Subversion: The Definitive History Of Underground Cinema
Although geared specifically towards a British audience, Duncan Reekie‘s Subversion: The Definitive History of Underground Cinema still has plenty of interesting insights into the evolution of non-mainstream culture to appeal to anyone outside of England who is interested in the underground.
Subversion differs from other underground film history books in that Reekie doesn’t deal with films specifically very much. More ambitiously, he’s interested in completely demolishing cherished assumptions about the overall history of British art.
In defining the “Underground Cinema” that’s laid out in the book’s full title, Reekie is referring to the culture that surrounds avant-garde and experimental filmmaking, especially how it evolved from pre-cinema days. “Cinema” isn’t just a physical location or the act of sitting in front of a screen watching moving pictures. To Reekie, “Cinema” encompasses the entire engagement between filmmaker, exhibitor and audience, where the lines that separate each of those components are crossed, blurred and — in many cases — completely erased.
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Pacific Cinematheque: Death By VHS
Aug. 30
7:30 p.m.
Pacific Cinémathèque
1131 Howe St.
Vancouver, BC
Hosted by: DIM Cinema
What’s Winnipeg, Manitoba most famous for? K-Tel? Hunky Bill’s Perogie Maker? The Green Garbage Bag? Well, yes, it’s the birthplace of all those things, but Winnipeg also has an incredibly rich and diverse filmmaking community. Curators Clint Enns and Leslie Supnet — who are also Winnipeg filmmakers themselves — have gathered an impressive collection of the best that their hometown has to offer.
What unites these films is that their place of origin has definitely influenced their content. Not that these films are about the city specifically, bu they do exhibit the same scrappy lo-fi inventiveness that makes Winnipeg the unique place in the world that it is. It’s the spirit of the “strange humour, hand-crafted experimentation and lo-fi/high-tec conundrums” of the town that will shine through on the screen.
Short Film: Sean Christensen’s The Shave
Embedded above is a chillingly deceptive short film by Sean Christensen called The Shave. Disguised as a warm, childhood nostalgia piece, the film nicely uses the metaphor of a father shaving as a meditation on a son's ultimate disappointment upon learning that his father is just a human being after all.
On Tour: Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo
Bradley Beesley’s documentary Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo is going on a cross-country screening tour from September to November and will play at theaters, and — most appropriately — actual prisons! Plus, Beesley will go behind bars several of the correctional facilities to talk with the inmates at post-screening Q&A’s.
The film chronicles the 2007 prison rodeo held by the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, an event that was started as an annual tradition back in 1940. In 2006, history was made when, for the first time ever, women were allowed to participate in the rodeo. During Beesley’s filming, women were again involved in the rodeo, getting right out onto the field with the men to face down a bunch of angry bulls.
2008 would then be the last year the penitentiary would hold the rodeo. While you might think women would be opposed to possibly be kicked in the face by a wild animal, the participating female inmates loved the experience as it would be one of the few times they could feel free during an adult lifetime spent behind bars.
