This year marks the 15th anniversary of “Views from the Avant-Garde,” a selection of films and digital videos from experimental filmmakers. Some artists are established, even classic—others are on the rise. Among the most well-known and prolific is George Kuchar, who died of cancer this September. He began his career making satirical films such as The Devil’s Cleavage and I Was a Teenage Rumpot with his twin brother, Mike. Kuchar’s semi-autobiographical film Hold Me While I’m Naked was ranked one of the 100 best films of the 20th century in the Village Voice Critic’s Poll in 2000. Two of the his last films, Lingo of the Lost and Empire of Evil, which Kuchar made on characteristically low budgets with his students at the San Francisco Art Institute, will screen together at this year's festival.
The “Views” festival will also feature works by Ken Jacobs, who in Seeking the Monkey King marries Godardian leftist commentary with stunningly crafted visuals. As The New York Times movie critic Manohla Dargis says, “His work opens your ears and mind, and, simply put, has no like in the multiplex, the art house or even most festivals.”
A series of short films by Jean-Marie Straub, a director of intellectually demanding and complex works since the early 60s, will play on Saturday and Monday. Lothringen! (pictured), which he co-directed with his late wife Danièle Huillet, is notable for its use of its revelatory pan shots of the town of Metz. Lothringen! and Un héritier are based loosely on works by the French author Maurice Barres, critical of the German occupation and presence in French lands. (Straub himself is a Frenchman who spent much of his life in Germany.) L’inconsolable, a later work by Straub, takes the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as its subject, and Schakale und Araber is an adaptation of a Kafka story, this time concerning the relationship between Arabs and Europeans.
The works of several notable avant-garde filmmakers, such as Kevin Jerome Everson, Ben Rivers, and others will also screen as a part of this growing series. Head to the Walter Reade Theater and Elinor Bunin Munroe this long weekend for the rare chance to experience these fascinating and original works.
“Views from the Avant-Garde” runs from October 7 – 10. Throughout the four days, installation work will be exhibited on the Film Center Amphitheater’s state of the art digital screen free of charge.
