Program 22: Lullabies and Alarms

Cars and Killers. Gretchen Skogerson, USA, 2013, 2min.
Platonic. Dani Leventhal, USA, 2013, 21 min.
Elsa merdelamerdelamer. Abigail Child, USA, 2013, 3:30min.
vis à vis. Abigail Child, USA, 2013, 25min.
After Hours. Karen Yasinsky, USA, 2013, 14:40min.
El adios largos. Andrew Lampert, USA, 2013, 10min.
Rode Molen. Esther Urlus, Netherlands, 2013, 4min.
Seoul Electric. Richard Tuohy, South Korea, 2012, 16mm sound, 7:29min.
Las Variaciones Schwitters. Alberto Cabrera Bernal, Spain, 2012, 6min.
Slackness Princess. Sara Grace Nesin, USA, 2013, 3:57min.
Scattered in the Wind. Lori Felker,USA, 2013, 5:32min.
P.S. When You’re About to Die. Stom Sogo, USA/Japan, 2003, 12min. (a Views NYFF reprise screening ,from the collection of Anthology Film Archive)

vis à vis. Abigail Child, USA, 2013, 25min.
Inspired by Vertov’s Lullaby from the 30s, as well as by Warhol’s 60s Screen Test portraits and Frampton’s Manual of Arms from the same period—vis à vis is a homage to these divergent pasts: ironic, composed of outtakes, portraits ultimately of friends and colleagues. Also a testament to 16mm black and white celluloid and differing sexualities, seductions and (d)alliances.

El adios largos. Andrew Lampert, USA, 2013, 10min.
In 1973, Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye was both a critical and commercial flop. Set in a time transposed, neo-noir Los Angeles, Elliott Gould’s bumbling performance as gumshoe Philip Marlowe left Raymond Chandler aficionados dismayed, as did the kinetic camera work of cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and cheeky score by John Williams. The film skyrocketed out of theaters and was never shown on television. RCA released it on their short-lived, now unplayable Video Disc format in 1981, and has not been seen again since. All known prints were destroyed following the film’s dismal commercial release, and the original production elements were ruined by a leaky sprinkler system in a Culver City storage facility in 1983. For years The Long Goodbye has been considered irrevocably lost, an all too important missing link from Altman’s greatest period, a film that is impossible to reassess because no copies survive. Scholars and cinephiles were stunned when filmmaker and archivist Andrew Lampert serendipitously purchased a film titled El adios largos from a collector through the mail. Closer examination revealed that this 16mm, black and white, cropped, Spanish-language dubbed print was actually a reduction copy of Altman’s 35mm, color, widescreen, English-language film The Long Goodbye. Knowing the importance of his discovery, Lampert and a team of volunteer preservationists including colorization expert Jody Byler set out on a multi-year mission to preserve this unearthed gem using the latest digital technology. As you will see, Lampert has gone to extensive lengths to painstakingly produce the most authentic, thoroughly accurate version that can be made given the considerable difference in materials.

Scattered in the Wind. Lori Felker, USA, 2013, 5:32min. Music by Implodes (Kranky Records)

Chicago, 2009—A cemetery is a crime scene. Hundreds of graves in a historic cemetery had been ripped up in order to resell the plots. Human remains were displaced, disorganized, scattered throughout the grounds, moved to unmarked mass graves.

P.S. When You’re About to Die. Stom Sogo, USA/Japan, 2003, 12min. (a Views NYFF reprise screening ,from the collection of Anthology Film Archive)