7/19/17 – 7/21/17 // Three Nights for Ernie Gehr
Posted July 16th, 2017 in Canyon Cinema 50, Co-Presentations, Events and Screenings, News / Events
This week, we are bringing Ernie Gehr to town for consecutive nights of his work, new and old. Full details are below–come to one, come to two, or best of all, come to all three screenings for a rare opportunity to get acquainted with the work and thought of this legendary Canyon filmmaker.
Read the full press release for these events here.
An Evening with Ernie Gehr
Wednesday, July 19th, 2017 // 7:00pm
Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive // 2155 Center Street, Berkeley
Facebook Event
Ernie Gehr in person.
“Over the years, there have been some external rewards for the works I have created, such as opportunities for teaching, opportunities to show the work, as well as befriend a few individuals near and far that otherwise I would never have met. For all of this I am very grateful, but the reasons for continuing to ‘work’ to this very day have been the same as they were at the very beginning.” -Ernie Gehr
As part of Canyon Cinema’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations, Ernie Gehr, one of the leading figures of the American avant-garde, makes a rare trip to the Bay Area to present a selection of his recent digital films. For New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, his imagery is “abstract, beautiful, mysterious, invigorating, utopian.” In Picture Taking, our perspective on a Manhattan intersection is radically and beautifully altered; in Autumn, Gehr chronicles changes to his Brooklyn neighborhood. A train museum in Germany is placed in context in Transport, while A Commuter’s Life (What a Life!), shot during train trips between New York and Boston, is deliriously abstract.
All works are presented in the digital format.
Picture Taking (2010, 10min, color)
Autumn (2017, 30min, color)
Transport (2015, 21min, color)
A Commuter’s Life (What a Life!) (2014, 20min, color)
An Ernie Gehr Variety Show
Thursday, July 20th, 2017 // 7:30pm
Kanbar Forum — Exploratorium // Pier 15, San Francisco
Facebook Event
Ernie Gehr in person.
Making a rare trip to San Francisco, Ernie Gehr joins us to present a screening of new works—four moving image landscape considerations. An essential filmmaker of the avant-garde, Gehr has worked continuously for over 50 years, crafting hypnotic and perception-shifting studies of the familiar. Within his films, observational studies of cities and land take on magical qualities through which streets and buildings reveal unexpected phenomena.
Tonight, Gehr will present recent works and other surprises that are screening for the first time in San Francisco.
All works are presented in the digital format.
Photographic Phantoms (2013, 27 min., color/b&w, sound)
Brooklyn Series (2014, 12 min., color, sound)
Mist I & II (2014, 10 min., color, silent)
Waterfront Follies (2008, 39 min., color, sound)
Side/Walk/Shuttle and Other Works
Friday, July 21st, 2017 // 6:00pm
Little Roxie Theater // 3117 16th Street, San Francisco
Facebook Event
Ernie Gehr in person.
“…illusion pops up in the most rational of spaces. Buildings seem less to move past than to sprout and expand like miraculous stop motion mushrooms.” – Tom Gunning
When making a film, Ernie Gehr takes into consideration multiple facets of cinema’s form, including recording and projection apparatuses, film materiality, frame and spatial perception, as well as moving image history and personal expression. Through this process of reflection, the works are built up with many layers of meaning – yet as intricate as these films are, they remain directly accessible to the viewer who focuses their attention to the screen with childlike wonder and delight. The resulting works will often present us with specifically unique attributes of cinema, moving images appearing unlike anything we’ve seen before.
All films are presented in 16mm.
Shift (1972-1974, 9min, color)
Mirage (1981, 10min, color)
Rear Window (1986/1991, 10min, color)
Side/Walk/Shuttle (1991, 40min, color)
