MAXIMIZING THE FLAT PLANE James Magrini

Experimental Video 2:30 2007 World Premiere

“Wee, it is a film zat eez hand painted and scratched, it ezz about, how you say? de abstraction, colour, and de music.” – James Magrini

INVISIBLE CITY Jack Cronin Experimental Video 11:00 2006 Chicago Premiere

“Invisible City was filmed in Detroit over the course of three years. Inspired by Italo Calvino’s ‘Le città invisibili,’ in which the Italian author suggests that what constitutes a city is not so much its physical structure but the impression it makes upon its visitors. The film is loosely organized into four segments representing spring, summer, fall, and winter.” – Jack Cronin

OF KIN AND KIND Iris Shim

Documentary Video 24:00 2007 World Premiere

Evanston, September 25, 1993: Robert O’Dubaine is shot twice in his garage. Although the police initially assume mafia involvement, it quickly becomes apparent that the killing was masterminded by the victim’s fiancée, Catherine Suh, and carried out by her 19-year old brother Andrew. Of Kin and Kind uncovers the history behind these Korean-American siblings, Told mainly through Andrew’s voice, this film reveals the complex and tragic backstory of the Suh family, highlighting issues of traditional roles and values, the struggles of assimilation, and the ambiguous line separating obligation and choice.

SUNSET CODA Kent Lambert

Experimental Video 3:30 2006

“In 1984, I traveled with my family to my mother’s birthplace of Chi Chi Jima. Sunset Coda highlights an exchange between my brother, my mother and me involving US citizenship and World War III. The third part in a trilogy (of sorts) that also includes SECURITY ANTHEM and HYMN OF RECKONING.” – Kent Lambert

HELEN A/B + DAS MEER (Helen A/B + the Sea) Sabine Marte Experimental Video 12:00 2006 (Austria)

“We see a couple: Accompanied by piano music, a woman’s voice (from a dubbed version of Antonioni’s Identificazione di una donna, 1983) declare from off-camera: “You are my love,” and a man’s voice answers: “Say it again.” Irritations, blows and a yell are combined in a continuous repetition, while the couple’s faces show boredom, amusement and skepticism in the face of what is happening (on the soundtrack rather than in the picture), the subtext is again shifted to the level of the performative. Its equivalent is provided in the final scene: Two men unite in a dance-like movement that stems from action/reaction, pressure/counterpressure, and closeness/distance. The manginess and constant deceleration of the picture is underlined by a distorted performance of the spiritual “Oh, When the Saints” by Marte’s band Pendler. Both the scene and the song end before coming to a complete standstill. It could go on like this forever…” – Claudia Slanar (Translation: Steve Wilder)

731: TWO VERSIONS OF HELL James T. Hong

Documentary Video 28:00 2007 Chicago Premiere

731: Two Versions of Hell is both a documentary about Japan’s World War II biological weapons facility, Unit 731, and a demonstration of the power of historical revisionism.