TUESDAY, JULY 22 – 8:00 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY! ARTIST IN ATTENDANCE!

Jesse Malmed is a Chicago-based artist and curator working in video, performance, text, occasional objects and their gaps and overlaps. He has performed, screened and exhibited at museums, microcinemas, film festivals, galleries, bars and barns. In addition to his creative work, Jesse programs at the Nightingale Cinema, co-directs the mobile exhibition space Trunk Show and has programmed work in a wide variety of contexts individually, as a member of Cinema Project and as the peripatetic Deep Leap Microcinema. A native of Santa Fe, Jesse earned his BA at Bard College and his MFA at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was recently named a “2014 Breakout Artist” by Newcity.

We’re pleased to welcome our friend and fellow microcineaste to the Spec to present a short program of his motion picture works, peppered with performances and several interludes of “Conversational Karaoke.”

WREADING (2012), 18 minutes or so, color, sound, video

Reading as writing. A romp through meaning-making and diffuse divination. The clouds hold secrets. Tuli Kupferberg is not the beluga, but the beluga sings human. Charles Bernstein. The world is a word is a world. Cloud covers.

THIMBLERIG (2012), 11ish minutes, color, sound, video

Body swaps, time manifest and made literal, multiverse tears, two minds to a body, dream babies, singtalk, represented realities.

CONQUE (2012), 8 minutes or so, color, sound, video, performance
Sixteen—at least—ideas and images in search of a trajectory. The voice you hear is your own, interrupted and ruptured, while a little real-life actualizing is all they need. Frank Stella, Phreak Headroom, Robert Creeley, Quixotic Tivoli, the demography of the Sitcom Set, Pizza Burger Covers and and. My favorite parts are when the permeability of the screen is made clear: when the diegesis becomes our world and when cinema’s prosthetic memory becomes a site for immortality. For Jonah Adels.

GOTH MOVIE (CHEMIROCHA) (2013), 02:36, color, sound, video

Goth breakfast, flying lanterns, alien landscapes, mirrors and seeings. Séance Nonfiction.

DO VOICES (2014), 15 minutes, color, sound, video, performance

Choirs, choirs, Robin Williams, the contemporary folk art ensemble of youtube, George Mason University’s English Accent Archive, Shamuel Beckett and others come together for a We Are The World / We Arendt -style movie/concert/concert movie. Highly recommended for those already there, those on their way. Topics include: where you’re from and how you sound, the imaginative space of the bootleg, the morass of language, the virtuosity of a radio on scan and typing in stereo.

SUPERNYM (2013) a little shy of 13 minutes, color, sound, video

The wave is simultaneously distinct from the ocean and a part of it. A part and apart. The piece and the whole. Constituency and contingency. The difference that makes a difference and those that don’t. Loop. Stella. Please call Stella. Tell me where accents come from. And more than just that they come from places. The morass of sound and image and data from which language emerges, from which the crisis emerges. Please call Stella. The wave is simultaneously distinct from the ocean and a part of it. A part and apart. The piece and the whole. Constituency and contingency. The difference that makes a difference and those that don’t. Loop. Stella. Please call Stella. Tell me where accents come from. And more than just that they come from places. The morass of sound and image and data from which language emerges, from which the crisis emerges. Please call Stella.

ROBERT DARROLL RETROSPECTIVE
including THE KOREAN TRILOGY
1986-2011. 65 min.
USA. HD video.

New York City Premiere of New Restorations!
iotaCenter’s Jeremy Schwartz in attendance

Special Thanks to Huckleberry Lain, Anthology Film Archives, and the Academy Film Archive

FRIDAY, JULY 11 – 8:00 PM

“The first words that come to mind about Robert Darroll’s films are density and complexity — of imagery, technique and style. He assimilates, transforms and transcends almost every technique in the history of animation. This is the apotheosis of motion graphics – simultaneously photographic, videographic and computer graphic. Darroll creates a hypnotic and visionary universe through virtuosic use of rotoscoping, compositing, layering, filtering and complex segmentations of the frame.” -Gene Youngblood

This July, Spectacle is pleased to partner with the iotaCenter to spotlight a trio of unsung masterpieces of avant-garde cinema: Robert Darroll’s KOREAN TRILOGY. Spectacle will screen brand new HD transfers of prints preserved by the Academy Film Archive. Jeremy Schwartz, member of iotaCenter’s Board of Directors, will be in attendance to present the films.

Created as a reflection upon an intense research period into Korean culture and East Asian philosophy, THE KOREAN TRILOGY represents three of the most complex analog animation techniques ever captured on film: a crazy mix of abstractions that dazzle the eyes. Transitions are abound and bring hundreds of emotions flowing smoothly from showering colors to spiraling abstractions and rippled designs. You won’t believe this was all shot on film.

“Darroll understands that digital technology’s most important contribution to moving image art is the seamless merging of photographic and synthetic imagery, live action with animation. Organic figures are set against elegant geometric constructions, shot through with startling vectors and trajectories.

“Visual density is matched by sonic density. Darroll’s sound design evolves from the Theremin-like electronic score of Memb to dazzling multilayered blends of natural and synthetic sounds in later works.

“The earlier works show the influence of Oskar Fischinger, Viking Eggeling, Len Lye, Paul Glabicki, even a touch of Jordan Belson. But gradually he transcends them to give us the unique vision of a true master of his art. The films are ravishingly beautiful journeys through the corridors of an inspired imagination.” -Gene Youngblood

This screening is a tribute to the late filmmaker, who passed away during its organization. This work and several others are also available on a DVD released by the iotaCenter this summer. We’re grateful to the iotaCenter’s Huckleberry Lain for initiating this program.

Korean Trilogy (16mm in HD digital video)

Lung (1986, 11:24) • Feng Huang (1988, 10:29) • Stone Lion (1990, 10:14)

Experience three of the most complex analog animation techniques ever captured on film. A crazy mix of abstractions that dazzle the eyes. Transitions are abound and bring you through hundreds of emotions flowing smoothly from showering colors to spiraling abstractions to rippling designs. You won’t believe this was all shot on film. Created as a reflection upon an intense research period into Korean culture and East Asian philosophy.

Soundtracks: Sukhi Kang and the Electronic Studio of the Technical University of Berlin

Production: Folkmar Hein

Restoration: Mark Toscano and the Academy Film Archive

Taiwanese Trilogy (digital video)

Things Fall Apart (2011, 5:37) • How Technology Saved the World (2011, 5:37) • What Ghosts Like Most (2011, 5:37)

Scientific analyses presented in a mashing of abstraction and video manipulation. Stare into the soul of humanity while contemplating the existence of the universe. These are three intense approaches to the same audio tracks. As a companion to his previous trilogy this series follows as an interpretation to a period of teaching in Taiwan over a lengthy period.

Soundtracks: Robert Darroll and Pierre Henri

Noemata No. 1 (digital video – 2001, 6 min)

“This composition uses documentary material interlaced in various rhythms. The individual frames of the original material have been reworked and then placed so that their numerical order is retained although they are separated by other sequences of frames. The object of this is to create a new sequence of images by blending different sequences together and by decreasing the continuity of the frames. The video also includes passages of continuous animation.” RD

Award winner Media Prize by the Bund Deutsche Industrie (2001) and Asolo Art Film Festival prize for computer animation (2002).  Hoeren und Sehen Production Grant awarded by the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany (2004)

Music: Sean Reed

Stele (digital video – 1999, 11 min)

“Does an increase in complexity imply a qualitative evolutionary advance and are we able to impose a sense of direction, or indeed a goal, on that process? Are these impositions not in fact the servants of our innate need for purpose related value? Is an illusory orientation more effective than disillusioned disorientation? Or insane contentment better than morbid insight? From this distant perspective, all that can be witnessed is an apparently aimless and fragmented ebb and flow, leaving myriads of spent forms adrift in the virtual afterworld of memory.” RD Award winner at CYNET art prize for computer animation, 2000

Soundtrack: Kiyoshi Furukawa at the ZKM, Karlsruhe

About Robert Darroll

Robert Darroll studied in Germany until 1974, then worked independently as a media designer and media artist in Europe until 2001 when he relocated to Japan. After a decade in Japan, Robert Darroll moved to Taiwan. He held professorships at the Department of Intermedia at the Tokyo National University of Art and Music, at the Nagoya University of Art and Science and at the Department of Digital Media at the Ming Chuan University. He is associated with the ZKM in Germay and the iotaCenter.

About the iotaCenter

The iotaCenter is a non-profit arts organization, founded in 1994, devoted to the preservation and promotion of experimental animation and abstract visual music. Through our online discussion group and The Visual Music Village social network, we foster a worldwide community of artists, scholars and fans of this art form. iota has received numerous grants for its programs in film preservation and archiving and maintains a video study center for students, scholars and curators doing research in the genre.

7TH ANNUAL DRUID UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL
Dir. Various, 2013-2014.
France, UK, Austria, USA, Italy.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 28
ONE NIGHT ONLY!
PROGRAM 1 – 8:00 PM [65 min]
PROGRAM 2 – 10:00 PM [78 min]

Free raffle at both shows!

The Druid Underground Film Festival comes out swinging with 2 crazy new shows featuring the BEST of the Long Form Shorts and Features submitted to the 2014 season. New images and hilarious horror—hallmarks of any DUFF screening—are infused with themes of surrealism and obsession to create a truly unique theater experience that “Packs a lot of weird shit into two hours of screenings.” —LA Weekly

I LOVE The Druid Underground Film Festival from Druid Underground Film Festival on Vimeo.

Druid Underground Film Festival Site

7th Annual Druid Underground Film Festival Facebook Event

– PROGRAM 1 (8:00 PM) – [65 min]

NUIT NOIRE
Dir. Qarxx.
France, 28 min.
What do a psychotic viking pimp, a transsexual rapist, and a nerve-wracked heroin junky have in common? This brutal and over-the-top narrative is fresh off the sleazy streets of the French underground. Kinetic, beautiful and funny as hell.

FORTUNES
Dir. Gregory Barth.
UK, 3 min.
A constant climax of new images, Fortunes demonstrates the flurry of everyday activities before grabbing them by the guts and pulling them inside out with surreal sequences designed to drive you insane!

EX
Dir. Fritz Aigner.
Austria, 23 min.
A dude. Somewhere in a house. A whispering romance. But then the blood buckets.

REFEREE
Dir. Guy Kozak.
USA, 11 min.
A dedicated but slightly obsessed high school football referee must make one of the toughest calls of his life. Twisted.

– PROGRAM 2 (10:00 PM) – [78 min]

MONSURA IS WAITING
Dir. Kevin Newbury.
USA, 15 min.
A bizarro comedy about two aging showgirls in Bridgeport, CT whose nightly performance is a kinda sexy, kinda creepy worship ritual to a giant creature (think Mothra) they believe will be returning to earth to redeem them.

SEX EQUO
Dir. Werther Germondari & Maria Laura Spagnoli.
Italy, 63 min.
In the tradition of Pasolini’s THE CANTERBURY TALES and Borowczyk’s THE BEAST, this feature has Adam and Eve choose several new forbidden fruits, each a new weirdo erotic tale. Inflatable pool toys are abused en-mass, blow jobs are given in shooting ranges, lesbians throw random parties, Little Red Riding Hood even gets down with a mushroom in the forest and so much more- all drawn from the real-life images hidden in plain view on the walls of Italian architecture. It’s totally messed up but tasteful and picturesque all at the same time!

MIL KDU DES: GXH
edited by Louis Piquette, music by MIL KDU DES

SATURDAY, MAY 31 – 8:00 and 10:00 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

BEHOLD!

On May 31st, MIL KDU DES return from the depths of the ocean to present and score GXH. A collaborative effort featuring the skillful edit of none other than Louis Piquette and that classic MIL KDU DES sound – fully formed (and performed) in the hallowed halls of Spectacle – a place that has recently been called “The Worst Sandwich Shop In Brooklyn” and “The Greatest Movie Theater In The Entire World.”

With water coolers abuzz and the rumor mills churning, America is settling into be cautiously optimistic about the newest entry in the Godzilla canon. (Full disclosure, some of us are pretty hyped up about it.) But with the bad taste of 1998’s utter disaster still on our tongues, we here at Spectacle set our sights to a simpler time. A time of rubber suits and miniature cities. Piquette takes his razor sharp edits to 1971’s GODZILLA vs. HEDORAH, a strange, colorful, psyched out, and environmentally-conscious film filled to the brim with incredible sets and (of course) big bad battles.

Here’s what Spectacle programmer, filmmaker, and critic Steve Macfarlane had to say about it as part of Not Coming To A Theater Near You’s excellent retrospective “The Compleat Godzilla” from last February:

“To call Godzilla Vs. Hedorah a relative masterpiece may sound like faint praise, but hindsight solidifies the film’s status as one of the most novel in the Godzilla canon. The family at its core are tenants of a badly polluted suburb, living in a Japan where Mt. Fuji appears carefully nestled between power station grids, where news commentators can’t tell the difference between a colossal beast and a new military weapon. Humanity and nature flat-out do not get along, and Godzilla’s rival, the “smog monster” Hedorah, is less the traditional diamond-encrusted invader from outer space than a sprawling manifestation of industrial Japanese growth after World War II, a red-eyed effigy in sludge. Director Yoshimitsu Banno dives head-first into making the series ever kid-friendlier, while simultaneously returning to it the political teeth that had gone lacking long since.”

An evening feast for two of the five senses, maybe three who knows.
Join us or die or don’t.