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Lisa Barcy
Woman Without a Past
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Jesse Seay
Likes to Do Other Things
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MakeOut Club
Grad Screening @ Busker
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In association with the Video Data Bank
and the Gene Siskel Film Center,
the department curates a weekly series of programs, often presented by visiting artists. Since its inception
in September 2001, "Conversations At The Edge" has become Chicago's most important venue for the latest trends
in media. The department of Film Video and New Media has created an exciting new forum for the discussion of
alternative media practice and experimentation; an opportunity to bring to a wider audience works that challenge
the conventions of both form and subject matter. Recent visitors have included John Smith, Lynne Sachs, Jeanne C. Finley,
Montieth Mc Collum, Bruce LaBruce, James Benning, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Cecilia Dougherty, Ximena Cuevas, Kenneth Anger,
Eleanor Antin, Jon Jost, Keely Macarow, Zoe Beloff, Robert Beavers, Jennet Thomas, Shari Frilot, Harun Farocki,
Donigan Cumming, Chris Harris, as well as presentations from many of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's own faculty.
CURRENT Conversations At The Edge programs are listed below and available on the
Gene Siskel Film Center's website.
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Conversations At The Edge
2005 Season
FEBUARY 2005
EMPATHY
TH 2005.02.10 8:00 PM
2003, Amie Siegel, USA, 92 min.
Amie Siegel in person!
Native Chicagoan poet, filmmaker and media artist Amie Siegel has garnered recognition worldwide for her subversive
and provocative style in her filmic explorations of voyeurism. Tonight she brings us EMPATHY, a feature that
investigates the tricky intimacy between psychoanalysts and their patients, combining a mosaic of genres including
narrative fiction, documentary, screen tests and TV parody. EMPATHY has been praised by critics internationally as
"Funny! Amazing! Fascinating!" (Die Welt), "Humorous and Illuminating" (IndieWIRE) and "Seriously playful! Shrink
veritÿ!" (Village Voice) in its exploration of performance and identity, authority and gender, voyeurism, sexual
exploitation, disclosure, and the boundaries between truth and fiction. The Department of Film, Video and New
Media is proud to welcome home this alumna. 35mm. (KJ Mohr)
AN ANIMATED VALENTINE
a program curated by Jim Trainor
TH 2005.02.17 8:00 PM
1934-2002, various directors, USA & France, TRT85 min.
In the afterglow of Valentine's Day, or its aftermath, we present ten animated films to tickle your spirits, or further
crush them. Love is the subject, and many are the splendors, from Chuck Jones' interspecies tearjerker FEED THE KITTY
(1952, 7 mins.) to the excruciating first date of Don Herzfeldt's LILY AND JIM (USA, 1997, 13 mins.). A forgotten
masterpiece, JOIE DE VIVRE (Hector Hoppin and Anthony Gross, France, 1934, 11 mins.) is an erotic Art-Deco bookplate
come to life, while an eerie sort of tenderness suffuses Suzan Pitt's primal-scene drama CROCUS (USA, 1971, 7 mins.).
16mm & 35mm. (Jim Trainor)
Also on the program:
HER FRAGRANT EMULSION. Lewis Klahr, USA, 1987, 11 mins.
LETTERS, NOTES. Stephanie Barber. USA, 2000, 3 mins.
LOVE STORY. Signe Baumane. USA, 1998, 4 mins.
MILK. Cat Solen, USA, 2002, 7 minutes.
THE MOSCHOPS. Jim Trainor. 13 mins.
WINDY DAY. John and Faith Hubley. USA, 1967, 9 mins.
An Evening with Steve Reinke
TH 2005.02.24 8:00 PM
1989-2005, Steve Reinke, Canada/USA, 73 min.
Steve Reinke in person!
This evening's screening will celebrate the release of acclaimed and controversial filmmaker Steve Reinke's book Everybody
Loves Nothing: Video 1996 - 2004. Reinke will present selections from his video work including: PAINTER, the reconstruction
of an audio-letter from a newly-married military wife to her in-laws in 1968; the gracious reduction of an emotionally
distraught monologue, J.-P. (A REMIX OF "TUESDAY & I" BY JEAN-PAUL KELLY); a contemporary reworking of Harry Smith's
"Anthology of American Folk Music," ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK SONG; and the premiere of 14 INTRODUCTORY STATEMENTS AND A
CONCLUDING RECONSTRUCTED WALK. "Like being splashed in the puss with a BEDPAN of PLENTY!" (George Kuchar) Beta SP. (KJ Mohr)
MARCH 2005
Films by Stephanie Barber
TH 2005.03.03 8:15 PM
1997-2005, Stephanie Barber, USA, 57 min.
Stephanie Barber in person!
Prolific Milwaukee-based filmmaker and artist Stephanie Barber has been featured in solo shows at the New York Film Festival's
Views From the Avant-Garde and the Museum of Modern Art's Cineprobe series and has established herself over the past decade
as an extraordinary and singular filmmaker, winning awards and acclaim at festivals and venues all over the world. Tonight
Barber brings us a diverse selection of her work, including: her classic, FLOWER, THE BOY, THE LIBRARIAN; the love-it-or-hate-it
world of talking sock DOGS; METRONOME, a film about the loss of love; the necessarily participatory TOTAL POWER DEAD DEAD DEAD;
SHIPFILM; LETTERS NOTES; and the world premiere of Barber's latest creation, CATALOG. Barber will discuss her films throughout
the presentation of this short work. 16mm. (KJ Mohr)
BROTHER TO BROTHER
TH 2005.03.10 8:00 PM
2004, Rodney Evans, USA, 90 min.
Rodney Evans in person!
Rodney Evans worked as a screenwriter and editor on numerous indie successes and made his autobiographical festival hit film,
Close To Home, before writing and directing this award winning feature. BROTHER TO BROTHER, encountered popular and critical
acclaim as it hit festivals last year and is enjoying theatrical runs worldwide. The story of a young gay man's coming of age
in the Harlem Renaissance, BROTHER TO BROTHER, premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Prize
for passion of subject. The film had its European premiere at The Berlin International Film Festival in February, 2004 and was
recently nominated for 4 IFP Spirit Awards including Best First Film and Best First Screenplay. This dramatic narrative film
invokes the glory days of the Harlem Renaissance through the memories of Bruce Nugent, who co-founded the revolutionary literary
journal Fire!! with Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and Wallace Thurman. As an elderly man, Nugent meets a young black gay
artist struggling to find his voice and together they embark on a surreal narrative journey through his inspiring past.
www.brothertobrotherthemovie.com 35mm. (KJ Mohr)
Sabine Bitter & Helmut Weber present LIVING MEGASTRUCTURES
TH 2005.03.17 8:00 PM
2003/4, Sabine Bitter & Helmut Weber, Venezuela/Germany/Austria, 25 min.
Sabine Bitter & Helmut Weber in person!
Austrian artists Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber have been working in tandem since 1993 on projects addressing urban geographies,
architectural representations and related visual politics. Their projects have included "Caracas, Hecho En Venezuela", "Live
like this!" and "CITYtransformer", most recently, they mounted a billboard entitled "SuperCitizen" in Los Angeles. Bitter &
Weber engage with moments and sites of globalization, as they are materialized in architecture and mediated through photography,
video and new media technologies. They have participated in Johannesburg and SÊo Paulo Biennale, and have mounted projects all
over Europe, as well as the Americas. In their 2003/4 project LIVING MEGASTRUCTURES they interviewed people in Caracas,
Venezuela, investigating the limits of appropriation and the effect of architecture on social and spatial relations. Tonight
they will share that tape and discuss their prolific body of contemporary media work.
www.lot.at DVD. Spanish with English
subtitles & live presentation. (KM)
SISTERS IN CINEMA
TH 2005.03.24 8:00 PM
2003, Yvonne Welbon, USA, 62 min.
Yvonne Welbon in person!
Yvonne Welbon's films and videos work to create a stronger media presence for African American women. Her award winning biographical
(Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100), autobiographical (Remembering Wei Yi fang, Remembering Myself...) and narrative
(Taste of Dirt) films have been screened on cable, public television, at universities and community centers, and in film and video
festivals around the world. SISTERS IN CINEMA is the much anticipated video companion to her print resource guide for and about
African American women feature filmmakers, offering an overview of the lives and the films of African American women feature film
directors from the early part of the century to today. Not finding her cinematic sisters in Hollywood, Welbon set out to find them
outside of the system. This documentary profiles that history from Zora Neale Hurston's ethnographic films in the 1920's to
contemporary makers such as Euzhan Palcy, Julie Dash, Cheryl Dunye & Maya Angelou. In addition to her production and research
work, Welbon has successfully self-distributed all her films, becoming a noted resource on the subject. The Department of Film,
Video & New Media is delighted to welcome this alumna to Conversations.
www.sistersincinema.com BetaSP. (KM)
Films by James Duesing
TH 2005.03.31 8:00 PM
1983-2003, Jim Duesing, USA,
James Duesing in person!
Computer animator and video artist James Duesing's work has been exhibited around the world in venues as diverse as Sundance, PBS,
The Berlin Video Festival, MTV, Shanghai Animation Festival, Film Forum and the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art.
Tonight he shares a program of work including: IMPETIGO, a story of passion and possession in a steamy nocturnal landscape; a
painful look at modern realities, TUGGING THE WORM; the apocalyptic MAXWELL'S DEMON; LAW OF AVERAGES, which takes place in a lush
garden where lovers meet and an addictive interactive theater called Big Ghost; and TENDER BODIES, a sinister yet humorous story
that imagines a time when genetic experiments become an elite hobby. A discussion with the artist will follow the screening.
www.art.cfa.cmu.edu/duesing/ 16mm & 35mm. (KM)
APRIL 2005
Activist Videos by Lina Hoshino
TH 2005.04.07 8:15 PM
1997-2005, Lina Hoshino, USA/Japan, 65 min.
Lina Hoshino in person!
Lina Hoshino's award-winning videos deal directly with grassroots media and art activism.
Tonight she shares a diverse group of documentary and animated shorts: BEAUTY AND THE CREASE
(1997, 1 min.), a commentary on Japanese cosmetic aspiration; STORY OF MARGO (1997, 7 min.),
a compelling doc about a sex worker; A MIGHTY FORTRESS (2000, 2 min.), an animated critique
of the World Bank; the story of the human cost in the building the Guatemalan CHIXOY DAM
(2000, 5 min.); Hoshino's new experimental video HIDEKO (2005, 5 min.), the fascinating
story of the artist's mother; and her latest doc, CAUGHT IN BETWEEN (2004, 30 min.), which
revisits the dark days of Japanese American wartime incarceration in light of post-9/11
repression of Muslim and South Asian communities. DVD and Mini-DV video. (KJ Mohr)
The Animated World of Maureen Selwood
TH 2005.04.14 8:15 PM
1995-2005, Maureen Selwood, USA, 55 min.
Maureen Selwood in person!
Revered contemporary animator Maureen Selwood uses distinctive meshes of live footage and hand
drawing, blending image and text to create work that is praised for its joyous eroticism and
buoyant wit. Tonight's visual treats include: the reconstructed found-footage narrative MISTAKEN
IDENTITY (2001, 28 min.); lost-love humor in HAIL MARY (1999, 4 min.); metaphoric allusions
drawn from childhood memories in FLYING CIRCUS: AN IMAGINED MEMOIR (1995, 11 min.); the romantic
Roman shadows of AS YOU DESIRE ME (2003, 6 min.); and her newest project, a Power Point
presentation entitled DRAWING LESSONS (2005, 6 min.). 35mm, DV video, and Power Point. (KJ Mohr)
LIPSTICK & DYNAMITE
TH 2005.04.21 8:00 PM
2005, Ruth Leitman, USA, 90 min.
Ruth Leitman in person!
Conversations at the Edge is delighted to present this special screening event with acclaimed
documentary filmmaker and FVNM faculty member Ruth Leitman (WILDWOOD, NEW JERSEY; ALMA). Her new
film LIPSTICK & DYNAMITE, a documentary about "the first ladies of wrestling," has met with huge
success at festivals worldwide and will begin theatrical runs this spring. Blender magazine
called it "Utterly enthralling. . .the first film ever to appeal to feminist study groups and Hulk
Hogan fans alike." Full of outstanding archival footage of wrestlers like The Fabulous Moolah and
Johnnie Mae Young, LIPSTICK & DYNAMITE deals with the hard lives and hard work these superstars
created for themselves, filled with sex, money, injuries, intrigue, and competitive passion.
35mm. (KJ Mohr)
A special SAIC reception (open to the public) to celebrate this applauded faculty member and her
latest achievements will proceed the screening at 7:00 pm.
LO-FI LANDSCAPES: PICTURES FROM THE NEW WORLD
TH 2005.04.28 8:00 PM
2003-5, Bill Brown and Thomas Comerford, USA, 60 min.
Thomas Comerford & Bill Brown in person!
Beloved filmmakers (and SAIC faculty and former faculty, respectively) Thomas Comerford and Bill
Brown follow-up their 2002 Lo-Fi Landscapes Tour with a new program of films about the space of
history and the history of spaces. The program includes Brown's history of the western expansion
MOUNTAIN STATE (2003, 22 min.); Comerford‰s LAND MARKED/MARQUETTE (2005, 23 min.), a series of
four films that tell stories of French Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette and various Chicago
monuments associated with him; and the collaborative CHICAGO DETROIT SPLIT (2005, 10 min.),
a juxtaposition of chance encounters between these two midwestern cities. 8mm and 16mm. (KJ Mohr)
APRIL 2005
BURNT ORANGES
TH 2005.05.05 8:00 PM
2005, Silvia Malagrino, Argentina/USA, 90 min.
World premiere!
Silvia Malagrino in person!
Award winning artist and educator Silvia Malagrino's career spans over the past 20 years. Conversations is
proud to present the world premiere of her new documentary, BURNT ORANGES. Seeking to unravel the fabric of complex
long-term effects and repercussions, personal and social, of her native Argentina's 1970's state terrorism, Malagrino
travels to Buenos Aires. Juxtaposing an intimate first person witness narration with interviews, documentary and
re-created footage dealing with issues of memory, historical time, identity, love, loss and accountability, the doc
celebrates the ongoing individual and collective efforts to process, to confront, and to heal the effects of the
political violence of the past. In BURNT ORANGES, Malagrino explores the intricacies and the conflicts of memory and
how the past reverberates in the present. DVCPRO
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