Friday,
August 17 + Saturday, August 18
Directors
in Focus: Chris Marker
 Chris
Marker (Christian FranÇois Bouche-Villeneuve) is one of the
world's most highly regarded and experimental figures in cinema.
His classic fiction film and best-known work, La Jetee,
was made in 1962; his first feature-length documentary was produced
a decade before. Marker’s documentary work includes profiles
of the artists Matta and Christo, and film directors Tarkovsky
and Kurosawa. Marker's film works make deliberate use of a restricted
visual palette, adopting the techniques of cinema's silent era,
using dissolves, subtitles and montage effects.
In the
1990s he began working with new technologies, reworking elements
from his earlier film and television for the video installation
Zapping Zones (1992). Marker's video works range from
idiosyncratic documentaries to poetic meditations. Among his
most recent projects are an interactive CD-Rom entitled Immemory
(1998) and the feature film Level Five.
Writes Bill Horrigan, curator at the Wexner Center for the Arts
in Columbus, Ohio: "Although Marker is widely regarded
as one of the few indispensable, inimitable figures of post-World
War II international cinema, it becomes clear that, for him,
cinema is simply one expressive domain, one 'zone' and perhaps,
at
that, an interim or intermediate one. Having recently written,
'I betrayed Gutenberg for McLuhan a long time ago,' the genuinely
self-critical Marker continues to experiment with new technological
frontiers..."
Accompanying
Directors in Focus: Chris Marker
Workspace
Marker: An Exhibition of Immemory
Chris
Marker, Experimental CD-ROM. 1998. Editions du Centre Pompidou
(Paris)
Friday,
August 17 at 7pm
Cinema
of Our Times - Cinema, de notre temps
One
Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich
dir.
Chris Marker, France, 1999, BetaSP, 55 mins, color, French/English/
Italian/Russian
w/ English subtitles
Introduced
by Sam DiIorio, Assistant Professor - 20th Century Literature,
French Literature and Film, Hunter College
 Widely
regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century,
Andrei Tarkovsky has achieved a mythic status with such visionary
masterpieces as Andrei Rublev, Solaris and
Stalker. Through close readings of Tarksovsky's films
- including rare scenes from his student film and a practically
unknown production of Boris Goudonov - Marker attempts
to locate Tarkovsky in his work. Parallels drawn by Marker between
Tarkovsky’s life and films offer an original insight into the
reclusive director. With behind-the-scenes footage of Tarkovsky
obsessively commanding his entire crew, and candid moments of
Tarkovsky with his friends and family, bedridden but still working
on the editing of his final film, One Day in the Life of
Andrei Aresenevich is a personal and loving portrait of
the monumental filmmaker.
with
The
Last Bolshevik (Le Tombeau d’Alexandre)
dir.
Chris Marker, France, 1992, BetaSP, 116 mins, color, French
w/ English subtitles
 Based
on the life and work of the Russian film director Alexander
Medvedkin (1900-1989), The Last Bolshevik is a tribute
from one filmmaker to another. An archeological expedition into
film history that reveals new cinematic treasures, the film
prompts a reflection on the relation between art and politics
in the former Soviet Union. From Medvedkin's classic 1934 satire
Happiness, and the 'film train' which he directed in
the 1930s, to his sardonic comedies and bitter war newsreels,
Chris Marker draws a panorama of the artistic, political, and
moral universe of a life and a country, bringing it right up
to date with his own vision of Russia today.
Saturday,
August 18 at 7pm
Marker
Short Films
...A
Valparaiso
dir.
Joris Ivens, France/Chile, 1962, 16mm, 34 mins, b/w and color,
w/ English subtitles
 In
1962 Joris Ivens was invited to Chile for teaching and filmmaking.
Together with students he made ...A Valparaiso, one
of his most poetic films. Contrasting the prestigious history
of the seaport with the present the film sketches a portrait
of the city, built on 42 hills, with its wealth and poverty,
its daily life on the streets, the stairs, the rack railways
and in the bars. Although the port has lost its importance,
the rich past is still present in the impoverished city. The
film echoes this ambiguous situation in its dialectical poetic
style, interweaving the daily life reality (of 1963) with the
history of the city and changing from black and white to color,
finally leaving us with hopeful perspective for the children
who are playing on the stairs and hills of this beautiful town.
Commentary text by Chris Marker.
The
Sixth Face of the Pentagon
dir.
Chris Marker, France, 1968, BetaSP, 28 mins, color, French w/
English subtitles
The
Sixth Face of the Pentagon
is a sympathetic observational account of the progress of the
March on the Pentagon: the mass mobilization against the Vietnam
war that took place on October 21, 1967. The various groups
that participated in it, shaped by its quickly acknowledged
significance as a turning point for the anti-war movement, marked
the point at which the tactics shifted from peaceful protest
to direct confrontation.
The
Embassy
dir.
Chris Marker, France, 1973, BetaSP, 20 mins, color, French w/
English subtitles
In
1973, Marker foregrounded the duplicitous nature of the cinematic
medium in his film The Embassy. Filmed in Super 8 with
a handheld camera in the style of cinema verite, the piece is
narrated by an anonymous cameraman who records in an unidentified
embassy two days after a coup d’etat. The film’s elusive opening
words (“This is not a film.”) are filled with meaning when the
myth of cinematic realty is debunked.
Matta
dir. Chris Marker, France,
1985, BetaSP, 18 mins, color, French w/ English subtitles
During a 1985 exhibition the artist
Matta takes Marker on a tour of his work. His wide-ranging commentary
covers art-historical and philosophical questions about art
and audience in a manner both mischievous and profound. Matta
is an energized subject throughout the interview, and Marker's
prowling, hand-held camera perfectly captures this sensation.
with
Chris
Marker's Bestiary: Five Short Films about Animals
Animals
in Chris Marker's films often function as cultural or political
metaphors ("A cat is never on the side of power,"
Marker has explained). In this anthology of short films, however,
Marker avoids the commercial cinema's tendency to anthropomorphize
animals in favor of a simple celebration of their exotic beauty,
primal nature and mystery.
Cat
Listening to Music
dir.
Chris Marker, France, BetaSP, 2006, 3 mins, color
 Marker
fans are familiar with the cartoon representation of Guillaume-en-Egypte,
Marker's beloved pet cat, which has become the reclusive filmmaker's
alter ego. In this charming short, Marker reveals the real-life
Guillaume, stretched out lazily in the filmmaker's apartment,
as he listens to the lilting rhythms of a piano sonata by Federico
Mompou.
An
Owl is an Owl is an Owl
dir.
Chris Marker, France, BetaSP, 2006, 3 mins, color
A
visit to an aviary yields a rhythmically edited series of close-ups
of the rapidly rotating or intently staring feathered heads
of a colorful variety of owls, accompanied by an ambient electronic
soundtrack
Zoo
Piece
dir.
Chris Marker, France, BetaSP, 2006, 3 mins, color
A
leisurely-paced montage of animals, many of them confined in
cages or enclosures-including seals, kangaroos, leopards, gorillas,
wolves, monkeys, ostriches, and a sleeping rhinoceros.
Bullfight in Okinawa
dir.
Chris Marker, France, BetaSP, 2006, 5 mins, color
Two
enormous black bulls engage in a contest of brute force, egged
on by their screaming handlers, as they butt heads and lock
horns in an attempt to rout their opponent.
Slon
Tango
dir.
Chris Marker, France, BetaSP, 2006, 5 mins, color
In
this astonishing, sustained shot, an elephant in the Ljubjana
Zoo ambles around its enclosure, performing syncopated dance
steps to the accompaniment of Igor Stravinsky's "Tango."
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