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Program 1
The Dwellers
An ode to dwellers everywhere, whether in the city, country or the dry plains of the desert. Documentary and surreal images explore notions of home and how we place ourselves in the world, both physically and mentally. With live music by Silian Rail and Paper Boats.

El Rio
Tues September 12 at 8:30pm. Rain or Shine
(Free BBQ @ 6:30pm)
3158 Mission St @ Precita in SF.
(415) 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

PROGRAM 1
The Dwellers

PROGRAM 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective

PROGRAM 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence

PROGRAM 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation

PROGRAM 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations

PROGRAM 6
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 7
Surveillance Times

PROGRAM 8
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 9
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 10
Wishing World

PROGRAM 11
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films

The Boy in the Air
Lyn Elliot
2005, 2 min, Color, Mini-DV, US
A letter to an advertising company turns into an earnest yet humorous comment on American consumer culture.

Dear Bill Gates
Sarah Christman
2006, 16 min, Color, Mini-DV, US
West Coast Premiere
A simple correspondence evolves into a poetic visual essay exploring the well-documented co-optation of our visual history and culture. Combining original and archival images, video and images from the internet, Dear Bill Gates draws unexpected connections among mining, memory and Microsoft.

Deep Woods
Alison O'Daniel
2006, 6 min, Color, Mini-DV, UK
US Premiere
Part of a series, this performative video lures its male participants through the filmmaker's enticing yet vague Web advertisements.

Winter Return
Chelsea Walton
2006, 1 min, Color, Mini-DV, US
World Premiere, Filmmaker in Person
A moody stop-motion peek at a city.

Untitled 2
Angela Reginato
2006, 3 min, Color, Mini-DV, MX
World Premiere, Filmmaker in Person
A visual essay about dissent and political corruption, Untitled 2 imagines the memories of a little girl.

Boll Weevil Days
Susan Simpson
2005, 7 min, Color, 16mm, US
Northern California Premiere
Set against the background of real and imagined Southern California disasters, Simpson's film re-conceptualizes the disaster narrative. The safety and ease of home gives way to waves of devastation. In the midst of repeated blows, two figures take turns rescuing and doctoring one another with extreme care and tenderness. A fragile paper city and yellowing pictures of rescue workers from the 1930s creates an elliptical portrayal of intimacy in the face of oblivion.

Viewmaster Documentaries with Live Narration
Greta Snider
2001 4 min Color UK
3D Glasses provided.

This project reclaims the 3D Viewmaster reel, with an engaging and insightful version of its hokey tourism and half-baked patriotism.

Erick Lyle: My Life on Mission Street
US Premiere
A symphony of color and movement, Lowder uses frame-by-frame photography taken with a hand-held camera to witness vibrant flowers and seaside pastimes.

Rigo 23: Street Artist
US Premiere
Local hero Rigo challenges San Francisco with his simple and profound large-scale outdoor paintings that invite city dwellers to think about their relationship to their neighborhood and their world, when least expected.

Bill Basquin: Community Gardens
Filmmmaker and urban gardener, Basquin reveals the mysteries and possibilities of agriculture in the urban city - from high heat compost to humanure.

Test Sites
Rich color slides of the Nevada nuclear test sites come alive, and ultimately show devastation in this document of American history.

things lovely and dangerous still
Maryam Kashani
2004, 12 min, B/W, 16mm, US
Filmmaker in Person
Inspired by the great American poet June Jordan, things lovely... is a visual poem about street culture and city life. In her writings and work as an educator and humanitarian, Jordan battled injustice and intolerance in the most intimate layers of the heart and at the outermost edges of the earth. This film incorporates her writing with images of exterior street life and personal moments of people in the filmmaker's life, as well as images of the civil rights movement. A meditative tribute to California and to a revolutionary poet.

Learn Welding at Home
Sabina Nieto and Brendan Bock
2005, 3:30 min, B/W, 16mm, US
Filmmakers in Person
Sparks fly high in this hand-processed, dreamy look at welding.

Terra Firma
Kerry Laitala
2005, 7 min, 35mm, B/W, US
Filmmaker in Person
Creating a gorgeous homage to San Francisco, the city that survived the 1906 earthquake, the filmmaker incorporates a series of found images (by Eadweard Muybridge and other photographers) and a decaying nitrate print of the 1905 film Trip Down Market Street. Architectural motifs immerse the viewer in details of the city's Victorian sensibility. Underground shots of cables and machinery call attention to the new technology of transport prevalent during this period and to the equipment used to make the film. Muybridge appears as an apparition, and harbinger of destruction. Terra Firma is a moving love letter that speaks to city dwellers everywhere.

 

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Program 2

Program 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective
A selection of the best 16mm films by local filmmakers that have screened at MadCat over the years! Plus stunning new works. Filmmakers in Person.

El Rio
Wed, Sept 13 El Rio, 8:30 pm, Rain or Shine
(Free BBQ @ 6:30pm)
3158 Mission St @ Precita in SF.
Tix: $7-20. 21 and over.
Tix available in advance or at the door. Cash Only.
(415) 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Co-presented by: Frameline


PROGRAM 1
The Dwellers

PROGRAM 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective

PROGRAM 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence

PROGRAM 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation

PROGRAM 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations

PROGRAM 6
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 7
Surveillance Times

PROGRAM 8
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 9
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 10
Wishing World

PROGRAM 11
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films

Eclipse
Jeanne Liotta
2005, 4 min, Color
Bay Area Premiere
Using lush, light-sensitive Kodachrome film, Eclipse is an abstract documentation of a lunar eclipse. Anticipation and fear grow as the soundtrack evokes the rumble of unseen fighter jets overhead.

Standing at Ground Zero
Chris Willging
2001 17:30 min, B/W
With haunting original music and the calm and thoughtful words of one soldier turned pastor, Standing at Ground Zero profiles Warren Kremi, who witnessed Nagasaki just after the atomic bomb was detonated. The director uses archival footage and Kremi's own photographs from the time to create a stirring account of war, accountability and humanity.

Numerical Engagements
Chelsea Walton
2004, 4 min, Color
This hand-processed, optically printed love poem explores an intimate, roaming rendezvous. Solemn and provocative, the rhythm of editing resembles a heartbeat.

Our Gay Brothers
Greta Snider
1993, 5 min, Color/B/W
Gay boys share what they really think about girls.

Tomboy
Donna Carter
1997, 4 min, B/W
An autobiographical essay exploring the pressures on girls to conform to female stereotypes, this film contains a confrontation between a tomboy and every tomboy's nemesis, Barbie, who has an unfortunate run-in with a train.

Tumbleweed Town
Samara Halperin
1999, 7 min, Color
Join Todd, the Tonka Cowboy, on his hitchhiking adventures through Tumbleweed Town, where gay cowpokes roam the Texas plains looking for love.

Arapadaptor (I Fell So)
Anna Geyer
2002, 4:26 min, Color
CA Premiere Lyrics about making out are combined with eerie groans and creeks. Geyer applies a flashlight and laser to caterpillars, cicadas and seeds and melds these cameraless images and found sounds to create a sexy, scary movie.

Flip Film
Ellen Ugelstad
1999 1:10 min, B/W
This award-winning film takes its viewers on a bumpy ride through San Francisco, using a series of stark black-and white photographs to create a "flip book" film.

Transfixed
Kerry Laitala
2005, 7 min, Color
West Coast Premiere Bridging the gap between past and present, a series of pictures transcribe moments of cautionary pleasure submerged in undulating illusions of liquefied light and shadow.

Adam
Andrea Stoops
1996, 3:50 min, Color
Incorporating stop-motion clay animation and 2D animated paintings, Stoops takes a humorous look at a budding lesbian, gender-bending and the playground.

Contemplating the City (Contemplando la Ciudad)
Angela Reginato
2005, 3:30 min, B/W
Perfectly without affect, a girl sings along with a pop tune, transporting herself through space and time to Mexico City circa 1978.

Safety In Numbers
Amy Harrison
1999, 6 min, Color
Hailed by a psychotherapist as a "touching portrayal of mild obsessive compulsive disorder with a touch of agoraphobia," this film explores one woman's attempts to quiet the chaos in her mind.

Sorry, Brenda
Samara Halperin
2000, 3 min, B/W
Re-editing scenes from the TV show Beverly Hills 90210, Halperin creates a love affair between two unlikely characters.

 

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Program 3

Program 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence
These unique documentaries depict women with entirely different approaches to gaining independence. In a water deprived Iranian village, Atefeh stands alone defending her fields from Mother Nature's arid whims. Unafraid of hard work and tough negotiations, Atefeh stands her ground, a lone woman, to save her livelihood. In The Angelmakers, several women in a small town in Hungary change their fate and that of the town through a series of irreversible acts of desperation.

Artists’ Television Access
Fri, September15 at 7:30pm.
992 Valencia Street at SF.
(415) 824 – 3890
Tix: $7-20. Cash Only. www.atasite.org

Co-presented by:
Center for Asian American Media

PROGRAM 1
The Dwellers

PROGRAM 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective

PROGRAM 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence

PROGRAM 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation

PROGRAM 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations

PROGRAM 6
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 7
Surveillance Times

PROGRAM 8
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 9
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 10
Wishing World

PROGRAM 11
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films

Water and Atefeh
Nahid Rezaei
2001, 42 min, Color, Mini-DV, Iran
US Premiere
A portrait of a strong-willed, unconventional woman who works hard to save her fields in an arid region of Iran. While the entire nation suffers from drought, Atefeh makes every effort to irrigate her farmland. A struggle of wills, Atefeh negotiates with local workers, easily taking on different tactics to get what she needs. Sweet-talking and spearheading tough negotiations, she works with government engineers and laborers to lead natural ground water to her fields. Her hard-working energy and independent presence can only hint at how difficult it is to live a solitary life as a woman in Iran. While her world is far from lonely, she struggles to settle in her home amidst the chaos of her daily life.

The Angelmakers
Astrid Bussink
2005, 30 min., Color, Beta SP, Scotland/Hungary
West Coast Premiere
The Angelmakers is an observational portrait of the sleepy village of Nagyrev in rural Hungary. We meet its inhabitants who share with us their daily lives and their memories of the village's tainted past. We gradually come to understand the extent of the "arsenic murders" that took place in 1929, when a large group of women were held responsible for poisoning their husbands using the so-called "flypaper" method. Reticent about this period in their history for many years, they reveal intimate details through an intriguing web of memories, which recapture old but everlasting tales of life, death, and the struggle between the sexes.


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Program 4

Program 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation
Take an erotic musical tour of the sensual and obscene, go behind the scenes of Norman McLaren's innovative animation, and journey through cut-out, puppet, hand-drawn and computer animated worlds.

El Rio
Tuesday September 19 at 8:30pm
(Free BBQ @ 6:30pm)
3158 Mission St @ Precita in SF.
(415) 282-3325. www.elriosf.com
Tix: $7-20. 21 and over.
Tix available in advance or at the door. Cash Only.

Co-presented by:
BAVC

PROGRAM 1
The Dwellers

PROGRAM 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective

PROGRAM 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence

PROGRAM 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation

PROGRAM 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations

PROGRAM 6
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 7
Surveillance Times

PROGRAM 8
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 9
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 10
Wishing World

PROGRAM 11
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films

Hunting
Jae Jung Ahn
2005 1:36 min Color Mini-DV
West Coast Premiere
A little look at a big fish.

Phantom Canyon
Stacy Steers
2006 9:30 min B/W Beta SP US
World Premiere, Filmmaker in Person
A curious woman meets an alluring man with bat wings in this personal recollection of a pivotal journey, animated from more than 4,000 handmade collages and featuring figures from Eadweard Muybridge's Human and Animal Locomotion, first published in 1887.

Human Nature
Stine Gonsholt
2006 1:40 min B/W Mini-DV Norway
US Premiere
A stick figure runs, and runs, and runs…

The Table
Jelena Girlin and Mari-Liis Bassovskaja
2004 18min Color Mini-DV Estonia
SF Premiere
Enter an apocalyptic setting filled with puppet people that is at the same time futuristic and archaic. An ethereal tour de force which uses an eerie beauty to depict a surprisingly morbid side of love.

What a Riot
Johanna Spoerri
2006 1min Color Mini-DV US
World Premiere
With sounds from the actual Tompkins Square Park riots of 1988 and The Clash hit song, this animated "docutoon" What a Riot depicts the melee.

Walk for Walk
Amy Lockhart
2005 10min Color 16mm Canada
West Coast Premier
Enter a surreal, hyper-colorized, ever-changing world where something's just not right, but, boy, is entertaining. A variety of babies lead us through the story: Warm Baby, Mister Baby, Rich Baby, and others. Created using more than 1,000 hand-painted paper cutouts, puppets and backgrounds.

The Wall
Eva Ovijanovic
2006 2min Color 16mm Canada
US Premiere
A hand-drawn, painted and cut-out animation tracing a journey to, or through, a wall.

McLaren's Negatives
Marie-Joseé Saint-Pierre
2006 10min Color Mini-DV Canada
US Premiere
This stop-motion homage to animation hero Norman McLaren reveals the man behind the images. McClaren is caught off guard and in his element in this beautifully animated, award-winning documentary.

The Truth About Lemmings
Suzanna Buehl
2005 1:44min Color Mini-DV US
World Premiere Filmmaker in Person
Buehl uncovers the real story behind these notorious animals.

The Carnival of the Animals
Michaela Pavlåtovå
2006 11min Color Beta SP Czech Republic
US Premiere
This erotic animated musical takes viewers on a sensual and obscene tour of the lives of lascivious characters looking for love anywhere they can find it. Men, women, birds and their prey roam parks, restaurants and back alleys searching for pleasure in a fantastical world where genitals pop up in the most unexpected places.

Plastic Fantastic #1
Samara Halperin
2006 1min Color Mini-DV US
World Premiere Filmmaker in Person
America's favorite ballgame food goes wild. With live music by Paper Boats and Stormy Night.

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Program 5

Program 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations and the Vladmaster
NY filmmaker Zoe Beloff brings us a 3D 16mm film and slide show performance and Vladimir, the Viewmaster maven presents her amazing series.

El Rio
Wed, September 20 at 8:30pm.
(Free BBQ @ 6:30pm)
3158 Mission St @ Precita in SF.
Tix: $7­20. 21 and over. Tix available in advance or at the door. Cash Only.
(415) 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Co-presented by: SF Cinematheque


PROGRAM 1
The Dwellers

PROGRAM 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective

PROGRAM 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence

PROGRAM 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation

PROGRAM 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations

PROGRAM 6
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 7
Surveillance Times

PROGRAM 8
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 9
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 10
Wishing World

PROGRAM 11
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films

Claire and Don in Slumberland
Zoe Beloff
2002, 30 min, Color, 16mm, 3D Slides, US
SF Premiere, Filmmaker in Person
Enter the psycho-fantastical, hyper-colorized world of Claire and Don inSlumberland. For the first time in San Francisco, Beloff presents this 3D slide and film projection performance. Narrated with actual psychology films from 1949, this bizarre journey follows Claire and Don as they are hypnotized and asked to allow their subconscious to roam in "a free-floating fever dream of the Cold War era." Slumberland combines the futuristic yet wonderfully dated feel of Barbarella with the earnest scientific films of the 1950s that demonstrate innovations in early psychology and hypnotism. Beloff transforms the viewing experience by asking the audience to don 3D glasses and believe in Claire and Don¹s excursion into the unknown, while simultaneously making a poignant comment on postwar fear and anxiety.

The program begins with the following 16mm films from Beloff¹s own collection.

Child Analysis ­ Psychoanalytic Sanitarium, Stamford, Conn. Part II
Dr. L. Pierce Clark
1931 10 min, B/W, Silent, US
TClark, a psychoanalyst who pioneered child analysis in the US, documents his patient, Ned, a 19-year-old epileptic. The doctor demonstrates his very particular ideas about treatment, which involve role-playing and the acting out of fantasies with the analyst.

Mysterious Mose
Max and Dave Fleischer
1930, 6 min, B/W, US
A phantasmal creature enters Betty Boop's house. "Who I am or what I am nobody seems to know, Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh"

Bubbles
Max and Dave Fleischer
1922, 6 min, B/W, US
An amazing mix of live action and animation starring Koko the Clown, a creature from the wiId who is in a constant state of metamorphosis.

Home Movies
Leon V. Korfod
1945, 2.5 min, Color, Silent US
One hundred feet of unedited, lush Kodachrome home movies shot in an unidentified dinosaur park and at Mount Rushmore.

VLADMASTERS!
For the first time, MadCat is proud to host Vladimir in person. Like Madonna and Cher before her, Vladimir is a single-name wonder! Hailing from Portland, Oregon, this 28-year-old wiz has been handcrafting and selling her own Vladmaster disks since 2003. Vladmasters are Viewmaster slides that she makes by hand. She then invites a talented group of musicians and artists to create original scores and record storylines for her quirky narratives.

The Public Life of Jeremiah Barnes 2004
On March 19, 1992, a pilot flying low over the Cascade foothills noticed an unusual number of orange forms dotting the forest floor. Further investigation revealed 86 earthmoving vehicles, idle and overgrown with weeds, spread across five acres of forest. This Vladmaster incorporates dioramas built from model railroad men and 55-cent plastic bulldozers. Most of the objects are no larger than one-inch high.

Actaeon at Home 2005
This mysterious tale of life lost and the solitude of writing has no narration, only the wondrous sounds of a trio of musicians known as the Apt Ensemble. Listen carefully and you will hear everything from a pump organ and a tuba to a musical saw and a train whistle. This story is also the only Vladmaster photographed entirely in glorious black and white.

Fear & Trembling 2006
CA Premiere
A subjective narrative about finding a little-known escape route from the terrors of a dinner party. Featuring a found sound-collage by Morgan Hobart.

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Program 6

Program 6
Maquilapolis
This screening is a co-sponsored by Global Exchange and the Wellstone Democratic Club. Partial proceeds go to benefit these organizations.

Grand Lake Theater
Thurs Sept 21 7:30pm
3200 Grand Avenue, Oakland
(510) 452 – 3556. www.grandlaketheater.com
Advance credit card ticket sales available by calling Global Exchange (415) 255-7296
Cash or Debit at the door. All Tickets

Co-presented by Film Arts Foundation

PROGRAM 1
The Dwellers

PROGRAM 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective

PROGRAM 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence

PROGRAM 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation

PROGRAM 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations

PROGRAM 6
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 7
Surveillance Times

PROGRAM 8
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 9
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 10
Wishing World

PROGRAM 11
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films

Maquilapolis
Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre
2006 60min Color Beta SP US/Mexico
Northern California Premiere, Filmmakers and Film Subjects in Person
This intimate documentary shares the lives of some members a tightly knit community that sits in the shadow of one of Tijuana's 800 maquiladoras, multinational factories that thrive off Mexico's cheap labor force. Carmen, a single mother and one of the more than one million Mexicans employed at the maquiladoras, works making television components six nights a week for six dollars a day. She comes home to a shack she built out of recycled garage doors, in a neighborhood with no sewage lines or electricity. At 29, she already suffers from kidney damage and lead poisoning from her years of exposure to toxic chemicals. However, Carmen is far from a victim—she is a dynamic young woman, busy making a life for herself and her children. Carmen and her friends, some of whom become promotoras (community-based activists), reach beyond the daily struggle for survival to fight for workers' rights. They take a major television manufacturer to task for violating labor rights and pressure the government to clean up a toxic waste dump left behind by a departing factory. The women, armed with the video cameras Funari and De La Torre provide, also document their lives, their city and their hopes for the future. As they work for change, the world changes too: a global economic crisis and the availability of cheaper labor in China begin to pull the factories away from Tijuana, leaving an entire community with an uncertain future.

Preceded by
South of Ten
Liza Johnson
2006 10min Color 35mm US
West Coast Premiere Using the decimated landscape of the Mississippi Gulf Coast as its backdrop, South of Ten restages the extraordinary routines of survivors of Hurricane Katrina. A girl flees a makeshift tent city. A man finds a trombone amidst the rubble. A worker watches the ocean from under a moving house, while its owner gazes at the view from her shifting living room. In ten vignettes, residents of the destroyed Mississippi Gulf Coast act out scenes of their everyday lives and the relentlessness of labor now required in their extreme terrain.

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Program 7

Program 7
Surveillance Times
Renegade independent radio stations keep activism alive by stealing from the omnipresent corporate airwaves. Phone conversations are overheard and surreptitiously recorded. Ubiquitous video cameras capture a steady stream of unguarded moments. These innovative documentaries reveal the power of modern surveillance technologies, the incumbent whittling away of civil liberties and the upending of notions of privacy.

Artists' Television Access
Fri, September 22, at 7:30pm.
992 Valencia St. @ 21st in San Francisco
Tix: $7-20. Cash Only.
(415) 824–3890,www.atasite.org

Co-presented by:
SF Cinematheque and The Exploratorium


PROGRAM 1
The Dwellers

PROGRAM 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective

PROGRAM 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence

PROGRAM 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation

PROGRAM 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations

PROGRAM 6
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 7
Surveillance Times

PROGRAM 8
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 9
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 10
Wishing World

PROGRAM 11
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films

Tune In
Esther Johnson
2006, 14:30 min, Color, 16mm, UK
World Premiere
Follow the fascinating world of amateur radio operators, better known as Radio Hams. Dealing with the politics of space and social communication, this film blends documentary and abstract audio to reflect a world that bridges both do-it-yourself and state-of-the-art technologies.

The Intimacy of Strangers
Eva Weber
2005, 19:35 min, Color, Beta SP, UK
West Coast Premiere
A clandestine film crew prowls the streets of London capturing phone conversations that take place in public. Weber "steals" these intimate moments and explores the ever-shrinking gap between private and public spheres. She weaves seemingly random exchanges into a modern-day love story, from first attraction to bitter end, creating an anonymous dance of life, love, loss and hope.

How Little We Know of Our Neighbours
Rebecca Baron
2005, 49 min, Color, Mini-DV, US
SF Premiere
This innovative documentary traces photography's evolution from staid portraiture to the introduction in the 1880s of the handheld camera, which moved photography out of the studio and into the streets. For the first time, subjects could be photographed in public without knowledge or consent. Baron simultaneously investigates Britain's Mass Observation Movement (MOM) — the surreptitious use of photography to record and scrutinize public behavior. MOM was an eccentric social science enterprise founded in England in the late 1930s, which combined surrealism with anthropology. The film follows the history of the movement from its inception as a progressive, if naïve, "anthropology of ourselves" through its reincarnation as a civil spy unit during World War II, and its eventual emergence in the 1950s as a market research firm. Baron examines MOM's history and the ways in which it is echoed in a range of present-day phenomena, from police surveillance to Web cams and reality television, illustrating how our notions of privacy and self-identification have changed.


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Program 8

Program 8
Charming Augustine
A story of love, madness and the loss of control in glorious 3D.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Sat, Sept 23, 7:30pm
701 Mission Street at Third in San Francisco
(415) 978–2700
Tix: $9. Cash or Credit Cards.
Tix available in advance or at the door.
www.ybca.org

Co-presented by:
SF Cinematheque

 

PROGRAM 1
The Dwellers

PROGRAM 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective

PROGRAM 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence

PROGRAM 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation

PROGRAM 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations

PROGRAM 6
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 7
Surveillance Times

PROGRAM 8
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 9
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 10
Wishing World

PROGRAM 11
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films

Charming Augustine
Zoe Beloff
2005, 40 min, B/W, 3D 16mm, US
West Coast Premiere, Filmmaker in Person
3D Glasses supplied

This surreal 3D film was inspired by a series of photographs and texts on hysteria published in the 1880s by the insane asylum Salpêtrière, in Paris. Based on a case study of the young Augustine who, at fifteen, was admitted to the hospital after suffering from hysterical paralysis, the film re-imagines her psychosis, exploring the connections between the attempts to document her mental states and the prehistory of narrative film. The doctors were captivated by Augustine's frequent attacks, which appeared extraordinarily theatrical and photogenic. She became a star, the "Sarah Bernhardt" of the asylum.
To conjure this era that predates the moving image, Beloff films in a stereoscopic or 3D format to suggest a different direction that cinema might have taken had it been invented a decade earlier.

Preceded by
Case History of a Multiple Personality
Dr. Cornelius C. Wholey
1923-31, 20 min, B/W, 16mm, Silent, US
Wholey attempts to present the various personalities of his patient Mrs. X, whom he believed was suffering from major hysteria. These include: "Susie — a childish, immature, devil-may-care actor," "Jack — a male member of the multiple personality group," and "The Baby — Mrs. X in regression to the mental age of one year."


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Program 9

Program 9
Maquilapolis
This screening is co-sponsored by Global Exchange and the Wellstone Democratic Club. Partial proceeds go to benefit these organizations.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Sun, Sept 24, 7:30pm
701 Mission St. @ Third in San Francisco
(415) 282-3325. www.ybca.org
Tix: $9. Cash or Credit Cards.
Tix available in advance or at the door.

 

PROGRAM 1
The Dwellers

PROGRAM 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective

PROGRAM 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence

PROGRAM 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation

PROGRAM 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations

PROGRAM 6
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 7
Surveillance Times

PROGRAM 8
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 9
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 10
Wishing World

PROGRAM 11
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films

Maquilapolis
Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre
2006, 68 min, Color, Beta SP, US/Mexico
Northern California Premiere, Filmmakers and Film Subjects in Person
This intimate documentary shares the lives of some members a tightly knit community that sits in the shadow of one of Tijuana's 800 maquiladoras, multinational factories that thrive off Mexico's cheap labor force. Carmen, a single mother and one of the more than one million Mexicans employed at the maquiladoras, works making television components six nights a week for six dollars a day. She comes home to a shack she built out of recycled garage doors, in a neighborhood with no sewage lines or electricity. At 29, she already suffers from kidney damage and lead poisoning from her years of exposure to toxic chemicals. However, Carmen is far from a victim—she is a dynamic young woman, busy making a life for herself and her children.
Carmen and her friends, some of whom become promotoras (community-based activists), reach beyond the daily struggle for survival to fight for workers' rights. They take a major television manufacturer to task for violating labor rights and pressure the government to clean up a toxic waste dump left behind by a departing factory. The women, armed with the video cameras Funari and De La Torre provide, also document their lives, their city and their hopes for the future. As they work for change, the world changes too: a global economic crisis and the availability of cheaper labor in China begin to pull the factories away from Tijuana, leaving an entire community with an uncertain future.

Preceded by South of Ten
Liza Johnson
2006, 10 min, Color, 35mm, US
West Coast Premiere
Using the decimated landscape of the Mississippi Gulf Coast as its backdrop, South of Ten restages the extraordinary routines of survivors of Hurricane Katrina. A girl flees a makeshift tent city. A man finds a trombone amidst the rubble. A worker watches the ocean from under a moving house, while its owner gazes at the view from her shifting living room. In ten vignettes, residents of the destroyed Mississippi Gulf Coast act out scenes of their everyday lives and the relentlessness of labor now required in their extreme terrain.

 

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Program 10

Program 10
Wishing Worlds
Works from Pakistan, The Netherlands, Germany and France follow lunatics in search of a homeland, young lovers in a surreal musical, an underwater struggle, and much more.

El Rio
Tues, September 26 at 8:30pm.
(Free BBQ @ 6:30pm)
3158 Mission St @ Precita in SF.
Tix: $7­20. 21 and over. Tix available in advance or at the door. Cash Only.
(415) 282-3325. www.elriosf.com

Co-presented by: 3rd i Film Festival, Microcinema International, and Casting Connection


PROGRAM 1
The Dwellers

PROGRAM 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective

PROGRAM 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence

PROGRAM 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation

PROGRAM 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations

PROGRAM 6
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 7
Surveillance Times

PROGRAM 8
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 9
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 10
Wishing World

PROGRAM 11
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films

Engine Without Fire
Sabrina Montiel-Soto
2003, 15 min, Color, 16mm, France
US Premiere
A futuristic jaunt is catapulted into action by a single genetically modified orange. It rolls, and rolls, and rolls. The adventure begins, when an explorer discovers it during one of his expeditions.

Toba Tek Singh
Afia Nathaniel
2006 1min Color Mini-DV US
West Coast Premiere
It is 1947. The newly created governments of India and Pakistan wish to exchange lunatics as they would political prisoners. Bishan Singh, a Sikh confined in an insane asylum for the past 15 years, doesn't know if his hometown (Toba Tek Singh) is now located in India or in Pakistan. This tragicomic narrative is a search for identity in a world gone suddenly mad.

Going Home
Diana Rumjahn
2006, 4:36 min, Color, Mini-DV, US
SF Premiere Filmmaker in Person
Three homeless stuffed animals travel far in search of their mother.

When We Are Big
Eveline Ketterings
2006, 6:42 min, Color, Mini-DV Netherlands
US Premiere
An underwater meditation about power and control, deliberately shocking in its ferocity.

Oh Deer
Chungmin Moon
2005, 5:39 min, Color, Mini-DV, New Zealand
US Premiere
An earnest animated musical portrayal of one half-human half-deer individual and her relationship with an array of creatures.

Exploding Buds
Petra Schröder
2005, 20 min, Color, Mini-DV, Germany
US Premiere
This highly stylized narrative combines camp, unexpected humor, and teen sensuality with the best of a Hollywood musical. Two girls share an intimacy, sequestering themselves in a surreal world of make-believe. When one of them stumbles into the real world and into the arms of a handsome young man, the girls are shaken from their dream state. They enter a new reality—albeit one filled with the unexpected twists and turns that only song and dance can convey.


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Program 11

Program 11
Charming Augustine
A story of love, madness and the loss of control in glorious 3D.

Pacific Film Archive (PFA)
Tues, September 26, 7:30pm
2575 Bancroft Way in Berkeley
(510) 642–5249
Tix: $9. Cash or Credit Cards.
Tix available in advance or at the door.
www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/

PROGRAM 1
The Dwellers

PROGRAM 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective

PROGRAM 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence

PROGRAM 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation

PROGRAM 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations

PROGRAM 6
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 7
Surveillance Times

PROGRAM 8
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 9
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 10
Wishing World

PROGRAM 11
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films

Charming Augustine
Zoe Beloff
2005, 40 min, B/W, 3D 16mm, US
West Coast Premiere, Filmmaker in Person
3D Glasses supplied

This surreal 3D film was inspired by a series of photographs and texts on hysteria published in the 1880s by the insane asylum Salpêtrière, in Paris. Based on a case study of the young Augustine who, at fifteen, was admitted to the hospital after suffering from hysterical paralysis, the film re-imagines her psychosis, exploring the connections between the attempts to document her mental states and the prehistory of narrative film. The doctors were captivated by Augustine's frequent attacks, which appeared extraordinarily theatrical and photogenic. She became a star, the "Sarah Bernhardt" of the asylum.
To conjure this era that predates the moving image, Beloff films in a stereoscopic or 3D format to suggest a different direction that cinema might have taken had it been invented a decade earlier.

Preceded by
Case History of a Multiple Personality
Dr. Cornelius C. Wholey
1923—31, 20 min, B/W, 16mm, Silent, US
Wholey attempts to present the various personalities of his patient Mrs. X, whom he believed was suffering from major hysteria. These include: "Susie — a childish, immature, devil-may-care actor," "Jack — a male member of the multiple personality group," and "The Baby — Mrs. X in regression to the mental age of one year."


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Program 12

Program 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films
A multi-projection performance and contemporary silent films are accompanied by The Secrets of Family Happiness and Tartufi.

El Rio
Wed, Sept 27 El Rio, 8:30 pm, Rain or Shine
(Free BBQ @ 6:30pm)
3158 Mission St @ Precita in SF.
Tix: $7-20. 21 and over.
Tix available in advance or at the door. Cash Only.
(415) 282-3325.www.elriosf.com

PROGRAM 1
The Dwellers

PROGRAM 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective

PROGRAM 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence

PROGRAM 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation

PROGRAM 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations

PROGRAM 6
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 7
Surveillance Times

PROGRAM 8
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 9
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 10
Wishing World

PROGRAM 11
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films

Bloodless Landscape
Sally Golding
2006, 20 min, Color and B/W, 16mm, Australia
US Premiere, Filmmaker in Person
This improvisational dance of light and movement is accompanied by live experimental sound by Joel Stern. An investigation of psychic noise, the cinematic apparatus, and expanded possibilities of performance, Golding manipulates three projectors simultaneously, using handmade film, feedback systems, contrapuntal Foley noise, exposed sprockets and flicker, along with a collection of lenses and prisms.

Callisto
Courtney Hoskins
2003, 2:51 min, Color, 16mm, US
Temperature sensitive liquid crystal paints, a common ingredient in mood rings, is used to create the outer space feel of Callisto. Hoskins uses an air blower to create the bubbly molten lava look of this film.

Europa
Courtney Hoskins
2003, 7:18 min, Color, 16mm, US
The filmmaker animates dish soap with the grooves of her fingertips and superimposes super-8 aquarium footage to generate a three-dimensional underwater futuristic experience.

Fever
Sheri Wills
2000, 3:15 min, Color, 16mm, US
Red and yellow sheets of color billow in a silent wind.

Orbit
Kerry Laitala
2006, 7 min, Color, 16mm, US
Filmmaker in Person
Candy-apple light emissions create a series of stimuli that tickle the retinas—a playful pulsation of mis-registered images made when a lab accidentally split the film from 16mm to Regular 8. Kodachrome color fields create tremulous vibrations, which hypnotize with their flickering beauty.

Worry and My Mother
Lauren Biller
2006, 1:45 min, Color, Mini-DV, US
World Premiere, Filmmaker in Person
Biller addresses her sense of loss by destroying 16mm home movies.

Corpus Christi
Anna Lange
2006, 7 min, B/W, the Netherlands
US Premiere
Inspired by a story told by an old nun about a monastery's communion host bakery and the pig they fattened with the waste and later consumed. This quasi-documentary collage plays subtly with associations on the theme of give and take, which eventually approaches the secret of Holy Communion.

Xylitol
Seema Kapur
2005, 3 min, Color, 16mm, US
Northern CA Premiere
A look at the stillness in hysteria.

On Alzheimer's
Vanessa Woods
2006, 7:56 min, Mini-DV, US
SF Premiere, Filmmaker in Person
This lyrical and solemn study of an Alzheimer's diagnosis is both an homage to a loved one and a prism to refract one woman's mental deterioration. Woods respectfully animates family photographs, interior shots of her grandmother's apartment and possessions, and the filmmaker's diary. Words and imagery repeat themselves, emulating the mental obfuscation of the disease.


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Installation

Video Installation
Installation constructed by Rebecca McBride and Gracie Bucciarelli

Artists' Television Access
www.atasite.org

992 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 902-1499

PROGRAM 1
The Dwellers

PROGRAM 2
Local Ladies: A MadCat Retrospective

PROGRAM 3
Rural Women: Finding Independence

PROGRAM 4
Motion Stopped: An Evening of Animation

PROGRAM 5
Psycho Vision: 3D Hallucinations

PROGRAM 6
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 7
Surveillance Times

PROGRAM 8
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 9
Maquilapolis

PROGRAM 10
Wishing World

PROGRAM 11
Charming Augustine: A 3D Film

PROGRAM 12
A Quiet Storm: Live Music Set to Silent Films

Artists' Television Access
Ongoing in ATA's storefront window through September

Suspended Series #2 (Bay Bridge)  Amy Hicks  2005, 4:15 min, Color, US A commute becomes a fantasy of flight.Invasion of Cracow   Jadwiga Kowalska  2006, 1:15 min, Color, Switzerland US Premiere The Space Invaders descend on the city of Cracow.Stasis (video)-Mountain  Pavitra Wickramasinghe  2005, 2:37 min, Color, Canada US Premiere A distant mountain becomes an unrecognizable smudge.Intermittent Delight  Akosua Adoma Owusu  2006, 4:20 min, Color, US World Premiere West African Batik and found footage create charged juxtapositions.Chalazae  Samantha Krukowski  2005, 5 min, Color, US CA Premiere The wonder of eggs.Meditation VII: Anxiety   Vonda Yarberry  2003, 3:14 min, Color, US Northern CA Premiere An experimental animation exploring the anxieties of the quotidian.Sweet Suite  Anita Bacic and Natalie Woodlock  2006, 40 sec, Color, Australia US Premiere This cell-phone created video features a biscuit living room with icing on top.Night Walk  Fabienne Gautier  2004, 7 min, Color, France Bay Area Premiere An improvised walk through Paris at night. Rockabilly  Liselotte Wajstedt  2005, 8:41 min, Color, Sweden US Premiere Reindeer dance in a snowy field in Northern Sweden. Numbers  Anabela Costa  2005, 21:35 min, Color, Portugal A computer-generated journey through time. Usando a John  Paulina Velazquez Solis  2005, 1:10 min, Costa Rica, SF Premiere Line-drawn animation depicting a boy with an unusually low voice. Anxiety Invention  Meredith Root  2006, 3 min, Color, US West Coast Premiere An orchestra of crickets moves through a landscape charged with anxiety. Finding the Right Moment  Cecilia Lunqvist  2005, 4:24 min, Color, Sweden US Premiere When do we want it? Now!

 

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