Feb 23, 2017
Artist Development, Festival
San Francisco, CA — The San Francisco Film Society and Headlands Center for the Arts today announced a new partnership to co-present two programs in the popular Live & Onstage section of the 60th San Francisco International Film Festival: Parallel Spaces: Will Oldham and Jerome Hiler, in which music-maker Will Oldham, working with trio Bitchin Bajas, introduces a new live score to a presentation of short films by San Francisco-based avant-garde filmmaker Jerome Hiler; and director Terence Nance’s experimental dual live performances 18 Black Girls / Boys Ages 1–18 Who Have Arrived at the Singularity and Are Thus Spiritual Machines.
“We’re delighted to be partnering with Headlands Center for the Arts to bring these dynamic performers to the Festival,” said Rachel Rosen, San Francisco Film Society’s director of programming. “Artists in creative dialogue with moving images make the Live & Onstage section one of our most thrilling offerings at the Festival, and it’s especially gratifying to be able to collaborate with an organization that supports such creative exploration.”
These events are also part of Headlands Center for the Arts’ off-site programs, a series of events taking place throughout the Bay Area this spring and summer during completion of The Commons—a redesigned outdoor space on Headlands’ historic campus just north of San Francisco.
“We’re excited to join San Francisco Film Society in sharing new work from Headlands’ Artist in Residence alumni Terence Nance and Will Oldham with Festival audiences,” says Sean Uyehara, Headlands Center for the Arts Director of Programs. “Supporting artists with opportunities for this kind of thoughtful, cross-disciplinary collaboration is what we’re all about.”
Composer Will Oldham, aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (Headlands Artist in Residence, 2008), and Chicago-based Bitchin Bajas (Drag City) present Parallel Spaces: Will Oldham and Jerome Hiler, a special program of improvised music to be performed live alongside the projection of experimental films created by Bay Area artist Jerome Hiler. Joining Oldham and the Bajas is Bay Area-based Cornelius Boots, known as both a virtuosic clarinetist, and a burgeoning master of the shakuhachi flute of Zen Buddhism. Screenings of Hiler’s 16mm films, recognized for their mastery of visual composition, is an all too rare thing, and Hiler and Oldham have selected three that will be shown: Words of Mercury (2011), Marginalia (2015), and Bagatelle II (2016). Each film displays a different approach to the poetics of moving imagery and the deceptively simple, yet powerful, practice of viewing light passing through celluloid. This program will take place Monday, April 10, 8:00 pm, at the historic Castro Theatre.
Artist and filmmaker Terence Nance (Headlands Artist in Residence, 2014; An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, Festival 2012) presents his compelling, interactive dual live programs, 18 Black Girls / Boys Ages 1–18 Who Have Arrived at the Singularity and Are Thus Spiritual Machines. Accompanied by his brother, multidisciplinary artist Norvis Junior, and by local musicians and dancers, Nance investigates the predispositions of our culture and media by taking audiences through a tour of the ways in which various narratives of black youth, beginning with age one and progressing through year 18, are presented via simple internet search functions. Using Google’s autocomplete algorithms and responding to audience feedback, Nance’s project presents a virtual self-portrait of our society that reflects our biases and norms back to us. Featuring live music, personal digressions, improvisation, and chance, Nance’s unique, and at turns heartwarming, heartbreaking, and insightful presentations will unfold at the Victoria Theatre over two consecutive days. The “girls” program will be featured on Sunday, April 16 at 5:00 pm, and the “boys” program on Monday, April 17 at 6:00 pm.
Tickets to Parallel Spaces: Will Oldham and Jerome Hiler are $20 for SFFS and Headlands members, $25 for the general public.
Tickets to 18 Black Girls / Boys Ages 1-18 Who Have Arrived at the Singularity and Are Thus Spiritual Machines are $13 for SF Film Society and Headlands members, $15 for the general public.
Box office is now open online for SF Film Society members at sffs.org and opens February 24 for the general public.
For general information visit sffs.org. To request interviews or screeners, contact your Festival Press Office contact. For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/press.
Headlands Center for the Arts
Founded in 1982, Headlands Center for the Arts operates a multi-disciplinary, international arts center best known for its dynamic public programs and highly lauded artist residency. Located in the coastal wilderness of the Marin Headlands, within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Headlands’ historic nine-building campus is dedicated to process-driven exploration and risk-taking contemporary art. Its year-round programs provide visual artists, performers, musicians, and writers with opportunities for research, professional development, and peer-to-peer exchange at critical times in their careers. Headlands is currently undergoing a campus expansion project to open in 2017 that will create new outdoor space for programs, three newly commissioned artworks, and more places for its growing community of artists and visitors to relax and enjoy the area’s stunning natural landscape. While closed for construction this spring, Headlands is hitting the road with a series of collaborative off-site programs. Learn more at headlands.org.