Filtering by: Screening
Apr
27
8:30 PM20:30
Screening

ICDOCS presents Sara Sowell: image (index)

We’re excited to partner with the UI Cinematic Arts Department’s student-run experimental documentary film festival, ICDOCS, to present a program featuring one of this year’s festival jurors, Sara Sowell.

Dada’s Daughter / Sara Sowell

Dada’s Daughter is an ongoing expanded-cinema performance with 16mm film projections and a live score using objects of illusionary optics and industrial scrap. Abstractions of light and pattern reintroduce photographic practices of early 20th century Dada films by way of darkroom techniques and improvisation. Spliced in between photograms and negative images, sections of clear film leader cue a live performance activating the remote objects photographed on celluloid through the immediacy of the film projector’s beam. When placed in front of the projector these objects create tactile optical images; impressions of form, shape and pattern that reenact the process of capturing images on celluloid.

Jews Harp or: Harpaud / Sam Taffel / United States // 2023 // 0:06:29

“If I held you any closer, I’d be on the other side of you” – Groucho Marx

An examination of identity seen through the lens of the Marx Brothers and Antonin Artaud’s “Theatre of Cruelty.” Appropriating sounds, images and thoughts from The Marx Brothers, Wayne Koestenbaum, Elaine May, Susan Sontag and Artaud, “Jews Harp or: Harpaud” reflects on impersonation, doppelgängers, and the nature of Vaudeville as a shared art form / cultural practice. Gesturing towards performance as a form of survival, the effect of mirroring becomes a means of finding wholeness.

Another Rapid Event / Daniel Murphy / 2023

in 1859, two telegraph operators communicate using the radiant energy from a massive solar storm as their sole power source. In 2012, radiation from a comparable solar storm narrowly misses the earth.

이것은 보이는 것과 다르다: This Isn’t What It Appears / Heehyun Choi / 2022

Among everything obscure in an image, there is always the camera. This Isn’t What It Appears reconstructs and radicalizes the ways to see and interpret archival photographs of Korean women taken in the 1950s by American soldiers stationed in South Korea. This film attempts to reveal the camera within the frame, not as an omniscient eye but as a reciprocal medium that subverts the hierarchy in an image.

View Event →
Nov
3
7:00 PM19:00
Screening

Ordinary Survival Iowa City screening

Join us at PS1 Close (538 S. Gilbert) for an in-person screening of works from The Center for Afrofuturist Studies’ virtual film festival ORDINARY SURVIVAL followed by a live virtual talk-back with filmmakers.

Admission is free with the purchase of a festival pass, or make a donation (suggested: $20) at the door!

featuring 6 films by:
Shahkeem Ez'rom Williams
Akwi Nji
Aryel R. Jackson
Johanna Makabi

View Event →
Friendly Faces web series screening
Jul
9
6:30 PM18:30
Screening

Friendly Faces web series screening

They're here to be your new best friends!

Friendly Faces is an Iowa-based web series following the exploits of Ollie Hart and Dean Overstreet as they set out to launch a rent-a-friend service for the eccentric residents of Harmony. These 8 comedic episodes from 8 Iowa directors sees the boys on a casket shopping spree, being kidnapped by a murder clown, and going on a double date with a ghost as they navigate building authentic connections with their clients.

The series will screen in it's entirety, and your finest yellow attire (the series' signature color) is strongly encouraged!

Doors open at 6:30 PM with the show starting at 7:00!

Want to learn more about the show? Check out the trailer and other content on our page as well as friendlyfaces.show.

The cost, you ask? FREE! Although donations to Public Space One are absolutely welcome. Come laugh with us!

View Event →
Mar
24
7:00 PM19:00
Live, Screening

mythicPotentialities [plus q&a with artist Lawrence Andrews]

mythicPotentialities (2021), is an hour-long imageless film created by Lawrence Andrews. Focused on the murder of Emmett Till and the trial that followed, this sound-based artwork examines the way events are filtered through Civil Rights documentaries like Eyes on the Prize and The Murder of Emmett Till. The piece questions the nature of historical time in the face of racial injustice. Lawrence Andrews is a two-time recipient of the NEA Individual Artist Grant and his work has shown in the Whitney Biennial and the Museum of Modern Art. Presented by Vertical Cinema and PS1.

The screening will be followed by a virtual Q&A with artist Lawrence Andrews.

 Lawrence Andrews is an artist, and currently an Associate Professor of Film and Digital Media Arts University of California, Santa Cruz, CA. His work has shown extensively throughout the U.S. and internationally in museums, galleries, and major festivals including the Whitney Biennial, The New York Museum of Modern Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Pacific Film Archive, and the American Film Institute, as well as on cable television.

 

 

more about the work: Set in the Tallahatchie County Second District Courtroom in Sumner, Mississippi, mythicPotentialities is an exploration of the event said to have galvanized the civil rights movement in America, the murder of Emmett Till, the trial that followed, and the way these event have been mediated through documentary text like Eye’s on the Prize, The Murder of Emmet Till, and numerous other books, play’s, poems and articles. The work uses as its entry point how these text, both documentary and fiction have constructed Till’s Uncle, Moses Wright, from a limited list of predicates, and as a result fall far short of capturing the complexity of his being. The project then moves on to draws a connections between this documentary predication of Wright, and Giorgio Agamben’s resistance to predication as expressed in his notion of “whatever being”. The essay also explores, what happens when we destabilize our notion of what constitutes blackness with the absence of predication, and reconstitute it as an open space of creativity, play and invention, a place of pure potentiality, rather than a stable category of existence. Sonically the work also draws relationships between this absence of predication, and how sound space can be heard without the language we use to describe it, asking the listener to embrace the sensuous aspects of pure sound.



View Event →
Nicky Tavares virtual screening + Q&A
May
13
6:30 PM18:30
Screening

Nicky Tavares virtual screening + Q&A

Join us for a virtual screening of work by Nicky Tavares! This event is second in a series featuring Iowa-based or connected media artists. A program of selected work by Tavares will be followed by a live Q&A.

Anaglyph 3D glasses are recommended. You can pick up a free pair on the porch of 229 N. Gilbert starting Sunday May 9!

Nicky Tavares is a multimedia artist whose work sheds light on systemic inequalities through personal storytelling. Her work has evolved through an array of media – photography, film, video, animation, sculpture, VR 360, as well as across film forms and presentation formats such as documentary, installation, GIFS, and moving image projections for live performance. This process of evolution has been intuitive; with each project she simply looks for the best creative tools that will serve the content. Nicky’s work has been shown internationally in both gallery and screening room contexts, including New Directors/New Films at the Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; TIE: The International Experimental Film Exposition; IMPAKT Festival; the Dallas Medianale Festival; Balagan Experimental Film and Video Series; and Other Cinema. Nicky is currently an Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies in the Department of Art at Grinnell College. nickytavares.com

This program is supported by a grant from the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.

This program is supported by a grant from the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.

 

Program:

Untitled Bee Film, 2019 (5 min, 16mm film)
A medicinal visitation with backyard spiritual guides of earth. A coat of sugared violence reveals the energetic drain of varroa destructor, a parasitic mite. Untitled Bee Film is part of a larger multimedia body of work that explores both the history of apitherapy and the current phenomenon of bee colony collapse disorder.

Searching for Beauty in Student Loan Debt or at Least the Envelopes in Which It Comes, 2020
(7 min, screenprints on 16mm film for viewing in anaglyph 3D or not)
Don your 3D glasses, open your mind, allow the denial of questionable financial decisions made by an aspiring young artist to dissolve on your tongue, and take a trip over 10 years to a delusory destination where the student loan debt crisis and one advanced art degree converge. Lean into the darkness of capitalized interest or remove your glasses and dream in color of solvency that may never come. Energetically steeped in student loan pay-off balances that exceed original borrow amounts and dedicated to all artists who understand but cannot bear to speak of it. 

“Nicky Tavares’s Searching for Beauty in Student Loan Debt or at Least the Envelopes in Which It Comes, an anaglyph 3D short made from screenprints on 16mm, is bedazzling in its patterned assortment of blue and red blots, and quietly bone-chilling in its sonic collage of credit-chasing voicemail harassment.”  – Michael Pattison, Sight & Sound: The International Film Magazine, Winter 2020-21

Garfunkel Is Dead, 2019 (2 min, experimental animation)
When I was 10 years old my mom accidentally killed my cat. I never let her forget it. 

Call Me by Heart, 2011/2015 (2.5 min, 16mm collage film with optical soundtrack)
A handmade film constructed out of the Boston White Pages and family mementos collected from estate sales, Call Me by Heart commemorates the publicly listed residential phone number while reflecting upon changing perceptions of public and private information. 

Notes from the Lower Rungs on Being Chronically Tan and Enflamed, 2021 (work-in-progress)
A virtual pandemic baby grows up in a childrearing learning module as junior faculty reflect on their tumultuous journeys climbing the academic ladder.


View Event →
an evening with Danny & Luke: MAC intern screening
Jun
1
7:00 PM19:00
Screening

an evening with Danny & Luke: MAC intern screening

In 2019, PATV and PS1 went through a nonprofit merger, bringing some of the long time mission points of Public Access Television under the banner of the Iowa City community arts organization, Public Space One, with the creation of their new Media Arts Co-op program.

Two individuals were in the unique position to span this organizational restructuring, starting an internship under PATV and finishing it with PS1 at the Meda Arts Co-op. After the onset of the CV19 global pandemic, this internship shifted once again and Danny and Luke demonstrated their resilience in going with the flow.

This flow has led to a final presentation of their work which will take place online via the Media Arts Co-op Facebook page on Mon, June 1st at 7p., followed by a conversation and Q & A with Luke & Danny.

Screen Shot 2020-05-29 at 3.06.12 PM.png

about Luke & Danny:

Luke Johnson grew up in a small town in rural northwest Iowa. He has always immersed himself in animation and a lifelong passion for trains and other moving vehicles such as construction vehicles machines, race cars, tugboats, and airplanes. Because Luke likes trains so much, he has read about them found out more about their history and global details.

To help fuel this passion, Luke attended the Have Dreams Film Camp in Evanston, IL; Exceptional Minds Studios Summer Workshops in animation and visual effects in Los Angeles, CA; and Film Scene’s Adult Animation Camp in Iowa City, IA.

After high school graduation and a gap year, Luke was accepted into the University of Iowa’s REACH Program. In addition to his REACH curriculum, Luke takes traditional UI courses in animation, graphics design, drawing, and 3-D design in the colleges of cinema arts, theatre arts, and general art.

Luke enjoys his vibrant REACH internships working in video and animation with Public  Space One and Iowa City Channel 4.

In his off-time, Luke can usually be found researching for his many animated shows-in-progress, learning new technology, and practicing his art for the wholesome, entertaining children’s shows he plans to produce someday.

Daniel McGregor-Huyer grew up in the small town of Mahtomedi, Minnesota. From a very young age, Daniel was very immersed in the world of film. Back in High School, he would sneak into the school theater after class to watch movies on a big projector screen. His primary influences were Steven Spielberg, Walt Disney, Martin Scorsese, and Christopher Nolan. He watched many films from the small school projects from legendary directors to revolutionary and groundbreaking masterpieces. His top 5 favorite films include Fantasia, The Irishman, Inception, Lincoln, and Citizen Kane. These films “create life in a beautiful way that can stimulate the mind and inspire you to create worlds that no one would want to leave.” 

After getting denied by colleges, Daniel turned his attention to the UI REACH program. There, he developed friendships and relationships that he says “will last a lifetime.” Despite limitations, he continued to challenge himself to go above and beyond as a student leader in the REACH program and eventually becoming the founding member and first president of the UI REACH student council. He took cinematic arts classes at the university that involved the art of film production, analysis, history, and film criticism to expand his knowledge and understanding of the film world. 

Daniel took internships at art organization Public Space One, government-sanctioned Iowa City Channel 4, and the now-extinct PATV Iowa City. He considers the internships “to help develop his skills behind the camera.” He also says that it “made him fall in love with Iowa City even more.”

Away from his schooling, Daniel can be found listening to varieties of music. From classical music to classic rock to hip-hop to polka (yes, you heard that correctly). He also plays Ukelele, Bass, and Piano. He is also a huge sports fan. His favorite teams are the Minnesota Vikings, LA Dodgers, Minnesota Twins, Denver Broncos, LA Lakers, and Minnesota Wild. His favorite sports players are Von Miller, Larry Fitzgerald, Cody Bellinger, Kobe Bryant, Harrison Smith, and Devin Dubnyk. He loves making promotional videos for the UI REACH program by going to numerous events to record and interact with students, mentors, and staff. “UI REACH has given so much to me, I think it was best to return the favor.”

He will continue to strive for a career in film and keep moving forward to the next destination.

View Event →