Desert Planet Music In An American Short Film

Get In The Van by Lori Samsel - preview



Get In The Van chiptunes exercise video trailer @ Vimeo

Music by Finnish videogame electro act Desert Planet is featured in several scenes of the American short film Get In The Van by Lori Samsel. The 25-minute film is the first live action movie from Samsel, who has previously worked as an animator; being a parody on the exercise videos for women. From the albums Mario Built My Hot Rod (2005) and Turbo Tellytunes (2004) are heard the Desert Planet tunes 'Play Skip Stop', 'Slurp!' and 'Gangster Puzzle'. Also New York's Twilight Electric (of 8-Bit Peoples Net label) is heard in the movie. The DVD of film features as extras four Desert Planet videos and can be ordered from http://www.getinthevan.org/.

The film can be seen at: http://www.archive.org/details/lorisamselGetintheVan.

Forthcoming Desert Planet gigs:

20 March 2009 - Stupido Records 20 Years @ Semifinal, Helsinki

21 March 2009 - Dynamo, Turku

May 2009 - a tour of two weeks in Central Europe

Films by Guy Debord & Ken Jacobs @ Avanto Festival 2008

Guy Debord: La Société du spectacle (Society of the Spectacle), 1973 (Part 1 of 9) [2/9] [3/9] [4/9] [5/9] [6/9] [7/9] [8/9] [9/9]


Interview with Ken Jacobs, Part 1 [Part 2]

Avanto festival 2008 in Helsinki this month will feature among all short films from Guy Debord and Ken Jacobs. The full schedule coming soon, check the festival site for more info.

Sadly, this ninth annual Avanto festival will also be the last one, as Helsingin Sanomat informs. I participated myself in 2001 as a DJ to this event, which has every November combined avantgarde film and live performances from experimental music acts around the world, and I think this will leave a large gap to Finnish cultural life.

Music Videos by Shadowplay, Jimi Tenor & His Shamans and Op:l Bastards

Some pHinnWeb-related music videos, courtesy of YouTube user Lihaa77...


Shadowplay: 'Night Porter' (1985/1987, video by Hannu Puttonen)

Shadowplay, a Finnish cult band, who started in 1982, combining raw post-punk moods to jazz-tinged flavours provided by the trumpetist Marco Kosonen. In 1985 they released the now-legendary 7" 'Night Porter', taking its name from Liliana Cavani's decadent 1974 film of the same name. Shadowplay appeared with this song in 1986 Finnish film Kill City, which performance was the highlight of that otherwise best-to-be-forgotten flick. The albums Touch & Glow, Eggs & Pop and Raw Powder were also to follow. The band's henchman Brandi Ifgray was also to release two solo albums for Sähkö Recordings' sub Puu, produced by Jimi Tenor and Tuomo Puranen of The Elevators/Op:l Bastards.


Jimi Tenor & His Shamans live 1988

Before his career as an eclectic lounge-jazz-soul-funk man Jimi Tenor was known in the late 1980s for his industrial-tinged, oil barrel-banging band Shamans.


Op:l Bastards: 'Sagittarius III'

Legend of Gruppa Sagittarius is a 2001 short film by Hannu Puttonen featuring the track 'Sagittarius III' of Op:l Bastards.

China Life, The Latest Short Film by Tina Ulevik (Spul Films Australia)

Tina Ulevik: China Life (2008)

Tina Ulevik of Spul Films Australia -- who created the music video for Kompleksi's 'Sara Pain' in 2007 -- has her latest short film finally finished and online, describing it as follows:

"Filmed on location in Suzhou & Shanghai, China, & accompanied by music from Finland's Since November, China Life explores glimpses of China seen through the eyes of a foreign traveller evoking the surreal landscapes of ancient & modern China. The film also acts as a metaphor for searching & belonging."

Also by Tina Ulevik:

'Xenophobic Site' (2006)

Spul Films Australia MySpace site has more short films by Tina

Darkbeat: An Electro World Voyage @ Tampere Film Festival 2008

Darkbeat trailer


Planet B-Boy

Also: North Korea vs South Korea from Planet B-Boy

This year's Tampere International Short Film Festival will take place on 5 - 9 March 2008. Out of the programme, of pHinnWeb interest is at least Darkbeat: An Electro World Voyage by Iris B. Cegarra (2006), a documentary on electro music, also featuring Finland's Mr Velcro Fastener among such international luminaries as Aux 88 members, Octagon Man, Cosmic Force and many more. Darkbeat will be shown on Friday 7 March, 10 pm at Plevna 2. Furthermore, Planet B-Boy by Benson Lee (2007) on breakdance culture (Saturday 8 March, 10 pm at Plevna 2) sounds interesting. And also a series of Warp Records videos is promised to be a part of the festival schedule.

Tampere Film Festival @ Wikipedia

See also:

Electronic Music Films @ pHinnWeb Blog

From We Sing For The Future Launch @ The Foundry, London, UK

From Walter & Sabrina's We Sing For The Future launch event @ The Foundry, London, 27 October 2007 where Kompleksi's 'Sara Pain' video by Tina Ulevik was also shown. I couldn't make it to the event myself, but Walter Cardew told it went very well.

More images from the event and info @ Danny Dark Records

Käytöskukka (1966-67)

Käytöskukka #1 - Ylpeys ("Pride")


Käytöskukka #2 - Rohkeus ("Courage")


Käytöskukka #3 - Huomaavaisuus ("Consideration")


Käytöskukka #4 - Ahneus ("Greed")


Käytöskukka #5 - Laiskuus ("Sloth")


Käytöskukka #6 - Kateus ("Envy")


Käytöskukka #7 - Sinisilmäisyys ("Gullibility")


Käytöskukka #8 - Turhamaisuus ("Vanity")


Käytöskukka #9 - Murjotus ("A Sulk")

[Other episodes -- #10: Kiire ("A Hurry"), #11: Apua ("Help!"), #12: Ystävyys ("Friendship"), #13: Persoonallisuus ("Personality").]

Käytöskukka ("Behaviour Blossom") was a Finnish 13-part series of didactic short animations made with cutout technique; created by Heikki Partanen (1942-1990) in 1966 and 1967, intending to teach good manners to children. The series, which was like "Seven Deadly Sins for Infants", had every episode starring a domestic piglet called Hinku and a wild piglet called Vinku, encountering such surreal creatures as the angry Suursyömäri (might be translated as "Gargantuan Eater") who devours everything coming its way, and other characters behaving, for example, in a lazy or vain way but learning some valuable lesson in each episode's end. South Park this was not. And the theme music is a classic, too!

Käytöskukka @ Finnish Wikipedia

Käytöskukka @ Suomen Elokuvakontakti

Heikki Partanen filmography @ Elonet

Heikki Partanen filmography @ IMDB

Kompleksi Video @ The Foundry, London

Kompleksi's 'Sara Pain' video, directed by Tina Ulevik/Spul Films (Australia) will be shown in London on Saturday 27 October 2007 at an event called Disco_r.dance (at The Foundry club), celebrating the release of We Sing For The Future, a new album of Walter & Sabrina on UK's Danny Dark Records.

Walter Cardew of Walter & Sabrina and Danny Dark Records tells of the event: "We are going to have a showing of some of our films in a club in London called The Foundry on the 27th of October. It is part of a night called Disco_r.dance which is organised by a couple of guys who are very interested in all kinds of contemporary music. They will be dj-ing upstairs and in a fair size room downstairs we are going to show a couple of our films. There's normally a good crowd of people there; the club is right in the middle of the Old Street area which is very arty/groovy kind of place".

Saturday 27th October 2007: We Sing For The Future Launch event.

Downstairs at the Foundry in London as part of disco_r.dance. Danny Dark Records will present films by Sabrina (Walter & Sabrina) and Kompleksi/Spul Films. Also live music from Stefano Tedesco's SOLARIS and SKITANJA.
9-12pm; Admission Free.

The Foundry, 86 Great Eastern Street, London EC2A 3JL, UK.

Disco_r.dance Links:

http://www.discordance.biz/

http://www.myspace.com/discordnce

http://www.connexionbizarre.net/interviews/m_discordance.htm

PS. The Wire magazine has some Walter & Sabrina artwork at: http://www.thewire.co.uk/web/picture.php. And one of their videos at: http://www.thewire.co.uk/web/camera.php.

Avanto Festival 2007

Helsinki's Avanto Festival's schedule for this year has been published. Maybe one of the most interesting gigs there from pHinnWeb's point of view is the comeback of Organ, Finnish synthpop pioneers 25 years ago.

Organ was born when Pekka Tolonen and Seppo Parkkinen's electronic duo Argon — which had already released one of the milestones of Finnish electronic music, Kone kertoo (1981) — was joined by prog-rock bass player Tapani Lahtinen, and Mikko Saarela, previously known as the witty lyricist of popular punk/new wave band Eppu Normaali. In addition to off-the-shelf synthesisers, an important part of their instrumentation was an analogue drum machine called "Zyrgo", built by Tolonen. The year 1982 saw the release of their only album Nekrofiilis (Poko), which is, in retrospect, perhaps the best representative of the short-lived "Futu"(as synthesiser pop was called in Finland at the time) craze. The songs heard on the album were rehearsed in the electronic music studio at the University of Helsinki. The album contains a paean to Regina Linnanheimo, one the most glamorous Finnish film stars from the 1940s; in other songs, Saarela's socially committed lyrics examine topics such as vivisection and aid to developing countries as well as anti-war themes. Parkkinen was also one of the lyricists of their album. Unfortunately, the career of Organ was cut short by the waning of the Futu boom. Representatives of later generations of electronic music have, however, found Organ's music again, and their comeback performance is likely to receive the attention it deserves.

Organ @ Avanto/Äänen Lumo Club in Kuudes linja on Friday, 16 November from 9 pm to 4 am

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Avanto Festival 2007
16-18 November 2007
various venues, Helsinki

INTERNATIONAL FREE CINEMA (@ Kiasma & Orion 16.–18.11.):

MICHAEL SNOW (CA)
PETER KUBELKA (AT)
DOUGLAS GORDON (UK) & PHILIPPE PARRENO (FR)
NÄRA ÖGAT (SE)
STEKLIANNOE POLE (RU)
ESKO LÖNNBERG / CIRCLE (FI)
AVANTOSCOPE

ÄÄNEN LUMO (@ Kuudes linja 16.11. 21-04):

PAIN JERK (JP)
TAPE (SE)
ORGAN (FI)
PETRI KULJUNTAUSTA (FI)
ODJS HARRI & TG (FI)

POTLACH (@ Gloria 17.11. 21-03):

VOLCANO THE BEAR (UK)
EDDIE PRÉVOST & ALAN WILKINSON (UK)
AVARUS (FI)
KUUPUU (FI)

Bruce Baillie

Bruce Baillie: Mr. Hayashi (1961)


Bruce Baillie: All My Life (1966)

Finnish TV1 just showed Sami van Ingen's documentary on San Francisco-based experimental film-maker Bruce Baillie (b. 1931). The relaxed Mr. Baillie was shown making pancakes and giving his accounts on his films All My Life (1966), Castro Street (1966) and Valentin de Las Sierras (1968), which were all featured in van Ingen's documentary. Especially Castro Street is a visually breath-taking film collage, inspired by Erik Satie and consisting of multiple superimpositions and other complicated cinematic trickery depicting trains of a railroad yard, oil refinery, smokestacks and buildings in an industrial byway in Richmond, combining both colour and black & white footage. Baillie himself wrote in his notes at the time: "the confrontation of opposites (Carl Jung)/'the strength or conflict of becoming'". Quite psychedelic, this one (so, somehow fitting to the 1960s San Francisco).

Bruce Baillie's Official Website (through which you can also support the artist)

Bruce Baillie @ IMDB

Baillie's Castro Street @ Bay Area Bonus Tracks and B-Sides

Kompleksi's 'Sara Pain' Video on Sydney Shorts, Australia

Sydney Shorts intro

For Aussie readers...

The 'Sydney Shorts' show hosted by Tony Lawrence on community television station TVS (formerly called Channel 31) based in Sydney, Australia will show Kompleksi's 'Sara Pain' video and the short film 'Xenophobic Site', both directed by Tina Ulevik of Spul Films Australia.

Dates:

9:30PM Monday 4/06/07
1:30AM Wednesday 6/06/07
4:30AM Saturday 9/06/07

There will also be re-runs later on.

Sähkömetsä: Finnish Experimental Cinema 1933-1998

A newly released book Sähkömetsä - Videotaiteen ja kokeellisen elokuvan historiaa Suomessa 1933-1998 ("Electric Forest - The history of video art and experimental cinema in Finland 1933-1998") -- edited by Kirsi Väkiparta, lavishly illustrated and published by Kuvataiteen keskusarkisto (Central Art Archives of Finnish National Gallery) -- is the first attempt to trace the complete history of Finnish media art in cinema and video. The book features such writers as film director Mika Taanila, researchers Hannu Eerikäinen and Kari Yli-Annala, and Perttu Rastas, who has specialized in video and media art since the mid-80s.

As the starting point of Finnish experimental cinema Mika Taanila has chosen Armas Jokinen's surrealistic short film Vappuhumua of 1933. A major name here must be the visual artist Eino Ruutsalo, who created in 1962-67 his experimental shorts where he painted and wrote directly to film, scratched it and pinned holes to it. Ruutsalo's films -- in their visual narrative not so different from some modern music videos, in fact -- featured music and sounds from such people as jazz composer Henrik Otto Donner and electronic music pioneer Erkki Kurenniemi (who also created some experimental film works of his own). The underground rock culture of the late 60s brought along a new generation of cinematic experimentalists, when such people as Peter Widén of The Sperm group showed his films on the band's gigs, often intending to shock and provoke; Taanila notifies that most of these works have sadly disappeared now.

What remains of Widén's works is a fifteen minutes excerpt of Suomen Talvisota (1970), documenting the band rehearsals of Suomen Talvisota 1939-1940, a controversial rock/performance group featuring such luminaries of Finnish underground as M.A. Numminen. The group members and poets Markku Into and the late Jarkko Laine are seen in the film; also Finland's legendary President Urho Kekkonen is featured here, laying the cornerstone for Helsinki's Finlandia Hall in the cross-cut film excerpts!

Also Timo Aarniala, these days best known as the underground comics artist and for his record sleeves (Underground-Rock by Suomen Talvisota 1939-1940 of 1970 probably being the most famous of them) did his share in the field of experimental cinema: among those works a 1968 short consisting of nothing else but the ever-repeating loop of the 20th Century Fox logo and that familiar fanfare... in music, J.O. Mallander's famous 'Kekkonen' (also 1968) perused exactly the same minimalist idea.

The late 70s punk movement inspired in Finland such experimental film-makers as Pasi "Sleeping" Myllymäki, working in Super-8 format. Myllymäki, born in 1950, was about a decade older than the punk generation but was especially excited with its fanzine boom; also editing his own zine Maanalainen kaitaelokuva ("Underground Super-8 Cinema"). He was to create nearly 50 short films in between the years 1976 and 1985.

Any acclaim for the works of Myllymäki and his collaborator Risto Laakkonen was slow in coming, but finally ten of these films were taken to the collection of Stockholm's Museum of Modern Art, and receiving screenings also around Europe and United States. However, by the mid-1980s Myllymäki's interest in experimental cinema started to wane.

This was also the era when video gradually started to replace film as the favourite medium of experimental artists, being cheaper to use -- and of course, being recyclable. (Perttu Rastas adds, though, that there were some Finnish experiments in video already in the 1960s and 70s.)

Of the later experimental film/video works a mention is deserved to such creators as Taanila himself, Ilppo Pohjola and Eija-Liisa Ahtila (at the moment internationally one of the most acclaimed Finnish visual artists whose Love Is A Treasure (2002) is even featured in the collections of MoMA); also to Sami van Ingen, Seppo Renvall, Veli Granö, Teemu Mäki, Anneli Nygren, Mox Mäkelä, Marikki Hakola, Matias Keskinen, Mikko Maasalo… and the team of Jimi Tenor (better known as a musician, of course) and Jusu Lounela, with their notorious forays into bad taste with such works as Urinator and Dr. Abortenstein.

(As main sources here have been used Harri Römpötti's newspaper article "Kaitafilmiltä videolle, maan alta galleriaan", Helsingin Sanomat 30 April 2007, and the Turun Sanomat interviews of Mika Taanila and Pasi "Sleeping" Myllymäki, linked below.)

Related links in English:

Sähkömetsä screenings @ Avanto Festival 2006

Related links in Finnish:

Kirjan esittely Kuvataiteen Keskusarkiston sivulla

Maanalainen Suomi @ Kinoklubi/YLE Teema

Pasi "Sleeping" Myllymäen haastattelu Turun Sanomissa 26.4. 2007

Mika Taanilan haastattelu Turun Sanomissa 26.4. 2007

Sähkömetsä II @ SEA

Sedis kommentoi

Uusi suomalainen kokeellinen elokuva Filmihullussa

pHinnWeb:

FinnScene: The Early Years

[music videos] Kompleksi: 'Sara Pain' (2007)

Kompleksi: 'Sara Pain' (March 2007)

The Making of 'Sara Pain' Video:

Tina Ulevik, an experimental film-maker from Australia, joined as Kompleksi's MySpace friend in summer 2006. During our brief correspondence that followed and having had seen and liked the DVD of Tina's short film Xenophobic Site that was exchanged to a copy of Kompleksi's album (which was still unreleased at that point), an idea was had that maybe Tina would also be interested in creating a video clip for Kompleksi. Tina was into the idea, this being her very first music video, too, and the filming got underway in August and September 2006, both in Australia and Kompleksi's hometown Tampere; the final video combining footage from both countries, thousands of miles and oceans away from each other, on virtually opposite corners of the globe.

Different scenes around the town of Tampere were filmed by me on two early Sunday mornings in September, capturing imagery from the quiet Tampere downtown and the town's famous landmarks, such as the Orthodox Church, Wäinö Aaltonen's statues on the Hämeensilta Bridge, some ugly "Brutalist"-style apartment buildings, the desolate Särkänniemi Amusement Park, looking somewhat spooky after the tourist season was over, and naturally the Näsinneula Observation Tower, the very symbol of Tampere. I also filmed myself lip-synching at home, with a camera standing on tripod and very carefully stationed to get the right angle and position; then did some shots of Mike Not playing synths at his home studio; and the silhoutte shot of me singing at the end of video was shot by Mike through an ordinary bedsheet lighted from behind.

This sort of "no-budget" film-making, using ordinary household objects as props, turned every now and then to be quite demanding and time-consuming, but also seemed to work out well in the final cut. In her turn, Tina -- who played the song's Sara Pain character -- filmed herself at her own home, creating in process some very effective shots of Sara, "a skinny girl with a shirt and tie", walking through the dark corridors and brooding in solitude. Add to this some bleak-looking outdoors shots on the outskirts of Sydney, plus Tina's own archive footage from her trips around the world: a highway tunnel in Norway, the gloomy corridors of the Castle Suomenlinna in an island in front of Helsinki, and of a hostel in Dresden, Germany, which added to the mental moods and claustrophobia felt by Sara Pain, the ill-fated main character of the song.

Three DVDs of raw footage of material filmed in Tampere were then sent via snail mail to Australia, and after Tina had received the package, the lengthy editing process could start in earnest, lasting all through autumn 2006 and winter 2007, as Tina also had her day job to take care of, alongside the creative process of putting Kompleksi's first music video together. Ideas were constantly exchanged and thrown around in e-mails, and we received countless rough cuts sent through YouSendIt.com, which were then commented and honed again, on and on... Eventually, in early March 2007, the final cut was in our hands.

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The video can also be seen at MySpace and pHinnWeb.

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Feedback on the video:

"It's a great example of the way the Web can bring together people internationally to collaborate on music and art." - It's A Trap, USA

"Scary stuff!" - Huge Bass Records (Finland) @ YouTube

"Congratulations on your latest music Sara Pain and the music video made in collaboration with my cousin Tina! The video images are mesmerising and your music is so original and haunting and melancholy! Well done on a highly original and unforgettable work of art!" - Peter Fagerlind, UK

"Wow I like Sara Pain more & more... The vid fits perfectly and makes it real deeper... The track becomes better & better with the vid... Great work. Love it :-) Congratz Tampere Boyz." - aratkiLo, France

"Awesome!" - Salamandos707 (Holland) @ YouTube

"The Sarah Pain video is great! Thank you for the music and Greetings from The Hague" - Danny Wolfers a.k.a. Legowelt, Holland

"... check out their strangely melancholic travelogue-themed vid for 'Sara Pain' [...] The footage and edits remind me of the sort of homemade promos that Cabaret Voltaire used to put out on Doublevision many moons back. Trust me, the track's a real grower." - Kid Shirt music blog, UK

"yo yo, tampere represent! tosi härö video, oudon hienoa industrial vibaa." - p2, Finland

Electronic Music Films

I was recently asked if I knew any documentary films that would shed more light on the history and beginnings of electronic music. I did some searches, and subsequently found out that most of those documentaries in existence (well, at least those listed at Internet) concentrate mostly on the latest developments in electronic music, or to be more precise, electronic dance music and rave culture.

The early history of electronic music (before 1960s, an area mostly populated by academic/avantgarde composers and inventors of electronic instruments) seems to be only sporadically (or as footnotes) featured in most existing documentaries, bar perhaps Steven M. Martin's 1994 feature on León Theremin or even Mika Taanila's 2002 Future Is Not What It Used To Be on Finnish electronic instrument inventor Erkki Kurenniemi; not forgetting the films dedicated to Robert Moog or Bruce Haack. If you know of any other related documentary films, please let me know.

Music Arcade: BBC Radiophonic Workshop (UK, early 80s?)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Discovering Electronic Music (USA, 1983)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

The Electric Music Machine, Five Days at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (UK, 1988)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Bring The Beat Back (Finland, 1992)
Credits
Director Hannu Puttonen info

Rave New World (UK, 1994)

Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (USA, 1994)
related clips @ YouTube

Universal Techno (France, 1996)

Modulations (USA, 1998)
IMDB entry
trailer @ YouTube

Hang The DJ (Canada, 1998)

Sonic Visions: From Stockhausen to Squarepusher (USA/Netherlands, 1998)

Better Living Through Circuitry (Australia, 1999)
clips @ YouTube

Synergy: Visions of Vibe (UK/Japan/Germany, 1999)
clips @ YouTube

Bass Frequency (USA, 2001)

The Future Is Not What It Used To Be (Finland, 2002)
info @ pHinnWeb

Electro Dziska: Miami 2001-2002
a clip @ YouTube

Radiophonic Workshop -Alchemists of Sound (UK, 2003)
clips @ YouTube
BBC Radiophonic Workshop @ Wikipedia

Bruce Haack: King of Techno (USA, 2004)
clips @ YouTube

Moog (USA, 2004)
IMDB entry
info @ Wikipedia
(see also: Bob Moog clips @ YouTube)

Liquid Vinyl (USA, 2006)
trailer @ YouTube
a clip @ YouTube

Darkbeat, An Electro World Voyage (USA, 2006)
trailer @ YouTube

Feiern (Germany, 2006)
trailer @ YouTube

High Tech Soul: The Creation of Techno Music (USA, 2006)
trailer @ YouTube
another trailer @ YouTube

Put the Needle on the Record (USA, 2006)
a clip @ YouTube

Rough Electro (Romania, 2006)
trailer @ YouTube
another clip @ YouTube

The Sound of Dubstep (UK, 2006)
a clip @ YouTube

What The Future Sounded Like (Australia, 2007)

More related titles @ IMDB:
http://imdb.com/keyword/electronic-music/

All electronic music documentary search results @ YouTube

History of electronic music links @ pHinnWeb

And a silly old text of mine

Tina Ulevik: Xenophobic Site (2006)

Tina Ulevik: Xenophobic Site (2006)

Tina Ulevik is an Australian director specializing in experimental short films. I love this haunting, spooky work which is her latest. "Filmed on location at the sites of two concentration camps in Germany, Xenophobic Site portrays a visually and sonically experimental re-imagining of this dark part of history. Produced on a low or 'no budget', this film was created on digital video and super-8 film and edited on a home PC. Copyright Tina Ulevik Spul Films Australia 2006." You can see Tina's previous experimental short films at Spul Films Australia MySpace site.

And coming soon: stay tuned to this blog for more works of Tina; featuring some Finns you might already have heard something about...

Chris Marker: La Jetée (1962)

La Jetée 1/3


La Jetée 2/3


La Jetée 3/3

(Note: all subtitles here in Spanish)

The trailer

An excerpt dubbed in English

La Jetée ("The Jetty", 1962) is a 28-minute post-nuclear war/time travel sci-fi film by Chris Marker (b. 1921), consisting entirely of black & white still images. La Jetée was remade in 1995 by ex-Monty Python member Terry Gilliam as Twelve Monkeys.

Addition, 27 January 2007:

The whole film @ Google Video (thanks for the tip: Jan/Jahsonic)

Maya Deren: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)

Maya Deren: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)

Maya Deren (1917-1961) was an American experimental film-maker, also a choreographer, dancer, poet, writer and photographer. Above you can see her first and best-known film Meshes of the Afternoon, a haunting, surreal study in stark black and white.

More Maya Deren search results @ YouTube

UbuWeb Film Section in Cease and Desist Limbo

I informed you about UbuWeb relaunch. Now it seems they've gotten into trouble before they even had a chance to get it properly running. Why do I get the cynical feeling that it's not actually the artists' money that is at stake here, but of different sorts of lawyers, agents, corporate businessmen and other "middle men" who take their own cut from the artists' original work? Yeah, it's again the same dispute as with the file-sharing of music: who actually rip off the artists most, some kids who illicitly distribute their music in the Net, or their own big-ass record companies...? (Only echoing here some sentiments already made by such people as Courtney Love, I don't claim to have any proper answers of my own.)

(And as a coincidence, a funny(?) story I just found from Brainwashed.Com.)

From http://www.ubu.com/film/:

September 15, 2005

Dear Friends,

We relaunched UbuWeb on September 14th with over 150 avant-garde films in digital formats for your viewing pleasure. Within hours, we received several hostile letters from representatives of filmmakers -- all lawyers and business people, not the artists themselves -- issuing cease and desist letters and threatening lawsuits. Every time, it seemed, we opened our inbox yet another appeared. We had little choice but to obey and as a result, we have iced the section -- for the time being.

We never intended UbuWeb to take any money out of the pockets of these artists; rather we feel that simple exposure to even the most degraded, corrupted, miniscule, and compressed .avi would increase interest and exposure to avant-garde film, a field whose audience has long been in decline. Our idea was to make accessible the generally inaccessible, with the hopes that should you desire to see the film in all its glory, you will make your way to the nearest theatre showing them (although there are very few) or find better copies on DVD. UbuWeb was never meant to be a substitute for the experience of viewing a film; it was meant as a teaser, an appetizer, until you can get to the real thing.

However, the real thing isn't very easy to get to. Most of us don't live anywhere near theatres that show this kind of fare and very few of us can afford the several hundred dollar rental fees, not to mention the cumbersome equipment, to show these films. Thankfully, there is the internet which allows you to get a whiff of these films regardless of your geographical location.

Obviously, certain members of the film community did not share our sentiments. They would rather keep these jewels to themselves or a select few huddled in dark rooms.

One complaint read "Kenneth Anger is penniless and living in a shack, yet you are making his films available for free and taking money away from him?" To which we reply: if the current system of avant-garde film distribution was working so well, why would the great artist Kenneth Anger be living in a shack and not a mansion? Is this really a system to hold on to? Obviously, something isn't working. If they really cared about Kenneth Anger, they would hope to expose his arguably-forgotten work to a non-geographically-specific digital savvy audience via the radical distributive possibilities of internet. Guaranteed, Mr. Anger would see his royalties soar as a result.

UbuWeb doesn't charge money, nor does it make money, nor does it take money. The idea that our efforts in any way would enrich ourselves is preposterous. UbuWeb has been performing its version of community service for ten years without making a penny.

We'll be back with our film section. Just give us some time to sort through permissions, paperwork, and other sordid details. To be continued...

All the best,
UbuWeb

Ubuweb Relaunch

Here is a treat for all you culture vultures:

[forwarded message]

__ U B U W E B __
ubu.com

----------------------------
RELAUNCH :: Fall 2005
----------------------------

A Bump in the Road: After a long summer of rebuilding, UbuWeb is back. Thanks to all our viewers who kindly encouraged our return. We'd also like to thank our new partners for making it all possible: WFMU, PennSound, The Center for Literary Computing, and Artmob. With our expanded bandwidth and storage space, you'll find a wealth of new media files, particularly in our Sound and Film sections (see below).


--- RECENT FEATURES ---

UbuWeb Films: UbuWeb now hosts over 150 avant-garde films in various formats for download by: Kenneth Anger, Samuel Beckett, Jordan Belson, Joseph Beuys, Robert Breer, James Broughton, Luis Buñuel, John Cage, Raashan Roland Kirk, Henri Chopin, Rene Clair, Guy Debord, Marcel Duchamp Viking Eggeling, Ed Emshwiller, Oskar Fischinger, FluxFilms, Robert Frank, Ernie Gehr, Henry Hills, Isidore Isou, Joris Ivens, Ken Jacobs, Dimitri Kirsanov, Peter Kubelka, George Landow, Fernand Leger, Len Lye, Gregory Markopoulos, Jonas Mekas, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Robert Morris & Stan VanDerBeek, Otto Muehl, Yoko Ono and John Lennon, Nam June Paik, Artavazd Pelechian, Robert Rauschenberg, Man Ray, Hans Richter, Walter Ruttmann, Carolee Schneeman, Richard Serra, Situationist International, Harry Smith, Jack Smith, Kiki Smith, Robert Smithson, Michael Snow, Ladislaw Starewicz, Ralph Steiner, Franciszka and Stefan Themerson, Edgard Varêse and Le Corbusier, Dziga Vertov, Rene Vienet, and James and John Whitney, amongst others. (SEE OUR FULL LIST BELOW)

Music With Roots in the Aether: A seminal series of interviews and performances concieved and realized by Robert Ashley in 1976, consisting of 14 hours worth of video and audio. Subjects and performers include: David Behrman, Philip Glass, Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma, Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley, and Robert Ashley. Robert Ashley says: Music with Roots in the Aether is a series of interviews with seven composers who seemed to me when I conceived the piece-and who still seem to me twenty-five years later-to be among the most important, influential and active members of the so-called avant-garde movement in American music, a movement that had its origins in the work of and in the stories about composers who started hearing things in a new way at least fifty years ago."

The Charlotte Moorman Archive: UbuWeb is proud to host the audio archive of Charlotte Moorman (1933-1991), containing hours worth of unreleased works and collaborations by Nam June Paik, John, Cage, Earle Brown, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Terry Jennings, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Jackson Mac Low, David Behrman, La Monte Young, Sylvano Bussoti, George Brecht, Dick Higgins, Giuseppe Chiari and others. The
selection is curated by Stephen Vitiello, with special thanks to Barbara Moore / Bound & Unbound.


People Like Us: The Complete Recordings 1992-2005 UbuWeb now hosts the complete works of the UK-based People Like Us. The brainchild of Vicki Bennett, these hundreds of MP3s feature solo works and collaborations with Matmos, Negativland, Wobbly, The Evolution Control Committee, Ergo Phizmiz, Irene Moon, The Jet Black Hair
People, Xper. Xr., Messer Chups, Kenny G and Tipsy.

Christof Migone: Montréal-based Migone is a multidisciplinary artist and writer. His work and research delves into language, voice, bodies, psychopathology, performance, video, intimacy, complicity and endurance. UbuWeb is pleased to present an audio retrospective of Migone's work, both solo and with collaborators. Also featured here
are numerous writings by Migone, including a book-length work, La première phrase et le dernier mot, which is comprised of the first sentence and the last word of every book in Migone's library.

Fall 2005 :: NEW ADDITIONS

Samuel Beckett Film, 1965, 170.0 mb (MPEG)

Glenn Gould Radio Broadcasts and Radio Plays, 1967-1981, MP3

Furious Pig I Don't Like Your Face (1980) MP3

Michael Snow Sinoms (1989) MP3

Derek Beaulieu an afterword after words: notes towards a concrete poetic
(PDF)

Group Ongaku Music of Group Ongaku, 1960-1961 (Takehisa Kosugi, Syuko
Mizuno, Mieko Shiomi, Yasunao Tone), MP3

John Cage & Raashan Roland Kirk Sound, 1966, 309 mb (AVI)

Öyvind Fahlström Manipulate The World! (1963) and The Holy Torsten
Nilsson (1966) MP3

Lasry-Baschet Chronophagie "The Time Eaters" (mid-1960s) MP3

Mairead Byrne Some Differences Between Poetry & Stand-up Comedy, 2004
(PDF)

Carlfriedrich Claus Lautaggregat (1995) MP3

DJ Food Raiding the 20th Century - Words & Music Expansion (starring
Paul Morley and a cast of thousands) (MP3)

John Lennon & Yoko Ono Erection, 1971, 180.7 mb (MPEG)

U B U W E B :: Films

Kenneth Anger
Invocation Of My Demon Brother, 1969, 133.8 mb (AVI)
Invocation Of My Demon Brother, 1969, 110.0 mb (MPEG)
Kustom Kar Kommandos, 1965, 17.1 mb (AVI)
Lucifer Rising, 1970-1981, 321.6 mb (AVI)
Puce Moment, 1949, 42.7 mb (AVI)
Scorpio Rising, 1949, 194.8 mb (AVI)
Eaux D'artifice, 1953, 109.4 mb (AVI)

Samuel Beckett
Film, 1965, 170.0 mb (MPEG)

Jordan Belson
Allures, 1961, 46.0 mb (AVI)

Joseph Beuys
Sonne Statt Reagan, 1982, 4.0 mb (MOV)

Robert Breer
A Man And His Dog Out For Air, 1957, 19.2 mb (MPEG)

James Broughton
This Is It, 1971, 174.5 mb (AVI)
The Gardener of Eden, 1981, 149.1 mb (AVI)

Luis Buñuel
Un Chien andalou, 1929, 322.9 mb (AVI)
Un Chien andalou, 1929, 156.1 mb (MPEG)

John Cage
4'33", BBC, 2004, 38.5 mb (MOV)

John Cage and Raashan Roland Kirk
Sound, 1966, 309.0 mb (AVI)

Henri Chopin
Henri Chopin at Home, undated, 13.9 mb (MOV)
Henri Chopin Performance, undated, 19.3 mb (MOV)

Rene Clair
Entre'act 1924, 249.8 mb (AVI)

Guy Debord
In Girum Imus Nocte Et Consumimur Igni, Part 1, 1978, 345.3 mb (MPEG)
In Girum Imus Nocte Et Consumimur Igni, Part 2, 1978, 580.6 mb (MPEG)
Refutation of All Judgments, 1975, 217.1 mb (MPEG)
Society of the Spectacle, Part 1, 1973, 456.3 mb (MPEG)
Society of the Spectacle, Part 2, 1973, 422.9 mb (MPEG)

Marcel Duchamp
Anemic Cinema 1926, 26.1 mb (AVI)

Viking Eggeling
Symphony Diagonale 1924, 16.5 mb (AVI)

Ed Emshwiller
Sunstone, 1979, 17.8 mb (AVI)
Thanatopsis, 1962, 37.3 mb (AVI)

Oskar Fischinger
Allegretto 1943, 20.3 mb (MPEG)
Komposition In Blau 1935, 36.8 mb (MPEG)
Motion Painting Screener 1947, 87.6 mb (MPEG)
Muntz TV Commercial 1952, 14.0 mb (MPEG)
Studie Nr. 6 1930, 3.3 mb (MPEG)
Studie Nr. 7 1931, 3.5 mb (MPEG)
Studie Nr. 9 1931, 43.5 mb (MPEG)

FluxFilms
[Please note that all FluxFilms are in the MPEG format.]
01: Nam June Paik - Zen For Film (1962-64), 141 mb
02 Dick Higgins - Invocation of Canyons and Boulders (1966), 5 mb
03 George Maciunas - End After 9 (1966), 12 mb
04 Chieko Shiomi - Disappearing Music for Face (1966), 115 mb
05 John Cavanaugh - Blink (1966), 25 mb
06 James Riddle - 9 Minutes (1966), 113 mb
07 George Maciunas - 10 Feet (1966), 6 mb
08 George Maciunas - 1000 Frames, (1966) 6 mb
09 Yoko Ono - Eye Blink (1966), 7 mb
10 George Brecht - Entrance to Exit (1965), 70 mb
11 Robert Watts - Trace #22 (1965), 33 mb
12 Robert Watts - Trace #23 (1965), 32 mb
13 Robert Watts - Trace #24 (1965), 16 mb
14 Yoko Ono - One (1966), 51 mb
15 Yoko Ono - Eye Blink (1966), 10 mb
16 Yoko Ono - Four (1967), 58 mb
17 Pieter Vanderbeck - Five O'Clock in the Morning (1966), 55 mb
18 Joe Jones - Smoking (1966), 54 mb
19 Erik Andersen - Opus 74 Version 2 (1966), 17 mb
20 George Maciunas - Artype (1966), 29 mb
22 Jeff Perkins - Shout (1966), 23 mb
23 Wolf Vostell - Sun in Your Head (Television Decollage) (1963), 73 mb
24 Albert Fine - Readymade (1966), 34 mb
25 George Landow - The Evil Faerie (1966), 4 mb
26 Paul Sharits - Sears Catalogue 1-3 (1965), 8 mb
27 Paul Sharits - Dots 1 & 2 (1965), 7 mb
28 Paul Sharits - Wirst Trick (1965), 6 mb
29 (unnumbered) Paul Sharits - Unrolling Event (1965), 2 mb
29 Paul Sharits - Word Movie (1966), 39 mb
30 Albert Fine - Dance (1963), 30 mb
31 John Cale - Police Car (1966), 15 mb
36 Peter Kennedy & Mike Parr - Flux Film 36 (1970), 27 mb
37 Peter Kennedy & Mike Parr - Flux Film 37 (1970), 17 mb
38 Ben - Je ne vois rien, je n'entends rien, je ne dis rien (1966), 77 mb
39 Ben - Le Traversee du port de Nice a la nage (1963), 34 mb
40 Ben - Faire un effort (1969), 25 mb
41 Ben - Regardez-moi, cela suffit (1962), 70 mb

Robert Frank
Pull My Daisy 1959, 188.8 mb (AVI)

Ernie Gehr
Serene Velocity 1970, 149.8 mb (AVI)

Henry Hills
Gotham, 1990, 6.9 mb (MOV)
Kino Da, 1981, 5.6 mb (MOV)
Money, 1985, 47.2 mb (MOV)
Radio Adios, 1982, 34.3 mb (MOV)

Isidore Isou
Venom and Eternity 1951, 763.2 mb (MPG)

Joris Ivens
Regen 1929, 160.0 mb (AVI)

Ken Jacobs
Blonde Cobra 1963, 438.9 mb (AVI)

Raashan Roland Kirk and John Cage
Sound, 1966, 309.0 mb (AVI)

Dimitri Kirsanov
Menilmontant 1924-25, 350.0 mb (AVI)

Peter Kubelka
Unsere Afrikareise 1966, 50.4 mb (WMV)

George Landow
Remedial Readingprehension 1970, 56.4 mb (AVI)

Fernand Leger
Ballet Mécanique 1924, 52.0 mb (AVI)

Len Lye
A Color Box 1935, 30.5 mb (AVI)
Free Radicals 1958, 27.4 mb (AVI)
Particles in Space 1966, 21.6 mb (AVI)
Rainbow Dance 1936, 39.7 mb (AVI)
Trade Tattoo 1937, 54.3 mb (AVI)

Gregory Markopoulos
Sorrows 1969, 150.0 mb (AVI)

Jonas Mekas
Hare Krishna 1966, 99.9 mb (AVI)

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
Lightplay: Black-White-Grey (excerpt) 1932, 99.9 mb (MOV)

Robert Morris & Stan VanDerBeek
Site (excerpt) 1964, 19.2 mb (MOV)

Otto Muehl
Manopsychotisches Ballett, Part 1 1970, 141.1 mb (AVI)
Manopsychotisches Ballett, Part 2 1970, 72.1 mb (AVI)

Yoko Ono and John Lennon
Erection 1971, 180.7 mb (MPEG)

Nam June Paik
Electronic Moon No. 2 1969, 38.1 mb (MP4)
Videotape Study No. 3 1969, 31.1 mb (AVI)

Artavazd Pelechian
Les habitants 1970, 85.0 mb (AVI)

Robert Rauschenberg
Linoleum (excerpt) 1967, 27.8 mb (MOV)

Man Ray
Emak Bakia 1926, 313.8 mb (MPEG)
Le Retour à la raison 1923, 46.2 mb (MPEG)
L'Étoile de mer 1928, 277.4 mb (MPEG)

Hans Richter
Everything Turns Everything Resolves 1929, 31.5 mb (AVI)
Filmstudie 1925, 32.3 mb (AVI)
Rhythm 21 1921, 6.5 mb (MOV)
Ghosts Before Breakfast 1928, 60.5 mb (MPEG)
Rennsymphonie 1929, 138.6 mb (MPEG)
Rhythmus 23 1923, 58.3 mb (MPEG)
Zweigroschenzauber 1929, 47.4 mb (MPEG)

David Rimmer
Variations On A Cellophane Wrapper 1971, 149.2 mb (AVI)

Walter Ruttmann
Lichtspiel Opus I-4 1971, 34.3 mb (AVI)

Carolee Schneeman
Fuses 1965, 217.9 mb (MPEG)

Richard Serra and Carlotta Schoolman
Television Delivers People 1973, 98.3 mb (AVI)

Situationist International
On The Passage of a Few Persons Through a Rather Brief Period of Time
undated, 432.9 mb (AVI)

Harry Smith
Early-Abstractions 1941-57, 496.3 mb (MPEG)
Heaven-and-Earth-Magic 1950-1960, 667.4 mb (MPEG)
Late-Superimpositions 1963, 285.8 mb (MPEG)

Jack Smith
Flaming Creatures 1963, 390.8 mb (AVI)
Normal Love 1963, 704.7 mb (AVI)
Scotch Tape 1963, 70.1 mb (AVI)

Kiki Smith
Jewel (excerpt) 1997, 31.3 mb (AVI)

Robert Smithson
Spiral Jetty (excerpts) 1970, 23.9 mb (AVI)

Michael Snow
Prelude 2000, 25.8 mb (AVI)
Presents 1981, 772.8 mb (AVI)

Ladislaw Starewicz
The Cameraman's Revenge 1912, 143.2 mb (AVI)
The Insect's Christmas 1913, 51.6 mb (AVI)

Ralph Steiner
H20 1929, 99.1 mb (MPEG)

Franciszka and Stefan Themerson
The Eye and the Ear 1944, 97.1 mb (AVI)

Edgard Varêse and Le Corbusier
Poême électronique 1958, 84.2 mb (MPEG)

Dziga Vertov
Kino Eye 1924, 699.9 mb (AVI)
Three Songs About Lenin 1934, 700.0 mb (AVI)

Rene Vienet
The Girls of Kamare, Part 1 1974, 440.5 mb (MPEG)
The Girls of Kamare, Part 2 1974, 431.9 mb (MPEG)

James Whitney
Lapis 1966, 131.3 mb (AVI)

James and John Whitney
Five Film Exercises 1943-44, 83.4 mb (AVI)

Zubi Zuva
X Suite Europe Live undated, 40.3 mb (AVI)

----------------------------
RELAUNCH :: Fall 2005
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UBUWEB IS ENTIRELY FREE

__ U B U W E B __
ubu.com

Kenneth Anger

I just received the following e-mail from a person calling himself Rex Coronatus:

"It's over with for Kenneth Anger. Tax problems... His age... his dreams are of Byzantine proportions, but in reality, he is a pitiful, spiteful old man, who would have given anything to have traded places with Victor Neuburg."

Perhaps, perhaps... but let's remember Kenneth Anger as what he once was: an innovative film-maker creating some of the most original works of avantgarde cinema. Too bad if he couldn't live up to it in his later years.

I met Mr. Anger personally in 1998 when he attended Tampere Short Film Festival, and my copy of Midnight Movies now wears his autograph. Instead of a demon in human disguise, in his pullover and wide American smile, he made me more an impression of a Hollywood senior citizen, albeit a slightly lecherous one.