Recently in Walker Films Category

This reflection is way pass overdue but I've been incredibly busy with school and work, especially school. I wasn't able to attend the Walker Films event with the class due to a night class that I have on Monday and Wednesday nights. Originally, I was planning to attend one of Walker Arts' Thursdays events but I couldn't squeeze it into my schedule. So instead, I did the following:

Over Thanksgiving break, I went to a Hmong bookstore in St. Paul called, Hmong ABC. Yeah, it's a bookstore but if you go to the upper level, you'll find that the owners of the store have started their very own Hmong museum. It's small but it has everything in print, writing, film, material, objects, etc. that has something to do with the Hmong culture and history that they can get their hands on. Their small library include a small series of films created by inspiring Hmong filmmakers that dates all the way back to when the first Hmong immigrants first started arriving to the US. I was looking at a few of them and while watching them, it's interesting how the style of these inspiring filmmakers has changed as their knowledge and technology advances with time.

I wasn't sure if this will make up for the Walker Arts films field trip so, I attended the Asian Film Festival that was held in St. Anthony Main Theatre from Nov. 3-13. I didn't see all of the films but for the one that I did see, it was titled, "A Brand New Life" by director Ounie Lecomte. It is a Korean film about a little girl whose dad abandoned her and left her at an orphanage home to be adopted by another family. It was a really sad movie. The cuts were smooth and the footage was shoot nicely with a few nice and creative angles. Overall, the film itself was good but it's not my type of film. It's sad, slow, and too sad.

I went to the walker I couple weeks ago to make up for missing the Monday night film screening session that I missed. I was able to see two important exhibits: Yves Klein and the Dou, Eiko and Koma. The first I saw was Yves Klein's work. His installations were my favorite. He had one section of coral and sponges that he painted a rich blue and purple. I had the Impressions that they were preserved growths from an alien Planet. the Next Installations were his body paintings of the female form. But what I though was profound is that Klein did not just really on paint for these works. Aside from Having nude women covered in paint stamp their form on a blank canvas, Yves also outlined their bodies with a flame retardant lacquer against the canvas. After the women stepped away from what appeared at first to be a blank canvas Yves then blasted the canvas with a flame thrower as someone else was soaking it with water. This made the canvas a beautiful brown with the female outlines preserved in the lacquer.

The next exhibit was the dance performance of Eiko and Koma. this one I was only able to stay for 10 minutes. but the room was dark as I walked in. there were two spot lights on two naked bodies on the floor in a nest of black crow feathers. The bodies hardly moved at all and they few times they did it was very sloth-like. There was water dripping from the ceiling almost rhythmically. it was a very peaceful scene but I got bored after 5 minutes. Not one of my favorites.

I couldn't make it to go to Walker art center on Nov 1st because i had a class, but today i arranged the schedule to go there by myself..

And I wasnt really sure what i was supposed to watch at there, because seems like there were no films other people watched on Nov 1st.

The only films available today were short films made by "Eiko&Komo" they are dancers or something.. Films I watched today by Eiko&Komo

1:Tentacle - the music they used sounded like traditional Japanese music which use Taiko(Japanese drums) , bells, Japanese flute.. (Eiko & Komo are Japanese names so I guess they are Japanese). The object in the movie was first so close to toe camera so I couldnt tell what it was first, but later they slowly zoomed out and I realized it was naked person.. they way she moved was so slow, it reminded me of Japanese traditional dance "nou".

2: Bone Dream
again, naked persons. They are all naked in the movie ( of course you cannot see everything ) the style of the movie were almost all same.. there was a small movement, and it was so creepy.

3: Lamnet
two naked person lying on the floor, and there were water reflections of them. the beginning it was creepy but later music changed to erotic mode and the whole movie became kinda disturbing..

Not only movie but they were also doing living installation on the third floor and i went to watch and it was also like movie.. They were lying down on ground (which was set up like in the forest or something ) barely moving, naked. They represent nature or something..

I thought it is a new stuff, but doesnt mean I liked it.

Overall visiting Walker art center was interesting experience, and I want to go there again. not for naked!

1st Set: "Eaux d'artifice" by Kenneth Anger. I really enjoyed how this piece portrayed such a tranquil and peaceful mood. The combination of the water, music and lighting made the film very pleasant to watch. Set in 1953, I am not sure if they had the opportunity of filming in color, however I enjoyed that it was black and white and think that it added to the peacefulness of the piece.

2nd Set: "Broadway by Light" by William Klein. This piece was interesting because it did not have any acting or people in it at all. I liked how Klein took very simple everyday things and created almost a story out of them without a script. It was all very candid and had a theme of day and night. It gave me a little inspiration for my own project in this class, giving a good example of how to make an interesting piece without having to use a script.

3rd Set: "T.O.U.C.H.I.N.G." by Paul Sharitz. This piece "touched" many of my emotions in quite an extreme way. It only took about 30 seconds for me to cover my eyes and stop watching because I found the images to be too disturbing. Unfortunately this didn't help much because Sharitz tapped into more than one of my senses and I couldn't tune out the words. Having listened to the piece very closely, I found that the word "destroy" somewhat morphed into the word "paralyzed" and as it repeated throughout. Although I did not enjoy this piece, it definitely left an impact.

4th Set: "Figures of Wax" by Jeremy Bentham. The last set of pieces seemed to all blend together to me, making it difficult to choose the most compelling. I chose Bentham's piece because it was the only that included English. Mannequins have always caught my attention for some reason, and I liked how they were emphasized in the piece.

Kenneth Anger, Eaux d'artifice (1953, 16mm, 13m)- I enjoyed the music in this film and the way it matched the camera shots. I also liked the use of the different fountains.

John Whitney, Lapsis (1963-1966, 16mm, 10m)- I found the film with the Indian music and kaleidoscope images to be the most intriguing. The combinations of designs and colors coupled with the music created a unique vibe that stood out from the other films.

Paul, Sharits, T.O.U.C.H.I.N.G (1968, 16mm, 12m)- While I was moderately annoyed by this film with it's repeated flashing images and recurring audio of the word "destroy," I was nonetheless intrigued by it. I was left wondering what the film maker's intention was with the film and what the word "destroy" and the flashing images were meant to convey.

Monsieur Teste, 1974-1975, color, 4 minutes, Brussels and Paris.- I enjoyed this film because of it's peculiar energy and the old dummy like character. I liked how the camera mimicked the subject by moming the camera's angle/orientation back and forth.

1) Invocation of My Demon Brother: I found this to be an expose of experimentation, chaos, and the contemporary political situation in the world. Symbols are redefined and used in ways not common to the everyday norms of society. The American flag and Nazi swastika are commonly found throughout the clip.

2) Broadway by Light: The complete and sole use of light as a medium to tell the story was quite compelling. It was ironic that the lights of the night were extinguished by light itself.

3) T.O.U.C.H.I.N.G.: To say that I enjoyed this piece even minutely would be the overstatement of the century. It was, however, compelling in the fact that it was annoying to the point of anger. The word "destroy" lost all meaning within the first minute in a half of the 12 minute redundant piece. This had to be the point of the clip.

4) La pluie (Project pour un texte): This was an intriguing piece. The fact that he was getting doused with water while trying to write with a fountain pen was very subtle. I didn't even know it was water until he was completely soaked. The fragmented chronology of the piece was also intriguing and made a statement that was outside my personal realm of understanding.

The film El Espectro Rojo was confusing at first before I realized that the whole film was in reverse. I also noticed they did a lot with editing to make objects appear out of nowhere.

A Small Hyrdomedusan Polyorchis Haplus was very calm and tranquil. The jellyfish reminded of Finding Nemo the whole time.

T.O.U.C.H.I.N.G. was 16 minutes of repetitive seizures and was annoying to sit through. The graphic images also didn't make much sense.

Berlin order ein Traum mit Sahne was interesting because it reminded me of a dream sequence. I like the way they used the boat to signal that maybe the father just woke up from his dreams

Write a two sentence comment on one film from each of the four sets of films being screened this evening.

Select the film in each of the four sets that you found to be most compelling.

Include a particular example from the film - a camera angle, special effects, staging, use of color, sound track, etc. - that illustrates your responses.

I really enjoyed watching (almost)all of the films last night. The last set by Marcel Broodthaers was a little long and slow for my liking, but that's ok. The first film that I really liked was coincidentally the first film of the screening. El Espectro Rojo was sweet to me because I have seen so many little old time films like that, but nothing of that style. nothing sub human or satanic which is what this was. Also I liked how it seemed to be about some sort of devil or demon in hell, but it was done like a magicians performance. The second film that really stuck out to me was Lapsis by John Whitney. This film was a serious mind trip and no wonder, because it was from the 60s (along with many of these I suppose) but it fit right in to its era. The thing that I found really perplexing about this film was how on earth Whitney was able to create it, because it was clearly some sort of computer program, but it seemed way way more advanced than the computer programs of that time (maybe they had some top secret military technology in on the project...). While watching the 3rd set, I was pretty positive that I wouldn't be thinking about the Sharits film, "T.O.U.C.H.I.N.G." because I found it really brutal and discomforting, but then after watching the set I realized that this brutality and disturbing discomfort was what made it stick out, and I believe that was probably intentional by Sharits on account of its relevance in time to the Vietnam War. Now as I mentioned earlier, the last set by Marcel was a little bit arduous for me to sit through, perhaps because it was the longest set and it was at the end. But with this said, the one that I found most interesting was "Monsieur Teste". The entire film consisted of this creepy wax doll of an older balding man, with a very weird and unsettled look on his face. He was constantly shaking his head as if reading, and it seemed as though there was some sort of a communication or dance between the camera and this doll. He would shake his head at the camera, then the camera would shake "its head" back at the doll, and then they would shake in unison. I don't really know what the film said to me or what the message was if any, but maybe that is just o.k. It was simple and somewhat beautiful in a creepy-unsettled-balding-man-doll sort of way...