First Friday Films
WHEN: on the first Friday of each month from June to September. Music from 90.7 KFSR begins at 8.30 pm followed by film screenings at 9 pm.
WHERE: at the vacant lot adjacent to the Reeves ASK Science Center at 933 Van Ness Ave. (at Tulare Street).
Enjoy four exciting and free evenings of experimental films, videos, short documentaries and animations. This year’s First Friday Films explores the notion of home in the context of a global world. The program ranges from stories exploring the intimacy of
family life to narratives unfolding across time and continents. The selected films are imaginative and honest, cheerful and challenging.
Bring your friends, family, lawn chairs and favorite movie snacks. 90.7 KFSR Radio will play tunes before the screening. The Reeves ASK Science Center is open free of charge during the event.
june 1 – at home
The first evening presents stories, which take place at home, in the kitchen, on the farm, and in the living room. The films creatively explore family relationships and reinvent the chores and traditions relating to the home. Included are works by Guy Ben-Ner, Sarah Klein and Gunvor Nelson as well as a production from the 1950s looking back at family life during the 1880s.
Feed the Starter, 2005, 2.15 min.
Meany, 2006, 3 min.
On the Farm, 2005, 3.30 min.
Sarah Klein
The videos, animations, performances, and drawings by Sarah Klein explore the domestic world with its many rituals and protagonists. Much of her early work focuses on the making of bread as a social and economic activity. Feed the Starter documents a group of children having fun while romping through the kitchen as they learn the basics of making bread from a yeast “starter.” Meany takes a more somber look at the behavior of kids ousting their peer; being a child and being different can be a painful experience. On the Farm returns to the delightful aspects of the home, this time conveying the pleasures of imaginative farm life with a dog and a chicken sitting around the dining table. (color, sound, music by Orange Sherbet)
Moby Dick, 2000, 12.35 min.
Guy Ben-Ner
Guy Ben-Ner has creatively balanced his role as artist and father by producing videos that star his own children. In Moby Dick Ben-Ner and his six year old daughter use simple props, such as a rope and a pole, to transform their kitchen into a make-believe ship. It becomes the stage for the reenactment of the classic tale written by Herman Melville, in which the commanding Captain Ahab leads his crew on a hunt for the great whale Moby Dick. A silent slapstick performance, the video explores the complex power relations of domestic family life while never loosing sight of the simple joy of a father playing with his daughter.
(color, silent, courtesy Postmasters Gallery)
Our Changing Family Life, 1957, 20 min.
Knickerbocker Productions
This educational film looks at how the American family has changed by comparing customs from the 1880s to the contemporary 1950s. The film emphasizes the importance of traditional family values, but also provides a glimpse of the slowly transforming gender roles during the 50s – the father stays at home playing bridge with friends while the mother leaves for her women’s group. In the decades after the Second World War, films about family life providing guidance on proper social behavior, relationships, and child development proliferated. Their agenda was to prevent social disintegration feared to ensue during the aftermath of the war.
(black and white, sound, from the Prelinger Archive)
My Name is Oona, 1969, 10 min.
Time Being, 1991, 8 min.
Gunvor Nelson
Experimental filmmaker Gunvor Nelson poetically captures such intimate subjects as childhood, aging, and death. My Name is Oona depicts in lyrical and fragmented images Nelson’s daughter as she runs through the woods and rides on horseback. Superimposition, slow motion, and intense contrasts of light are juxtaposed with the rhythmic sound of the girl calling her own name creating a mesmerizing dream-like world. Produced more than twenty years later, Time Being is a silent and delicate portrait of Nelson’s dying mother. Long periods of black, the old woman lying motionless in bed, and moments of refracted light create a simple yet deeply moving image.
(black and white, sound/silent, 16mm, courtesy Canyon Cinema)
Who Hangs the Laundry? Washing, War and Electricity in Beirut, 2002, 20 min.
Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir and Tina Naccache
With camera in hand, filmmaker Hrafnhildur Gunnardóttir follows the daily activities of Lebanese activist Tina Naccache in her home in Beirut. Speaking directly to the camera while moving through the intimacy of her small apartment, Naccache speaks articulately about the war, feminism, and maid servants. We follow such simple activities as washing the laundry, which have turned into creative challenges due to the lack of water and electricity. Nevertheless they grant an immediate sense of cleanliness and completion. Who Hangs the Laundry? presents a personal and affectionate picture of a Lebanese woman dealing with the aftermath and the effects of the war at home.
(color, sound, courtesy Krumma Kvikmyndir Films)
july 6 – on unfamiliar ground
The next evening looks at leaving ones home and natural surroundings to explore unfamiliar grounds; these endeavors, however, are experimental, intellectual, and spiritual rather then referring to literal journeys. Artists and filmmakers included are Maya Deren, Joel Tauber and Elizabeth Westrate.
Dwelling, 2002, 9.20 min.
Hiraki Sawa
The video Dwelling takes place entirely in Hiraki Sawa’s London apartment. The artist took still shots of his bathroom, bedroom, and living room and superimposed them with animated images of various toy airplanes. Miniaturized Boeings, Airbuses, Concordes, jet planes, and commuter aircrafts slowly cruise through the apartment, take off and land on a table top, bathtub, refrigerator, or bed. One is mesmerized following the plane’s somber flight patterns and delighted by the simple effects of the imagination. Dwelling creates a dreamlike and mysterious universe inside a plain apartment addressing notions of melancholy and displacement.
(black and white, sound, courtesy James Cohan Gallery)
Meshes of the Afternoon, 1943, 14 min.
Maya Deren
A flower in the driveway, a key falling, a phone off the hook, and a knife in a loaf of bread are some of the psychologically symbolic images repeated in Meshes of the Afternoon. One of the most influential experimental films of American cinema and a feminist classic, this work explores the interior images of a woman whose daydreams restore mystery and danger to the ordinary objects of her everyday domestic life. The main figure played by Deren herself seems to be caught in a web of recurring events oscillating between dream and reality. The film does not follow a linear narrative, but rather conveys the emotional intensity of the woman’s subconscious world.
(black and white, sound, 16mm transferred to VHS, in collaboration with Alexander Hammid, music by Teiji Ito)
A Family Undertaking, 2003, 56 min.
Elizabeth Westrate
This provocative documentary explores the complex psychological, cultural, legal, and financial issues surrounding a new trend in America’s treatment of death: the home funeral. Prior to the 20th century, caring for the dead in our country fell to family and friends. The rise of the more institutional, 'sanitized' funeral has over time served to alienate Americans from one of the most basic facts of life. Home funeral advocates believe that close contact with the body, even for children, has been shown to help with the grieving process. A Family Undertaking follows several diverse families as they forego a typical mortuary funeral and care for their loved ones at home.
(color, sound, produced by Five Spot Films, LLC, distributed by Fanlight Productions)
Searching For The Impossible: The Flying Project, 2002-03, 32 min.
Joel Tauber
In his Flying Project, artist Joel Tauber attempts to realize one of the dreams humans have had for centuries. Inspired by a number of historic predecessors, such as Eilmer the Flying Monk, Tauber initially relied on his mental strength and physical exertion before exploring the use of cluster-balloons and bagpipes in his effort to fly. After much practice, Tauber with the help of friends inflated over thirty latex weather balloons, which then were attached to his harness. While playing music on his bagpipes his breath metaphorically raised the balloons lifting him from the earth to higher realms. Tauber not only embarks on a physical journey but also fulfills a metaphysical quest.
(color, sound, courtesy Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects)
Seven Intellectuals in the Bamboo Forest, Part 1, 2003, 29 min.
Yang Fudong
Seven Intellectuals In the Bamboo Forest is a timeless, yet modern fable following a group of seven young poets and artists on their journey through various stages of experience. The film project – a series to include a total of five parts – is at once a quest of finding oneself and transcending earthly life. Part I takes place in the weathered and misty landscape of the famous Yellow Mountains. Confronted by nature’s powers, the group of young adults is coming of age questioning the larger meanings of life, such as beauty, desire, and fragility. The film is shot exquisitely in black and white and created in a lyric and anachronistic style recalling traditions of Chinese scroll painting.
(black and white, sound, 35mm transferred to DVD, courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery)
august 3 – from place to place
The third evening focuses on people and individuals who have moved from place to place. The featured films creatively address issues of migration and exile, of asylum and the challenge of finding a home in foreign countries. The program will include works by Akram Zaatari and local filmmaker Sasha Khokha.
The Wall, 1962, 10 min.
Walter de Hoog
For this short documentary Walter de Hoog gathered footage from U.S. and German newsreel sources about the first year of the Berlin Wall. Built on the night of August 12, 1961, the Berlin Wall became a potent symbol of the Cold War eventually running 28 miles across Berlin and fortified by watchtowers and mines. Almost overnight, it stopped the thousands of Germans that had daily crossed the border between East and West Berlin except those with the daring captured in this film. The Wall was produced by the United States Information Agency with the specific agenda of disseminating ideas about America and the “Free World” to audiences abroad.
(black and white, sound, 35mm transferred to DVD, produced by the U.S. Information Agency, preserved by the National Film Preservation Foundation)
Passage, 2005, 25 min.
Nasrin Tabatabai
A middle-aged woman is selling magazines in a small passage in front of a supermarket in the city of Rotterdam. Filmmaker Nasrin Tabatabai focuses on the space the woman inhabits, her interactions with people passing by, and her conversations with shoppers. We only learn gradually and selectively about her life, her departure from Iran, her family and previous job. Even when the filmmaker asks directly, the answers are illusive and contradictory. It emerges a complex and multi-layered portrait of the woman defying not only the expectations of a documentary portrait but also a simple explanation for leaving one’s country.
(color, sound, Dutch and Farsi with English subtitles)
A Hmong Leader, 2005, 16 min.
Fresno Unified School District
General Vang Pao was enlisted by the United States in 1962 to organize Hmong guerilla units to fight against the spread of Communism in Laos. This fight came to be known as the “Secret War,” because America was not officially involved in Laos. When America withdrew its support in the mid 70s, many of the Hmong fighters were left to their own fates, and the American public did not find out about their service until years later. In this personal interview, Vang Pao speaks not only about the “Secret War,” but also about having to leave his home and his people and moving to a foreign country. A Hmong Leader is part of a larger project documenting the experiences of Hmong-Americans.
(color, sound, Hmong with English subtitles, excerpt from Hmong Voices, produced by FUSD High School Students with support from the Center for Multicultural Cooperation)
Calcutta Calling, 2004, 28.30 min.
Sasha Khokha
This film follows the story of three girls – Kaylan, Anisha, and Lizzie – as they travel from their homes in rural Minnesota to the crowded and busy streets of Northern India. The three teenage girls were all adopted as infants from an orphanage in Calcutta by white American families, which raised them lovingly as daughters who sing in the choir, play soccer, and shop at the mall. Filmmaker Sasha Khokha accompanies the three girls with their parents as they discover the country of their birth, ride in rickshaws, and are reunited with the nuns who say they cared for them. Calcutta Calling is a honest and moving journey of self-discovery and friendship.
(color, sound)
september 7 – across the globe
The last evening looks at international and historic events taking place across the globe. These stories are familiar from television, the newspaper or the internet, from personal experience, or simply by looking out of our own window at home. Featured films are by Greg Berger, Józef Robakowski and others.
From my Window, 1978-1999, 18 min.
Józef Robakowski
From my Window is a personal, poetic, and historic work by Polish artist and filmmaker Józef Robakowski. From his kitchen window in a high apartment building, the artist regularly filmed the same city square in the center of Łódź. With warm and humorous comments, he describes the everyday life of the people populating the square: neighbors who take their dog for a walk, policemen conducting searches, or the participants of the annual parade. As the years pass, small yet continuous social and ideological changes take place thus marking a larger transformation and bringing a socialist Poland into the vastly different world of 1999, the year the film ends.
(black and white, sound, 16mm transferred to DVD)
Gringotón, 2004, 17 min.
Greg Berger
The American invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003 was supported with eagerness in the United States and noted with apprehension around the world. But what to do if you are a misplaced gringo in Mexico City watching the ensuing war atrocities through the lens of Mexican television news? Inspired by the omnipresent street vendors in Mexico City, who fight their own daily “war” for survival on the streets, filmmaker Greg Berger takes to the streets selling chewing gum and washing car windows to raise money for a guerrilla army to oust President Bush. Berger creates a subversive and wickedly funny protest while addressing the complexities of Mexican-American relations.
(color, sound, Spanish with English subtitles)
First Woman on the Moon, 1999, 12 min.
Aleksandra Mir
Nearly a billion people worldwide watched on television as the first man from earth set foot upon the moon in 1969. Thirty years later, Aleksandra Mir realized her project First Woman on the Moon. The event takes place on a Dutch beach, where over the course of a day heavy machinery create a lunar landscape of hills and craters. At dusk, astronaut Mir climbs the highest crater planting the American flag in the sand. Television crews are present to capture this historic event producing the only lasting record and the material for this video. First Woman on the Moon engages with the possible manipulation of facts through the mass media, but can also be read as a feminist or imperialist gesture.
(color, sound, courtesy Mary Boone Gallery)
Rising Waters: Global Warming and the Fate of the Pacific Islands, 57 min.
Andrea Torrice
While the world argues about how much and how fast to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the seven million inhabitants of the Pacific Islands are already experiencing the first effects of global warming. Elevated water temperatures, violent storms, and rising sea levels are beginning to destroy delicate ecosystems, forcing islanders to consider leaving their homes and communities. Cultures that have thrived for centuries are threatened with extinction. Rising Waters traces the impacts of climate change from the tropical Pacific to the island of Manhattan and combines the latest scientific evidence with stunning photography.
(color, sound, produced by Torrice Productions in association with the Independent Television Service and Pacific Islanders in Communications)
The Met thanks 90.7 KFSR Radio and the Giumara family for their support
Exhibition Type:
»
