Visions: Animation and Abstraction, 1908-1994
Wednesday, August 10th, 19h
Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., Seattle, Washington
Co-presented by the Sprocket Society and Third Eye Cinema
A must-see selection of outstanding animated and abstract experimental short films by some of the most highly acclaimed masters of the form(s). Brilliant classics utilizing collage, direct animation, visual music, and other time-space distortions that span nearly 90 years of exploration.
Featuring works by legendary filmmakers: Len Lye, Harry Smith, Mary Ellen Bute, Émile Cohl, Oskar Fischinger, Lawrence Jordan, Hans Richter, Ed Emshwiller, Stan Vanderbeek, Robert Breer, Stan Brakhage, Piotr Kamler, Jud Yalkut/USCO and more.
Showing rare 16mm prints from Canyon Cinema (San Francisco), The Film-Makers’ Cooperative (New York) and private collections (Seattle), using a 1,000-watt theatrical-grade projector. Program notes will be provided.
One show only!
Programme:
- Harry Smith: Mirror Animations (1956-57, 1979)
New print!
- Len Lye: five films — Rhythm (1957), Particles in Space (1967-1971, revised 1979), Tal Farlow (1960, 1980), Color Cry (1952), and Free Radicals (1958, revised 1979)
- Mary Ellen Bute: Mood Contrasts (1953)
New print! Rare screening of this pioneering work utilizing oscilloscopes.
- Emile Cohl: Fantasmagorie (1908, silent)
Among the first screen animations ever, beloved by the Surrealists.
- Oskar Fischinger: Allegretto (1936-1943, late version)
Outstanding, perhaps his most spectacular musical film.
- Robert Breer: 70 (1970, silent, color)
A neglected masterpiece in Breer’s considerable oeuvre, created using spray paint.
- Lawrence (Larry) Jordan: Gymnopedies (1966, tinted)
Legendarily beautiful surrealist cut-out animation.
- Ed Emshwiller: Thanatopsis (1962, b&w)
Award winning human pixilation with proto-industrial soundtrack.
- Stan Brakhage: Black Ice (1994, silent)
An usual step-printed work.
- Man Ray: Retour a la Raison (1923, silent)
New print! His first film, created for a Dada soiree in just 24 hours.
- Hans Richter: Everything Turns, Everything Resolves: Excerpt (1929)
The Dadaist’s first sound film
- Jud Yalkut: US Down by the Riverside (1966)
Swirling psychedelia made with USCO for a pioneering art exhibition.
- Stan Vanderbeek: Symmetricks (1972)
Pioneering computer animation produced at MIT.
- Piotr Kamler: Délicieuse Catastrophe (1970)
With electronic score by Robert Cohen Solal. Rare screening of work by the Polish-French master who worked with the great French electronic composers of the ’60s and early ’70s.
- Cecil Stokes: When the Organ Played ‘O Promise Me’ (ca. 1943)
Rare screening! An “Auroratone” abstract film made for psychotherapy, with the song performed by Bing Crosby. Shown as DigiBeta video (the only one of the program), transferred from a rare Kodachrome 16mm original.
Advance Tickets Available Now
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/e/175259
http://sprocketsociety.org/events/
http://www.nwfilmforum.org/
http://www.nwfilmforum.org/live/page/calendar/1823