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. For more information about the posters for the film series, click here.

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.

Thursday, July 8, 2010 | 8-11pm

Last year, community members assembled for a cookout and the transcendent kitsch of Skatetown USA. Time to do it again with more people, more bonhomie, and a truly frightening movie: The House of the Devil!!

The House of the Devil is a 2009 horror film written, directed, and edited by Ti West, starring Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, and Mary Woronov. It combines elements of both the slasher film and haunted house subgenres while using the “satanic panic” of the 1980s as a central plot element. The film attempts to recreate the style of horror films from the 1970s and 1980s, using similar filming techniques and film technology as those which were used during the era. Unlike other films made in the 1990s and 2000s that attempted to revive the horror genre (for instance, the Scream films), the film does not use satire or irony to convey the story, but plays it straight in order to be as true as possible to the style of the decade’s horror films

In honor of the good faith 80s nostalgia, we will be showing it on VHS (It was the first commercially produced VHS in 6 years!!) People are encouraged to bring grillables, drinks, and their best 80s style.

Reviews of The House of the Devil:

“The film may provide an introduction for some audience members to the Hitchcockian definition of suspense: It’s the anticipation, not the happening, that’s the fun.”
– Roger Ebert

“Ti West’s retro ‘Satan rules!’ thriller The House Of The Devil gets the look and tone of early-’80s horror schlock exactly right.”
– The Onion

“This isn’t just a good throwback satanic thriller – it looks as if it was made during the era of satanist paranoia.”
– San Francisco Chronicle

Thursday, June 10, 2010 | 8pm | $5

The Bridge Film Series is pleased to present a night of avant-garde films made by women, as a continuation of it’s annual Flicks By Chicks screenings. The six short films will provide a glimpse into the contributions made by women to the experimental film community, ranging from the late 1950’s through the present. Most of the films will be shown in their original 16mm format, and Rose Lowder’s “Certaines Observations” will be projected simultaneously through two separate projectors, as intended by the filmmaker. It will be a fun and engaging night of film viewing and audience interaction, with a short introduction to the filmmakers given at the beginning and a time for questions and discussion following the films.

Jane Conger Belson Shimane: Odds & Ends (1959)
Carolee Schneemann: Plumb Line (1968-72)
Cindy Sherman: Doll Clothes (1975)
Rose Lowder: Certaines Observations (1979)
Jennifer Reeves: The Girl’s Nervy (1995)
Jeanne Liotta: Loretta (2003)

Food and drinks will be available. Total running time: approximately 1 hour, including intermission.

Thursday, May 20, 2010 | 8pm | $5

Mario Montez graced first the Bridge screen last June in Jose Rodriquez Soltero’s Lupe, wooing the film crew with his vintage cocktail dresses, laconic humor and gorgeous white cat. This May 20th at 8pm, we’ll give him the top billing he deserves.

When Jack Smith discovered him he was “Rene Rivera”, a Puerto-Rican postal worker living in Manhattan. Taking his name in homage to the Dominican actress Maria Montez, he first appeared on screen in Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures (1962-63). Later he became Andy Warhol’s first drag superstar, starring in more than ten of his films. Montez was also a favorite of underground theater, appearing regularly in Theatre of the Ridiculous productions by Charles Ludlam, Ronald Tavel and John Vaccaro.

Thursday, April 29, 2010 | 8-11pm | $5

Two years ago, The Bridge Film Series hosted it’s first fusion of poetry and film. This event aimed to take the fear out of poetry. For those who associate poetry with that hushed “poets” voice or with romantic tom foolery, this event takes seriously John Ashbery’s idea that poetry can be something else.

Poetry doesn’t have to be the purple eye of God extolling your soul, it can be a simple process of experience resting and recording. The films range from the ultra-rare Silent movie Money directed by Rudy Burckhardt with intertitles written by artist-poet Joe Brainard to Henry Hills raw document of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry movement. In between films, we will hear from current or former Charlottesville poets: published and unpublished, aspiring and accomplished.

Poets: Sam Witt, John Bylander, James Mattise, Hannah Ehrlinspiel.

Films:

Money
1968, 16mm, b&w/so, 45m
Directed by Rudy Burckhardt

A silent screen-type comedy starring Edwin Denby as Hemlock Stinge.

“It deals with old Mr. Stinge, the unlovable billionaire, and many other characters, rich and poor. It shows the luxury and degradation of New York City and the simple fresh air of Maine. The story can’t resist slowing up to look at a girl; it skips a few logical links when it gets too complicated. It is being told by a hard-drinking farmer to his son to inspire him to become a billionaire too. The photography is masterful and draws no attention to itself. The text by Joe Brainard, ditto. The documentary sequences show people and buildings on the kind of real life day when you keep finding comedy wherever you look. Special to Burckhardt is the light touch. The jokes – many small touching ones, others outright gags – are left unexploited and unexplained. The characters are all pretty bad, money is the root of all evil, and they ought not to enjoy themselves but they do anyway. The film is clearly unpretentious, free-wheeling and imaginative.” – Edwin Denby

USAPoetry: Frank O’Hara
1966, 15 min, video
Directed by Richard O. Moore

O’Hara discusses with Leslie his work and the relationship between poets, playwrights, and artists. O’Hara also reads some of his poetry and talks about his friendships with other artists. Filmed on 5 March 1966 at O’Hara’s home and Leslie’s studio in New York City.

Plagiarism
1981, 16mm, color/so, 10min
Directed by Henry Hills

A raw documentary of the New York “language poets” in their milieu, with Bruce Andrews and Charles Bernstein (co-editors of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E), James Sherry and Hanna Weiner.

Process
1974, 16mm, black and white, silent, 13.5 min
Directed by Eduardo Darino

“This is a film d’montage. The shooting has been completely improvised after two months of rehersals of the film-maker with the New YorkStreet Theatre. The cast directed by Marketta Kimbrell (The Pawnbroker, Judgement at Nuremberg, etc) was perparing one of the last poems of Nobel Prize Chilean Pablo Neruda for their repertory. At the same time, the theatre and the film-crew discussed the possibilities of the film., the characters of the poem and the creative process of each individual actor reaching the latinamerican reality sung by Neruda. The film puts together three narrative lines: the reality, the poem, and the performance with a marvelous editing.” Nino Buono (News Agency Cable)

Thursday, May 20, 2010 | 8pm | $5

Mario Montez graced first the Bridge screen last June in Jose Rodriquez Soltero’s Lupe, wooing the film crew with his vintage cocktail dresses, laconic humor and gorgeous white cat. This May 20th at 8pm, we’ll give him the top billing he deserves.

When Jack Smith discovered him he was “Rene Rivera”, a Puerto-Rican postal worker living in Manhattan. Taking his name in homage to the Dominican actress Maria Montez, he first appeared on screen in Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures (1962-63). Later he became Andy Warhol’s first drag superstar, starring in more than ten of his films. Montez was also a favorite of underground theater, appearing regularly in Theatre of the Ridiculous productions by Charles Ludlam, Ronald Tavel and John Vaccaro.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 | 7pm | $5

Corresponding with this month’s Audio March series, this evening’s selection will feature short films by noted minimalist and experimental composers/filmmakers, including:

Robert Nelson’s “Plastic Haircut”
Harry Smith’s “Film No. 3: Interwoven”
Tony Conrad’s “Straight and Narrow”
Storm de Hirsch’s “Peyote Queen”
Jud Yalkut’s “Electronic Fables”
Robert Breer’s “A Man and His Dog Out for Air”

Thursday, March 4, 2010 | 8pm | $5

Murder! Sleepwalking!! Delusion!!! Expressionism!!!!

On the 90th Anniversary of this silent film classic, Matt Marshall and the Reel Music Trio will be performing a live score with accompaniment. It will be a fundraiser for the Bridge Film Series. Keep the films coming with a $5 suggested donation.