UCLA Film and Television Archive and the Center for Visual Music (CVM) are pleased to present a new program of rarely screened films from the CVM collection, at The Billy Wilder Theatre at The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles on January 21, 2009. This evening features a range of works, from experiments by German film pioneers to light show psychedelia, and highlights the evolving technology and artistic sophistication of visual music and experimental animation. This new program curated by CVM includes little-seen films by Oskar Fischinger, Jules Engel, Charles Dockum, Mary Ellen Bute, John Stehura, David Lebrun, and Sixties Light Show films by Jud Yalkut/USCO and The Single Wing Turquoise Bird.

Several of the works in the show were designed to be used in performance contexts, light shows and other expanded forms of cinema, often with independent musical accompaniment, such as the 35mm ‘recreation’ film of Oskar Fischinger’s multiple-projector film performances from the mid-1920s. Accordingly, one of the themes that
emerges from this program is a dialogue between structure and spontaneity in visual music. A number of the films were made in Southern California, including early experiments in computer graphics from UCLA in the 1960s and Cal Arts in the 1970s. Many of the prints in this show represent recent preservation work by CVM.

The program will be presented by archivist/curator Cindy Keefer, and a Q&A will follow the screening with filmmakers Michael Scroggins, David Lebrun and Peter Mays.

Funding for the preservation of many of the films was provided, in part, by the National Film Preservation Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Jules Engel Preservation Project, Deutsches Filmmuseum and private donors. Mood Contrasts screened courtesy Cecile Starr.
The Billy Wilder Theatre is on the Courtyard Level, Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024. 310-206-8013. UCLA Film & TV Archive website: www.cinema.ucla.edu/calendar/calendar.aspx
FREE admission. 16mm/35mm. 7:30 pm show.
NOTE: As admission is free, UCLA does not offer advance reserved seating through their website.
Parking is available in the Hammer Museum structure, enter on Westwood Blvd.

Title list and film notes are at CVM’s website at:
http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org/VMEssenClassics.htm
and on UCLA’s Calendar page