[artinfo] Deep in the Vault

[MadCat Women's Film Festival]

Deep in the Vault: Documentaries from the NY Filmmakers Coop
Curated by Ariella J. Ben-Dov

Monday April 28, 2008 at 7:30 pm
$5 Admission
 
Collective Unconscious
279 Church Street, New York (between White and Franklin Streets)
Tel. 212-254-5277
http://www.film-makerscoop.com
 
Curator Ariella Ben-Dov mined the Filmmakers Coop vault to create this
special evening of rarely seen documentary films.

Deep in the Vault: Documentaries from the NY Filmmakers Coop

Children Make Movies by Deedee Halleck
1961, 16mm, color & b/w, sound, 9 min
Tonight is a rare chance to see video maven Deedee Halleck¹s first film made
with children from the Lillian Wald Settlement in Lower Manhattan.

Diary by Pamela Bennett
1989, 16mm, B/W, 2:25 min
A short rumination about a woman and her dream.
 
Lie Back And Enjoy It by Joann Elam
1982, 16mm, B/W, 7.5 min
"JoAnn Elam's LIE BACK AND ENJOY IT is an absorbing eight-minute dialectical
film about the politics of representation. More specifically, it examines
the politics of filmic representation of women under patriarchy. An
undergraduate male student paid it a true compliment in declaring that he
can no longer look at a woman in a film without thinking about the
consequences of the filmmaker's use of her as a person and as a spectacle.
Everyone who watches movies with women in them ought to see it." -- Claudia
Gorbman, Jump Cut 
 
Nightclub, Memories of Havana in Queens by Silvianna Goldsmith
FILMMAKER IN PERSON
1975, 16mm, Color & B/W, 5.5 min
Three Latin dancers in a nightclub in Queens make up, and do a samba, a
merengue and an afro-cuban dance. Filmed both tongue-in-cheek with humor and
satire at the kitsch aspects, and also seriously as a tribute to the
culture's ancient sensuality. "Another art form (dance) was displayed in
Silvianna Goldsmith's witty NIGHTCLUB." -- Daryl Chin
 
Baby Doll by Tessa Hughes-Freeland, 16mm, black and white, sound, 5 min
A docu-portrait narrated by Ferne and Irene two GoGo dancers, who share
insights about their craft. A first hand account of dancing for the masses
and the nitty gritty details from the performers themselves. Baby Doll turns
tables on who has a voice when selling sex.
 
Testing, Testing, How Do You Do? by Sheila Paige, 16mm, Color, 4 min
Filmed at the 1969 Miss America Pageant held at Atlantic City, Testing
contains an interview with Miss Virginia footage of the pageant rehearsal
and of the Women's Liberation demonstration taking place outside Convention
Hall.
 
Jaraslawa by Deedee Halleck
1975, 16mm, Color, 9 min
Jaraslawa Tkach, an old Ukrainian woman bakes bread and piroski as she talks
about her recipes and her life as an immigrant. This lyrical experimental
film has a sound track by the Penny Whistlers. Jaraslawa won a Cine Golden
Eagle when it was first released.
 
Tony Conrad: DreaMinimalist by Marie Losier
FILMMAKER IN PERSON
2008, Mini DV, Color, 25 min, NYC Premiere
The latest in Marie Losier's ongoing series of film portraits of avant-garde
directors (George and Mike Kuchar, Guy Maddin, Richard Foreman),
DreaMinimalist offers an insightful and hilarious encounter with Conrad as
he sings, dances and remembers his youth and his association with Jack
Smith.
 
Ariella J. Ben-Dov is a curator specializing in thematic series of
independent cinema encompassing a wide spectrum of genres ‹ avant-garde,
animation, documentary, and essays. She is the co-founder and curator of the
MadCat Women's International Film Festival, which showcases new and archival
works by women directors. Her programs have been screened at Anthology Film
Archives, Brown University, Harn Museum of Art, Harvard Film Archive,
Pacific Film Archive, RISD Museum of Art, and Yerba Buena Center for the
Arts, among other venues.
 
Ben-Dov co-curated the 51st Flaherty Seminar, a weeklong documentary event
that featured a range of art experiences, including 3D screenings,
interactive media installations, and Viewmaster performances. She has spoken
about alternative exhibition, documentary, and experimental filmmaking at
festivals and conferences around the United States as well as written for
various periodicals. Her review of Barbara Hammer's Dyketactics will be
published as part of a Pacific Film Archive collection of essays chronicling
the history of experimental cinema.
 
In addition, Ben-Dov has served as juror for the SF International, the NY
Underground, SF Lesbian and Gay, Images Festival, and Milan Lesbian and Gay
film festivals and on grants panels for the San Francisco Arts Commission,
Horizons Foundation, Marin Arts Council, and as a nominator for Creative
Capital and Rockefeller Foundations.

http://www.film-makerscoop.com/