Chronology and Filmnotes of 
      year 2003 ciné16 shows:

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Click on year for:      2005 Shows | 2004 Shows  |  2002 Shows | 2001 Shows |  2000 Shows | 1999 Shows | 1998 Shows | 1996-1997 Shows | St. Louis Shows

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The purpose of this page is to give you an idea of the typical programming of a ciné16 show, and to provide you with details on films and filmmakers we've showcased. The following programs are chronicled from most recent 2003 show backward to the first of the calendar year.

2003 Highlights: This year, we hosted 60 shows in San Jose, comprising 243 films, all shown without charge.  On April 28, Jim Finn and Dean Rank presented their outstanding roadshow "Men & Animals Tour" at ciné16.  In May through September, Robert Emmett curated and hosted a six-show program of ciné16 films at History San Jose.  On September 25, Peter Carter presented 'Evanescent Fragments Unexpectedly Encountered: A Centennial Celebration of Joseph Cornell'.  

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Thursday, December 18, 2003... The Asian Experience in America: Culture, Conflict, and Assimilation, Part II

For introductory notes, see December 11, part I of this program...

Tonight:

‘Siu Mei Wong --- Who Shall I Be?’ (1970) 15m, dir. Michael Ahnemann. A teen Chinese girl in LA has a desire to become a dancer, which clashes with the professional career path her traditional father has chosen for her. Saving face and respect for one’s parents are two sub-themes to this intriguing and important film.

‘Sewing Woman’ (1982) 15m, dir. Arthur Dong. This film investigates an immigrant woman's work and family, drawing from oral histories to portray a Chicago - born woman and her journey from a traditional Chinese arranged marriage at the age of 13 to working in a sewing factory in San Francisco's Chinatown. It includes old photographs and film clips from China.

‘Nisei: the Pride and the Shame’ (1965) 24m, prod. Isaac Kleinerman. CBS News produced this film for their ‘20^th Century’ series. Nisei are people of Japanese ancestry, born in a foreign land (in this case, the U.S.). Here, Japanese - American citizens are herded into detention camps during a wave of war hysteria.

‘Wataridori: Birds of Passage’ (1975) 37m, dir. Robert A Nakamura. Issei are Japanese-born residents of foreign lands (in this case, the U.S.). Using still photographs, and interviews, Nakamura tracks the history three Issei who describe a collective history through their personal memories. Harukichi Nakamura is a painter, who mines his past to provide focal points for his land and seascapes. Koshiro Miura, a fisherman and wanderer, came to the United States in search of personal fortune and adventure. Haruno Sumi discusses the creation of the prosperous Imperial Valley farmlands despite the Alien Land Law. Included are reminiscences of the internment camp at Manzanar.

Thursday, December 11, 2003... The Asian Experience in America: Culture, Conflict, and Assimilation, Part I

The melting pot that is America is not, socially or economically, always an easy one to enter. Despite the fact that we’re not as economically, ethnically, socially, or sexually stratified as many Asian countries, the challenge of leaving one’s home country and adopting new mores can be daunting. The challenge crosses generations, as US-born children of immigrants often differ with their parents on the concept of "joining" vs. "acquiescing". In addition, while the prejudices of the old country are left behind, they often reveal themselves anew, this time with different names, faces, and languages. In the 1970s, educational film companies began recognizing the presence of Asian families on American soil, and Asian ethnicities in schools. The thematic material in the films they produced on this broad subject often took one of three forms:

1. Cultural and historical films, based on the lives of immigrants, describing the challenges of becoming integrated with a new society
2. Inter-cultural conflict films, in which racial and social misunderstandings cause direct conflict between ethnicities and cultures
3. Intra-cultural conflict films, which investigate the familial upheaval in the dynamic between parents from the old country, and their children in the new

In the next two weeks, we’ll showcase a number of these important films, which continue to have relevancy today. The ethnicities reflected in these films are of Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese origin, but pertain to elements of all Asian cultures.

Tonight:

‘Reflections’ (1968) 20m, dir. Noel Black. In a poignant film, two sets of parents work together separately to destroy a friendship between a Chinese boy and Hispanic girl.

‘Side By Side: Prejudice’ (1980) 15m, uncredited director. Here, a Chinese girl discovers her white girlfriend is not going to invite her to the prom because her boyfriend insists on going to an all-white country club. The end is purposely ambiguous.

‘Bamboo, Lions and Dragons’ (1979) 27m, dir. Richard Patton. This is the story of two families in Vancouver, the Changs and Lims; one is Chinese, the other Canadian. In this outstanding documentary, we learn a bit about Vancouver Chinatown’s history, and visit with several family members, including Doug Jung, the first Chinese-Canadian parliamentary member.

‘Overture: Linh from Vietnam’ (1980), 26m, dir. Seth Pinsker. ‘Linh’ is a fine ethnodrama on Hispanic-Asian relations, and focuses on two mothers, Latino and Vietnamese, both working in sewing factory. Though their stations in life are similar, the Hispanic woman views her Vietnamese counterpart as an enemy, stealing from her already too-small piece of the economic pie. The enmity filters down to unwritten laws regarding the ethnic groups from which their adolescent children are allowed to date. As an educational film, the ending cannot point fingers at ethnicities or cultures, but Pinsker effectively avoids a syrupy finish.

Thursday, December 4, 2003... 1970s California Filmculture: A Tribute to CRM Films

Lately, I've been reviewing a selection of films made by CRM, which made a number of outstanding psychological and science films in the 1970s. Screening a succession of films from the same company affords the researcher the luxury of becoming immersed in the culture of the company, and has the effect of turning the reviewer into a predictor of sorts. "CRM would do this, at this juncture of the film I'm watching", I'll muse, or "If I know my EB, we'll wrap the sequence in 30 seconds, and return to Kip Fadiman's on-screen narration". Somehow, I didn't get to CRM until this year. Over the years, I've catalogued perhaps a dozen CRM titles, but tangents are the stuff of your ciné16 host, and last month, CRM caught my eye (and my fancy). Their films merit an evening or so unto themselves, and a brief history of the company will help, I think, to put them in better perspective.

CRM was a southern California film company specializing in films on sociological, psychological, and scientific subjects, and eventually evolved its marketing model to include mediated corporate training as well. CRM, which stands for Communications/Research/Machines, was founded in 1970 as the film division of Charles Tillinghast III's Psychology Today group, which encompassed the popular magazine, and a textbook division. In 1970, Preston Holdner (b. September 25, 1940, St. Louis, MO), who had been at McGraw-Hill films since graduating from college in 1963, was brought in to become general manager, and Paul Lazarus was hired as the executive producer. Located in the sunny, surf-washed town of Del Mar, CRM was the quintessential laisser-faire California company of the early 1970s. "Friday afternoon, the whole staff would sit around and drink wine and smoke pot", recalls Holdner. "Because of this laid-back atmosphere, it was not uncommon for people to work 60 hours a week instead of 40". The staff photographs on pages 28 and 29 of CRM's 1975 catalogue chronicle an era in style, dress, and demeanor, the women wearing sundresses and bell-bottomed pants, with many of the men sporting long hair, reflective of halcyon times before erstwhile sex partners sued each other for peccadilloes, and smoking a joint would run the individual afoul of draconian racketeering laws. A particularly memorable photograph documents director Steve Katten and producer Larry Logan kneeling behind an Arriflex, shooting in a field of poppies.

In 1973, Tillinghast sold the film division to Boise-Cascade, which, after several public relations snafus, was looking to appear to be a kinder, gentler corporation. Buying an educational film company seemed, at the time, to be the right step. The move resulted in a cultural disconnect for both parties. "The Boise folks would arrive on a corporate jet, and run into staff members leaving in bathing suits and surfboards", recalled Holdner, "they wore three piece suits, and we wore bathing suits." The uncomfortable relationship lasted a little over one year, at which time CRM was acquired by Ziff-Davis. Holdner remembers Bill Ziff as a "tough guy", who was probably more interested in the Magazine than the film company, which was sold to McGraw-Hill in 1975. Holdner left that year to form the Media Guild film company. During his tenure, CRM produced approximately 50 films.

Brian Sellstrum ran the CRM division of McGraw Hill after Holdner's departure, and after the mid-1980s, eventually became the editor of several magazines in the surfing/skateboarding genre. CRM's notable filmmakers included Steve Katten (director of the exceptional 'Biology Today' film series) and Richard Miner. CRM today exists as CRM Learning, producer of industrial training films. Sadly, few of CRM's finest titles from the 1970s era are still in distribution.

Tonight, we'll see several of the films that made CRM notable. They are timeless in content, and reflective of an era gone by.

On tonight's show:

‘Perception’ (1979) 28m, dir, Richard A. Miner. This fine industrial psych film explores observations vs. opinions as they relate to workplace conflict. Included are sequences on perception tricks, and there is an insightful vignette featuring political cartoonist Paul Conrad.

‘Group Dynamics: Groupthink’ (1973) 20m, dir. Steve Katten. An industrial psych classic, the film, based on the work of Psychologist Irving Janis, describes how the tendency to agree interferes with critical thinking. Here we have dramatized examples of concepts such as the Illusion of Invulnerability (which led to the disaster at Pearl Harbor), the Illusion of Morality, Self-censorship, the Illusion of Unanimity (the Bay of Pigs was one result).

‘Fruit Fly: a Look at Behavior Biology’ (1974) 21m, dir. Steve Katten. This fascinating film features wonderful cinematography by Larry Logan and Isidore Mankofsky, and includes shots form the electron microscope. On the way, we learn about homosexuality in the fruit fly world, mutations, etc. Dr Seymour Benzer of the California Institute of Technology is our host.

‘Cell Division: Mitosis and Meiosis’ (1974) 24m, prod. Steve Katten. This remarkable film utilizes cinemicroscopy and the scanning electron microscope to climb inside of cells as they evolve and divide, and was probably one of the first academic films to feature computer animation. The animated sequences involving DNA are exceptional.

Thursday, November 20, 2003... Robert Emmett Presents: ciné16 Klessix (Great Films from Past Shows)

Robert continues his series consisting of many of the best films from ciné16’s 367 previous shows. Please take advantage of this opportunity to see the best from our archives.  On tonight’s program:

'City of Gold' (1957) 23m, dir.  Colin Low & Wolf Koenig. This is the story of a Gold Rush Boom town. Told by Pierre Berton, City of Gold is great storytelling, which is an under-appreciated art form. It also presents a rather unique ability that film has, which is to present a montage of images that support the story and make it live.

'Canaries to Clydesdales' (1977) 28m, dir. Eugene Boyko. We agonized over this choice, as it meant supplanting two other films that were very good in themselves. Ultimately, this film, which is at the same time a vocational film, a Western film, and a business film, was so powerful that it couldn't be ignored. An award winner at two festivals, 'Canaries' is a "day-in-the-life" visit with country veterinarians Vic Demetrick & Reg Maidment as they make their appointed rounds. Think you've seen everything? Trust me, you'll need a strong stomach for this one: castrating a sheep, sawing out a still-born calf, removing porcupine quills from a dog's muzzle, and sticking an arm up a cow's butt are all in a day's work for these two. A fascinating film, not the least of which is the playful personal interaction between these old friends at work.

'Face of Lincoln' (1955) 20m, dir. Edward Freed. Abraham Lincoln is considered by many Americans to be its greatest historical figure, and every visitor to the U.S. who carries a penny or ten dollar bill carries a picture of Lincoln with them wherever they go. Lincoln, who was born in a frontier log cabin and was assassinated in Ford's Theatre, was President of the United States during the Civil War in the mid-1800s, and signed the Emancipation Proclamation which outlawed the ownership of slaves. The decade of the 1950s was a dismal one for historical films, but one of the few gems was this exceptional film, which features sculptor/professor Merrill Gage creating a clay bust of Lincoln, evolving the sculpture to age with the events of the life of the president, which he narrates. This film is an example of the "host-scholar" being the focal point of the film, generally unsuccessful if the host is boring or speaks in monotone. Gage, who had performed this lecture many times to students at the University of Southern California, is funny and engaging, as he slaps the ears on the head with abandon, changes hair styles with a flourish, and merrily adjusts the tie. The filming took place over three weeks, in which the crew was continually challenged by the hardening of the clay.

'Memories of Monet' (30m) Meredith Martindale & Toby Molenaar. The film is as lush and radiant as a Monet painting, with those great juxtapositions of painting and the part of the garden which inspired it. But it's more than a pretty picture. There is a wonderful story from an American artist who visited Monet. Through her memories you will get more than an impression of Monet (Sorry). With great music from Eric Satie. 

'Liberace' (1955?) 10m, uncredited director. The world hasn't been the same since this self-effacing, flamboyant, funny entertainer passed away. What's this film got to do with tonight's theme? Nothing, but since we're not having a show next week (Thanksgiving), we've hired the young Liberace, who does everything but wear the pilgrim hat to warm our hearts this holiday season. If you've seen early Liberace, this will be a treat; if you haven't, you absolutely shouldn't miss this one... it's... it's... it's... so FABULOUS!

Thursday, November 13, 2003... McLuhan and Toffler, Two Cultural Avatars of the 1970s: Did our Past Predict our Present?

In the midst of the maelstrom of the decade that was hallmarked by LSD, Viet Nam, and non-guilt sex, two cultural observers were simultaneously wielding the telescope of society’s future, while living under those present times’ meditated microscope: Marshall McLuhan, and Alvin Toffler. The reason they were quoted so often, and generated so much controversy, was often due to the fact that the "establishment", which generally meant the older generation, couldn’t figure out just what the hell these baby boomers were doing. Many felt that they were ignorantly killing the society that their parents had tried so hard to build in the Eisenhower years, and protect in Viet Nam. So here came Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), the director of the Center for Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto, the "Oracle of the Electronic Age", with his book ‘The Medium is the Massage’, to explain electronic media’s role in rapidly changing the social landscape in the West.

From Regent University’s McLuhan page (http://www.regent.edu/acad/schcom/rojc/mdic/mcluhan.html) , we read:

McLuhan believed that the print revolution begun by Gutenberg was the forerunner of the industrial revolution. One unforeseen consequence of print was the fragmentation of society. McLuhan argued that readers would now read in private, and so be alienated from others. "Printing, a ditto device, confirmed and extended the new visual stress. It created the portable book, which men could read in privacy and in isolation from others" (McLuhan, 1967, p. 50). Interestingly, McLuhan saw electronic media as a return to collective ways of perceiving the world. His "global village" theory posited the ability of electronic media to unify and retribalize the human race. What McLuhan did not live to see, but perhaps foresaw, was the merging of text and electronic mass media in this new media called the Internet.

It was up to Alvin Toffler, in his 1970 book ‘Future Shock’ (co-written with wife Heidi Toffler), to explain how the rapidly accelerating change in society’s underpinnings was going to positively transform American business practices to become more inclusive and empowering for more people than ever before. Toffler argued that, rather than resisting change, individuals should understand it, and embrace it. Thirty years later, the book remains an important one, ageless in its historical analysis and recommendations.

Tonight, we’ll investigate McLuhan and Toffler from the perspective of two important films from the 1970s. From the benefit of living thirty years in the future, we can now judge their veracity, and their influence.

To wit:

‘This is Marshall McLuhan: the Medium is the Massage’ (1967) 53m, prod. Ernest Pintoff. In an outstanding film produced by Quadrato Productions, the "High Priest of Pop Culture" investigates the clash between the old and the new, and its impact on the educational systems, the home, privacy, and employment. The visage of McLuhan is here plotted against an ever-changing pastiche of animation, indirect lighting, animation, and new and historical footage. For more information of the life and work of McLuhan, visit: http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/main.html

‘Future Shock’ (1972) 42m, dir. Alex Grasshoff. This film is hosted by Orson Welles, who we first see introducing the film while smoking a large cigar on a moving sidewalk inside a large airport. He repairs to a limousine in London, where he notes that the theme will be, essentially, the impact of "too much change in too short a time", and the "premature arrival of the future". We are somewhat disappointed that there is so little of Toffler in the film, but Welles here is in fine form, with the usual sideward glances, and punctuated parenthetical asides.

Thursday, November 6, 2003...  Lost Literary Films of Russia

U.S.-based filmmakers weren’t terribly welcome in the Soviet Union, during the Cold War years, so during that time, probably the best films on Russian life and culture were produced by the Australians. Such films didn’t appear until the mid-70s, meaning schoolkids of the 1950s and 1960s got their Russian hits mainly from Russian literature. Many school administrators, in fact, were loath to allow teachers to teach anything positive about Soviet Bloc countries (or mainland China), in general. In particular, I remember when Miss Sharon Woodnutt, a beautiful young social studies teacher, asked us if we wanted copies of Mao’s Red Book, and offered to take a collection and buy them for us, so we could study from the real thing. To intimidate her, the principal audited her class every session, but she refused to back down, and we all took the great literary leap forward, studying Mao (I don’t think she was rehired the following year). My literature teacher introduced us to a safer topic, Dostoyevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment’ which, although not based on current events, did offer some insight into the Russian character.

In those dark days when many of us existed warily in an intellectual milieu that represented a semi-vacuum, there were certain literary films available, and more than a couple were quite good. I never saw them until recently, and I think they’re important enough to introduce them to you. One is out of distribution, housed somewhere (we think) in the deep recesses of the CBS News archives. The other, an Oscar-winner, seems to have disappeared years ago.

There seems to be some evidence that Russia itself is losing historical perspective on its great writers from the past. A small village of some 55 weathered cottages, nestled outside the city of Peredelkino, has been a protected haven for Russian writers for years, but is now slowly being bought and sold by developers. The field adjacent to Pasternak’s house, it seems, will be host to a number of brick villas, affordable to only the few, and many feel it’s the beginning of the end for this important writers retreat.

Tonight, we revisit some gems from Russian literature that were, at one point in the past, captured by motion picture camera:

‘Russians: Insight Through Literature’ (1963) 55m, dir. Joseph K. Chomyn. Here, CBS News presents scenes from five literary classics, illustrating the Russian way of life, and elements contributing to the Russian Revolution. Included are scenes from Chekov's ‘Cherry Orchard’, Dostoyevsky's ‘Brothers Karamazov’, Turgenev's ‘Fathers and Sons’, Gogol's ‘The Overcoat’, and Pasternak's ‘Dr. Zhivago’. Peter Donat appears in several of the scenes.

‘The Bespoke Overcoat’ (1955) 33m, dir. Jack Clayton. This wonderful version of Wolf Mankowitz' one act play, based on the Gogol story, won the 1956 Oscar for Best Short Subject.

Thursday, October 30, 2003... Our Seventh Anniversary Show: It’s Gladiator Day!

Note: Yes, We've been doing ciné16 since October 31, 1996 (with some 365 programs to our credit) and we always plan on something a little bit different to mark our anniversary. Tonight, we present one of our most re-requested films. This is a special event, with door prizes, and a visit from our favorite gladiatress... er... beauty queen... Miss ciné16!

The notes to the show: Back when I was a kid, I used to race home after school every Thursday to be in front of the old black & white at 3:30 pm when Channel 2 would host gladiator films. Maybe you've seen 'em: big, tanned, buffed-out strong guys (unlike Geoff Alexander, who was always the smallest kid in the class), whose mouths worked a mile-a-minute in these English-dubbed films, while the camera tried to catch up, goin' mano-a-mano against each other in pursuit of treasure or equally tanned, inflated blonde dames with black roots and Italian last names. This stuff occurred damn near every Thursday that I can remember, and I was glued to the set each week, fascinated by a world that I was sure existed, somewhere in the dark past. Tonight’s film is a confirmation that that era did, in fact exist, when pre-match breast-oiling was de rigueur for any female fighting champion. All too soon, the western world would plunge into a darkness devoid of make-up, hair colorings, and gilded, push-up breastplates. Come back with us tonight into the past, back to the time of:

'War Goddess' (1973) 90m, dir. Terence Young. If you can fathom Terence ('Thunderball') Young directing a lesbian-oriented, gladiated-type spectacular, with large-breasted females wrestling each other naked for the opportunity to lead Amazons into a battle with Greek men, then you belong at ciné16 tonight. 1970s women's lib themes resound throughout, as the director tries vainly to tie all of these seemingly disparate elements together. What he gets instead is a nasty pastiche that doesn't seem to make any sense at all, through dodgy editing and an ever-increasingly difficult-to-believe story line. So why bother showing 'War Goddess'? First of all, there's the incredible Alena Johnston as Queen Antiope. None of my books on famous female actors have included her, an oddity, given her considerable "talents". And if Alena's not butch enough for your tastes, try Sabine Sun as the evil Orytheia (they're the two that eventually wrestle for the Title, and the opportunity to up against Haystack Calhoun at the Cow Palace). Connoisseurs know the real stars of the film, however: make-up artist Otello Fava's eye-liner fashions are at least a zillion years ahead of their time; and Tony Nieto's tonsorial creations leave veteran glad fans awestruck at how these damsels in the desert could remain so spectacularly coifed through successive bed & battle scenes (no carpet & drape jokes, if you please...).

Ever since we announced this show, veteran ciné16ers have accused us of pandering to the less intellectually-enlightened elements in our city. Some have even accused us of promoting sexist fare (serious feminists please note: EVERYONE gets groped in this film, and your ticket money will NOT be refunded). I can tell you, though, that every single lesbian I've run into during the past week has threatened to gladiate ME if I didn't guarantee 'em tickets for tonight's show. And if you're starting to feel a little scared by both the film and certain members of tonight's audience, you can come & hide behind me: I'm the one at the projection booth wearing the pointed metal hat, holding the mace and net, and sporting the massive, gilded jockstrap.

PS... extra bonus points if you arrive in full or partial gladiator regalia...

Thursday, October 23, 2003... Robin Morris Presents: ciné16 Klessix (The Color Out of Space...Rain, Illusion, and Timeless Grace)

About tonight’s show, host Robin Morris sez: "[these] films wring the color out of space, run roiling down the cobbled alleys in lapping latticeworks of light and shadow… or, if you like, look at this show from the center outward...the symmetrical, funhouse wonder and mystery of Escher's mostly black/white worlds within worlds, wrapped in a lovely, rainy old town, and a dance a deux outside of time..."

To wit:

‘Omega’ (1970) 13m, dir. David Fox. We’re not exactly sure what the meaning of Fox’ psychedelic fantasy is, but the notes say it’s about the end of the world. I’m sure ‘ciné16’ viewers stoked on blue barrels, windowpane, and/or ‘shrooms will be better able to explain this bombastic, colorful, spaced-out film than WE can.

‘Rain’ (1929) 13m, dir. Mannus Franken & Joris Ivens. An impressionist view of Amsterdam before, during, and after the rain, filmed over four months, utilizing a hand-held camera.

‘Adventures in Perception (Escher)' (1971) 21m, dir. Han Van Gelder. A beautifully crafted film relying on the two-dimensional drawings of M.C. Escher, master of perspective. A favorite of art school students everywhere, our print is a bit hacked at the beginning before it settles into sprocket-arms of the mighty (but temperamental, mind you) Bell & Howell 552s for a gentle glide to finish. Of the numerous prints we’ve seen, this is the most watchable. An Oscar nominee in 1971 for Best Documentary short.

‘Pas de Deux’ (1967) 14m, dir. Norman McLaren. Slo-mo images replicated in gradual degrees on an optical printer was the technique used by the late filmmaker, known for his meticulous craftsmanship and insistence on quality. With a total output of under three hours of film, McLaren’s short works are legendary. This is one of his finest, and probably his most famous.

‘Matisse: a Sort of Paradise’ (1969) 30m, dir. Lawrence Gowing & John Jones. With striking Technicolor pastiches of numerous paintings, noted author Gowing blazes an evolutionary path through the artistic life of one of the great artists of this century, accompanied by the music of Eric Satie, played by pianist Aldo Ciccolini.

Thursday, October 16, 2003...  Robin Morris Presents: ciné16 Klessix (Robin's Round -Trip to Apocalypse)

Tonight, we introduce the first of two programs by guest programmer Robin Morris.  Robin describes himself as "interested in way too many things, most of them art-related, songwriter, poet, video editing student, hack essayist... I'm trying not to be a mile wide and an inch deep, and that's hard for me! As for motion pictures, I have always enjoyed psychologically involved and fantastic films, sci-fi and some of the great directors' efforts... but only recently have I really looked beneath the surface to find that a almost all of the best of film has escaped me all my life... as I read and research, and develop a modest collection of my own, I find there is so much more in academic film than ever I knew."

Robin has helped us tremendously in acquiring films (he drove his own truck to LA to help us move the donated Anaheim Library collection), and he's got good taste.  We welcome him as a programmer, and invite you to attend his shows.  

On tonight's show, he writes: "I have chosen as tonight's theme the title "Round Trip to Apocalypse", as the three main pieces tonight center, in a way, around the concept of Death; how we hold it at bay with our Art, our Fantasy, our Desire and our Spirit."

To wit:

'Le Paysagiste’ (Mindscape) (1976) 8m, dir. Jacques Drouin. Alexandre Alexeieff, one of the best-known early animators, was the developer of the pinscreen technique, in which, like those toys you see at museum shops, each image was formed by the manipulation of pins. The National Film Board of Canada eventually acquired Alexeieff’s pinscreen, which was used by Drouin in this beautiful but haunting story of an artist who climbs over his easel and into the landscape he has just painted, and begins his three-dimensional journey through a self-realized two-dimensional world. Rather than utilizing a photograph, Drouin uses animation in a similar fashion to the photographic work created by the other filmmakers on the program, as a means of conveying the transparency of an otherwise fixed medium.

‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’ (1962) 27m, dir. Robert Enrico. A spy about to be summarily executed breaks free from his constraints and flees home, to freedom, or death? Winner of an Oscar in 1963, this film, which explores travel through time and space, was undoubtedly one of the biggest selling titles in the history of educational film.

'The Portable Phonograph’ (1977) 20 m, dir. John Barnes. With thousands and thousands of educational films filling the market between 1960 and 1985, it would be difficult to state authoritatively that find any one film that could be called the greatest educational film ever made, but so far this one is at the top of the list. Here, a vintage recording of Debussy's Nocturne played by Walter Gieseking becomes the vehicle by which four lovers of the humanities hover together in a cold post-apocalyptic shack of sandbags to mourn weekly over lost art and loves gone by. Barnes, who must be considered among the greatest filmmakers ever to work in the educational world, forcibly illustrates, through flashback sequences and close-up shots, how the humanities --- music, painting, literature, and theatre --- are perhaps the most enriching of all human endeavors. Their ultimate and devastating loss may have never before or since been shown with such terrifying passion. This, Barnes’ final film, would have benefited from general theatrical release; if it had, it certainly would have picked up some well-known awards. It one of the most powerful short films ever made, and one which bears as much, if not more, value for adults than children.

'La Jetée’ (1963) 29m, dir. Chris Marker. Told through still photos and narration, the story of a post-apocalyptic attempt to change the present by reworking the past. A remarkable and pensive film suggesting the folly of attempting to reorder the inevitable, and one which has influenced countless filmmakers.

Thursday, October 9, 2003... Barinda Samra presents: ciné16 Klessix...  (Exploring Moral Dilemma in Science and Medicine: Wolf Koenig’s ‘Discussions in Bioethics’ series, a reprise of our September 7, 2000 show)

Tonight we feature a small portion of the remarkable body of films from Wolf Koenig, producer of 159 films for the National Film Board of Canada, and described by filmmaker John Spotten as "the most brilliant mind at the Film Board, who could have more original film ideas in thirty seconds than others might have in years". Koenig was born in Dresden in 1927, but his parents moved to Canada in 1937 when it became apparent that life would be unbearable in Nazi Germany. Arriving at the Film Board’s prestigious Unit B film cooperative in the mid-1950s, he joined luminaries such as Roman Kroitor, Colin Low, and Stanley Jackson in making some of its most significant films. His work at the Board is catholic in scope and includes titles such as ‘Glenn Gould’ (On & Off the Record), ‘City of Gold’, ‘Corral’, and his technical acumen helped to pioneer the use of lightweight camera gear for his ‘Candid Eye’ series of television programs. No longer making films, Koenig today lives far enough from the city that an occasional bear will ring his doorbell ("After that, I’m not going out for walks alone much, these days"), and continues to frame his thoughts and musings in cinematic terms, producing continual ideas for short, poignant, powerful films:

There’s such a need for films on the process of aging. I remember the day I had to take my father to a retirement home. It was his last day in his own home, and I shaved him, and put a hat on him. Before we left, even though his thoughts had not been too focused recently, he managed to make his way back to his bedroom, where he sat on the bed, wrapped his arms tightly around the bedpost, and just looked at me. And that’s how the film ends…

Tonight’s films will introduce ciné16 viewers to an important producer, too little known here in the U.S., whose oeuvre consists of hard-hitting, challenging social films in the tradition of John Grierson, yet which bear the remarkable and recognizable stamp of Wolf Koenig. For a comprehensive look at his produced films, visit the following page at the National Film Board of Canada: http://www.nfb.ca:80/FMT/E/prod/K/Koenig_Wolf.html

For his directed films, 29 in all, visit: http://www.nfb.ca:80/FMT/E/real/K/Koenig_Wolf.html

Of particular interest to ciné16ers are two socio-dramatic series of films produced by Koenig, ‘Wednesday’s Children’ and ‘Discussions of Bioethics’, the latter of which is the subject of tonight’s program. Prior to the ‘Bioethics’ series, virtually all science films were largely about "doing", science, with very little about ethical issues inherent in their application. To this end, Koenig produced ‘Discussion of Bioethics’, a series of eight films dealing with ethical questions faced by scientists, biologists, and medical personnel, in which human life is, or could be, at stake. Each film was approximately 15 minutes long, in order to allow time for classroom discussion, was rehearsed and shot in four days, and edited in two weeks, for a budget of $100,000 Canadian per film. Issues such as a patient’s right to die, abortion, biological warfare, and deciding which of two ill patients will get the one hospital bed, were addressed by the series, but clear answers were never provided, as the end of each film could be "written" by anyone engaging in post-film discussions. Tonight’s films include:

‘Family Tree’ (1985) 13m, dir. Norma Bailey). Here, Cedric Smith and writer/former stripper Linda Lee Tracey are cast in a tale of an abusive mother, pregnant again. Her doctor agonizes about the future of the baby, and questions whether he should sterilize her without her consent.

‘Critical Choice’ (1985) 13m, dir. Gary Poole. A liver transplant is desperately needed by two people, only one of whom can afford it. As a medical professional, how would you choose?

‘If You Want a Girl Like Me’ (1985) 13m, dir. Sandra Huyke. Another choice: a baby born with a spina bifida and hydrocephalus condition... abortion or birth?

‘Old Person's Friend’ (1985) 13m, dir. Annie O’Donohue. An elderly woman refuses treatment... do we treat her against her will?

‘Chronic Problem’ (1985) 13m, dir. Cynthia Scott. The Oscar-winning director (‘Flamenco at 5:15’) introduces us to a bed-ridden, dying chronic patient, while a recovering patient desperately needs her bed, in this resource-depleted hospital… who has priority?

‘Courage of One's Convictions’ (1985) 14m, dir. Gil Cardinal. A teenage girl refuses medical treatment for an otherwise terminal condition, on religious grounds. As an understated element in the plot, we suspect the doc's also in love with her...

The subject matter of these films is played out daily in hospitals throughout the Bay Area. Watching these films causes us to reflect on our own mortality, and provides an insightful look at the realities behind the decisions made by medical personnel who treat our friends and relatives.

Thursday, October 2, 2003... Big City Beat

I remember the first time we ran a program featuring vintage police training films. I thought hey, today’s cops would get a kick out of seeing what police training looked like 30 years ago, so I ran down to SJPD with a bunch of fliers, and asked the watch commander to post one or two on the bulletin board. Rather than seeing the fun in the program, I got responses ranging from dirty looks to outright paranoia. I’m sure my fliers ended up in the trash, and this taxpayer wasted an afternoon of his already busy life. Sadly the whole thing appeared to be yet another chapter in the book entitled "Us vs. Them".

Unfortunately, the powers that be in San Jose give a lot of lip service to "community policing", while helping to create a visually unappealing nightlife environment in its economically under-performing downtown area. On weekend evenings, out of town visitors are incredulous at the police motorcycle line-up on St. John & San Pedro streets, the command center in the parking a block or so to the east, and the black & whites stationed in the middle of the intersection of First & San Salvador Streets, where headlights are trained on club-goers. Community policing is really about officers parking their cars off the main drag, getting out and walking the beat. Fair-minded police officers with a bit of PR training can work wonders in forging a cooperative relationship within the tavern owner/bar patron/peace officer triad.

I have something like 39 countries stamped on my passports, and have a pretty good knowledge of totalitarian régimes, having spent a fair amount of time in Francisco Franco’s Spain, and a few other countries with a less-than-enlightened view of human rights. In no city, have I seen a police presence, in times of peace, as disturbing as San Jose’s. It’s embarrassing to try to explain this to out-of-town friends, who come from Boston and Cape Town, and wonder where the heck the riot is.

Over the years, San Jose has done a better job of killing a downtown area than any city of its size in the U.S. In the 1950s, historically important buildings were leveled, tearing out a large part of its heart. In the past few years, many vibrant small business have been made to feel unwelcome, and have left or been forced out, taking away a large part of this city’s soul. Now, our own citizens are being forced to walk a police gauntlet when leaving a night spot, a pity, because the police are paid by citizens’ tax dollars, and theoretically report to them. Patrons and punters are taking their money elsewhere, where the environment is a good deal more friendly, and it’s going to require a be a hell of a sales job to get them back.

Tonight, we’re showing a couple of films that deal with the officer-citizen dynamic, each of them from a different perspective. ‘Station 10’ is a snapshot into the real world of big city policing, in this case, the back alleys of Montréal. ‘Informers I’ examines the ways police officers relate to people paid to spy and inform on their friends.

‘Station 10’ (1973) 58 m, dir. Michael Scott. If Weegee -- the prototype crime photographer of the post-WWII war years --- had a movie camera, the finished product might have looked like this, taken from Scott’s two months at Montreal PD’s downtown precinct, Station 10. Whether it be the discovery of a week-old suicide by rifle, the death of a fellow cop, an illegal arrest, or abuse hurled at the cameramen by those being arrested, the action is shot without the benefit of opinion or apology. The dull, matter-of-fact narration, spoken by a weary Captain Jacques Cinq-Mars, speaks as much about life in Montréal’s demimonde as does the film, Scott’s precursor to ‘Whistling Smith’, an ongoing favorite at ‘ciné16’. An example of cinéma vérité work at its finest.

‘Informers I’ (1970?) 30m, dir. Jonathan Lucas. This was one of three films made in a series that explored the common theme of using paid and unpaid informants to elicit information leading to the arrest of a suspect. Here, when bikini-clad buxom bombshell Joyce Mandel (known today by her pin-up name of Alexis Love, as was determined by your AFA research team) finds she’s been burgled, she jiggles --- I mean runs --- up the stairs to heavingly --- I mean breathlessly --- call Redondo Beach's finest for assistance. They’re there so fast that you’d swear they’ve got the address mammar --oops, I mean memorized. She’s lost her chest --- I mean chess set, which is "the only thing she got from her marriage". The cops eventually get around to visiting their favorite snitch "Gabby", who as played by Al Dennis, is the best and funniest actor in the whole series.

Thursday, September 25, 2003...  Peter Carter presents 'Evanescent Fragments Unexpectedly Encountered:  A Centennial Celebration of Joseph Cornell'

Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) was a noted assemblage artist who experimented with the film medium as well.  There is quite a bit of information about Cornell on the internet, but  http://www.artandculture.com/arts/artist?artistId=90 is especially interesting, particularly the bit about Audrey Hepburn returning his gift.  

Peter Carter is our guest curator for this special evening.  Several weeks ago, Peter contacted us and offered to host a show dedicated to the films of one of his favorites, experimental filmmaker Joseph Cornell, and we gratefully accepted.   This promises to be an exceptional program, and an opportunity for you to view films that are rarely, if ever, shown in San Jose.  While we can never judge the number of people who attend, we advise you that if you're a late arrival, you may have to expect to stand.

Peter wrote the following filmnotes:

"Please don’t speak too glowingly about my dreams re: film to Stan [Brakhage]. After effusions I find it necessary to remind myself that a wicked amount of time has been consumed with them and very little to show as compared with my medium proper."

—letter from Cornell to Carolee Schneemann, June 13, 1956

The year was 1936 and former fabric salesman Joseph Cornell was operating the 16mm projector for a show he had put together. Included in the program was "Rose Hobart," a film Cornell had made by rearranging and adding to segments from the tropical adventure film "East of Borneo." Among others in attendance at the screening was Salvador Dalí. The artist was in town for the landmark Surrealism exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art (where Cornell was also represented). Suddenly, halfway through "Rose Hobart," Dalí leapt up and knocked over the projector in a rage. It was as if, he insisted, Cornell had stolen the film from his head before he had a chance to make it himself.

A long time lover of the cinema, Cornell brought to filmmaking his appreciation for found moments (the filmic equivalent of found objects) and his ingenuity for assemblage—attributes that concurrently revealed themselves in the shadow boxes that made his name. In addition to collaging films from his personal collection, Cornell enlisted other filmmakers as assistants and cameramen. On the hundredth anniversary of his birth, it is these collaborations that remain in circulation.

The phrase "evanescent fragments unexpectedly encountered" comes from an homage to Hedy Lamarr published by Cornell in "View" magazine in 1941-42: "Among the barren wastes of the talking films there occasionally occur passages to remind one again of the profound and suggestive power of the silent film to evoke an ideal world of beauty…"

On tonight’s program:

‘Centuries of June’ (1955-196?) 10m, dir. Joseph Cornell and Stan Brakhage. The title, given by Cornell after the film’s completion, is taken from Emily Dickinson’s poem "There is a Zone whose even Years." "This film comes to exist because Joseph Cornell wished, one fine summer day, to show me the old homes of his beloved Flushing…It would be too strong a word to say he ‘directed’ my photography; and yet his presence and constant suggestions made this film entirely his. He then spent years editing it, incorporating ‘re-takes’ into the film’s natural progress…"—Stan Brakhage

‘Cornell, 1965’ (1978) 9m, dir. Larry Jordan. Larry Jordan lived with Cornell at his house on Utopia Parkway in Flushing, Queens while assisting him with his boxes and films. He shows Cornell here in the only existing footage of the artist.

‘Cotillion/The Midnight Party/Children’s Party’ (1940s) 19m, dir. Joseph Cornell. "These are the first three of the six films Cornell gave me to finish before he died. I have not changed the editing structure. I have made them printable. They are the first known fully collaged films, i.e. films made from found footage…[Cornell] collects images and preserves them in some kind of cinematic suspension that is hard—impossible—to describe. But it’s a delight to anyone whose soul has not been squashed by the heavy dictates of Art"—Larry Jordan

‘Carrousel/Jack’s Dream/Thimble Theater’ (1940s) 24m, dir. Joseph Cornell. "Cornell’s editing has not been tampered with. It is sometimes minimal, sometimes extensive, always sensitive…I have added soundtracks to two of the films using existing notes which Cornell left."—Larry Jordan

‘The Aviary’ (1955) 5m, dir. Joseph Cornell and Rudy Burckhardt. Cornell’s first film made with Burckhardt, shot in Union Square, Manhattan. "At one point a male dwarf, dressed properly in an overcoat and hat, strolled into the park. Burckhardt elbowed Cornell, knowing his interest in misfits. ‘Yes, yes, film him,’ Cornell whispered excitedly, ‘but don’t hurt his feelings!’"—from "Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell" by Deborah Solomon

‘Nymphlight’ (1957) 7m, dir. Joseph Cornell and Rudy Burckhardt. Filmed by Burckhardt in Bryant Park behind the New York Public Library. The film features 12-year-old ballet student Gwen Thomas.

‘A Fable for Fountains’ (1957-70) 6m, dir. Joseph Cornell and Rudy Burckhardt.  Cornell met Suzanne Miller when she played a boy in an off-off-Broadway production of Moss Hart’s "Climate of Eden." He remarked at her resemblance to the Medici boy and girl of his boxes and later persuaded her to appear in this film, shot by Burckhardt in Little Italy, which became one of his personal favorites. The film is intercut with lines from Garcia Lorca’s "Poet in New York."

‘Gnir Rednow’ (1955-196?) 5m, dir. Joseph Cornell and Stan Brakhage. An unfinished, mirrored re-edit of Brakhage’s film "The Wonder Ring" that had been commissioned by Cornell with six subway tokens and Kodachrome film stock in the interest of preserving the memory of Manhattan’s Third Avenue elevated train line before it was torn down.

Thursday, September 18, 2003... Undercurrents

This program is about the things that go bump, scratch, and bang under the sea, and inland waterways. If you’re in the camp that falls asleep during science films, this program will wake you up, and at least one (‘Lampreys’) may cause you nightmares…

‘Fire Under the Sea: Origin of Pillow Lava’ (1971) 14m, dir. Lee Tepley. One of the more extreme geological films made in the academic genre, in terms of affective value and danger to the participants, was this, filmed underwater off the coast of Hawaii’s big island. To explore the formation of pillow lava, Tepley, Gene Rugroeden, and a crew of diver-cinematographers are assaulted by tumbling clunks of volcanic debris as they explore vents of red-hot lava, exploding and imploding inches away from their hand-held cameras. At one point, a diver is hit in the back by a forcefully extruded chunk of rock, while others poke the emerging lava with spears and hammers, seemingly comfortable in the 110° waters.

‘Insects vs. Alligatorweed’ (1970?) 20m, uncredited director. As we discover in this fascinating film made by the USDA Etymology Research Division, wildly proliferating alligatorweed chokes water passages through inland waterways in the deep south. To control its growth, a voracious variety of beetle is introduced, with rather interesting results…

‘Life of the Sockeye Salmon’ (1977) 20m, dir.

 Gray. Wilf Gray is perhaps the most mysterious of our "lost" filmmakers, a man who seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, sometime during the last couple of decades. The folks at Journal Films, who distributed his work, barely remember him, and have no records of his whereabouts. His films were outstanding documents of the Pacific Northwest. Sockeye is one of the five species of Pacific salmon, and here Gray sets his camera near the confluence of the Adams and Fraser rivers. Perhaps this film should instead have been called "Death of the Sockeye Salmon": the fish begins its four year life in mountain streams, spends its first year in a freshwater lake, then flees to the mighty Pacific, eventually returning 6,000 miles (at the rate of 17 per day) to spawn & die.

‘Aquaculture in Japan’ (1984) 20m. uncredited director. Here, Tokyo’s Iwanami Productions examines aquaculture - the breeding and propagating of marine life - as Japan's solution to the problem of food scarcity. We find the seeding of oyster beds, particularly interesting, and mouthwatering at the same time. Our passion for sushi and other underwater delights is arrested somewhat by the scenes of hormone injections in loaches.

‘Great Lakes Invader; the Sea Lamprey’ (1953) 13m. uncredited director. Lawdy, lawdy. This is an absolutely terrifying story of the parasite that nearly wiped out Great Lakes trout. Fortunately, electric and electromechanical weirs are designed to weed ‘em out and kill 'em. This is where we really made our break from PETA…  For more on this nasty predator, visit: http://biology.usgs.gov/s+t/SNT/noframe/gl129.htm

Friday, September 12, 2003... Please join us for a special AFA benefit tonight

Abhi and Quentine Acharya are patrons of the Academic Film Archive of North America, and have generously offered to host a special benefit for us, in support of our effort to preserve academic film. It will be at 7:30 pm on Friday, September 12, at their home in Saratoga. They will provide South Asian appetizers, the cost is $10 per person, and attendance is limited to 30 people. 

We will show three rare ethnographic films that evening, including 'Wild Men of the Kalahari', probably the most significant lost film in our collection. The print is fragile, so we show it only once every two years or so. Like the other two films on the program, it offers a westernized, colonialist view that today is decidedly politically incorrect, but was the norm for the day. The subjects of these films are treated as exotic remnants of the world's past, and the films were made by adventurer-filmmakers, before the widespread influence of the science of anthropology.

To register for this event, please mail your check, for $10 per person, made out to "Academic Film Archive of North America", and include your email address on the check. Your donation is tax-deductible. We believe this event will sell out in advance, so please register early. When we receive your check, we'll email you the exact location of, and directions to, the event. This is a great opportunity to support our preservation efforts, meet other AFA patrons, and enjoy Abhi and Quentine's hospitality.

The films on the program are as follows:

'Wild Men of the Kalahari' (1930) 30m, prod. C. Ernest Cadle. In one of the earliest "talking pictures" shot in western Africa, the infamous expedition leader and lecturer Dr. C. Ernest Cadle of the Cameron-Cadle expedition describes the Kung Bushmen as "among the most treacherous creatures on earth". He then "baited them as we would an animal" to gather them for camera shots, and noted their eating habits ("he doesn't chew, but simply swallows like a dog"). This rare ciné16 print is the only one we believe to be in existence today.

Born in Spokane, Washington in 1893, cameraman Paul Hoefler gained early notoriety in the late 1920s when, as a member of the Denver African Expedition, he returned with what was reportedly the first film footage of Southwest Africa's Bushmen. He produced the first sound film of Africa (Africa Speaks, 1929), and in 1936, Hoefler founded "Paul L. Hoefler's World Picture Service", a negative library containing stills from his travels. After his WWII stint as the Middle East director of public relations for the US Air Force, Hoefler moved to southern California, began producing films for the educational market (primarily on subjects such as Monument Valley, Yellowstone Park, Jordan, and the Panama Canal), and became a friend of Walt Disney. Like Disney, Hoefler's films on international cultures suffered from the "edu-tainment" malaise, which, with their omniscient narration, insipid "elevator" music, and dubious factual quality (hippos aren't amphibians, as was stated in East Africa, c.1970) were more akin to TV travelogues than films with real educational value. The Disney-Hoefler link continued into the 1950s, as Hoefler distributed Disney titles in South Africa in return for Disney's distribution of Hoefler films in the U.S.

'Blizzard on the Equator' (1931?) 30m, unknown director. Unknown today, host Carveth Wells, was one of the most famous lecturers on the "expedition circuit", his fame being eclipsed perhaps by only Richard Halliburton and Lowell Thomas. Wells was also a prolific writer, and wrote a book about the filming of this Cudahay-Massee expedition to the Ruwenzori Mountains. This film was shot under trying conditions, and we believe these were the first moving pictures ever shot of the "Mountains of the Moon". Wells' narrative style is dated and silly, which makes this film a real period piece, and a good example of the way students of another generation were introduced to cultures defined as "exotic", "primitive", or "curious".

'Hunting in India' (1930?) 30m, uncredited director. Here, Sir Frederick O'Connor, the British envoy to the court of Nepal leads us on a tiger hunt with 558 men and over 100 elephants. Extremely colonialist from a narrative perspective, the film depicts an era in which tigers really did terrorize the countryside, picking out tasty human morsels at whim. The film is occasionally hilarious, never boring, and somewhat sobering. 

Sunday, September 7, 2003... Robert Emmett Presents: the History San José Film Series, Part VI:  'Transportation'  

This program was funded in part by a grant from Arts Council Silicon Valley

Robert Emmett is the Academic Film Archive's Public Relations Officer, and also the host of KFJC's venerated 'Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show', heard every Saturday morning between 9 am and 12 pm, on 89.7 FM.  Rob is the host and curator of this monthly film series, each program of which will occur on the fourth Sunday of the month.  This program will be held at the Old Fire Station at History San José's 1650 Senter Road (visit http://www.historysanjose.org/directions-kp.html for directions).  Films will run continuously from 1 pm - 4 pm.

On today's program:

'Roads Across the Bay' (1963) 30m, dir. Frank Robinson. Farther north, the crisis of moving people across the water is solved by the building of the Bay Bridge, bringing a welcome end to the slow-moving ferries, and the beginning of the end to inter urban trains. This well-made 
documentary chronicles the building of the bridge through contemporary footage, with cursory mention of the GGB, and Richmond San Rafael span.

'Floating Logging Camp' (1979) 20m, dir. Carl A. Jones. Forty five air minutes outside of Ketchikan, Alaska lies a nomadic village of loggers & their families. As the work moves to different localities, so does their village, moored offshore, and built of logs. These giant log rafts have houses, markets, and schools. A fascinating look at people who seem to embrace a certain kind of loneliness.

'Rallye des Neiges' (1961) 30m, dir. Donald Wilder. A cine16 classic! Crazy Quebecois rallye in terrible winter conditions with old Volvos and VWs; lots of spinouts with a hot jazz track by Norman Bigras.

'Third Avenue El' (1955) 10m, dir. Carson Davidson. A crazy drama played out on New York's Elevated, with music by Wanda Landowska.

Wednesday, September 3, 2003... Lost Films of Literature, Part III:  A focus on Bill Deneen’s ‘Searching for Values’ series

Tonight's show is part of our ongoing focus on films that are no longer available through distribution, in any format. It is the second in a three-part series on lost language arts films. When considering academic film, most people think of science, history, and art films, without considering the dramatic impact Literature films had on classroom instruction. We will attempt to ameliorate this with some outstanding films, showing over the next three weeks.

Why do we call these "lost" films? They are no longer in distribution, and the people who made these films are either no longer distributing their films, are lost, and/or the film companies that produced and distributed them no longer exist. These films are an essential part of the preservation work that we, the Academic Film Archive of North America, include as a core element of our charter. We are the only archive in the United States focusing on preserving academic films, such as the ones on tonight's program; approximately 13% of our collection is defined as "lost".

Adaptations of feature films for classroom use have rarely been artistically or educationally successful, as evidenced by the spotty Teaching Films Custodians abridgements in the 1940s and 1950s. Bill Deneen’s Learning Corporation of America was the educational arm of Columbia Pictures, and, in addition to producing some of the most critically-acclaimed academic films of the 1970s, had full access to Columbia’s feature films. Deneen’s vision was to utilize these in an academic framework, and the result was spectacular, each film operating on a different philosophical theme, edited from a single Columbia feature release.

In Ontario, teachers Jim Hanley and Don Thompson had founded a company , Visual Consultants, that shared a similar vision, but had been unable to interest major studios in cooperating with them.  Eventually, they linked up with Deneen, and a project was begun to create non-hosted/narrated films of approximately 15 minutes in length from a given feature film, derived from LCA’s parent corporation Columbia Studios.  These short films, brilliantly edited by Christopher Castelyn,  were then marketed, collectively, as the ‘Searching for Values’ series.  In this fashion, 'To Sir With Love' was edited to become 'Spaces Between People' (1972), showing poignant moments from the film in an elegantly seamless adaptation that stands surprisingly well on its own, and thus becomes a worthwhile vehicle for classroom discussion. Some of the other titles in this extremely interesting series were 'Politics and Power & the Public Good' (1972, from 'All the King’s Men' with Broderick Crawford), and 'Right to Live... Who Decides?' (1972, from 'Abandon Ship' with Tyrone Power). LCA also distributed the ‘Great Themes of Literature’ series, hosted by Orson Welles, each episode featuring a thematic treatment of one aspect of the human condition. Two of the most notable of these films were 'Authority & Rebellion' (1973) from Edward Dmytryk’s 'Caine Mutiny', and 'Power & Corruption' from Roman Polanski’s 'Macbeth' (1971).

When LCA was sold by Columbia, some of these wonderful adaptations were distributed by Phoenix Learning Group, but others were not.  On tonight's program, 'The Right to Live.. Who Decides?' and  ‘Politics, Power and the Public Good’  have been removed from public circulation; we feel that it’s highly unlikely they will ever return.  We are showing them tonight, along with others that remain in circulation.  They are important artifacts of a meritable yet troublesome partnership between an academic film company and a Hollywood giant, and are gems in their own right that highlight important subtexts, defined and honed by extremely creative film editors.

On tonight’s program:

‘The Right to Live... Who Decides?’ (1972) 17m, dir. Richard Sale. Triage in a lifeboat, from Columbia Pictures' ‘Abandon Ship’, starring Tyrone Power.

‘Politics, Power and the Public Good’ (1972) 19m, dir. Robert Rossen. Starring Broderick Crawford, form ‘from ‘All the King's Men’.

‘Spaces Between People’ (1972) 18m, dir. James Clavell. From ‘To Sir With Love’ starring Sidney Poitier.

‘Loneliness… and Loving’ (1972) 16m. dir. Bob Rafelson. Jack Nicholson and Karen Black battle, from ‘Five Easy Pieces’

Also on the program, from LCA’s ‘Great Themes of Literature’ series:

‘Man and Woman’ (1973) 33m, dir. Franco Zeffirelli. Richard Burton and Liz Taylor from Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the Shrew’, hosted by Orson Welles.  Bill Deneen tells us that, as part of Welles' contract, a case of vintage Dom Perignon champagne was delivered to the set after each day's filming, which Welles generously shared with the crew.

Wednesday, August 27, 2003...  Lost Films of Literature, Part II 

Tonight's show is part of our ongoing focus on films that are no longer available through distribution, in any format. It is the second in a three-part series on lost language arts films. When considering academic film, most people think of science, history, and art films, without considering the dramatic impact Literature films had on classroom instruction. We will attempt to ameliorate this with some outstanding films, showing over the next three weeks.

Why do we call these "lost" films? They are no longer in distribution, and the people who made these films are either no longer distributing their films, are lost, and/or the film companies that produced and distributed them no longer exist. These films are an essential part of the preservation work that we, the Academic Film Archive of North America, include as a core element of our charter. We are the only archive in the United States focusing on preserving academic films, such as the ones on tonight's program; approximately 13% of our collection is defined as "lost".

Tonight’s films are:

‘Houseman Directs Lear’ (1975) 55m, dir. Amanda C. Pope. How strange that the co-founder (along with Orson Welles) of the Mercury Theatre and one of the great actors of our time would become better known as the spokesperson for a commercial enterprise (as they say at Vienna’s Bestattungs funeral museum, "he urned it"). Houseman was a wonderful director, as witnessed by the painstaking approach he takes to blocking the action, initial and dress rehearsals, and final performance. Texture Films was founded by Herman and Sonia Engel, and their films are no longer in distribution.

‘Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene II - the Forum’ (1946) 19m, dir. Henry Cass. This early Shakespearean academic film was made by the British Information Service as part of its "Famous Scenes from Shakespeare" series. Here we see the funeral oration of Mark Anthony, delivered by Leo Genn, with Felix Aylmer as Marc Antony, in a production by Compton Bennett. The acting and directing are somewhat spotty and stilted, but the film has merit, juxtaposing early educational films with the superior Shakespearean treatments of latter years, exemplified by the Houseman film.

'Stage in the Street' (1973) 25m, prod. Gordon Waldear.  This rare San Francisco film, narrated by Owen Spann, is a documentary of the Western Opera Theatre performance of Brecht's "Three Penny Opera",  directed by David Ostwald.

Sunday, August 24, 2003... Robert Emmett Presents: the History San José Film Series, Part V:  'Native Americans' (Held at History San José)

This program was funded in part by a grant from Arts Council Silicon Valley

Robert Emmett is the Academic Film Archive's Public Relations Officer, and also the host of KFJC's venerated 'Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show', heard every Saturday morning between 9 am and 12 pm, on 89.7 FM.  Rob is the host and curator of this monthly film series, each program of which will occur on the fourth Sunday of the month.  This program will be held at the Old Fire Station at History San José's 1650 Senter Road (visit http://www.historysanjose.org/directions-kp.html for directions).  Films will run continuously from 1 pm - 4 pm.

On today's program:

'Geronimo Jones' 1970, 20m, dir. Bert Salzman. Possibly Salzman's hardest hitting film, Geronimo is a Papago-Apache youth who has been given the gift of an amulet worn by his grandfather. In buying a birthday present for the grandfather, Geronimo trades the amulet for a TV, which he places before the grandfather. When Geronimo turns on the TV, the two are instantly reminded or the relationship of the native American to contemporary society. A gripping film, winner of numerous festival awards, and perhaps the first and only educational film ever screened in the giant Radio City Music Hall in New York

'The Loon's Necklace' (1949) 10m, dir. F.R. Crawley. In spite of its didactic narration, this film has possibly won more awards than any other Canadian film, and has been seen by an estimated 33 million people. A native tale told through masks borrowed from the National Museum in Ottawa, the film has elements of Caligari, with ghost-like figures suddenly appearing against a set painted by cameraman Grant Crabtree, reminiscent of the work of Charles Burchfield.

'Dawn Riders: Native American Artists' (1976) 30m, dir. Donna & Bob DeWeese. Featuring Plains artists Woody Crumbo (Kiowa), Blackbear Bosin, and Dick West, who utilize pure color & line, eschewing shadows. Sociological and historical aspects of the art are discussed, with startling examples from the Philbrook Art Center and Gilcrease Museum collections of Tulsa.

'Discovering American Indian Music' (1971) 30m, dir. Bernard Wilets. Wilets' 'Discovering Music' series was not always as successful as the 'Man and the State' films (we're gonna ask him why the sitarist plays "The First Noel" in the 'India' film), but some were quite good, and this one was the best of all, avoiding the one-dimensional, austere sets which characterize much of the rest of the series. Showing the music of nations such as the Ute, Seneca, and Navajo in traditional surroundings, the film is a great ethnographic and cultural document, especially in the incredible hoop dance by George Flying Eagle of Taos, and the fine modern percussion ensemble led by Louis Ballard, Cherokee.

Wednesday, August 20, 2003...  Lost Films of Literature, Part I

Tonight's show is part of our ongoing focus on films that are no longer available through distribution, in any format. It is the first in a three-part series on lost language arts films. When considering academic film, most people think of science, history, and art films, without considering the dramatic impact Literature films had on classroom instruction. We will attempt to ameliorate this with some outstanding films, showing over the next three weeks.

Why do we call these "lost" films? They are no longer in distribution, and the people who made these films are either no longer distributing their films, are lost, and/or the film companies that produced and distributed them no longer exist. These films are an essential part of the preservation work that we, the Academic Film Archive of North America, include as a core element of our charter. We are the only archive in the United States focusing on preserving academic films, such as the ones on tonight's program; approximately 13% of our collection is defined as "lost".

Tonight’s films are:

'W.B. Yeats: a Tribute' (1950) 22m, dir. George Fleischmann & John D. Sheridan.  His coffin rides on bow of ship, returning to Ireland. This beautiful, brooding film is a fairylike visit to Yeats' Irish haunts punctuated by examples of his prose & poetry, read in a wonderful lilting manner. Aye, there's a visit to his grave, too, with the poet's (1865-1939) epitaph carved into the cold marble: "Cast a cold eye on life, on death. Horseman, pass by." This film was produced the Film Institute of Ireland.  2006 Update:  Archivist  Sunniva O'Flynn  writes that The Irish Film Archive of the Irish Film Institute has film copies as well as VHS and Beat SP reference copies of this film.

‘Days of Dylan Thomas’ (1965) 20m, dir. Graeme Ferguson, prod. Rollie McKenna. This beautiful film contains many still shots from the archives of producer McKenna, and features poems in Thomas' own voice, including the familiar strains of "Do not go gentle into that dark night" written for his dying father. Thomas was born in 1914 in Swansea, Wales, and died four days after drinking 18 straight whiskies, on 9 November 1953. McKenna, of whom the Guardian noted "did more to create the image of Dylan Thomas than anybody except Thomas himself", was a star in her own right. Her obituary makes interesting reading at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/obituary/0,12723,1002311,00.html This film was distributed in the U.S. by the long-defunct McGraw-Hill films.

‘Edgar Allen Poe: The Fever Called Living’ (1979) 20m, dir. Edwin L. Wilber. Poe grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and married his 14 year old cousin, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 24, plunging the writer into a life of melancholy. Poe was born in Boston in 1809, and died 7 Oct 1849, after being found in the street, delirious. This film is a tour of Poe's houses and various museums, and utilizes paintings by Bosch to illustrate his poems & stories. Leo Handel's Los Angeles-based Handel Film company, makers of this film, produced approximately 150 titles on numerous subjects. We believe the company went out of business sometime in the early 1990s, and its films are no longer available through any known source.

‘Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: a Self-Portrait’ (1975) 30m, dir. Harold Mantell. The noted author of ‘Slaughterhouse Five’ and other favorites talks of his youth, literature, and life. Mantell’s films are no longer in distribution.

Wednesday, August 13, 2003...  Lost Films of México, Part III: Art and Culture of México

'El Cumpleaños de Pepita' (1957) 14m, unknown director. Meant to be shown to students learning Spanish, this film transcends the didactic, and provides a glimpse into the Mexico that has, in many places, all too quickly disappeared. Pepita and her uncle travel to Lake Patzcuaro, get their pictures taken by an itinerant photographer, see wonderful dancers, and attend a birthday party. A sweet, wonderful film. (In Spanish)

‘Mexican Ceramics’ (1966) 18m, prod. Reino Randall andRichard Townsend. This highly informative, well-made film focused on four geograophical areas: 1) Coyotepec, 2) Metepec (the art of Timotéo), 3) Tonalá (the work of señores Palacios and Galván), 4) Puebla. Here we see low-fire pottery making as it was done by primitive methods before the potter's wheel, and the manufacture of the beautiful blue and white and polychrome high-fire pottery of Puebla. Randall, who is no longer living, was Associate Professor of Art, Central Washington University Ellensburg.

‘Market Place in Mexico’ (1974) 12m. dir. Severo & Judith Anne Pérez. This film addresses the socioeconomic conditions in the rural village marketplace of Ocotlán, illustrating how artisans, such as a serape maker, a potter and a rope maker, are dependent on one another's skills. Los Pérez compare similarities and differences between the contemporary market and its ancestor, the Aztec market of 500 years ago.

‘Textiles and Designs of Mexico’ (1947) 12m, prod. Kani Evans et al.. In Santa María del Río (San Luis Potosí) we see the making of rebozos on the backstrap loom, serapes, hat weaving , and sisal production.

‘Orozco Mural Quetzalcoatl’ (1962) 23m, dir. Robert Canton. Noted painter José Clemente Orozco was commissioned to paint a mural at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. His work is here accompanied by an outstanding orchestral score by Theodore Newman. This film was last distributed by Brandon, and became unavailable in the 1990s.

‘Posada’ (1964) 10m, dir. José Pavón. José Guadalupe Posada chronicled México’s revolutionary era through his woodcuts and broadsides, prior to the use of photographic reproductions in newspapers. A favorite target were ‘Los Científicos’, a cadre of intellectuals who ruled México in the epoch known as the "Porfiriato".. He also invented the ubiquitous ‘Catarina’, a skeletal woman who represents the vacuous nature of political dealings by President Porfirio Díaz and his associates.

Wednesday, August 6, 2003...  Lost Films of México, Part II: Pedagogical Films by Norteaméricano Filmmakers

These films were made by U.S.-based filmmakers, most of whom owned one-man companies, and shot, edited, and distributed their own work. As larger film companies tended to focus on U.S.-based subject matter, it was itinerant filmmakers such as these who introduced México to U.S. students. Films such as these were sold primarily to school libraries for use in elementary and junior high school classrooms in the U.S. While critics can correctly report that, in many cases, narrations are halting, and the occasional misappropriation of flamenco music is annoying, the scenes of 1950s México are charming and often spectacular, and the documentation of important artists and artisans is historically important.

‘Maguey: Plant of a Thousand Uses’ (1952) 14m, dir. Ralph Adams. Adams is a filmmaker whose life and work appear to be completely unknown today, as we have conducted a fruitless search to obtain biographical and filmographic information. Judging by the three films on tonight’s program, he covered a breadth of territory, and we suspect that he might have made dozens of films on Mexican themes. His narration is not the finest, but he was a very good cinematographer, and apparently insisted upon superior print materials, as his color is exceptional for the era. Here, he describes the myriad uses of this interesting plant, including fences, paper, tequila, pulque, needle and thread and rope.

‘Fisher Folk of Lake Pátzcuaro’ (1951) 16m, dir. Ralph Adams. The Taracsan Indians, living on the island of Janítzio, are shown fishing with their butterfly nets, in a rare and damaged film we’re hoping to completely restore, when finances permit.

‘Pottery Workers of Oaxaca’ (1952) 14m, dir. Ralph Adams. Adams features the legendary Zapotec potter Doña Rosa Real de Nieto, and her traditional technique of below-ground firing.

‘Mexican Village Life’ (1958) 15m, photographed by Willard C. Hahn, prod. Paul Hoefler. We profiled the life of this somewhat bizarre, peripatetic filmmaker on our show of November 5, 1998 (visit http://www.afana.org/98chrono.htm , then search for the date). Here, he travels to the village of San Diego de Tecoltepec (sp?) 6 miles from Toluca. He focuses on the harvesting of maguey juice, the washing clothes in-stream, and the town’s water cistern as the village has no running water. The villagers board a beautiful old bus to take their goods to the nearby market in Toluca, and walk home to avoid paying the fare of several centavos. Hoefler’s films are completely lost, as apparently there are no familial descendants. We were able to obtain the last vestiges of his own collection on a pallet of material from Hoefler’s estate that was sold to a gun collector as part of what was, presumably, a collection of arms and materiel.

‘Guadalajara Family’ (1958) 13m, photographed by Willard C. Hahn. Another Hoefler production, focusing on an upper-class family, military school, garden parties, etc. They enjoy life at a pristine lake nearby, and enjoy themselves and the rustic beauty, where father intends to build a development.

‘Taxco: Village of Art’ (1957) 17m. photographed by Willard C. Hahn, prod. Paul Hoefler. This film focuses on the art and architecture of Taxco, and visits the well-known Figueroa family of artists and dancers.

Wednesday, July 30, 2003...   Lost Films of México, Part I: Caminante del Mayab

Tonight’s show is part of our ongoing focus on films that are no longer available through distribution, in any format. It is also the first in a three-part series on lost films of México  In many cases, the people who made these films are lost, and the film companies that produced them no longer exist. These films are an essential part of the preservation work that we, the Academic Film Archive of North America, include as a core element of our charter. We are the only archive in the United States focusing on preserving academic films, such as the ones on tonight’s program; approximately 13% of our collection is defined as "lost".

An important aspect of our work is to bring attention to the fact that academic films are rapidly disappearing from libraries and archives around the globe. We do this in two ways: 1) by compiling notes on films and filmmakers on our www.afana.org website for the use of film scholars, and 2) by hosting public programs, to alert viewers and scholars alike that a film preservation crisis is at hand, by providing superior examples of such films in a cinematic setting. As always, you may participate in our important cause by making a contribution (we’re a 501c3 non-profit); you’ll find more information on our donation page at: http://www.afana.org/donations.htm A significant and common use of your donations is to pay shipping charges for film libraries donated to us; these film libraries are usually brought to our attention by organizations such as the Library of Congress, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the Smithsonian Institution, who understand the value of preserving these films, but cannot house them in their own collections, for varying reasons.

In three separate evenings, one week apart, we now focus on the lost films from México in our archive. We are confident you’ll enjoy their beauty, their content, and occasionally, their quirkiness. We believe it is the case as well, that unfortunately, you’ll probably only have an opportunity to see them here, at our venue.

Tonight’s films are:

‘Maya Are People’ (1951) 22m. dir. Les Mitchel.  Many explorer-adventurer hosts of historical/cultural films seemed to  view their subjects as "objects", rather than people, poking fun at their naïveté (e.g. Paul Hoefler and Carveth Wells), and picturing indigenous adults as children.  This is not the case with the wonderful and forgotten Les Mitchel, who treats his subjects as peers, obviously concerned about their fate in the increasingly modernized, mechanized world.  Here, he arrives in the Lacandon area of the Yucatan, shows the chief Obregon K’in (of Agua Azul village, Palenque) how to fire a pistol, then takes him on a plane-ride to view his ancestral ruins at Palenque.  Much of this magnificent film was shot at Lacanha Chan Sayab.  Overly-sensitive individuals will be put-off, no doubt at Mitchel’s politically-incorrect use of cigarette-as-tool, burning the leaf of a jungle plant to show its reflex to heat. At the end of the film, Mitchel delivers a heartfelt plea to save the culture from encroachment. All our attempts at finding any information on the filmmaker have failed.

‘Fabricantes Mexicanas de Ollas' (1962) 9m, prod. Stuart Roe. A wonderful film, depicting the making of ollas, large earthen jars, featuring Carmen Portillo of the Mayan village of Ubalama, firing clay above ground, utilizing branches and old boards for fuel. Like many films of the era, it is marred somewhat by the inclusion of a flamenco soundtrack, a musical form not indigenous to México. We are unable to find Roe, who lived in Sunnyvale, CA.

'Centinelas del Silencio' (1971) 18 m, dir. Robert Amram. The real star here is the late aerial photographer James Freeman, whose breathtaking helicopter shots of Mayan and Aztec ruins at sunrise and sunset won an Academy Award for this film in 1971. Although the English version was narrated by Orson Welles, the Spanish version we'll show tonight features narration by Ricardo Montalban, is in better keeping with the ethnic aspect of the film, and no knowledge of Spanish is needed to appreciate his dramatic impact. Don't be put off by the heroic musical score: this film is memorable, the last word on spectacular ruin cinematography. ‘Centinelas’ remains available on VHS only in México, while Amram has, according to at least one report, vanished south of the border. Freeman was killed while scouting a location for a commercial sponsored by Eastman Kodak.

Also on the program:

‘Ensenada’ (1956?) 23, prod. Bill Burrud. Burrud was the host/producer of the "Vagabond" travelogue series, popular in the mid-1950s. Here, he guides his Olds Rocket 88 down the backroads of Baja, guided by the legendary Sano Hussong. In addition to Ensenada, they visit the Babayov (sp?) family in the Russian town Guadelupe. 105 Russian families had migrated to Mexico in 1905, and founded a village and farmed the surrounding area. In this film, only 22 families are left, and remaining residents are concerned about their future, due to the declining birth rate. Burrud and Hussong also search out and find the last living immediate family member of Pancho Villa’s family, youngest brother Chico Villa, who lives on a remote ranch in the interior. Also mentioned is "Carlos the Trader" who takes Bill on a flight to San Quentín, for some duck hunting. This film is inaccessible to the public, and the original sits in the vaults of the late Burrud’s (b. Jan 12, 1925 - d. Jul 12, 1990) production company.

‘Baja California: the Pacific Coast of Mexico’ (1949) 12m, prod. Silas Johnson .  This film boasts beautiful color footage of old Baja, before Pemex stations lined the Cuota and Libre. Hunt travels from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas, enchantingly stopping at the waterless village of Magdalena Bay, Tortuga Bay, and the vineyards at Santo Tomás.

Sunday, July 27, 2003... Barinda Samra Presents the History San José Film Series, Part IV:   'Archaeology'      This program was funded in part by a grant from Arts Council Silicon Valley. 

This program will be held at the Old Fire Station at History San José's 1650 Senter Road (visit http://www.historysanjose.org/directions-kp.html for directions).  Films will run continuously from 1 pm - 4 pm.

On today's program:

'Riches of a City' (1970?) 30m, dir. eight directors. As jumbled as any film made by eight different cooks would be, this film none-the-less is a fascinating look at the Portland riverfront revitalization project, centered on Skidmore Fountain area. San Jose take note: good urban sculpture can be a reality, and saving important buildings can become the standard course of business, as witnessed here by the Portland Friends of Cast-Iron Architecture.

'Early Civilizations' (1979) 20m, dir. Wayne Mitchell. A history film, describing early communities and cultures from the Tigris to the Mediterranean.

'Centinelas del Silencio' (1971) 18 m, dir. Robert Amram. The real star here is the late aerial photographer James Freeman, whose breathtaking helicopter shots of Mayan and Aztec ruins at sunrise and sunset won an Academy Award for this film in 1971. Although the English version was narrated by Orson Welles, the Spanish version we'll show tonight features narration by Ricardo Montalban, is in better keeping with the ethnic aspect of the film, and no knowledge of Spanish is needed to appreciate his dramatic impact. Don't be put off by the heroic musical score: this film is memorable, the last word on spectacular ruin cinematography.

'Archaeologists At Work' (1962) 13m. Mitchell shows the process by which archaeologists search for Basketmaker artifacts along San Juan River, New Mexico (In Spanish)

'Mesa Verde: Mystery of the Silent Cities' (1975) 14m, prod. Bert Van Bork. Few could argue that this film sets the standard for historical films based on the Anasazi (an ancient Indian culture of the southwest U.S.) Flying within impossibly narrow canyons to achieve dizzying shots of cliff-dwellings, Van Bork burned through two pilots, one of whom quit in the middle of the shooting out of fear for his life. Van Bork's masterful shots were accomplished by removing the helicopter door, mounting the camera on a fixed mount, then directing the pilot through headphone microphone to fly in various trajectories. As if the breathtaking displays of the terrain and dwellings aren't enough, Van Bork also begins some pan shots with abstract architectural designs abruptly jutting out from behind incomplete shadowy formations, resembling more a German expressionist painting than an ancient, deserted town built into the rock. The filmmaker tells an interesting story about the narrator of the film, Jack Palance. Contacting the actor by telephone, Palance agreed to do the narration provided the script was acceptable, and, after reviewing it, suggested they meet at one of Hollywood's finest restaurants to discuss the project: Bob's Big Boy (the MacDonald's of its day). With Palance's dramatic interpretation of the text accompanied by the haunting percussion ensemble musical score by Hans Wurman, the film transcends the didactic historical and dry anthropological, and transfixes the viewer instead by offering an in-motion armchair view of the extreme location these long-forgotten people chose as home.

'Frames of Reference' (1960) 26m, dir. Richard Leacock. Utilizing a fascinating set consisting of a rotating table and furniture occupying surprisingly unpredictable spots within the viewing area, Frames of Reference (1960), features fine cinematography by Abraham Morochnik, and funny narration by University of Toronto professors Donald Ivey and Patterson Hume in a wonderful example of the fun a creative team of filmmakers can have with a subject that other, less imaginative types might find pedestrian.

Wednesday, July 23, 2003... Tales from the Dugout: Stories from the Baseball Archives

Although San Jose is the eleventh largest city in the U.S., one of the beauties of living in the shadows of San Francisco is that we have our very own Class A minor league baseball team, the San Jose Giants.  It's hands-down a heckofa lot more fun to visit Municpal Stadium on a warm summer night than it is to witness a ballgame at SF's PacBell Park, largely because of the minor league promotions like "smash-for-cash", in which an old jalopy is wheeled onto the field, and players attempt to throw a baseball through the headlights in order to win a lucky fan a pizza.  My own favorite is the "Beer Batter", a weak-hitting member of the opposing team.  Whenever he strikes out, all beers are 50% off for the next 15 minutes.  Major League baseball is too grown-up for that kind of stuff, and too bad.  I absolutely DREAD a major league team moving down here and taking away our fun, so I'd like to focus instead on major league baseball of the past, with two fine films that have merit whether you know the words to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" or not:

‘Biography of a Rookie’ (1961) 50m, dir. Mel Stuart. Stuart was probably best known for his compiliation documentaries made for David Wolper Productions. In 1961, he visited the LA Dodgers’ rookie camp to chart the progress of Willie Davis, a teenage track athlete trying to crossover into baseball. On the way, Willie & his mom sign the contract, he gets tutored by a paunchy, cigar-smoking talent scout, and we meet some of the players who were once and future legends. The film ends as the decision is made to keep Willie on the big club.  Davis went on to a noted career: he was a member of the National League All-Star team in 1971 and 1973 and won three Gold Gloves, 1971-73. In 1969, he had a 31-game hitting streak, tying the longest in franchise history. 

 In life, as in basebaIl, not every story has a happy ending.  On 04/15/97, USA Today reported:

Former Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Willie Davis was arrested March 14 while waving a samurai sword and ninja-style throwing stars in a confrontation with his parents over $5,000. Davis, 55, was picked up outside his parents' suburban Gardena home near Los Angeles. Davis, a former All-Star outfielder who played for the Dodgers from 1960 to '73, was clutching the weapons when deputies arrived at the home, authorities said. Charlie Davis, 85, and, Maudest, 76, who had locked themselves in a room of their house, told authorities their son demanded they give him $5,000. ''He told deputies that he would burn the house down if his parents wouldn't give him the money,'' deputy Jim Hellmold said. Davis was booked for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon, attempted extortion and exhibiting a deadly weapon.

The Glory of Their Times (1969) 50m, dir. Bud Greenspan.  Years ago, Lawrence Ritter wrote a wonderful book of the same name, chronicling the reminiscences of baseball player from years past, most in the 1910s and 1920s.  This film features a combination of audio interviews  with these old players, mixed with Greenspan's file footage of early baseball.  I'll confess it: the stentorian tones of narrator Alexander Scourby were never my favorite, but here, he's overruled by the rich pastiche of memories from a marvelous cast of characters, most of whom have since passed on.  

Wednesday, July 16, 2003...   Barinda Samra presents:  ciné16 Klessix... Can the power of poetry bring social, political and cultural change? 

This was the question asked at the recent "first-ever" national Poetry and Politics conference held in New Hampshire to discuss the role of poetry in society. In honor of this, we reach back into our "Klessix" vaults and revisit some of our favorite poets and experience the power of the spoken word...

‘A Visit with Carl Sandburg’ (1953) 30m, dir. Martin Hoade. Between 1952 and 1956, NBC embarked on a wonderful series of interviews with aging giants of the art world, called ‘Conversations with Elder Wise Men’ (ciné16 has already programmed two of these, Frank Lloyd Wright and Wanda Landowska). Here, the animated, 75 year old poet waxes profoundly on Republicans and hangings, discusses his arrest for riding the rails, reads from "Phizzog" "A Couple", and Sliphorn Jazz", plays guitar & sings "The State of El-a-noy" and "Before I’d Be a Slave". His sincerest passion, however is for Abraham Lincoln, as he discusses his life, and the joys of writing the biography of his beloved president.

‘Gwendolyn Brooks’ (1967) 30m, dir. Aida Aronoff. Here, the 1950 Pulitzer Prize winner reveals the lighter and darker elements of the Black urban and suburban experience, and the differentiation between "loneliness" and "alone".

'Wholly Communion' (1965) 35 m, dir. Peter Whitehead. The best poetry film we’ve ever seen... let's take the wayback machine to London's Royal Albert Hall in 1965, for a poetry convention featuring Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Adrian Mitchell, and our personal favorite Ernst Jandl (whose wordless poetry brings down the house in a pandemonious riot). About halfway through the film, the poets start heckling and fighting each other, and it breaks down into a great anarchic mess. A lovely film, and a great document of the short era between "beat" and "hip".

‘Speak White’ (1980) 10m, dir. Pierre Falardeau/Julien Poulin. Michèle Lalonde's acerbic French poem attacks the KKK, wars, protests, and poverty. Brilliantly read by Marie Eykel, accompanied by Julien Poulin’s neat musique-concrète score. Proof that the power of the forceful spoken word, accompanied by pictures, can overcome one’s inability to fully comprehend an unfamiliar tongue.

    photo by Lois Siegel

Thursday, July 10, 2003...  Transition and Crisis: A Retrospective on the Child and Teenaged Angst Films of George Kaczender

Note: This program originally ran on March 5, 1998, with the filmmaker present.  In the five years or so since this program, ciné16 audiences have changed, grown, and evolved.  I would guess that few have had the pleasure of experiencing the work of this important filmmaker. Kaczender's films were among the finest (and, we think, most important) academic social films of their time, and represented a revolution in the manner in which troubled children and youth were treated in film.  I feel that his films will eventually be recognized, historically, for their uniqueness of perspective and quality of execution.  

- Geoff Alexander

Notes to the show:

As opposed to the sanctimonious drivel often found in US-made films for and about teens “in trouble”, the National Film Board of Canada took the approach that angst can be an important element of the process by which an individual learns to live in a changing world. Emerging sexuality, a sense of independence, and poor or absent parenting may all contribute to the alienation portrayed by teen actors in the Film Board’s “sociodramatic” films, which generally ended without black and white conclusions or value judgments. After spending seven years editing some of the finest Film Board titles in the fifties and early sixties (two ‘ciné16’ favorites, ‘Rallye des Neiges’ and ‘Nahanni’ among them), filmmaker George Kaczender wrote and directed some of the strongest films ever produced on the important and challenging subject of young people in transition and crisis, and in doing so, heralded the important ‘Wednesdays Children’ series of films produced by Wolf Koenig two decades later. Using nontraditional camera angles, tight editing, and taking forays into surrealism, the Hungarian-born director’s films are so powerful that they were considered to be “political propaganda” by the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, who pushed the Department of Justice to attempt to force distributors to report who in the US was ordering the films (two of the films on tonight’s program, ‘Phoebe’, and ‘World of Three’, were among the targeted films) in order to classify such distributors as “foreign agents”. Kaczender left the Film Board in 1972, started an independent production company, and began making films for Bill Deneen ---  a guest several years ago at ciné16 --- at Learning Corporation of America. 

Unlike many of the greats of 16mm film, Kaczender thrives today as a presence in the 35mm film industry, both as a director (‘In Praise of Older Women’) and as a member of the selection committee for foreign film for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In case you’d like to rent videos of George Kaczender’s 35mm work, you may obtain a complete filmography by visiting the Kaczender page on the AFA website.   

We at ciné16 were amazed at the beauty, craftsmanship, and relevancy of these films, now over thirty years old. All five Kaczender films in the ciné16 archives are exceptional, and it was difficult to select the “top three” for the show.  

Tonight’s show includes:

‘You’re No Good’ (1965) 28m, dir. George Kaczender. Michael Sarrazin in his first dramatic role plays Eddie, who steals a motorcycle, then finds neither understanding nor compassion from friends, his girlfriend, or cops. Neat music score from “The Mersey Brothers”.

‘Phoebe’ (1964) 28m, dir. George Kaczender. This was the first half-hour drama produced by the Film Board, and is its second best seller of all time (US distribution was eventually picked up by the Learning Corporation of America). Adolescent Phoebe has just become pregnant, and deals with confusion, school, boyfriend, and parents. In portraying a young woman still sexually engaged with her boyfriend, the film angered religious elements in the U.S., and the State Department soon acted to ban this film. As a result, the "Rolling down the hill to a kiss" sequence, in the NFBC original from 13:30 to 14:26,  was deleted from US version by the Film Board.  Winner of five international awards, Kaczender’s Fellini-like drama speaks to adults and adolescents who choose or are forced by circumstance to swim against the stream.

‘World of Three’ (1966) 28m, dir. George Kaczender. Films about infants can be among the most boring films in the world (the Film Board has its share of these too, trust me), and if one doesn’t have children, they can be excruciating. It was therefore with a great degree of trepidation (and a few stiff shots) that your ciné16 review committee viewed ‘Three’ for the first time. To our shock, we found a film of startling beauty and mystery, as Kaczender views the world as a three year old. The camera tracks at a height of two feet, and words from adults are jumbled and we can’t always understand what’s being said. We explore the world around us, and can’t quite comprehend why those bigger people have the rules they do. Like the other films on tonight’s program, ‘Three’ brings the viewer into the perspective of the protagonist. Unlike the others, ‘Three’s cast is not given credit. Good thing we asked Kaczender: dad and mom are noted actors Peter Donat and Michael Learned, and their three year old son Lucas (now a filmmaker, incidentally) is the boy. Kaczender practically lived with the family for three weeks in order to get it right, and Lucas still remembers how difficult it was to break a vase as instructed (he knew it was wrong), and remembers his mom telling him that even though she might yell at him, it was only playing. Provocative, entertaining, and never “cute”, this is the best film on early childhood we’ve ever seen.   

Thursday, July 3, 2003... Fernandel: ‘The Sheep Has Five Legs’ (Le moutin à cinq pattes) 1954, 96m. dir. Henri Verneuil

From an original story by Albert Valentin, this film showcases the renowned French comic, Fernandel, who here plays the role of six people, a father and five sons who return home from various worldly adventures. The actor’s facility in portraying different roles is a remarkable tour-de-force.

Fernand Joseph Désiré Contandin was born in Marseilles in 1903, and began his career in 1921 in comic theatre. He adopted the stage name Fernandel after his mother-in-law referred to him as "Fernand d'elle". His film career began in 1930, and spanned 40 years, encompassing nearly 150 films.

 The author of the http://frenchfilms.topcities.com/nf_fernandel.html website notes: "Through his phenomenal film career, Fernandel became one of the icons of French culture in the Twentieth Century, instantly recognizable and regarded with affection by almost everyone who has seen his films. His blend of burlesque comedy, sardonic wit, engaging charm and poignant naïveté has a timeless quality which makes his films as watchable today as when they were first made… the director and writer Marcel Pagnol described Fernandel as the man who knew how to make people laugh, even those who have more reason to cry".

Fernandel, who died in 1971, is a name that more-than-occasionally crops up in discussions of the French comedy film, yet his work is nearly impossible to find in American cinemas. Again, we at the Academic Film Archive of North America encourage you to attend yet another rare screening of a film that you might not run across otherwise, and an actor whose talent transcends language.

Also on the program:

'Le plat du jour' (1972) 15m, dir. Georges Spicas.  This is another of those brilliant, witty foreign shorts that is good enough that it has undoubtedly won prizes, yet appears neither in the best-known film histories and catalogues, nor on the internet.  Same for the director.  One of the funniest films we've seen, 'Plat' is a non-narrated series of vignettes taking place in a terrible French restaurant, starring the animated Max Durand. 

Thursday, June 26, 2003... Two By Truffaut, Part II: 'Two English Girls' (held at the Agenda Speakeasy...)

"I understood that with this film, I had wanted to squeeze love like a lemon."

   - François Truffaut

'Two English Girls' (Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent) (1971) 108m, dir. François Truffaut.  Truffaut made 'Jules and Jim' in 1962 as a result of his discovery, in a bargain bookstore in 1955, of the Henri-Pierre Roché novel of the same name.  He soon discovered that this was the first published novel of a man 74 years old.  Eight years later, he would make "Two English Girls', based on Roché's second novel, 'Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent'.   Contrasting the two, the director would say "'Jules and Jim' is the story of two friends who love the same woman for a large part of their lives.  'Two English Girls' is that of two English sisters who love the same man for some twenty years."  Prior to making the film, Tuffaut read and re-read the book several times each year, until he knew certain passages by heart.  He would make annotations to the parts he felt would lend themselves well to the art of cinema, and turned over his notes to collaborator Jean Grault, who provided him with a daunting 500 page script.  Eventually, it was whittled to 200 pages.  

Although having acted on stage and radio, actresses Stacey Tenderer and Kika Markham has never appeared in a film, and had never acted in French.  They were tutored daily by the director.  Léaud, a veteran of Truffaut films as a child and adolescent actor, made his adult role film début here, and is surprisingly stiff, and seemingly uncomfortable in the new character.   I confess to being somewhat baffled at the interest the young women show in the dilletantish Léaud, but, upon reflection, remember the interest 20 year old female friends of mine once showed in a simple fellow from south San Jose who talked in a fake English accent.  In the western world, I'm clearly not the best judge, it seems,  of what makes the romantic heart tick in the clock of most relationship time-bombs.  

The story of the film surrounds the three protagonists, Léaud, Tenderer, and Markham, who meet each other in their early twenties, and are drawn to each other, romantically and platonically.  They are, to a degree, controlled by the actions of Léaud's mother, who has plans for her son that reach beyond the tendrils of romance.  The action plays itself out over decades.  

Truffaut noted that, due to the fine work of chief cameraman Nestor Almendros, it was the first color film of his six that he was totally satisfied with from first frame to last.  It was not initially greeted with critical acclaim, causing Truffaut to cut fourteen minutes from the release.  He pronounced himself satisfied with the final cut version, which we are showing tonight.  He deposited the original print with the Cinémathèque Française "for lovers of complete versions".

Sunday, June 22, 2003, at History San Jose... Robert Emmett Presents: the History San José Film Series, Part III:   Literacy

Robert Emmett is the Academic Film Archive's Public Relations Officer, and also the host of KFJC's venerated 'Norman Bates Memorial Soundtrack Show', heard every Saturday morning between 9 am and 12 pm, on 89.7 FM.  Rob is the host and curator of this monthly film series, each program of which will occur on the last Sunday of the month, and be shown at the Old Fire Station at History San José's 1650 Senter Road (directions) location.  Films will run continuously from 1 pm - 4 pm.

On today's program:

'Alphabet Conspiracy' (1959) 55m, dir. Robert Sinclair. This is the only Bell Science film to explore a subject not specifically related to a traditional "hard science", the study of language. Frustrated by the ambiguity inherent in the English language, the Mad Hatter (Hans Conreid) and Jabberwock attempt destroy Language by lighting an explosive charge under the world's great literature. On a fantastic, enlarged cartoon library set designed by William Kuehl, they convinced a young girl to  join their conspiracy, when Baxter as "Dr. Linguistics" arrives to illustrate the value of the written and spoken word. Guests range from jazz trumpeter Shorty Rogers, who banters in beat phrases, to  psychologist Keith Hayes, whose research on chimpanzee communication was made with chimp family member and guest Viki. 

'Strange Case of the English Language' (1968) 48m, prod. Andy Rooney. While 'Alphabet Conspiracy' can be viewed as a great children's film that adults may like as well, 'Strange Case' is a funny, occasionally acerbic film for adults that also appeals to bright kids. Rooney's tenure as '60 
Minutes' resident curmudgeon often masks the fact that he was a magnificently witty writer (e.g. his sobering 'Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed').  And how many reporters today are as adept at interpreting irony, amusement, and intellectual bewilderment as was the film's host, Harry Reasoner? But the real highlight of this film is an amazing interview with Peter Ustinov, who mimics American speech patterns.

'The Golden Lizard: A Folktale from Mexico' (1977) 19m, dir. Tom Smith. The director also tried his hand at 'magic realism', in one of the more unusual films distributed by Encyclopaedia Britannica Films.

'Maurice Sendak' (1965) 19m, prod. Morton Schindel. Sendak began his Caldecott winning book 'Where the Wild Things Are', in 1955, but it wasn't completed until 1963. Upon seeing this film, it's not difficult to see why it took so long. Sendak is a perfectionist, who built elaborate 
wooden toys as a child (he shows us a few of them, here), and counts Francisco Goya as one of his bigger influences.

'Where the Wild Things Are' (1976) 8m, dir. Gene Deitch. See notes above.

Thursday, June 19, 2003, at the Agenda Speakeasy... Two By Truffaut, Part I: Woman Next Door (La Femme d'à Côté)

It’s hard to believe: François Truffaut died in 1984. I think many of us who grew up with his films have them so firmly etched in our memories that, even though we know he’s gone, we swear it happened only last year, or a couple of years ago, perhaps. Next year, in late October, with mark the twentieth anniversary of his death.

At ciné16, we’ve been fortunate in being able to acquire several of his films. Generally, when they come up for sale, they’re ignored by most buyers, confounded by the French titles. In such cases, we’re grateful that most North Americans can’t speak French, as we’re the fortunate beneficiaries of our country’s relative lack of language expertise. Here, we’ve already shown Truffaut’s ‘Jules et Jim’ and ‘Shoot the Piano Player’, and for the next couple of weeks, have the pleasure of presenting two more films by this writer-turned-filmmaker, who became one of the mainstays of the nouvelle vague that washed across the Continent in the mid-to-late 1950s, and influenced a generation of world filmmakers. ‘Two English Girls’ and ‘The Woman Next Door’ are not the first films mentioned by those who admire Truffaut’s work, but each is a finely crafted story of psychological drama, exploring the aspects of romance that are unsettling but not uncommon.

Here in San Jose, I often bemoan the lack of resources for film scholarship. Once you’re out of college, good luck at finding venues here willing to program films of the French New Wave or Italian Neo-Realism schools. And too bad, because viewing such films forms a sound framework for understanding the cinema that came later, from the perspective of language, conventions, and spirit. For the next two weeks, we’re programming films made by a master auteur who died before his time. These films are not easily seen today, and we hope you’ll take advantage of the opportunity of viewing them now.

This week's film:  

'Woman Next Door' (La Femme d'à Côté)  (1981) 106m, dir. François Truffaut.   Here, Truffaut offers his treatise on "extreme states of love", a story of out of control passion within the boundaries  of traditional marriage.   The principals, played by Fanny Ardent and Gérard Depardieu, are not married to each other, however.  They find themselves placed in close proximity, for the first time in eight years, by virtue of the accident of a house that becomes available for rent.  Their compulsion to relive the past becomes stronger than their desire to remain cloistered in safe relationships, challenging viewers to question the definition, and perhaps the value, of marriage within the western context.  

This is Ardent's first film.  She had apprenticed for five years in French theatre, and Truffaut selected her for her "vitality, courage, enthusiasm, humor, intensity... a shy wildness, a touch of savageness..."  Depardieu, after the shooting of the first scene, told the director: "When Fanny looked me in the eyes to say hello, she terrified me and now I can see what we're going to make: a film about loves that strikes fear."  

Ultimately, the film serves as a fine antidote for the sappy pabulum that constitutes virtually every romantic film made today.  In discussing the film, Truffaut noted "In times past, the happy ending was the wedding.  Yet Sacha Guitry used to say: 'A comedy that ends in a wedding, that's a tragedy that's beginning.'  For me, a happy ending is not necessarily a happy end."

Thursday, June 12, 2003... First Run:  "Lost" films for the Aurora Picture Show's ‘Media Archaeology’ program.

Earlier this year, Houston's Andrea Grover asked several film archives to participate in a film symposium on elements specific to their collections.  We were among those chosen to participate.  We've elected to present an important part of our collection, "lost" films that will, in all probability, never be in distribution again in the United States.  Although the program is scheduled to run in Houston in Grover's Aurora Picture Show (www.aurorapictureshow.org) in 2004, we are previewing it here, first, in San Jose.  Our film notes are as follows:

The mission of The Academic Film Archive of North America (San Jose, CA) is to