Chicago Filmmakers, 5243 N. Clark St., 2nd Floor

Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St.

Cinema Borealis, 1550 N. Milwaukee Ave.

Unless otherwise indicated admission is $7 general, $3 members

Sunday, February 26 - 8:00 pm
Chicago Filmmakers
Two by Bruce Baillie: Quick Billy and Valentin de las Sierras

Two little-seen classics (plus some extras!) by the great experimental filmmaker Bruce Baillie. Valentin De Las Sierras (1967, 10 mins.) Skin, eyes, knees, horses, hair, sun, earth. Old Song of Mexican hero Valentin, sung by blind Jose Santollo Nasido en Santa Cruz de la Soledad; Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico. Quick Billy (1967-70, 56 mins,) "is a personal meditation conducted across an American landscape. 'I consider Quick Billy a kind of interior documentary,' writes Baillie. The filmmaker translates The Tibetan Book of the Dead into a dream-like diary and meditation on American space. This meditation concludes with a sepia-toned mini-Western—'Set in Kansas in 1893'—featuring Baillie himself as the eponymous gun-slinging hero. Baillie describes the film as both 'A Horse Opera in Four Reels' and as a film that offers 'The experience of transformation between life and death, death and birth, or rebirth in four reels.' It is, therefore, something of a Western and an Eastern." (UWM) Showing with 6 uncut camera rolls. Numbered 14, 41, 43, 46, 47, and 52 (16 mins.) The 'rolls' took the form of a correspondence, or THEATRE, between their author and Stan Brakhage, in the winter of 1968-69. They're kind of magic cousins of the film.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 3, 4, and 5 - 8:00 pm
Chicago Filmmakers
Split Pillow Showcase
Chicago360
Selected Filmmakers in Person at Each Screening!
Co-Presented by Split Pillow

Chicago360 (2005, 60 mins.) - the premier of an innovative new documentary by Chicago's own Split Pillow. A time-lapsed history of Logan Square, a performance art group that turns discarded toys into musical instruments, a look at how lives and space intersect in Lakeview, the role of race and class in the changing landscape of Pilsen and the thought-provoking public art of a late night El rider intersect in this unique creative documentary collaboration. Join Chicago's award-winning film incubator Split Pillow as filmmakers CJ Dugan, Jill Bzibziak, Casey Clark, Erik Gernand and Jim Vendiola take you on an eclectic tour of some of Chicago's more obscure and interesting places and personalities.

Saturday, March 11
7:00 pm social hour; 8:00 pm screening
Chicago Filmmakers
Dyke Delicious Series
Co-Presented by Black Cat Productions

See January 14 listing. Special admission for the Dyke Delicious series is $10 general; $9 students; $6 Chicago Filmmakers members. Chicago Filmmakers members' free admissions do not apply to this screening.

More info on the event:

Sunday, March 12 - 7:00 pm
Chicago Filmmakers
Interiors and Exteriors:
Film, Video, and Installation Works by Lynn Marie Kirby
Lynn Marie Kirby in Person!

For more than 25 years San Francisco-based artist Lynn Marie Kirby has been exploring the personal and political through domestic spaces, family life and relationships, interior and exterior "landscapes." She has used a wide variety of technologies and media, including 16mm film, Hi 8 video, digital video tools and scanning, sound and installation. Tonight's program will include a sampling across her career and across different media. The program will include her film, Three Domestic Interiors (1993); the video, Paris and Athens, June (1994), the digital experiments of Photons in Paris (1997- 2001) and Study in Choreography for Camera Remote (2002) as well as selections from her film to digital series Latent Light Excavations (ongoing). She will also present a slide presentation and discussion of some of her installation work. Jytte Jensen from the Museum of Modern Art writes that Kirby's work is full of "astonishing beauty and vibrancy."

Saturday, March 18 - 8:00 pm
Chicago Filmmakers
Syncopated Vision: Fever Dream Cinema
With Ken Vandermark Performing!

Syncopated Vision is a new spin-off of our popular Chicago Ear and Eye Control series, which will feature films and videos accompanied by live music. Taking advantage of the more intimate space of our screening room, each show will feature a solo artist or small group. We are pleased to premier this new series with acclaimed Chicago musician Ken Vandermark, who will play to a surrealist-inspired selection of eclectic shorts. The program will include: The Infernal Cauldron (1903) and The Damnation of Faust (1903) by Georges Melies; The Red Spectre (1905) by Ferdinand Zecca; footage of the Hindenburg Disaster and the Tacoma Bridge collapse; Chimp the Fireman (1948); Harry Smith's Mirror Animations (1979) Runaway (1969) by Standish Lawder; plus additional works to be announced. Special admission for this program: $10 general; $9 students; $6 Chicago Filmmakers members. Chicago Filmmakers members' free admissions do not apply to this screening.

Saturday, March 25 - 8:00 pm
Chicago Filmmakers
Documentary in Action: The Prison Series
In Loving Memory and Shorts
Robert Todd in Person!

Robert Todd's new documentary/essay film, In Loving Memory (2005, 47 mins.) is haunting reflection on the U.S. prison and death row system and the lives of those incarcerated. The film combines texts written by inmates from around the country with oddly lyrical, and often strangely beautiful, "landscape" shots of prisons and correctional facilities and the isolated areas in which they are located. Todd, an accomplished experimental filmmaker, moves beyond the traditional documentary format with his sensitive treatment of sound and image. His concern for formal issues, which compliment and add resonance to the subject matter, give In Loving Memory an emotional weight and quiet intensity often absent from most films on this topic. The program will also include a selection of short films by Todd.

Sunday, March 26 - 7:00 pm
Chicago Filmmakers
Open Screening

Does your back-yard version of Harry Potter have him teamed up with Frodo and Gandolf to battle the forces of evil? Does your remake of King Kong star your cat because you couldn't convince the Lincoln Park Zoo to loan you an ape? What ever your film or video is, we want to see it! Come on over to show your work or just to watch. We'll show whatever comes in the door (except x-rated stuff, sorry!). Accepted formats: Mini-DV, DVD, VHS, 16mm, and Super-8mm (call first if you're bringing S8). Recommended maximum length is 15 minutes, but we'll try to accommodate everything, no matter how long. Free raffle for "prizes"! Admission is free.