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Event
Melika Bass: Mysterious Gestures
Sunday November 2, 2014, 7:30 pm
Los Angeles Filmforum presents
Melika Bass: Mysterious Gestures
At the Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90028
Melika Bass in person from Chicago!
Los Angeles premieres!
Time for a change from our recent run of abstract light plays and Warhol epics as we welcome noted filmmaker Melika Bass from Chicago for her first one-person show in Los Angeles. Bass presents the Los Angeles premieres of a pair of beautifully shot (on 16mm) and performed representational dramas, deliberately-paced, with finely noted details of objects and sounds, and narratives elusive and possibly allusive. Shoals and Waking Things are superb expressions of mood, wrought with portents of danger and disaster, never seen. Each film investigates the rhythms and routines of an isolated small group of people, following a spiritual or cult-based practice. They are almost timeless portraits, with indications of being set in an unclear past, but Shoals also implies spaces of a potential present, and Waking Times that of a potential future. Come see Bass's unique explorations of the possibilities of short film art. Capped by a dance film directed by Bass set to music by Sigur Rós.
"Bass's films evoke living paintingsthe textures are as inviting as the narratives are withholding." Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader
"Inner and Outer Landscapes: A Conversation with Melika Bass" by Monica Westin: http://badatsports.com/2013/inner-and-outer-landscapes-a-conversation-with-melika-bass/
Melika Bass on "Shoals and "Waking Things":
http://indie-outlook.com/2013/07/15/melika-bass-on-shoals-waking-things/
Tickets: $10 general admission; $6 students (with ID)/seniors; free for Filmforum members.
Tickets available in advance
For more event information: www.lafilmforum.org, or 323-377-7238
Screening:
WAKING THINGS (2012, 16mm to video, 34 mins.) Los Angeles premiere!
Written, Directed, Edited by Melika Bass
A short film co-produced by and featuring ensemble members of Every house has a door performance group.
"Cyclical time dilated to the maximum...
loaded with details of Nature as memento mori,
reminding us of the transience of this and of life itself." (Sentieri Selvaggi, Italy)
"Characters announced in exquisite typeface. . . scurry along paths, dart through doorways and sleep upright. Bass mystifies the work of these plain folk with her own filmic magic." (Chicago Sun-Times)
In a house in a primeval wood, a mysterious, misfit family prepares a seasonal feast for a visiting party of outlanders. As they shuffle through ritualistic preparations, shadows reveal each creature -- one menacing, one wounded, and one worn, stewards of an old tradition, blood for blood. (MB)
SHOALS (2011, 16mm to HD, 52 min.) Los Angeles premiere!
Written, Directed, Edited by Melika Bass
A slow-burning prairie grotesque. On the grounds of a rural sanitarium, three young women search for wellness, as a cult leader seeks to control their bodies through labor and daily rituals. (MB)
Winner, Experimental Film Prize, 2012 Athens International Film Festival
Shoals preview: http://vimeo.com/37775690
"[A] fever dream of a vivid natural landscape affecting for its hushed soundtrack and low-grain photography." (Chicago Reader)
"[A] strangely compellingalmost mesmerizingwork. . .like Malick meets David Lynch, if you want a comparison, but in a deeper sense, Shoals is very much its own beast." (Mountain Xpress)
VARÐELDUR (2012, Super 16mm to HD, 6 mins.)
Music by Sigur Rós, performance by Selma Banich.
Directed by Melika Bass
An original film commissioned by the Icelandic band Sigur Rós for their Valtari Mystery Film Experiment.
A film portrait of an unstable entity in a haunted vessel, drawn into and floating away from a siren song. (MB)
"With a lived-in, haunting beauty that is distinctively its own." (Heave Media)
"Emotionally stirring at once terrifying, lonely and gorgeous." (Exclaim Canada)
Melika Bass is a filmmaker and installation artist currently living in Chicago. Bass is the recipient of an Artadia Award, two Media Arts Fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the Kodak/Filmcraft Imaging Award from the Ann Arbor Film Festival, and an Experimental Film Prize from the Athens International Film Festival. In 2013, Bass was appointed the Pick-Laudati Artist in Residence at the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, at Northwestern University.
Screenings and exhibitions include the Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York; Kino der Kunst, Munich; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (solo exhibition, February 2011); Torino Film Festival, Italy; Anthology Film Archives, New York; Ann Arbor Film Festival; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; BFI London Film Festival; Athens International Film Festival; Segal Center for the Performing Arts, Montreal; Hamburg International Film Festival, Germany; and the Split Festival of New Film, Croatia. Her work has been profiled and reviewed in Filmmaker Magazine, Time Out Chicago, Bad at Sports, Art Daily, Rolling Stone Italy, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, Pitchfork, and the Chicago Sun-Times.
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This program is supported by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. Additional support generously provided by American Cinematheque. We also depend on our members, ticket buyers, and individual donors.
Los Angeles Filmforum is the city's longest-running organization screening experimental and avant-garde film and video art, documentaries, and experimental animation. 2014 is our 39th year.
Coming Soon to Los Angeles Filmforum:
Nov 2 Melika Bass: Mysterious Gestures
Nov 13 Warhol films at MOCA
Nov 23 Jesse McLean
Memberships available, $70 single, $115 dual, or $50 single student
Contact us at lafilmforum@yahoo.com.
Find us online at http://lafilmforum.org.
Become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LosAngFilmforum
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LocationSpielberg Theater at the Egyptian (View)
6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: Yes! |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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