Bull Dog in the WhiteHouse
Todd Verow
Feature Video 80:00 2006 Chicago Premiere

The horny, plotting and evil Bush Administration stars in a modern adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos’s classic story of power and deceit, Dangerous Liaisons, comfortably splitting the difference between political commentary and gay porn. Bulldog in the Whitehouse is faithful to the traditional decadence of 18th century French aristocrats slutting around, but Verow adds insult to injury, deeming that these new players are all gays, and ensnared in incestuous webs of diabolical seductions and random hook-ups. Bulldog is a super-saturated narrative fueled by the fascinating

charm and vulgarity of a community theater troupe on poppers.

Karl Rove is the grand dame Marquise, who puppets a washed up hustler, Bulldog (our transposed Valmont) to obstruct an impending alliance between his ex, the twinky Religious Leader (noted performer Michael Burke),

and the doe-eyed, dopey George W. Bush.

Verow casts himself as the tenacious Bulldog, a seldom-clothed power broker plowing a path of clammy bedsheets en route to acquiring the coveted “hard pass” from a virginal White House Press Secretary. If granted, such clearance would give the Bulldog no holds-barred access to getting in bed with the President. Along his way, machinations of desperate love and false promises bring ruin to all those involved, and we encounter the sole lady of the house: Laura Bush, who plays W’s domineering mommy. She lords over him the control of his midnight rendezvous like Lady Macbeth, but is

devoted to the ideals of Republicanism with the sterling fidelity of a faghag.

One might misunderstand some of Bulldog’s sex couplings that did not occur in the French novel as errors in consistency. No, no; it is only because the characters in the original Dangerous Liaisons were not gay and the Bush Administration that they did not fuck every last person. Here you can expect cocks, spit and ass to be swapped willy-nilly, all to the detriment of democracy and ultimately for the entertainment of a gurgling

Jabba-the-Rove.

“Cheerfully obscene… the semi-coherent narrative tracks as a
burlesque revue of Bush II scandals.” The Village Voice

Chance Encounters Program

Specialized Technicians Required: Being Luis Porcar
Manuel Saiz
Experimental Video 1:30 2005 Spain

Luis Porcar, a well-known Spanish dubbing actor helps bridge the gap
between the art world and cinema.

Eaten
Anne Haydock
Experimental Video 6:19 2006

Five aesthetically varied segments draw on direct animation, hand manipulation, found and foleyed sound design, and choreography for the projector to create a sometimes lyric, sometimes jarring, and always rhythmic meditation on what it can mean to eat and be eaten.” ­ Anne

Haydock

Untitled Miriam Heller-Sahlgren

Animation Video 2:45 2006

Sweden A whimsical silent animation concerning pigs.

El Michoacan: La Muerte
Ben Russell & Sabine Gruffat
Experimental Video 8:00 2006

Shot in Mexico, this exquisite corpse video holds a mirror up to the
unseen, hallucinates and reflects it back into the everyday forever.

Island
Oliver Kunkel
Experimental Video 4:00 2006 Germany

A video about power and moreover about the mis-use of it. ­ Oliver
Kunkel

Invertisement #1
Anonymous
Experimental Video 41 seconds 2006

Decisiveness is the key to success.

Paul and the Badger Episode #1
Paul Tarrago
Short Video 11:00 2006 UK

The sight of a model skeleton unearths a memory in a Badger that he has repressed all these years. It prompts him to demand some pretty delicate answers to some pretty tricky questions about life and death from his

good friend Paul.

20 Heartbreakers #5 Heart In My Hand
Phillip Newcombe
Experimental 16mm on Video 3:00 2006 UK

I’m Leaving it all up to you ­ Dale & Grace

Random Sampling #3
Paul Lloyd Sargent
Experimental Video 20:00 2006

For years I have been walking around the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago collecting discarded audiocassette tape. I have close to 600 bags of the stuff and, after realizing that I could now ³listen to² the neighborhood as it changes over time, I began to take a video camera with me on my walks. I wanted to capture inconspicuous moments within the park that would otherwise be forgotten and pair them with the hundreds of short samples I’d compiled. The result is an on-going document of my

first-person relationship with this park and the surrounding neighborhood.

Last Supper
Johannes Hammel
Experimental Video 9:00 2005 Austria

Before long, the unknown families’ outings and coffee klatches, documented in the original home movies for themselves and their children, will no longer be recognizable. In the same way as the memories of these

events, the films fade. – Aki Beckmann, Six Pack Films

30.40
James Fotopoulos
Experimental Video 5:00 2006

Me and James Fotopoulos were eating lunch a year ago and he didn¹t have any cash on him. So I made him a deal: I¹ll buy the lunch and trade me a short film for the same cost. We made up rules on a napkin. Help a filmmaker

near you. -Mike Plante, Cinemad publisher

Michoacan: El Traidor
Ben Russell & Sabine Gruffat
Experimental Video 8:00 2006

Shot in Mexico, this exquisite corpse video holds a mirror up to the
everyday, hallucinates and reflects it back into the unseen forever.

DANCE PARTY USA Program

In The Tradition of My Family
Todd Davis
Short 16mm on Video 14:43 2006

“Billy wants a better scar than the one his father gave him.”

Dance Party USA
Aaron Katz
Feature Video 60:00 2006 Midwest Premiere

Jessica and Gus, two aimless teenagers living in Portland, OR, meet at a 4th of July party. Apathetic seventeen-year-old Gus hangs around doing nothing with his buddy Bill most of the time. Gus likes to tell half-true stories about all the girls he¹s slept with and all the drugs he¹s done. Jessica is seventeen too. She doesn’t seem to have much in common with anyone anymore ­not even her best friend Christie. Every year this one guy Brian throws a 4th of July party. The party¹s never that great, but there’s free beer, so people always go. Gus and Jessica meet each other there. They watch fireworks outside and light sparklers. Gus says that he’s not the sort

of guy she thinks he is. He tells her a secret. It changes everything.

“My goal with Dance Party, USA was to create a film that feels like real life. It originated from an overheard conversation and the bulk of the script was written in five days. It wasn’t until two years later that I was able to shoot the film, with a crew of friends from North Carolina School of the Arts, in my hometown of Portland, OR. Two years after that I had a final cut. It has been a long journey. Throughout the entire process I have tried to remain true to my initial goal of crating something simple, honest,

and direct.”­ Aaron Katz

Dangerous Men
John Rad
Feature 35mm 80:00 2005 Chicago Premiere

In late 2005 a film appeared mysteriously on the marquees of several Los Angeles area theaters. No one in the industry had heard of this film and journalists Internet searches turned up nothing on it or its equally mysterious director John Rad. Over the next several months the film played continuously, and as word of mouth spread, audiences grew until lines formed around the block to see what may prove to be the world¹s next great

underground cult movie.

Research has since revealed that Dangerous Men was shot sometime in the late 1980s and completed in the mid-¹90s by Rad, an Iranian born architect, musician and filmmaker who in addition to directing is credited as screenplay writer,² editor, executive producer and ³original music, song and lyrics as well as just about everything else. The result is one of the most oddly unique and self-contained filmmaking sensibilities ever witnessed: Key exposition is delivered away from the camera. Actors appear to repeat key speeches phonetically. Kung fu sequences employ reverse zooms, sucking the action out of the scene. Sex acts invariably involve massaging of knees and licking of navels. A biker bar prominently features an

espresso machine.

Ostensibly the plot can be summarized like this. Mira and Daniel are in love­ so in love it¹s scary. The recently engaged couple is inseparable, blissfully walking along the California beach holding hands, gazing into each others eyes and basking in the glow of their adoration like a couple of infatuated teenagers. Their cooing love-fest is soon interrupted however by a pair of unprovoked bikers attack them, raping Mira and killing her beloved Daniel. Instead of going to Daniel¹s police detective brother for help, Mira instead takes a cue from Ms. 45 and embarks on a campaign of vengeance against all dangerous men by, naturally, posing as a prostitute to lure them to their death (her first victim doesn’t realize she has stashed a knife between her ass cheeks). Her crusade is cut short, however, not by the police investigation, but rather by Mr. Rad himself, who fired his lead actress midway through production and abruptly abandoned Mira¹s story altogether. This proves to be but a minor set back as the police soon set their sights on the leader of the biker-rapist gang, a long haired albino who goes by the name Black

Pepper.

Danielson: A Family Movie
JL Aronson
Documentary Video 105:00 2006 Chicago Premiere

A documentary about unbridled creativity vs. accessibility, Christian faith vs. popular culture, underground music vs. survival, and family vs. individuality. The film follows Daniel Smith, an eccentric musician and visual artist, as he leads his four siblings and best friend to indie-rock stardom. Beginning in 1995 when the youngest band member was 11 years old, the Danielson Famile performs in white, vintage nurse costumes to symbolize the healing power of the Good News, a recurring subject matter. Though tepidly received by the Christian music world, the South Jersey farmland-bred clan is widely embraced by the mainstream independent music community, written about in Rolling Stone, Spin, the New York Times and elsewhere as an outsider curiosity backed up by innovative,

experimental music.

But as with other family acts, and particularly those that don’t make much money, members of the band begin to seek out their own paths as they go through college and Daniel eventually faces the struggle to become viable as a solo act. Along the way he mentors an unknown singer-songwriter named Sufjan Stevens whose own subsequent success stands in stark contrast to the music world’s uneasy reception of Danielson just a few years prior. With production starting in 2002, at a high water mark for the band, all the drama is played out before the camera making Danielson: a Family Movie both engaging and entertaining. Collage, direct cinema, animation and memorable performances all contribute to this thoughtful and thought-provoking

spectacle. – Brian Mayer

THE ABOMINABLE FREEDOM Program

Jump Joe Nanashe

Experimental Video 6:03 2006

“What is illusion is rendered physical” ­ Joe Nanashe

Hymn of Reckoning Kent Lambert

Experimental Video 6:30 2006

“There¹s a place for us somewhere a place for us.” ­ Kent Lambert

lot 63, grave c
Sam Green
Documentary Video 9:47 2006

The name of Meredith Hunter, the man killed in front of the stage at Altamont, has been almost totally forgotten. Filmmaker Sam Green (THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND) seeks out what may be the final reminder of

Hunter¹s existence, an unmarked grave

.

13 Instances
David Poolman
Experimental Video 15:00 2006 Canada

“Using a series of found video and sound footage, 13 instances investigates teenage rebellion and isolation through the online diaries of teenage

death metal enthusiasts.” ­ David Poolman

The Abominable Freedom
Torsten Z. Burns and Darrin Martin
Experimental Video 41:00 2006

“Originally shot video and appropriated film weaves together a musical celebration of the flesh. An egg from the missing link holds a skeleton key to our educational future. On a parallel world, life coaches made of bone & fur activate televisual coursework including circular zooming studies, spectral-mating, and etheric birthing techniques. Manifest Destiny eludes its colonial past and takes refuge deep in our pagan libidinal nature.”

-Burns and Martin

Glam-O-Rama Program

Permanent Residents
Isabell Spengler
Experimental 16mm 9:32 2005 Germany/USA

³The film Permanent Residents combines extreme costume design with a documentary staging of everyday events in the contemporary urban space

of Los Angeles. – Isabell Spengler

Troy
Daniel Hayward
Documentary Video 9:00 2005 Australia

Troy Davies is an artist who has Lead an incredibly interesting and difficult life, he¹s been a drug addict, lived as a woman, is HIV positive and worked extensively with people such as U2, INXS and director Richard Lowenstein. He is currently working on an exhibition of paintings, photos, performance and video installations that opens in Sydney 2006, with

themes that revolve around sex, death, religion and relationships

.

Untitled (Silver)
Takeshi Murata
Experimental Video 10:00 2006

“Takeshi Murata deconstructs movie excerpts pixel by pixel to create astonishing visual journeys that seem at once organic and digital. Untitled (Silver) moves between figuration and abstraction, leaving the viewer in a kind of netherworld where meanings are never settled.” ­ Electronic

Arts Intermix

Dumb Angel
Deco Dawson
Experimental 16mm on Video 9:00 2006 Canada

Inspired by fragments of Gus Van Sant;s Last Days, Dumb Angel features 17 year old preternaturally talented rock drummer Anders Erickson, the

undisputed incarnation of The who;s Keith Moon. Deco Dawson

Introduction To Brazilian Gems
Burton Bush
Experimental Video 6:00 2005

A montage of appropriated images and sound is at once foreboding and
campy in this ‘gem’ of a video.

Pretty Things: Flashback To 1992
Michael Lucid
Short Video 12:00 2005

Erica and Tamara, on the cutting-edge of 90s hipsterism, experience
their first rave.

LSD Is A Girl¹s Best Friend
Julie Fabulous
Experimental Video 4:30 2006

“Is it a psychedelic, she-male blow job fantasy? Or a meditation on the dangers of mixing sex and hallucinogenic drugs? Like the drug LSD you

must experience this video to understand it.” ­ Julie Fabulous

Dirtyglitter 1: Damien
Aron Kantor
Short Video 14:00 2005

A precariously intoxicated hustler finds photographs of himself in a gallery and sets out on a cross-town mission to find the mysterious artist. Damien’s world of alleys, parties, and galleries is painted in a sarcastic light

by a hyperdriven green screen.

Headspace
Jethro Senger
Documentary Video 80:00 2006 World Premiere

³Headspace is a world of color and experience stemming from years of dance music evolution. This documentary allows us to look inside ourselves and learn about electronic music and the freedoms it provides. With stories of people in different cities and interviews with famous DJ’s, Headspace takes us around the globe and immerses us in the parties and the minds of

those encapsulated by electronic music.

Appearances by famous DJ’s as well as forays into the underground bring a well rounded explanation of how dance music grew to become a giant

musical inspiration for millions of listeners.

A cross pollination of fiction and documentary, Headspace has the youth spirit of party culture captured forever. Filmed in many countries including Germany, Japan, England, the Netherlands, France, Hungary as well as cities in the USA, Headspace takes the viewer along for a ride that is

sometimes political, sometimes insane and always entertaining.

With a soundtrack composed of some of the best producers in the dance music and a ground breaking visual style, Headspace delivers the goods.² ­

Jethro Senger

Keeping Time Program

The First Thing I Remember
Tamara Meem
Experimental Video 8:05 2005 Australia

Twelve people share their earliest childhood memory, relating stories
that are funny, moving and full of wonderment.

De Godsberg
Fred Pelon
Documentary Video 17:00 2003 The Netherlands

“In 2002, Pelon discovered an 8mm film made in 1937 by a Dutch Nazi on which he recorded time spent with his family and his political friends. The location, Godsberg, which was used at the time for mass meetings by the Dutch Nazis, is now a campsite. Pelon records what was and is so

special about this location then and now.” ­ Rotterdam Film Festival

Untitled No. 1
Masha Godovannaya
Experimental super-8 on Video 4:00 2005 Russia

“While walking along Nevskiy Prospect in St. Petersburg, Russia, I saw a young girl dancing this harsh, passionate and seductive dance.” ­ Masha

Godovannaya

The Samantha Smith Project
Irene Lusztig
Documentary Video 50:25 2005 United Kingdom

“A meditation on historical amnesia, nostalgia, and the manufacturing and dismantling of political enemies. Braiding together the story of Samantha Smith¹s historic journey to the Soviet Union in 1983 (as a child diplomat and official guest of her high profile ³pen pal² in the Kremlin, then-Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov) with a parallel personal narrative of travel to Russia fifteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, The Samantha Smith Project explores the aftermath of the Cold War and the

contemporary Russian landscape.” ­ Irene Lusztig

LAST THOUGHTS
Kevin Henry
Documentary Video 72:00 2006 Midwest Premiere

In 1926, 16-year old Robert Henry hopped his first train, bound from Oklahoma to California. What started as curiosity soon became economic necessity, as Rob joined the thousands of young men and women roaming the American West in desperate search for opportunity. For the rest of his life he kept those experiences to himself, and it was only on the eve of his death, in 1992, that he first related them to his son, who

tape-recorded them for posterity.

Seventy-five years after that first train ride his grandson, armed with that tape and a 16mm camera, would spend a year retracing his grandfather¹s travels, from the plains of Oklahoma to the mountains of Washington to the deserts of southern California, looking for echoes of the past in the

modern landscape.

The result is a film about traveling, about hardship and loneliness, but also about the way the simplest acts of kindness can reverberate through an entire life. Like its source material, it is a fragmented journey,

leaving us with snapshots of life experience, as it was then and as it is now.

We are not laughing with you , we’re laughing at you. Program

A Lover¹s Discourse
Tim Kinsella
Short Video 5:00 2006

“A Lovers’ Discourse is about the unique, intimate language a couple develops over time and what happens once their relationship has fizzled until this common language is all they have left. It’s also about what happens when two people end up together that are both so boring that

even their own language isn’t their own.” – Tim Kinsella

The Underminer
Todd Downing
Short Video 5:55 2005

“The quintessential New York ‘underminer,’ a master of passive aggression, throws his victim into a spiral of self-doubt and hopelessness every

time he sees him.” – Todd Downing

The System Wurks
Aaron Sutherland
Short Video 13:05 2005

“It¹s November, 2004, and Lisa has a worrisome problem. Her boyfriend, Joe, is in a funk. Brought down by unemployment and a staggering election, all he can do is sit, watching endless scenes of torture on TV. It’s affecting their love life and testing Lisa¹s patience. Then Joe¹s old grade school bully tries to sell him heroin in the park, and Joe ends up making a

worrisome problem of his own.” ­ Aaron Sutherland

Safety First
Scott Calonico
Short Video 4:00 2005

“Tom and Patty are trying to get to work. They’ll go when it’s safe.” ­
Scott Calonico

A Painful Glimpse Into My Writing Process (In Less Than 60 Seconds)
Chel White
Animation 35mm 1:30 2005

“A stream-of-conscious look at the writing process, told with animated
images straight from the subconscious…or somewhere.” ­ Chel White

Momma’s Boy
John Bryant
Short 35mm 16:05 2006

Jason is reluctant to bring his fiancé¹ home for Thanksgiving dinner.
Little wonder, as his brother Todd has a habit of stealing his girlfriends.

Okhotnik (The Hunter)
Hiroshi Hirano
Short 35mm 28:10 2004 Russia

A lone female hunter’s life is abruptly altered when she accidentally acquires a dildo. Thus begins her journey towards love and fulfillment.

– Hiroshi Hirano

LOL
Joe Swanberg
Feature Video 81:00 2006 Chicago Premiere

“Alex, Tim, and Chris view the women in their lives through the dimensions of a computer screen or the lens of a camera-phone, as they struggle to balance their online fantasies and addictions with the demands of real life. This up-to-the-second feature intimately explores masculinity in the new millennium, a time when young men are trying to decipher the mixed messages of modern relationships and technology. Featuring a nonprofessional cast, video contributions from people all over the world, and original music by lead actor Kevin Bewersdorf, this funny and thoughtful film offers an honest portrait of how the latest tools of communication can either help us

click or turn us off.”

“Collaboration can be difficult, especially for a stubborn control-freak like me, but it can also be extremely rewarding. I was very fortunate during the making of “LOL” to be surrounded by people who continued to surprise, excite, and challenge me. Working entirely without a script, or even a plot outline, I was lucky enough to find people who were not only up for the challenge of discovering the film as we went, but who actually thrived in this environment and worked tirelessly to craft a narrative film out of a series of loose scenes and ideas. We started with nothing but the theme of relationships and technology, and over the course of 6 months we discovered a film much funnier, sadder, and more relevant that I ever could have hoped for. I attribute all of the great discoveries to my collaborators, a devoted group of friends and filmmakers who asked for nothing in return for their talent. I am in debt to them, not only financially, but artistically.”

­ Joe Swanberg

The Treasures of Long Gone John
Gregg Gibbs
Documentary Video 100:00 2006

The Treasures of Long Gone John is a feature-length documentary that chronicles the eccentric art and musical obsessions of indie record producer

Long Gone John.

The product of a troubled childhood, Long Gone John found success through the establishment of the record label, Sympathy for the Record Industry. During the past seventeen years, he has single-handedly released over 750 records without ever signing a contract and has helped launch the careers of the White Stripes, Hole, The Dwarves and Rocket from the Crypt. Along the way, he compulsively amassed a vast collection of art and pop ephemera,

in addition to starting the Necessaries Toy Foundation.

The Treasures of Long Gone John profiles the work of four artists in John¹s immense collection of art, music and oddities: Todd Schorr, Mark Ryden, Camille Rose Garcia and Robert Williams. The film reveals the private world of each artist and their creative process while simultaneously weaving in the execution of a 6 by 8 foot painting of John by Todd Schorr –

captured over a ten-month period.

The Maryland Trilogy Jeff Krulik

Documentary Video 90:00 2006 Midwest Premiere

“Take one part NUT MAGNET supreme, mix in some recently uncovered mid80s footage of a Maryland rock concert in the woods, and add an 86-year old accordion player, and you’ve got MARYLAND TRILOGY, the latest

concoction from Jeff Krulik’s mid-Atlantic oddball universe.

“STILL OBSESSED is the never-ending sequel to Krulik’s 2000 hit short ‘Obsessed with Jews.’ Follow Neil Keller as he continues to track

Jewish celebrities and beg Jeff Krulik to make the sequel “a two hour film.”

“THE LEGEND OF MERV CONN is a profile of the ‘King of the Strolling Accordionists:’ 86-year-old Merv Conn who once taught President Nixon’s daughters how to play. And the main event of the collection is the world premiere of RUDY CHILDS’ HEAVY METAL PICNIC 1985-a recently unearthed video of partying metalheads, a whole year before Krulik and Heyn filmed the Judas Priest parking lot scene. Filmmaker Rudy Childs brought a home video camera to record local bands Asylum, Forcer and Pentagram, but wound up with lots more: beer guzzling, scraggly hair, bare belly fisticuffs, and those

inimitable Maryland accents.”

“It’s a fresh new look at the mid-80s suburban Maryland partying right
on their home turf.” – Jeff Krulik

In Loving Memory Program

(rock/hard place)

Roger Beebe Experimental 16mm

6:30 2006

Morro Bay, California is a little coastal tourist town known mostly for the Morro Rock, a volcanic plug that sits at the mouth of the Bay. In all the postcards of Morro Bay, the image is framed so that you can’t tell that just beyond the edge of the postcard, maybe a few hundred yards from the Rock, is a gargantuan power plant with 3 towering smoke stacks. This film tries to restore the power plant to the frame. ­ Roger Beebe

Echoes Of Bats and Men
Jo Dery
Animation 16mm 7:00 2005

The night shift begins with a musical history lesson sung by a chubby skunk. Tonight we learn about Rhode Island’s industrial evolution through the midnight flight of a little bat, and her many friends. ­ Jo Ann Dery

Elsewhere
Luke Sieczek
Experimental 16mm 6:00 2005

The half-remembered spaces‹the obscure but guiding motion of a secret
history ‹Luke Sieczek

Skulls And Blackberries
Eric Ostrowski
Experimental 16mm 4:00 2005

“A sequence of contact nature prints of blackberries ­ introduced by a band

of the skull and crossbones.” – Eric Ostrowski

Orange, Red, Erupts

Theofano Pitsillidou
Experimental 16mm 4:00 2005

This hand-painted film is a composition of colors, sounds, and rhythms that capture how the sky experiences the rising and setting of the sun, and how we experience emotions that ‘rise and set’, that erupt and extinguish,

only to be ignited again as in an endless cycle. – Theofano Pitsillidou

In Loving Memory
Robert Todd
Documentary 16mm 47:00 2006

This intimate series of portraits offers a window, through their words only, into the inner lives of men and women living in maximum-security penitentiaries across the United States, most of whom are incarcerated on Death Row. As the title suggests, ‘In Loving Memory’ is a film about the connection between the common ground we share through our mutual mortality and the responsibility we accept as an enlightened society in respecting the sovereignty of life and honoring its dynamic power, its ability to

evolve, and its status as sacred. ­ Robert Todd

THE MONKS ­ THE TRANSATLANTIC FEEDBACK

Dietmar Post and Lucia Palacios Documentary Video 98:00 2006 Germany World Premiere

The monks were 5 American GI¹s in cold war Germany who billed themselves as the anti-Beatles; they were heavy on feedback, nihilism and electrical banjo. They had strange haircuts, dressed in black, mocked the military and rocked harder than any of their mid-sixties counterparts while managing

to basically invent industrial, punk and techno music.

The genre-overlapping documentary film not only illustrates the pop music phenomenon in its political, social and cultural historic contexts, but also reveals the monks project as the first marriage between art and popular

music months before Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground.

The five protagonists of the film came to cold war Germany in 1961 as soldiers and left the country in 1967 as avant-garde monks. For more than thirty years they were not able to talk about their strange experience.

In the film they recount for the first time their adventure.

“A banjo with a microphone in it to make it electric, a fuzz bass en “66, and an amazing singer, not to mention the drummer and organist, both

out of this galaxy with what they were doing.

Their melodies were pop destructive and must be played to your younger
brother.”- The White Stripes

“To this day, there is nothing in art, rock, punk rock or nut rock that comes close to the conceptual rigor of the monks’ image and the crude, avant-biergarten sound of the group’s sole LP, Black Monk Time.” –

David Fricke, Rolling Stone Magazine

“This was about saying NO, a new freedom, a positive NO. Musically it was like a new beginning; everything was based on one beat, archaic rhythm and feedback. It was for the first time that a band seemed loose and free

and oriented towards the future.” – Jochen Irmler, Faust

FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE PRAIRIES Program

Range

Portrait #1 Cascadia

Bill Basquin
Documentary 16mm 7:00 2005

A portrait of quiet reckoning about family relationships and farming.²
Bill Basquin

Terminal
Vanessa Renwick
Experimental 16mm on Video 6:00 2006

A mesmerizing stare with a hypnotic score at the most efficient grain terminal at the port of Vancouver, B.C.. Since shooting this film Cascadia Terminal has become tied up with “homeland security” type port issues,

and it is not possible to go and hang out there anymore. – Vanessa Renwick

Life And Times of Robert F Kennedy Starring Gary Cooper
Aaron Valdez
Experimental Video 8:00 2006

Overlaid newsreel footage of Robert Kennedy and images from the classic Hollywood western High Noon blur the line between truth and fiction.

Music Composed by Travis Weller. -Aaron Valdez

Five County Fair
David Ellsworth
Experimental super-8 on Video 8:05 2005

Each September, residents of Virginia¹s Appomattox, Buckingham, Charlotte, Cumberland, and Prince Edward counties travel to the town of Farmville

to attend a county fair. ­ David Ellsworth

Paranoia (Death Valley)
Miriam Bajtala
Experimental Video 5:00 2005 Austria

A peculiar chase involving the camera and its subject at an abandoned
hamlet in California¹s Death Valley. ­ Michael Palm

High Plains Winter
Cindy Stillwell
Experimental super-8 on Video 10:00 2005

The American/Scandinavian sport ski joring, which involves horse & rider + skier, becomes the centerpiece of this visual study of winter on the high plains. Alongside the sport imagery are majestic, if not harsh, winter landscapes, and signs of domestic life: horses, dogs and people. These are woven in such a way that one begins to ponder the nature of human life

in such an environment­ its mythologies and realities. ­ Cindy Stillwell

Devils Canyon
Kelly Sears
Animation Video 6:00 2006

A fable of a rejected cowboy grows out of a landscape destined for tragedy that is compiled from discarded magazines and encyclopedia from thrift

stores and garage sales. ­ Kelly Sears

Mississippi
Arash T Riahi
Experimental Video 6:00 2005 Austria

Nature is not what differentiates between chaos and structure, the observer does through his or her choice of point of view and representational technique. What in the beginning of Mississippi appears to be a lavishly choreographed dialog between natural chaos and abstract structure is revealed at some point as an autonomous concert of forms. – Robert

Buchschwenter

Magnolia Electric Co.
Todd Chandler
Documentary Video 21:30 2005

One week on the Canadian Great Plains with the band Magnolia Electric Co. the sprawling landscape of the prairies and the band’s haunting music tell a story of the mundane and the beautiful, of rest stops and hotel rooms

and the in-between moments. Not a concert film. ­ Todd Chandler

Nice Bombs
Usama Alshaibi
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE 92:37 Video 2006 WORLD PREMIERE

The Chicago Underground Flim Festival is extremely proud to present the world premiere of Nice Bombs, filmmaker Usama Alshaibi’s personal story documenting his return to Baghdad to reunite with his family after nearly 24 years. In January 2004, shortly after becoming an American citizen, Usama journeyed with his wife Kristie from Chicago to Baghdad where he was reunited with family members, friends and former neighbors in an Iraq much different than the country of his childhood. Inspired by writer Studs Terkel and internet diarist Salaam Pax, He explores with humor and resilience the culture, customrs and complex politics of Iraqis in a post-Saddam era. All the while, the United States occupation remains a constant presence in the background. Capturing the conflicting reactions to the conditions of life in Baghdad. Through a Wide range of opinions and experiences he provides a broad panorama of voices long neglected under Saddam’s regime.

“The sound of a ground-shaking explosion awoke my wife and I from a deep sleep. It was about 7:00 in the morning. My cousin Tareef entered the bedroom to find a tie for work. ‘What was that?’ I asked. ‘It was a bomb. A nice bomb.’ The phrase was indicative of my family’s nonchalance about thier situation. I had been away for twenty-four years. They were used to it. As a young boy put it, ‘We are Iraqis. It’s normal.'”

“My Arabic is weak so I spoke to my relatives in English, both on and off camera. I was suprised that, despite my language barrier, thier meaning clearly broke through. I thought that most Iraqis would be reluctant to speak openly. It had been rumored that Saddam executed people for simply making jokes about him and they were accustomed to holding their tongues. The opposite was true. Everyone wanted to speak, and they wanted Americans to hear them.”

“I left in 1980 in the midst of a war between Iraq and Iran. I was eleven years old and terrified of dying. The current war gave me an opportunity to return and revisit my birthplace and my family, and to explore a culture in which I feel both rooted and uprooted. I was frightened, but I felt that I had to go and see what TV and newspapers could not convey. I brought my camera along to document the experiance.”
— Usama Alshaibi

ODD BALLS Program

Ball Saved
Ben Olson
Documentary Video 35:00 2006 World Premiere

Beginning with the repeal of the Pinball Ban in the mid 1970¹s until its near demise in 1999, Ball Saved explores the personalities and appeal of a uniquely American pastime. Discover the passion that drives pinball fans, players and collectors to preserve pinball in the face of dwindling

interest, out-dated technology and crushing economics.

Ball Saved features a rare glimpse behind the scenes at Stern Pinball, the last Pinball manufacturer in the world, an interview with Roger Sharpe, world-class player, historian and pinball transcendentalist and brings

you into the world of competitive pinballers via the 2005 PinBrawl

.

Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway
Richard Drutman
Documentary Video 43:00 2006 World Premiere

“Visceral performances, day-in-the-life footage, and storied tales of one of indie rock¹s most unique acts (the drummer isn¹t even close to puberty!) converge in this charming film that demonstrates exactly how this family/band works. Their unique set-up- (they screen slides throughout their shows and sing rhyming songs about what¹s on screen)-is provides another step towards fulfilling their goal of fixing what¹s wrong with the entertainment industry: ³We are totally tuned in to what audiences need to experience,² says Jason, ³in terms of bands not communicating with audiences, not breaking down the fourth wall ‹ we need to make up for that in the hour and 15 minutes we get onstage.² Unlike a lot of music films that forget to actually include the music, this doesn¹t shy away from performance footage. It also offers a charming portrait of a family who refuses to compromise, politically or aesthetically, and manage to have a whole

lot of fun in the process.” – Sound Unseen Film Festival

Palestine Song
Nida Sinnokrot
Documentary Video 80:00 2006 Midwest Premiere

“In 1923 Ze’ev Jabotinsky, one of the founding fathers of Zionism wrote an essay in which he outlined the means for establishing a state of Israel

in the whole of historic Palestine. That essay was called The Iron Wall.

“In June of 2002 the construction of a 400-mile barrier began in the Occupied West Bank. Though it is referred to as a ‘security fence’ by Israel, its form changes along the route, and near large cities it is a concrete wall twice as high as the Berlin Wall. Construction began in the northwest part of the West Bank. With its large, unspoiled aquifer, this land provides nearly 65% of the fruits and vegetables produced in the region. The wells along the aquifer provide essential water for drinking, agriculture and sanitation. All of this prime land and its water supply

will fall on the Israeli side of the wall.

“Palestine Blues follows the repercussions of the Israeli Security Wall and Settlement expansion in the engulfed/annexed Palestinian farming communities of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Instead of focusing on the Wall as an object, Palestine Blues examines the grassroots resistance movement that has sprung up against it. Palestine Blues is not a ‘traditional’ political reportage but rather an interminable road trip across hard and liquid borders, across a terrain that is being erased as it is being

traversed.” -Nida Sinnokrot

Subjects for Further Reasearch Program

101
Lori Felker
Experimental 16mm on Video 11:00 2005

“A celebration of audience participation. A simple structure guides you through the multiple levels upon which the viewer, the film and the filmmaker meet and ³interact². Created from found footage, television audio, vintage records, original digital stills, 16 mm and Super-8 footage, 101 stimulates the viewer with its humorous, tense, intriguing and

often confusing commands and games.” ­ Lori Felker

Collective Simulated Synaesthesia
Stephanie Rothenberg
Documentary Video 7:00 2005

“Are you vibrating at an A sharp or a D flat? Learn how to sing your own tune through a new procedure that uses the body’s own frequencies to

recalibrate its internal rhythm.” ­ Stephanie Rothenberg

int.16/45//son01/30×1
lia
Experimental Video 5:43 2005 Austria

“Clouds gather and rain begins to fall. Soundtrack and image merge in
an Œaudiovision” – Michel Chion, Six Pack Films

Our Fallen Spacemen
Jim Vendiola
Documentary Video 7:00 2006

A profile of El-train poster artist ARD, who applies his ad copy
training to guerilla memorials to those who died on NASA space missions.

WS. 2
Seoungho Cho
Experimental Video 8:55 2004 North Korea

An investigation of the moving image, its manipulation through video processing, and the ways in which these technologies can be made to represent the natural world. With his precise camera movements and hypnotic post-production techniques Cho questions the relationship of the viewer

to what he perceives.

For Laika
Bryan Boyce
Experimental Video 1:00 2006

The first animal in space, dreams of her future adventures (most of the
time).

Passengers III

Caitlin Hulscher Experimental Video 5:26 2005 The Netherlands ³More powerful than the universe are the details of which it consists. We see an undefined space, reminiscent of the cosmos. In this universe the origins of life can be found. The voice-over leads us to an ‘out-of-body experience’, which enables us to zoom out from micro to macro level and

back.²- Caitlin Hulscher

The Chiasm
Dana Anderson
Experimental 16mm on Video 8:25 2006

³A 3D film composed of hand painted images and constructed as a piece
of visual music.² ­ Dana Anderson

The Carnivorous Syndrome in 3D

Mike Wilder Documentary Video 22:00 2006 The Carnivorous Syndrome in 3D explores the astounding lives of the carnivorous plants, in mind-bending 3D. Travel to the Venezuelan tepuis, African Savannahs, and the rainforests of Borneo, while learning about the mysterious plants that live there. Discover the beauty and complexity

of these fascinating creatures.

Featuring unprecedented close up 3D time lapse video shot by jasper, a
robot made of Lego ® bricks.

RHINOPLASTY Program Good Times Vol 1
Ken Hegan
Short Video 3:00 2006 Canada

Oh dear, have the terrorists won? A romantic marriage proposal goes
horribly awry in this savage spoof of engagement ring commercials.

Tales of Mere Existence
Lev Yilmaz
Animation Video 7:00 2005

“A collection of kinky/quirky animations about social confusion, sex, and alienation. This is the comedy of demented self-obsessionŠ the stuff

people think about but never talk about.” -www.ingredientx.com

Fear Is A Lot Like Love
Jim Strzelinski
Short Video 6:00 2006

“A sunbathing anarchist pursues his love for a mysterious cult leader,
even though it may cost him his life.” – Jim Strzelinski

Les Femmes Du Monde
Jeremy Bailey
Experimental Video 4:00 2006 Canada

Jeremy Bailey introduces a new video art project celebrating the women
of the world

Mail Order
Zoe Mcintosh
Documentary Video 10:00 2005 New Zealand

A candid look at mail order brides and the men who purchase them.

Rhinoplasty
Yoshua Okon
Short Video 45:00 2000 Mexico

“Rinoplastia (Rhinoplasty) is a narrative video, depicting a group of wealthy Mexico City male youths who are bored, sniff coke and release their frustration by harassing working-class people. The video features non-actors who play themselves and use a high degree of improvisation since there

is no “iron script”.- Yoshua Okon

Sabbia
Kate McCabe
Experimental Video 79:00 2006 World Premiere

“Sabbia is a desert trip inspired by the music of Brant Bjork (former member of Kyuss and Fu Manchu) and visualized by Kate McCabe. Evoking the immeasurable desert landscape and old ghosts of a dusty past, the film beautifully weaves together a tapestry of perfect moments and a raw rock-n-roll way of life. As a form of psychedelic documentary, the film explores the musical wilderness of a weird and sexy Southern California wasteland. Sabbia presents the landscape¹s vast sense of space and time

and like a mirage, reveals the magic of desert music, art, and soul.

The vastness of the deserts, their sweep and scope and giant emptiness waiting to be filled with raw sound, has always been a prominent theme in Bjork¹s music, and it finds suitable expression in McCabe¹s airy, untethered visualizations of those parts of California where ³wasted² describes the landscape instead of the people. Conjuring in bits and pieces everything from Van Sant¹s Gerry to Wilfred Thesiger¹s Arabian Sands, Bjork & McCabe¹s Sabbia crowds the empty desert with sights and sounds that seem not so

much natural as inevitable.” ­ Los Angeles Film Forum

HIGH SCORE Program

Circuit Bending: A Toy

Story
Casey Clark
Documentary Video 12:00 2006

Circuit Bending: A Toy Story highlights three unique artists who are participating in an underground musical movement where old toys are rebuilt and re-imagined, turning them into musical instruments. As the video will show, sometimes these artists are just as interesting as the

instruments they’ve created.

High Score
Jeremy Mack
Documentary Video 52:00 2006 Chicago Premiere

“Although technology continues to evolve, a group of die-hard gamers refuses to abandon the classic arcade games of yesteryear. Loosely united by the high score database website TwinGalaxies.com, the 80’s live on for these enthusiasts as they compete against each other and history to record the world’s highest scores. Portland gamer Bill Carlton is one of the most brazen, fearlessly taking on some of the toughest records on the books, and isn’t afraid to lose a little sleep in the process. Bill specializes in marathon attempts – tests of endurance in which one game is played nonstop for as long as possible. HIGH SCORE follows Bill as he aims to take down the Atari classic Missile Command and its record that has stood unbroken for over twenty years. To get the eighty million points, he’ll have to play the game on one quarter for over two days straight. There is no pause button. There will be no sleep. There can only be one victor in this classic

story of Man versus Missile Command” ­ Jeremy Mack

Shattered
James Fotopoulos
Experimental Video 77:00 2006 World Premiere

A poem on the life and work of Barney Rosett, American entrepreneur and former owner of the publishing house Grove Press (which introduced Americans to writers such as Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, Eugène Ionesco, and Harold Pinter) his private writings, works that influenced him, works he published and his visual archive of photographs, video and film footage. These fragments form a work of media that is beyond the traditional

biography, an attempt to capture the atmosphere and soul of his life.

The Tailenders
Adele Horne
Documentary Video 72:00 2006 Chicago Premiere

Filmed in the Solomon Islands, Mexico, India, and the United States, THE TAILENDERS explores the connections between missionary activity and global capitalism. THE TAILENDERS examines a missionary organization¹s use of ultra-low-tech audio devices to evangelize indigenous communities

facing crises caused by global economic forces.

Joy Ridderhoff founded Gospel Recordings in 1939 in Los Angeles. She remembered how crowds had gathered around gramophones in the Honduran villages where she had worked as a missionary, and decided that rather than compete with this medium; she would use it to preach. The organization that she founded has now produced audio recordings of Bible stories in over 5,000 languages, and aims to record in every language on earth. They distribute these recordings along with hand-wind players in regions with limited access to electricity and media. The Bible stories played by the missionaries are sometimes the first encounter community members have had with recorded sound, and, even more frequently, the first time they have heard their own language recorded. Gospel Recordings calls their target audience “the Tailenders” because they are the last to be reached by global

evangelism.

The missionaries target communities in crisis because they have found that displaced and desperate people are especially receptive to the evangelical recordings. When uprooted from one’s home, as in the case of Mexican migrant workers, the sound of one’s own language is a comfort. And the audio players are appealing media gadgets. Audiences who might not otherwise be interested in the missionaries’ message will listen to the recordings. THE TAILENDERS focuses on how the media objects and messages introduced by the missionaries play a role in larger socioeconomic transformations, such as the move away from subsistence economies toward cash economies based on agricultural

and industrial labor.

The film raises questions about how people who receive the recordings understand them. Gospel Recording¹s project is premised on a belief in the transparency of language to transmit a divinely inspired message. But because the missionaries don’t speak the languages, they must enlist bilingual native speakers as translators. There is ample opportunity for mistakes, selectivity, and resistance in the translation. The film

explores how meaning changes as it crosses language and culture. ­ Adele Horne

LAY DOWN TRACKS Program

S A V E

Roger Beebe Experimental 16mm 5:00 2006

A disused gas station offers a curious imperative to passersby: “SAVE.” A riddle posed in the form of architecture: what is there to save? One more installment in the history of Americans pointing their cameras at gas stations; an attempt to figure out something about where we’ve been,

where we’re headed, and what’s been left behind.­ Roger Beebe

Evergreen
Robert Todd
Experimental 16mm 15:00 2005

A short film reflecting on the act of landscape as portraiture. This is the second in a series of representations of urban nature under siege. ­

Robert Todd

Lay Down Tracks
Danielle Lombardi and Brigid McCaffrey
Documentary 16mm 60:00 2006 Chicago Premiere

Lay Down Tracks is a film in which we get to know five American nomads, a diverse group of people who make a living on the road, having no traditional place to call home. Danielle and Brigid had to go on the road themselves to film their subjects, and structured the film as a journey. The subtlety, personality and depth they reached with their subjects, interweaving the details of their lives, convictions and yearnings, made for a strong

portrait of workers on edges of contemporary America.

The sensitively, beautifully composed film is quite an achievement for two young filmmakers. They worked seriously to bring out the best of material they gathered with a single wind-up Bolex camera and a bare-bones cassette-recorder. They focused on respecting and responding to their subjects experiences and points of view and the result is honest and

personal. ­ Jennifer Reeves

THE TRAVELER Program

Careless Reef- Preface
Gerard Holtthuis
Experimental 35mm 3:00 2005 Austria

What do we see in a face? This is the introduction to the short film series Careless Reef, from which the festival screened Marsa Abu Galawa in

2004.

Sans Supervision
Andrew Betzer
Short 35mm 10:30 2005

A young girl saves herself one summer’s day while her parents lose
themselves in each other.

The Traveler
William Olsson
Feature Video 60:00 2005 Sweden

“When confronted by his longtime girlfriend, telling him that he is unable to love and is more dead than alive, Albin’s life falls apart. He gets fired from his job at a bank and cannot push himself to take the final exam for a prestigious M.B.A. degree. Albin flees home in desperation and ends up at a seedy hostel in former East Berlin. After meeting an aspiring Polish actress in an artist’s squat, Albin decides to find a new meaning in life and become an author. But the young Polish woman departs for Warsaw unexpectedly, leaving a note declaring her love for Albin. Confused and dejected, Albin wanders the streets of Berlin. Albin finds a friend at the hostel with whom he explores the adventurous underground techno scene of Berlin. They meet two English girls and the days are spent playing and partying. Fulfilled by his newfound friends, Albin decides to stay in Berlin. Running out of money, he takes a job as a cleaner at the hostel. He becomes involved with an American exchange student and hangs around with a homeless musician. Meanwhile, Loveparade, the annual festival of sex, drugs and

electronica is approaching…”

³The Traveler was shot on location in Berlin. The film is what one could describe as “reality-fiction”. It is made to appear like a fiction film, but actually blends the borders between fiction and documentary. The only actors in the film are the main character, Albin, and his former girlfriend Lisa. All other characters in the film are real human beings, convinced, at

the time of shooting, that they are in a documentary.” – William Olsson

Valley Girl
Michelle O¹Marah
Feature Video 115:00 2002 Midwest Premiere

“Two questions: (1) Why are most films shown in the gallery or museum context so expensive and so pukoid? (2) In the shadow of the Hollywood sign, what is the difference between an appropriation and a remake, given that the remake is an industry standard, for better (Douglas Sirk’s daunting Imitation of Life) or worse (Jim McBride’s anemic Breathless), producing indifference (Steven Soderbergh’s empty Ocean’s II) or grandiose inanity (Cameron Crowe’s chiasmatic Vanilla Sky)? Rechanneling both trends, Michele O’Marah’s feature-length video Valley Girl captures and intensifies the heart and soul of Martha Coolidge’s original 1983 crossover hit that launched Nicholas Cage, starred Deborah Foreman, and gave the always fascinating Elizabeth Dailey a nice turn as the sad, slightly slutty Loryn. Casting friends and providing them with savvy costuming, satisfying yet no-frills props, and punk-riot grrrl chutzpah, O’Marah has created a guerrilla tour de force and a heady meditation on the simple act of

doing something again.

If Coolidge is the mother muse for this project, then Jack Smith and Ed Wood provide avuncular inspiration and methodology–what might be called Valley Girl’s antinatural naturalism. To mistake O’Marah’s mode as lazy, cynical, or you’d have to ignore her exuberant attention to the material and to the specificity of her own vision. Unlike Laura Cottingham’s art-world driven Anita Pallenberg Story, 1999, which, with its strident nostalgia, never surpassed karaoke redux, Valley Girl doesn’t exist only to be cool. The artist created something much more prepossessing than a critique of Hollywood by, loopy as it might sound, believing in what she believes: that reshooting, with almost no budget, a sweet oddball progirl Hollywood

indie film might be a way to make art.” – Bruce Hainley, Artforum

TRANSPOSITION OF THE GREAT VESSELS
Lee Lynch
Feature Video 72:00 2005 World Premiere

Moving from Redding to Los Angeles, Roger and Lee Anne hope to make a better life. Roger wants to work for the forest service and Lee Anne dreams of becoming a chef. When their baby is born with a rare heart defect they are forced to give up those dreams and make decisions that will give them insurance, and stability. The backdrop of the story is set against a modern California, one of contaminated soil, fields of oilrigs, and the Winchester mystery house. A landscape out of balance begins to emerge along with the characters insecurity and personal fears involving love, spirituality, and freedom. These themes are presented with a combination of a new-neo-realist aesthetic, and fantastical dream sequences. Slowly the characters begin to wonder if the American dream can still be found in this postindustrial

land that is now California.

“My first feature, “Transposition of the Great Vessels” is based on the story of my own parents. It is nostalgic for the American dream, and an American landscape that no longer truly exists. I set this story against the California I know. This is about finding peace within that landscape.”

­ Lee Lynch

“Lee Lynch has made an extremely sensitive film about family and life.
He is truly an amazing person with an amazing heart.” -James Benning

War Games Program

One Dead In Ohio
Robert Greene
Documentary Video 10:00 2006

“Election Day 2004: Democracy lays dead in Ohio as another election is stolen in broad daylight. Based on the Congressional report that

detailed how Ohio became the new Florida in 2004.” – Robert Greene

Pvt. Boro
Alma Boro
Documentary Video 8:50 2006

Pvt. Boro is a personal and urgent conversation between a sister and her younger brother who is in basic training with the US Army. It reveals

a genuine and honest look at our current state of affairs” ­ Alma Boro

.

Qawliya Dance
Usama Alshaibi
Documentary Video 8:05 2006

“Qawliya means Gypsy and the Qawliya gypsies are a small minority in Iraq. Since the United States occupation of Iraq in 2003, some of the poorest Qawliya areas, known for their red light districts, became easy targets for religious militia groups. Many of their villages have been destroyed or taken over by such militias and has forced the Gypsies to flee north.”

-Usama Alshaibi

Animal Mother
Jasmine Way
Documentary Video 28:20 2005

“Animal Mother” is a documentary that focuses on the lives of a group of 25 year old guys, who grew up and still live in rural, small town America. They have spent much of their lives acting out elaborate scenarios of war and violence as a form of entertainment. When one of them enters the armed service, for real, his life and views on the American military are changed forever. This film explores the strong contrast that results between his actual experience of war and his friends¹ glorified visions of the battlefield and exposes the damaging effect the war in Iraq is having

on returning American soldiers.

Jean Genet In Chicago
Frederic Moffet
Documentary Video 26:00 2006

“A queer rewriting of the events surrounding the 1968 National Democratic Convention in Chicago from the point of view of French writer Jean Genet. Along the way Genet will meet, amongst others, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, the Yippies, the Black Panther Party and the Chicago police force… Ultimately, the video is about the difficulty of aligning

political and sexual desires.’­ Video Data Bank

Making Waves Program

Untitled Video on Lynne Stewart and Her Conviction, The Law and Poetry
Paul Chan
Documentary Video 17:00 2006

A simple and moving portrait of Lynne F. Stewart, the New York lawyer convicted in 2005 of aiding Islamic terrorism by smuggling messages out of jail from a client she was defending, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. Now disbarred, Ms. Stewart faces a 30-year jail sentence. In the portrait, Lynne Stewart talks about her life as an elementary school librarian,

activist and lawyer, and recites poetry by Blake, Brecht and Ashbury.

Making Waves
Michael Lahey
Documentary Video 64:00 2004

It’s a smart, entertaining, and ably made movie with a lively cast of characters and a strong visual sense, and I recommend it highly. ­

Jesse Walker, author of Rebels on the Air

³What do a public access TV personality, an electronics engineer, a Vietnam vet, a libertarian congressional candidate, and a retired millionaire have in common? They’re all operating unlicensed, low-power, ‘pirate’ radio stations in Tucson, Arizona. Making Waves follows their uphill struggle

to be heard on our publicly-owned but corporate-controlled airwaves.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) argues that low-power radio interferes with business, creating ‘chaos on the airwaves’; low-power advocates say the NAB interferes with democracy. Meanwhile, due to loosened regulations passed by Congress, big business has seized the airwaves

and driven the independent station owner to near extinction.

Armed with low-cost micro-radio equipment, the First Amendment, even a how-to video by a Michigan pastor, the Tucson pirates use unlicensed radio as a form of civil disobedience, protesting the lack of individual expression and diversity on the airwaves and the FCC regulations that make getting licensed next to impossible. For one station, this means providing the real alternative to ‘alternative’ music. For the others, it means

educating the public about its Constitutional rights.

Making Waves reveals the pirates’ personal and political passions that compel them to defy the FCC. As they confront the difficulties and risks of running an unlicensed station and take their fight for free speech into the open, the film invites the viewer to ask, ‘If the public took back the

airwaves, what would they sound like?’ ­ Michael Lahey

Weird Paul: A Lo Fidelity Documentary
Stacey Goldschmidt
Documentary Video 60:00 2006 World Premiere

An in depth look at obscure Pittsburgh based lo-fi recording artist Weird Paul. Born Paul Petoskey in 1970, Weird Paul has been recording and releasing his homemade cassette albums since he was 14 and has since recorded over 500 songs and has released 20 albums. Although the majority of his output has been self produced and released in limited numbers he was briefly signed to Homestead Records, one of the largest and most respected indie labels of the alternative era early 90s. The album Lo Fidelity, Hi Anxiety has since earned him a dedicated cult following that includes

musicians such as Lou Barlow, Calvin Johnson and John S. Hall.

The Wild Condition
Rolf Belgum
Feature Video 72:00 2006 World Premiere

The Wild Condition follows the story of Merrilyn, an untamed and openly misanthropic eighty-one year old woman with the domestication of a wolf. After Merrilyn is once again kicked out of her nursing home and found wandering miles from home, her frustrated middle-aged son, Chris, wrestles with how to handle this uncontrollable situation. Through Chris’s dog he gains access to the “wild” his mother seems determined to return to. With two feet in the forest and two in the living room, the dog balances their lives in an unexpected and authentic relationship. The Wild Condition seamlessly melds improvised drama, documentary and nature film elements into an unusual tapestry of hallucination and familiarity. It has been described as A Woman Under the Influence meets Amores Peros through the lens of

National Geographic.

THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS

Jawswipe
Jesse McLean
Experimental Video 2:00 2006

“A camera-less animation project composed entirely of over 5,000 default video transitions and computer generated color mattes. The variety of color fields combined with constant transitioning allows for creative play with abstract forms and produces strobing effects that ultimately lead the

viewer towards anxiety.” ­ Jesse McLean

Sans Simon
Cory Arcangel
Experimental Video 5:00 2005

“Arcangel re-writes musical history with a wave of his hand.” -NYUFF

b-alles
Mariana Gioti
Experimental Video 2:00 2005 Greece

“A Greek TV-commercial from the 80s of a product-action racquet game- that failed to become a success in the local market, is being manipulated

anew in terms of image and sound.” ­ Mariana Gioti

Songs of Praise For The Heart Beyond Cure
Emily Vey Duke And Cooper Battersby
Experimental Video 16:00 2006 Canada

“We will sing a song of praise for the heart beyond cure. Raise our voices up to serve the bad and the impure.”­ Emily Vey Duke and Cooper

Battersby

You Made Me Love You
Michelle Naismith
Experimental Video 3:00 2005 UK

“Twenty-one dancers are held by your gaze. Losing contact can be
traumatic.” – LUX

Why Overweight Teenage Girls Often Like Unicorns
Jennifer Matotek
Experimental Video 4:15 2005 Canada

“An abstract and experimental Bildungsroman depicting why overweight
preteen girls with glasses often like unicorns.” ­ Jennifer Matotek

Mary-Kate And Ashley Conquer The Bedbugs
Tim Reardon
Animation super-8 on Video 3:00 2006

“In this post-modern fairy tale New York City is attacked by giant bed
bugs so Jesus sends the Olsen Twins to the rescue.” ­ Tim Reardon

Where¹s My Boyfriend?
Gretchen Hogue
Experimental Video 2:00 2005

“A biological clock explosion of penises and fetuses. This one’s for
the ladies. Can you hear the ticking?” – Madcat Film Festival

Sausage McMuffin With Cheese But No Egg
Kelly Oliver & Keary Rosen
Experimental Video 5:06 2005

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” – Kelly Oliver

A Small Corona For The Freak Show
Chris Hefner
Experimental Video 9:31 2006

“Novel efforts against marginalization in moving pictures, kinetic
gadgetry, and letter writing.” ­ Chris Hefner

Little Dog Staccato
Jackie Hatfield
Experimental Video 1:00 2004 UK

“A short burst of cinematic energy animated into snippets of time, Little Dog runs across the screen, in and out of the frames, the sound of his

staccato barking the accompanying musical score.” ­ Jackie Hatfield

How She Slept At Night
Lilli Carre
Animation Video 3:18 2006

” A man tries to remember his wife but only comes up with scant details
as his memory starts to stray.” ­ Lilli Carre

Little Spirits
Cecilia Condit
Short Video 8:40 2005

“Two little girls explore beyond Grandmother’s limits, coming face to
face with their own emerging animal natures.” ­ Cecilia Condit

Because Of The War
Jennet Thomas
Experimental Video 13:30 2005 UK

“Things were changing. Very few toys or games were left and music was almost over. Tap water was tasting female and television only came in nasty

spasms…” – Jennet Thomas

QUESTIONS:
For information regarding the Chicago Underground Film Fund email info-cuff@cuff.org.