Feb 18
“Spiral Jetty” by Robert Smithson (David O. Stevens/flickr)
. An annual collaboration between WHPK 88.5 FM and the University’s Film Studies Center, the event features a sampling of four acts gleaned from the Midwestern avant-noise/free improvisation music scene. Each performer has chosen a short film to accompany their show, ranging from classics of experimental cinema to films produced specifically for the occasion. This year’s roster of musical acts includes Mist, Dog Lady, Trauma y Nate Wooley, and Brett Naucke.
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Feb 11
Have You Seen These Kids pose for a group photo (Catherine Lee)
“After he cuts the kid’s arm off and the blood spurts everywhere, then you’re gonna roar, oh and you—you roll around this way…and you—when they fall you’re just gonna twirl the baton on down to the ground…”
This is not usual office banter. This is not an ordinary office. This is not an ordinary workday. Have You Seen These Kids (HYSTK) is not an ordinary company. Read the rest of this entry »
Feb 04
In an age of high-tech special effects and computer-generated imagery (CGI), the state-of-the-art has begun to overshadow the art of moviemaking itself. Although it may seem that most animators have succumbed to the flash and convenience of CGI, Yuri Norstein will not be moved. Making an appearance last week at the University of Chicago’s Film Studies Center during a rare visit to the United States, the acclaimed Russian animator explained that his opposition to computer graphics extends beyond mere Luddism: “In movies, the complicated thing is to overcome the materiality of the material…I wish to create a different aesthetic of cinema beyond technical effects.” Read the rest of this entry »
Jan 28
Jack Mayer is nervous. Leaning on a metal desk in the one-room office of Fire Escape Films in the basement of the University of Chicago’s Ida Noyes Hall, surrounded by cameras, cables, and computers, the young film director and fourth-year college student holds the brim of a tropical print ball cap and stares at the floor, thinking very hard. Mayer and his cast and crew of fifteen have spent eighteen months and thirteen grand turning his screenplay “A Girl Named Clyde” into a feature-length film. The movie is supposed to premiere in about two hours, upstairs, in the theater of the UofC’s Doc Films. Shot in high-definition, the film’s digital file is so big that the Doc Films system may not be able to handle it, and there’s no time to write a DVD. The search is on for a small cord that might be able to connect the film to the Doc system, but Mayer wants a backup plan. In a slight Georgia accent he sighs, “We gotta find ourselves a projector…” Read the rest of this entry »
Jan 22
Americans have long been loath to learn foreign languages and equally unenthusiastic about subtitled films—an unfortunate trend, but by no means a hopeless one. Launched in 1960 by Mayor Richard J. Daley, Chicago’s uncommonly active Sister Cities program has since been dedicated to building the city’s international character through events like the upcoming Lithuanian Film Festival, organized in collaboration with Chicago’s sister city Vilnius and the Lithuanian film company Era Film. The five-night series will introduce Chicagoans to a recent blossom of Lithuanian short films and documentaries. Read the rest of this entry »
Oct 28
An Exxon Mobil flesh candle, a Yes Men hoax
. The scene is a large, fluorescently-lit conference room, walls draped in threatening black curtains, the air chiming with the scattered tinkling of metal, glass, and thick, cream-colored hotel-grade dinnerware. Slight murmurs drift upwards from a series of round tables filled with the occupants’ self-satisfied smiles. If it weren’t for the overabundance of grey suits, the scene could be mistaken for the Daytime Emmys, but lo: the smiles are shrinking.
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