Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles 1945 - 1980

Alternative Projections Symposium - Participants and new Dates

Tue, 3 Aug 2010 17:56:33 -0400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 26, 2010

CONTACT: Stephanie Sapienza, Los Angeles Filmforum
EMAIL: stephanie@lafilmforum.org

A SYMPOSIUM AND FILM FESTIVAL:
POSTWAR EXPERIMENTAL FILM IN LOS ANGELES

Los Angeles, CA – Los Angeles Filmforum, in collaboration with Visions and Voices, a USC Arts and Humanities initiative, will present the first public event in the series Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles 1945-1980, a three-day symposium, film festival and exhibition, November 12th – 14th, 2010 at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
The upcoming Alternative Projections screening series will be announced for 2011 and 2012 as part of Pacific Standard Time, the Getty-initiated celebration of art in Los Angeles from 1945-1980.

Alternative Projections aims to expand understanding of how experimental filmmaking evolved in Los Angeles and to contextualize its place in postwar art history. The project places focus on the community of filmmakers, artists, curators and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental cinema in Southern California in the postwar era. It will add to the definitive overview of the topic provided in David James’s book The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles, while creating a complementary archive of resources for future scholars.

The project is currently underway in the research and planning phases, and will culminate in a series of film screenings that will occur between September 2011 and June 2012. Researchers are gathering archival documents and creating a comprehensive research database of films, artists, organizations and exhibitions. In addition, over 40 new oral history interviews have been conducted and transcribed. Scholars presenting at the three-day symposium will utilize this new research to aid their presentations.

Screenings and presentations throughout the three-day event will examine diverse facets of the history of film art and media in Los Angeles. Presenters include: Ken Eisenstein, Alice Hutchison, Adam Hyman, Carlos Kase, Katherine Kerrigan, Alison Kozberg, Liz Kotz, Tim Lanza, Jesse Lerner, Ross Lipman, Mike Olenick, Stephanie Sapienza, Marc Siegel, Pauline Stakelon, Erika Suderburg, Julie Turnock and Grahame Weinbren. Select topics:

• Conceptual media in the late 1960’s with a special focus on the work of artist Paul McCarthy.

• The presence of experimental filmmakers in the Hollywood special effects industry in the 1970s.

• Queer postwar experimental cinema in Los Angeles, particularly Nancy Angelo and Candace Compton's feminist performance video Nun and Deviant (1976).

• The collective ASCO, a group of artists whose satirical and conceptual public art practices in the 1970s challenged Los Angeles with their definitions of Chicano art.

• Kenneth Anger’s seminal film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome and his inner circle at the time of its making: Anaïs Nin, Marjorie Cameron, Curtis Harrington.

• Raymond Rohauer and his unique screening series of experimental film at the Coronet Theater in Los Angeles in the 1950s.

• Jon Jost’s quasi-documentary critiques of American culture and the 1970’s art scene in Los Angeles: Angel City (1976) and Chameleon (1978).

• The Vanguard Theater and its role in the canonization of the avant-garde as an exhibitor in the 1970’s.

• The films of Roberta Friedman and Grahame Weinbren, who are best known for their revolutionary interactive video art piece The Erl King (1982 – 85). In the 1970’s they were helping to revolutionize the Los Angeles experimental film scene with their structured explorations of form and ideology.

• Bob Pike’s Creative Film Society, an early boutique film distributor and proponent of West Coast experimental filmmaking as distinct from movements in other areas of the country.

These topics represent only a partial list, and are subject to change before the time of the symposium.

Many filmmakers will be present to partake in the panels and screenings that will take place in conjunction with the symposium presentations. In conjunction with the symposium an exhibition of artifacts and archival documents will be on display, including historic exhibition posters and catalogues, original artwork and more.

Additionally, the weekend will include a celebration of the work of the Single Wing Turquoise Bird Light Show – Peter Mays, Michael Scroggins, David Lebrun, Amy Halpern, and others. Single Wing Turquoise Bird was a band of visual artists who originally performed light shows behind many of the leading bands of the late 1960s, in addition to playing on their own to prerecorded sound or music. This event is especially curated for the Alternative Projections symposium and will consist of a combination of historic and contemporary works in the spirit of the SWTB movement.

The symposium will be held at USC School of Cinematic Arts, and admission is free. Further details on dates, times and specific locations to be announced. Please watch the news unfold on the Filmforum website at www.lafilmforum.org (click on Blog), or visit the USC Visions and Voices site at http://www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/visionsandvoices/.

About Los Angeles Filmforum: Filmforum was incorporated in 1975. Its mission is to promote a greater understanding of film as an art form and the filmmaker as an artist by providing a forum for independently produced, experimental films, which have little opportunity of reaching the general public through normal channels of commercial distribution. It showcases alternative media that aims to inspire, enlighten, and empower, as well as to entertain. By featuring the underrepresented voices and visions of truly independent filmmakers, Filmforum exposes audiences to the full range of artistic expression, cultural perspectives, and critical inquiry. It continues as the city’s longest running organization that screens experimental and avant-garde film and video art, documentaries, and experimental animation. For more information, visit our website at www.lafilmforum.org.

About the USC Visions and Voices Initiative: Visions and Voices is a university-wide arts and humanities initiative that is unparalleled in higher education. The initiative was established by President-elect C. L. Max Nikias during his tenure as provost in order to fulfill the goals set forth in USC’s strategic plan; to communicate USC’s core values to students; and to affirm the human spirit. Emphasizing the university’s commitment to interdisciplinary approaches, the initiative features a spectacular array of events conceived and organized by faculty and schools throughout the university. The series includes theatrical productions, music and dance performances, conferences, lectures, film screenings and many other special events both on and off campus. Each program invites students to dialogue and interact with artists, writers, professors and special guests. These interactions provide a dynamic experience of the arts and humanities and encourage active exploration of USC’s core values, including freedom of inquiry and expression, team spirit, appreciation of diversity, commitment to serving one’s community, entrepreneurial spirit, informed risk-taking, ethical conduct and the search for truth. For more information, visit the initiative website.

For further information please contact Project Director Stephanie Sapienza at stephanie@lafilmforum.org, or Project Supervisor Adam Hyman at adam@lafilmforum.org. For questions directed to USC, please contact Alex Ago at aago@cinema.usc.edu.

Press Release - Filmforum receives an additional $65,000 from the Getty Foundation

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:06:42 -0500

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

CONTACT: Stephanie Sapienza, Los Angeles FIlmforum
E-MAIL: stephanie@lafilmforum.org

Los Angeles Filmforum receives $65,000 from the Getty Foundation for 2011
screening series and publication about experimental film in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, CA – Los Angeles Filmforum has received additional funding from the Getty Foundation to support the continuation of their Alternative Projections project about postwar experimental filmmaking in Los Angeles. This new round of funding marks over $6 million dollars that the Foundation has invested in the investigation and display of Los Angeles’ contemporary art tradition, as part of the Getty’s initiative Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945 - 1980. The money supports the implementation of over 26 exhibitions and publications starting in fall 2011.

Filmforum's project, entitled Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles 1945 – 1980, focuses on the community of filmmakers, artists, curators and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental film and video in Southern California in the postwar era. The 2011 exhibition will be a series of approximately 16 screenings as part of Filmforum’s regular Sunday programming at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, as well as several collaborative screenings with other cultural organizations.

Programming of the series will focus on both canonical and forgotten films produced by Southern California artists and avant-garde filmmakers from 1945 to 1980. It will include films that have had limited public screenings in Los Angeles since that period with appropriate, more canonical avant-garde works for context. We will also draw attention to LA-based visual artists who also worked in film – John Baldessari, Paul McCarthy, Sara Kathryn Arledge, Ed Ruscha and Bruce Nauman – and try to draw connections between their work in ways that have not previously been accomplished. The award funds will go to support staffing, film rentals, publicity, permissions, as well as the creation of new projection prints.

To select and curate these films, we will draw from the information gathered during the three-year research and planning phase. This includes information from the archival research being conducted, the 40+ oral histories being recorded and transcribed, and from an October 2010 research symposium that will include panels, presentations and screenings.

Highlights of some preliminary planned programming include: Wallace Berman’s Underground, featuring films by and about Berman’s close-knit circle of Topanga Canyon bohemians (Dean Stockwell, George Herms, and Dennis Hopper, among others); Performance and Media 1974-1980, a MOCA collaboration that will analyze the nature of performance for media (featuring works by Paul McCarthy, Sam Erenberg, Bruce Nauman, Grahame Weinbren and more); and Identity Formation and Media Representation, which will explore identity politics and the quest for increased media representation of minority groups (with selection of works by artists such as Betye Saar, Eddie Wong and Kenneth Anger).

In addition to the exhibition, Filmforum will launch complementary publications in two parts: a media-rich website with articles, biographies, filmographies, photos and streaming video; and a clustered journal publication with several articles selected from the 2010 symposium.

About Los Angeles Filmforum: Filmforum was incorporated in 1975. Its mission is to promote a greater understanding of film as an art form and the filmmaker as an artist by providing a forum for independently produced, experimental films, which have little opportunity of reaching the general public through normal channels of commercial distribution. It showcases alternative media that aims to inspire, enlighten, and empower, as well as to entertain. By featuring the underrepresented voices and visions of truly independent filmmakers, Filmforum exposes audiences to the full range of artistic expression, cultural perspectives, and critical inquiry. It continues as the city’s longest running organization that screens experimental and avant-garde film and video art, documentaries, and experimental animation. For more information, visit our website at www.lafilmforum.org.

For further information please contact Project Director Stephanie Sapienza at stephanie@lafilmforum.org, or Project Supervisor Adam Hyman at adam@lafilmforum.org.

Alternative Projections Symposium

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:58:13 -0500

**PLEASE NOTE** Although the original call for papers listed the symposium dates as October 15-17, the dates have now MOVED to November 12-14. The new dates will be reflected on all future announcements and publicity.**

SYMPOSIUM: CALL FOR PAPERS

DATES: October 15-17, 2010
LOCATION: School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California

CONTACT: Stephanie Sapienza, Los Angeles Filmforum
E-MAIL: stephanie@lafilmforum.org

Los Angeles Filmforum is the only venue in Southern California dedicated exclusively to the ongoing, non-commercial exhibition of independent, experimental, and progressive cinema. In keeping with our mission to feature the underrepresented voices and visions of truly independent filmmakers, and in conjunction with the Getty’s $3 million initiative to explore post-war L.A. art, Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945 – 1980, we are planning a 16+ screening series in 2011 related to the history of avant-garde media in Los Angeles. The purpose of the Getty’s initiative is to broaden awareness and exposure of LA's contemporary art history.

Filmforum's project, entitled Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles 1945 – 1980, aims to expand understanding of how experimental filmmaking – including works created on film, video and other forms of time-based media - evolved in Los Angeles and to contextualize its place in postwar art history. It will focus on the community of filmmakers, artists, curators and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental cinema in Southern California in the postwar era.

As part of this three-year research and planning project, Filmforum will hold a symposium in October 2010 focused on some of the key aspects of this movement and time period. We would like to invite scholars, historians, curators, filmmakers, and artists to submit proposals for papers, panels and presentations relating to experimental film production and organizations in Los Angeles from 1945-1980.

Proposals should be in the form of a 250-word abstract describing your suggested presentation, though more fully developed and even completed papers are encouraged. Topics could include:

• Analytic explications of specific films or groups of films
• The relation between filmmaking and the LA exhibition and distribution infrastructure
• Collaborations between artists and curators, especially as these fostered new creative voices
• Exploration of the connections between experimental film work and contemporaneous works in other arts, such as painting, dance, photography, poetry, music, and theatre
• Relations between experimental/ avant-garde developments and the film industry
• Filmmaking’s responsiveness to the spatiality of Los Angeles and Southern California.

These topics are not intended as limits, and we hope to discover new methodologies and approaches.

Presentations should be 20 minutes long, including the use of media if appropriate. Scholars who present will also have the option to revise and expand their work to incorporate it into our supplementary exhibition publications.

For consideration, submit the abstract via email by Friday March 26, 2010 to Stephanie Sapienza at stephanie@lafilmforum.org. It should be noted that the archival research phase of our project is well underway and we may have valuable resources to contribute to the writing of your proposal. If you would like to discuss the projected scope and content of your proposal, including specific artists, films, curators or organizations, please contact us and we can provide assistance by granting access to this research.

About Los Angeles Filmforum: Filmforum was incorporated in 1975. Its mission is to promote a greater understanding of film as an art form and the filmmaker as an artist by providing a forum for independently produced, experimental films, which have little opportunity of reaching the general public through normal channels of commercial distribution. It showcases alternative media that aims to inspire, enlighten, and empower, as well as to entertain. By featuring the underrepresented voices and visions of truly independent filmmakers, Filmforum exposes audiences to the full range of artistic expression, cultural perspectives, and critical inquiry. It continues as the city’s longest running organization that screens experimental and avant-garde film and video art, documentaries, and experimental animation. For more information, visit our website at www.lafilmforum.org.

For further information please contact Project Director Stephanie Sapienza at stephanie@lafilmforum.org, or Project Supervisor Adam Hyman at adam@lafilmforum.org.

Filmforum Begins Massive Oral Histories Project

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:01:01 -0500

Filmforum is well into the second major phase of its Alternative Projections project covering postwar experimental filmmaking in LA, which involves conducting videotaped oral histories with filmmakers, film programmers, artist, critics and others closely involved with the production of fine art filmmaking in Los Angeles from 1945-1980. Individuals are being selected for an oral history interview based on their contributions during this period, and we are also targeting contemporary filmmakers, artists, programmers, and scholars who have been influenced by work produced during this period.

So far we have shot interviews with filmmakers David Lebrun, Peter Mays, and Chris Casady, and curators Terry Cannon (founder of Filmforum) and Michael Fles (formerly John Fles of Cinema Theater).

We hope that these interviews will add significantly to the body of source material about this era, which to this point has been minimally documented. The transcripts from these interviews will be made available online as a resource for all scholars.

Below, you can see a few select clips and transcript excerpts. More video and full transcripts to follow!

Web Publication - Conceptual Layout Document

Fri, 4 Sep 2009 01:28:04 -0400

The goal of Alternative Projections is to expand understanding of how experimental filmmaking evolved in Los Angeles and to contextualize its place in postwar art history. The project focuses on the community of filmmakers, artists, curators and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental cinema in Southern California from 1945-1980.

We hope to demonstrate how the Los Angeles programming and distribution infrastructure was an integral part of the avant-garde film movement during this period, how artists and curators collaborated, and how the movement was able to foster new creative voices by exposing emerging filmmakers to alternative voices and images.

We are currently in our research and planning phase which will culminate in a screening series and publication. The publication, produced as two parts, will complement the screening exhibition.

The first part will be a standalone web publication showcasing all aspect of the research that has been gathered – entries on films, artists, organizations, and exhibitions – as well as video and transcripts of oral histories created as part of the project. The web publication will also feature critical papers produced in tandem with the research symposium in 2010.

To further in visualizing the form and focus of the web publication, we have created a conceptual document that outlines the different sections of the proposed site and how they might appear. Click on the image to the left to access the document as a PDF.

The second part of the publication aspect will be a clustered journal series of 4-5 pieces, including more developed scholarly works. These pieces will be longer and not included on the web publication in their entirety. We are approaching Millennium Film Journal and OCTOBER Magazine to publish the volume.

Alternative Projections Press Release

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:23:32 -0400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 24, 2009

CONTACT: Stephanie Sapienza, Los Angeles FIlmforum
E-MAIL: stephanie@lafilmforum.org

Los Angeles Filmforum awarded $117,000 from the Getty Foundation to research LA postwar experimental film

Los Angeles, CA – Los Angeles Filmforum is one of 16 organizations to be awarded a grant from the Getty Foundation as part of their $3 million initiative to broaden awareness and exposure of LA's contemporary art history. The initiative, entitled Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945 - 1980 awarded funds to institutions such as LACMA, MOCA, the Hammer Museum, Long Beach Museum of Art, and several others, to conduct research on subjects as diverse as architecture, clay, ceramics, African American art, art of the 1970's, and more. All 16 organizations will have three years to research and plan for a citywide series of exhibitions and catalogues beginning in the fall of 2011.

Filmforum's project, entitled Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles 1945 – 1980, aims to expand understanding of how experimental filmmaking evolved in Los Angeles and to contextualize its place in post-war art history. It will focus on the community of filmmakers, artists, curators and programmers who contributed to the creation and presentation of experimental cinema in Southern California in the postwar era.

The four phases of the research and planning phase will include 1) examining various archives that include materials relevant to the experimental film organizations that thrived during the postwar era, 2) conducting 40 oral histories with filmmakers, artists, curators, and others closely involved with this community, and 3) conducting a three-day research symposium in 2010 in which panelists and presenters will discuss various aspects of their research in this area.

The end goal of this grant project is a series of film screenings that will occur between September 2011 and June 2012. All screenings include program notes on the artist and films, and, as per all Filmforum screenings, include question and answer periods with the artist or other relevant presenters, including curators and collaborators.

Programming of the screening series will focus on both influential/well-known and forgotten films produced by Los Angeles artists from 1957 to 1980. The exhibition will intermix films that have had limited public screenings in Los Angeles since that period with appropriate, more well-known films for contextualization.

Lastly, Filmforum will also create a media-rich web publication and several clustered essays in a scholarly journal to complement the screening exhibition. The journal volume will present research and critical papers produced in tandem with the research symposium, including works from project team members as well as appropriate scholars in contemporary art and experimental film history. In addition to the journal articles, the web publication will be bolstered by features such as video and transcripts of oral histories, and samples of archival programming material from the five organizations (program notes, posters, reviews, etc).

About Los Angeles Filmforum: Filmforum was incorporated in 1975. Its mission is to promote a greater understanding of film as an art form and the filmmaker as an artist by providing a forum for independently produced, experimental films, which have little opportunity of reaching the general public through normal channels of commercial distribution. It showcases alternative media that aims to inspire, enlighten, and empower, as well as to entertain. By featuring the underrepresented voices and visions of truly independent filmmakers, Filmforum exposes audiences to the full range of artistic expression, cultural perspectives, and critical inquiry. It continues as the city’s longest running organization that screens experimental and avant-garde film and video art, documentaries, and experimental animation. For more information, visit our website at www.lafilmforum.org.

For further information please contact Project Director Stephanie Sapienza at stephanie@lafilmforum.org, or Project Supervisor Adam Hyman at adam@lafilmforum.org.