and bias against queer youth of color and the struggle to make these issues visible.
To find out how you can support the NJ4 and for future updates check out:
FIERCE!, Justice 4 New Jersey 4, Free the NJ4
There is a screening of documentaries about the lives of LGBTQ youth in the West Village:
Friday November 21, 7pm
Maysles Films
343 Lenox Ave/Malcom X Blvd.
NYC
Panel 8pm, reception to follow
Fenced Out dir. FIERCE! with Paper Tiger TV & The Neutral Zone (2001)
Fenced Out documents the fight for the Christopher St. pier, a long-established hangout and safe haven for New York City’s youth of color and lower-income, homeless, lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender, questioning and two-spirited youth. In the summer of 2000, development for a state park began “fencing out” the kids, with support from residents of nearby waterfront properties. “You are lowering the property value,” notes one police officer bluntly. The video examines the clash between the groups that claim ownership of the pier, from the perspective of the youths who feel it is the only place where they belong. The documentary includes interviews with “pierets” about how important the pier is in their lives, and with LGBTQ activists about the history of the piers and their connection to the gay liberation movement of the 60’s. It explores how the struggle to save the pier connects to a larger historical and social movement, and develops a plan of action to save them.
Life on Christopher Street dir. Maria Clara, 2002
Through the eyes of these urban male youth, known as "Homolife on Christopher St. Thugs", we see gay rappers, "Blood" gang members, pimps, and sex workers in their struggle to maintain dignity. The film is an exposé of a rising subculture of Black and Latino gay youth born in the late 70's to early 80's, representing the Hip-Hop generation. These urban gay youth living on the most popular gay strip in the world maintain the aggressive hyper masculine image and attitude represented in the Hip-Hop culture, contradicting the stereotypical image of homosexuals.
Life on Christopher Street Director & Producer Maria Clara and Kimberly Gray, FIERCE!, RJ Supa and Steven Gordon of The Ali Forney Center (housing for homeless LGBTQ youth)
reception to follow
ChristieBooks Film Channel
Posted November 18, 2008 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Stuart Christie has a lot under his belt: anarchist, former anti-fascist prisoner in Spain, founder of the UK Anarchist Black Cross, founder of Cienfuegos Press, and more recently publishing books under his own imprint ChristieBooks. For a number of years he has been building up an amazing collection of films on his website, which now contains hundreds of films and videos, including Spanish Civil War newsreels, Jean Vigo and Luis Bunuel features, anarchist biopics and more current radical news footage. If you are at all interested in anarchism and film, it is well worth taking a look. Check it out here.
In addition, Christie is working on a new anarchist journal, called Arena, which is being published in collaboration with PM Press and the first issue should be out early next year. The first issue is focusing on anarchist cinema, and is guest edited by Richard Porton, author of the fabulous book Film and the Anarchist Imagination, published by Verso.
Benefit for Political Prisoner Ojore Lutalo
Posted November 6, 2008 by molly_fair in Events
November 8 at 7:30pm
Sixth Street Community Center
638 E 6th St, between Avenues B and C, in Manhattan
Suggested Donation $8-10, refreshments will be served
Longtime New Afrikan Anarchist Prisoner of War, Ojore Lutalo, is set to be released after 26 years of confinement in the New Jersey State Prison, having completed the maximum amount of time the State of New Jersey could hold him. While his exact release date is not finalized, it will most likely be late November or December. Money is being raised to help Ojore secure housing, food and clothing to help with this transition.
Ojore Lutalo is locked down in Trenton, New Jersey for actions carried out in the fight for Black Liberation. According to Lutalo, he is serving a parole violation sentence stemming from a 1977 conviction for expropriating monies from a state bank and engaging police in a gun battle which took place in 1975.
Kazembe Balagun, writer, activist, teacher, and biographer of the late New Afrikan Anarchist freedom fighter Kuwasi Balagoon will be in attendance to talk about New Afrikan Anarchism of the past and future.
There will be a screening of the film Frame Up! The Imprisonment of Martin Sostre (1973)
Frame Up! follows the story of Afro-Puerto Rican political activist Martin Sostre who served time in Attica prison during the early 1960s. He was arrested in 1967, at his Afro-Asian bookstore in Buffalo for sale and possession of narcotics, riot, arson, and assault- charges later proven to be fabricated by COINTELPRO. He was convicted and sentenced to serve forty-one years and thirty days. Sostre became a jailhouse lawyer and regularly acted as legal counsel to other inmates, and won two landmark legal cases for the advancement of prisoner rights- Sostre v. Rockefeller and Sostre v. Otis.
A People in the Shadows
Posted November 4, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
My friend Bani Khoshnoudi is doing a sneak preview of her new film A People in the Shadows next Friday in New York City. I'm really excited about the film, but unfortunately all of us Justseeders will be at our annual retreat in Milwaukee. Some of you will have to go and tell us how it was!
A PEOPLE IN THE SHADOWS (2008, 90 min.)
Friday, November 7, 7pm
at DCTV
87 Lafayette Street (south of Canal Street), 3rd Floor
NYC
(subways: N,R,W,Q,6 to Canal)
Almost thirty years after the revolution, and twenty since the end of the long Iran-Iraq war, A People in the Shadows takes us on a voyage into the heart of Tehran, a megalopolis of 14 million people. The city is still recovering from its past, as talk of sanctions and a possible American attack resonate. Using cinema direct methods, the film takes an intimate look at the way people live in this immense city today- caught up in the paradoxes and contradictions of their society, surrounded by images of past and future death, yet finding ways to juggle state propaganda and foreign threat on a daily basis.
The Great Depression
Posted October 31, 2008 by molly_fair in Film & Video
Bill Daniel has a new photo and video installation up at the Pittsburgh Filmmakers called The Great Depression which is part of his Sunset Scavenger project. The gallery space has been transformed into a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie, with projected video, large-scale still photography and several interactive installations complete with hobo shack. The show will be up until Jan. 10, 2009.
Sunset Scavenger is an on-going project exploring images and themes of social and environmental collapse in the last decades of the petroleum era. It's also the name of a '65 Chevy sailvan, and the video show that is projected on its sails, and the coast-to-coast tour that will bring the show to your town. The sailvan -- a 2-masted gaff-rigger schooner-- functions as tour vehicle, as well as projection screen. The video program is a 2-projector documentary-essay on low-down survival strategies in a world of ecologic and economic collapse.Sunset Scavenger tells the real-world stories of ascendant down'n'outers and their earnest lessons of self-reliance in the face of civil decay. See and hear the anchor-outs, rubber tramps, off-the-gridders, desert rats, and punk river rafters that are today's true cultural vanguard.
This low-budget, non-linear, semi-documentary epic and morally beneficial apocalyptic allegory features the Abandoned RV starring in a hastily revised New Urbanism, and is supported by the surprise comeback of Advanced Woodworking and Basic Piracy. Here's what happens when there's more cars than houses, more bad weather than gasoline, and more poor people than cops.
Flood Teaser
Posted October 25, 2008 by jmacphee in Film & Video
Long-time friend and collaborator of some of us Justseeders Todd Chandler has recently released a teaser clip of his current film project Flood. Flood was shot cinema verite style during the travels of Swoon and co.'s Swimming Cities of the Switchback Sea. Members of the raft trip and his bands Dark Dark Dark and Fall Harbor make up the cast. Some of the shots are quite striking, looking forward to seeing this project develop. Check out the Flood website here.
FLOOD teaser from flood movie on Vimeo.
New York Screening of Dos Americas: The Reconstruction of New Orleans
Posted September 5, 2008 by molly_fair in Film & Video
The film Dos Americas: The Reconstruction of New Orleans by Upheaval Productions focuses on the experience of the Latino community, one that seems to be overlooked unsurprisingly in the media and unfortunately by activist communities as well. This is not to be missed.
Post-Katrina reconstruction is still in progress throughout the Gulf Coast, with much of the City of New Orleans still in ruins. This documentary focuses on those rebuilding this city through interviews with some of the estimated 100,000 Latino migrant laborers who have converged in this area over the past two and a half years. Despite terrible working conditions, massive fraud, a housing crisis, severe harassment by law enforcement, and very limited resources, New Orleans’ Latino community has mushroomed since the storm and is establishing an infrastructure proportional to its size.Take a look at how this community is organizing to defend itself against numerous injustices and the attempts to bridge the gap between themselves as new residents and the pre-Katrina population, all within the extremely unique and tragic context of post-Katrina New Orleans.
Presentado en inglés y español.
9/7 @7pm- Make the Road by Walking
301 Grove St, Brooklyn, NY
9/8 @7pm- Bluestockings
172 Allen St Btw Stanton & Rivington, New York, NY
They Live
Posted September 1, 2008 by molly_fair in Film & Video
at BAM, Wednesday, Sept. 3
I gotta say that They Live is one of my favorite movies and I'm not gonna miss my chance to see it on the big screen. I mean come on- an entertaining critique of capitalism starring "Rowdy" Roddy Piper of the WWF as our fearless blue collar hero leading the rev- what could be better? Also it has one of the most drawn-out, ridiculous fist fight scenes ever.
Part science fiction thriller and part black comedy, the film echoed contemporary fears of a declining economy, within a culture of greed and conspicuous consumption common among Americans in the 1980s. In They Live, the ruling class within the monied elite are in fact aliens managing human social affairs through the use of subliminal media advertising and the control of economic opportunity.
"On Paper Wings" documentary screening
Posted August 11, 2008 by icky in Film & Video
My friend and co-worker Ilana Sol will be screening her just-completed documentary, On Paper Wings, in Portland this weekend. Check it out if you're in town.
"In the spring of 1945, a Japanese balloon bomb claimed the lives of the only people killed on the continental U.S. as the result of enemy action during WWII. Forty years later, the decision to fold a thousand paper cranes would unite the Japanese and American civilians who were involved in and affected by this incident."
Her film is accompanied by "Passing Poston," a documentary about a Japanese-American internment camp in Poston, Ariz.
The Hollywood Theatre -
42nd and NE Sandy Blvd.
Portland, OR
August 11th-12th (Monday & Tuesday): 7:00pm
August 16th-17th: 12:15 & 3PM (Matinee Shows)
