my critical eyes are blood shot
Ok. I've watched 53 movies for screening committees so far...and I have about 30+ left to go! I can do this! Stay with me folks! Don't get me wrong, I love doing this but some days...some days I feel like the movies are watching me? (Has that been a horror movie yet? Movie Watches Man? Man, any horror movie fests out there need a screener? No, Donna, NO! Stay focused!) Understandably, I am finding it hard to write about film lately since it is consuming a lot of my waking hours so, in the meantime, I will leave you with some pretty interesting film-centric links to tie you over until my brain is ready to wrap around some blog-style thoughts on film...Note: WebMD suggests the following for my movie worn
eyes, "Apply a washcloth soaked in warm water to tired, dry eyes (with
eyes closed)."
1. Mono No Aware is an organization dedicated to film (actual film!), expanded cinema (yay!), and different forms of manipulation of the filmic medium (think film reel looper light boxes or prisms casting off projections). An annual exhibition of performances, installations, and sculptures will be happening this Friday & Saturday (December 6th & 7th) in Brooklyn at Lightspace Studios. I think this is required viewing for anyone who has ever looked at that beam of light coming from a whirring projection booth and thought about what could happen in, around, in front of, or with it!
2. Little known fact about me: I wrote my college undergrad thesis on the editing, cinematography, and film genre bending in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive and how they created their own character/audience/director. Yeah. It probably didn't make sense then either... Either way, I did feel a little sense of satisfaction when I recently read that Roger Ebert (along with 1,000 other people) in Colorado in 2002 close read this film, out loud, nearly frame by frame trying to define the lexicon of symbols that hovered around the film like a floating camera over a characters shoulder in a diner, a diner whose dumpster is home to a terrifying ghoul of death (it is still scary! AAAAAHH!)!
3. Youtube had some kind of awards ceremony. Which would seem unimportant if it wasn't for the fact that youtube, and others like it, really has revolutionized the way we access media and even, to some extent, the way, the type and the quality with which new media is produced, a new award for a new platform. Yes. I didn't watch the event but I have watched some clips and there is this awesome staged w/sets, in camera effects broadcast, and a real music video online quality specifically for youtube watchers, mixed with live music performance for a live audience- the two modes feeling very separate in a new way, unlike any other award show event production I have really ever seen. This weird hybrid reminded me of the best of cable access & it's simple DIY spirit, of the risky, and the slightly scripted messes that make live performance, all a nice wake up from overly executed contemporary Hollywood & the overly edited-in-post-mostly-acted non reality of reality tv.
4. And, lastly, some random shorts/promos I found and like just now:
2. Little known fact about me: I wrote my college undergrad thesis on the editing, cinematography, and film genre bending in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive and how they created their own character/audience/director. Yeah. It probably didn't make sense then either... Either way, I did feel a little sense of satisfaction when I recently read that Roger Ebert (along with 1,000 other people) in Colorado in 2002 close read this film, out loud, nearly frame by frame trying to define the lexicon of symbols that hovered around the film like a floating camera over a characters shoulder in a diner, a diner whose dumpster is home to a terrifying ghoul of death (it is still scary! AAAAAHH!)!
3. Youtube had some kind of awards ceremony. Which would seem unimportant if it wasn't for the fact that youtube, and others like it, really has revolutionized the way we access media and even, to some extent, the way, the type and the quality with which new media is produced, a new award for a new platform. Yes. I didn't watch the event but I have watched some clips and there is this awesome staged w/sets, in camera effects broadcast, and a real music video online quality specifically for youtube watchers, mixed with live music performance for a live audience- the two modes feeling very separate in a new way, unlike any other award show event production I have really ever seen. This weird hybrid reminded me of the best of cable access & it's simple DIY spirit, of the risky, and the slightly scripted messes that make live performance, all a nice wake up from overly executed contemporary Hollywood & the overly edited-in-post-mostly-acted non reality of reality tv.
- When I was 6 or 7 at the local county fair there was a balloon festival. In attempts to make proper race weight a balloon operator needed a scrawny kid and pointed at me. I declined because I didn't want to leave my friend behind at the fair with my parents. This beautiful, time lapse hot air balloon video makes me regret my decision even more. I know mom, I know, I should have gone...sigh...
- Ryan Trecartin (the maker of grotesque, John Waters-ish, spazzy, high pitched, experimental, layered, brightly colored art films) is like the internet: he always seems to mesmerize AND bore me? His new one is no different!
- O, and Laure Provoust, a conceptual French artist working in London, won the coveted Turner Prize- like a lot of money & prestige for weird art that you'd think wouldn't make money on it's own but does- they give out in England annually. I know nothing about her work but this video , this video I like!
posted by Donna K. at
1:59 AM
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