Critic's Notebook

Box set "Treasures" unearths buried avant-garde

The latest wonderfully eclectic and stunningly vital DVD release from the San Francisco-based nonprofit National Film Preservation Foundation, Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986, is not, strictly speaking, intended to be a greatest-hits collection or even a comprehensive introduction to experimental film for the novice. (Although one could imagine the more irreverent artists represented in the two-disc set cheerfully agreeing to inclusion in a black-and-yellow-sheathed "Dummies Guide to Experimental Film.") This splendid package of 26 films, drawn from the avant-garde capitals of New York and San Francisco, is primarily designed to support and tout the NFPF’s mission of helping preserve endangered works of our collective film history. Of course, curator Jeff Lambert didn’t pick films at random, but (with the assistance of experts in the field such as former S.F. Cinematheque executive director Steve Anker) compiled a cross-section of approaches, styles and tones. In reality, what’s immortalized in Treasures IV—what repeatedly smacks the viewer in the face—is the artists’ exuberance for life paired with the excitement of exposing celluloid to light.

topics: avant-garde, bay area, directors, distributors, documentary, dvd, exhibitions, experimental film, sf cinematheque, yerba buena center for the arts

Experience

Back to nature with Ben Rivers

It’s not so easy to get much attention for experimental filmmaking these days, but during just a decade of work to date England’s Ben Rivers has stirred interest on both sides of the Atlantic. He makes his Bay Area debut this week presenting in person two programs—“The Poetic Horror of Ben Rivers” at Artists’ Television Access Saturday the 28th, then “This Is My Land: Ben Rivers’ Portraits and Landscapes” via SF Cinematheque at the YBCA Screening Room Sunday night—and you can prepare yourself for a slightly dislocative experience at once tranquil and sinister.

topics: artists' television access, avant-garde, bay area, sf cinematheque

Found

Re-viewing "The Savage Eye"

Outside the exploitation and purely experimental realms, way before the term “indie” existed, independent American feature cinema subsisted on fragile margins, without any established realm to be appreciated in commercially or even artistically. They might be acclaimed at the few film festivals around, but most went no further. While some were eventually rescued from obscurity by TV showings or video release, certain remarkable movies went unseen for decades, notably such recent rediscoveries as Kent MacKenzie’s 1961 The Exiles and Charles Burnett’s 1977 Killer of Sheep.

Like many U.S. indies before the early ’80s “indie” vogue commenced, those two opposed Hollywood formula by blurring the line between drama and documentary. You couldn’t find a more striking example of that approach than The Savage Eye, which SF Cinematheque shows in a restored print Wednesday at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Screening Room.

topics: authors, curators, directors, film history, filmmakers, genre films, hollywood, sf cinematheque

Platform

SF Cinematheque: New year, new direction

San Francisco Cinematheque, the storied organization that began in Bruce Baillie’s yard nearly five decades ago, has weathered many storms—transformations in technology, funding, exhibition and distribution—that have left avant-garde film culture twisting in the wind at times. Through it all, Cinematheque could be relied upon to continue presenting the edgiest work in town to the edgiest audiences. After roughly two decades of guidance from Steve Anker, now a dean at CalArts, Cinematheque shifted leadership a number of times in the past decade, from Steven Jenkins, currently the San Francisco Film Society’s director of finance and administration as well as an author and cultural critic, to Caroline Savage. (An earlier version of this article neglected to mention the deep influence programmer Irina Leimbacher had on the institution.) It enters a new era this year under Jonathan Marlow, a filmmaker and former Board member who draws on his film industry experience in both the non-profit and for-profit realms, and is closely collaborating with Steve Polta (a ten-year veteran of Cinematheque) and new program director Vanessa O’Neill. SF360.org had the opportunity to join in on a conversation about Cinematheque’s past and present when Steven Jenkins lunched with Marlow at Caffe Centro last fall. (The conversation was subsequently amended to add in a few key details.) The spring Cinematheque season begins this coming Wednesday, February 4, with Ken Jacobs’ Razzle Dazzle.

topics: authors, avant-garde, bay area, directors, experimental film, sf cinematheque