TOMORROWLAND: CalArts in Moving Pictures May 25–August 13, 2006

California Institute of the Arts was founded in 1961 by Walt Disney to bring the visual and performing arts together under one roof. This exhibition celebrates more than three decades of intimate, inventive, and technically sophisticated student filmmaking and videomaking from CalArts, featuring a breathtaking range of nonfiction, narrative, animation, and experimental styles and genres. Particular focus is given to the famed animation program, where students have used everything from cutting-edge computer and optical printing technologies—many of which they developed themselves—to homespun materials like chewing-gum wrappers and nail polish remover. Luminaries from Pixar, Disney, Laika, and other major animation and effects companies, as well as distinctive independent voices, are represented. Nonfiction and experimental works reveal a sense of political engagement and moral urgency, whether investigating domestic violence, toxic dumping, or the secret histories of seventeenth-century astronomers, Korean war brides, and African American Kentucky Derby riders. Special evenings are devoted to artists like Ericka Beckman, Ken Feingold, Jack Goldstein, Sharon Greytak, Matt Mullican, Tony Oursler, David Salle, Christopher Williams, and David Wilson, whose conceptual films and Portapack videos of the 1970s and 1980s remain startlingly contemporary and provocative. Many of the artists will be at MoMA to present their work.

Organized by Joshua Siegel, Assistant Curator, Department of Film and Media.

With gratitude to Steve Anker. Thanks also to Thom Andersen, John Baldessari, James Benning, Hartmut Bitomsky, Betzy Bromberg, Margaret Crane, Larry Cuba and the iotaCenter, Susan Davis, Myron Emery, Morgan Fisher, Leo Hobaica, Jr., Rachelle Katz, Cindy Keefer, Mike Kelley, Steven Lavine, Gary Mairs, Kris Malkiewicz, Patty Palmer, Paul Reubens, Bérénice Reynaud, Céline Ruivo, Michael Scroggins, Alan Sekula, Maureen Selwood, Jeffrey Shapiro, Christopher Müller and Galerie Daniel Buchholz, and Mark Toscano and the Academy Film Archive. Dedicated to the memory of Ed Emshwiller, Jules Engel, Alexander Mackendrick, William Moritz, and Nam June Paik.

Opening Night:
L. City. 2002. Sandro Del Rosario. A photocollaged tango of memory and oblivion. 8 min.
Two-Part Invention: A Portrait. 1979. Dane A. Davis. A composer’s domestic life as musique concrète. 7 min.
9 in a Chimney 10 on a Bed. 2002. JJ Villard. Virtuoso animation about a girl making her way in a cruel and wondrous world. 4 min.
Departure. 2002. Danielle Ye. Manipulated found footage of trotting pigs, nude perambulators, and children used for target practice. 7 min.
Toilet Pig. 2002. Hyun kyung Kim. Korean farmers practice an old and surprising tradition of raising pigs. 7 min.
Flesh Flows. 1974. Adam Beckett. A riotous orgy of animated orifices and protuberances. 6 min.
Wormholes. 1993. Stephen Hillenburg. A fly’s-eye view of Relativityland by the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants. 7 min.
Removed. 1999. Naomi Uman. Using nail polish remover, bleach, and 1970s porn, Uman makes the female body into an obscure object of desire. 6 min.
The Orphans. 2006. Cy Kuckenbaker. The poignant and humorous story of two aging Lithuanian men who travel to Berlin to bury their childhood friend. 22 min. Program 73 min.
Thursday, May 25, 7:00. T2

How to Read Macho Mouse. 1991. Rubén Ortiz Torres, Aaron Anish. A deconstruction of Speedy Gonzales, the Looney Tunes caricature of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. 7 min.
Aletheia. 1992. Tran T. Kim-Trang. Aletheia, the Ancient Greek word for "truth uncovered," becomes the opening gambit in Tran’s investigation of physical and metaphorical blindness. 16 min.
An Injury to One. 2002. Travis Wilkerson. On the notorious 1917 lynching of Wobbly organizer Frank Little; the collapse of the American labor movement; and the environmental destruction of Butte, Montana. 53 min. Program 76 min.
Friday, May 26, 6:30; Wednesday, May 31, 8:00. T2

Meditations on Revolution, Part III: Soledad. 2001. Robert Fenz. Quotidian scenes of Mexico City, Chiapas, and New York City counterpointed with images from Mexico’s revolutionary past. 30 min.
Letter #2 Berlin ’89: A Travel Diary. 1990. Marco Puccioni. As the Berlin Wall falls, Puccioni contemplates a future for “ex-Catholics, ex-Communists, and bewildered consumers.” 14 min.
On the Various Nature of Things. 1995. Deborah Stratman. Inspired by the Ancient Roman poet Lucretius and a nineteenth-century Scottish physicist and inventor, Stratman explores the hidden workings of the world. 25 min.
Removed. 1999. Naomi Uman. Using nail polish remover, bleach, and 1970s porn, Uman makes the female body into an obscure object of desire. 6 min.
Leche. 1999. Naomi Uman. Hardscrabble farm life in Mexico becomes sensuous through unique handprocessing techniques. 30 min. Program 105 min.
Friday, May 26, 8:30; Sunday, June 25, 1:00. T2

Animation and Experimentation: The 1970s [part 1]
Kaleidoform. 1973. Howard Danelowitz. Biomorphism and Pop meet cute. 4 min.
The Divine Miracle. 1973. Daina Krumins. Catholic devotional postcards evoked through extraordinary optical effects. 6 min.
First Fig. 1974. Larry Cuba, Gary Imhoff. Pioneering computer graphics made at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. 6 min.
Luma Nocturna. 1974. Dennis Pies. An abstract voyage across time and space. 4 min.
The Arts Circus. 1974. Kathy Rose. A woman’s journey through a world of day-glo doodles. 5 min.
The Doodlers. 1975. Kathy Rose. Miss Nose’s scribbly students have a mischievous tea party. 5 min.
Traveller’s Palm. 1975. Joyce Borenstein. A tropical dream. 2 min.
Film Achers. 1976. Beth Block. A filmmaker refuses to grow up. 6 min.
The Funniest Thing I Know Is Mud Puddles. 1974. Howard Danelowitz. The mischievousness of childhood becomes an explosion of color. 3 min. Program 41 min.
Saturday, May 27, 2:00; Monday, May 29, 3:30. T2

Animation and Experimentation: The 1970s [part 2]
Fame. 1976. Mark Kirkland. A director of The Simpsons interprets an iconic rock song. 4 min.
Animal Crackers. 1978. Mark Kirkland. A baby discovers a peaceable kingdom. 3 min.
Pass the Buck. 1978. Jorgen Klubien. A tale of greed and comeuppance by an animator who has worked with Disney, Pixar, and Laika. 2 min.
Phases. 1978. Henry Selick. A mythopoetic cave painting by the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas. 4 min.
Seepage. 1981. Henry Selick. Stepping into liquid through cel animation and stop-motion puppetry. 9 min.
Papiers Animés. 1979. Paul Demeyer. A clever twist on the flipbook by the director of Rugrats in Paris: The Movie. 4 min.
The Muse. 1977. Paul Demeyer. Seeking inspiration, a man creates a tower of babble. 4 min.
Where Were You in 1862? 1979. Nancy Beiman. A horse opera by a supervising animator of Disney’s Hercules. 4 min.
Trapunto. 1979. William Groshelle. A trippy patchwork of tablecloth and curtain patterns. 5 min. Program 40 min. 
Saturday, May 27, 3:30; Monday, May 29, 2:00. T2

Two Documentaries by Hyun kyung Kim
Toilet Pig. 2002. Korean farmers practice an old and surprising tradition of raising pigs. 7 min.
What Are We Waiting For? 2005. On the sad fate of young brides who were separated from their husbands during the Korean War. Kim’s moving documentary follows one woman, now old and destitute, and another whose brief reunion with her husband was arranged by the North and South Korean governments and broadcast on television. In Korean, English subtitles. 111 min.
Saturday, May 27, 6:00; Sunday, June 25, 5:00. T2

O Scene of Unexampled Woe
Three radically different though equally devastating examinations of violence toward women.
Chinatown. 1975. Jill Ciment. Ciment, a noted novelist, essays this experimental narrative about a Chinese woman who lures her rapist home so that she can murder him. 25 min.
a.k.a. Kathe. 2000. Minda Martin. A wrenching portrait of Mexican American Kathe Vargas, a drug-addicted prostitute murdered on the outskirts of Tuscon, Arizona, and the perilous fate of her sisters and son. Martin makes grievous and meaningful what would normally become fodder for tabloid journalism. 55 min.
Control. 1988. Jane Brill. A woman’s denial of sexual assault, rendered through stark images and haunting sounds. 9 min. Program 89 min.
Saturday, May 27, 8:30; Sunday, May 28, 1:00. T2

You Are There
Wise and witty film essays that shed light on forgotten moments of history.
They Were the First to Ride. 1996. Lyndon Barrois. An ingeniously animated chronicle of eleven African American jockeys who won the Kentucky Derby between 1875 and 1902. 9 min.
I Saw One. 1998. Peter Brinson. A deadpan account of a UFO encounter. 3 min.
Hub City. 1997. Bill Brown. A devastating tornado, the Lubbock Lights, and Buddy Holly. 15 min.
The Mark Twain Company. 1998. Adam Goldman. On Samuel L. Clemens’s posthumous career, an absurdist tale of mythmaking and greed. 30 min.
Was It Only a Dream? A Posthumous Work on Lunar Geography and Its Relationship to a Witchhunt. 1991. Susan Kornfeld. The obscure but fascinating story of astronomer Johannas Kepler and his mother, as told with puppets. 13 min.
Old Faithful. 2000. Carole Kim. A natural wonder becomes a mundane spectacle. 5 min. Program 75 min.
Sunday, May 28, 3:00; Monday, May 29, 5:30. T2

Down These Mean Streets
Punk and funk in fiction, animation, and documentary.
Picture Start, or Advanced Garbage Film. 1976. Robert Luttrell. A sensory overload. 7 min.
Ciao Bella or Fuck Me Dead. 1978. Betzy Bromberg. “Manic exhibitionism and sexual raunch” (J. Hoberman) in late 1970s New York. 13 min.
Raymond: Wounded Child. 1990. Betty Burkhart, Sue Kornfeld. An all-female melodrama about an abused choirboy who dreams he’s a torch singer. 28 min.
Son of Satan. 2004. JJ Villard. Charles Bukowski’s cruel story of youth, animated with raw energy. 12 min.
Dance Mania. 1997. Max Weintraub. Animated krump dancing and clowning. 3 min.
Untitled #2. 1998. Max Weintraub. Techno abstractions. 2 min.
Teletouch Drive. 1995. Rodney Evans. Death race in the fast lane, an experimental documentary by the director of Brother to Brother. 14 min.
Jon’s Day. 2002. Peter Ko. Hand-drawn animation about a restless skateboarder. 3 min.
Syphon Gun. 1995. K.C. Amos. Fiction film about a gasoline thief who wreaks havoc. 8 min.
Unbearable Being. 1996. Colin Barton. A combustible handpainted collage. 3 min. Program 93 min.
Sunday, May 28, 5:00; Wednesday, May 31, 6:00. T2

The (Post) Studio Artists: Ashley Bickerton, Jack Goldstein, Chris Langdon, David Salle, Mitchell Syrop, and Fred Worden

Works from the 1970s that, as CalArts alumnus Mike Kelley describes it, “attempt to reconcile mass media imagery with the political aims of conceptualism.”

Jack Goldstein: Selected Color Films, 1974–76. Goldstein, a painter and filmmaker who inspired a generation of Los Angeles and New York artists, explores the pictorial, the theatrical, and the iconic in White Dove (1975), Shane (1975), Bone China (1976), and other films. Approx. 20 min.

Watch It Think It. 1977. Mitchell Syrop. A pseudocommercial that breaks down the seductive codes of advertising. 1 min.

David Salle: Selected Films, 1973–74. Though known today as a painter and filmmaker, Salle devoted himself at CalArts to performances, installations, photographs, and conceptual videos; his prodigious talent and fierce intellect were admired by professor John Baldessari, classmate Matt Mullican, and many others. Approx. 20 min.

Venusville. 1973. Chris Langdon, Fred Worden. The humorous and subtle deconstruction of a palm tree image. 7 min.

Now, You Can Do Anything. 1973. Langdon, Worden. Trolling Malibu Beach for surfers and babes. 5 min.

Throbs. 1972. Worden. Layered images of the spectacular and the disastrous. 6 min. Program 100 min.

The Love Song of Pythagorous Redhill. Ashley Bickerton. "A super-8 whirlpool of colorfully painted characters and sets, Nazis and New Wave Nagel females, American tourists and rebel guerrillas, homosexual sailors à la Kenneth Anger's Fireworks all colliding against a loosely adapted version of Malcom Lowry’s Under the Volcano (an obsession of Bickerton's at the time)" (Roddy Bogawa). 22 min.
Saturday, June 3, 8:00 (introduced by Salle, Worden); Friday, June 23, 6:00. T2

School of Pixar

A remarkable number of artists who made their name at Pixar first showed glimmerings of genius while studying at CalArts. Even then, budding Pixar animators combined wit and visual flair with an astounding gift for storytelling. This program features rarely screened CalArts student films by a veritable who’s who of Pixar talent. Program includes:

Winter. 1988. Pete Doctor. 2 min.

Next Door. Pete Doctor. 1990. 3 min.

A Birthday. Brenda Chapman. 1987. 3 min.

A Jim Reardon Film. Jim Reardon. 1986. 4 min.

Tarzan. Mark Andrews. 1993. 3 min.

A Date with Suzie. Max Brace. 1995. 2 min.

Solitaire’s Sanctuary. Karen Kiser. 1985. 6 min.

Nitemare. John Lasseter. 1979. 4 min.

The Lady and the Lamp. John Lasseter. 1979. 4 min.

Good Humor. Joe Ranft. 1979. 3 min.

Man, Monkey, Marshmallow. Matt Majers and Jon Fancher. 1999. 2 min.

smoke…. Bobby Podesta. 1997. 4 min.

Blind Spot. Doug Sweetland. 1993. 3 min.

Legend of Shaolin. Mike Wu. 1994. 2 min.

Train Crazy. Daniel Holland. 2003. 3 min.

Extra Crispy. Mark Walsh. 1997. 4 min.

A Story. Andrew Stanton. 1987. 4 min.

Sis. Ken Bruce. 1986. 5 min.

Program 63 min., plus one five-minute intermission.

Wednesday, June 7, 6:30; Saturday, June 24, 2:00. T2

Angelus Novus

On the angel of history and the storm of progress.

At Home. 1998. Maria Vasilkovsky. A flight over Moscow, rendered through charcoal drawings and sepia-toned collage. 7 min.

(Re)Collection. 2004. Arshia Haq. The archives of memory: an entomologist’s classification of insects, a printer’s nostalgia for his dying Urdu language, and an immigrant’s collection of childhood photographs. 20 min.

Impressions from Rustaveli. 2001. Nana Tchitchoua. An interpretation of a romantic poem by an eleventh-century Georgian monk. 14 min.

Barren Boughs. 1998. Anouck Iyer. An Animated Swedish folktale about forest spirits. 3 min.

Fur and Feathers. 2000. Maria Vasilkovsky. A surrealist Slavic tango between a bird-man and a dog-woman, animated with watercolor on glass. 5 min.

110/220. 1997. Juris Poskus. A flaneur’s impression of capitalist Los Angeles and communist Moscow becomes a critique of modern urbanism. 50 min. Program 99 min.

Saturday, June 17, 2:00; Wednesday, June 21, 8:30. T2

Skewered!

Tales of the absurd, the grotesque, and the wacked-out.

Chestnuts Icelolly. 2004. JJ Villard. R. Crumb meets Diane Arbus and van Gogh in this rawly animated tale about an ugly little boy. 7 min.

NY Shuffle. 1983. James Mangold. The director of Walk the Line and Heavy interprets a song by Graham Parker and the Rumor. 5 min.

Pete and Joe Die. 1984. James Mangold. A Reagan-era reunion of two high-school buddies has apocalyptic consequences. 15 min.

Going Nowhere Fast. 1980. Steve Holland. Creatures march in quickstep in this animated film by the director of Better Off Dead. 3 min.

My Eleven-Year-Old Birthday Party. 1981. Steve Holland. A sister performs wicked acts of subterfuge. 15 min.

Swine Cowboy. 1993. Will Guy. A demented cowboy tale. 1 min.

Rick and Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World. 2000. Q. Allan Brocka. An outrageous sitcom, told with Playmobile figures, about America’s favorite boy-toys. 8 min.

Clown Town. 2005. Michael Park. If Tod Browning directed Meet the Parents…. 18 min.

The Pickle Jar. 2001. Benjamin Goldman. A grocery bagger’s hot date is interrupted by a chatty stinkbug. 7 min.

Meatclown. 1998. Brooke Keesling. A Stop-motion send-up of a certain fast-food clown. 2 min.

Boobie Girl. 2001. Brooke Keesling. A flat-chested girl regrets what she wished for. 5 min. Program 86 min.

Saturday, June 17, 4:00; Sunday, June 18, 5:00. T2

The (Post) Studio Artists: An Evening with John Miller, Matt Mullican, James Welling, and Christopher Williams

Little-known student work by four artists who studied under John Baldessari, Wolfgang Stoerchle, Morgan Fisher, and Michael Asher in the renowned 1970s Post-Studio Art program at CalArts. These conceptual and structuralist experiments with Portapack video and 8mm film remain as fresh and relevant today as when they first were made. All share what Robert Smithson called “a calculated aimlessness,” and all are event-oriented investigations of language, semiotics, narrative, and the nature of still life, landscape, and figure-ground relationships in motion pictures. Miller, Mullican, Welling, and Williams, who have gone on to significant careers in photography, sculpture, video, painting, and performance, make a rare appearance together to present their early moving-image work. Program 100 min.

Saturday, June 17, 7:30. T2

Animation and Experimentation: The 1980s [part 1]

Commuter. 1981. Michael Patterson. This take on rush hour in the naked city foreshadows Patterson’s legendary music video for a-ha’s “Take on Me.” 5 min.

Criminal Tango. 1985. Solweig von Kleist. Neon-drenched noir. 5 min.

Moon, Breath, Beat. 1980. Lisze Bechtold. The moon exhales dreamy feline figures. 3 min.

Jerome. 1981. Anthony DeRosa. By a supervising animator of Pocahontas and The Lion King. 2 min.

Playing Blocks. 1981. Barbara Wdowski DeRosa. Lovely pencil animation. 2 min.

Portal. 1984. Dan Ackerman. Award-winning abstract computer animation. 5 min.

Monkey Biz. 1981. Dan Jeup. A humorous pencil test by a Pixar and Disney animator. 1 min.

Rex. 1982. Dan Jeup. A favorite film of legendary Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. 2 min.

Animus. 1982. Gary Schwartz. Ingenious reworking of Edison and Muybridge films through animation and xerography. 6 min.

December the 24th. 1982. Gary Conrad. A wicked Christmas story by the director of Nickelodeon’s Fairly OddParents and Dora the Explorer. 3 min.

Toby. 1984. Gary Conrad, Leon Joosen, Chris Sanders. A masterful film about a badly drawn boy by future Disney animators including Sanders, the writer-director of Lilo and Stitch. 10 min. Program approx. 44 min.

Sunday, June 18, 1:00; Monday, June 19, 6:00. T2

Animation and Experimentation: The 1980s [part 2]

Beethoven Machinery. 1989. David Brody. An elegant visualization of a Beethoven string quartet. 3 min.

The Sum of Them. 1983. Christine Panushka. Whimsical animated portraits of women unfold against a poetic exchange of word and sound. 5 min.

River Lethe. 1984. Amy Kravitz. Water in its myriad abstract forms. 7 min.

Sylvia. 1985. Ann Telnaes. A homemaker is roused from her humdrum life by a Pulitzer Prize–winning editorial cartoonist. 2 min.

Contrapunctus. 1986. Lauren Companeitz. Punk 1980s abstract animation. 3 min.

Voices. 1985. Joanna Priestley. A warm and endearing confessional about modern-day neuroses. 4 min.

Power Spot. 1986. Michael Scroggins. Hard-edged and aqueous computer abstraction by a protégé of Nam June Paik. Music by John Hassell. 8 min.

Liveline. 1983. Ellen Woodbury. A panther’s stealthy movements, by a supervising animator of The Lion King and Hercules. 2 min.

Recurrents. 1987. John Adamczyk. A computer-based study of the Mandelbrot Set becomes a swirling explosion of color. 6 min.

3-Fold. 1989. Stephen Mead. A cartoon character negotiates an M.C. Escher–like landscape. 6 min.

Buzz Box (Re-Mix). 1985/2006. David Daniels. The creator of Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” music video updates his “insanimated” critique of American politics and culture. 9 min. Program approx. 50 min.

Sunday, June 18, 3:00; Monday, June 19, 7:30. T2

Tony Oursler: Pioneering Videos

A pioneer of media art, Oursler began experimenting with Portapack video while studying at CalArts in the late 1970s. Darkly comical and polymorphously perverse, his student works combine performance, puppetry, constructed sets, found-object grotesqueries, fifties melodrama, and seventies conceptualism to recall the shadowy painted worlds of Gaspar Robertson’s eighteenth-century phantasmagorias, Georges Méliès’s trick films, and German Expressionism. Presented are Life of Phillis (1979), a psychosexual soap opera Oursler performed episodically in the CalArts lunchroom, and never-before-seen student works. Program 100 min.

Thursday, June 22, 7:00 (introduced by Oursler); Saturday, June 24, 7:00. T2

Diesel Mama. 1973. James Hart, Peter Beckman. A profile of a sassy and tough woman truck driver. Sound by Lydia Benglis. 7 min.

Forevermore: Biography of a Leach Lord. 1989. Eric Saks. An extraordinary admixture of sobering realism and fanciful invention, Saks’s indictment of toxic waste dumping, corporate greed, and America’s disposable consumer culture was called a “remarkable, neglected” faux documentary by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum. 83 min.

Friday, June 23, 8:00; Wednesday, June 28, 6:00. T2

Departure. 2002. Danielle Ye. Manipulated found footage of trotting pigs, nude perambulators, and children used for target practice. 7 min.

Travis Hallington. 2004. Jabari Hall-Smith. Pop-culture stereotypes become a painful life lesson for an African American boy. 4 min.

Massillon. 1991. William Jones. “Massillon is that rarity that eluded the queer new wave, a homo road movie in which gay icons are nowhere to be seen. Massillon uses the quiet landscapes of the American Midwest to look at a history disfigured by myths of the family, patriotism, and religion” (Lawrence Chua, Artforum). 70 min. Program 81 min.

Saturday, June 24, 4:00; Sunday, June 25, 3:00. T2

Meditations on Revolution, Part III: Soledad. 2001. Robert Fenz. Quotidian scenes of Mexico City, Chiapas, and New York City counterpointed with images from Mexico’s revolutionary past. 15 min.

Letter #2 Berlin ’89: A Travel Diary. 1990. Marco Puccioni. As the Berlin Wall falls, Puccioni contemplates a future for “ex-Catholics, ex-Communists, and bewildered consumers.” 14 min.

On the Various Nature of Things. 1995. Deborah Stratman. Inspired by the Ancient Roman poet Lucretius and a nineteenth-century Scottish physicist and inventor, Stratman explores the hidden workings of the world. 25 min.

Removed. 1999. Naomi Uman. Using nail polish remover, bleach, and 1970s porn, Uman makes the female body into an obscure object of desire. 6 min.

Leche. 1999. Naomi Uman. Hardscrabble farm life in Mexico becomes sensuous through unique handprocessing techniques. 30 min. Program 90 min.

Sunday, June 25, 1:00. T2

Two Documentaries by Hyun kyung Kim

Toilet Pig. 2002. Korean farmers practice an old and surprising tradition of raising pigs. 7 min.

What Are We Waiting For? 2005. On the sad fate of young brides who were separated from their husbands during the Korean War. Kim’s moving documentary follows one woman, now old and destitute, and another whose brief reunion with her husband was arranged by the North and South Korean governments and broadcast on television. In Korean, English subtitles. 111 min.

Sunday, June 25, 5:00. T2

POWWOW. 2002. Kristen Pepe. A Native American ritual is transformed into a gorgeous spectacle.

Marshallah, Marshallah, Look How Pretty Our Bride Is! 2002. Dorian Ahmeti. An Albanian wedding in all its Bacchanalian revelry.

Best in the West. 2006. Maryam Kashani. The fast times of Kashani’s father and his male buddies as they emigrate from Iran as teenagers in the 1960s, immerse themselves in San Francisco counterculture, and find success as entrepreneurs. Program 84 min.

Monday, July 24, 6:15; Saturday, July 29, 2:00. T2

Seven Lucky Charms. 1992. Lisa Mann. An experimental documentary about domestic violence.

Everyone Their Grain of Sand. 2004. Beth Bird. Facing eviction in the name of corporate development, the defiant citizens of Maclovio Rojas, Tijuana, rise up against the Mexican government. Program 103 min.

Monday, July 24, 8:15; Saturday, July 29, 4:00. T2

CalArts Animation and Experimentation: The 1990s [part 1]

13. 1990. Alexander Sokoloff. A mystical journey by a character animator on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Stuart Little.

Filter Gallery. 1991. Eric Darnell. The director of Madagascar and Antz experiments with tactility. 

Faith & Patience. 1991. Sheila M. Sofian. Rotoscoped animation about a four-year-old girl and her newborn sister.

Space Girl. 1991. Mike Cachuela. By an artist who has worked with Henry Selick and Pixar animators Brad Bird and John Lasseter.

Getaway. 1990. San Wei Chan. The Los Angeles freeway is abstracted to resemble John Marin watercolors.

Wormholes. 1993. Stephen Hillenburg. A fly’s-eye view of Relativityland, by the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants.

The Green Beret. 1991. Stephen Hillenburg. An overzealous Girl Scout gives a hard sell.

Whoopass Stew! 1992. Craig McCracken. The rarely seen forerunner of The Powerpuff Girls.

Casting Call. 1992. Dominic Carola. The prescient story of a downsized hand-drawn character.

Are We There Yet? 1992. Charles Keagle. Two skiers get stuck on a chairlift, with hilarious results.

Plenty. 1993. Clare Crespo. A sword swallower encounters a mermaid, carousel animals, and more.

Flamingo Splendor. 1991. Steven M. Belfer. By the director of two Looney Tunes films.

Moving On. 1993. Steven M. Belfer. A mosquito-like “xylomorph” and his temperamental racecar. Program 60 min.

Wednesday, July 26, 6:15; Sunday, July 30, 1:00. T2

CalArts Animation and Experimentation: The 1990s [part 2]

Small Fry. 1993. Stevie Wermers. A hilarious short by a longtime Disney storyboard artist.

Solace. 1994. Valerie Swanson. Hypnotic images of the tactile world.

Flying Circus: An Imagined Memoir. 1994. Maureen Selwood, Stephen Hillenburg, and others. Dazzling animation styles evoke childhood joy and solitude.

The Janitor. 1994. Vanessa Schwartz. God’s handyman cleans up messes of biblical proportions.

Stark Film. 1997. Eric Patrick. An experimental road movie exploring various states of decay.

Charivari. 1995. Doug Vitarelli. Tumbling acrobats become a kaleidoscope of abstract forms.

Between the Lines. 1998. Jamie Maxfield. An animated sketchbook.

The Wind. 1998. Fred Baxter. The wind doesn’t blow… it sucks.

Organ Cranker. 1998. Jon Foulk. Shackled “shlomos” dance themselves to death.

Like Liz and Beth. 1999. Abigail Goldsmith. You can’t keep a good cheerleader down.

Out of This World. 1995. Holly du Rivage. An intergalactic voyage.

Greener. 1993. Mark Osborne. A mixed-animation fable by the director of Dreamworks’ forthcoming Kung Fu Panda. Program 64 min.

Wednesday, July 26, 8:00; Sunday, July 30, 3:00. T2

Love and Other Difficulties

The Correct Use of Oranges. 2004. Mari Okada. After she stops trying to please her demanding boyfriend, a young woman experiences jouissance.

Split. 2000. Ya-Nan Chou. Stop-motion fabric animation tells of love torn asunder.

Girls Talk. 1990. Ann Faison. A young woman rambles on about life and love in Los Angeles.

Home Movie. 1973. Jan Oxenberg. The artist, now a major television writer, uses family movies and wry humor to describe her experience of coming out.

Family. 2004. George Wiechelns. A creepy family romance told with dolls and constructed sets.

Nightingale. 2002. Lee Anne Schmitt. A faux documentary about the end of an affair.

I Love You. 2002. Haruko Tanaka. A woman delights in her friends’ professions of love.

Pussies and Faggots Unite! 2001. Mike Ott. A manifesto against the brutalities of high school life.

Twitterpated. 2002. Tuni Chatterji. A joyous medley of songs about unrequited love. Program 87 min.

Thursday, July 27, 6:00; Monday, July 31, 8:00. T2

Domestic “Bliss”

Turning their barbed wit both inwards and outwards, these pioneering video artists reflect on women’s private and public lives.

Dressing Up. 1973. Susan Mogul. On mother-daughter relationships, and clothes that make the woman.

Tissue Existence. 1986. Lee Skaife. A textured assemblage of suburban life.

Add On. 1973. Ilene Segalove. The artist spoofs the material comforts of her sister’s suburban home.

The Mom Tapes. 1974–75. Ilene Segalove. Groundbreaking videos that parody the pleasures and terrors of a Beverly Hills adolescence.

Learn Where the Meat Comes From. 1976. Suzanne Lacy. A classic feminist video revealing the streak of Buñuelian savagery underlying television cooking shows.

Birds Dogs & Elephants. 1993. Meredith DeCotiis Szypula. The artist evokes a haunted childhood.

Empty House. 1999. Gina Kim. As Kim meditates on the confines of her home and her body, interior and exterior space blur in unsettling ways.

Program 90 min.

Thursday, July 27, 8:00; Saturday, August 5, 8:30. T2

Home(sick)

Timeline. 2003. Francisco Romero. The life of the artist’s immigrant father unfolds at a dizzying speed.

Home(Sick). 1997. Stephan Pascher. On the vexing question of belonging in America.

Cereus & Whatnot. 2005. Carolyn Kaylor. The artist reflects on a rare night-blooming plant, the death of a pet, and the decisive cinematic moment.

Lovechild. 1984. Kathe Burkhart. The saga, brutal and dramatic, of a West Virginia girl born out of wedlock.

Annie. 1993. Christine Ferriter. The artist uses magnetic iron filings, paint on glass, and paper cutouts to depict her great aunt, a Polish immigrant girl who suffered from crippling arthritis.

The Ojai Valley. 2000. Elizabeth Hesik. “The Ojai Valley documents Hesik’s attempt to find a lost mother and understand, perhaps, an even more lost father. …It definitely hit home with me” (CalArts professor James Benning).

Program 96 min.

Friday, July 28, 6:00; Monday, July 31, 6:00. T2

Optic Antics: David Wilson, Adam Beckett, and Other Visual Effects Masters

Masterworks of optical printing by David Wilson, the founder of The Museum of Jurassic Technology, along with works by the remarkably gifted visual effects creators of such Hollywood blockbusters as Star Wars, Spider-Man, and The Lord of the Rings, including David Berry, Robert Blalack, Chris Casady, Loring Doyle, Dorne Huebler, Donna Tracy, and Adam Beckett, whose animated films are one of the major rediscoveries of this exhibition. Program 100 min.

Friday, July 28, 8:00; Saturday, August 5, 6:15 (introduced by David Wilson, the founder of the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles; and Loring Doyle). T2

Fables and Myths

The Erlking. 2002. Ben Zelkowicz. The Goethe-Schubert lieder as German Expressionist woodcut.

Earth Dance. 1984. Stevan K. Wahl. Lovely pencil animation of a lithe flower in peril.

Quangle Wangle. 2000. Michael Nock. Animation based on Edward Lear’s nonsensical poem.

The Way Up to Heaven. 1972. Jim Aubrey, Michael Mann, Jonathan Seay. Roald Dahl’s wicked story about what happens to people who are late, starring Beatrice Manley.

The Shark’s Fin, or How Man and Woman Came to Live on Land. 1995. William Lebeda. An animated folk tale by the creative director of special effects company Picture Mill.

Al Tudi Tahak (Long Long Ago). 1999. Tod Polson. A creation myth of the Northwest-coast people is animated with ordinary housepaint.

The Dancing Bulrushes. 1984. Joanna Priestley, Steve Subotnick. A Native American tale about the coyote, or trickster, animated by moving sand on backlit Plexiglas.

Old Night. 2003. Molly M. Mann. An abandoned mansion holds memories of a past love.

Dreamstealer. 1974. Eric Durst. Fantastical figments of a man’s imagination, by an Academy Award–nominated visual effects supervisor.

Don’t Ask. 1970. Michael Pressman. An absurdist comedy by

a noted Hollywood and television director. Program 85 min.

Saturday, July 29, 6:00; Wednesday, August 2, 6:00. T2

The (Post) Studio Artists: James Casebere, Ken Feingold, Sharon Greytak, Roberta Friedman, and Grahame Weinbren

A Film 1979 Casebebere. 1979. James Casebere. A “personal, poetic, post-structuralist narrative” (Casebere) created in super-8 from projected slides of toy-like objects.

Art Gestures. 1973–74. Ken Feingold. The artist stages a series of predetermined actions involving time, gravity, chance, and memory.

With Photos. 1975. Ken Feingold. A forensic study of the photographic image.

Bertha’s Children. 1976. Roberta Friedman, Grahame Weinbren. Everything being alike everything simply everything is different simply different naturally simply different” (Gertrude Stein).

Sleeping. 1981. Sharon Greytak. Subtle film techniques breathe life into a still photograph.

Some Pleasure on the Level of the Source. 1982. Sharon Greytak. Isolated details—a clapboard house, a red rectangle, a girl jumping rope—suggest a narrative.

Czechoslovakian Woman. 1982. Sharon Greytak. “Greytak demonstrates how words and images allow or withhold their significance” (Barbara Kruger, Artforum). Program 80 min.

Saturday, July 29, 8:15 (introduced by Casebere, Feingold, Greytak, Friedman, Weinbren); Thursday, August 10, 8:00. T2

In Dreams Begin Responsibility

Two-Part Invention: A Portrait. 1979. Dane A. Davis. A composer’s domestic life as musique concrete, by an Academy Award–winning sound editor.

Not Fade Away. 2004. Kate Brown. The play of light over the course of a year.

Wanda. 1990. Ruth Hayes. A story of feline and feminine desire.

Holiday. 2004. Marcel Sawicki. A young Polish man experiences love and loss as he awaits conscription during the Gulf War.

The Dream Is Still a Dream. 2004. Kate Dollenmayer. A sensuous experimental film.

Nakamoto. 2004. Janel Bauer. Cherry blossoms recall the artist’s grandmother.

2 or 3 Things My Stepfather Taught Me. 1994. Michael Wheeler. A lighthearted drama about familial tensions, shown in MoMA’s New Directors/New Films. Program 103 min.

Sunday, July 30, 5:00; Wednesday, August 2, 8:00. T2

On the Road with Ed Harris, and Other Highway Encounters

Hub City Heroes. 1989. Robert Le Roy. The artist returns home to discover the grim fate of his childhood friends.

Nightrider. 1975. Ron Horwitz. Acting student Ed Harris shows remarkable screen presence in this tense drama about a fateful joyride.

Trona. 2004. David Fenster. “[Blending] a canny sense of Keaton and Antonioni... Trona marks a striking debut” (Robert Koehler, Variety). This strange hybrid of road movie and absurdist comedy follows a world-weary businessman who mysteriously lands in the California desert. Program 98 min.

Thursday, August 3, 6:00; Monday, August 7, 6:00. T2

We Report, You Decide

Posing as intrepid journalists, these artists make light of tabloid news programs, corporate culture, and the fetishization of celebrity.

Animal Appetites. 1991. Michael Thomas Cho. In 1989, Cambodian immigrants were put on trial in California for eating a dog, sparking a culture war at once absurd and unsettling.

Waiting for Monica. 1998. David Reed. A doltish television reporter attempts to cover the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Videotape Kills Family of Four! 1993. Alex Slade. A humorous deconstruction of the tabloid news.

The Target Shoots First. 1999. Christopher Wilcha. Armed with impish wit, Wilcha becomes a corporate suit at Columbia House, America’s largest mail-order music club. Program 103 min.

Thursday, August 3, 8:15 (introduced by Christopher Wilcha); Monday, August 7, 8:15. T2

Let My People Go. 1992. Ming-Yuen S. Ma, Tran T. Kim-Trang. On media representations of the L.A. riots, AIDS activism, and pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing.

Custody. 2005. Tariq Tapa. A circular, modern noir about a single mother and her lost daughter.

Three-Five People. 2001. Lin Li. A heartbreaking portrait of heroin-addicted, HIV-positive homeless youth in China. The director documented these forgotten children with a hidden camera, only to have her life threatened by the police and the underworld. Program 100 min.

Friday, August 4, 5:45; Saturday, August 5, 2:00. T2

The (Post) Studio Artists: John Baldessari, Ericka Beckman, David Cabrera, and Susan Davis

We Imitate; We Break Up. 1978. Ericka Beckman. A conceptual super-8 musical in which “a set of life-sized marionette legs teach Ericka how to do the shing-a-ling…then chase her all over the lot when she runs away with the ‘loot’” (J. Hoberman, The Village Voice).

Will You Please Read Me That Text Again OK Listen Closely. 1982. David Cabrera. A man and a woman engage in a bit of semiotic foreplay.

The Stalin Tape. 1974. Susan Davis. An imagined conversation with an old flame.

The Blank Tape. 1975. Susan Davis. An imageless video piece that evokes a woman’s dramatic encounter with a stranger.

Script. 1974. John Baldessari. Baldessari’s students pair off to interpret ten scenes from Hollywood films in this riveting deconstruction of classical narrative, montage, performance, and mise-en-scène. Program 90 min.

Friday, August 4, 8:00 (introduced by David Cabrera and Susan Davis); Friday, August 11, 8:15. T2

A History of Valencia in 7 Homes. 1991. Rick Minnich. A deadpan travelogue of Minnich’s home town, also the site of the CalArts campus and a location for Woody Allen’s Sleeper.

Part Chicago. 1998. Mike Jarmon. A quick-trigger journey from downtown Chicago to the artist’s apartment rooftop. Silent.

Progress. 2003. Andrew Garza. A neorealist feature that brilliantly straddles the line between fiction and documentary, Progress recalls Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep in its affectionate portrait of a Mexican American busboy who aspires to become a writer. Program 105 min.

Saturday, August 5, 4:00; Sunday, August 6, 5:00. T2

CalArts: The Young Turks [part 1]

Experimental fiction, nonfiction, and animation by the newest wave of CalArts students.

Better Life. 2000. Atsuko Kubota. A hyperrealistic animated film combining watercolor and 3-D computer graphics in the manner of Richard Linklater’s Waking Life.

The Hesher. 2006. Scott Cummings. The creepy rituals of a guy who doesn’t get out much.

Night Sweats. 2000. Dave Lebow. Giacometti-like scribblings evoke an endless night of insomnia.

Blackberries. 2005. Nicolas Panoutsopoulos. A seemingly innocuous incident threatens to drive apart the parents of a young Mexican American boy.

SHE_Running the City. 2005. Jihyun Song. The grid patterns of downtown Chicago are altered by fog and wind.

Chair. 2000. Hiroshi Mori. A man defies death in this 2-D animation by an effects artist for Open Season and Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith.

The Red Memory (Grégoire Argentique). 2005. Bertrand Piocelle. A noir thriller rendered in the stark red-and-black palette of a French graphic novel.

Capsulation. 2005. Eric Spector. The textures of Los Angeles.

Taking It on the Chin. 2001. Jung-A Yoo. Whimsical animation about a born loser.

Grit. 2001. Mike Enright. Gritty hand-processed film about streetwise boxers in Philadelphia.

The Orphans. 2006. Cy Kuckenbaker. The poignant and humorous story of two aging Lithuanian men who travel to Berlin to bury their childhood friend. Program 89 min.

Sunday, August 6, 1:00; Saturday, August 12, 6:00. T2

CalArts: The Young Turks [part 2]

Just. 2002. Joon Soo Ha. The American flag as Warholian silkscreen—or smoke screen.

Outline for a Video—Model of a Town. 2003. Erika Vogt. A fictitious cinematic landscape of cities along New Jersey’s Passaic River.

The Animals Will Leave Us First. 2004. Norma Toraya. An apocalyptic cutout of wallpaper, postcards, and random kitsch.

Imprint. 2003. Karolina Sobecka. A hand reaches out to grasp a frenetically shifting landscape.

Nightlightshake. 2002. Maile Colbert. The atmospheric visualization of an Ian Colbert poem.

Mammoth Cave. 2005. Stephanie Hutin. The tale of a mining town where witches live in igloos… .

Thought City. 2000. Stefan Gruber. Animated commuters trudge through a concrete jungle.

Feline Faux Pas. 2005. Courtland Lomax. UPA-inspired animation about a lonely gentleman and his neurotic cat.

Farce Sensationelle! 2004. Laida Lertxundi. A personal take on the camera apparatus.

Latent Sorrow. 2005. Shon Kim. An animated paean to Vincent van Gogh and Jackson Pollock.

Passages. 2005. Hyun-Min Lee. A delicate animated collage recalling the children’s book illustrations of Leo Lionni.

Kitties. 2001. Jennifer Medlin. An unflinching portrait of the artist’s suburban family. Program 89 min.

Sunday, August 6, 3:00; Saturday, August 12, 8:00. T2

Travesty and Pastiche

A motley assortment of melodramas, from noir to high camp, featuring a rare early appearance by Paul Reubens.

The Velvet Tigress. 2001. Jen Sachs. An animated documentary about the sensationalized “Trunk Murders” trial of 1931.

Bit Parts. 2005. Julie Orser. A subtle sendup of Hollywood melodrama clichés.

L. City. 2002. Sandro Del Rosario. A noir photocollage becomes a slow tango of memory and oblivion.

Mermaids. 1972. Helen Whelchel. With Paul Rubenfeld (aka Paul Reubens), Max Roberts, and poet-translator Paul Roche. Drop in for a moment of eternity with a couple of louche mermaids….

Starring Rosa Furr. 2000. Lara Martin. Murder, mayhem, and melodrama in the Jazz Age—an homage to silent cinema that places gay and African American themes front and center.

Three Examples of Myself as a Queen. 1994. Anna Biller. A Maria Montez and Jack Smith–inspired burlesque about a world-weary queen bee and her slavish consort of suitors. Program 98 min.

Thursday, August 10, 6:00; Saturday, August 12, 3:00. T2

An Insignificant Moment. 1999. Edgar Arceneaux. A video triptych depicting three characters whose lives converge.

Chapbook of the Non-Eminent. 1993. Elizabeth Wiatr. A brilliant critique of gentrification in downtown Los Angeles that employs phrenology, cartography, documentary footage, and staged dialogue.

The Ballad of Ion Lupescu, or 222 Minutes to Live. 1994–95. Pieter Schoolwerth, Miguel Abreu. Set construction by Dave Muller. A Romanian track star defects from his homeland, and a bizarre manhunt ensues: a genre-bending video combining extreme sports, political propaganda, and metaphysical mystery. Program 86 min.

Friday, August 11, 6:15; Sunday, August 13, 2:30. T2

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Pictured above left

How to Read Macho Mouse. 1991. Rubén Ortiz Torres, Aaron Anish

Above right

On the Various Nature of Things. 1995. Deborah Stratman