Shorts 5: Experimental:

Description

In ways quietly observant and intensely expressive, these 11 experimental films take us on a journey through the looking glass—reflecting on the past, illuminating the present, and imagining the future. A story is told backward, a girl is magically transformed and everyday objects aren’t what they seem. Two lost films are found; two others alchemically altered.

Presented in association with the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and San Francisco Cinematheque
Curated by Kathy Geritz and Vanessa O’Neill

Total running time: 80 min (including time between works)

Queen Takes Pawn
A journey through an old house by way of a mirror, a child’s storybook and some images from days gone by.
(Su Friedrich, USA 2013, 7 min, Color, digital video)

Metamorfoza
During wartime, a girl magically transforms.
(Martha Colburn, The Netherlands 2013, 7 min, Color, digital video)

Little Girl
Prune Blossoms, Healdsburg; Little Girl Outside Sebastopol; Two Waterbugs, Graton
(Bruce Baille, USA 1966, 10 min, Color/B&W, 16mm, Restored in 2013 by the Academy Film Archive)

Dad’s Stick
Three objects my father showed me shortly before he died.
(John Smith, UK 2012, 5 min, Color, digital video)

66, Episode 1: ICHOR
My personal version of utopia.
(Lewis Klahr, USA 2013, 5:30 min, Color, digital video)

De Luce 2: Architectura
Light and photochemistry collide and conspire against different architectural backdrops.
(Janis Crystal Lipzin, USA 2013, 8:30 min, Color, digital video) 
This is a Cinema by the Bay film

Farther than the eye can see
Traces an experience to a place that no longer exists.
(Basma Alsharif, Jordan/United Arab Emirates 2012, 13 min, Color, digital video)

Lost and Found
Filmed 20 or so years ago on an excursion back and forth from Manhattan to Staten Island. Later I arranged the shots and hid it in a box for a long time.
(Jim Jennings, USA 1988/2013, 5 min, B&W, Silent, 16mm)

Entr’Acte
A series of vaudeville acts inserted between the lines of reality.
(Lawrence Jordan, USA 2013, 3 min, Color, 16mm)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film 

A Study in Natural Magic
An alchemist’s spell.
(Charlotte Pryce, USA 2013, 3 min, Color, Silent, 16mm)

Bright Mirror
A figure, a landscape and a camera blur into something between dance and drawing.
(Paul Clipson, USA 2013, 9 min, Color/B&W, Super-8mm)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film

–Kathy Geritz, Vanessa O’Neill