Sunday, December 5th, we're headed to San Diego California for a live show of Gravity at MOPA, the Museum of Photographic Arts. At first one would think this might seem weird that we're screening the film at a photo museum but, being that Gravity is actually made up of thousands of individual photographs lined up in true animated form, it is completely fitting! Our cellist John grew up in the San Diego area so I think it will be fun to go to this place I know nothing about with someone who hails from there! In honor of MOPA & John's hometown, here is a photo John took of me and Drew loading up the van after a recent Gravity live show! Finally some beautiful evidence of what John's been doing behind that camera for months- stunning John!
As a child I remember being obsessed with the California Raisins to an almost unhealthy degree, even refusing to go to the doctor unless I could get the pruned figurines I lustfully eyed in the window of the nearby toy store! So when I read that Will Vinton, the creator of The California Raisins and the Domino's Pizza Noid (You heard me, the friggin' NOID! Avoid the Noid!) to name a few, was going to be at The 2nd Los Angeles Animation Festival International I got pretty excited since we will be there too!
The 2nd Los Angeles Animation Festival International will be taking place at The Cinefamily at The Silent Movie Theater December 3-7, featuring a live performance of Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then on December 4th! I am super excited for this live show, with Brendan, Drew, John and Howe on the roster I think it's bound to be a good one! I am also super excited for all of the other festivities going on for this event too including a discussion with one of the Pixar animators behind the much acclaimed short Day and Night, a screening/discussion about Mtv's (past?) role in promoting progressive animation and even some vintage Vinton taking center stage with a new print of his rarely screened feature The Adventures of Mark Twain! And, it is all taking place in one of my favorite cities! Los Angeles! Can't wait for my second trip to this beautiful, glitzy, home of the movies!
People rarely come out to the barn unless it is on the way to somewhere else which is (thankfully) the case with our good friends Griff, Sterling & their beautiful daughter Vespertine (who all actually appear in the opening funeral scene of Gravity, Griff playing the priest with some very memorable stop motion acting!) who often swing by during holidays on their way to see family! Together we all (finally!!) went to Roadside America/Miniature Village, a place I've been eager to go to ever since I moved to Pennsylvania!
One man, as a child, had an idea while standing atop a Pennsylvanian mountainside looking across the built world below him to build his own little world depicting the history of American life complete with a circus parade, a train system, dinosaur filled caverns, a movie theater, a coal mining operation, a jail, churches, farms, a zoo- everything! There is even a grand finale that depicts the sun set & rise to the tune of "God Bless America" while projections of Jesus (?) & American milestones flash across a mural of the Statue of Liberty! When I saw this amazing display I immediately thought of the line from Gravity where Brent reminds "The truth of this whole thing is you have to build your own world," a truth that our film is a testament to in every way possible. We all create the place and life we live and we should do so with the good of everyone and everything else in mind- just like Leonard, just like Brent and even just like Laurence Gieringer the creator of Miniature Village! Now...to the turkey!
The first time I ever went to Brooklyn, NY as an adult I climbed into a giant white mini-van with my good friend Brendan and drove in to see a tiny band play in the backroom of a bar called Pete's Candy Store. As I moved between a little tin roofed stage, a christmas light lit backyard and a warm cozy counter to the tunes of the beautiful duo The Malarkies I made the decision to move as soon as I could. Pete's, which is located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, is pretty perfect so when Jamie Hook (a man of many talents including producing Guy Maddin's live show Brand Upon The Brain when it took place in NY & being the founding director of the Seattle non-profit Northwest Film Forum) asked me to ask Brent if he'd participate in a lecture series he was curating at Pete's I said yes before even asking Brent! Come see Brent lecture on Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then & watch me drink some warm, wintery cocktails next Monday at 7:30pm! Also, here are some ancient cell phone pics of my last Brooklyn neighborhood which happens to be right near Pete's (Concidence? Of course not!)- hope you can make it!
Well our Canadian adventure has come to a close but not without visiting the mighty Niagara Falls on our way between borders! What a vivid end to a very strange trip! Here is a picture of the natural wonder that is Niagara and also of the waterfall we slept beside during our stay at the animation festival. Thanks for the memories Canada!
Since we were a bit beat up from all of the stresses brought on by the delayed screening I didn't really get to see too many of the other films showing at The Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema. The fest is a pretty great idea, showcasing only feature length animations brought in from all over the world. Saturday the focus was on anime, a style I never really got. Watching anime is like watching a giant jagged collage of genres so flat and removed that I can't really hold onto any part of it but the assault on the senses can sometimes be a nice jolt out of reality I guess! Unfortunately we hit the road yesterday and missed the Eastern European stop motion attack that descended upon the festival! The Ugly Duckling , In the Attic and even the new film by the stop motion master Jan Svankmeyer all in one day! I've always loved the obvious hand evident in stop motion films and, after making our own, I watch them with a completely new respect and eye! Canada, once again bringing their animation love to the masses frame by frame!
After even more technical difficulties (!) Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then finally screened in the region of Waterloo Ontario! During a midnight (turned 1:15am) screening Saturday night a small, faithful audience lingered in the theater waiting to finally see the film. Drew, John and I even sat through the theatrical screening which left us all a bit shaken and provided a reminder about why we were all, despite the constant bad omens & false starts, in Canada in the first place. I think the same could be said for the staff of the festival who, after battling with an abused projector, also needed a reminder of the reason why all of us were huddled in a dark theater together into the wee hours of the night: to share the wonder of animated films! Here are some pics of Drew & John looking a bit dejected outside of the projection booth of the theater after attempting to help out in any way they could! Thank you guys! Your support really made a difference in calming some weary nerves!
Soooo...the show in Canada didn't exactly happen. A lot of factors ranging from projector issues to lighting complications made a (very patient and agreeable) audience sit for awhile while things were getting sorted out. We're attempting to re-schedule the live show but our busy schedule is making it a bit difficult! I think the real bummer about the situation is that the band we had amassed (Brendan, Drew, John , Mike & Alan) was sooooo amazing during soundcheck, and during various attempts to soothe a waiting audience, that it would have been an awesome show! I hope we get to play with this line up sometime in the near future! Now we explore Canada and it's various landscapes while trying to figure out how to make a screening happen!
We started off our road trip to Canada at Drew's house in Brooklyn with Stella the amazing dog! We collected John and our equipment (and some coffee) and hit the road! Brent ended up in Buffalo New York discussing his residency with HallWalls and speaking to a class at the University of Buffalo at the request of the legendary Tony Conrad and his band of cool, eager, lovely students so we picked him up along the way!
When we travel to these shows we slowly learn details about them as we approach the town and The Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema was no exception! This time we heard we were staying in a cottage, then we heard it was a cabin on a lake then we learned it was actually a mill on a waterfall! It is spectacular! As is the line up for the festival! O Canada, you are beautiful!
One last goodbye to Houston! I thought it was especially fitting when, upon arrival in NY to stay at a friends house, I met a man who was from Houston! After talking to him about a million different things I loved about Houston we both came to the conclusion that people tend to be quiet about how awesome that city is...I bet it is on purpose to preserve the greatness- so, forget everything I said! Houston is just ok! I can't lie. It is the best! New York I still love you too but all of the great people who flock to you all came from someplace that is usually just as interesting (and usually more affordable)! These trips always remind me that where you live is what you make of it and that you can make anything anywhere! Here is one last pic of the thing we made in Houston and even though I miss it I can't wait to be home to make things!
Brent performing his shorts at The Kitchen in 2008
One thing that seemed to keep creeping into the conversations of filmmakers during our time in Houston was the new trend toward live cinematic presentations. Filmmaker Esther Robinson seems to think that since filmmaking has become so accessible that this trend toward live film performance is a new way to push creativity in film, allowing an added variable to a medium that has saturated our culture through things like youtube and digitization. Esther is also interested in performing arts so she believes the live experience and the active presence of an audience (which after seeing the drastic changes in our live shows that often play off of the feeling of the crowd I completely understand) is something that people want more of in our isolated, passive film watching experience.
Other people seem to think the live film screenings are a way to combat the increasing loss of money from illegal downloading & the sudden lack of indie film support caused by the economic landslide. Filmmakers are getting paid to be present at live shows, live screenings (like concerts) are becoming a new viable way to be an independent film maker. But, the angle that interests me the most is editing...
Sam Green performing Utopia (photo from his site via Indiewire)
I don't know why but I am completely fascinated by the way that live film performance is like an onscreen editing process. Brent is constantly changing his narration, or changing the pacing of his narration, throughout our live screenings of Gravity and our improvised soundtrack is never, ever the same. Sam Green and his Utopia in Four Movements is a film made on a computer presentation software (like Powerpoint)- he is actually advancing slides and film clips on stage, editing right in front of us, in addition to his live slightly altered lecture-style narration. Even experimental filmmakers, like Martha Colburn, who play film reels and alter the speed and color live are editing what you are seeing right in front of your eyes and even adding a live on-the-spot soundtrack!
The immediacy of performing and editing a film live is really amazing. It shows the true skill that is involved in the filmmakers ability to control their unique style and present their vision of the world. I think live cinema is a new movement that has come about for a lot of reasons but mostly I see it as a way for filmmakers to be more active and present in their craft, an urgency and energy that channels the way we live today but into a more humanized connectivity, a real 3D connection in a sea of 3D glasses! Now, what to name this live film movement...? And who will write the manifesto? JkJk, please don't write a manifesto....!
Hair Dyeing in a Hotel Makes Me Feel Like a Hitchcock Leading Lady
Our second performance on Saturday was stellar! For some reason it was a particularly somber show (which was especially strange given that our Friday show was a bit unhinged and jangly) leaving many of the audience members, and even most of the band members, in a contemplative state long after the show was done. Unfortunately, my camera disagreed with the theater lighting so I didn't get any good band pictures...but I did get a nice shot of my foley table junk (below), and yes, that bell IS labeled "phone," and a pic of the well lit Mr. Brent Green on guitar & vocals!
Afterwards we loaded up and made it out to the closing party for the festival complete with delicious mini-cupcakes sparkling with multicolored sugar crystals and some of the best company one could imagine! I even watched as a friend of mine visiting from Austin blushed uncontrollably when she came to the realization that the man sitting next to her, Sam Green, was in fact the Sam Green who made The Weather Underground, a film that redefined the way she thought of documentary cinema! Being with friends and filmmakers, and all of the wonderful people who worked on this festival (too many to begin to name!) was a great end to the overwhelming feeling of love I have for Texas! Tomorrow I head to the eastcoast, as does Brent who had a brief detour over at the San Francisco International Animation Film Festival today for a screening of Gravity!
The panel that Brent was on about soundtracking film was pretty interesting I thought. The whole gang seemed to be coming from completely different angles on the subject which really led to me thinking about the process of filmmaking, and even the nature of creativity in general- nice work guys! One of the best parts of the panel was that it took place inside of this enormous multiplex theater complex! I can't help but love the spectacle of new moviehouses! The lights! The noises! The smells! It's all so overwhelming and otherworldly that just the theater is like it's own pre-film experience-it's great! Even better was that Brent was showing clips at the panel, which took place in a giant theater, so we got to go into the projection labryinth of the multiplex! WHAT!?!?
So awesome! Dozens of projectors beaming out to hundreds of audience members, buzzing and flickering, so cool! Also cool was seeing pieces of Gravity in a place like this with a huge sound and a huge image making me, literally, see the film unlike ever before! I guess that is another great/unique thing about this fest, being able to see rare or different films that one wouldn't normally see in this type of setting. If only there were more movies I wanted to see playing in theaters like this all the time!
We've been so busy, and so smitten with Houston, I haven't had time to update on where we are headed next! Brent leaves for California tomorrow to screen Gravity with a Q&A at the San Fran International Animation Film Fest while I head to the NY/NJ area where we'll meet up, collect various band members and end up at the opening night of the Waterloo Festival for Animated Cinema! A brief break and then a trip over to the Westcoast again for a few scattered shows & screenings in early December! I need to learn how to sleep with my eyes open...
Last night's show was pretty great! A standing room only theater, a serious John Swartz on cello (thank you Mr. Gold for lending us this beautiful instrument after many hesitant music shops refused us), a rocking Brendan Canty on drums & keyboard, a fluid Drew Henkels on theramin, guitar & various noise makers all under the direction of our warbling leader, Brent Green, made the show unlike any other! I really hope people can make it out tonight for our final night in Houston, I love this city & want to give it the beautiful send off it deserves! Tonight at 8pm at the Frenetic theater! (Also, Brent is on a panel today with a bunch of other wonderful artists & musicians about music & film, come & say hello! 1pm at the Edwards Palace Theater!)
The theater we are performing in is in the middle of nowhere in a factory space outside of downtown Houston. The building is located across the street from the best taco stand I have ever eaten at, a house featuring 10 chihuahuas with a gaggle of roosters and the smell of burnt toast (which is one of my favorite foods!) is always lofting through the streets. I really love the spirit of this neighborhood- complete with this lumbering dog making his way around the block in search of food and, I don't know, maybe love? He looks like he wants love. I hope he comes to our show! Or follows us back to Pennsylvania!
Yes, this is a real thing! Sent along to Drew by some of his intense Midwestern fans who are caravan-ing to the show as I type! Have a safe trip! See you soon!
We spent the pre-show day running various errands and setting up the stage. We got to hang out with Esther Robinson-the-Great whose Walk Into the Sea, a film about the disappearance of her uncle Danny Williams (the hypnotizing experimental filmmaker out of the Warhol factory scene), screened Thursday night. We also spotted a wandering Bill Plympton, a sound checking The Quavers and an entire college marching band from Lousiana as they waited for their rooms to be ready in a hotel, politely fanning out with various instruments and gold lame hat gear, spilling from lobby to parking deck but never forgetting to nicely open the door for every passerby!
Tomorrow & Saturday: OUR LIVE SHOWS! With Drew Henkels, John Swartz, Brent Green, Brendan Canty and me on live foley! Friday at 9:45pm & Saturday at 8pm at the Frenetic Theater.
A friend of mine kept telling me to go to Domy Books. I didn't think our schedule was going to allow but, while attending the pre-Vegas wedding bash for a kick ass lady of Diverseworks, we happened to park right in front of the store! A comprehensive compilation of everything one could want in a book store- art books, zines, Maya Deren DVDs, even a yard to screen movies late into the evening! Big thumbs up and love to the seriously knowledgable yet unpretentious staff too!
Later that night Brent and I stopped by the opening night event of the Houston Cinema Arts Festival located inside the breathtaking Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The main gallery when you first walked in had this amazing showcase of some of my favorite modern artists- a giant Rosenquist! A huge Calder mobile! So wonderful! It reminded me instantly that we should be so grateful to be allowed to make art &film and that I should never, ever forget the intensity that it can, and should, have.
We rounded out the evening at some weirdo 24 hour diner with the husband & wife filmmaking duo The Walleys! Hailing from San Antonio they create short documentaries that are expertly crafted. The editing of their films just pulls you along into the stories of their subjects and the music cushions the beauty even more! I really think they are a team to keep your eye on! Hope I can make it out to their showcase this weekend at the festival, in addition to all of the other fine events going on- including our Friday & Saturday live screenings!
Brent gave a lecture at University of Houston yesterday to a packed room of students and faculty! I think lecturing is one area where being an outsider artist shines through and can start a really useful conversation for a lot of students in a lot of ways. After the lecture Diane Barber (aka the coolest ever), co-director and visual arts curator of Diverseworks, whisked us away on a fantastic journey of art in the Third Ward area of Houston.
Our first stop was Project Row Houses. According to their website, their mission is: to transform community through the celebration of art and African-American history and culture. But I can't even begin to explain the many awe-inspiring ways they take on this mission. Project Row Houses does everything from act as a museum (with some of the houses being turned into site-specific installation work), provide low income housing to families in need, promote artistic & educational development and try to solve issues pertinent to the area (next on the agenda: food- with gardens and chickens already entering these yards in a place barren of a decent grocery store). I can't speak highly enough about the progression and love one could feel just being there. It was also the first time in my life that I wanted to be rich and donate all of my money to a very worthy cause!
Next up was Flower Man! Flower Man stood us up but just seeing the outside of Flower Man's home was enough to take in! A true folk artist, Flower Man started building his house after he had a vision of beautiful junk following a spell of drunken homelessness. He vowed to build his vision and to stay sober in the eyes of God. Even though I couldn't go inside, the exterior of Flower Man's visionary labor of love was a magical expression of his devotion.
This day was definitely in the spirit of Leonard Wood, the man whom Gravity was based on, building a house with his own hands to invoke a change. I hope everyone we met on today's journey can come out to screenings this weekend and see our film which is our own attempt at building and vocalizing the need for change!
I'm not always in the loop when it comes to these shows..so, when I found out that I have been ignoring Aurora Picture Show's involvement in helping to bring Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then down here to Houston I felt kind of dumb! Aurora Picture Show, started by the lovely mastermind Andrea Grover (who, since recently becoming her virtual friend on various wed based social networks, never ceases to amaze me with her intelligence and wit when it comes to not only technology & the arts but also when it comes to life in general) in 1998, is a non-profit microcinema/pop-up cinema/library/distributor/multimedia mecca that always programs & supports the next wave of cinematic arts! This trailer pretty much sums up their awesomeness! (See if you can spot Brent & company in it from when he did a live short show here a few years ago over at The Orange Show!)
Yesterday we didn't exactly catch up on sleep from our late nights of museum installation...instead we ended up ambling around the Heights area of Houston (picture of ice cream truck house) with various family members (picture of pigeon with head wound belonging to Brent's nephew) & art folks! We went to an insane house that was packed with all kinds of outsider & folk art but still managed to be a comfortable, livable home! The collection was insane- everything from a guitar made out of matches, a yard brimming with concrete squirrels, dozens of popsicle stick lamps...I am not doing it justice, you would have to see it to understand it's offbeat power!
The night ended with a trip to a gallery where a show of Negativeland's visual work was on display- including this spectacular animation! We also met some neat people there too including half of The Art Guys and Loreta Kovcic whose music is probably the best thing I have heard in awhile (like the strange charm of Tom Waits with catchy, classical Balkanesque-tinged melodies yet all in the guise of children's songs! Again, not doing it justice!). All this plus hanging out with the film lover/programmer Richard Herskowitz who is the Artistic Director behind the Cinema Arts fest we are participating in at the end of the week and whose taste and scope is unlike any other I've come in contact with throughout my recent film travels (and my extreme teenage film nerd-ery)! He gave me the schedule and there are just toomanythings I want to try to get to! Again, Houston and your people, you amaze me!
A lot of competing arts events lead to a nice, low key opening at Diverseworks Friday with plenty of beer, amazing food (those empanadas were so good I actually tried to get some inside info on the recipes from the chef/mastermind behind this mouth watering foodtruck! So good!) and even a little performance by Brent of one of his shorts to get Houston ready for the upcoming live shows next weekend! It was kind of sad to wake up Saturday morning and not have to go into Diverseworks, I really loved every second of my time there- from the wonderful/inspiring/hilarious staff, to the awesome building to the curatorial perfection- I am really sad to leave this place...sniffle...but, I am going to head over there this week and be sure to give sufficient hugs & props where hugs & props are due! Woot!
It seems like people want to talk to Brent about the film a lot lately! Which is pretty exciting! The best part about it is that we often get to chat with, and sometimes even hang out with, awesome people who we wouldn't have met otherwise (like Ramon who took this picture, and wrote this article! And the writer/actor Troy who plays the manager of Herman Brood in the recent production that has been rehearsing during our time installing this show!) this time around in Houston! And MarBelle the amazing over at Director's Notes who just posted this podcast he did recently with Brent!
Talking about the film with people is way more interesting than I could have imagined- everyone constantly, and unexpectedly, brings a new perspective that makes even us see it in a new way. I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone's thoughts and then sat there stunned saying "I never even thought of that...!" This whole experience of touring the film around and meeting those who watch it along the way really is eye-opening and, absolutely wonderful!
The morning of most art openings involves a lot of sweeping, the hauling of beverages & general sound maintenance and tonight's opening at Diverseworks is no exception! On a coffee run to keep us going today I walked under the Houston freeway and finally felt American. Houston is a great big driving city so I find it fitting that this artspace is tucked nearly under a roaring road, on a street called East Freeway to be exact!
I think that's why I really like this city, there is a creative community within this enourmous-money-driven place and the balance seems almost symbiotic (unlike New York where it feels like the city's money is eclipsing most other ways of being, besides rich). Alright, I got to go sleep somemore, I mean sweep...o how I wish it was the former!
When we started installing the show here the theater group, The Catastrophic Theater, that co-inhabits the space at Diverseworks was rehearsing. As we listened I immediately thought: "Those songs they are singing sound just like The Pixies. But different?" I thought it was a coincidence but it turns out that the play is based around a Frank Black/Black Francis album- the frontman for the legendary band! And it is being performed here! Out of all the musicals that could be here when we are here I am so glad it is this one! Maybe we'll get a chance to check it out when it opens this month? Ok, back to installing...here is a picture of Brent being an artist to the tune of '90s era alternative rock!
