‘Silent Journey to Lyric Nature’ Article on the Films of Nathaniel Dorsky

Manohla Dargis pays tribute to Canyon filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky in last week’s New York Times. Says Dargis of his films:

“These are films created for contemplation, and they both invite and resist interpretation. Consider Mr. Dorsky’s fondness for windows that, because of the light, camera angle and his manipulations, turn into mirrors and prisms. In a single image of a restaurant window it’s possible at once to see the interior of the empty space with its set tables, the gleaming glass and the street scene reflected in it, a multiplicity that has a material, concrete aspect (this is a restaurant without patrons) and also room for lyricism (this is a restaurant yearning for patrons).”

Read the rest of the article on the New York Times website:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/movies/the-startlingly-beautiful-films-of-nathaniel-dorsky.html

For more information about Dorsky and to rent his films from Canyon…

Party and Screening for Book on Amy Greenfield

There will be a screening and wine/champagne reception on the occasion of the publication of Flesh Into Light: The Films Of Amy Greenfield, by Robert Haller published by Intellect Books in US, Canada, UK and Australia, with US distribution by University of Chicago Press.

The event will be at Anthology Film Archives Monday, April 30 at 7 PM.
Anthology is at 32 Second Avenue @ 2nd Street., New York City (www.anthologyfilmarchives.org)

The screening features the world premiere of Body Songs with Ricky Leacock on camera and Holly Fairbank, Donald Mouton, Susan Hendrickson and John Parton performing. The shoot was in 1979, and finally finished this year. The reception will follow, with signing books.

For more on the event,the book and Body Songs visit www.amygreenfieldfilms.com/news

For more information on Amy Greenfield and to rent her films from Canyon…

For a limited time Volume I of Bruce Baillie’s will be $35, limited quantity.

http://canyoncinema.com/catalog/film/?i=2607

Come support the experimental film community and Canyon Cinema with a night of San Francisco 16mm film prints! We will be screening films by Peter Hutton, Timoleon Wilkins, Abigail Child, Warren Sonbert, and Sidney Peterson.

Monday, April 2nd at 7pm
Hampshire College (893 West St)
Jerome Liebling Center
Room 120

[Download a PDF of this announcement here]

February 23, 2012

Greetings members of Canyon Cinema.

The time has come to elect new Board members. There are five seats on the Board, with three seats open for election this year.

Any active member of Canyon Cinema may run for election to the Board of Directors. If you wish to run for the Board, please email a 50 -100 word statement for the annual letter sent to the members. This
statement should briefly introduce you and state your qualifications and intentions for assisting Canyon Cinema, and be received by March 5th during business hours. It should be sent to dominic@canyoncinema.com.

Canyon Cinema holds its board meetings online via Skype so board members can be anywhere as long as they have an Internet connection, headset and microphone. Meetings are conducted regularly at a time that is convenient for all current members of the board.

To be eligible to participate in the election (voting or running for the board) you must be an active member. Active members are those who are current on their membership fees. If you have any questions regarding your membership status, please contact Dominic.

The current members of the Board and the staff of Canyon wish to stress that anyone who intends to run for the Board of Directors understands the importance of the commitment to assisting Canyon. At
this point, all decisions and actions are critical to Canyon’s survival. Board members who do not pro-actively engage in Canyon’s activities, and/or miss more than 3 meetings, may be released from their Directorship with a majority vote by the current Board of Directors.

Deadline for receipt of the 50 -100 word position statement is Monday, March 5th. Ballots, along with the yearly letter will be e-mailed around March 15th.

This year’s annual meeting of the membership will take place on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 6:30pm
at the new Canyon Cinema office:

1777 Yosemite (off of 3rd Street), SF, 94124
(http://yosemiteplace.com/).

At this meeting the results of the election will be tabulated.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Dominic Angerame
&
Canyon Cinema Board of Directors:
Maïa Cybelle Carpenter
Nathaniel Dorsky
Denah Johnston
Dana Plays
David Sherman

Hold Me While I’m Naked (George Kuchar, 1966)

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Living in Studio Kuchar

Curated by Hou Hanru, Julio Cesar Morales, and Mary Ellyn Johnson

March 9 – April 21, 2012
Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11:00 am–6:00 pm
Opening reception: Thursday, March 8, 5:30–7:30 pm

Walter and McBean Galleries
San Francisco Art Institute
800 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94133

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SFAI honors influential artist and faculty member George Kuchar with new exhibition, Living in Studio Kuchar, opening March 8 at the Walter and McBean Gallerie

Living in Studio Kuchar situates Kuchar’s work in the specific locale and community of SFAI, which for four decades served as a site of experimentation and collaboration; a network of students, filmmakers, and friends; and his emotional home. The exhibition will transform the galleries into an active experience for audiences: Installations will reproduce Kuchar’s homestudio, and there will be a self-serve VHS tape viewing area, a listening station of soundtrack records from Kuchar’s collection, and an interactive filmmaking space where visitors are invited to use costumes and props to make their own Kuchar-esque films.

Other works on view will include seminal films such as Hold Me While I’m Naked (1966), ranked as one of the 100 Best Films of the 20th Century by the Village Voice; class films made with SFAI students; selections from the long-running project “Weather Diaries” (including Hot Spell, the last video Kuchar completed before his death in September 2011); and drawings and comics. The exhibition will also feature videos by both local and international artists—John Waters, Todd Solondz, Lisa Blatt, Miguel Calderon, Tim Sullivan, and Nao Bustamante, among others—that focus on Kuchar’s influence and mentorship.

Born in New York in 1942, Kuchar began making 8mm movies in the 1950s with his twin brother, Mike. They soon became central to the underground, avant-garde film scene, screening work alongside Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger, and Stan Brakhage. Called “legends in the world of experimental film” by Roger Ebert, the Kuchars have influenced filmmakers including Waters, Solondz, Gus Van Sant, David Lynch, and Brian De Palma, and theorist Gene Youngblood named George one of the great artists in the history of the moving image. Kuchar’s film and video work has screened around the globe in cinemas, festivals, and major museums. Recent honors include the exhibition George Kuchar: Pagan Rhapsodies at MoMA PS1 in New York; the addition of his 1977 short film I, An Actress to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry; and his selection for the 2012 Whitney Biennial, to be held March 1 though May 27, 2012 at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

More information about the event can be found at:
http://www.sfai.edu/event/living-studio-kuchar

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For more information about George Kuchar and to rent his films from Canyon…

The Return, Nathaniel Dorsky (16mm, 2011)

Like a memory already gone, this place of life.

For more information and to rent this film…

Felicia R. Lee’s article discusses the impending demise of Canyon Cinema, its limited resources, and the looming $30K that is needed to save our organization:

“It would be tragic if it went under, because it would make a good portion of this work inaccessible,” said Steve Anker, the dean of the School of Film/Video at the California Institute of the Arts. “They represent one of the bastions of the real 16-millimeter film experience,” he added.

Read the full article here:

California Filmmakers’ Cooperative Sees Grim Future
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/movies/canyon-cinema-filmmakers-cooperative-sees-grim-future.html?_r=1&ref=arts

Canyon Cinema is sad to lose one of its oldest members, Robert Nelson, who will be missed. Below are some wonderful write-ups on the late filmmaker.

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New York Times article by Bruce Weber:

“Confoundingly plotless but cleverly and energetically edited to render images in often poignant, often uproarious juxtaposition, Mr. Nelson’s movies are varied in tone and subject matter, but they all exhibit the subversive relish of a renegade, quirky wit.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/arts/robert-nelson-experimental-filmmaker-dies-at-81.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper

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MUBI Notebook Blog:

“Known for prankster experimentalism and on-the-spot invention, the films of San Francisco native Robert Nelson are among the defining landmarks of the post-Beat American underground of the 1960s and 70s. His free-spirited approach, sharp wit, and artistic rigor marked inspired collaborations with William T Wiley, William Allan, Steve Reich, and the Grateful Dead, and helped shape a language and style for the burgeoning psychedelic culture.” (VIA REDCAT)

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/robert-nelson-1930-2012

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Preservationist Insanity Blog (Mark Toscano of the Academy Film Archive):

“So many filmmakers are filmmakers in some way or other because of Bob (among them Peter Hutton, Fred Worden, Chris Langdon, Curt McDowell, Mike Henderson, numerous others). Peter once told me that when he saw Bob’s films for the first time, his reaction was “wait, you can make movies like that?”, and started making films himself.”

http://preservationinsanity.blogspot.com/2012/01/cant-really-express-at-all-how-very-sad.html

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For more information on Nelson’s films and to rent them from Canyon Cinema…

Salute to George Kuchar

Friday, December 16, 7PM
Ninth Street Independent Film Center
145 Ninth Street, San Francisco, CA
$7 general; $5 students and seniors

Leisure (1966); Back to Nature (1976); Aqueerius (1980); Yolanda (1981); Cattle Mutilations (1983); Motel Capri (1986)

Born in the Bronx in 1942, George Kuchar (with twin brother Mike) began his unbelievably prolific life of filmmaking as a pre-teen and had created such classics of 8mm melodrama as The Wet Destruction Of The Atlantic Empire and The Naked And The Nude before even completing high school. Unstoppable, he has, over the following 50+ years, created a jaw-droppingly voluminous filmography of camp genre send-up, diary film and video portraiture which is unparalleled in its far-reaching cultural influence. One of the most influential figures in film history, George—in his work, in his life and in over thirty years of teaching filmmaking at SFAI—has continuously been a force of perverse subversion and indefatigable joy, a treasure and shining light in so many of our lives. Please join Cinematheque, Canyon Cinema and SFMOMA in celebration of this man. (Steve Polta)

Presented in Association with San Francisco Cinematheque

For more information about George Kuchar and to rent his films from Canyon…

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Canyon Cinema, one of the world’s premier experimental film distribution centers is in the process of celebrating its 50th year anniversary.

Undoubtedly, Canyon Cinema has become synonymous with Bay Area independent and experimental film. At present, Canyon Cinema has 320 members worldwide and distributes more than 3,200 films and hundreds of DVDs. As we have actively grown over the past fifty years, Canyon has chronicled the history of this unique genre. This fall we celebrate our anniversary and remember our shared lineage with the Bay Area experimental film scene through a series of screenings at the Ninth Street Independent Film Center.

These events were possible through a generous grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.