Monday August 28, 7:30pm
Confessional Cinema
Works by Michael Brynntrup, Scott Fitzpatrick, Ann Marie Fleming, Mike Hoolboom, Meesoo Lee, Curt McDowell, Grace Mitchell, Frank & Caroline Mouris, Ariel Teal
Curated by Aaron Zeghers
In-person only
Microscope Gallery is very pleased to present an evening of 16mm films and videos organized by Winnipeg-based filmmaker and curator Aaron Zeghers featuring a 68-minute program of confessional works by 9 artists, spanning five decades between the years of 1972 and 2018.
From Aaron Zeghers:
A program of the short “cinematic confessional” is a survey of the most glorious individuals. They are the people I love – the perverts, miscreants and ne’er do wells. These are the stories that society has assigned something to confess about, in the first place. But unlike the christian confessional (see also “broom closet”), or the crowded judicial confessional stand, this is not a punitive confessional. As we will witness on glorious 16mm and video on this fateful eve of August 28th, the cinematic confessional is a joyous reclaiming of every throbbing inch of our being…”
Aaron Zeghers will be in attendance to introduce the event and available for a Q&A following the screening.
General Admission $10
Member Admission $8
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Curtis A. McDowell was an American underground filmmaker.
Scott Fitzpatrick is a media artist (Libra) from Winnipeg whose film and video work has screened at underground festivals and marginalized venues worldwide. He’s received prizes from the WNDX Festival of Moving Image, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, FLEX Florida Experimental Film and Video Festival, Montreal Underground Film Festival, Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, and was the recipient of the 2018 Winnipeg Film Group Manitoba Film Hothouse Award. In addition to producing his own work, SF has presented the work of others as director of the WNDX Festival of Moving Image, and as co-founder of Winnipeg Underground Film Festival. SF has also curated work for the Gimli Film Festival, Antimatter Media Art, Forthwith Festival, Send + Receive, San Diego Underground Film Festival, MIRE International Film Labs Meeting, and the PRISME Festival.
Frank and Caroline Mouris are a husband and wife team of animators, using photo collage techniques and other methods involving objects and still images. Their 1973 short Frank Film won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Grace Mitchell is a filmmaker, musician, and educator residing in Milwaukee, WI. They are currently an instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. Mitchell co-runs Underscore, an artist run project space emphasizing risk-taking in art, video, installation, and performance.
Meesoo Lee is a video-maker from Vancouver, whose work is inspired by zines and underground filmmaking. He often uses the camcorder as his primary tool and experiments with the natural flaws in early video recording technology.
Ann Marie Fleming is an award-winning Canadian independent filmmaker, writer and artist, born in Okinawa, of Chinese and Australian parentage. Her film work incorporates various techniques: animation, documentary, experimental, dramatic, and primarily deals with themes of family, history and memory, in a continuing media critique.
Ariel Teal (she/they) is an artist, activist, and current graduate student in the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work at UW-Madison. Previously, Teal received her MFA in Film from UW-Milwaukee where she taught for 5 years and was the Program Director of the Union Cinema.
Mike Hoolboom writes and makes movies.
Michael Brynntrup (*1959) studied Philosophy and History of Arts. Received Master’s degree in Fine Arts in 1991. Living in Berlin since 1982. – Installations, performances, over 80 experimental short films and videos since 1980, four feature films. – Film exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art New York; 17 premieres at Berlin Film Festival since 1984. Numerous film awards and solo presentations at international film and media art festivals. – Since 2006 Professor for Film/Video at HBK Braunschweig University of Art.
Aaron Zeghers is a Canadian experimental filmmaker, film programmer, writer and educator based in Winnipeg for now.
PROGRAM:
Confessions
By Curt McDowell, 16mm film, 1972, 11 minutes
Curt McDowell has a confession for his parents.
Fifth Metacarpal
By Scott Fitzpatrick, video, 2018, 6 minutes
“I broke my hand last summer.” A memoir of tenderness hazarded, muted ache, and a fibreglass cast.
Frank Film
By Frank & Caroline Mouris, 16mm film, 1973, 9 minutes
A compilation of images co-creator Frank Mouris had collected from magazines interwoven with two narrations, one giving a mostly linear autobiography and the other stating words having to do with the images, the story the first voice is relating, or neither.
Top Thrill
By Grace Mitchell, video, 2016, 7 minutes
Daughter gets her first period on a roller coaster in Ohio & Mother has an affair. Shared secrecy bonds and entraps them.
Procrastination
By Meesoo Lee, video, 2001, 7 minutes
“I was twenty-one when I shot this video. I was going to school and still living with my parents in London, Ontario.”
You Take Care Now
By Ann Marie Fleming, 16mm film, 1989, 10 minutes 30 seconds
“Fleming’s perilous travelogue recites, in first person voice-over, a tale of two cities. The first is Brindisi, where the patent sexism of her surroundings lead her to seek refuge in her unscrupulous tour guide’s hotel room. The second moves closer to home, where the simplest of street crossings becomes a nightmare journey of dark collisions, broken bones and ambulance drives.” — Mike Hoolboom
Becoming
By Ariel Teal, video, 2018, 8 minutes
Embodying a body after trauma. Blowjobs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and memory are interwoven in attempt to process and find bodily autonomy.
Frank’s Cock
By Mike Hoolboom, video, 1993, 7 minutes
“…a masterful split-screen reminiscence of a dearly departed-and one of his most memorable attributes.” (Steve Kokker, Hour)
Unveröffentlicht! – ein Bonustrack | Unpublished! – a bonus track
By Michael Brynntrup, video, 2006, 2 minutes 30 seconds
Bonustrack to the film “DAS OVO (Ovo – the video)” (published on the DVD-Edition ‘Berlinale Rolle 2’ ) by tip-magazin Berlin, No.3/2007, 25.1.-7.2.2007, print run 70.000)
