A look at a piece that should be on the National Recording Registry, and one of the first applications of a computer to the composition process! Lajaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson's Illiac Suite for String Quartet

A late add to the series, Westworld is proof that Michael Crichton was at least slightly more than a hack author! We talk about Amusement Parks and how they relate to film, about method acting and how it can prove fatal, and we even touch on the history and evolution of computer graphics! 

A film about a computer with delusions of grandeur. Well, maybe just lusions of grandeur. It is pretty awesome!

The joy of viewing short film is finding the connections between the present and the past. From the end of the 19th Century, film has developed and left traces of its growth and development that have remained visible, especially now with venues such as YouTube helping to bring them forward. The Patrick Schabus short Junction is a phenomenal example of a film that brought the entire history of film into view. 

It is a single static shot, such a contrast to the frantic handheld camerawork that is so previlent in film today, and instead of the camera playing the action, it is the action, in this case a pleasure boat of the variety you might find sailing down the Danube, that passes through the camera's field of vision. It's so incredibly simple, but it calls us back to the nearly one minute shorts that the Lumiere Brothers and Thomas Edison's company pioneered to deliver their short films, actualities as they have come to be called. This locked-down shot is simple, but the textures presented, in the ripples of the water, give it a quality that makes it seem fluid, changing, dynamic. 

The subject of the boat passing is a classic as well, and some of the earliest American films were the inverse of this - the camera planted on a ship shooting the passing shore. The Lumieres themselves most famous early film, that of a train pulling into a station, could certainly be seen as a great-grandparent to this short. 

The narration is snippets from what I believe are old newsreels of the 40s. The result of over-laying those sounds across the image is lovely, relaxing, intelligent, and most of all, deeply in touch with 120 years of the history of film. 

Devotees will be aware of my attraction to the works of Harry Smith. These abstract works, such as his series of Early Abstractions, are amazing pieces of composition. it is rare to find another filmmaker who can draw out so much resounance from a piece of abstract animation, but I am happy to say Montreal's Sunny Stanila has managed to go Harry Smith one better. 

On My Mind begins with a blot of paint on a black background. From there, we are greated with a series of interactions between painted masses, brushstrokes clear evident as Helen Frankenthaler, or Cy Twombly. There are lines, appearing like chalk, and then snaking, tumbling, writhing together. There is not a narrative, and there doesn't need to be on. We are watching a set of images  dance. They solo, they pair, but they are not serving a narrative master: they are giving impressions, expressions, intimations. It is not a meditative pieces, but instead an aspirational piece. It is meant to make you feel that you've brought something to the process and are forced to deploy it at the work. 

THe vibrancy of the created images are only enhanced by how they seem to vibrate, breathe, shift under an unseen weight. The painterly quality of the piece is evident, influenced certainly by the Abstract Expressionists, and perhaps as much by the Impressionists. Her work feels as if Dali and Leger met up with Manet and Hans Hoffman. 

Where On My Mind certainly does over-take Smith's works is in the matter of determinist sound design. Smith's work was designed to play with various tunes, and here, Stanila certainly designs an incredible soundscape that both informs the imagery, but also gives space for the images to live on their own. 

This is a phenomenal work, and one that I hope will make the festival rounds. Sunny's work is worthy of consideration by those of us who live in both the festival and museum worlds. 

Sun Ra's one of those performers who was both ahead of his time, and often ahead of his audience. Still, he had a massive effect on music, with his works running all the way from be-bop to electronica. His 1970 film Space is the Place is often cited as an early entry into the world of AfroFuturism, and it's also an Avant Garde work par excellance! 

The history of the first twenty-five years of American Flight is full of fascinating characters. Lindbergh and Earhart are well-known, but one name I was unaware of was Katherine Cheung. She was the first Chinese-American Female Aviator, and was one of the most interesting characters of those early flyers. Her story, Aviatrix: The Katherine Sui Fun Cheung Story is a wonderful tribute to such a great figure. 

​What's fascinating isn't just the fact that this wonderfully constructed documentary deals with an incredible figure, one who lived until 2003 and spoke of her times in the air often and well, but that it deals with the stories she has inspired, including an animated comedic short, and a really significant short student film. These glimpses are more than mere seasoning for her story; they are evidence of her impact, her impressive presence. When we see how she was portrayed outside of the archival footage (which is SUPER COOL!!!!!) she is given a life that feels new and fresh, which is a good thing for a character whose peak fame was the 1930s. 

Perhaps my favorite portion explained many of the important things I had no clue about aerial acrobatics. Along with the demonstration of those techniques, an interview tells us why they were important. This provides us with an impressive hook on which to hang Katherine's achievements on. She was breaking ground with her acrobatics! 

I can't say enough how much I enjoyed this doc. At 40 minutes, it feels as if they've done a solid job of delving into the topic, without overstaying their welcome, as often happens with single-subject docs longer than 30 minutes. The production, the interviews, and especially the archival footage, is all top-notch, well-edited, and gives the viewer a strong reward for diving in. 

Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty​, both the Earth Art piece and the film he made about it, are American Masterpieces.