INTERNATIONAL / UT COMPETITION MIDNIGHT 2:
SILENCE, FOOLISH HUMANS!
The magic of sad robots at the world's fair. Plus, the ponies of Shangri-la in 3D! Batteries not included.
Sept. 20 | 12:00 am | Alamo Drafthouse Downtown
3D Trick Pony
U.S.A. 6:00
DIR Ben Coonley
Employing interactive ritual and sensory intensification via 3D and live sound, this video will reconsider the allegedly predictive behaviors and theories of cognition underlying cinematic grammar by demonstrating the Kuleshov effect through performative mediation of the Rockin' Talkin Pony and the narrative intervention of a wiener dog. Red goes on the left, blue on the right. - S.P.
Shangri-la
U.S.A. 4:00 16mm
DIR Michael Suter
It’s the lighter side of the darkness. Heads explode, legs break themselves, and who cares? Because, you can find ways to go on with your broken neck. Wakey wakey, Sailor Jakey!
The Look of Pressure
U.S.A. 4:20 16mm
DIR Dana Gardner
Often we are blind to our surroundings, lost in difficult time zone equations.
Clean
U.S.A. 4:00 video
DIR PJ Raval
A brief look at one man’s obsession with cleanliness.
World’s Fair World
U.S.A. 9:00 video
DIR Bryan Boyce
"There’s nothing funny about the tools of capitalism." Agree or disagree? In World’s Fair World, Bryan Boyce subjects a Westinghouse-sponsored TV movie to his own patented brand of narrative deconstruction and evisceration. With special appearance by "Electro." - A.R.
Forcefield
U.S.A. 23:00 video
DIR Forcefield
The Providence-based collective structures their moving image tableaux as a nuts-and-bolts video shout out to what early cinema historian, Tom Gunning called “a cinema of attractions”: movies made before The Great Train Robbery forced storytelling on countless innocent victims. Forcefield also wants to stun and amaze, but only with the quivering valium-packed inertia of robots a-go-go. - S.A.
Hallowed
U.S.A. 11:00 16mm
DIR Kerry Laitala
In this deep-breathing exercise to carry you to the edge of dreams, archivist Kerry Laitala inhales scientific diagrams and exhales the delicate colors of longing. - S.P.
(The Rise and Fall of the Legendary) Anglobilly Feverson
The Netherlands 9:45 35mm
DIR Rosto Ad
Even Jar Jar Binks would understand a cosmic infernal "FUCK OFF" if its utterance came from a comprehensively-terrifyingly-animated and superlatively-sonically-modulated HoleInTheSky. Lucasfilm & acolytes, consider: perhaps the only way to truly and properly utilize 35mm composite Dolby surround sound is to divest it of sense and invest it with everything else. All others, be warned: You cannot be warned, only incinerated. - D.C.
Film ist 8: Magic
Austria 15:00 35mm | finalist
DIR Gustav Deutsch
Scenes from the funfair, Nickelodeon and vaudeville house burn with the novelty and invention of early film magicians grappling with a new bag of tricks, some hellbent on keeping audiences thrilled with innovation, others simply–or not so simply–capturing dreams in a bottle. If film is dead, let this serve notice that it died not by the hand of digital, but of self-induced exhaustion some 80 years ago...and let our screening be a seance. But if not, may this incantation frighten, shame, or best yet, wake up lazy illusionists of arthouse and multiplex alike. - S.P.
#23.2, Book of Mirrors
The Netherlands 12:00 35mm
DIR Joost Rekveld
Joost Rekveld's ongoing researches into cinema as pure light reveal a religious dedication unmatched by just about anyone else working today. Inspired by concepts in medieval and renaissance optics, here he uses mirrors and kaleidoscopes to multiply beams of light into pulsating, luminescent organic matter. The film's emulsion, like hypersensitive skin, shivers, ripples and blushes to sight's unconstrained touch. – S.P., A.R.T.
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