From Zero, a film about John Cage though based on a interesting structure predetermined by Cage and the filmmakers, the resulting film plays like a fractured Cage pithy quote-a-thon.  He’s shot mostly in close-up and is shown only momentarily working as an artist.  I don’t mind films that love their subjects, but maybe because either of the predetermined structure or the filmmaking this film falls short of the mark as a film, while reminding us of how charming and poetic Cage was, the moments that most struck me in the film came from Cage’s academic pursuits rather than his music which is rendered chaotic and fractured in the film.  I was glad to be reminded of the conversation between the jailed Thoreau and Emerson – where Emerson asks Thoreau jailed for protest “what are you doing in there” to which Thoreau answers, “what are you doing out there” and his idea that we “want an anarchy that works.”  Hope to see you all in two weeks for Laura Kissel and Tan Pin Pin films – it’s your only chance to see these films in Kansas City.

Pysiognomatic is a non-fiction film, which traces the history of the use of the face as a tool to manage identity and measure character. Spanning topics from ancient letters of identity to the current use of facial recognition software in ‘the war on terror’ the film examines techniques of identification in light of their historical moments and considers the human desire to be able to measure threat through outward appearance.

16mm, stereo sound, 5 min.

Pickled is a micro-documentary about making pickles – where the film itself is a pickle. The film is hand tinted by loading it into pint jars with commonly used pickling ingredients making the black and white film take on color from spices like turmeric and annatto and pickling liquids like wine and vinegar. Pickled is where the film arts meet the home arts.

Tilt reconstructs a story in sound for seemingly accidental images.

Themes and Variations for the Naked Eye borrows objects from the still life and transforms them through the use of the extreme close-up.  A curious character evokes sensuality through touch, taking the audience through excavations of a series of bodies exploring the plastic potential of different subjectiles via confrontation with flesh and pulp.

Video Calibration uncovers the repressed feminine figure evoked by the visual structure of mirrored videos and reflects on the structuring technology of video playback.

With an image strategy organized around a series of photos taken with a Nickelodeon quad camera combined with video of two women in a bar discussing their experiences with abortion, Vox investigates in sound and image the connections between place, space, voice and form.

The first in a planned series of “shopper” videos outlining underground LP culture.

A meditation on expanded portraiture, Portrait of an Imagined Woman with Totems and Domestic Detail cobbles a feminine figure through glimpses of the animal and the lived – predator, prey and extreme close-ups of domestic epiphanies.