Anniversary Tour Show:
TIE, The International Experimental Cinema Exposition, marks more than 500 films screened since its inception in Telluride, Colorado. TIE's traveling showcase remains true to its dedication: celluloid works in their true format, from the latest contemporary works to archival films from the rich history of experimental cinema. The tour is a collection of highlights from the past six years of TIE’s expositions and festivals. The varying programs exhibit at a limited number of venues in North America and abroad. TIE Director, Christopher May, appears in-person.

Saturday, April 16th, 2005, 7:30PM
Pittsburgh, PA
Melwood Screening Room at Pittsburgh Filmmakers
477 Melwood Avenue
Phone: 412.681.5449
Info: 412.681.5503
Web: pghfilmmakers.org/film


Official Program - April 16th, Pittsburgh, PA:


Excerpts from Home Movies, 9/02-8/04 {Frank Biesendorfer, 11 min., Super-8, Silent, USA}
Biesendorfer's vision of the surrounding world is always self-referential and solipsistic, yet he is still able to involve us in its joie de vivre. His images illuminate the screen without irony. He observes in a detached way. Frank Biesendorfer grew up in Palm Beach, Florida where he played Varsity football in High School. Shortly thereafter, Frank moved to Germany where he studied filmmaking and cooking under Peter Kubelka for several years. Today, Biesendorfer has become one of experimental cinema's more interesting, subversive and poetic filmmakers.

Halloween{Mark Lapore, 4min., Super-8, Silent, USA, 1973}
"...some fragmentary indoor silhouettes give way to a long take of three kids in costumes, the two older children playfully fighting with each other.." -Fred Camper, Chicago Reader

Clown {Luther Price, 13 min., Super-8, Sound, USA, 1991}
"...a brief psychodrama in which Price films himself in a clown mask, barking, slurping, and obscenely pushing his tongue through the mask's too-small mouth hole. ...Price brilliantly ups the alienation level by using a child's pull toy (with a similar clown face) as his costar." -J. Hoberman, Village Voice




Invocation of My Demon Brother {Kenneth Anger, 11 min., 16mm, Sound, USA, 1969}
The shadowing forth of Our Lord Lucifer, as the Powers of Darkness gather at a midnight mass. The dance of the Magus widdershins around the Swirling Spiral Force, the solar swastika, until the Bringer of Light- Lucifer- breaks through.

Blutrausch (Bloodlust) {Thorsten Fleisch, 4 min., 16mm, Sound, Germany, 2000}
This film is an attempt to constitute a human / machine dialogue. It shows the filmmaker's blood as seen / heard by the eyes / ears of the machine which is a film projector with optical sound. He affixed his blood onto clear film leader by cutting into the flesh and then pressing the film leader onto the wound. Additionally he had blood taken with a syringe and afterwards dripped it on the film leader. Fresh and clotted blood was used for a maximum of variety.

What the Water Said, Nos. 1-3 {David Gatten, 16 min., 16mm, Sound, USA, 1997-98}
"This film is the result of a series of camera-less collaborations between the filmmaker, the Atlantic Ocean and its underwater inhabitants. For three days in January and three days in October of 1997, and again, for a day, in August of 1998, lengths of unexposed, undeveloped film were soaked in a crab trap on a South Carolina beach. Both the sound and image in What the Water Said are the result of the ensuing oceanic inscriptions written directly into the emulsion of the film as it was buffeted by the salt water, sand and rocks; as it was chewed and eaten by the crabs, fish and underwater creatures."

Meridian Days {Trevor Fife, 12 min., 16mm, Sound, USA, 2003}
Meridian Days is a navigational term that refers to the phenomenon of temporally losing or gaining a day when you cross the international dateline. This hauntingly poetic and beautifully crafted travelogue stems from audio and visual material collected on a 3-week luxury ship cruise taken with the filmmaker’s 82-year-old Grandmother. The result is a visually stunning and engaging mix of humor and disparity.

Den of Tigers {Jonathan Schwartz, 18 min., 16mm, Sound, India / USA, 2002}
This gorgeous film was made from during travel to West Bengal, India on an invitation to record sound for a film. While there, Schwartz collected images/sounds for this, his own project - a reflection of the maker’s experience, feelings, and most of all, the participation of walking, looking, and listening. The piece touches outside the traditional arenas of genre and boundaries. It speaks with many voices - the associational values of experimental cinema, the patience of objective documentary, emotional levels of narrative, and intellectual/research oriented foundations of an essay. The culmination of visual construction and sound layering moves beyond hearing and seeing. Jonathan builds the work, with elements of tradition, into his own- a unique and new voice. It sings with observational, textural, lyrical, and metaphorical songs. It is in the construction where innovation enters -the interplay of movement-color-composition-meaning-mood swimming within the layering compositions of sound inspires emotion, association, and intellect. The process is rooted in coupling the experimental cinema artist approach with that of an independent journalist. Jonathan's work is not journalism in any sense - yet the approach of creating his work requires intuitive response in the field.

Metaphysical Education {Thad Povey, 4 min., 16mm, Sound, USA, 2003}
The molding of young flesh and the beating of desperate wings. Instead of using tape splices 16mm wide, this film was edited by turning the splicer sideways to reveal the sprockets and the soundtrack. The long cuts run diagonally across the screen and, as the filmstrip slides by, the highest jumper shows the way to the herd. Music by Ramona The Pest.

Film (Dzama) {Deco Dawson, 23 min., 16mm, Sound, Canada, 2001}
An attempt to rekindle the lost form of surrealist cinema made popular in the 1920s by Dali / Bunuel and Man Ray. Marcel Dzama is a Winnipeg based Visual Artist who works on small page size drawings and watercolor storyboards. Dawson's film is a fictional biography of Marcel Dzama’s creative process. Over 100 of Dzama's original watercolor drawings are used in the film. Marcel's real life father Maurice plays the role of the artist.

Program curated by TIE Director, Christopher May