Wednesday, November 9, 2005: Benji and Billy

Bridget
thoughtfully brought a roll of black felt to cover the back windows of
the screening space, which were admitting no small bit of ambient
light.  The projection already looked quite nice (the Mark has an
excellent, 6ft white screen, which I always think makes a big
difference), but the deeper darkness was a big help.I was in a bit of a rush today, as the judge had a couple projects for me just before 5, and the shows started at 6.  I ran home, collected the movies, and ran down to the Mark as quickly as possible.  Luckily, the setup is very quick.  I was still ready to go by 5:30.  Tend to overestimate how long it takes to get everything ready to go.  Better safe than sorry, I guess.  But still, it does lead to unnecessary upset.  Anyway, the audience for the first program was pretty sparse.  So I needn't have worried.  It's a shame, because some of the films were really excellent.  I love Xavier Laplae &c.'s Mary Worth, a "dramatic" enactment of a few weeks worth of the eponymous comic strip.  They use a hammy quasi-tableau format that perfectly matches the off-kilter middlebrow-expressionism of the strip's composition.  And I'm a longtime fan of Anne McGuire's All Smiles and Sadness, which is just close enough to awful to touch brilliance.  Especially George Kuchar's inspired rant at the end...  And a highlight was seeing The Ontological Cowboy - Marie's new film on Richard Foreman - projected for the first time.  The image was really beautiful (though maybe I'm a little biased, as I shot some of it...) and the film was a quantum leap for her, really capturing the essence of Foreman, and never lapsing into talking-head land.  I think it's because she so effectively translates the structure of a Foreman play into film.  I expect it to be quite successful...
Ben
Russell turned up just in time for his show.  Marie
was just as happy to see him as I was.  And we got everything ready as
quickly as possible. 
Dan helped with the setup and projection, as usual. Unfortunately, the print of his new Billy the Kid film was stuck in
Dallas.  And wasn't going to make it in time.  So we watched it on
DVD.  Which really did a number on the image.
Ben
gave his typical, laconically terse introduction (my favorite sort!) and
we got cracking with Billy the Kid.  It's a tough movie, but a
beautiful one.  It's very subtle and dependant on natural light, and obviously resisted translation to DVD. But final edit was fantastic.  A cowboy film infused with vintage 60s modernist euro ennui.  And wryly funny at times, to boot.  Sort of a hybrid Resnais / Jarmusch bit going on.
Unclassifiable in the best possible sense.  It was preceded by Jim Trainor's Harmony, his latest animation, continuing his musings on the genesis of conscience and guilt.   So freudian!  I'm a great admirer of JIm's films, and will be showing the Fetishist (along with Christopher Maclaine's The End) at 40 Frames in Portland on Sunday, November 20.
Dan was indispensable, as usual, even driving Marie back to the airport to catch a late flight.  Thanks Dan!