9/21/17 // Suspended Belief

Posted September 13th, 2017 in Canyon Cinema 50, Co-Presentations, News / Events

Suspended belief

Suspended Belief
Thursday, September 21st, 2017 // 7:30pm
Center for New Music // 55 Taylor Street, San Francisco
$10.00 General Admission / free for Cinematheque members
Facebook Event

Presented in association with San Francisco Cinematheque. Malic Amalya, J.M. Martínez, Vanessa O’Neill and Karly Stark in person.

“With its precarious positioning at the tectonic edge of the U.S., the San Francisco Bay Area has long been home to dreamers, artists, activists and experimenters of all stripes. With a media history tracing back to the photographic experiments of Muybridge, the region boasts a vibrant film/video history, one which takes many forking paths and which parallels the rich countercultural currents of the region and which is impossible to summarize in a single short program. Suspended Belief—presented as a microscopic intro to films of the region. Opening with Bruce Baillie’s 1966 classic All My Life, the films on this program reflect direct physical engagement with the tools of cinematic expression and a turn toward intimacy and introspection as temporary anti-linguistic explorations of light and landscape. Also screening: Will Hindle’s Billabong (1966), an impressionistic view of a Oregon boy’s camp; Gunvor Nelson’s luminous animated collage, Field Study #2 (1988); Ken Paul Rosenthal’s 1996 work Spring Flavor, a study in hand-processing, re-photography and natural dyes, filmed in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. More recent films include Karly Stark’s luxuriously intimate cinematic love letter I Am Delighted By Your Alchemy, Turning Everything in My Kingdom to Gold (2014); J.M. Martinéz’ crystalline forest view Cyclical Refractions (2017); Malic Amalya’s Roadsides & Waste Grounds, in which human forms and insects merge with ephemeral landscape and Vanessa O’Neill’s twin-projected seascape, Suspension (2012). NOT TO BE MISSED: screening also includes Nathaniel Dorsky’s 17 Reasons Why (1987), a tour-de-force in “unslit” 8mm camerawork and an overwhelming activation of projection screen as energy field.” -Steve Polta

Suspended Belief

All My Life by Bruce Baillie (1966, 3 min, color)
Billabong by Will Hindle (1969, 9 min, color)
Field Study #2 by Gunvor Nelson (1988, 8 min, color)
Spring Flavor by Ken Paul Rosenthal (1996, 3 min, color)
I Am Delighted By Your Alchemy, Turning Everything in My Kingdom to Gold by Karly Stark (2014)
Cyclical Refractions by J.M. Martinéz (2017, 3 min, color)
Roadsides & Waste Grounds by Malic Amalya (2012, 2 min, color)
Suspension by Vanessa O’Neill (2009, 10 min, color/B&W)
17 Reasons Why by Nathaniel Dorsky (1987, 19 min, color)

Canyon Cinema is thankful for the long term support of the George Lucas Family Foundation. Dedicated project funding for Canyon Cinema 50 has been generously provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Owsley Brown III Foundation, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation and The Fleishhacker Foundation.