From Arforum :

Bruce Conner, a San Francisco–based artist known for his assemblages,
films, drawings, and interdisciplinary works, passed away Monday
afternoon. Conner moved to San Francisco in 1957 and quickly found his
place within the city’s vibrant Beat community. His gauzy assemblages
of scraps salvaged from abandoned buildings, nylon stockings, doll
parts, and other found materials gained him art-world attention, as did
A Movie (1958), an avant-garde film that juxtaposed footage from
B movies, newsreels, soft-core pornography, and other fragments, all
set to a musical score. (In 1991, A Movie was selected for
preservation by the United States National Film Registry at the Library
of Congress.) Conner was active in the Bay Area’s 1960s counterculture
scene, designing light shows for Family Dog performances at the Avalon
Ballroom, and in the ’70s focused on drawing and photography. Art-world
recognition resumed in the ’80s and continued to the present: Conner
was included in the 1997 Whitney Biennial, was the subject of a touring
survey in 1999–2000, and is featured in the current Carnegie
International. At Conner’s request, there will be no funeral.

PARAKINO: Summer Film Workshops
28 - 30 VII 2008

In the first meeting we can experience off movies, and, getting to know it, to understand the essence of movie language, experience what creating a multimedia picture is and how conventional forms of film are far from reality.

Each day shall be finished with viewing independent movie productions.
1. Independent of culture - cross review of polish off movement:
2. Laughter of off - selection of funny movies: mocking, parodying, absurd.
3. Punk Off - off video clips- independent music and off movies have a lot in common, and this created practically with no budget video clips, a specific esthetics. To know better the phenomenon, we present video clips, among others, of: Plastic Bag, Pornohagen, Psychocukier, Mikrowafle, Cedskie Chlopaki, Farben Lehre, Mith&Mitch and a movie. " Propaganda Utopii"

The aim of the workshop is to introduce participants in fundamental secrets of movie production, discussion on chosen examples and on the task - producing a short movie.

CSW LAZNIA // kurator cyklu PARAKINO
htto://www.laznia.pl
[email protected]

Grand Prize:

- Bachelor Machines Part I & Part II (Rosalind Nashashibi, Scotland, 2007)

2nd Prize:

- Victory over the Sun (Michael Robinson, USA, 2007)

3rd Prize:

- Public Domain (Jim Jennings, USA, 2007)

Honourable mentions (in alphabetical order):

- Androa Autoportrait (Matthias De Groof and Kristin Rogghe with Androa Mindre Kolo, Belgium/ DR Congo, 2006)

- Bay Bridge from Embarcadero (Guy Sherwin, England, 2004/2007)

- Dislocated Smaller Parts (Bruce McClure, USA, 2008)

- Golf House and Grey Heron II (Helga Fanderl, Germany, 2006)

- Land of Cockaigne (Rachel Reupke, England, 2007)

- Observando el Cielo (Jeanne Liotta, USA, 2007)

- Room of Chromatic Mystery (Arthur & Corinne Cantrill, Australia, 2006)

- RR (James Benning, USA, 2007)

- Sidewalk (Karl Kels, Germany, 2008)

- Sketch Film #5 (Tomonari Nishikawa, Japan, 2007)

- Take into the air my quiet breath (Speculative Archive, USA, 2007)

The jury:

Amy Beste is Director of Public Programming for the department of Film, Video & New Media at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she organizes the visiting artist series "Conversations at the Edge" at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Vincent Grenier has been making experimental films and videos since the early 1970s. His films have been exhibited at the Pompidou Centre, the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), and countless other international venues and festivals. Grenier is currently Chair of the Cinema Department at Binghamton University in New York.

Mike Sperlinger is Assistant Director of LUX, London, which holds the UK's most significant collection of artists' film and video. He has contributed to publications including Frieze, Radical Philosophy and Art Monthly, and recently edited the book "Afterthought: New Writing on Conceptual Art (Rachmaninoffs, 2005)

The Museum of Contemporary Cinema Foundation is now accepting applications for the 2008 grants. Two grants in the amount of 4,000 Euros each are available this year. The grants are open to experimental films, as well as experimental film installations and
performances. The deadline is May 15th, 2008. The entry form and information can be downloaded at : www.moccfoundation.org