The Mendocino Film Festival on PNN

Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock

Mendocino film — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:48:39 GMT

FILMS ON ART

Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock

Director: Harry Moses
Is the large abstract painting purchased for five dollars at a thrift store by good ol' girl and long-haul trucker Terri Horton really a Jackson Pollock worth millions? At first, this funny and knowing film appears as a mismatched contest between Get-Rich-Quick American Slob Culture and The Establishment Art World: In this corner, Terri Horton; in that corner, Thomas Hoving. But as we come to know the redoubtable Ms. Horton and her story, as well as the story of this unsigned painting, we realize that nothing is as it first appears. We are also introduced, courtesy of Canadian forensic wizard Peter Paul Biro, into the fascinating confluence of science and art in the hunt for a contested painting's true provenance. (2006, 74 min.)
Showing: May 17, 8pm, St. Anthony's
May 20, 12:30pm, Matheson

The Storytellers

Mendocino film — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:38:54 GMT

FILMS ON ART

The Storytellers

Director: Jelly Helm
Filmmaker in person
This intimate film follows seven company members of the Oregon Shakespeare festival from the moment the curtain falls to the moment it rises again the next day: Six actors - John, a rising young star; veteran Dee, discovering her greatest roles; intense, complex Jonathan; Charles, a soft-spoken grandfather; Greta, who embraced her gift after 16 years as an accountant; and Michael, the father of two teens looking back on his days of playing leads - plus the stage crew captain, Tommy, changes sets and "people, every day." (2006, 28 min.)
Showing: May 18, 5pm, Matheson

Still Kicking

Mendocino film — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:35:43 GMT

FILMS ON ART

Still Kicking

Director: Greg Young
In STILL KICKING, writer Amy Gorman records stories and musician Frances Kandle composes songs celebrating six artistic San Francisco Bay Area women ages 91 to 106. The film is a hopeful document of each woman's spirit, humor and resolve. STILL KICKING'S director hopes his film will be "a catalyst, prompting us to the possibilities demonstrated by these women, that growing old is an opportunity we all can enter with anticipation." (2006, 32 min.)
Showing: May 18, 10am, Abalone Room

Shaping the Industry

Mendocino film — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:24:12 GMT

FILMS ON ART

Shaping the Industry

Director: Arianna Pilram
Filmmaker and Malcolm Campbell in person In the early 1960s, the Campbell Brothers began a revolution in the art of shaping surfboards. While surfing seems commercialized today, Malcolm Campbell continues to shape boards in the early spirit of art and surfing. His motto: "Never for Money, Always for Love." (2006, 9 min.)
Showing: May 19, 12:30pm, Abalone Room

Richard Serra

Mendocino film — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:14:24 GMT

FILMS ON ART

Richard Serra:

Thinking On Your Feet

Director: Maria Anna Tappeiner
"I think a lot of people start with the what...I've always been interested in the how, how things come into being." - Richard Serra. THINKING ON YOUR FEET presents the "how" of Richard Serra as it documents the coming into being of "The Matter of Time," a site-specific installation at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao composed of eight steel sculptures with an overall weight of 1,208 tons. Reaching the limits of what is feasible in terms of size, form and technology, this is one of the biggest commissions yet developed for a concrete space. Serra is sometimes considered a "difficult" artist, but this film shows him to be quite accessible (which is not to be confused with "easy") for those untutored in postmodern sculpture. He is almost demonically articulate about his work, thinking on his feet, always with his sketchbook ready at hand, present

Phoenix Dance

Mendocino film — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:08:22 GMT

FILMS ON ART

Phoenix Dance

Director: Karina Epperlein
Filmmaker in person
"My film PHOENIX DANCE shows us the beauty and strength of one individual who defies our expectations of what it means to be 'disabled'. In March 2001, Homer Avila, who had been dancing with Twyla Tharp, Bill T. Jones, Mark Morris and Momix, as well as other companies, discovered that the severe pain in his right hip was cancer. One month later, his right leg and most of his hip were amputated. What unfolds is the story that leads to the pas de deux called "Pas", which the renowned Alonzo King choreographed for Homer and Andrea Flores. We witness a deeply moving collaboration. For me, the film is an intimate poem reminding us that when heart and will are joined the impossible can happen." -- Karina Epperlein. This exquisite film is not to be missed. (2006, 16 min.)
Showing: May 18, 5pm, Matheson

Outsider

Mendocino film — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:05:29 GMT

FILMS ON ART

Outsider:

The Life and Art of Judith Scott

Director: Betsy Bayha
Filmmaker in person
Judith Scott was a remarkable, but accidental, artist in the medium of found objects and yarn. A woman with Down Syndrome who was deaf and did not speak, she spent thirty-five years institutionalized in her home state of Ohio with no creative outlet whatsoever. It was only in the 1980s, when her twin sister Joyce gained custody of Judith and moved her to the San Francisco Bay Area, that her creative life began to blossom and she emerged as an artist of considerable talent whose work is now known worldwide. OUTSIDER is the inside story of a compelling, eccentric and gifted woman who prevailed. (2006, 26 min.)
Showing: May 19, 5pm, Abalone Room

My Eyes Were Fresh

Mendocino film — Thu, 17 May 2007 20:02:27 GMT

FILMS ON ART

My Eyes WereFresh:

The Life and Photographs of

John Gutmann
Director: Jane Reed
Filmmaker in person
In a dead heat for Most Evocative Title in this year's festival with STRANGE CULTURE, PHOENIX DANCE, THE GHOST IN THE MATERIAL, THE MAN WITH THE ELECTRIC BOOTS and DOWNPOUR RESURFACING we give you MY EYES WERE FRESH. It certainly captures the unique sensibility of this singular artist as it celebrates the undimmed vision of his long life. In 1933, John Gutmann was forced to leave behind a promising career as a painter in Germany for a fresh start in the United States. With a new portable Rolleiflex in hand, he was determined to make his living as a press photographer. Instead, he became an artist who was also an educator, forging a link between European Modernism and the burgeoning artistic culture of San Francisco. (2006, 30 min.)
Showing: May 19, 4pm, MTC

H.R. Giger's Sanctuary

Mendocino film — Thu, 17 May 2007 19:05:05 GMT

FILMS ON ART

H.R. Giger's Sanctuary

Director: Nick Brandestini
Filmmaker in person
North American PREMIERE. This rare film portrait is comprised of interviews with an artist who usually finds them anathema: H. R. Giger, renowned Swiss artist of Fantastic Realism, visionary master of the airbrush, inventor of "biomechanics," and Academy Award- winning designer of ALIEN. As he conducts us on a tour of his Museum Bar (what a splendid concept!), Giger talks openly about his fascination with the morbid, his fame and cult following, his fears and nightmares, and his greatest accomplishments. (2007, 18 min., in German with English subtitles.) NOTE: Please be aware that this film contains some graphic graphic material, most notably Giger's (in)famous album cover for The Dead Kennedys.
Showing: May 19, 4pm, MTC

The Ghost in the Material

Mendocino film — Thu, 17 May 2007 18:58:17 GMT

FILMS ON ART

The Ghost in the Material

Director: Kelcey Edwards
A haunting, outsider's look at the black-and-white world of pen and ink artist William Noguera, inside. (2006, 4 min.)
Showing: May 19, 4pm, MTC

Emile Norman

Mendocino film — Thu, 17 May 2007 18:40:51 GMT

FILMS ON ART

Emile Norman: By His Own Design

Director: Will Parrinello
Filmmaker in person
Emile Norman, a self- taught California artist, is still working at the age of 88 with the same passion for life, art, nature and freedom that inspired him through seven decades of a changing art scene and turbulent times for a gay man in America. BY HIS OWN DESIGN is a rich chronicle of an independent spirit whose idiosyncratic art work has led him from a childhood on a walnut ranch in the San Gabriel Valley to success in New York, a thirty year relationship and partnership with Brooks Clement (who told Emile, "You go into the studio and I'll show the world what you're doing"), a mountaintop home in Big Sur, and to freedom. An artist to the end, Emile says, "When I stop working, call 911." (2006, 56 min.)
Showing: May 19, 5pm, Abalone Room

Do Not Go Gently

Mendocino film — Thu, 17 May 2007 18:34:37 GMT

FILMS ON ART

Do Not Go Gently

Director: Melissa Godoy
The fastest-growing age group in the United States is 85 and above, and they're not what you think. Narrated by Walter Cronkite, DO NOT GO GENTLY is a journey across the country, and deep into the human brain, to explore the minds and bodies of those who insist on remaining creative "into that good night." We meet composer Leo Ornstein, 109 years of age; dancer Frederic Franklin, age 90; and Arlonzia Pettway, the eldest quilter in Gee's Bend - all artists who continue to innovate in their chosen fields. Dr. Gene Cohen's work at the Creativity Discovery Corps, meanwhile, helps uncover the science of creativity and aging. But perhaps the true power of imagination is best glimpsed in the creative play offered people with Alzheimer's disease at nursing homes in Washington, D.C. (2006, 56 min.)
Showing: May 18, 10am, Abalone Room
May 20, 10am, Abalone Room

The Culture of the Structure

Mendocino film — Thu, 17 May 2007 18:21:40 GMT

FILMS ON ART

The Culture of the Structure

Director: Konstantia Kontaxis Anna Valentina Murch,
artist, in person THE CULTURE OF THE STRUCTURE documents the design and installation of public art projects at the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. Architect Cesar Pelli provides the structure. As we witness its construction, we see the Center as a stage for five remarkable artists, whose work adorns both its exterior and interior. Outside the Center, Gary Moore's "Pharaoh's Dance" becomes a stage upon which Miami's citizens can recreate themselves. Inside, concertgoers feel the anticipation of performance in Cundo Bermudez's mural "Ways of Performing" as they walk along José Bedia's terrazzo lobby floor design towards the magnificent "Peacock Curtain" by Robert Rahway Zakanitch. Meanwhile, Anna Valentina Murch's inviting Exterior Plaza Installation, entitled "Water Scores," with its wave-patterned ramps and semi-circular benches, beguiles even the most casual of passersby. (2007, 48 min., in English and Spanish with English subtitles.)
Showing: May 19, 1:30pm, MTC