SURFACE TENSIONS: SEVEN FILMS CAUGHT BETWEEN THE IMAGE AND ITS DEPTHS | IN-PERSON (2/15)
SURFACE TENSIONS: SEVEN FILMS CAUGHT BETWEEN THE IMAGE AND ITS DEPTHS | IN-PERSON (2/15)
Chicago Filmmakers (map) | Saturday February 15, 2025 | 6:00 PM
Join Chicago Filmmakers for SURFACE TENSIONS: Seven Films Caught Between the Image and Its Depths, the second screening in our PICTURE RESTART SERIES: 16mm FILMS FROM THE PICTURE START COLLECTION!
The sticky flesh of an orange, the dappled light in a swimming pool, the palpable fuzz of television static; from labels at the grocery store to late night images flashing across the drive-in screen, these films find themselves strung among the infinite surfaces of our world. The question of the screen itself echoes across the works, an opaque sheet of canvas that we can magically project through - both enabling and restricting movement, like a mirror we mistake for a window. These seven mysteriously beautiful films all peel back the outer layers to expose the reality within. There are surfaces and there are depths but the cinema cannot reveal them both.
_
Chicago Filmmakers does not deny admission to those who do not have the ability to make a donation. Please email coop [at] chicagofilmmakers.org to inquire about free admission.
LineUp:
1. Orange - Karen Johnson, 1970, 3m
Soft, sweet music accompanies the sticky, sweet textures familiar to all who have eaten an orange by hand. Through extreme close-ups we see the intricate details of the different skin textures, the soft fuzz surrounding the orange flesh, the little squirts of burst juice that come with any attempt to separate a slice from the whole. Showing on a rare LPP print.
2. Wet - Chel White, 1984, 5m
Scored by mesmerizing synths composed by the filmmaker himself, this film is a flickering meditation on the surface of water. Alternating colors and tints, playing with the light, we sometimes see water in high contrast black and white, in negative, in a deep blue. These effects are sometimes presented to us in a flickering ripple reminiscent of the pool itself.
3. Hand Held Day - Gary Beydler, 1976, 6m
Beydler’s film is a masterfully simple and elegant film that nevertheless took immense preparation and effort to pull off. It presents a day in timelapse through the changing colors of the sky, framed by a hand held rectangular mirror, in which a whole other angle of the sky can be seen. The changes appear and move continuously as determined by that day’s light and weather conditions, we just have a uniquely interesting way of seeing it.
4. Frame - Lewis Alquist, 1991, 3m
Another timelapse over an entire day, but this time observing a drive-in movie screen, and the landscape around it. The screen gives us an abstract view of the changing of the light of the day, but this is ecstatically transformed at night, when a new, projected light illuminates the screen with images of all sorts.
5. Interior Schemes - Sheri Wills, 1992, 9m
Weaving between magazine fantasies of perfectly designed homes and handpainted visions of a woman constantly rearranging her furniture, this film lingers on the gaps between the homes (and selves) we desire and the ones we make. The infinite patterns of interior design offer a place for nostalgia to take refuge, if we don’t watch out.
6. The Fetishism Of Commodities and the Secret Thereof - Ines Sommer, 1990, 7m
All of the depersonalized stuff we buy is found at the supermarket, labels working like street preachers trying to convince us their doctrine makes us holy. With ironic editing, this film explores those two notions in tandem, fusing the ramblings of televangelist preachers with the endless arrays of goods at the grocery store, with a deal always just around the corner.
7. Life with Video - Willie Boy Walker, 1971, 14m
Originally made on ½” videotape and transferred to 16mm film in order to play festivals, this single take film was made by San Francisco video artist Willie Boy Walker, the self proclaimed “first video disc jockey.” It concerns a woman watching television who strikes up a conversation with a contestant on a game show; their conversation quickly becomes contact as an impossible tryst unfolds.
Total Runtime: 47 Minutes