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Spring 2008
 February 27, 2008, Wednesday, 7:00PM
Location: Coolidge Corner Theatre - Movie House II
Balagan & the Harvard Film Study Center presents:
Santiago by João Moreira Salles (Director in person)
João Salles is one of Brazil's foremost documentary filmmakers. In 1992 he began shooting a film about Santiago, the butler in his childhood home who left an indelible mark upon the family and had written over 60,000 pages of stories about the people and things that surrounded him. Salles did not finish the film for 13 years until Santiago's death rekindled Salles determination for a conclusion.
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 March 19, 2008, Wednesday at 8PM
Location: Carpenter Center for Visual Art-Harvard University - 24 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA
Balagan, Mass College of Art Film Society and the Harvard Film Study Center presents:
Peggy and Fred in Hell by Leslie Thornton (Director in person)
Peggy And Fred In Hell is one of the strangest cinematic artifacts of the last 20 years, revealing the abuses of history and innocence in the face of catastrophe, as it chronicles two small children journeying through a post-apocalyptic landscape to create their own world. Breaking genre restrictions, Thornton uses improvisation, planted quotes, archival footage and formless timeframes to confront the viewer's preconceptions of cause and effect.
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 March 27, 2008, Thursday, 5:30PM
Location: Museum of Fine Arts Boston- 640 Huntington Ave., Boston
Balagan & the Muesum of Fine Arts presents:
Selections of Shorts from the Black Maria Film Festival
Since 1981, the annual Black Maria Film and Video Festival, an international juried competition and award tour, has been fulfilling its mission to advocate exhibit and reward cutting edge works from independent film and videomakers. The festival is known for its national public exhibition program, which features a variety of bold contemporary works drawn from the annual collection of 50 award winning films and videos. Balagan is delighted to again co-present the Boston leg of the festival with the Museum of Fine Arts.
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March 30, 2008, Sunday, 5:00PM
Location: Coolidge Corner Theatre
Balagan presents:
Unidentified Vietnam No.18 & other films by By Lin+Lam (Directors in person)
Since 2001, Lana Lin and H. Lan Thao Lam have been researching an archive of South Vietnamese propaganda films at the Library of Congress. Unidentified Vietnam No. 18 is a successor to the seventeen films in the collection labeled only as "Unidentified Vietnam, #1-17". Lin + Lam's personal, experimental film examines the contested relationship between Vietnam and the US, between history and propaganda, between democracy and nation building.
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April 17, 2008, Thursday, 7:30PM
Location: Coolidge Corner Theatre
Balagan presents:
Dreams and Apparations of Mark Lapore (2007) by Saul Levine (Director in person)
w/ Polina Marshakova, Adam Savje, Kim Keown, Saul Levine, Joe Briganti, Alison Holt, Schiller Diny, Luther Price and Ericka Beckman.
Each of these persons recount dreams or visions of Mark Lapore. It was made in response to his suicide on 9/11/2005. Shot with a Black & White Panasonic studio tube camera.
“Saul Levine is the foremost dissenting filmmaker in America. With about 35 years of consistent production behind him, and no signs of fatigue, he can show us the shape of a life passionately and uncompromisingly devoted to filmmaking. His works are high-energy messages of friendship, records of sexual love and political activism, radiated by humor, prophetic anger, loneliness and even though rarely, representing repose. His incessant, chaotic outpouring of political energy seems less geared to a naïve notion of bettering the world than to a perpetual pressure to keep it from getting worse.” — P. Adams Sitney.
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April 26 & 27, 2008, Friday 7PM & Saturday at 3PM
Location: Harvard Film Archive
Carpenter Center for Visual Art
24 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA
Balagan, the Harvard Film Archive and the Film Study Center presents:
The Sun and the Moon in Indonesia:
The Single-Shot Cinema of Leonard Retel Helmrich (Director in person)
Indonesia is one of the most populous nations on earth, and that population is among the most diverse anywhere. In order to depict and explore that diversity and its complexities, Leonard Retel Helmrich (b. 1959) aims not for a vast overview but rather focuses on the daily, the specific and the intimate. He has spent several years documenting the fortunes of one working-class family in Jakarta, headed by the matriarch Rumidjah. The two films that he made with that family, The Eye of the Day and Shape of the Moon, have won prizes at festivals from Amsterdam to Sundance.
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Fall 2007
October
13, 2007,
Saturday, 7:30PM FREE SHOW!
Location: Carpenter Center -Harvard University - 24 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA
Balagan and Mass Art Film Society present: Special Event!
Colen Fitzgibbon Retrospective: Your Basic Film
With special guests Coleen Fitzgibbon, Saul Levine, Scott MacDonald, Sandra Gibson & Luis Recoder in attendance
Balagan is delighted to bring a special retrospective screening to Boston of the works of Coleen Fitzgibbon. Fitzgibbon was active as an experimental film and video artist under the pseudonym "Colen Fitzgibbon" between the years 1973-1980. A student of Owen Land (aka "George Landow") and Stan Brakhage during her years as a film/video student at Art Institute of Chicago (1971-73), she later attended the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program under Ron Clark (1973-74), studying with international artists such as Michael Snow, Yvonne Rainer, Vito Acconci, Donald Judd, and Dennis Oppenheim. Between the years 1973-1976 Fitzgibbon made some of her most rigorous experimental work to date on 16mm and super 8 film, screening at numerous international film festivals and museums, including EXPRMNTL 5 at Knokke-Heist in Belgium, Institute of Contemporary Art in London, Anthology Film Archives, Collective For Living Cinema, and Millennium Film Workshop in New York. Thanks to the caring and meticulous preservation work of Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder, Balagan is thrilled to be able to bring Coleen's films back to the screen and into the contemporary dialogue of American avant-garde film history.
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 October 26 and 27th, 2007, at the ICA Boston
Balagan and ICA Boston present: Boston area Premiere!
Czech Dream by Filip Remunda (Czech Republic)
CZECH DREAM documents the largest consumer hoax the Czech Republic has ever seen. Filip Remunda and Vit Klusak, two of Eastern Europe's most promising young documentary filmmakers, set out to explore the psychological and manipulative powers of consumerism by creating an ad campaign for something that didn't exist. CZECH DREAM - the Hypermarket for a better life!
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November 5, 2007 (Monday) at the Coolidge Corner Theatre 7:30 & 9:30PM
Balagan and the Harvard Film Study Center present:
Promised Paradise by Leonard Helmrich (Indonesia/Netherlands)
Artist in Attendance for Boston Premiere!
The Jakarta-based Indonesian puppeteer and troubadour Agus Nur Amal travels to Bali to call to account the people who were responsible for the bomb attack on a nightclub there on 12 October 2002. Like in his theatre shows, humour is his main weapon.
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November 29, 2007 (Thursday) at the Coolidge Corner Theatre 7:30PM
Balagan presents: Strange Culture by Lynn Hershman Leeson
Guest speaker to be announced
" Strange Culture is an important heads-up to what is going on in our country right now in the name of national security, and a brilliant statement on artistic freedom and the dangers it faces. This film should be seen, should be discussed and is an important document on our times."-- Film Threat
"Hershman Leeson is as interested in reinventing the doc form as she is in publicizing Kurtz's case...The director not only breaks the fourth wall, she reduces it to plaster dust...Hershman Leeson gets it. And so will viewers of Strange Culture. "-- Variety
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Spring 2007
February
22, 2007,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Big
Balagan: Local Filmmakers - Films from Emerson
A program of films by filmmakers who teach at Emerson
College: Kathryn Ramey, Robert Todd, Pierre
Desr and John Gianvito.
March
8, 2007,
Thursday, 7:30PM and 9:30PM
Director's
Eye: Lynne Sachs and Mark Street (in
person)
April
5, 2007, Thursday, 8:00PM,
at the Museum of Fine Arts
The
recent selection from the Black Maria Film Festival
Location: Museum
of Fine Arts (MFA), 640 Huntington Ave., Boston
This
year's Black Maria selection spans from poetic visual
lyricism (Leighton Pierce, Robert Todd, John
Warren) to animated mythical stories (Stacey
Stears, Eric Patrick, Karen
Aqua/Ken Field)
to at times controversial first person accounts from
different parts of the world (Sergey Litovetz
- Russia, Diego Quemada-Diez - East Africa, Dan Monceaux
- Australia, Jay Rosenblatt - USA). Local
filmmakers John Warren. Karen
Aqua and Ken Field, Robert Todd are expected
to be in person.
April
19, 2007,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Film as a
Subversive Art - Part IV (introduced
by John Gianvito)
Round
four of films from the book "Film as a Subversive
Art" written in 1974 by Amos Vogel, the founder
of the Cinema 16 in New York, New York Film Festival
and Lincoln Center Film Department. The program features "Our
Lady of the Turks" by the late Italian avant-garde theater director,
actor, and filmmaker Carmelo Bene.
"...the most hallucinatory and original masterpiece
yet created by Bene; an explosion of neo-expressionism
(with surrealist overtones) unequaled on the contemporary
screen. Inspired exasperated madness of this possessed
moralist carries him beyond rage into black humor
and grotesque, burlesque, aimed at the dead weight
of a reactionary cultural matrix". - Amos
Vogel
May 10, 2007,
Thursday ,
7:30PM
Choreographing
Cinema: Part 3
Yet another re-iteration of films that pay specific
attention to movement in cinema. Following two programs
featured as part of the "Ideas in Motion"
series of the Boston Cyberarts Festival 2005, "Choreographing
Cinema: Part 3" features films wherein choreography
of the camera, composition of the mis-en-scene, or
editing techniques provoke viewers to react not only
at psychological but also at the kinesthetic level.
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Fall
2006
September
14,
2006,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Aftermath,
aftershock, Afterthoughts, After death,
after…
All the films in tonight’s opening
program explore the post-experiential
in different ways. Employing an array
of cinematic strategies from documentary
to reenactment and even animation, these
filmmakers ask the question of how to
comprehend the incomprehensible and how
to represent catastrophe, war, and death
in ways that can be both humorous and
powerfully moving.
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October
5, 2006,
Thursday, 7:30PM
(Premiere)
** ADDITIONAL 9:30PM show
just added **
Avenge
but One of My Two Eyes by Avi Mograbi
(in
person)
Balagan is thrilled to present the Boston
Premiere of Israeli filmmaker Avi Mograbi's
powerful documentary AVENGE BUT ONE OF
MY TWO EYES. Inspired by the legendary
myths of Samson and Massada, Avenge is
a wry, provocative and mournful documentary
on present-day Israel that ponders the
relationship between the Jewish struggle
for freedom and the Palestinian resistance
- a struggle played out most dramatically
in the two intifadas, the second of which
is still ongoing.
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October 19 A
BALGAN DOUBLE FEATURE NIGHT!
October 19, 2006,
Thursday,
7:30PM
War by
Jake MaHaffy
(in person)
“This
is the world after the end of a world...
acre by acre, fence by fence, the war
was lost.” WAR
is a simple film portrait of four characters
looking for work in the abandoned lands
of rural America. Shooting alone for almost
five years on a hand-cranked movie camera
without a producer, crew, actors or a
budget, we assembled an unconventional
narrative out of these character studies,
attempting in limited means to reveal
the drama of a disintegrating society.
- Jake Mahaffy
October
19, 2006,
Thursday,
9:30PM
(Premiere)
Who
is Bozo Texino? by Bill Daniel
(in person)
Freight rider and
van tramp, Bill Daniel is back on tour
screening his 16-years-in-the-making,
documentary film, "Who is Bozo Texino?"
--- the secret history of hobo graffiti.
This gritty black and white documentary--shot
entirely on film-- tells the mostly-factual
account of the epic quest and unlikely
discovery of railroading's most mysterious
artist.
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October
26, 2006 ,
Thursday,
7:30PM
(Premiere)
The
Life and Work of J.X. Williams + Peep
Show Curated film scholar Noel Lawrence
(in person)
We
present a major film discovery, a significant
film by an obscure director J.X. Williams.
His notorious tirade against the Chicago
Syndicate comes to the screen for the
first time after nearly 40 years in limbo.
Produced in
Copenhagen in 1965, PEEP SHOW chronicles
a secret history of the Kennedy administration,
revealing a mafia plot to addict Frank
Sinatra to heroin. Film scholar, curator,
and archivist Noel Lawrence will give
a detailed introduction
on the making of the film and the colorful
life of its director, including excerpts
from Mr. Williams
forthcoming memoir "The Big Footnote".
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November 12,
2006, Sunday,
10:30AM
(Museum of Fine Arts)
Description
of A Struggle by
Chris Marker
The State of
Israel was but twelve-years-old when the
great cinema essayist Chris Marker (La
jetée and Sans soleil) completed
this hypnotic documentary. It went on
to win the Golden Bear at the 1961 Berlin
Film Festival. Images of a young country
whose future lies ahead and the narrator’s
meditative voice-over posit an existential
struggle for identity that is relevant
today.
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November
16, 2006,
Thursday,
7:30PM
(Premiere)
Stranger
Comes to Town and other videos by
of Jacqueline Goss (in
person)
They
say there's only two stories in the world:
man goes on a journey, and stranger comes
to town.
"Stranger Comes to Town" re-works
an animation from the Department of Homeland
Security --combining it with stories from
the border, adventures from World of Warcraft,
and journeys via Google Earth to tell
a tale of bodies moving through lands
both familiar and strange.
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November
30, 2006 ,
Thursday,
7:30PM (Premiere)
Magnavoz
& American Egypt by
Jesse Lerner(in
person)
The
American Egypt revisits the short
life of the first socialist government
of the Americas, the Revolution on Mexico's
Yucatán Peninsula, 1915-1924.
Within the study of Mexico's past, the
Yucatan merits consideration as a thing
apart. Attempts to secede in the
19th Century suggest Yucatan was, like
Texas and California, only imperfectly
attached to the Estados Unidos Mexicanos. Jesse Lerner is a documentary
film & video maker and curator based
in Los Angeles.
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Spring
2006
February 2, 2006, Thursday, 7:30PM (in person)
Director's Eye: Deborah Stratman
For the second time, Balagan welcomes Deborah Stratman ("Kings of the Sky", Spring 2005) who will be in person to present three of her films "the BLVD" (1999), "On The Various Nature of Things" (1995), "How Among the Frozen Words" (2005).
February 16, 2006, Thursday, 7:30PM
Tribute to Teiji Ito: Composer of Avante-Garde Films
Balagan celebrates Teiji Ito, a visionary composer, whose scores accompanied numerous Avante-Garde Films. Besided Maya Deren's "Meshes in the Afternoon" and "The Very Eye Of Night" Teiji Ito scored Charles Boultenhouse's HANDWRITTEN (1959, 9 minutes, 16mm) and DIONYSUS (1964, 26 minutes, 16mm), Marie Menken's DWIGHTIANA (1959, 4 minutes, 16mm) and BAGATELLE FOR WILLARD MAAS (1967, 5 minutes, 16mm), ARABESQUE FOR KENNETH ANGER (1967, 4 min.,16mm), MOONPLAY (1967, 5 minutes, 16mm), Willard Maas' ORGIA (1967, 12 minutes, 16mm), Ben Hayeem FLORA (1965, 6 minutes, 16mm), Ben Hayeem's Flora and several other films.
March 1, 2006, Wednesday, 7:30PM
Richard Broadman: Mission Hill And The Miracle Of Boston (in collaboration with Coolidge Corner Theatre and Photographic Resource Center )
In celebration of the Photographic Resource Center's recent exhibition, "Document: Contemporary Social Documentary Work from Greater Boston", Balagan co-presents a rarely-seen classic of documentary cinema, and a stunning vision of Boston history as it unfolds. Documentarian Richard Broadman's 1978 film traces the history of the Mission Hill area of Roxbury through interviews with residents old and new. In the 1970s urban renewal and a public housing project (from which Mission Hill earned it's now-standard moniker) were forcing changes on the then largely Irish Catholic neighborhood. This chronicle of racial conflict, when a new poor population butted heads with the old residents of the neighborhood, is a stunning reverse look at today's issues in the same neighborhood - where college students and young professionals are moving in and ever-soaring rents are pushing out the poor.
March 24, 2006, Firday, 8:00PM, at Revolving Museum in Lowell
Balagan on Tour in Lowell: What is Avant-Garde Film?
Location: Revolving Museum, 22 Shattuck Street, Lowell, MA 01852, http://www.revolvingmuseum.org/contact/index.html
Balagan collborates with Revolving Museum in Lowell to present three pilot programs of avante-garde films.
March 28, 2006, Tuesday, 7:30PM
Local Premiere: "Lunch with Fela" by Abraham Ravett
April 13, 2006, Thursday, 8:00PM, at the Museum of Fine Arts
The recent selection from the Black Maria Film Festival (in collaboration with Faith Quilt Project)
Location: Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), 640 Huntington Ave., Boston
Balagan collborates with Faith Quilt Project (http://www.faithquilts.org/) and Museum of Fine Arts to present a touring program of the award-winning shorts from the Black Maria Film & Video Festival. This particular selection of shorts from the Black Maria Film Festival conveys different approaches to exploring subject of faith on film. Diversity of genres, film forms. and content are fascinating. Filmmakers include: Sam Green (San Fransisco), Ivan Golovnev (Moscow, Russia), Sara Jane Lapp (Virginia), and others.
April 23, 2006, SUNDAY, 8:15PM at the Somerville Theatre with the IFFB
"The Paino Tuner of Earthquakes" directed by the Brothers Quay
Balagan is pleased to co-sponsor this new Quay Brothers live-action feature in partnership with the Independent Film Festival of Boston.
May 1, 2006, Monday, 7:30PM
Big Balagan: Recent Works from Boston Filmmakers
Alfred Guzzetti, Dan Sousa, Rebecca Meyers, David Baeumler, Lorelei Pepi, Robert Todd and others.
June 30, 2006, Firday, 8:00PM, at Revolving Museum in Lowell
Balagan on Tour in Lowell: Food For Thought
Location: Revolving Museum, 22 Shattuck Street, Lowell, MA 01852, http://www.revolvingmuseum.org/contact/index.html
Balagan collborates with Revolving Museum in Lowell to present three pilot programs of avante-garde films.
August 4, 2006, Firday, 8:00PM, at Revolving Museum in Lowell
Balagan on Tour in Lowell: Art and Politics through Film
Location: Revolving Museum, 22 Shattuck Street, Lowell, MA 01852, http://www.revolvingmuseum.org/contact/index.html
Balagan collborates with Revolving Museum in Lowell to present three pilot programs of avante-garde films.
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Fall
2005
Septmber
22,
2005,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Visual
Poetry of Matthias Müller
Balagan opens its 11th season with a mini-retrospective
of films by Matthias Müller, a contemporary
avante-garde filmmaker from Germany.
Septmber
29, 2005,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Environmental
Film Festival: "Chain" by Jem
Cohen
Balagan collaborates with the Coolidge's
Environmental Film Festival and co-presents
"Chain" by Jem Cohen, a chilling
and yet mesmerizing journey through the
vast American wasteland of chain retailers
and worlds of consumer culture.
October
6, 2005,
Thursday,
7:30PM
Filmmakers
from the West Coast: Rebecca Baron
(in
person)
Balagan
welcomes Rebecca Baron, a Los Angeles-based
filmmaker. Her work has screened widely
in international film festivals and media
venues including Rotterdam Film Festival,
New York Film Festival and the Viennale
and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
She is Associate Dean of the California
Institute of the Arts School of Film/Video
where she teaches documentary and experimental
film.
October
20, 2005,
Thursday,
7:30PM
History
of American Avant-Garde Cinema: Larry
Gottheim
"Gottheim's Cinema is a quest of
origins. The films elaborate a response
to the fictions of our world, the construction
of images and sounds, the repeating cycles
of life and nature. The profoundness of
Gottheim's act is to elaborate a body
of work outside of fashion and within
a search for an authentic language of
cinematic discourse." - John Handhardt,
on the occasion of the presentation of
the full "Elective Affinities"
cycle at the Whitney Museum, 1981
October
24, 2005,
Monday, 7:30PM
Big
Balagan: Robert Todd's premiere "In
Loving Memory"
(in
person)
Balagan
is excited to host Robert Todd's premiere
"In Loving Memory". The film
glimpses into the memories and stories
of people on death row.
November
3, 2005,
Thursday,
7:30PM
Director's
Eye: Soon-Mi Yoo
(in
person)
Soon-Mi
Yoo studied German literature Seoul und
photography (Master of Fine Arts) am Massachusetts
College of Art. Her films and photography
have been shown in numerous festivals
and exhibitions, among them the International
Film festival Rotterdam, New York Film
Festival, International Center of Photography
(New York), Seattle Art Museum und Boston
Center for the Arts.
November
10, 2005,
Thursday,
9:30PM
Boston
Jewish Film Festival Shorts at Balagan
For
the second time, Balagan partners with
Boston Jewish Film Festival and presents
a collection of shorts.Films in this program
possess the nature of filmic myths. They
do not represent a reality, they catch
fleeting moments of it. These films also
remind me of personal diaries. They are
composed of sketches and notes one would
make sitting in a café or going
through family albums or silent home movies.
By using different techniques and elements,
the filmmakers skillfully organize these
“notes” into visual evocative
essays that collectively capture the melancholic
spirit of our times and offer its audiences
a space to ponder and reflect. Among the
filmmaker featured are: Uri
Kranot & Michal Pfeffer, Jonah Bleicher,
Irra Verbitsky, Carl Ippolito, Abigail
Child (in
person),
Esaias
Baitel, Jay Rosenblatt
November
17, 2005,
Thursday,
7:30PM
Four
Women Artists Series
These four American women filmmakers are
pushing the boundaries of the documentary
and experimental genres to create thoughtful,
funny, complex and unique works. Artists
featured are Arshia Haq, Hope
Tucker (in
person),
Nina Yuen and Julia Haslett.
December
1, 2005,
Thursday,
7:30PM
Balagan
and Magic Lantern Present “The Comedy
Show, Part One (in Eight Parts)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. As always,
Magic Lantern has your best interests
at heart (ha ha), and so we’re bringing
you a collection of madcap (ho ho) comic
films from the sharpest kino-eyes in the
(Western) world of experimental (hee hee)
cinema.
December
15, 2005, Thursday, 7:30PM
Filmic
Essays: Daniel Eisenberg
Born
in Israel in 1954, Daniel Eisenberg studied film at the State University of
New York at Binghamton with Ernie Gehr,
Larry Gottheim, Klaus Wyborny, Saul Levine
and Ken Jacobs. For three decades, Daniel
has been making nonfiction independent
and avant-garde work, "interrogating
"official" histories and investigating
personal stories within the context of
major social and political events."
He lived and worked in Boston for 14 years
but now resides in Chicago where he is
the Chair of the Department of Film, Video,
and New Media at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago. His films have screened
at : Museum of Modern Art, NY; University
of Amsterdam; Goldsmiths College, University
of London; Musee National d'Art Moderne,
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Whitney
Museum of American Art, NY; Bangkok Experimental
Film Festival; Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley
and many other venues.
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Spring
2005
February
17,
2005,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Art
and Politics: Kings of the Sky by Deborah
Stratman - Boston
Premiere,
Official Selection
of the Rotterdam Film Festival
In
the spirit of the Human
Rights Watch Film Festival and Balagan's
"Expanded Genre of Documentary"
and "Art and Politics"
series, the 10th season starts with KINGS
OF THE SKY by a Chicago-based
filmmaker Deborah Stratman.
This provocative
film – a hybrid between experimental
cinema and documentary genre, is about
resistance, balance and fame. The follows
tightrope artist Adil Hoxur as he and
his troupe tour China’s Taklamakan
desert amongst the Uyghurs, a turkic Muslim
people seeking religious and political
autonomy.
March
1, 2005,
Tuesday,
7:30PM
Recent
works of Abigail Child (in
person)
A
celebration of the recent works by the
renown local filmmaker Abigail
Child. The program includes the
Boston premiere of The
Future is Behind You, the 2005
Jury Award winner of the Black Maria Film
Festival.
March
22, 2005,
Tuesday,
7:30PM
Big
Balagan: Ricky Leacock
(in person)
A
rare occasion to meet and celebrate one
of the most renown documentary filmmakers
Richard Leacock .
March
24, 2005,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Filmmakers
on tour:
Jim Finn (in
person) &
Arthur Jones (Chicago)
Balagan
hosts an evening of new works by two Chicago-based
filmmakers Jim Finn and
Arthur Jones. Jim
Finn makes videos about small
animals, love and communism. His work
has screened at the Rotterdam International
Film Festival, New York Underground Film
Festival, Cinematexas, and the Yerba Buena
Center for the Arts. His work has also
appeared on the PBS and in Harper’s
magazine. Arthur Jones,
a graduate of RISD, is an animator and
illustrator who animated shorts has shown
in the Chicago Underground Film Festival,
Worm Film Series (Rotterdam), Chicago
International Children's Film Festival,
LA Shorts, and Gavin Brown Passerby Gallery
in New York.
April
7, 2005,
Thursday,
7:30PM
You'll
Pay for This! (Artists
in person)
Balagan
goes punk with premiere screenings of
2 local films about Boston's improtant
contribution to the punk music scene in
the 70's and 80's. Come see a slice of
Boston's underground history and meet
some punk rock legends in the flesh.
April
14, 2005,
Thursday,
7:30PM
History
of the American Avante-Garde: Ed Emschwiller
A
unique opportunity to look into the legacy
of one of the most interesting filmmakers
of the American Avante-Garde cinema -
Ed Emshwiller, whose
experiments as well as collaborations
with dancers, musicians, and visual artists
truly expanded understanding and perception
of film medium and at the same time, laid
grounds for the contemporary video art.
April
21, 2005,
Thursday,
7:30PM
The
recent selection from the Black Maria
Film Festival
Location: Museum
of Fine Arts (MFA), 640 Huntington Ave.,
Boston
Balagan
and Museum of Fine Arts are hosting a
touring program of the award-winning shorts
from the Black Maria Film & Video
Festival. Named after Thomas Edison’s
Black Maria Film Studio – the world’s
first purpose built motion picture studio
– the festival’s mission is
to support the vision of independent film
and video makers, and to present a cross-section
of fresh, explorational work which is
inventive, diverse, insightful, assertive
and adventuresome. This program is an
eclectic mix that features works by
Marie Losier, Peter Rose, Abigail
Child, Jim Trainor, Mara Mattuschka (Austria),
Dan Boord and Louis Valdovino, Janie Geiser,
Chris Landreth (Canada).
April
23,
Saturday,
12PM and April 24 Sunday
6:30PM
Chain
directed by Jem Cohen in The Boston
Independent Film Festival
Location:
Somerville
Theatre, 55 Davis Sq. Somerville,
MA
Balagan is proud to be co-sponsoring a
screening with the Boston Independent
Film Festival to present the
New England premiere of Jem Cohen's
new experimental documentary Chain.
Cohen won the Turning Leaf Someone to
Watch Award at this year's Independent
Spirit Awards for the genre-blending Chain,
which was also named one of the "10
most promising films of the year"
by Variety. Tamiko (Miho Nikaido of Hal
Hartley's FLIRT, BOOK OF LIFE, and HENRY
FOOL) is a Japanese businesswoman hurtling
toward the bright and shiny future of
"entertainment real estate."
Researching amusement parks and malls,
she meets with nameless potential clients
and rehearses her English in anonymous
business hotels. Amanda (Mira Billotte,
singer for the indie bands Quixotic and
White Magic, in her film debut) is a runaway
who squats in abandoned or unfinished
houses, makes an unsteady living cleaning
hotel rooms, and spends hours wandering
through the mall, gazing at objects she
can no longer afford to buy. On opposite
ends of the financial spectrum, both women
share a dreamy isolation as they drift
through the vast American wasteland of
chain retailers and philosophize about
their relationship to work and consumer
culture. Without ever losing its political
vision, Cohen's camera captures an uncanny
beauty in the familiar, interchangeable
landscapes of today's corporate dystopia.-Kristina
Aikens
April
30, 2005,
Saturday,
11AM and 1:30PM
Choreographing
Cinema I and II
curated
by Alla Kovgan for the Dance
and Technology Conference of the Boston
Cyberarts Festival
Location: Museum
of Fine Arts (MFA), 640 Huntington Ave.,
Boston
The
two programs investigate a diverse spectrum
of relationships between dance and film.
These films are neither documentaries,
nor documentations. All of them are rather
creating/choreographing a dance,
a movement or a dance-like feeling. This
“hybrid film dance” –
whether created by a dancer within the
space of a film frame, whether choreographed
through the movement of the camera and
composition of the mis-en-scene, or constructed
through the means of editing and such
film techniques as painting on film –
mesmerizes; reveals the hidden between
the frames; inspires audiences to relate
to cinema yet in another way, rejuvenates
the eye, and offers new ways for humans
to see the world. Program I features:
Peter Greenaway and Anna
Teresa De Keersmaeker
(UK/Belgium), Daniel
Shmid and Kazuo
Ohno
(Switzerland/Japan), Irina Evteeva
and Slava Polunin (Russia),
Lloyd Newson and DV8
(UK), and En-Knap (Slovenia).
Program II features: Meredith
Monk, D.A. Pennebaker,
Stan Brakhage, Guy
Maddin (Canada), Konstantin
Bronzit (Russia). Artavazd
Peleshian (Armenia).
May
5, 2005,
Thursday,
7:30PM
Expanded
Genre of Documentary: Leighton Pierce
Balagan is proud
to present 3 films by Leighton
Pierce. Named by Jon Jost as
a Master Minituarist, Pierce brings invisible
to life, making the audiences to re-discover
the world around them in the new ways.
May
7, 2005,
Saturday,
11:55PM
You'll
Pay for This! (Artists
in person)
The
second chance to see two
local films about Boston's improtant contribution
to the punk music scene in the 70's and
80's. Come see a slice of Boston's underground
history and meet some punk rock legends
in the flesh! (Repeat of April 7th program)
May
19, 2005,
Thursday,
6:30PM - as
part of the 21st Annual Boston Gay &
Lesbian Film/Video Festival
Experimental
Feature in Focus: "The Time We Killed"
by Jennifer Reeves
Location:
Museum
of Fine Arts (MFA), 640 Huntington Ave.,
Boston
In her first feature, Jennifer Reeves
creates a stirring visual poem on life
in NYC post 9/11. She effortlessly combines
elements of linear and non-linear narrative
with documentary film to express the internal
emotional life of bisexual Brooklyn writer
Robyn Taylor (Lisa Jarnot), who becomes
unable to finish her assignment due to
feelings of paranoia, disorder, memories
of past lovers, and fear of her country's
current political agenda. As in her earlier
shorts, Reeves challenges filmic conventions
by creating a new language for herself
that feels collectively old and new. Description
adapted from the London Lesbian &
Gay Film Festival. Co-presented by Women
in Film & Video/New England.
Fall
2004
September
9 ,
2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
New
England Beat
Balagan begins the 9th season with the
program of recent shorts from the New
Enlgand filmmakers: Robert
Todd, Alfred Guzzetti, Bob Harris, Saul
Levine, Nancy Andrews, Ann Steuernagel,
Alice Cox.
September
23 , 2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Echoes
from the Flaherty Seminar - in
person – Margarita DeLaVega,
executive director of the Flaherty
Seminar
This year, Flaherty Seminar (http://www.flahertyseminar.org)
– a one-week film viewing retreat
spiced with impassionate discussions among
filmmakers, critics, scholars, curators,
librarians and students, celebrated its
50th anniversary. This program is an eclectic
selection of shots presented at Flaherty
by this year's curator Susan Oxtoby. Among
aritists and films featured are: Bocas
de Ceniza (Mouths of Ash) (2003-4) by
Juan Manuel Echavarria (Colombia), Journeys
(2003) by Vinayan Kodoth (India), Standard
Gauge (1984) by Morgan Fisher (US).
October
14 , 2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Filmmakers
from the West Coast: Matt McCormick
in person
Balagan welcomes Matt McCormick,
a Portland Oregon filmmaker who
has made several award winning short films.
He is also the founder of Peripheral Produce,
an internationally recognized video distribution
label specializing in short experimental
work, and the director of the Portland
Documentary and eXperimental Film Festival,
Portland’s premiere venue for experimental,
documentary, and otherwise obscure contemporary
cinema. Matt has had three films screen
at the Sundance Film Festival, and has
received awards including Best Short Film
from the 45th San Francisco International
Film Fest,Best Short Film from the 2002
Ann Arbor Film Festival and others. He
has screened at such venues as the Seattle
Art Museum and the Lincoln Center, and
his film ‘The Subconscious Art of
Graffiti Removal’ was named as one
of the ‘Top 10 Films of the 2002’
by both The Village Voice and Art Forum
magazine.
“In
the last few years, Matt McCormick has
emerged as one of our strongest independent
filmmakers, doing work that’s
both ingenuous and humorously absurd...”
Fred Camper, Chicago Reader
October
20 , 2004,
Wednesday,
7:30PM (reception
at 7PM)
BIG BALAGAN
1: Peter Kubelka: The Metaphoric Films
in person
and
October 21 ,
2004,
Thursday,
6:30PM
BIG BALAGAN
2: Peter Kubelka: The Metric Films
in person
Location: Museum
of Fine Arts (MFA), 640 Huntington Ave.,
Boston
Two screening/lectures with Peter Kubelka,
one of the most distinguished figures
in the history of 20th century avante-garde
and independent filmmaking. His films
are an innovative demonstration of cinematic
possibilities. Moreover, as an artist
or theoretician he has also worked in
architecture, literature, music, painting
and cuisine. He has been also a curator
at the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna
that he founded in 1964. His teaching
on the topic of food preparation as an
art form at the Frankfurt School of Fine
Arts led to an extension of his title
as Professor of Film to that of Film and
Cuisine. Over the past 40 years he has
lectured at museums, universities and
institutions throughout the world, and
has been awarded the Austrian State Prize
for his life's work.
"Peter
Kubelka is the perfectionist of the
film medium – the world's greatest
filmmaker which is to say, simply: See
his films! ...by all means/above all
else... "– Stan Brakhage
October
28, 2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Bushwacked
II
In the spirit of
the upcoming elections, this program of
shorts reminds about the mishappenings
of the last four years under the Bush
Administration as well as draws parallels
to the similar situations faced by different
people around the world. Among the artists
featured are: Reza Parsa, Bryan
Boyce, The Speculative Archive (a.k.a.
Julia Meltzer & David Thorne), Jino
Choi and others.
November
9, 2004,
Tuesday, 7:30PM
BALAGAN at
the Boston Jewish Film Festival
November
18, 2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Magic
Lantern Presents: “The Re-Enactment
Show” Curated
by Ben Russell
Come on down for a night of re-interpretations
as we plumb the depths of what experimental
film has to offer in the time-honored
tradition of the Re-Enactment. Not only
do we have the Civil War, but we’ve
got Indian street kids in Bollywood musicals,
celluloid visions torn from the funny
pages, and remakes of cinema classics
and avant-garde masterpieces. - Ben Russell
Featuring: I’m Bobby
by Xav Leplae
(32:00, 35mm, 2003), Across the
Rappanahock by Brian
Frye (10:00, 16mm, 2003),
Electrocute Your Stars
by Marie
Losier (8:00, 16mm, 2004),
Passage a L’Acte
by Martin
Arnold (12:00, 16mm, 1993),
Mary Worth by Various
Directors (15:00, 16mm, 2001)
December
2, 2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Art &
Politics
In this program we will begin to explore
the complex relationship between politics
and art in film. Looking at several short
works that express their political ideologies
through very different approaches from
lyrical meditations on the daily crisis
in Palestine to an in your face testimony
of a suicide bomber, we will undoubtedly
raise more questions than answers at the
end of the night.
December
16, 2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Experimental
Feature in Focus I: "Baghdad in no
particular order" (2004) by Paul
Chan
Spring
2004
February
5,
2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
History
of the Avant-Garde Film: Stan Vanderbeek
Balagan
begins the 8th season with the new series
on History of the Avant-Garde Film.
Each program in this series will focus on
one or two known or less known filmmakers
whose creations became invaluable contributions
in the development of alternative visions
in film. The first program in the series
presents works of Stan Vanderbeek
who was not only a pioneer in the development
of American experimental film and live-action
animation techniques but also produced theatrical,
multimedia experiments that included projection
systems, dance, planetarium events and the
exploration of early computer graphics and
image-processing systems.
February
19, 2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
City Symphonies
Since the birth of cinema, filmmakers
have been fascinated with photographing
and discovering the spirit of the city.
This program is a collection of films
about human existence in the industrial
metropolitans. Poetic urban landscapes,
complex socio-cultural relationships,
community neighborhoods, city slams...
Among the filmmakers featured are
Jack and Olga Chambers, Dominic Angerame
and Jem Cohen.
March
4, 2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Film
as a Subversive Art III: Left and Revolutionary
Cinema: Third World
Round
three of films from the book "Film
as a Subversive Art" written
in 1974 by Amos Vogel, the founder of
the Cinema 16 in New York, New York Film
Festival and Lincoln Center Film Department.
The program features The
Hour of the Blast Furnaces (LA HORA DE
LOS HORNOS) by Fernando Solanas, Argentina,
1967. "The masterpiece of the subversive
art - a shattering indictment of American
imperialism in South America -- is a brilliant
tour de force of tumultuous images,
sophisticated montage, and sledgehammer
titles, fused into a passionate onslaught
of radical provocation to olt the spectator
to a new level of consciousness".
- Amos Vogel
March
18 2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
In
Transit
Lots of wheels, honks, steam, spilled
gasoline along with romantic and not so
romantic stories, technological progress,
environmental tragedies, traffic gems,
accidents, terrorists... Films in this
program ponder about means that humans
have been using to migrate from place
to place and all the social / political
/ economic / personal context that surround
them. Among the filmmakers features are
D.A. Pennebaker, Len Lye,
Robert Breer, Bruce
Baillie, Su Friedrich, Timoleon Wilkins,
Danny Plotnic, and Jeff Sher.
April
1, 2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Curator's
Eye: "Animated Documentary"
curated by Jessica
Meistrich Gidal
Balagan continues collaborating with local
filmmakers and curators to put together
thematic programs. This program is curated
by the local filmmaker Jessica
Meistrich Gidal:
"The
animated documentary, a collision of two
seemingly incompatible genres, takes the
viewer on a trip to the artist's mind's
eye, a place with equal power as the verite
camera lens to distill and present reality.
This show of contemporary animated non-fiction
shorts from around the world will feature
filmmakers who combine their animation with
traditional documentary techniques -- like
man-on-the street interviews and reenactments
– and others who animate the interviewee's
own artwork, use stop-motion to interpret
landscapes, or meditate on actual events
for which there is no visual documentation.
Through unabashed subjectivity, these films
shine a bright light on the constructed
and fabricated nature of the traditional
documentary. Featured artists include: Bob
Sabiston, Steve Woods, Sheila Sofian, Vivienne
Jones, Dennis Tupicoff, Joe King, Ellie
Lee, Steven Subotnick and the Southern Ladies
Animation Group."
April
29, 2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Immigration
Art and Politics meet
yet again in this program of films that
focus on issues of immigration around the
world and particularly in the United States
considering the new immigration regulations
of George Bush's administration. One of
the highlights of the program is Alex
Rivera's " Papapapa" that
tracks his father's immigration northwards
from Peru, paralleled by a similar journey
endured by the simple potato.
May
27 , 2004,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Film
as a Subversive Art IV: Left and Revolutionary
Cinema: West
Round four of films from the book "Film
as a Subversive Art" written in
1974 by Amos Vogel. The program features
Ice by Robert Kramer, USA,
1969. "This film coolly extrapolates
twenty years into the American future to
discover urban guerillas in the streets
and glass-and-marble buildings of New York,
at was against fascist regime..."-
Amos Vogel
top
Fall
2003
September 11, Thursday, 7:30PM
Bushwhacked
by 911
In the series of shorts, at times,
satirical and playful, filmmakers ruminate
about the current state of humans in
the post- September 11th world - wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq, almost weekly
terror acts in different parts of the
planet, Department of Homeland Security,
Patriot Act... Among work presented
are "Bushwacked" remix,
"Terror/Iraq/Weapons"
by Mike Nourse, videos by Paul Chan,
and others.
September
25,
Thursday,
7:30PM
H2O
Perhaps
more photographed than any other image,
WATER has provided an endless inspiration
to a countless number of artists working
in almost every film genre. Balagan
will honor WATER with a program of its
own, H20 "a wet and dripping series
of films and videos inspired by the
great element. Films will include the
incredible 1929 masterpiece "H20"
by Ralf Steiner as well as "The
Quarry" (Shot in Quincy, MA
in 1970) by the late Richard Rogers.
Among filmmakers featured are Ralph
Steiner, Richard Rogers, Barbara
Hammer, Stan Brakhage, and others.
October
9,
Thursday,
7:30PM
Charles
and Ray Eames: Film as an Apparatus
for modeling ideas
The program is inspired by Charles
and Ray Eames, the most important
American designers of the 20th century,
who between 1950 and 1982 made over
100 films. Eames used the film medium
to model their ideas about science,
architecture, design, and as a result,
created a unique collection of experimental
films. The ideas range from vintage
toy trains and IBM Mathematics Peep
Shows to a meditation on the nature
of photography, movements of a tiny
jellyfish and Kaleidoscope Jazz Chair,
among many others.
October
23, Thursday,
7:30PM
Film
as Subversive Art II
Round two of films from the book "Film
as a Subversive Art" written
in 1974 by Amos Vogel, the founder
of the Cinema 16 in New York, New
York Film Festival and Lincoln Center
Film Department. Reviewing over 500
films (many of which are banned and
rarely seen), Amos Vogel ruminates
upon "how the aesthetic, sexual
and ideological subversives use film
medium to manipulate our conscious
and unconscious, demystify visual
taboos, destroy dated cinematic forms,
undermine existing value systems and
institutions." Among the filmmakers
featured are Steve Arnold, Stan
Vanderbeek, Bruce Conner, Robert Breer,
Robert Mitchell and Dale Chase, Peter
Kubelka and others.
November
6 , Thursday, 7:30PM
Director's
Eye: Craig Baldwin
(in
person)
Our guest -
Craig Baldwin,
a San Francisco based
filmmaker and a curator of The other
Cinema (http://www.othercinema.com/sosframe.html
) will present a specially abridged
16mm print of "Sonic Outlaws'
and his personal collection of the
several short tapes each bearing
on the relevant issues-- collage,
copyright, fair-use, culture-jammimng,
and tactical media-interventions.
November
20,
Thursday,
7:30PM
In
Continuous Wars: Afghanistan
The program presents a feature masterpiece
"Afghan Spring" by
the legendary Japanese documentarian
TSUCHIMOTO Noriaki. A portrait
of Afghanistan between the Soviets
and Taliban, the last glimpses of
the architectural and sculptural
treasures perished during the wars
of the last decade, riveting interviews
with members of opposing forces,
socialists, mujahedins, women, villagers
who repeat in unison their desire
for peace and stability...
December
8 ,
Monday,
7:30PM
Tickets:
$15 (+ sliding scale for
students)
BIG
BALAGAN: The 1st Balagan Fundraiser
in the Movie House II
An eclectic collection of works
by the local and international filmmakers
around the theme of MONEY
Among
the filmmakers presented are Mary
Filippo, LEV, Henry Hills, Jino
Choi, Joe Gibbons, and Jorge Furtado.
Raffle of tapes and even prints
donated by the filmmakers, Balagan
memorabilia, and other surprises
will be part of the event. Please
come, we need your support to keep
Balagan going!
December
11, Thursday,
7:30PM
Crossing
Boundaries : Tricksters and Rule
Breakers.
An
evening of confusion, mishap, and
the willfully deceptive in film
and filmmaking. Picaresque con artists
of folkloric proportion twist the
status quo into the visionary without
batting an eye. Beware of pick pockets.
The screening is introduced by Lewis
Hyde. Among the filmmakers featured
are Joanna Priestley, James
Broughton, Georges Melies,
John Marriott, Paul Chan, Breathing
Planet, Liisa Lounila, and Helene
Kaplan.
July
18, 2003,
Friday, 9:30PM - 1 AM,
ART BEAT FESTIVAL at SOMERVILLE THEATRE!
Spaces and
Places
The
planet EARTH becomes smaller and smaller,
within a couple of days Earth's inhabitants
are able to cross the entire globe, within
hours they migrate from one culture to another,
from wealth to poverty, from busy urban metropolitans
to serene landscapes, from the war-zone to
the paced life in the suburban towns. Their
constant need to survive and never-stopping
experiments with environment exhausted the
LAND and put Earth's dwellers in the constant
battle for both physical and emotional space
to exist, a place to belong and imagination
to escape to.
"Spaces/Places"
takes you on a journey through cultural, political,
psychological and imaginative places and spaces
encountered and recorded by filmmakers in
the form of documentary, experimental, and
fiction films and videos. Among the filmmakers
are Katerina Cizek and Peter Wintonick,
Reynold Reynolds, Bryan Papciak, Robert Todd,
Alfred Guzzetti, Paul Winkler, Mike Nourse,
Charles and Ray Eames, Peter Tscherkassky,
Antonio S. Cecilio Neto, Peter Greenway, Matthias
Muller, Richard Rogers, Stephen Marshall.
Location:
Somerville
Theatre. 44 Davis Square
in Somerville
[T: Davis Sq. on the Red Line]
May 28, 2003, Wednesday, 7:30PM
Tribute to Stan Brakhage curated by Fred Camper (in person)
at Moviehouse II - 250 Seats
Balagan is honored to collaborate with Fred Camper, a writer and lecturer on film and art, and put together a program in memory of Stan Brakhage, one of the greatest filmmakers and thinkers of experimental film in the United States who has recently passed away.
Fred Camper: "This program presents some of Brakhage's greatest achievements. By exploring the tension between daily seeing and the more abstracting elements that he saw as ways of plumbing other stratas of consciousness, Brakhage explored the boundaries between quotidian existence and the more imaginative, even unknown, realms that he took as a principal subject."
May 8, 2003, Thursday, 7:30PM
"Film as a Subversive Art"
This program is inspired by the book "Film as a Subversive Art" written in 1974 by Amos Vogel, the founder of the Cinema 16 in New York, New York Film Festival and Lincoln Center Film Department. Reviewing over 500 films (many of which are banned and rarely seen), Amos Vogel ruminates upon "how the aesthetic, sexual and ideological subversives use film medium to manipulate our conscious and unconscious, demystify visual taboos, destroy dated cinematic forms, undermine existing value systems and institutions." Among the filmmakers featured are: Warren Haack (US), Roland Lethem (Belgium), Kurt Kren and Otto Muehl (Austria), Y. Matsukawa (Japan) and Erik Barnouw (US), Bruce Conner (US) and Stan Brakhage (US).
April 24, 2003, Thursday, 7:30PM
Experimental films by Arab Women Filmmakers
Balagan continues to explore experimental tradition from different parts of the world and welcomes a program of shorts by Arab Women filmmakers. The programs is curated by Hisham Bizri, a Lebanese film and video artist and currently an artist in residence at the Center for the Advanced Visual Studies at MIT. Among the filmmakers featured are Ateyyat El Abnoudy, Marianne Khoury, Viola Shafik.
April 12, 2003, Saturday, 1-3:30PM
Filmmakers Open Studios FREE!
Balagan is proud to be hosting a special program for the city wide Filmmakers Open Studios, where we will present works by some of the talented local artists that have been screened in our programs over the years.
April 10, 2003, Thursday, 7:30PM
Direct Animation Revolution Now!
An insanematography show curated by Devon Damonte IN PERSON!
Suddenly cells of strange obsessive anarchist film scratchers and painters are omnipresent. It's a ding-dang DIY thumpin revolution in your town and across the globe. Twas made historic at last fall's Ottawa Animation Fest where a new category for "non-narrative" film was introduced, and the festivities at this major industry event began and ended with a "projector orchestra" performing live to a giant scratch film completed minutes before. In this here screening you'll see kickass stuff done on site at Ottawa03 and also from 'Crackpot Crafter' workshops in Southie, Olneyville, Waltham, Olympia, Seattle, Eugene, and Telluride. Plus new treats from genre giants across the continent, and a closeup immersion in new stuff from once Bostonian vagabond Devon Damonte, including: WonderPain, BusterBalls, and FuckinGoofy. And of course we'll have on hand raw film leaders of various stripes and a plethora of Sharpies and scratch-o-thingies for y'all to make yer own group loop later. - Devon Damonte
March
27, 2003,
Thursday, 7:30PM
Director's
Eye: Phil Solomon IN
PERSON!
Balagan is proud
to be hosting a special program of works
by avant-garde legend Phil Solomon.
March 13, 2003, Thursday, 7:30PM
"Language is a virus..."
Relationships between the language and mind, between geometric figures or patterns of letters on screen and their meaning as well as mystery, inventiveness, misunderstanding, subtlety, emotion... The works in this program explore the power of human language in cognitive, artistic, and visual sense. Featured artists include Janie Geiser, Paul Sharits, Jeanne C. Finley, Henry Hills, Owen Land, Takahiko Iimura, Peter Rose.
February 27, 2003, Thursday, 7:30PM
"Fool's Paradise: Trance and Enchantment in Visionary Film" curated by Pelle Lowe
Starting this spring, Balagan will regularly invite local filmmakers to realize their curatorial dreams with our new series "Filmmaker's Pick". To kick off the new series, local filmmaker Pelle Lowe presents "Fool's Paradise", an evening of trance-cinema, films that mine the liminal space between illusion and mystery, history and nightmare, terror and delight; "heaven, blazing into the head." Featured artists include Bruce Conner, Phil Solomon, Mark Wilson, Harry Smith and Eve Heller.
February 13, 2003, Thursday, 7:30PM
Objectifying the Body: Exploring Modern day myths Aphrodite and Adonis
Super Models, tummy tucks, diet scams, breast implants, face lifts, washboard ads, silky skin, Super-white teeth, body art and body piercing. Why are we so obsessed with how we look on the outside? It is an eye opening cross-generational mix of experimental films and videos about body image. Featuring Frédéric Moffet's Hard Fat, Naomi Uman's Removed, Willard Maas & Marie Menken's Geography of the Body, Leland Auslender's The Birth of Aphrodite, Robert Banks' Outlet, and Gail Noonan's Your Name in Cellulite.
January 23, 2003, Thursday, 7:30PM
The end of innocence
In our ongoing efforts to present the community with alternative visions and voices about the State of our Nation and the World, this program reflects upon current predicaments from political, historical, artistic and humanitarian perspectives. Among Filmmakers featured are Craig Baldwin, LEV, Peter Watkins, Bruce Spangler, James Schneider.
top
Fall
2002
December 18, Wednesday, 7:30PM
BIG BALAGAN
To celebrate the 50th show, Balagan is moving to the 250 seat Moviehouse II and hosting a marathon screening of the Balagan premieres by local film and video makers. We hope to have all the artists in person and invite all of you for a post-screening discussion and celebration. Among the featured artists are: Abraham Ravett, Robert Todd, Louise Bourque, Joe Gibbons, Abigail Child, Steven Subotnick, Alfred Guzzetti, Tony Flackett, Ellie Lee and others.
December 5, Thursday, 8PM
Arabian Nights
Balagan continues introducing Boston audience to the experimental films and videos from around the world. This program features experimental films and videos by the filmmakers from the Arabic countries. Among the filmmakers featured are: Walid Ra'ad (Lebannon), Souheil Bachar (Lebannon), Tawfik Abu Wa'el (Palestine), Hakim Belabbes (Morocco), Afif Arabi, Akram Zaatari (Lebannon) and Ateyyat El Abnoudy (Egypt).
November 22-23, Friday - Saturday
DIGITAL SHORTS
Balagan is collaborating with Video Space to put together a program of the digital shorts by the local artists. The program will be playing on the monitor as a loop at the National Conference of the Association of Moving Image Archive. Among the videomakers Jared Medeiros, Dennis Miller, Robert Arnold, Lawrence Klein, Andrew Dimirijian, Geoff Adams, Jon Erwin, Ann Steuernagel, Nicole MacDonald. Location: The Boston Park Plaza Hotel
November 21, Thursday, 8PM
Pixel Vision
Balagan collaborates with Gerry Fialka, the founder of the Pixel Vision Festival to put together a program of the best of Pixel Vision. After the show, the discussion with Gerry Fialka and filmmakers will follow . Among the filmmakers featured are: Sean Eno, Michael O'Reilley, Michael Almereyda, Sadie Benning, Elisabeth Subrin and Joe Gibbons.
November 12, Tuesday, 8PM
DIGITAL SHORTS (see November 22-23 program for details)
Location: Coolidge Corner Theatre
November
7, Thursday,
8PM
Treasures of Austrian Avant-Garde
Balagan collaborates with Louise Bourque,
filmmaker and film professor teaching at
Emerson College and School of Museum of
Fine Arts, and SIXPACK (AUSTRIA),
the only government funded distributor of
experimental films and videos, to present
an evening of experimental works from Austria.
Along with such established masters such
as Peter Tscherkassky and Gustav
Deutsch, the program also features less
US knows masters of the Austrian avant-garde:
Lisl Ponger and Elke Groen.
October 27, Sunday, 8PM Balagan collaborates with Berwick Institute
Location: Berwick Institute (directions to be posted)
Looking is better than feeling you curated by Astria Suparak
Balagan collaborates with Berwick Institute to present a program of experimental works by ladies-filmmakers curated by Astria Suparak, an independent curator and promoter of experimental film from New York City. The program features Shannon Plumb, Kirsten Stoltmann, Miranda July, Karen Yasinsky, Dara Greenwald, Jacqueline Goss, Colleen Hennessey and others.
October 24, Thursday, 8PM
Through Mystery and Magic
In the best traditions of the early avant-garde cinema (Georges Melies, Fritz Lang) and American Underground movement of the 60's (Stan VanDerBeek, Kenneth Anger), this collection of works glorifies theatricality, intensity of sets and decor, masks, make-up and costumes of the exalted characters, intricate illusionary experiments, magic and supernatural within the multi-layered experimental narratives. Among the filmmakers featured are Mara Mattuschka, Anna Biller, Reynold Reynolds and Lawrence Jordan.
October 10, Thursday, 8PM
Expanded Genre of Documentary
Following the steps of Robert Flaherty, Chris Marker, Joris Ivens and others, the filmmakers of this program step beyond the traditional conventions of the documentary genre and create poetic visual essays – turn the reality into poetry but at the same time preserve ingenuity of the subject of their explorations. Among the filmmakers featured: Lynne Sachs, Jonathan Schwartz, Philip Hoffman, Aleksei Vakhrushev and Leighton Pierce.
September 26, Thursday, 8PM
Crime and Punishment
Continuing the theme of the last season's Victory Day show, the films in this program ruminate upon the human condition in our current world filled with crime, wars and trauma. Among the filmmakers featured: Robert Todd, Jim Seibert, Stan Vanderbeek, Peter Rose, Jem Cohen, Bryan Boyce,and David Brown.
September 12, Thursday, 8PM
Family Stories
Intimacy, kinship, gatherings, meals, marriage, holidays, childhood, grandma, divorce, abuse, dis-functionality, pain...... Films of the "Family Stories" program construct a portrait of our collective family as humans. All of us should be able to uncover some familiar lines among it. Featuring Films by Luther Price, Stan Brakhage and Matthias Müller.
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Summer
2002
July
19, Friday, 9:30PM
Food
for Thought
Filmmakers
in this show take you on a journey to explore
the cultural, political, artistic, and personal
phenomena of FOOD through variety of film genres.
Among the filmmakers featured are Jan
Svankmajer, Sam Green, Max Coniglio, Les Blank,
Joanna Priestley, Karen Aqua, Reynold Reynolds,
Chuck Stattler, Jorge Furtado, Lawrence Klein,
Jared Madeiros, and others.
Location:
Somerville
Theatre. 44 Davis Square
in Somerville
[T: Davis Sq. on the Red Line]
May
30, Thursday, 8PM
Experimental Films
and Videos from Israel
Balagan
is honored to present a Program of Experimental
Films and Videos from Israel curated by Karin
Segal.
May 23 ,
Thursday,
8PM
Visual Surprise
IV: Fresh Perspectives
Round Four of Visual Surprise, a traditional balagany
experience, Balagan dedicates to the new works by
local students and upcoming filmmakers.
May 9 , Thursday,
8PM
Victory Day
May
9 is traditionally celebrated in Europe as a commemoration
of the victory over the Nazi Germany. For this occasion,
Balagan presents a collection of experimental films
and videos dealing with political, social and economic
issues in modern society. Among
artists featured: John Gianvito, Sarina
Khan Reddy, Travis Wilkerson, Matthias Müller,
& Dana Plays
April 27, Saturday,
1-5PM
Filmmakers
Open Studios
Balagan hosts local filmmakers to show and talk
about their work. Featured Artists: Sabrina
Zanella-Foresi, Antony Flackett, Devon Damonte,
Robert Todd.
April 25, Thursday,
8PM
Appropriated
Images
A compilation of works that appropriate images from
different sources. Among artists featured:
Bill Morrison, Ken Kobland, Abigail Child, Louise
Bourque, Robert Arnold, Arnold Johnson, Shawn P.
Morrissey, Sarina Khan Reddy.
April 18, Thursday,
8PM
Handmade
films: FILMS
THAT RISE TO THE SURFACE (OF CLARIFIED BUTTER) curated by Sandra Gibson & Luis Recoder
Derailing their perforated strip, ribbon or celluloid,
the individual filmmakers in this program scratch,
chisel, burn, rub, paint, and skid across their
plastic surface. Among artists featured: Devon
Damonte, Sandra Gibson, Peggy Ahwesh, Brian Frye,
Luis Recoder and others.
March 28 , Thursday,
8PM
Video Music
Anti-music Videos - works that play with rhythm
and pacing through editing image and/or sound. Featured
artists: Antony Flaskett, Walter Wright,
Barry Spinello, Ericka Thompkins, Tony Cokes, Dennis
Miller, Thorsten Fleisch, Michelle Beck & Jorge
Calvo, Dr. Emile Tobenfield.
March
14, Thursday,
8PM
It's Not Easy Being
Green
An unusual look at our environment. Featrued filmmakers:
Geoff Adams, Rebecca Myers, Chirs Gaines,
Joe Gibbons and Henry Ferrini.
March
7 ,
Thursday,
8PM
Director's Eye:
Ericka Beckman
Balagan continues presenting one filmmaker shows.
Ericka Beckman, a professor from
Mass Art will be showing her recent and older work.
February 23 ,
Saturday, 7:15PM
Balagan
at BUFF
For
the second time, Balagan presents a special screening
event at the Boston Underground Film Festival 2002.
Location:
Oni
Gallery @ 684 Washington Street at Kneeland St.
in Boston's Chinatown
[T: Boylston on Green Line; Downtown Crossing on
Red; Chinatown on Orange]
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December 13,
Thursday,
8PM
Visual
Surprise III
Traditional balagany experience -- a closing night
of the BALAGAN series, a concoction of surprises and
unpredictable happenings.
December
12,
Wednesday,
8PM
Director's Cut: Big
Balagan
A special screening in the upstairs theatre
will present work of such local filmmakers as Karen
Aqua, Ericka Beckman (premiere), Alfred Guzzetti,
Louise Bourque, Joe Gibbons, Devon Damonte,
Robert Todd (premiere) and Hal Hartley.
December
6, Thursday,
8PM
Russian Experimental
Films and Videos (90s)
Balagan
is honored to present two Russian Experimental
Film and Video programs. These program presents
works by film and video artists of the 90s. Most of
the works have been created at the numerous independent
studios formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The programs are curated by Masha Godovannaya
and sponsored by Finnair.
November
20, Tuesday,
7:30PM FREE
Special
Screening: Afghanistan Program
This special screening is put together by Bob
Nesson, a local filmmaker, who shot a documentary
about Afghanistan twenty years ago. Balagan is
honored to present this screening and very greatful
to Bob for allowing Boston community to see his
work and learn more about Afghanistan. Along
with excerpts from Bob Nesson's film, a documentary
"Beneath the Veil" will be shown.
November
15, Thursday,
8PM
Women's
Perspectives II
Experimental films by women film/video makers and
installation artists: Pelle Lowe, Diane Bonder,
Jane Hudson, Bridget Murnane and others.
November
1, Thursday,
8PM
Poetry in Motion
This selection of films unite works based upon or
inspired by pieces of literature and poetry by local
filmmakers and poets. Henry Ferrini (filmmaker)
and his renown "Lowell Blues: The words of
Jack Kerouac", Alberto Roblest (filmmaker
and poet from Mexico), Jeanne Liotta, Pelle
Lowe and local poets.
October
18, Thursday,
8PM
Director's Eye:
Robert Todd
A unique opportunity to see a collection of works
by Robert Todd who will be in person at the
screening.
October
11,
Thursday,
8PM
Local Masters III
One of the balagany traditional series bring one
more round of works by the extraordinary experimental
filmmakers who teach at the local colleges and universities:
Luther
Price, Saul Levine, Jeanne Liotta.
September
27,
Thursday,
8PM
West Coast Series:
Craig Baldwin
Out-of- town series feature Craig Baldwin,
one of the most well known avant-garde and experimental
filmmakers from the Bay Area who works with appropriated
footage. Balagan presents his film "Spectres
of the Spectrum", a 93 minute film that "utilizes
old 'kinescopes' (filmed records of early TV broadcasts
before the advent of videotape, mostly from the
late Fifties' educational show called 'Science in
Action') to create an eerie, haunted "media-archaeology"
zone for a sci-fi time-travel tale, wherein live-action
actors search for a hidden electromagnetic secret
to save the planet from a futuristic war-machine."
September 13, Thursday, 8PM
No place like home
A journey through homes, people's dwellings and
family stories with filmmakers from around the world:
Goran Radovanovic (Serbia), Paul Tarrago
(England), Luther Price (USA), Saul Levine
(USA) and others.
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Spring
Season 2001
May
31st, Thursday,
8PM
Visual
Surprise
A Balagany tradition! We can't give away the surprise
just yet. Stayed tuned for occasional hints.
May
17th, Thursday,
8PM
Independent
Exposure
Balagan is pleased to host an evening of Experimental
works compiled by Joel S. Bachar, Founder
of Microcinema and Blackchair Productions based
in Seattle, Washington and on the web www.microcinema.com.
April
26th,
Thursday,
8PM
Fresh Perspectives
A look at new works by Boston's new and up
and coming film/video makers from SMFA, Mass
Art, etc.
April
12th, Thursday,
8PM
Animation II
Curated by local filmmaker/animator Jeff Sias,
he brings round two of incredible local animations
to Balagan
March
22nd, Thursday,
8PM
Hello Ojos
Non-fiction visual explorations of exotic lands
and cultures of Central America and India by Locals
Jeff Silva Ojos Viajeros, and Nina
Davenport Hello Photo.
March
15th,
Thursday,
8PM
Mexico Dreams
Curated by Local artist and Mexican native Alberto
Roblest, He brings us the best in Experimental
film/video works from Mexico.
March
1st,
Thursday,
8PM
Women's Perspectives
Experimental films by 10 local women film/video
makers and installation artists (Joan Nidzyn,
Adriene Hughes, Bebe Beard, Isa Dean, Lara Frankena,
Sarah Smiley, Ann Steuernagel, Cadence Thomases,
Vanessa O'Neill, Ellie Lee)
February
23rd, Friday, 7:30PM
Balagan
at BUFF
Balagan
presents a special screening event at the Boston
Underground Film Festival 2001
Location:
Revolving Museum, 288-300 A St, Boston, phone: (617)
439-8617 view
map
February 15th, Thursday, 8PM
Local Masters II
A look at 3 of New England's acclaimed experimental
filmmakers who also happen to teach filmmaking in
town: Abraham Ravett, Abigail Child and
Mark LaPore.
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Fall
Season 2000
Visual
Surprise I
A Balagany tradition! The closing night of the fall
season.
Eastern
European Winds
Experimental Cinema from Yugoslavia (Low-Fi Video
Project).
Western
European Winds
Experimental Cinema from Portugal (Galeria Ze Dos
Bois).
New
and Up and Coming
A collection of works by New England teenage artists
selected by the Reels Eyes Consortium.
Video
Interactions
A program that unites artists working in various
mediums of video/sound/dance/performance (Paula
Josa Jones, Devon Damonte, David Franklin, Alissa
Cardone and others).
Animation
I
Curated by local filmmaker/animator Jeff Sias. A
diverse selection of works from New England that
explore diverse animation genres and techniques
(Dan Sousa, Jeff Sias, Jake Mahaffy, Jamie
Maxfield, Anouck Iyer, Devon Damonte and
others).
Local
Masters I
A collection of works by Boston renowned masters
from MassArt, Museum School and Emerson College
(Robert Todd, Jacqueline Goss, Dana Moser,
Louise Bourque, Joe Gibbons, Jane Hudson, Saul Levine,
and Paul Turano).
Opeining Night
The birth of the Balagan Film & Video Series!
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