Category — Film Series

This year-round seasonal film series provides our audience with the opportunity to experience otherwise-unseen films that address topics – both social and artistic. We show both feature-length works, shorter films and videos; our focus is primarily on films that are experimental, avant-garde, underground, and independent, ranging from local to international.

The Series was founded in the summer of 2006 by Sarah Lawson, Jordan Taylor and Max Fenton; James Ford joined the group soon afterward as a co-curator and volunteer projectionist, and served as the series’ creative director and coordinator through the Spring of 2009. We have also received much technical assistance and support from the Virginia Film Society.

Our Film Series is organized by a small group of volunteer curators; we also actively invite and recruit local filmmakers and enthusiasts to get involved, to contribute to our schedule, or even to host a night of films at our space. Visit the submissions page or email our film series coordinator to learn more about how you can get involved with the Film Series.

Announcing Cine de Noche!  A bi-weekly gathering to watch a Spanish-language film and engage in conversation after the screening.  Each film will be introduced by a community member, open to bilingual curious viewers, cinephiles, and those who just want a chance to work on their language skills.

Feb. 23rd(Postponed until further notice!) // Motorcycle Diaries // Introduced by Beth Miller

March 29 // Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown // Introduced by Gloria Rockhold

April 12 // The Devil’s Backbone // Introduced by Jim McDonald

May 3rd // Marshall Berlanga // Introduced by Steven Villareal

–

February 23rd: Ann Arbor Film Festival Shorts // 7pm // The Bridge // Donations suggested
49th AAFF Tour PROGRAM – PART B  [80 minutes; digital formats]

Miramare – Michaela Müller | Zagreb, Croatia | 8 minutes
Atlantiques – Mati Diop | France/Senegal | 15 minutes
Protopartículas (Protoparticles) – Chema García Ibarra | Elche, Spain | 7 minutes
Hand Soap – Kei Oyama | Tokyo, Japan | 16 minutes [AAFF Best Animation Award]
Point Line Plane – Simon Payne | London, England | 9 minutes
These Hammers Don’t Hurt Us – Michael Robinson | West Danby, NY | 13 minutes [AAFF Most Technically Innovative Film Award]
In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails – Fern Silva | USA/Brazil | 13 minutes [AAFF Best Experimental Film Award]

–

March 15th: Ultimate Cinema // Breer and Belson

March 16th: @ 1708 Gallery

April 19th: Flicker Poetry // Organized and coordinated by Lindsay Turner

May 17th: Noche de Cine 7 // Latin American Experimental Shorts

May 24th: Lighthouse Youth Media Presents Experimental Shorts

–

Into the Warmth>>

May 31st: The Innkeepers (Ti West) and Cook-Out

Charlottesville Scores: Local Musicians score 16mm films

and maybe…

Black Power Mix-Tape

Leonard Cohen Shorts

Thursday, June 16, 2011 | 5:30-7:30pm

As part of Piedmont Council for the Arts’ leadership development program, The Bridge Film Series will be hosting a special screening of Lucy Walker’s acclaimed documentary, Waste Land.

Waste Land follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located near Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs catadores – self-designated pickers of recyclable materials – and collaborates with them as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage. Following the film, attendees will be invited to join in a conversation about the transformative power of art.

The screening is FREE and open to the public. Snacks and drinks will be provided.

For more information, please contact info@charlottesvillearts.org.

Thursday, March 24, 2011 | 8pm | $5

Often considered adjunct to a drug experience, psychedelic film has a rich tradition that reaches well before the counterculture and is still a thriving contemporary genre. The Bridge Film Series presents a night dedicated to Psychedelic film as a funhouse mirror of consciousness rather than eye candy for turning on (not that you can’t do that). Starting in the ’20s, this show takes up everyone from Len Lye’s black and white handmade “Tusalava” from 1929 to Jennifer Reeves’ and Ben Russell’s contemporary works in the genre, along with a number of films form the late ’60s heyday. While we load the 16mm films, we’ll be playing classic psychedelic commercials from 7-Up, Whirlpool, and the Government Information Agency. Also including short films by Jud Yalkut, Paul Sharits, and John Whitney.

Thursday, March 31, 2011 | 7:30pm | $5

Come see master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock’s silent thriller, The Lodger, based on the infamous Jack the Ripper story. Fast-paced and atmospheric, this film is full of Hitchcock’s signature style and thematic interests, also revealing him to be a true student of both German Expressionism and Soviet montage styles. Local musician Matt Marshall will perform live keyboard accompaniment to the film in the traditional style.

Thursday, April 14, 2011 | Workshop at 4pm | Screening at 8pm | $50

In this workshop students will learn to manipulate the surface of the film using a variety of direct filmmaking techniques: painting, scratching, and masking in order to create an experimental film on 16mm. The goal is to have each participant create a well-developed direct film that will be screened at the end of the session. Students will walk away with hands-on experience of direct filmmaking, a finished film work, the knowledge to continue to work in this practice at home, and a list of venues to pursue for exhibition. All materials are provided. Instructor: Steve Cossman. Registration is required and space is limited. To register, email bridgepaifilm@gmail.com.

After the workshop and student screening, instructor/filmmaker STEVE COSSMAN will screen his film, TUSSLEMUSCLE, a work made over the course of three years by hand-splicing over seven-thousand view-master reel cells of flowers together into a linear film strip. Cossman had his start as a sculptor and painter at Albright College when he was first introduced to experimental film. Eager to explore the medium, he went on to study cinema in the Czech Republic then came back to set up a base in New York. There he is founder/director of an annually occurring expanded cinema exhibition entitled MONO NO AWARE, a curator of local/touring film programs, teaches filmmaking at UNIONDOCS, and continues to show work nationally and internationally. The screening will include a variety of Cossman’s work alongside a small selection of films/video by Eirik Svensson, Fern Silva, Jennifer Sullivan, Matthais Muller, and Sean Hanley. A Q&A with the Steve Cossman will follow the screening.

Workshop attendance is $50 (including materials and admission to the screening) and is limited to 10 students. Admission to the screening is open to the public for $5. Food and drinks will be available for purchase. The workshop will be held at 4pm and the screening at 8pm.

“The world, on both the micro and macro level, is constantly moving within a framework of units this irrepressible flux of time is the nexus of human experience and perception. Investigating the quantification of this motion through a reordering of various elements, I employ universally recognizable imagery within a patterned visual language. Often using time as a structure, the ‘natural’ rhythm of life is altered to create a resonating interval. This visual discord allows the viewer to reconsider established perceptual relationships.” -Steve Cossman

Tuesday, October 19 and Wednesday, October 20 | 7:30pm | $5

Join The Bridge Film Series in celebrating film legend Bela Lugosi! This two-night birthday bash will include screenings of four of Lugosi’s best films and is being hosted by Matt Marshall, an adjunct film lecturer at the University of Virginia, and silent film music composer. On Lugosi’s actual birthday (October 20th) there will be an audience toast in his honor and attendees are encouraged to wear Halloween costumes!

Screenings will be held on Tuesday, October 19 and Wednesday, October 20 at 7:30pm at The Bridge PAI (209 Monticello Road, in Belmont). Suggested donation: $5. Snacks and drinks will be available both nights. Each screening will last approximately 2-1/2 hours.

Tuesday, October 19: Dracula and The Raven
Dracula (1931): The film that started the American Horror genre and forever solidified Bela Lugosi as the immortal Count. The film is not based so much on the Bram Stoker Novel but on the Hamilton Deane stage adaptation that was very popular in the1920s. To this day when we are asked to speak like Dracula, we speak like Bela Lugosi. (75 mins)

The Raven (1935): Bela plays a doctor obsessed by Edgar Allan Poe. Unrequited love leads to madness. This film teams Lugosi up with horror legend Boris Karloff. It also led to a brief ban on horror films in the mid to late 1930s. (61 mins)

Wednesday, October 20: White Zombie and Bride of the Monster
White Zombie (1932): Among most Lugosi fans, this independent film from 1932 is a favorite. Lugosi commands the screen as Legendre, a Voodoo sorcerer who controls all those who dare approach him. (67 mins)

Bride of the Monster (1956): Cult film director Ed Wood’s tragically ludicrous film with Lugosi as a Mad Scientist, determined to make an Atomic Woman. Lugosi delivers a memorable monologue as if it is Hamlet. Martin Landou won best actor in his portrayal of Bela Lugosi in the Tim Burton film “Ed Wood.” Fans of that film won’t want to miss this! (69 mins)

Thursday, December 9, 2010 | 7pm

Renowned for his work in assemblage and film, Bruce Conner’s innovative technique of skillfully montaged shots from pre-existing borrowed or found footage can be seen throughout his career. Conner was among the first to use pop music for film sound tracks and his films have inspired generations of filmmakers. This retrospective screening will include all of his works available on 16mm.

Thursday, September 16, 2010 | 8pm | $5

In collaboration with The University of Virginia Art Museum’s “Man Ray: African Art & the Modernist Lens” exhibition, The Bridge Film Series proposes an evening of 16mm films focusing not only Man Ray’s enduring legacy in experimental film but also on contemporary experimental filmmakers’ use of Africa as a means of reflecting on the spatial and temporal experiences of late modernity.

Elasticity
directed by Chick Strand
1976 | 25 minutes | color
Strand describes the autobiographical Elasticity as “Impressionistic surrealism in three acts. The approach is literary experimental with optical effects. There are three mental states that are interesting: amnesia, euphoria and ecstasy. Amnesia is not knowing who you are and wanting desperately to know. I call this the White Night. Euphoria is not knowing who you are and not caring. This is the Dream of Meditation. Ecstasy is knowing exactly who you are and still not caring. I call this the Memory of the Future.” — Chick Strand

Medina
directed by Scott Bartlett
1972 | 15 minutes | color
Filmmaker Scott Bartlett’s lyrical documentary of Morocco combines the rich, poetical patterns of the walls, steps and tiles, the dense calligraphic decoration, the shaded windows and veiled eyes of the city with appropriate musical score. The New York Times wrote, “It is as if all the impulse toward lyrical pattern in Bartlett’s film work had found an objective correlative in the walls, the steps and tiles, the dense calligraphic decoration, the shaded windows and veiled eyes of the city.” In his study of 1960s American experimental cinema The Exploding Eye, Wheeler Winston Dixon wrote “[Scott Bartlett's films] exemplified San Francisco’s preferred form of cinematic discourse for a later generation of artists, poets, writers and videomakers…The visual structures of Bartlett’s films influenced the images we see on MTV today, as well as the digital special effects employed in many contemporary feature films.”

7362
directed by Pat O’Neill
1965-67 | 11 minutes | color
Machine-like imagery in color or black and white gradually merges into abstracted forms of the human anatomy. Described ias “A bilaterally symmetrical (west to east) fusion of human, biomorphic and mechanical shapes in motion. Has to do with the spontaneous generation of electrical energy. A fairly rare (ten years ago) demonstration of the Sabattier effect in motion. Numbered after the film stock of the same name.” Music by Joseph Byrd and Michael Moore.

The Sleepers
directed by Mark Lapore
1989 | 16 minutes | color
Memory, as well as the residue of information in text and film from Sudan, led me to make The Sleepers in order to resolve the impression that the third world is present in the first world as an idea and a condition. The Sleepers is a film about how notions of culture are often defined by information received indirectly – information that frequently violates the particulars of people and place and makes questionable one’s ability to portray specific individuals as representatives of culture. The Sleepers concludes with a description of an African girl cleaning up after a meal being read over the image of a red storefront in New York’s Chinatown. Time and space contradict, then collapse to suggest a new third world city; a city of the imagination, where rural Sudan, China and Manhattan exist simultaneously.

Friday, August 13, 2010 | 8pm | $5 | AT RANDOM ROW BOOKS

The Bridge Film Series is pleased to welcome filmmaker Bill Daniel back to Charlottesville for his presentation of lost and found music films, SONIC ORPHANS: Lost Music Films From 1965-87. This evening of film will include a program of recently unearthed 16mm footage and a discussion of “orphan films” as well as a one-night photo exhibit and a live musical performance by local drone musician Myceum.

SONIC ORPHANS is a compilation reel of lost and found clips projected on 16mm – some silent, some that rock. Abandoned, lost, found, and now presented raw without editing, these are all celluloid gems. Daniel curates an unlikely collection of film that exists in an impossibly strange space between entertainment and the stupefying bewilderment of Useless Cinema – clips of silent outtakes, un-contextualized news, lab mistakes, abandoned student films. There is a flavor of goofy nostalgia to much of the footage, but the images are also haunting – pogoing, sneaking hits on cigarettes, meeting the gaze of someone from 20 or even 40 years ago. Part of the evening’s presentation will talk about the stories behind the films and the relationship between underground music and film cultures.

Featuring footage of: The Beatles, The Avengers, The Huns, Boy Problems, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, and Johnny Cash

Bill Daniel is a filmmaker and artist who makes work that connects with an outsider audience while he continues to experiment with survivalism and bricolage in attempts to record and report on the various social margins he often finds himself in. His documentary subjects have included bicycle messengers, radical environmentalists, hobo graffiti artists, swap meet guitar players, and rural drag racers. Daniel’s work has received awards from Creative Capital, Film Arts Foundation, and the Texas Filmmaker Production Fund, among others.