MEAN STREETS - PICTURE RESTART 16MM SERIES | IN-PERSON (11/15)
MEAN STREETS - PICTURE RESTART 16MM SERIES | IN-PERSON (11/15)
MEAN STREETS: Six Noirish Films on Cities, Shadows, and Villainy
Date/Time:Saturday, November 15th at 6pm
The starkly painted worlds of film noir are almost always found in cities – possibly because the sounds of traffic provide the perfect coverage for a crime, or maybe because you just never know who you’ll run into around the next corner. These films are bound by a haunting sense of something lurking in the shadows – in some we wander the city awash in its music, in others we come face-to-face with a stalker with romantic ambitions (many such cases). The two films that end this program, HONKY-TONKY BUD and MURDER IN A MIST, are both local Chicago productions shot on location and are not to be missed!
Note: This program features mature themes and some violence.
Total Runtime: 59m
LINEUP:
DANGER IS MY BUSINESS - Sally Kellman, 1982, 4m
All the thrills and excitement of a feature-length whodunit in five minutes with a driving beat and no dull filler; a New Wave film noir in 12 verses. “The lady looked nervous so I fixed her a drink/it was whiskey and water from the kitchen sink/she said, ‘I’ve got a job that’s risky, you might end up dead’/I said, ‘Danger Is My Business ma’am, just go right ahead.’”
VOYAGE - Caroline Heyward, 1977, 5m
A solitary cartoon everyperson wanders through the abstract architecture of a futuristic world. The landscape is composed of cut-out line drawings and abstract shapes animated against stark backgrounds, from which emerge frequent bursts of color.
MY FRIEND - Gus Van Sant, 1983, 3m
Riffing on video diary format, and thereby anticipating a kind of analog TikTok format, this monologue of a film follows a whimsical obsessive, possibly a stalker, played by Gus Van Sant himself, as he tells the camera in direct address about his “friend” and romantic interest who we never quite hear from. Like a deranged paparazzi, he seems to follow and photograph him until things get even darker.
GLASS GARDENS - Lisa Crafts, 1982, 5m
GLASS GARDENS is an animated allegory of the role creativity plays in the survival of the human spirit. The protagonist wanders the dystopian ruins of a consumer culture, gathering relics and creating new works. GLASS GARDENS is a black and white, graphite-on-paper cut-out animation. The film utilizes a variety of animation techniques: cut-out sequential drawings, jointed characters, drawing and erasing under the camera, replacement animation, and in-camera special effects.
HONKY-TONK BUD - Scott Laster, 1985, 12m
Bud is a small-time street hustler who is busted on a narcotics charge and accused of being an even bigger criminal than he really is. At his trial, he receives massive support from the street people of his marginal community, who respect the integrity and person of the man they call Honky-Tonk Bud. The story is shot on location in Chicago and told in song and dance by a large ensemble in a jazz/rap composition, featuring an original score by Ed Wilkerson Jr. performed by his 17-piece orchestra Shadow Vignettes.
MURDER IN A MIST - Lisa Gottlieb, 1980, 30m
A gutsy and glamorous female detective solves a murder in 1952 Chicago in this feminist spoof of misogynist tropes of film noir. Shot in Chicago while Lisa Gottlieb was a film student at Columbia College, it won a Student Academy Award and helped her land the gig for her gender-bending feature debut JUST ONE OF THE GUYS. It also features a rare (if brief) screen appearance by Chicago Filmmakers’ Executive Director Brenda Webb.
Total Runtime: 59m
