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Welcome to the Fall Schedule for Other Cinema. We have a exciting lineup of new cinema initiatives this season and we hope you will come often. A number of the films we are showing have video clips available for preview in Quicktime format. These clips are indicated by a projector icon in the applicable sections. If you don't have the Quicktime plug-in, you can download it for free at www.apple.com/quicktime. |
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Counterintelligence SAT.
9/3: THE YES MEN + SUBVERTISERS + COPYRIGHT CRIMINALS
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Technology
and Terror
At last, the North American premiere of Lutz Dammbeck's The Net, the first in-depth exploration of the Unabomber back-story. Slow and assured, but utterly stunning in its revelations, this philosopher's stone of a movie retraces the responses of the Counterculture to cybernetics. For those who resist these intrusive systems of technological control, the Unabomber has perhaps come to symbolize an ultimate figure of Refusal. For those that embrace it, as did and do the early champions of media art like Marshall McLuhan, Nam Jun Paik, and Stewart Brand, the promises of worldwide networking and instantaneous communication outweighed the perils. Told as a travel journal, Dammbeck's conceptual quest circles through themes of utopianism, anarchism, terrorism, CIA, MK-ULTRA, LSD, Tim Leary, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, and of course, the history of the Internet. Note special show times: 8 and 10pm.
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Tilting
Against The Death Machine In the first of four psycho-geographical shows, UC researcher and gallivanting gonzo provocateur Trevor Paglen brushes the desert dust off his cowboy boots and strides in with a saddlebag full of investigative bombshells about covert military complexes. Reverse-engineering a telescope lens onto the front of his video camera, Paglen probes the perimeter of Area 51, the Tonopah Test Range, and other off-limit "black project" facilities in the no-zones of Nevada. He reports in experimental lecture mode, his "tele-photographic" evidence appearing as both investigative journalism and as revelatory objects of art. Bruce Gagnon's Arsenal advances a compelling argument for a courageous resistance against the masters of war who would infest the heavens with their Death Stars. PLUS Megan Prelinger–Shaw's Atomic Cabinet, from her marvelous Library.
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Atrocity
Exhibition
SAT. 9/24: DISPATCHES FROM IRAQ +
Four first-hand reports from the ground in embattled Iraq cap a day of international protest against this quagmire of blood and oil. Anchoring the program is Ashwin Raman's free-ranging report on Iraq: The Endless War (with real-time translation from the German). ALSO: A sneak preview of David Martinez's long-awaited 500 Miles to Babylon. Another anguished view of the war zone is afforded by the Lost Bead Collective's Fallujah Verité. PLUS excerpts from both the Iraqi frontlines and the protest barricades in America from Usama Alshaibi, Bryan Boyce, Jacob Bricca, and Brandon Jourdan. Open bar for all peace-marchers.
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Boxcar Strokes SAT. 10/1: DANIEL'S BOZO TEXINO + RENWICK'S LOVEJOY + LYLE + Comes
now the new Director's Cut of Bill Daniel's
epic history of rail-yard monikers. His 50-min. rogue doc is coupled
to another train-art title, Vanessa Renwick's
20-min. memorial to murals made in the ‘40s by Oregon
switchman Tom Stefopoulos. The city of Portland commissioned
the folk documentarian to record the restoration of these marvelous
columns, featured in Van Zant's Drugstore Cowboy.
ALSO on the program is Erick Lyle's slide history
of wet-cement "sidewalk engravings." PLUS: People's chef
Mark Brecke ladles out free hobo stew whilst Matt
Day and Colin Miller evoke and emote the bluesy
notes of the life nomadic.
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Peak
Oil
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Mall America SAT. 10/15: JEM COHEN'S CHAIN + TELESCAPE
We're
extremely pleased to present the Bay Area premiere of Jem Cohen's
multiple award-winning Chain. Shot in 16mm
over the better part of a decade, Cohen's 99-min.
magnum opus interweaves a mesmerizing tapestry of eerie dystopian
landscapes with existential episodes of human isolation and psychic
inertia. This meditative, elliptical narrative serves to benefit the
case against malls everywhere—in our instance, the campaign against
Home De(s)pot here in San Francisco,
which will receive a portion of the proceeds. Telescape
(AKA David Cox) welcomes all with film and musical
Topos Loops. $6.
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Jackie Gleason on LSD! SAT. 10/22: CHRISTIAN DIVINE'S THE UNMAKING OF SKIDOO + Legendary director Otto Preminger (Laura, Anatomy of a Murder) was inspired by the bold attitudes of the Peace and Love revolution, which reflected his own progressive ideas. In 1968, the 70-year-old filmmaker turned a whimsical script into one of the most bizarre Hollywood films ever made. Film scholar Christian Divine, dubbed the "world's expert on Skidoo," jets up from Los Angeles with a very rare copy of this "spectacular stylistic failure," contextualizing the psychedelic film's strange history through archival oddities and fascinating anecdotes. Come early for drink specials, Groucho Marx, Eartha Kitt, and a Scopitone rave-up!
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SAT. 10/29: O THE HORROR OF INCREDIBLY STRANGE RELIGION! In a cinematic celebration of our fair city's favorite holiday, we cross the River Styx into the infernal hellfires of eternal nightmare, through delusions of the inflamed American religious imagination. Southern Baptist preacher Estus Pirkle raises the stakes with a lurid cult clip from Burning Hell. The baby-faced cable-access personality Screaming Boy provides chorus to verse with his admonitions against depravities of the flesh. From a bully-pulpit rooted in a literal interpretation of the Bible, we manage to chastise even Uncle Walt in Disney Perversion. Brother Russell peeks in at an evangelical crusade based on the Biblical invocation to Holy Laughter. PLUS Russ Forster's Christian Rock Trailer, Unarius' Underground Cities of Mars, The Witches of Salem, and other Satanic delicacies. Come in costume for free mulled wine and trick-or-treats!
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SAT. 11/5: GET RID OF YOURSELF + SURPLUS + Produced by the Franco-American collective Bernadette Corporation and set during the recent Genoa protests, comes this intellectually and politically provocative cine-essay on What Is to Be Done in the face of all-consuming globalization. Equal parts Godard, Debord, Deleuze, and Bakunin, the speculative discourse plumbs the rationale for both traditional Left and Black Bloc actions via thrilling street scenes, comic philosophical interludes, and a charming tête à tête with an apparently radicalized Chloë Sevigny. This hour-plus post-Situationist tract represents a brave initiative in the crucial arguments around strategy and tactics. PLUS another meditation on the ravages of transnational Capital, Erik Gandini's lush and rhythmic political tone-poem Surplus, with appearances by the Eugene anarchist John Zerzan and Microsoft cheerleader Steve Ballmer. Free wine, bread, cheese.
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| Recombinant
Cabaret
SAT. 11/12: PEOPLE LIKE US + SEMICONDUCTOR We are honored to host the West Coast return of prodigal daughter Vicki Bennett, indubitably among the most exciting live A/V artists in Britain or the USA! On a droll roll after a dozen-some CD releases, this awesome audio collagist has recently relocated to the States, poised to supercharge the experimental media scene with the debut of Story Without End. ALSO part of this British Invasion: Semiconductor, the UK twosome whose finely crafted digital work turns analog processes and random errors towards a new and sublime electronic cinema. $6.
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SAT. 11/19: TARANTISM + COMMODE MINSTRELS IN BULLFACE + The
second program in our experimental music series celebrates some of San
Francisco's most cherished noise vaudevillians. We open
the evening amidst a collision of sci-fi puppetry and
78rpm covers, as the Commode Minstrels
in Bullface twitter a soundtrack composed for their
very own Weet Wet Weet—A Winged Explosure.
Known for their unpredictable ear- and eye-popping extravaganzas incorporating
homemade electronic instruments, video, and playful performance, Tarantism
ups the ante in the second half with a butter-basted
pageant for November, When Turkey Calls, a
multi-course, multi-media giving-of-thanks. Preceded by: Neuropteronics,
an optical blitz by the audio-whirligig known solely as the Anti-Ear.
Bring your forks and earplugs! $6.
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SAT. 11/26: WET GATE'S 10TH ANNIVERSARY BASH + 3-D + AKA "Performing the Perfs," this B-Day spectacular celebrates the Bay Area's beloved "All-Projector Orchestra" that broke ground for the burgeoning projection-arts genre in this very gallery a decade ago! These days, Peter Conheim, Steve Dye, and Owen O'Toole are looping the globe itself (like, to Australia!) in an inspired effort to demonstrate the projector apparatus itself can be understood as an artistic tool; its operation as a performance. Opening the love-fest—and back by popular demand—is Pad McGlaughlin's Depths of Field, a 3-D slide experience that exploits the obscure ChromaDepth optical technology. PLUS clips from Quintron, TV Sheriff, Cinematechnique, and OF COURSE a cake in the shape of 16mm reels!
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SAT. 12/3: FRONTIER LIFE + BORDER VIDEO + DJs Here's the debut of Hans Fjellestad's must-see doc on the richly complex cultural hybrid that is Tijuana, interweaving stories of low riders, environmental struggles, and the sizzling hot Mexican techno explosion. This contemporary encuentro with that sprawling multicultural metropolis, isolated from the South and alienated from the North, foregrounds scenes of the new electronica from Nortec, Hiperboreal, y otros. Guest-curated by Julio Morales of our new sister gallery, Queen's Nails Annex, a half-hour set of bi-national video and performance precedes the feature. Despues, the party continues with the Club Unicornio crew spinnin' Mexicali mash-ups amidst syncretistic slide mixes and tequila drink specials.
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SAT. 12/10: SID DAVIS RETRO! The prolific Mr. Davis can easily claim the crown as cinema history's most psychologically twisted educational-film producer. The evening begins with SidVision, Todd Southern's (in person) half-hour overture to the idiosyncratic oeuvre of this director of "outsider industrials." Appearing in both this doc and at our gallery podium is honored archivist and Ephemeral Film defender Rick Prelinger, who shares an hour of complete Sid Davis titles, such as Boys Beware, Dangerous Stranger, Seduction of the Innocent, and Alcohol Is Dynamite. Note special show times and admission: 8 & 10pm; $6.66.
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SAT. 12/17: NEW EXPERIMENTAL WORKS As always, our calendar is capped by a kick-ass screening of new movies that champion personal expression and radical cinematic form. Constituting the season's consummating event, and with many of the makers in person, are Martha Colburn's Cosmetic Emergency, Damon Packard's Wedding Video, Sam Green's Meredith Hunter, Kerry Laitala's Torchlight Tango, Max Godino's Prisoner's Song, Vanessa Renwick's Cascadia Terminal, Anne McGuire's Hotel Pinball Venus, Eric Theise's Gutterball. AND James Hong, Diane Nerwen, Steve Polta, Bryan Boyce, Yin-Ju Chen, Enid Blader, Thad Povey, Ben Folstein, Abo Greenwald, Katherin McInnis, Bijan Yasar, Nate Boyce, et al.
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Previous
Calendars Spring
2005
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