VALI: THE WITCH OF POSITANO
Dir. Sheldon Rochlin and Flame Schon, 1967
United States / United Kingdom / Italy, 62 mins
In English

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30 – 7:30 PM

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It is in the bohemian’s nature to be a multihyphenate—or in the multihyphenate’s nature to be bohemian. Take Vali Myers, an Australian artist, dancer, and occultist, and self-proclaimed “creatrix.” She’s the captivating subject of Sheldon Rochlin and Flame Schon’s 1965 documentary Vali: The Witch of Positano. Instantly recognizable by her shock of red hair, facial tattoos, gold teeth, and kohl-lined eyes, Myers procured art related to her many talents: surreal, fluid paintings and drawings which revolved around primogenial magic and femininity, often depicting arcane supernatural figures. Myers was born in Sydney in 1930 to a merchant navy officer and a violinist, and by age 14 she had moved to St. Kilda, where she worked in factories and as an art model to pursue dance, her main passion beyond drawing.

By 17, Myers was lead dancer of the Melbourne Modern Ballet Company, and two years later she boarded a ship to Paris. The city was ravaged by war, and Myers, unable to find work, fell into a subculture of refugees, writers, and artists. (During this time, Dutch photographer Ed van der Elsken photographed her for his seminal roman à clef Love on the Left Bank and made her the lead of his 1972 film Death in Port Jackson Hotel.) Myers was imprisoned multiple times for vagrancy and eventually expelled from Paris, only to return years later, at which point her artwork was discovered by The Paris Review‘s George Plimpton (a portfolio of her drawings ran in the magazine’s spring 1958 edition).

Flitting between Europe, Melbourne, and New York, Myers developed an artistic network, associating with figures like Abbie Hoffman and Patti Smith, and was encouraged to exhibit her talents by Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí. After leaving Paris to quell her opium addiction, Myers settled in Positano in Southern Italy, where her cottage by the sea became a wildlife sanctuary, as if plucked from a fairy tale. Several films were made about Myers and her artistry, including Death in Port Jackson Hotel, Vali’s World (1984), Vali’s Diary (1984), The Tightrope Dancer (1989), and Painted Lady (2002), but none were as local to the most earnest slice of her life as Vali.

Spectacle is pleased to host Toronto-based critic and curator Saffron Maeve for a special event. Her series Contours is dedicated to films that thematize arts like painting, sculpture, sketching, and performance. In Rochlin and Schon’s hourlong experimental documentary, we visit Myers at her Positano dwelling, where she is seen dancing, chatting with friends and visitors, rolling in bed with her lover, tending to animals, engaging in occult rituals, and briefly painting. The film hop-skips between reality and phantasm, acting as an affective archive for this nonconformist artist to play within. Dreams are indulged, fantasies are taken as fact, and oblique rituals make for hyperreality. It’s clear Myers’ flavor of celebrity is unusual, but the filmmakers tend to both her worldview and public perception, keeping in mind that art is rarely made consciously.

Special thanks to Saffron Maeve and filmmaker Flame Schon.

CONTENT WARNING: These films contain flashing lights which may not be suitable for photosensitive epilepsy.

Saul Levine does not stop. He is an uncompromising and relentless film-maker whose work reflects his experimental verve. As far back as the ’60s, he has shown that film is a material object––and thus, it can be twisted, warped, chopped, and stretched to produce immersive and challenging cinematic experiences. On April 4, we are pleased to host Levine––alongside a troupe of filmmakers and thinkers close to him––for a night honoring his legacy.

In addition to the impressive body of work that Levine has assembled over the decades, he has also imparted a love and understanding of experimental filmmaking to a new generation of filmmakers through his teachings at The Massachusetts School of Arts and Design (MassArt); among them, Annalisa D. Quagliata Blanco. Her work championing his films, alongside Byron Davies and Lumia Lightsmith, led to the presentation of Saul Levine Retrospective that toured Mexico last year. Tonight, we present an abridged version of said retrospective, with Levine in person to discuss his work.

FRIDAY, APRIL 4 – 7 PM

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STAR FILM
1969. 15 mins. 16mm.

A hand-made emulsion film in which a star is reprinted over the course of 15 minutes. Across colors and shadows, Levine creates a simple interstellar experience, as though the screening room is lost in space.

BIG STICK / AN OLD REEL
1973. 10 mins. 16mm.

Between 1967 and 1973, Levine cut up and re-edited Charlie Chaplin’s IN THE PARK and EASY STREET. His dramatic reinvention of both films––with footage of police arresting protestors interrupting the comedian’s antics––stresses Chaplin’s routine pratfalls and thematic interests.

NEW LEFT NOTE
1982. 27 mins.

In addition to his practice as a filmmaker, Levine also worked as the editor of the NEW LEFT NOTES, the official newspaper of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). This short film chronicles the group’s activities, providing a history of the antiwar movement and its after-waves from 1968-1982.

FIVE-MINUTE INTERMISSION

IS AS IS
1991. 3 mins. 16mm.

Levine films the artist and scholar Marjorie Keller with a baby in her arms. A family film, documenting time spent together under the sun.

AS IS WAS
1995. 4 mins. 16mm.

Marjorie Keller and Stan Brakhage walk by the beach. A quick snapshot of a lovely day––a seabird swoops in at the end.

FALLING NOTES UNLEAVING
2013. 13 mins. 16mm.

After Anne Charlotte Robertson, filmmaker and friend of Levine, passed away, he decided to honor with a film. This is that film.

NOTE TO PATI
1969. 7 mins. 16mm.

A quick and powerful example of Levine’s filmmaking, mixing personal storytelling with furious editing. Also, a wistful portrait of a snow day in New England.

LIGHT LICKS: PARDES: COUNTING FLOWERS ON THE WALL
2018. 13 mins. 16mm.

A series of flowers in bloom, lit up for all to see. Levine, whose tireless approach to filmmaking has been much discussed already, provides evidence of his constant search for new ways of finding beauty through simple means. This film is part of his Light Licks series, which he began in 1999 and continues to build upon.

LIGHT LICKS: AMEN
2017. 6 mins. 16mm.

A portrait of Levine’s father, as well as a subtle and improvisational dance of light inspired by jazz. Also part of Levine’s Light Licks series.

NOTE TO TETSUA
2018. 1 min. 16mm.

The moon floats in front of a light. From the stars to the moon.

Special thanks to Saul Levine, Byron Davies, Lumia Lightsmith, Stephen Cappel and Kathy Del Beccaro. Davies’s research project “Materialism and Geographic Specificity in the Philosophy of Film” forms the basis for these screenings, which are supported by Salón de Cines Múltiples. Additional support was provided by Laboratorio Experimental de Cine (LEC).

 

FRIDAY, APRIL 4 – 10 PM

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WARNING: These films contain flashing lights which may not be suitable for those with photosensitive epilepsy.

Saul Levine has taught at Massachusetts College of Art and Design for 40 years, ushering multiple generations into experimental film. This program, adapted from a similar showcase at kindred Mexico City microcinema La Cueva as part of last year’s Retrospectiva Saul Levine, collects films both by Levine and his contemporaries and forebears, highlighting the unique methods of study and practice championed at MassArt.

Films in states of decay and reinvention make up this program. From Luther Price/Tom Rhodes’s bleak and beautiful Warm Broth (1988) to Levine and Pelle Lowe’s cheeky Ready-Made (1992), the works show off how multifaceted MassArt filmmakers are. Aware of film as a material and always willing to push the medium’s formal and narrative limits, they demonstrate a radical (perhaps waning) approach to experimental cinema in the United States. Within this presentation is a universe of filmmaking, held together by personal idiosyncrasies and uncompromising experimentation.

WARM BROTH
Dir. Luther Price/Tom Rhodes, 1988
35 mins, Super 8mm

A winding work of memory calling back to childhod, in all its distress and poetry. With its mechanical voiceover and stirring images, the short details the emotions and knickknacks that make up a broken home.

WHY THE LONG FACE
Dir. Laurie McKenna, 1997
26 mins

A former student of Price and Levine offers her tribute to their teachings with this shapeshifting short. Using old photographs, toy models, and off-the-cuff footage, McKenna creates a spellbinding work as daring and personal as that of her teachers and peers.

GOODTIME CHARLIE BIRTHDAY
Dir. Laurie McKenna, 1997
2 mins

A film of stuffed animals, haunted by a lullaby. Much like Price, McKenna makes visible the horror hiding beneath the surface of familiar American scenes.

AGGREGATE
Dir. Laurie McKenna, 2020
6 mins

A tribute to Price and all of McKenna’s lost loved ones. Simply pairing personal reminiscences with well-honed cinematography, she conjures a film of instincts with care at its heart.

OUTCRY (FOR LUTHER)
Dir. Annalisa D. Quagliata Blanco, 2015
1 min

Handmade and slowed down, a siren’s call made in tribute to Luther Price.

WAS ONCE ONE
Dir. Linnea Nugeant, 2023
3 mins

A vulnerable conversation between Price and the filmmaker forms the basis of this short. Along with the conversation, shifting shades of blue draw viewers in.

CRESCENT
Dir. Saul Levine and Pelle Lowe, 1993
5 mins, Super 8mm

Another conversation, this time between Levine and Pelle Lowe. The moon shines as they speak.

SCHMATEH IV & SCRAPE
Dir. Saul Levine, 1986
8 mins, Super 8mm

Two portraits, of Lowe and McKenna, respectively. According to Levine, he was “desperately in love” with both of them.

READY-MADE
Dir. Saul Levine and Pelle Lowe, 1993
4 mins, Super 8mm

Rock and roll and the Paris Commune. Levine and Lowe recreate Manet’s Olympia in this quick and humorous experiment.

Special thanks to Annalisa D. Quagliata Blanco, Saul Levine, Byron Davies, Lumia Lightsmith, Stephen Cappel, Nicolas Cadena, Mono No Aware, and Kathy Del Beccaro.

Davies and Lightsmith co-curated this program. The banner and poster image for this program come courtesy of David Michael Curry, who participated in the filming of Warm Broth. Davies’ research project “Materialism and Geographic Specificity in the Philosophy of Film” forms the basis for these screenings, which are supported by Salón de Cines Múltiples.