MCFF - Media City Film Festival

[niminy-piminy]

MEDIA CITY FILM FESTIVAL 2022
FEBRUARY 8 – MARCH 1

does anyone have the time to go through this and pick out the treasures?
https://mediacityfilmfestival.com/25th-anniversary/

ha, looks great.
certainly gonna investigate it!
at first glimpse i see the year poll flick → https://mediacityfilmfestival.com/25th- ... 41-frames/
at second glimpse i see one more → https://mediacityfilmfestival.com/25th- ... lumb-line/

11/2 (3)

1. About the Art of Love or a Film with 14441 Frames (Karpo Ačimović-Godina, 1972, 11m)
2. Plumb Line (Carolee Schneemann, 1971, 15m)
3. The Newest Olds (Pablo Mazzolo, 2022, 14m)

watched the first 3 films today.
1/ hoped that ABOUT THE ART OF LOVE OR A FILM WITH 14441 FRAMES will be more ironic (tho not utterly disappointed).
2/ seems like PLUMB LINE (according to most of the sources actually a 1971 film — not 1972) is the last installment of the trilogy (preceded by FUSES and KITCH'S LAST MEAL) — was fine but next time gonna bing-watch the whole series.
3/ encountered Pablo Mazzolo in person in the past!
if my pre-kinometer notes don't fool me, the local screening devoted to the experimental film of Argentina took place in 2014.
Pablo Mazzolo (*1976) presented his films Conjeturas (2013, 4 min), Fotooxidación (2013, 13 min), Oaxaca Tohocu (2011, 12 min).
Benjamín Ellenberger (*1983) presented Fragmentos de domingo (2013, 4 min), Corte (2013, 6 min), La mativación en el trabajo (2013, 5 min), Perforación (2011, 4 min).
Azucena Losana (*1977) presented Fric Langa (2013, 4 min), Terremoto (2011, 7 min), Condicionadas (2011, 4 min).
these 3 filmmakers (who attended in person) were introduced by 2 local (experimental) filmmakers Georgy Bagdasarov and Alexandra Moralesová who also published a book (in the local tongue) called "Buenos Aires Experiment" (didn't read it yet).
the event is already somewhat blurred in my memory (tho i can still recall the overall pleasing vibes).
since then, i only watched a few other films by Azucena Losana.
i take THE NEWEST OLDS (urban landscapes & dead birds! included) as a reminder i should (at one point) explore this area of experimental film (or experimental film of this area) in detail — including reading the aforementioned book.

[niminy-piminy]

12/2 (8)

4. Polycephaly in D (Michael Robinson, 2021, 23m)
5. Paracas (Cecilia Vicuña, 1983, 18m)
6. What is Poetry to You? (Cecilia Vicuña, 1980, 24m)
7. Bleeding Heart (Ximena Cuevas, 1993, 4m)
8. Cinepolis, the Film Capital (Ximena Cuevas, 2003, 23m)
9. The House Is Yet To Be Built (Sílvia das Fadas, 2018, 35m)
10. The Head that Killed Everyone (Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, 2014, 8m)
11. The Raven, the Pit and the Mare (Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, 2021, 16m)

4/ was not mesmerized by POLYCEPHALY IN D at all (i prefer ACEPHALE vibes — viz another thread).
and during this flick, i also realized i can't make any screencaps (if i try, all i get is a blank still — some "copyright" protection in action (seems like)).
so, after the unfortunate start of today's viewings, i thought "and now for something completely different" and instead of proceeding with films in the "International Program" i jumped into the "Spotlight Artists" and watched two shorts by Cecilia Vicuña.
5/ PARACAS (1983) is an (ethnofiction) animation that derives its visual vocabulary from a peruvian (pre-columbian) piece of textile (its patterns) — i.e. something similar Patricia Amlin did later while churning THE FIVE SUNS: A SACRED HISTORY OF MEXICO (1996) from illuminations of an aztec manuscript, or POPOL VUH: THE CREATION MYTH OF THE MAYA (1989) from the decorations of mayan pottery.
6/ the other film on display by Cecilia (called WHAT IS POETRY TO YOU?) is a street interview documentary in which the same question is asked over and over and over... and various responders provide various responses.
it all starts with a quote by Novalis (so basically it can't start better!) saying, “Poetry is the original religion of mankind.”
was not able to verify if Novalis truly said that but it is quite likely he might have said (among many other things) even this catchy phrase.
among the responders, poetry is often interlinked with a class struggle (with voicing out the social critique) — two guys even almost mispronounce "poésia" as "policía" (which suggests that poetry can sometimes become a strong weapon that triggers repression).
i was waiting in vain for a lengthy elaboration on poetry giving an opportunity to exercise a “private language” (i.e. a “language” that has not yet been codified by society and used for a “practical” communication) but there were even glimpses of this stance when one alluring lady said, "I can compare poetry with the discovery of space. It's like a revolutionary dance with time and with life.”
so, despite today's MCFF viewings didn't start really well, ultimately it turned out much better and i am not at all discouraged to try other "Spotlight Artists" too (Cecilia Vicuña recommended!).

[niminy-piminy]

7/ before pondering for some other films, here is a BLEEDING HEART intermezzo!
probably, no need to mention that a soft spot of my apathetic (nearly inert) psyche is listening to pathetic songs expressing big emotions.
it can be found not only in the "Spotlight Artists" section (Ximena Cuevas) → https://mediacityfilmfestival.com/25th- ... na-cuevas/
but also on YT ↓

My heart is submerged in chili
You seasoned it with chili
You squeezed it with lies
It gets very anguished
It burns so much
You tattooed my heart with your name
You should have left it
Pinned on your vest
Or better yet
You should have eaten it
And not leaving me
Like Christ
With a bleeding and painful heart
Where shall I go?
Where shall I put my heart?
Where it won't ache
Where it won't bleed
Where it won't burn
I'll carry it
On the outside
Like the saints

https://youtu.be/a8T82iWal1k

[sally]

JIRI AAAAAAAAAAARGH HAVE YOU WATCHED THIS ONE YET??????????

https://mediacityfilmfestival.com/25th- ... -be-built/

RED HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sally]

ok, aside my interrupting intermezzo scream above, as well as watching some already mentioned, it has been a fruitful MCFF day - there was one already on my watchlist and was basically a margaret tait movie (nice)

glimpses from a visit to orkney in summer 1995 - ute aurand (2020)
https://mediacityfilmfestival.com/25th- ... mmer-1995/

then indulging the manias, a very enjoyable sea one!

sea series #23 - john price (2022) - need to sea #1-22 now!

https://mediacityfilmfestival.com/25th- ... series-23/

something of bokanowski's dreamy la plage, but as per artistic clouds ref in another thread:

[sally]

as is obvious, i don't seem to be having trouble taking screengrabs, jiri maybe they just hate czechia?

to demonstrate, the almost familiar (outsider) architectural A Casa, a Verdadeira e a Seguinte, Ainda Está por Fazer - link above and description below

Sílvia das Fadas traces a journey between five sites of revolutionary outsider architecture: an ideal palace built by a postman after each of his daily rounds; a red house designed by a socialist agitator; a pacifist tower erected against the movements of history; an exuberant garden engendered in the feminine; and a merry cemetery, which conjures a community of equals in the outskirts of Europe. A travelogue to places which defy the surface of the world.

(thom andersen does v/o for william morris )

[niminy-piminy]

not yet — gonna watch it (red house) as the next one!

8/ meanwhile, i only watched the other film by Ximena Cuevas called CINEPOLIS, THE FILM CAPITAL and despite having its witty moments it basically suffers the same flaw as POLYCEPHALY IN D and some other collage (found footage) films that seem to have been patched together a bit too easily.

i watched & liked a few films by Ute Aurand before, so i was saving the GLIMPSES as a safe resting place (a solace) after i will stumble upon some real crap.

[niminy-piminy]

9/ oh, THE HOUSE IS YET TO BE BUILT was really a nice film (on my fav subject) — if i would be able to make screencaps, i give it one of my "haphazard awards" (however, no screencaps, no awards!).
for a moment, i feel saturated by all the depictions of the Red House, tho, in a longer perspective, i still hope to visit it once!

[sally]

can't you just 'prt sc' when the film is playing in full screen? (and then paste into an image editing program?) that's what i did, truly haphazard

[niminy-piminy]

i usually "prt sc" and then copy-paste into the inkscape.
it works with mcff web but once i start to play a film (regardless if full-screen or smaller) all i get in inkscape (after copy-pasting) is the all-black background.

10/ i blame for this malfunction a black cat from the flick about spells i just watched (THE HEAD THAT KILLED EVERYONE by Beatriz Santiago Muñoz)...


at first, the film seems rather unspectacular but then (about in the middle — from 3:47 till 4:10 specifically) starts to play the tune we all the regulars of this forum know very well thanks to Lencho (Los Saicos - Demolición) and i instantly felt jinxed — it only plays shortly and then the tune disappears (and the heroine of the film continues dancing "a capella" till the end of the film).

https://youtu.be/bq_ADWXLMM8?t=227

https://youtu.be/haVaaDLwWvI

[niminy-piminy]

10/ the other film by Beatriz Santiago Muñoz called THE RAVEN, THE PIT AND THE MARE (abundant with references to Proust) is an ideal bedtime story (so, it is the last one for today)...

Taking as her model a method of Sanskrit poetry that tells two stories in the same text at the same time, Santiago Muñoz explores acts of simultaneous narration to juxtapose images and sounds from seemingly disconnected universes. A madeleine is both a pastry and an idea. Language is historical and abstract. In the “historical now” there is a plastic cup and a robotic arm at the bottom of the ocean. Each day a mare visits a junkyard near an overgrown forest and tries to mate with a Corvette. A traditional Haitian proverb states: the snake can only be measured once it’s dead. Consider things you can’t see but know are real: the bottom of the Puerto Rico Trench, the Marassa Jumeaux, our attachments to past orders.

p.s. there is also a book about birds displayed!

[...]

I've been watching a number of these as well. I liked the Jayne Adams Triforium a lot, started tracking down her other films because of it, but it is just static shots that don't seem to work for everyone, so ymmv.

Sodom was all too effective, I mean it's a hell of a thing, but not something I'd want to push on people necessarily since it isn't a "fun" watch by any means.

Polycephaly in D kinda almost works. There's something effective in it that wasn't pared down enough to shine through entirely, but the better moments linger.

Plumb Line worked for me, called it the You Oughta Know of experimental films and I'll stick with that.

Now Pretend was solid too. Good combination of text and image, not Godardian, but with some useful dissonance involved.

What Distinguishes the Past was nicely lit, but pretty basic reverse motion concept.

Glimpses from a Visit to Orkney in Summer 1995 caught something of the feeling of memory fading or fragmenting over time quite well.

The Newest Olds was worth seeing too, but parts are already fading a bit from memory.

Maat Means Land is really interesting, a very Native American feeling take on culture jamming those that jammed their culture, slyly humorous and absolutely resolute in not being fit to conventions. Also seems very 1990s kid based as well.

Mati Diops' Atlantiques was pretty great, but I think I might have watched that on Mubi now that i think about it.

[sally]

mazzolo's the newest olds didn't make any sense to me because it immediately blended in with recent youtube rabbit holes i went down following the windsor (and other assorted) hum(s) and general 'i have won the lottery' browsing where christie's is selling robert rauschenberg's capital vanity (https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/ ... 049_00.jpg ) of which this screenshot could be a part



anyway today i'm doing the bens russell & rivers and slightly nervously, 13 ways of looking at a blackbird, because how can it live up to the poem

[sally]

well the blackbirds thing was terrible, i gave it up halfway through.

and sodom.........can see why you might make films like that, but why the hell would anyone want to so visually assault someone fool enough to watch it?

me, i'm sticking with the quiet dead people in triforium:



am absolutely sick of all this earnest, allusive art gallery crap now, am done with it unless anyone points out one with some redeeming human value like humour.

[niminy-piminy]

13/2 (5)

12. Whale Watch (I) (Joseph Bernard, 1981, 11m)
13. R.E.M Burn (Bawaadan Collective, 2021, 7m)
14. The Wind That Held Us Here (Jack Cronin, 2021, 6m)
15. Selfie (Paul Echeverria, 2020, 4m)
16. HERBARIA × PELICULA: Field Portfolio (Derek Jenkins, 2021, 12m)

today (after making Joseph Cornell detour) i started to ponder the "Regional Program"...

12/ prior to WHALE WATCH (I), i watched 21 films by JB (all of them in 2017).
i was highly impressed then!
now, all those (then highly cherished) films are somewhat blurred in my memory and i would not be able to rank them (without rewatching) if we did a poll.
i am afraid WHALE WATCH (I) will soon merge in this blurry amalgam.
13/ the worst entry so far.
i don't perceive it really as a film but rather a social ad/promo (abundant with p.r. claims).
14/ nicest film among these five (watched today).

During their annual migration to Mexico, thousands of monarch butterflies funnel into Point Pelee National Park in Leamington, Ontario, where they wait for calm weather to allow them to fly across Lake Erie.

15/ the only attempt at something witty (among these five).

Using the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature Lust for Life (1956) as source material, Selfie employs loop-based operations to offer a renewed method for observing traditional formulas of storytelling.

it is mildly amusing to hear Vincent Hollywood van Gogh shouting over and over and over, "Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul..." however, these jokes consisting of looping found footage sequences might have been a hot cake 30 years ago (f.e. Martin Arnold) — or maybe even sooner (by someone else)?!? — but repeating this joke again nowadays (in the tik-tok era)?!? c'mon!
16/ not impressive from a cinematic pov (mostly just a slide show), but whoever loves the plants and herbariums it's a MUST.

HERBARIA × PELICULA: Field Portfolio is the single channel version of a multichannel installation which examines the work taking place at the HAM Herbarium at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario. The Herbarium is located along the edges of the Cootes Paradise wetland on the traditional territory of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee peoples. Its collection comprises over 60,000 specimens from around the world, though it’s primarily composed of local vascular plant types gathered by members of the scientific community alongside educated hobbyists and amateur botanists.

[niminy-piminy]

17/2 (1)

17. 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird (Ana Vaz, 2020, 31m)
18. Sodom (Luther Price, 1989, 16m)
19. Glimpses from a Visit to Orkney in Summer 1995 (Ute Aurand, 2020, 4m)
20. Sea Series 23 (John Price, 2022, 8m)

17/ i didn't give up on MCFF a withstood "the blackbirds thing" till the end!
serious intellectual efforts lacking irony (as displayed in this film) are usually a bad omen that one is dealing with foundationalism ("a theory of knowledge that holds that all knowledge and inferential knowledge (justified belief) rests ultimately on a certain foundation of no inferential knowledge").
high school teenagers who "fear the unknown" and make claims like, "i think we can't live in a world, where we don't understand what's going on around us" should not be misled by adult foundationalists who tend to tell them that by studying some classic langue (latin/greek/aramaic/sanskrit), or interpreting some enigmatic parole (an experimental poem, a birdsong) one can "break the code" (and thus subsequently "solve" the enigma of life).
instead of thus "writing" another (ironic) chapter of the book called The Search for the Perfect Language (Umberto Eco), they should become more exposed to the Saussurean lectures on the arbitrary nature of the linguistic sign and to the concepts of "non-synthetic" (keeping the contradictions) dialectics of the Jena circle of Early German Romantics.
it was my very first film by Ana Vaz and thus — based on a single film — i am not gonna make a fast conclusion she is a foundationalist filmmaker (tho i am suspicious) and thus uninteresting to me (gonna watch at least one two more films prior to "the last judgment").
but even if her whole oeuvre so far is truly rooted in foundationalism, even then it wouldn't be all & all hopeless — because during the closing credits of 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A BLACKBIRD i heard a promising sung phrase saying, "i now wanna say the opposite of what i said before".
she wouldn't be the first foundationalist who converted to "the right (anti-foundationalist) path" (viz early vs. late Wittgenstein).
anyway, my mature recommendation to the hyper-inquisitive high school students who "fear the unknown" is: 1/ do acid (or alike), 2/ read Novalis (or alike), 3/ embrace irony.
18/ 19/ 20/ besides, watched a few other films already mentioned (SEA SERIES #23 would deserve a haphazard award!).

[sally]

ugh went back and watched some more and thought the rot had developed to something disgusting and unrecoverable, until i watched simon liu's happy valley - lovely images and edited so that each shot visually or otherwise referred to the next...will be seeking more of his stuff...

not sure i'm brave enough to dip in again tho