THREE PROGRAMMES FROM ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES, NEW YORK
For this very special series of screenings, we are pleased and proud to invite Andrew Lampert who will be in person to introduce all the shows. We present an amazing and eclectic collection; from the art scenes of 60s and 80s New York through the Cinema of Transgression to the Unessential dustbins of time. Miss this at your peril!
Anthology Film Archives
Founded in 1969 (by Jonas Mekas, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, and Stan Brakhage), Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video. Fueled by the conviction that the index of a culture’s health lies in works of art produced in the margins, outside the commercial mainstream, AFA was created as the first American museum devoted to film as an art form.
Anthology screens more than 900 programs annually, preserves an average of 25 films per year (with 800 works preserved to date), publishes books and DVDs, and regularly hosts numerous scholars and researchers.
Andrew Lampert
Archivist at Anthology Film Archives, responsible for film preservation and daily operations of the film, video and media collections. Born in the mid-70s, Andrew Lampert is an international artist in his own right, primarily producing films, videos and live performances. His works have been widely exhibited at festivals, cinemas, galleries and museums, including The Whitney Museum, The Getty Museum and the New York and Rotterdam Film Festivals.
Andrew Lampert’s visit has been co-sponsored by Atelier Nord.
Sunday 23rd October. 18.30
The Scenes, Seen
A few generations of vital New York art scenes, as seen by insiders; who’s who, what’s where and where’s it at! Three beautiful encapsulations right here.
Money Henry Hills (1985, 15 minutes, 16mm-to-35mm)
A radically composed time capsule, a rapid-fire portrait of the innovative “downtown” Lower Manhattan community of poets, musicians, dancers and personalities active in the early-to-mid 1980s. As much a sound work as it is a film, featuring John Zorn, Christian Marclay, Fred Frith, Arto Lindsay, Abigail Child, Charles Bernstein and an extraordinary cast of luminaries.
Preserved by AFA with support from the Andy Warhol Foundation.
Fist Fight Robert Breer (1964, 9 minutes, 16mm-to-35mm blow-up)
Breer created this kinetic masterwork for the New York City premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Originale, which starred a Who’s Who of New York City Fluxus and happening artists. The film was originally shown in the middle of the chaotic theatrical production and features, among other things, childhood pictures, mice, Ringo Starr and many other fast moving, awe-inducing images.
Preserved by AFA with support from the Andy Warhol Foundation.
Money Rudy Burckhardt (1968, 45 minutes, 16mm).
Swiss-born Rudy Burckhardt arrived in 1930s New York City and devoted his life to documenting the city in still images and moving pictures. Hard to summarize yet extremely easy to enjoy; impeccable photography, silent-film-style acting and a marvelously loopy storyline.. With a mesmerizing lead performance from legendary dance critic/poet Edwin Denby, and text from celebrated artist/poet Joe Brainard, Money is a restored and rediscovered cult classic straight out of the 1960s New York art and poetry worlds.
Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Tuesday 25th October 18.30
Recent Preservations from Anthology
Bringing together an eclectic mix of Americana, from New York to Los Angeles, these recent preservations cover many bases : 70s road movie, structural film, transgressional cinema and a little known gem. A once-only chance to see these magnificent prints.
Chewing Madeleine Gekiere (1978, 6 minutes, 16mm)
A little-known, structurally minded gem from painter Madeliene Gekiere, who was inspired to start making films in her early 50s. Preserved by AFA with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Incontinence: A Diarrectic Flow Of Mismatches Manuel DeLanda (1978, 16mm, 18 min.)
An optically-printed opus featuring a very surprise appearance by Professor Mamboozoo (painter Joe Coleman). DeLanda’s iconic celluloid works remain among the most innovative, abrasive, and hypnotic films produced in the 70s and early 80s. DeLanda’s movies have a highbrow philosophical tinge, lowbrow wit, and punk rock style. Preserved by AFA with the support from the National Film Preservation Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation
Inferrential Current Paul Sharits (1971, 8 minutes, 16mm)
“A mapping of an image of the linear passage of “16mm film frames” and “emulsion scratches” onto an actual 16mm film strip (the unperceived film “print”) / the aural word “miscellaneous” is extended to a length of eight minutes by serial fragmentation, looping, staggering and overlaying / a variational but non-developmental strand thru time. / Dedicated to Lynda Benglis.” — Paul Sharits
You Killed Me First Richard Kern (1985, 12 minutes, super 8 to 16mm)
The eternal struggle between teenagers and parents, the violence of puberty, the hilarity of it all. A notorious short and a significant work of the mid-80s Cinema of Transgression movement. Starring the pitch-perfect David Wojnarowicz, Karen Finley and Lung Leg.
Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with the support from the Andy Warhol Foundation .
The United States Of America Bette Gordon and James Benning (1975, 27 minutes, 16mm.)
A true masterpiece of 70s cinema, more remarkable today than ever before. A conceptual bicentennial film dealing with spatial and temporal relationships between two travelers, their car, and the geographic, political, and social changes from New York to Los Angeles. The space within each frame is at the same time continuous and elliptical. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with the support from the National Film Preservation Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation.
Wedesday 26th October 20.30
UNESSENTIAL CINEMA: THE DUSTBINS OF TIME
From the dustbins of time comes this review of the truly marginalized cinema; the mysteries of the archive unleashed. Unessential Cinema is an (ir)regular series at New York City’s Anthology Film Archives that focuses on the thousands of derelict prints, negatives, and elements that have been collected over the years from defunct laboratories, dumpsters, widowers and weirdoes. For tonight’s special screening Andrew Lampert will act as tour guide through a selection of reels that by their very nature demonstrate what archives cannot, will not, and prefer not to save. Expect a full evening of questions, answers and more questions featuring unfinished opuses, optical soundtracks, inexplicable footage and so much more. Think of this show as good footage gone bad, or bad footage made good.
Titles (may) include: Student Film Trilogy, Pac Man film?, Fever trailer, What Are You Looking At?, Busby Berkley B-Roll
Greg Pope. 