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2011 Migrating Forms: Official Lineup

By Mike Everleth ⋅ May 10, 2011

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The 3rd annual Migrating Forms is set to run on May 20-29 at the Anthology Film Archives with yet another stunning lineup of current and classic experimental and avant-garde films and videos.

New work includes the U.S. premiere of Melanie Gilligan’s experimental sci-fi feature Popular Unrest for the fest’s Opening Night event. Then, throughout the fest, will be Jacqueline Goss‘ meteorology meditation The Observers, Liu Jiayin’s two-part family drama Oxhide and Oxhide II, Madison Brookshire’s light processing experimentation Color Series, Oliver Laxe’s meta-documentary You Are All Captains for the Closing Night event, and more.

New short works in the group programs include films and videos by Adele Horne, Andrew Lampert, Kevin Jerome Everson, Shana Moulton, Fern Silva, Olga Chernysheva, Dani Leventhal and more.

Classic retrospectives include Brazilian films by Glauber Rocha and French films written by Georges Perec. Electric Arts Intermix presents little-seen personal videos by L.A.-based Cynthia Maughan, plus Maughan’s biggest influence, the Wes Craven horror classic The Hills Have Eyes. Meanwhile, Primary Information presents videos and films by and about the Detroit “anti-rock” band Destroy All Monsters.

Plus, there are great events including Jim Finn‘s favorite musical numbers from North Korea, Rich Juzwiak’s screening of his biggest influences and the always popular Tube Time! found online video shootout.

Please visit the official Migrating Forms website for more info. The full lineup is below:

May 20

8:30 p.m.: Popular Unrest, dir. Melanie Gilligan. In an alternative future, all human interaction is overseen by a mysterious force known as “the Spirit” and everyday citizens are being murdered in public by unseen assailants.

May 21

2:30 p.m.: The Tiny Ventriloquist, dir. Steve Reinke. A new chapter in Reinke’s Final Thoughts series, an ongoing project intended to be continued until the filmmaker’s death, concerning the limits of things: discourse, experience, events and thought.

3:45 p.m.: “Group Program 1”
The Yellow Bank, dir. J.P. Sniadecki
Tokyo-Ebisu, dir. Tomonari Nishikawa
Track One, dir. eteam
Shibuya-Tokyo, dir. Tomonari Nishikawa
In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails, dir. Fern Silva

5:15 p.m.: “Group Program 2”
Untitled. Dedicated to Sengai, dir. Olga Chernysheva
Fragments, dir. Darrin Martin
It, heat, hit, dir. Laure Prouvost
Hearts and Trump Again, dir. Dani Leventhal
Monolog, dir. Laure Prouvost
Trashman, dir. Olga Chernysheva
Rigamarole Reversal, dir. Andrew Lampert

6:45 p.m.: The Last Buffalo Hunt, dir. Lee Anne Schmitt. This documentary explores the culture and industry of buffalo hunting in Southern Utah.

8:30 p.m.: Holidays in the Sun: Cynthia Maughan. A selection of videos by Maughan that are direct-camera performances by her that draw upon her upbringing in Los Angeles and is inspired by the spirit of exploitation films. Presented by Electronic Arts Intermix.

10:00 p.m.: Holidays in the Sun: The Hills Have Eyes, dir. Wes Craven. The classic cult horror film about a family stranded in the desert who are attacked by a gang of cannibals. (One of the primary influences on the work of Cynthia Maughan — see above.)

May 22

2:00 p.m.: The Observers, dir. Jacqueline Goss. A solitary meteorologist measures and records the weather way up on Mt. Washington, New Hampshire. Based on the observers who perform this very real work.

3:45 p.m.: “Group Program 3”
History Minor, dir. Ryan Garrett
And Again, dir. Adele Horne

5:30 p.m.: Color Series, dir. Madison Brookshire. Six short films that are produced solely using the the lights of the printing process at the lab.

7:15 p.m.: “Musical Numbers from the Juche-Oriented Socialist State of Korea”
Jim Finn shows clips from his favorite North Korean movies and reads excerpts from Kim Jong Il’s On the Art of the Cinema.

9:15 p.m.: “Group Program 4”
The Writer in Residence, dir. Stephen Sutcliffe
Art Tape: Live With / Think About, dir. Michael Bell-Smith
I, Popeye, dir. Takeshi Murata
Your Life/Your Language, dir. Jacob Ciocci
The Galactic Pot Healer, dir. Shana Moulton
The Artist, dir. Laure Prouvost
Versions, dir. Oliver Laric

May 23

7:00 p.m.: Primary Information presents: Destroy All Monsters
A program of videos tracking the legendary Detroit “anti-rock” band founded by Mike Kelley, Niagara, Jim Shaw and Cary Loren.

9:30 p.m.: Los Labios, dir. Iván Fund & Santiago Loza. This hybrid documentary/fictional narrative follows three female aid workers traveling through rural Argentina.

May 24

7:00 p.m.: Oxhide, dir. Liu Jiayin. A family plays fictionalized versions of themselves in a cramped Beijing apartment.

9:15 p.m.: Oxhide II, dir. Liu Jiayin. More stories featuring a family — playing fictionalized versions of themselves — living in a cramped Beijing apartment.

May 25

7:00 p.m.: Serie Noire, dir. Alain Corneau. Based on Jim Thompson’s novel A Hell of a Woman, a door-to-door salesman tries to save a teenage girl from a life of prostitution. Screenplay by Georges Perec. Made in 1979.

9:00 p.m.: Un homme qui dort, dir. Georges Perec & Bernard Queysanne. Based on Perec’s own novel, a young student decides to drop out of society and live entirely in his room. In B&W and silent except for narration by Shelly Duvall. Made in 1974.

May 26

7:00 p.m.: Too Early, Too Late, dir. Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet. A structural investigation of revolutionary history and landscape in France and Egypt.

9:15 p.m.: “The Art of the Supercut”
Rich Juzwiak presents a program of his influences and favorites. Followed by a screening of Curt Hanks epic Star Wars: Chewbacca Supercut.

May 27

7:00 p.m.: Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol, dir. Glauber Rocha. A young husband and wife go on a crime spree across Brazil and encounter various mystics and soothsayers. Considered one of the greatest Brazilian films of all time.

9:30 p.m.: “Tube Time!”
Matt Wolf and Kelly Rakwoski, Benjamin Graves, and Mary Manning face off in a battle of found online video madness.

May 28

2:00 p.m.: A Formal Film in Nine Episodes, Prologue & Epilogue, dir. Mario Pfeifer. A documentary on the landscape and culture of an Asian metropolis slowly evolves into a fictional narrative focusing on two inhabitants.

3:15 p.m.: “Group Program 5”
BZV, dir. Kevin Jerome Everson
Crosswalk, dir. Jeanne Liotta

4:45 p.m.: “Group Program 6”
The Green and the Blue, dir. Benjamin Schultz-Figueroa
Horizon Line, dir. Katherin McInnis
Threshold, dir. Katherin McInnis
Last Resort, dir. Katherin McInnis
East Wind, dir. Cao Fei
Meer, dir. Robert Todd
Inaudible, dir. Jenny Perlin
Leads, dir. Jenny Perlin
Shadow Life, dir. Cao Fei
Servants of Mercy, dir. Fern Silva

6:30 p.m.: Nostalgia, dir. Omer Fast. A three-part film and video installation combining documentary and dramatization.

7:45 p.m.: “Group Program 7”
The Future Will Not Be Capitalist, dir. Sasha Pirker
Untitled, dir. Neil Beloufa
In Free Fall, dir. Hito Steyerl
Burrow Me, dir. Laure Prouvost

9:30 p.m.: Terra em Transe, dir. Glauber Rocha. An anarchist poet becomes embroiled in a political fight between a populist governor and a conservative president in the fictional Latin American country of Eldorado.

May 29

1:30 p.m.: “Group Program 8”
A Movie, dir. Jen Proctor (Watch online)
Coming Attractions, dir. Peter Tscherkassky
Despair, dir. Stephen Sutcliffe
Misty Suite, dir. James Richards
These Hammers Don’t Hurt Us, dir. Michael Robinson

3:15 p.m.: “Group Program 9 ”
Brune Renault, dir. Neil Beloufa
Rosalinda, dir. Matías Piñeiro
Cry When It Happens, dir. Laida Lertxundi

5:00 p.m.: Antonio das Mortes, dir. Glauber Rocha. A legendary warrior becomes a gun for hire on the Brazilian plains.

7:00 p.m.: “Recent Work by Nicolas Provost”
Stardust
Storyteller
Long Live the New Flesh
Plot Point

8:30 p.m.: You All Are Captains, dir. Oliver Laxe. This meta-documentary chronicles the disintigrating relationship between the director and his collaborators: A class of middle-school Moroccan filmmakers in Tangiers.