Puddle, pothole, portal Film Program in Collaboration with Anthology Film Archives
Dec 12–14, 2014, 7:30–9:30pm
Image: Keichi Tanaami, Study of the Virgin in School Uniform Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors 1972. 16mm film. 3 min 54 sec. Copyright by Keiichi Tanaami, courtesy of NANZUKA, Tokyo
The films included comprise much of the research for Puddle, pothole, portal and touch on themes around live action and animation, the creation of early virtual worlds in cartoons, and the relationship between humor and technology. The programs include early 20th-century mainstream, yet subversive, cartoons by studios like Disney and Fleischer, which suggested comic reconfigurations of reality through machines; independent and artist films that continued these traditions; and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the self-reflexive 1988 Disney film that addressed the history and future of cartoons. The programs are organized to explore the comical and absurd in a reality that is rapidly transforming through machines, industry and technology.
Fri, Dec 12th, 7:30 pm
Robert Zemeckis
WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT
1988, 104 min, 35mm. With Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, and the voice of Charles Fleischer.
Plus:
Rob Minkoff TUMMY TROUBLE 1989, 7 min, 35mm
Frank Marshall & Rob Minkoff ROLLER COASTER RABBIT 1990, 7 min, 35mm
Barry Cook TRAIL MIX-UP 1993, 8 min, 35mm
Total running time: ca. 130 min.
Sat, Dec 13th, 7:30 pm
Walt Disney ALICE'S EGG PLANT 1925, 9 min, 35mm, b&w, silent
Jack King SELF-CONTROL 1938, 9 min, 16mm. With Donald Duck.
Dave Fleischer KO-KO'S EARTH CONTROL 1928, 6 min, 35mm, b&w, silent. Print courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Harold L. Muller IT'S A BIRD 1930, 15 min, 16mm, b&w. With Charley Bowers.
Dave & Max Fleischer THE CARTOON FACTORY 1924, 8 min, 35mm, b&w, silent. Preserved by the Library of Congress.
Faith Hubley ENTER LIFE 1981, 8 min, 16mm. Courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Sally Cruikshank MAKE ME PSYCHIC 1978, 8 min, 35mm. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
Robert Clampett PORKY IN WACKYLAND 1938, 7 min, 35mm, b&w. Preserved by the Library of Congress.
Jordan Wolfson CON LECHE 2009, 22 min, digital.
Walt Disney ALICE'S SPOOKY ADVENTURE 1924, 8 min, 35mm, b&w, silent.
Total running time: ca. 105 min.
Sun, Dec 14th, 7:30 pm
Mark Leckey FLIX 2008, 2 min, 16mm, b&w, silent
Walt Disney ALICE'S WONDERLAND 1923, 12 min, 35mm, b&w, silent
Keiichi Tanaami STUDY OF THE VIRGIN IN SCHOOL UNIFORM STRIPPED BARE BY HER BACHELORS 1975, 4 min, 16mm.
Nedeljko Dragić TUP TUP 1973, 10 min, 35mm Print courtesy of the Cineteca di Bologna.
Sally Cruikshank QUASI AT THE QUACKADERO 1975, 10 min, 35mm. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
Charley Bowers BELIEVE IT OR DON'T 1935, 8 min, 16mm, b&w.
Dave Fleischer HA! HA! HA! 1934, 7 min, 35mm, b&w.
Total running time: ca. 60 min.
Followed by a conversation about the exhibition and film program between Ruba Katrib, Curator, SculptureCenter, and historian Esther Leslie.
Leslie is Professor of Political Aesthetics at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. Her first book was Walter Benjamin: Overpowering Conformism (Pluto, 2000). She has also written a biography of Benjamin (Reaktion, 2008). In 2002 she published Hollywood Flatlands: Animation, Critical Theory, and the Avant Garde (Verso). Synthetic Worlds: Nature, Art, and the Chemical Industry (Reaktion) appeared in 2005. Derelicts: Thought Worms from the Wreckage, a study of the effects of war on the writings and creative work of Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Kurt Schwitters, Siegfried Kracauer, and others was published by Unkant in 2014. She has just finished a book on liquid crystals. She co-edits three journals: Historical Materialism, Radical Philosophy, and Revolutionary History and runs a website together with Ben Watson: militantesthetix.co.uk.
