Since 1945, 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.

Puncture Wounds 10 min, video, 2001
Director: John Gianvito

"On September 11, 2001, the security bubble within which so many Americans live was violently perforated and, at least for a moment, the air, the heart, the eye was pierced by the rageful acts of the discontented, soon supplanted by the vengeful ax of the US response. This video is a quickly assembled imagistic evocation of the climate (emotional and otherwise) of this time."

John Gianvito is currently the Associate Curator/Film Programmer for the Harvard Film Archive. His feature film THE MAD SONGS OF FERNANDA HUSSEIN was voted by The Village Voice one of the Top 10 Undistributed Films of 2001 and voted among the Top Ten Films of 2001 by critics Jonathan Rosenbaum in The Chicago Reader and Gerald Peary in The Boston Phoenix. He is editing a collection of interviews with director Andrei Tarkovsky for the University Press
of Mississippi. Previous films include THE FLOWER OF PAIN (feature/1983), LETTER TO A ROMANTIC IDEAL (1985), and WHAT NOBODY SAW (video/1993).

With Us or Against Us 5.5min, video, 2001
Director: Sarina Khan Reddy

This single channel video examines the blurred boundaries between entertainment and the news and the relationship between militarization and the corporate globalization. Appropriated footage is used to subvert the original meaning creating new and alternative histories. This piece shifts between footage from the Hollywood blockbuster movie Rambo III and footage in the Oval office of President Reagan meeting with Afghan "freedom fighters" with a subversive ticker-tape at the bottom of the screen. The ticker tape is meant to reclaim the media and complicate the simplistic messages of good verses evil. The question of how history is deliberately forgotten is raised through a metaphor of writing and erasing. This piece exposes the inherent conflict between information and commerce.

Sarina Khan Reddy's video work explores the differences within her cultural identity as an Islamic-American woman. Through the lens of her Indian heritage, she explores the new colonization embodied in globalization. Specifically she focuses on how the economic system is reflected in all social formations and how war and militarization are fueled by corporate globalization. In her latest work she is exploring the blurred boundaries between news and entertainment. She uses appropriated footage from advertising, news, and Hollywood movies. She juxtaposes these sources to subvert the original meaning to create new and alternative histories. She has worked for many years with technology and today strives towards the strategic use of technology and media for social change through volunteer work with local organizations. She has exhibited locally and nationally.

Self-Portrait 8min, video, 1999
Director: Travis Wilkerson

"As Conveyed to U.S. Customs Supervisor Desmond on the Occasion of My Arrest for Traveling to Cuba". Travis Wilkerson grew up in the mountains of Colorado and Montana. He was compelled to leave the west to pursue his advanced education. He studied foreign languages and literature before turning to the cinema. He has completed several short works including Hands (1995), Self Portrait (1999), Accelerated Development (1999) the ongoing series National Archive, and most recently, An Injury to One (2002). His films have screened in number of festivals including Viennale, Yamagata, Leipzig, Havana and Black Maria. His work has also been presented at such institutions as the Pacific Film Archive and the Walker Art Center, and was featured at the Flaherty Seminar (2000). He finally acquiesced to the need for formal film study and recently completed his graduate studies at the California Institute of the Arts.

Continental Breakfast 19min, s8mm, 1984
Director: Matthias Müller

"CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST is the most accomplished Super 8 film I have ever seen. Its stylized use of still photos and video-scan create a new type of flicker-film: a haunting recollection of Hitchcock's showerhead and Bertolucci's venetian blinds. A hypnotizing pulse of images evokes the alienation of Cold-War Europe as seen through the morning routine/ritual of a young couple." - Owen O'Toole, Independent Eye

"Compelling visual feasts, dense, compacted cinema. Müller weaves a kinetic spell of motion and vitality with seemingly the simplest of means. This is maximalism - sorely needed in our movie going venues." - Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco, 1990

"That his empathy with his subjects is so perfectly borne into the apparatus of a materialist film practice, makes Müller one of the fringe's most powerful and most perfect makers." - Millennium Film Journal, 1998

Across the Border 8min, 16mm, 1982
Director: Dana Plays

A protest to US intervention in third world countries, ACROSS THE BORDER is constructed with found images, such as live chickens being wrapped in newspaper. Dana Plays is an experimental filmmaker and Associate Professor of Film and New Media at Occidental College. Her filmography includes 14 short films, which have screened at numerous film festivals and avant garde film showcases including Whitney Museum of American Art, Pacific Film Archive, Montreal Nouveau Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival and Leipzig Doc Festival. Recent films include "Love Stories My Grandmother Tells", "Zero Hour", and "River Madness".

My Father's Story 11min, 16mm, 1998
Director: Mary Kocol

The story of what happened to the non-Jewish Poles during World War II is seldom heard. My Father's Story is just one voice - out of two & a half million
people who were taken from their homes and placed into forced labor by the Nazis. This is the story of Romuald Kocol's struggle, liberation by the
Americans, and emigration to the United States.

"There's something truely original about My Father's Story.... Many American families have similar artifacts, sacred remnants from a distant land or life....yet
for most families, these objects lie mute, Mary Kocol makes hers speak." -Ken Shulman, Film Critic, WBUR "Morning Edition"

Mary Kocol is a filmmaker and fine art photographer. She is a recipient of the 1999 Mass Media Fellowship. Her previous films include "Is This Me?" Winner of Best Animation at the 1995 Ann Arbor Film Festival and at the 1996 Humboldt International Film and Video Festival; and "I Was My Sister's Maid of Honor", Winner of Best Animated Film 1997 New England Film & Video Festival. Both of the films were sold to the Sundance Channel. Her photographs are among the collections of the MOMA (New York), MFA (Boston), and others. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship for her photography. She is an adjunct faculty member at Gordon College where she teaches animation. Kocol is an animator at the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Science Media Group.