So, back in March there was much fanfare re: Ed Halter and Thomas Beard launching their new screening series in Brooklyn, NY — and I’ve promptly ignored it since. Sometimes I need a sharp kick in the ass to remind myself to do things. I really meant to do a “May screenings” post for Light Industry, but time passed me by. Starting with this post, I hope to seriously rectify this situation because it sounds like Ed and Thomas are doing great things with this new forum.

But what kicked me in the ass to do this post is that P. Adams Sitney will be giving a presentation at Light Industry tomorrow night: Tuesday, May 27 at 8:00 p.m. Sitney’s name has popped up on the Underground Film Journal a few times within the past couple of months. First, he’s the author of the amazing textbook on underground film called Visionary Film: The American Avant Garde, 1943-2000, which if you click that title you can read my musings on the book. (It’s not quite a “review.”) I also recently read an excellent article by him that was in the book collection Experimental Cinema: The Film Reader. Also, while I didn’t write it up on the Underground Film Journal, I also read the Sitney-edited Film Culture Reader, which is also highly recommended.

I’m a big fan of Sitney’s writing, so I would so totally go to this if I still lived in NYC. Sitney isn’t just giving a lecture, either. He’ll be screening three classic underground films by Marie Menken, Ernie Gehr and Stan Brakhage. The theme of the night is a promotion of Sitney’s latest book, Eyes Upside Down, which I’m totally going to have to check out. Specifically, Sitney is going to talk about the use of motion and perspective in this trio of films as well as:

“illustrate the ways in which these films fulfill the promise of an American aesthetic first proclaimed by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1836 and promoted in different ways by Gertrude Stein, John Cage, and Charles Olson, among others.”

Sounds killer. Here’s the exact list of films screening and the location information. Go hear the man talk.

Arabesque for Kenneth Anger, dir. Marie Menken
Shift, dir. Ernie Gehr
Visions in Meditation #2: Mesa Verde, dir. Stan Brakhage

May 27
8:00 p.m.
Light Industry
55 33rd Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenue), 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11232
$6

Finally, h/t goes to GreenCine Daily via Invisible Cinema.