Film Catalog: Online Search

Ralph Ackerman

Zoo Liquid Prototype (1997) 16mm, color & b/w, sound, 30 min

Genre: Experimental, Narrative

Keywords: Art & Artists

A film out of NYC's Downtown World of artists and poets, inhabited by living poets and driven by their words. I used what author/filmmaker Carl Linder calls organic filmic selection, the process where the visual image is allowed to "grow out of itself." I also used B&W single frame takes and short bursts of 12 frames per second (half the normal rate of 24 frames per second) to get a feel for the texture of Downtown. Zoo. . . is a film that doesnt let you forget you are watching a film. Zoo is the modern "urban city" -- in this case New York City, with side trips to San Francisco. Liquid is the "nature" of its dwellers. Prototype, a "model" of our direction to a future that fosters contentions with a rise to conflicts and contradictions that will not offer resolutions but only a rubbing together of persons. The films main character, Gun, is a performance artist of the Downtown NYC scene. In her performance piece, she plays the poet, Emily Dickinson, taking her stage name, Gun, from Emilys poem, I stood a Loaded Gun. Her performance, Mystery upon Mystery, reveals her path to becoming a performance artist and it is where she acts out a timeless artist manifesto taken from Emilys life and work. She acts as narrator between the fragments of conflict with simple straight forward acts of physical contact to the final question of death-dealing violence: "Should I kill Jeff or that Gun bitch" Zoo demands several viewings and a close reading of the subtexts. It comes with a CD-ROM.

Rental: $300.00

Gary Adlestein

Candy (1989) Super 8, color, sound on separate reel(s), 11 min

Genre: Experimental

Keywords: Art & Artists, Biography & Autobiography, Literature & Theater

A portrait of Philadelphia-based poet and painter Candy Kaucher; three cameras shooting (randomly on/off after J. Cage), synch sound; camera rolls A/B/C printed.

Rental: $25.00

Gary Adlestein

Cezannescapes 1 & 2 (1991) Super 8, color, sound, 5.5 min

Genre: Experimental

Keywords: Art & Artists

His paintings are there, in the landscape of Provence. #1 starts in Avignon then moves up and down Mt. St. Victoire. #2 again moves up and down; this time the deserted, ancient hill town of Les Baux, haunted by ghosts of the Troubadours.

Rental: $20.00

Gary Adlestein

Domestic - Selected Films & Videos 1981-2001 (2005) DVD NTSC, color, sound

Genre: Experimental

Keywords: Art & Artists, Environment & Nature, Landscape & Architecture, Literature & Theater, Music, Philosophical

These experimental films and videos were shot in the house, out the window, in the yard, down the road, etc., in the rural Oley Valley (near Reading, Pa.) where I live. They span a little more than two decades and range from super-8 to 16mm blow-ups, to silent and in-camera-edited-sync-sound super-8's (some of the rephotographed), to more recent videos that are often layered and image-processed. All of them are hopefully lyrics of high visual intensity that celebrate the expressive potential of the medium they were created in and the simple grace of taking pleasure in seeing and hearing the world (the loss of which is increasingly threatened in the sad times [2005] we are living through). SHADOW HUNTING (1981, Shot on S-8mm, 2 min., silent)- exploiting the painterly 'smear' quality of undercranked, 6fps projected S-8: Shadow hunts, I follow. PIE PLATES (1980, Shot on S-8, transfered to 16mm, 5:44 min.)- a John Cage inspired (his work for prepared piano accompanies the visuals) backyard, yin/yang, optically printed meditation. ("a lingering impression of harmony using a minimal amount of footage" - Linda Gross, L. A. Times) FONTANA (1988, S-8mm, 4:09 min.) - in the shadow: after the grotesque fountains I saw in Rome. S-8 DIARY: WILDWOOD (1988, S-8mm, 2:23 min.) - a Sunday drive down the Jersey shore and back which we often did when Linda's parents (from Wildhood) were alive. CINESONGS FOR STORM DE HIRSCH (1990, S-8mm, 10:55 min.) - homage to one of the pioneers of experimental S-8, Storm De Hirsch; seasonal images arising and fading simultaneously (shown in MOMA's "Big as Life: An American History of 8mm Films" program). OLEY (1993, Hi-8 video, 10 min, silent & sound) - harvest time in the Oley Valley. WITCHWAY (1995, Hi-8 video, 7:12 min. silent & sound) - under the feedback-spell of an Oley spirit and her familiar.("... deftly uses themes from Penna. folklore to create a powerfully haunting and chilling descent into an autumnal netherworld."-Albert Kilchesty) OUTSIDE IN (1995, Hi-8 video, 8:59 min.) - an interior/exterior domestic meditation. LOTUS SONG 2 (2000, mini-DV, 6:47 min.) - the second part of the life-cycle of a Lotus and its surround; a song of natural artifice. IMAGINARY POND WITH REAL FROGS (2001, mini-DV, 8:44 min.) - after Marianne Moore's definition of poetry as "the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads." SONATA (2001, mini-DVD, 3:27 min.), sil.) - visual music to "soothe the scythe" (Ed Sanders); a reaction to 9/11. ("Your work was such a treat - so lyric and voluptuous in color." --Donna Cameron)

Rental: $50.00 Sale: $75.00 (DVD NTSC)

Gary Adlestein

Gaudi & Cezannescapes (1991-2006) DVD_NTSC, miniDV_NTSC, Color, Sound, 12:00 min

Genre: Experimental

Keywords: Art_Artists, Landscape Architecture

Three experimental shorts inspired informed by the styles of the artists they celebrate. (the two most recent are mini-DV's, the other, created 15 years previously, is a single-system sound, edited- [mostly] -in-camera super-8 film) GAUDI (2006, mini-DV, 2:40 min) Gaudi's great La Sagrata Familia begun in Barcelona in the 1880's, still remains a vital work in progress ('07: Dudley Cinema Venice, CA: Athens International Film/ Video Festival: Black Maria Film/ Video Festival, Director's Choice Prize). LA PEDRERA (2006, mini-DV, 2:45 min, silent) If the Sagrata Familia, its vertical, spiraling thrusts leaping heavenward, is Gaudi's sacred masterpiece, his LA Pedrera (a Barcelona apartment house, luxuriating in leisurely horizontal undulations, is its profane partner. CEZANNESCAPES 1 & 2 (1991, s-8/snd, 5:30 min.) his paintings are forever inscribed in the Provencal landscape (selected for "Big as Life: An American History of 8mm Films" at MoMA, 1982-2001).

Rental: $40.00 (DVD NTSC), $50.00 (miniDV_NTSC) Sale: $40.00 (DVD NTSC)

Gary Adlestein

Italia - Selected Films & Videos 1980-2005 (2005) DVD NTSC, color, sound

Genre: Experimental

Keywords: Art & Artists, Environment & Nature, Landscape & Architecture

A selection of short experimental films and videos shot in Italy spanning a period from 1980 through 2005. Some are intuitive, edited-in-camera, reactions to what I was experiencing; others are frame-by-frame (JK optical printing) reconfigurations of the image or, in the videos, layered and image-processed compositions. All are lyric celebrations of a place, art and culture that I love. -G. A. SAINT TERESA (1983, 16mm, 4:50 min.) - after Bernini's "Ecstasy"; baroque excess and dazzle; shot in super-8 at SM della Vittoria, Rome; re-composed in 16mm on the JK. (London Filmmakers Coop. "New American Cinema 1981-1991" touring program) EMBARKATION TO CAPRI (1980, super-8mm, 2:04 min.) - a single shot lyric; the pleasure seekers depart (after Watteau and Fellini). "A particular favorite of mine." - Tom Chomont VERONA (1989, super-8mm, 3:11 min.) - one of a series of edited-in-camera, sync-sound, place lyrics that I was shooting in the late '80's. TAORMINA/ETNA (1996, super-8mm to hi-8 video, 6:53 min.) - a land and seascape of exquisite beauty pulsing with life and the promise of death. "Adelstein rephotographs Super-8mm film on video, creating, through the chug-chugga-chugg rhythm familiar to all 8mm filmmakers, an extremely effective visual analogue to the molten lava which bubbles and surges under the volcano." -Albert Kilchesty; (selected for "Big as Life: An American History of 8mm Films" exhibition at MoMA, 1982-2001) SICILIA (1999, mini-DV, 4:20 min.) - meditation on life and death in the Catacombs of Palermo and, on the island of Motya, in the presence of a 5th centruy B. C. Greek statue unearthed in the 1970's. NOCTURNE (2003, mini-DV, 6:40 min.) - video diary: midnight under Venetian moon. GRAFFITO (2003, mini-DV, 2:55min.) - tracing a swirling arabesque at the heart of Venetian art and design. APOLLO DREAMING (2004, mini-DV, 3:30 min.) - through the oculus of the Pantheon, Apollo dreams the future of Rome. SAN MARCO SUBAQUEO (2005, mini-DV, 4:45 min.) - the bejeweled Adriatic Queen succumbs to the coppery depths of the sea. BAVA BYTES (2005, mini-DV, 10:40 min.) - fractured Mario Bava trailer pics mixed in a delirious giallo tribute to maestro Bava, Christopher Lee and Eva Bartok. (Comprised of 2,446,129,431 bytes - to be exact.) ("The most important aspect of Adlestein's approach to video is that it is irrefutably and defiantly filmic. It is sublimely tactile where most videos tend to be impersonally cool and hard..." -Albert Kilchesty)

Rental: $50.00 Sale: $75.00 (DVD NTSC)

Gary Adlestein

Kore/Kouros (1987) Super 8, color, sound on separate reel(s), 11 min

Genre: Experimental

Keywords: Art & Artists, Body, Erotic

A study of the male and female nude; in honor of the painter Harry Koursaros and the classical beauty he loved. Photos and paintings by Koursaros. The first 2.75 minutes are silent. "The most erotic film elegy that I can recall ever seeing." -- Albert Kilchesty

Rental: $25.00

Gary Adlestein

St. Teresa (1983) 16mm, color, sound, 5 min

Genre: Experimental

Keywords: Art & Artists, Biography & Autobiography

After Bernini's "Ecstasy": baroque excess and dazzle; shot in S. M. della Vittoria in Rome. "Essential viewing for church groups, art history classes, fledgling saints and martyrs of all ages." -- Albert Kilchesty, "Heavenly Visions" program notes, LA Filmforum, 1985

Rental: $20.00

Rudy Albers

Cycle (1973) 16mm, color, silent, 4 min

Genre: Animation, Experimental

Keywords: Art & Artists, Cameraless

A colored circle on a background of its complementary color. A reverse picture in which the circle and the background exchange. The complementary colors flash alternately as they progress slowly through the color wheel. As each cycle is completed the next cycle becomes faster until the alternating complementary colors change with each frame. An animated journey through a color-wheel of opposites.

Rental: $20.00

Richard Allen

Mistakes of Heaven (1990) 16mm, color, sound, 13 min

Genre: Experimental, Narrative

Keywords: Art & Artists, Philosophical, Psychology & Mental Health

MISTAKES OF HEAVEN is a poetic/expressionistic film, which shows a man's progress upward from one stage of hell to the next. It is an experimentally expressed narrative -- told in images and movement -- of a man tangled in dreams and desires which are at once uplifting, mystifying, and humbling.

Rental: $40.00