Shameless Self-Promotion

Past Event at the Grand Central Art Center

A Night of Shameless Self-Promotion

11-12-04

A night of shameless self- promotion premiering the latest work by Bob Pece and Amy Caterina. Mr. Pece will be showing “Artrector Assembly Instructions” and Ms. Caterina will feature “6 Shorts about (non) Motherhood.”

Bob Pece
Artrector Assembly Instructions, trt 14:00, 2004

In the late 1950's, sculptor R.T. Pece introduced a line of model kits of his sculptures. This pseudo-documentary is an expose of this endeavor and of R.T.'s questionable business practices. Features animated sequences of the assembly of these kits.

“The images used in my work are inspired by a variety of everyday life sources.  The outward similarity to some Pop Art is unmistakable, yet these are not instantly recognizable icons of pop culture.  Despite the bold presentation, the characters remain enigmatic and mysterious.  The anonymity of the image has become an important idea to me.  Presented in a flat comic book style the characters usually appear somewhat cartoonish.  Precise clean edges give the paintings a machine made appearance- yet closer inspection reveals that this is hand done work.  Humor, ambiguity, image placement on the canvas as well as in the context of the art world – the irony of making such silly, doodle-ish figures the subject of “high art” are my main concerns.”

Amy Caterina
6 Shorts about (non) Motherhood, trt 07:00, 2004

The birth of a godson started my biological clock and, instead of having a baby, spurred the making of this film. This short film, presented in six sections using a variety of visual styles, raises questions associated with having a baby: changes in the body, genetic concerns, family pressures, settling on important decisions with spouse, and also questions the assumption that after the marriage ceremony baby comes next. And whose timeline is it?

Rooftop Films Presents

Past Event at the Grand Central Art Center

10-08-04

Rooftop Films presents : A Long Walk of a Pier of Shorts: Twisted Sublimity from the 2004 Summer Series

Bathtime in Clerkenwell (Alesky Budovsky, 4:00)
An irresistable music video for an infectious song by (The Real) Tuesday Weld.  Black and white birds shoot out of cuckoo clocks and spread into the town of Clerkenwell, angering sleeping residents and cuckoo kings and cops to the bouncy rhythm of a chopped up old groove.

Handgun (Sam Crees and Alex Minnick, :50)
In a dreary apartment within a world of pure inchoate and incomprehensible drama, a homunculous stares down destiny, and destiny wins.

Marvelous Creatures (Wago Keider, 4:00)
In this dazzling display of dislocating editing, Elvis grows horns, Marilyn Monroe is bear-ied and a guy crashes a kiss into a woman's fence.

Cats and Pants (Jennifer Matotek, 1:00)
Sure, it seems simple. But which is which?

Woodbunny: Little Treasures of Love (Jeff Morelli, 16:00)
The Woodbunny is on the attack, and the only thing that can stop him is love. An absolutely confounding, charming and eye-catching tour of a suburban woodlands, showing us all the shape-shifting creatures who make the woods so damn dangerous

Pay Roll (Noah Klersfield, 11:00)
Is it for real? Is it fake?  Is this the mother of all multi-camera action sequences of the insane inner momolog of an archetypal director who wishes he controlled it all.

Eric The Secret (Joe Quinn, 3:50)
Lonely and bored, two friends mess with their head (the one hidden behind the couch). A story of pathos, perversion and secret playpals.

Tired Beach (Perry Hallinan, 12:30)
A strange man climbs onto a locked beach to experience its decaying hazards in eerie, dance-like ways. This lovely performance documentary poetically touches on the issues of industrial refuse and its effect on our lands.

Intermission

Filibuster (Matt Lenski, 1:00)
Richard Simmons and a battalion of fatties sweat to the oldies. By oldies, we mean a Sonic Youth song from the early nineties.

6 GI Joe PSAs (Eric Fensler, 5:00 total)
Eric Fensler re-edits and warps the sound advice handed out by the animated armed forces and turns them into deranged surrealist freakshows. 

Bike Thief (Neistat Brothers, 7:00)
An average of 8,300 bicycles are reported stolen each year in New York. Long time bike advocates the Neistat Brothers wanted to know how this is possible, so one warm Tuesday they stole their own bike five times before noon without anyone looking twice. It's amazing what New Yorkers will ignore.

Fantasy Tales of Friendship:  Ogre Vs. Unicorn (Colin Hargraves, 2:30)
[Dramatic preview voice]: One ogre . . . one unicorn . . . battling boredom. . . Gang life may destroy them. . . Their only hope . . . to break out of the valley . . .  is break-dancing.

The Conversation (Mallory Whitelaw, 2:30)
Two little animated fuzzballs get trapped in a cinematic vortex in which space and identity are mutable, time is repeating and the only sound present is a conversation between Jimmy Stewart and Tom Helmore that folds back upon itself and repeats, for ever and ever.  

Fischerchicks (Susan Buice and Arin Crumley, 3:30)
An electro-clash between one sexy chick and two cuter ckickies. 

Sub (Jesse Schmal, 8:30)
Perhaps a metaphor for the decline of the Soviet Empire, perhaps a treatise on the vulgarization of mass culture and the decline of religiosity, or perhaps simply a surreal short about the crew of a miniature submarine attempting to save their captain from being splattered about the ground of a European plaza in which thugs battle nuns in a game of soccer, dogs disapprove of gourmet delicacies and vespa riding euro-trash make clumsy passes at a violent femme fatale.

Found Artist: Gary Crom (Curtis Craven, 8:30)
Outsider artist Gary Crom sculpts the dead into crazy, clever, visually vibrant art. 

The Beautiful and the Fine (Rob Tyler, Adrienne Leverette and Eric Schopmeyer. 9:00)
Mike Wilder keeps in his home Drosera Nitidula x Pulchella and Pingucula Agnata x Moranesis, some of the most resilient and wondrous carnivores in the world. The Portland, Oregon film collective Archipelago returns to Rooftop (A Thing Of Wonder, 6/18/04) with a stunning documentary about a passionate and thoughtful bio-collector.

ASU Short Film and Video Festival Travels to Santa Ana

Past Event at the  Central Art Center
06-18-04 

ANNUAL ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM SHORT FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL TRAVELS TO SANTA ANA WITH RAT POWERED FILMS!!!

FRIDAY JUNE 18TH 8 p.m.

Come with your lawn chairs and blankets, sit out under the stars and enjoy this free event...Organized and Juried for the Arizona State University Art Museum by: Bob Pece, Southern California Filmmaker and John D. Spiak, Arizona State University Art Museum. The jury process included 322 entries from 27 States and 21 Nations.

1.       84715, trt 03:44
GUILLERMO CARBONELL, Montevideo, Uruguay
A man sees on his dreams a five-digit number. When he wakes up, the number starts to appear in various elements of his everyday life. Coincidence or a signal?

2.       Teddy Huggsbeary, trt 4:27
BRIAN OAKES, Providence, Rhode Island
Lonely, little Amanda wishes her Teddy Bear would come to life and be her friend. A magical flying gnome appears and grants her wish.

3.       War is Hell, trt 04:00
BOB PARIS, Richmond, Virginia
Life in American during wartime isn’t easy. Fortunately, there are people on TV who can help.

 4.         Homeland Security, trt 05:0
RICKY FAUST, Phoenix, Arizona
A short story of a man so entrapped by the paranoia and fear of his “post September 11 world” that he bars himself inside his home.

 5.       Hello (*LeBlanc Audience Choice Award), trt 06:31
JONATHAN NIX, Sydney, Australia
A lovesick loner struggles to find the right words.

6.       Untitled Book Series, trt 12:30
MICHAEL TRIGILIO
Oakland, California
Untitled Book Series explores our cultural infatuation with popular media, anxiety, and narcissism. Much of the work seeks to deconstruct the nature of obsession, both personal and political.

 7.         Garpenfargle (*AZ Award and Audience Choice Honorable Mention), trt 03:44
EDWARD KIM and BILL KERSEY, Tucson, Arizona
The master of the house is leaving and young Hobbes is left alone, unable to follow the rules the master expected of him. Everything was just garpenfargle.

8.       Skip, trt 8:45
ANN STEUERNAGEL, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Ship is composed of found footage of children attempting to overcome an array of physical obstacles and is inspired, in part, by Alvin Lucier’s I am sitting in a room.

9.         Downhome Cookin’, trt 01:06
PETER ENNS, Greenbelt, Maryland
A hungry hillbilly prepares a special dish by following his family’s favorite recipe: roadkill raccoon.

10.     Vanity (*Juror Choice Award), trt 04:56
JEREMY DEAN, St. Augustine, Florida
Through the eyes of a man raking flowers, Vanity explores the balance between the need to work for survival, while becoming lost in the mundane grind of daily life. Asking the question - how much of our time is spent on personal vanity?

11.     Articulate Citrus, trt 01:06
DEVIN NORDMEYER
Phoenix, Arizona
A man finds a talking orange in his refrigerator.

12.         Inventing: Music, trt 09:36
MATT STRATTON and DALLAS TRINKLE, Chicago, Illinois
Bill Henderson lives his dreams on the edge of society. When he’s not riding his hog, he’s playing his music to the only people that can truly understand an outlaw. A story about how the way in which we view ourselves rearranges the way we see and remember the world.

 13.     Johnny Dullstar, trt 06:34
BOB PARIS
Richmond, Virginia
A grim look at the myth of Hollywood, Johnny Dullstar is an experimental documentary portrait of the one-legged man who shines the stars along Hollywood Boulevard.

 14.     There Was A Man And He Was Mad, trt 02:44
BENJAMIN B. KINSLEY
Granville, Ohio
A cut-out animation set to a traditional children’s folk sing-along song. It is a nonsensical story where an old man, controlled by a choir of children, is forced to endure a number of nonsensical activities.

 15.     La Brea (*Juror Choice Award), trt 12:26
GABRIEL LICHSTEIN, Los Angeles, California
On his last night in Los Angeles, desperate to escape his overly helpful friends the more Scott struggles the more trapped he becomes.  

16.     My Favorite Things, trt 03:33
BOB PARIS, Richmond, Virginia
The warm and comforting tones of a classic song merge with surreal animation from TV news’ war coverage in this disturbing meditation of America’s distant war in Iraq.  

17.     Paper Insect, trt 05:14
ALISON DAVIS, Montreal, Canada
A creature’s obsession with collecting insects reaches its pinnacle when he captures a giant dragonfly, but his new acquisition could threaten the entire collection.

18.     Better Life, trt 12:08
ATSUKO KUBOTA. Los Angeles, California
The banal days go by without you realizing it. Vividly colored watercolor integrated with 3D computer animation presents the details of a somewhat unremarkable normal life to question beauties in common things.

Spotlight on Local Filmmakers: Chris Garlington and Mike Grundmann

Past Events at the Grand Central Art Center

05-28-04

Mike Grundmann

Mike Grundmann has independently produced six multiple award winning documentaries. He has also produced dozens of “Teeny-Tiny Films,” lasting 20 seconds to 5 minutes. They cover such subjects as fat wallets, crickets grooming and squirrels imitating robots. He is a copy editor at the LA Times and adjunct journalism instructor.

We will be featuring a handful of Mr. Grundmann's “Teeny Tiny Films” and “The Perfect Flaw,” first place Independent Documentary winner in the Canadian International Film and Video Festival.  http://www.mikegrundmann.com/

 

Chris Garlington

Chris Garlington is a 2004 graduating student in film at California Institute of the Arts.  His short one minute to five minute films run the gamut from experimental narrative, straight narrative, films with visual effects, and discuss his harsh views of relationships, society and politics. He has been making films for five years and has been featured in two film festivals for his critiques on relationships. In just five years he has created over thirty short films. Starting in June of 2004 he will be working on his first feature film.

Miserable: To hell with my ex-girlfriend.
Hers: A short about falling in love with a girl that is unattainable, and the plan he creates.
Before than before: A critique of male and female relationships focusing on people in their early 20’s.

Spotlight on Local Filmmakers: Michael Brown

Past Event at the Grand Central Art Center

03-05-04

Michael Brown will be screening his feature "SLAMMED."

It’s about a guy who loses his girlfriend, tries to get her back, and along the way dates a "sensual masseuse," discovers his parent’s prurient past, and filters fallacious family and friend’s advice."Slammed" also features the music of Save Ferris, James Intveld, 

OO Soul, Fairview, Baseland, The Majestics, Tom Genoni, Tiki Tones, Twin22, Busstop Hurricanes, Angus McManus, and a score by Joe Kraemer ("The Way of the Gun").

Love Nest Fest 2: We've GOT Your Love

Past Event at the Grand Central Art Center

02-13-04

1. Chris Garlington, Miserable, trt 01:45
To hell with my ex girlfriend!

2. Sara deWeinter, Little Plastic Castles. trt 03:23
A sweet and romantic music video.

3. Amir Motlagh, Still Lover, trt 05:33
A man, a woman, life and love one shot at a time.

4. Christopher Harris, West Side VW Spot, trt 00:36

5. Stephanie de Yo, Exposure, trt 03:44, (Please feel free to hold the hand of whoever is sitting next to you. - bob and amy)

6. Paddy Smith, Jellybean, trt 02:55
A sexy and seductive music video.

7. Amir Motlagh, Love @ 11:47, trt 13:30

A short film about the obsessions that drive three characters into uncontrollable action. 

8. Chris Garlington, Hers, trt 03:54
A short about falling in love with a girl that is unattainable and the pain it creates.

9. Chris Garlington, Better than Before, trt 04:44
A critique of male/female relationships of people in their early twenties.

10. Kevin Staniec, Sunset: An Impression, trt: 04:00
Trying to make love artsy after watching to many PT Anderson movies.

11. Gregory McDonald, Love Scenes, trt 09:40
A man thinks he’s found the perfect love. He learns that saying, “I love you” to a woman is handing the enemy the very knife that she will use to pierce his heart.

12. Kevin Staniec, Rigel, trt: 15:00
A simple love story about a writer trying to write himself in love.

Amir Motlagh: Spotlight on Local Filmmakers

Past Event at the Grand Central Art Center

01-23-04

Amir Motlagh creates fictions but presents them in a documentary style. He is often the main character in his short films.  Often touching on subjects that are taboo to modern-day television, especially the use of drugs, the films seem so realistic that the viewer finds it hard to believe they are fictions.

Still Lover

Trt 05:33

A man, a woman life and love one shot at a time.

Love @ 11:47

Trt 13:00

Love @ 11:47 is a short film about the obsessions that drive three characters into uncontrollable action. The film catches a glimpse of three people caught in the grips of mania as the clock turns to 11:47 pm on a regular night, in a place like any other. Though the characters are far from each other in space they space the same fatal flaw that binds them together in mind and body. Love @11:47 is a voyeuristic view into the lives of three people that are closer to each other than it first appears.

 

Dino Adino

Trt 15:45

Dino Adino is a suburban fable about too much sleeping, dicking around, and thinking that tomorrow will be the day that you get on with life.  The films chronicles one day in the life of Dino from sun up to sun down on his 23rd birthday. His friends decide to record his ‘mutherfuckin’ birthday as a surprise, but by documenting the entire day, much is revealed about dino’s true conflicted character when his self-confessing interview and his action play over one another. He wants to be a graphic artist but he’s caught up in a lifestyle, which could eventually engulf any dreams of art. But humorous and disheartening, the film takes the whole of his life and dissects it into one day, like any other day.