Monday, November 23, 2009

Thursday November 26th Marjorie Keller

We will be watching three shorts by Marjorie Keller on Thursday November 26th @ 11:30 pm. @ OFS.

SHE/VA 1973, 16mm, 3 min
DAUGHTERS OF CHAOS 1980 16mm, 20 min
HEREIN 1991, 16mm, 35 min

3 comments:

  1. ...for me, the post apocalyptic family glow of watching this work on thanksgiving lent these really incredible films a palpable undercurrent. The fracturing of the narrative that happens in these movies, a narrative that is demanded of most movies, even experimental ones, feels really liberating...especially in the framework of making politically motivated work like Keller's. If you're like me, you might ask yourself all the time: "How to make effective political work that doesn't play by the rules and incites the viewer to act, to work and to think?" Marjorie Keller's work is a breathing example. a seed...a germ...an egg...more!

    Thanks Kanako!

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  2. I didn't understand the last movie, but I think for me seeing these movies on Thanksgiving was not good...I like to watch (or read or listen to) stuff that makes me feel connected to my family at those times....I always watch The Last Waltz (which was filmed on Thanksgiving day 1976) on Thanksgiving and often on Xmas and find myself wishing I knew how to play songs that everyone could sing together. I am not Christian (but I love exchanged gifts and the Pagan aspects of Xmas) or a willing participant in colonialism (but it's my favorite food holiday), but my family is my connection to working class America and I find myself wanting something "rootsy" or folk. It's a time when I look for the common thread that connects me to my grandparents, my great grandparents and what their stories are. So I was unprepared to see an arty abstract experiemental work. My mind was unfocused. I was thinking about how I was raised to hate and mistrust visual art as high art, but how I was simultaneously exposed to critical acclaimmed, substantial 20th century Hollywood film as a kid and how meaningful and formative that was, what a family experience it was for us as kids...I still mistrust anything that can be called "high art" or shown in a gallery or a museum. It is a bias that I occassionally try to talk myself out of, but really honestly I am unsuccessful. That said, I can tell these are good film, I just didn't connect to them last night. I'd love to see them again.
    On a positive note, the reminded me of Kathi Wilcox's short feminist films she made in the early 90's as a student at TESC. Not sure if that is a direct influence or what. She was studying with Lori Meeker at the time.
    Thanks Kanako for showing these movies.

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