Thursday,
November 1 - Saturday, November 3
Views
of a Changing World, 3rd Edition
Film
@ International House presents the third edition of Views
of a Changing World, a selection of contemporary documentaries
which demonstrate many of the technological and formalistic
changes in the making of today’s films. Moreover, the films
still retain the ingredients of traditional documentary, history,
and images in real time through which each one of us can make
that crucial aesthetic decision as to what may be true and what
is open for question.
“These
are the best and the worst times for documentaries,” says producer
Philip Hampson. “There have never been so many ways to make
a difference, and never so many practical difficulties doing
that.” Views of a Changing World examines
those practical difficulties.
Thursday,
November 1 at 7pm
Rocky
Road to Dublin
dir.
Peter Lennon, Ireland, 1967, BetaSP, 89 mins, b/w
 Rocky
Road to Dublin is
a provocative and revealing portrait of Ireland in the Sixties.
The film captures an Ireland on the cusp of enormous social
changes but still mired in a regressive, semi-theocratic mentality.
Chosen as one of eight films to be shown during critics' week
at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, it did not get a theatrical
run in Ireland. Although the film could not be officially banned
since it contained no sex, the Irish government prevented it
from being screened in cinemas or by state broadcaster RTE.
The ban remained in place for more than thirty years - except
for a few private screenings in the 1990s - until the film was
restored in 2004.
followed
by
The
Making of Rocky Road to Dublin
dir.
Paul Duane, Ireland, 2004, BetaSP, 27 mins, b/w
This
documentary reunites director Peter Lennon and cinematographer
Raoul Coutard, who recount the making of their then controversial
but now classic documentary on Ireland in the 60s. Rocky
Road to Dublin, screened for only a few weeks at a single
Dublin theater, was critically condemned and accused of being
Communist-funded. But as Lennon explains, while the Irish saw
Rocky Road to Dublin as an insult, the French saw
it as a film.
Friday,
November 2 at 7pm
Notes
on Marie Menken
dir. Martina Kudlacek, USA, 2006, 35mm, 97 mins, color and
b/w
 Notes
on Marie Menken explores the nearly forgotten story of
the legendary artist Marie Menken (1909 -1970), who became one
of New York's outstanding underground experimental filmmakers
of the 40s to the 60s, stimulating artists such as Stan Brakhage,
Andy Warhol, Jonas Mekas, Kenneth Anger and Gerard Malanga.
Menken was the inspiration for the character Martha in Edward
Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (her husband
filmmaker and poet Willard
Maas was the basis for
George), and became a Warhol Superstar. The film presents never-before-seen
footage by Marie Menken salvaged from basements and storage
vaults, including a camera "duel" for Bolexes between
Menken and Andy Warhol. New York composer and musician John
Zorn contributes a wonderful film score for this revealing documentary,
which allows a glimpse into Menken's social and artistic struggle.
2006
Tribeca and Rotterdam International Film Festivals Selection.
followed
by
Short
Films by Marie Menken and Stan Brakhage
Originally
an abstract painter and collage artist, Menken produced nearly
two dozen experimental shorts, using a hand-held Bolex to create
rhythmic patterns of light, color, form and texture, visual
poems that extracted beauty from the world around her. We present
a selection of Menken’s films as well two by Stan Brakhage to
provide greater context and enjoyment of Martina KudlÑcek’s
remarkable film.
Arabesque
for Kenneth Anger
dir.
Marie Menken, USA, 1960, 16mm, 4 mins, color
Eye
Music in Red Major
dir.
Marie Menken, USA, 1961, 16mm,
5.5 mins, color, silent
Visual
Variations On Noguchi
dir.
Marie Menken, USA, 1945, 16mm, 4 mins, b/w
Moonplay
dir.
Marie Menken, USA, 1964-66, 16mm, 5 mins, b/w
Notebooks
dir.
Marie Menken, USA, 1962-1963, 16mm, 10 mins, b/w and color,
silent
The
Thatch of Night
dir. Stan Brakhage, USA, 1990,
16mm, 5 mins, color
Visions
in Mediation #3: Plato's Cave
dir. Stan Brakhage,
USA, 1990, 16mm, 6 mins, color
Saturday,
November 3 at 2pm
Our
Daily Bread (Unser taglich Brot)
dir.
Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Germany, 2006, 35mm, 92 mins, color, German
and Polish w/ English subtitles
 Our
Daily Bread reveals
the little-known world of high-tech agriculture. In sealed rooms,
as sterile as computer microprocessor factories, chicks hatch
while being closely monitored. A huge hose sucks salmon out
of a fjord. Metal teeth chomp up fields of sunflowers which,
thanks to chemicals, have withered at just the right time. On
mechanized conveyer systems, chickens are cut up and pigs are
gutted in seconds, although cows take a little longer. Dispensing
entirely with explanatory commentary or 'talking-head' interviews,
Our Daily Bread unfolds on the screen like a disturbing
dream.
Saturday,
November 3 at 7pm
In
The Pit (En el Hoyo)
dir.
Juan Carlos Rulfo, Mexico, 35mm, 2006, 84 mins, color, Spanish
w/ English subtitles
 According
to a Mexican legend, for every bridge being built, the devil
asks for one soul – just as a guarantee for the bridge’s durability.
In Juan Carlos Rulfo's documentary In The Pit, this
old legend takes mammoth proportions. Made of more than 17 kilometers
(more than 10.5 miles) of elevated asphalt rising above working
class neighborhoods, the Second Deck is a major urban project
set to transform Mexico City. The most impressive information
about this elevated freeway is the sheer number of lives that
it impacts.
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