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.

CREATIVE COMMONS

SAT. 3/1: PRELINGER + STEAL THIS FILM + CULT JAMS +

OC inaugurates its 24th year with a festive celebration of the Open-Source spirit! Headlining is the West Coast premiere of Jamie King’s half-hr. Steal This Film (2), a spot-on primer on strategies of access and appropriation in today’s Info Age. Initiating the evening is local hero Rick Prelinger, in person, with a provocative performative lecture on motion picture archives. ALSO: The “Pranks” section of Kembrew McLeod’s Freedom of Expression (a phrase that he copywrited, by the way), narrated by Naomi Klein, plus a heavy mix of media interventions, capped by David Cox’ pop-cult mash-up—get this—in 3-D! And in keeping with the sharewareethic, bring in your unwanted books for potlatch at 8pm with DJ Onanist and FREE-flowin’ bubbly!

 

POPPIN' AGIT-PROP

SAT. 3/8: SANTIAGO ALVAREZ + TRAVIS WILKERSON

We are honored to offer the collected works of Mr. Alvarez to the world—a very rare opportunity owing to the damn Yankee blockade of the Cuban social experiment. We have managed to obtain the very best-ever transfers of his 16mm cine-poems, and so are using this occasion to launch his portfolio on DVD! Boldly graphic, irresistibly rhythmic, and ultimately soul-stirring, we’re showing about half of the 8 titles in the collection, including Now, Cerro Pelado, and 79 Springtimes of Ho Chi Minh. Both this screening and the disc itself are complemented by curator/artist Travis (An Injury to One) Wilkerson’s Accelerated Under-Development, a savvy appreciation of the master from the next generation of political makers. Cuba Libres for a buck, OCD discs at a discount.

LIGHT WORK

SAT. 3 / 15 : JENNIFER REEVES' LIVE CINEMA WORKS +

In collaboration with SF Cinematheque, OC proudly hosts NYC-based Jennifer Reeves, with a selection of her recent projects—elaborate film experiences rendered on richly colored, hand-manipulated 16mm celluloid. Even as filmmakers' attentions turn towards the digital, the multi-screen and performative works on tonight's program—Light Work Mood Disorder and He Walked Away—expand on Reeves’ already accomplished work with abstract visuals and direct-film techniques, providing "a big reminder of the fragile, forgotten materiality of film for a new generation of artists." ALSO screening: Darling International (co-directed by M.M. Serra), excerpts from works-in-progress, and other surprises.

 

EXPANDED CINEMA

 

SAT. 3/22 : PEOPLE LIKE US + CHICKENFISH + BRYAN BOYCE +

Among the most exciting developments in experimental film are the audacious initiatives of artist-practitioners probing the boundaries of visual projection, makers who manipulate the apparatus in real-time, or opt against the single-screen rule. Here’s the US premiere of Vicki Bennett’s (PLU) three-screen Work, Rest, and Play, a tour de force of industrial-film re-purposing. Chickenfish is an Oakland-based threesome that daisy-chains laptops into a platform for live digital imaging and groovy sonic collage. OC fave Bryan Boyce leads the audience in the debut of his Highway to Hell karaoke. ALSO: David Cox’ 3-D “mind-shadow”, Christian Bruno/Natalija Vekic’s 2-proj. duet, and Cyrus Tabar’s Iranian family slides re-mix. PLUS marvelous cross-media pieces from Semiconductor, TV Sheriff, Craig Baldwin, et al. *$7

BACK TO THE LAND

SAT. 3/29: MELINDA STONE'S HOMESWEET HOMESTEAD +

Timed with the launch of her howtohomestead.org website, Melinda returns from the wilds of her NorCal Autonomous Zone with a lively show of short films and performances bearing on self-sufficiency and sustainable DIY lifeways. Included in the program are her Making Chicken Dinner, Pressing Apples, and The Humanure Cycle. ALSO Sam Sharkey’s Kombucha and You, Erik Knutzen’s Self-Watering Container, and Bill Daniel’s Underground Square Dance, among other 16mm cherries. Melinda and Sam lead the audience in singing the Natural Anthem, America the Beautiful, and Incredible Adventures of the Primitive Creature, with plenty of free homemade beer and wine to wet our whistles (and kazoos)!

OPTRONICA

SAT. 4/5: NATE BOYCE + WOBBLY + MURATA +

In this experimental intermedia live cinema lab, we showcase two pioneers exploring the interface between audio and video abstractions. Boyce premieres Plasma-Wielder, a hot-rodded hybrid of analog and digital systems enabling extreme image-processing. Later, his collaboration with Wobbly fuses pure electronic sound-generation with plunderphonics into a hypnotic continuum of perceptual discovery. A selection of historical and contemporary exemplars ground this evening of (neo-)psychedelic synthesis, including the Vasulkas, Adam Beckett, LoVid, LSD, and a new piece by Takeshi Murata. PLUS Unarius’ Restoration! *$7.

EAST-WEST ESSAYS

SAT. 4/12: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON NEW ASIA

Programmed by Sylvia Schedelbauer, here’s a pair of international artist-teams who address seismic cultural shifts centering on China and Taiwan. Emerging SF artist Yin-Ju Chen introduces a 20-min. set of video work—with the premiere of Transaction—lyricizing her personal cultural anxiety. Her suite of subjective insights is broadened in collaborative work with another OC favorite, Mr. James T. Hong: a first view of Divided and One, on the election in Taipei. Hong presents a sneak preview of his New History Zero (on Japanese historical revisionism), The Coldest War and Sino-American Friendship. The evening is anchored by the West-Coast debut of Maya Schweizer and Clemens von Wedemeyer’s Metropolis: Report from China, a riveting verité essay, produced by the Pompidou, that engages with the oft overlooked human agents of China’s staggering growth.

Cooked up by the Kat’s meow, filmmaker Kerry Laitala stirs her cauldron of cinemati

 

 

 

 

MONDO TOKYO

SAT. 4/19: MACIAS' OTAKU USA + GAMERA (AMPLIFIED) +

Here’s the national editor of Otaku USA, Patrick Macias, with his outrageous sub-cultural survey, taking us on a breathless wild ride through Weird Tokyo. With 3 books behind him, Patrick’s become the main agent for interpreting Japanese youth genres like anime, manga, and cult films, and his years of trans-Pacific travel have generated a veritable encyclopedia of bizarre fan-boy obsessions. Among the features of the feverish J-Pop imagination are the maid cafes of Akihabara, action-figure fetish cults (both erotic and warrior), costume role-playing, and delinquent bikers, revealed in all their exotic detail through Macias’ anecdote-rich live narration. Consummating the program is a monstrous sample of old-school exploitation, the incredible last reel of Gamera, the Invincible, in glorious 16mm B/W, with live soundtrack “enhancement” by Hans Grusel-san and the Anti-Ear. Free robot model kits and magazines, too! *$8.
ROCK EN ESPANOL


SAT. 4/26: LUCH LIBRE + ROCK'N'ROLL MADE IN MEXICO

In person, Gustavo Vazquez galvanizes our gallery with his new 50-min. doc on
Mexican wrestling, Que Viva La Lucha! Gustavo returned to Tijuana
many times over the years to capture these surreal scenes of extreme theater
in the sports arena. The masks, costumes, and characters often draw on
mythological figures like Robin Hood, or comic-book heroes like Spiderman,
or even corrupt politicians, cops, and other villains. In the show’s second half
we premiere Lance Miccio’s hr.-plus overview of the particular historical arc
of Mexican Rock—including visits with legends Fito de la Parra,
Javier Batiz, and Lalo Toral—from the innocent ‘50s, through the
oppressive ban from ‘71 to ’85, to the electronic present. Piñata! *$8.

 

MAY '68


SAT. 5/3: SKOLLER'S PROMISE OF HAPPINESS +

In conjunction with thousands of other tributes across the globe, our homage to the revolutionary fervor of 40 years ago is here focused on the Vietnamese War of Liberation. Jeffrey Skoller’s 35-min. meditation on the Southeast Asian nation four decades after the Tet Offensive affords a complex sense of the Revolution’s success. In person, Skoller unfolds his themes of utopia, democracy, and disappointment, in thoughtful opening remarks and engaged Q&A. Rhapsodizing on similar issues of national independence, but in dramatic stylistic contrast, Santiago Alvarez’s half-hr. 79 Springtimes of Ho Chi Minh is an acknowledged masterwork of Cuban cinema that advances anti-imperialist solidarity ever so artfully. Supporting this pair of poetic political essays are a passel of topical shorts: the U.S. Army’s Know Your Enemy, Mark Brecke’s War as a Second Language (trailer), Bill Daniel/Warren Haack’s SSSS, and Travis Wilkerson’s National Archives.

ERSATZ FACTS

SAT. 5/10: JESSE LERNER' S F IS FOR PHONY

Jesse is here in person to introduce his (and Alexandra Juhasz’) new anthology, subtitled Fake Documentary and Truth’s Undoing. Pseudo-documentary, mockumentary, disinformation, speculative essay, and avant-garde attack on
journalistic orthodoxy, these genres have long and fascinating histories; this book—and this evening—undertake a scholarly AND comic appreciation of this transgressive cinematic strain. Lerner holds forth before, between, and after excerpts of Spanish-American War newsreels,Luis Buñuel’s Land Without Bread, Elizabeth Subrin’s Shulie, Mitchell Block’s No Lies, William Karel’s Dark Side of the Moon, and Jesse’s own Ruins. Come early for artist’s reception, to browse the book and to get a signed copy from this Squire of Skeptical Inquiry. jam..

 
BLOBSQUATCH

SAT. 5/17: NOTENDO + POTTER-BELMAR +

In Carl Diehl’s paranormal polemic on Metaphortean Phenomena, circuit-bending, globsters, and glitches are advanced as missing links in techno-cultural evolution. The perceived obsolescence of blurry Bigfoot pics is reclaimed as an adaptive strategy to short-circuit saturated surveillance—a counter-narrative of radical ambiguity! Featuring Jason Jones’ Son of Sasquatch performance, noteNdo’s (also in person) live Nintendo hacking, Jesse England’s VCR-wrangling, and Gijs Gieskes, Phil Stearns, and LoVid’s electro-anomalies. The evening rounds out with the vidsonic trips of San Antonio’s Potter-Belmar Labs, improvising cine-miasmic trajectories thru Fortean space! Come early for Leonard Nimoy, Lori Surfer, Sam Green’s plaster Bigfoot, and Jefree Anderson’s UFO update. *$8.
LO-FI HI-JINX

SAT. 5/24: GERRY FIALKA'S PXL THIS FEST #17

As is our wont, we are welcoming SoCal cousin Gerry Fialka with the
much-anticipated iteration of his annual toy-camera extravaganza. In case
you didn’t know, Fisher-Price’s PXL 2000, now 20 years old, is a children’s
video camera that records on audiocassette, producing b/w images at such
a low resolution as to border on the abstract. The lightweight ease and
funky charm of this now-cult device has encouraged an idiosyncratic
aesthetic favoring personal confession and miniature commentary. Highlights
of this year’s line-up include Gerry’s own Remember to Forget,
Robert Sexton’s Disassembly Line (on CIA mind-control!), Theresa
Hulmes’ Soulgasm, Freya’s They Were Only Numbers, L.M. Sabo’s
Cataclysm, and 4-yr-old Donovan Selinger’s Gear Story. Doors open
at 8pm for Doug Katelus on the retro-tech Optigan, Gerry’s McLuhan-esque
insights into Korla Pandit, and black-and-white finger food!

Avant To Live

SAT. 5/31: NEW EXPERIMENTAL WORKS

Here’s an energized evening of new cinematic efforts that champion personal
expression and radical form. Constituting the season’s most exploratory
programming initiative—and with many of the makers in person—are
Roger Deutsch’s Act Your Age (world premiere), Martha Colburn’s
Waschdrang Mama, Tony Gault’s Count Backwards from Five, Andrew Wilson’s
I Love U, Thorsten Fleisch’s Energie!, Richard Mitchell’s Series:V2, Kurt Keppeler’s
Silver Cones, David Cox’ Dr. Yes 4, and Eli Marias/Amos Natkin’s Internal Camaraderie.
ALSO pieces by Sam Green, Ben Wood, Sylvia Schedelbauer, David Marino,
Yin-Ju Chen, Shalo P, Lauren Woods, and Killer Banshee. PLUS: Damon Packard’s
new Apple cut, Roger Beebe’s live-scored Tour/Tower, and DJ Onanist. *$7.