The Humanities Project Events for October 2006
Free admission to all U of R students and faculty
This program of classic films from the 1960s and 70s shows Hollywood glamor as interpreted by the New York Underground.
Ken Jacobs and Bob Fleishner's Blonde Cobra (1963), starring legendary performer Jack Smith; George Kuchar's hilariously abject Hold Me while I'm Naked (1966) and I, an Actress (1977); and Andrew Meyer and Victor Hock's Match Girl (1966), featuring Vivian Kurz, Andy Warhol and several other denizens of the Factory.
(Running time 90 min.)
Honey Meconi, Professor of Music, the College Music Department, will present a talk entitled "Girls in Trouble: Renaissance Chansons as Emblems of Morality."
Free admission to all U of R students and faculty
These short experimental films from the 1960s explore the painterly origins of important aspects of performance art by contrasting films from the Viennese Actionist Movement with female-centered erotic meditations.
Kurt Kren's Mama and Papa (1964), Leda and the Swan (1964), Ana-Action Günter Brus (1964), O Tannebaum (1964), Self-Destruction (1965), Cosinus Alpha (1966), and September 20 (1967); Ernst Schmidt Jr's Bodybuilding (1965), Einszweidrei (1965-68), and Kunst & Revolution (1968); Carolee Schneemann's Fuses (1964-67); and Jud Yalkut's Kusama's Self-Obliteration (1967).
(Running time 100 min.)
Free admission to all U of R students and faculty
Named for the Hollywood B movie star Maria Montez, Mario Montez was the New York underground's first superstar. Here he appears as sultry Czech beauty Hedy Lamarr and as Mexican spitfire Lupe Valez.
Andy Warhol, Hedy (1966); José Rodríguez-Soltero, Lupe (1967).
(Running time 116 min.)
Celia Applegate, Professor of History, College History Department, will present a talk entitled "Women, Singing, and Amateurism in the Early 19th Century."
Brown, a guest of the Central New York Programmers' Group (Cornell Cinema), will introduce his recent documentary, The Other Side (2006) and short films.
Note: This event is of special interest to students in the following courses: Tourist Japan (JPN219a), Mexican Cinema (SP287a), and Issues in Film: Documentary Film (ENG265).
The Other Side (2006, 43 min.) A 2000-mile journey along the U.S./Mexico border reveals a geography of aspiration and insecurity. While documenting the efforts of migrant activists to establish a network of water stations in the borderlands of the southwestern U.S., Brown considers the border as a landscape, at once physical, historical, and political.
The Other Side attempts to document the physical landscape of the borderlands, and the human landscape of cross-border migration. As increasingly militant US immigration policies have sealed the traditional avenues of migration from Mexico, undocumented migrants have resorted to crossing the remote deserts of the Southwest. Every summer, scores of people die while attempting this transit. In response, activist groups from Tucson to San Diego have established a network of water stations; man-made oases of plastic water bottles scattered throughout the border zone. This film, in part, documents those efforts.
View the trailer for the The Other Side.
Bill Brown is a filmmaker from Lubbock, Texas. He has made several short experimental documentaries about the dusty corners of the North American landscape. Along with filmmaker Tom Comerford, Brown created the Lo Fi Landscapes tour, traveling across country in 2002 and 2005 with a program of short films concerned with history and place. The Museum of Modern Art hosted a retrospective of Brown's work in 2003 as part of its MediaScope series. Currently, Brown teaches at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
Browns' films include The Other Side, Roswell, Hub City, Buffalo Common and Confederation Park.
This talk is co-sponsored by the Film and Media Studies Program, Dept. of Modern Languages and Cultures, Dept. of English, and the Humanities Project "Law and the War on Terror."