The goals of ILSSA include: (1) the establishment of a Union to foster community, solidarity, and peer review; and (2) the formation of a Research Institute to support new ideas, communications, and resources.

Impractical Labor is a protest against contemporary industrial practices and values. Instead it favors independent workshop production by antiquated means and in relatively limited quantities. Economy of scale goes out the window, as does the myth that time must equal money. Impractical Labor seeks to restore the relationship between a maker and her tools; a maker and her time; a maker and what she makes. The process is the end, not the product. Impractical Labor is idealized labor: the labor of love.

For more information on ILSSA or the ILSSA conference, visit: http://www.impractical-labor.org/

No Cameras, Lots of Projectors

Filmmakers Roger Beebe, Robert Edmondson, and Nick Mendez in person!

Friday, June 7th: 6pm-7pm
at the Asheville Art Museum
$5 Art Museum Members/ $6 Non-members plus admission to museum
Filmmaker Roger Beebe will present his multi-projector performance “Films for 1 to 8 Projectors.” Beebe will be running as many as 8 projectors simultaneously, projecting short films made and projected in a variety of formats (video, 16mm, and Super-8). The films combine found footage and Beebe’s own striking handmade images. This work can only be screened with the filmmaker actually running the projectors, and running from projector to projector.  Florida filmmakers Robert Edmondson and Nick Mendez will also be projecting cameraless films, both projecting originals — which means no other copy of this work exists!

Cameraless Film Screenings

Saturday, June 8th: 12pm-1pm and 2pm-3pm
Sunday, June 9th: 1pm-2pm and 3pm-4pm
$5 Art Museum Members/ $6 Non-members plus admission to museum
Cameraless films and videos by Jodie Mack, Ben Popp, Scott Fitzpatrick, Kelly Gallagher, Joshua Solondz, Devon Damonte, Gregg Biermann, Matt Gossett, Lauren Cook, and others! With a special showing of Madame Winger Makes a Film!

We are proud to co-sponsor the 20th Annual Twin Rivers Media Festival. The festival will feature  50 selections that include world premier feature films, shorts drama, documentary and animated films

20th Annual Twin Rivers Media Festival
May 17-24, 2013
The Phil Mechanic Building
109 Roberts Street, Asheville
FREE

Local films are well represented this year with a short called “Over Home” featuring WNC musicians and Asheville filmmaker LisAnna will be presenting her short film “Orphan.”

Short drama and feature films vary from some set on the streets of India, Moscow, Mexico City or Tokyo, to one smuggled out of Iran. The US entries provide dramatic looks at injustice against the Japanese Americans during World War II, and range from comic to tragic looks at society’s misfits and dysfunctional families. The award winning short film this year is Mousse, a comic look at robbery and justice.

Documentary films range from films examining a massacre in Afghanistan to dancing in the Appalachian Mountains. The Animation and Experimental film categories are also well represented.

For the full schedule: http://www.twinriversmediafestival.com/

Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at 8pm

Courtyard Gallery
Phil Mechanic Building
109 Roberts Street, Asheville

$5 (No one turned away for lack of funds)

What’s not to love about Portland, Oregon – mountains, trees, tons of musicians, filmmakers and other creatives, and donuts. Portland is also a hotbed of experimental film. We’re proud to share some selections of great Portland filmmakers with you. The line-up is still percolating, but we know you’ll love these cool films blowing in from the Northwest. Line-up will include films by Matt McCormick, Ben Popp, and more.

Best of Rural Route Films
with Festival Director Alan Webber

Saturday, March 9th at 8pm
Phil Mechanic Studios
Courtyard Gallery
109 Roberts Street, Asheville
$5 (No one turned away for lack of funds)

The Rural Route Film Festival was created to highlight works that deal with rural people and places.

The creators of Rural Route Film Festival leave it up to the film and video artists to express their unique definitions of “rural”  – whether it be a documentary about an organic turnip farm in West Virginia or a fictional backpacking drama set in Peru.

Based in New York, this film festival takes place in the summer and tours the country during the rest of the year. We’re excited to host this “best of” program for Asheville audiences!

SALT (*)
Dir. Robert Gardner. 2.5 minutes. 1968/2011. Dallol, Ethiopia
One of legendary ethnographic filmmaker Robert Gardner’s filmic interests in Ethiopia was to see and film the salt trade between the Highlands and the Dallol Depression, a wondrous environment of unbearable heat and intense color. He managed a start only and these are the bits that emerged.

Painting John
Dir. Audrey Hall. 10 minutes. 2011. Documentary. Livingston, Montana
Hugh Wilson left his career on Wall Street in exchange for the pursuit of his passion – conveying the human condition through art. He paints entirely from life, inspired by the intimate and authentic relationship between artist and subject. The son of Norwegian immigrants, John Holland has lived alone in a rustic Montana cabin his entire adult life devoted to his cattle and family ranch. writer/director, Peter Templeman.

Crosshairs
Dir. Mike Hoath, 12 min. 2011. Narrative. Gidgegannup, Western Australia.
Two brothers from rural Western Australian are caught poaching a lamb on a neighboring property. When Beau refuses to go quietly his younger sibling becomes a pawn in a violent showdown. Script by award-winning writer/director Peter Templeman.

Compound Eyes #1
Dir. Paul Clipson. 6 min. 2011. Experimental. Golden Gate Botanical Gardens, CA.
A macro-menagerie of natural lifeforms are introduced in a forest’s tapestry of earth, water and air: Spiders, slugs, flies, bees, and ants navigate their lives in darkness and light. Filmed in Super-8 with sound collage/music by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma.

The Water’s Edge
Dir. Chris Thomas. 14 min. Narrative. 2011. Snowdonia, North Wales.
In the aftermath of an alien occupation of Britain, a lone man devotes his life solely to a myth that sal- vation can be found in the water. However, he must avoid the threats that surround him.

George Thompson: Street Cleaner
Prod. Mountain Community Television/Appalshop. 2.5 min. Archival. 1977. Norton, VA
In addition to being “the best street sweeper they ever had in the city of Norton,” Thompson was an accomplished, self-taught guitarist. MCTV was a cable access television project that aired locally in the coal mining region of southwestern Virginia from 1972-78. Programs featured homegrown craftspeople, musicians, events, and profiles of local citizens.

Sacha the Bear
Dir. Henri Desaunay. 12 min. 2012. Narrative. Saint-Michel-Des-Andaines, Normadie, France.
A bear finds refuge from a hunter by a pretty girl who lives in the woods. This fun and well- crafted film utilizes archetypal fairytale char- acters, but their well-ordered world lapses into confusion, as the naïve girl starts acting like a seductive woman, the lord starts acting like a beast, and the beast seems surprisingly human.

A Short Film About Ice Fishing
Dir. Jason Shahinfar. 8 min. Narrative. 2011. Barnard, SD.
Two friends devote a winter afternoon in South Dakota to ice fishing, cold beers, friendly chat- ter, man’s best friend, guns, dynamite…all on a frozen lake.

Un Buen Hijo
Dir. Juan Gil Garcia. 20 min. Narrative. 2011. La Mision, Baja, Mexico.
A young man from rural Mexico with secret aspirations of being a drag performer is forced to choose between helping his hard-working farm parents and running for his dreams.

The Hunter
Dir. Marieka Walsh. 6 min. Sand Animation. 2012. Australia.
A boy goes missing in the snow-covered wilderness, feared taken by wolves. A hunter undertakes a journey to find the him, but as he tracks the boy into the mountains, he discovers that his instincts can no longer be trusted. The hunTer is an elegant & surprising stop-motion sand animation that tells a new timeless tale.

It Could Be Good, It Could Be Bad
Dir. Robert Gardner. 6 min. 1997/2011. Chilean Andes.
A breathtaking flight over the Chilean Patagonian Andes in a small craft piloted by filmmaker Robert Fulton.

Line-up of films:

Thursday, February 14th at 8pm
The BeBe Theater
20 Commerce Street, Asheville, NC
$5 (No one turned away for lack of funds)

Shorts Program: Love and Heartbreak

Join us for a shorts program of sweet/sad films about love/heartbreak. These films are a mix of handmade, animated, collage, cut-paper animation, live action, and even a glitched video game. Films will be shown on video and 16mm. Come prepared for beauty, humor, cuteness, romance, strange, and a little bit of sad, and if you’re good, you might even get some chocolate with your films.

Film line-up (not in order):

Jodie Mack – The Saddest Song in the World

Evan Meaney – Ceibes: Epilogue: The Well of Representation

Jamie Olson – Broccoli and Carrots

Chris Renaud – Two by One

Ben Popp – Laszlo Lassu

Drake Arnold – Aphrodite

Penny Lane – The Voyagers

Helen Hill – Tunnel of Love

Joe Lachajczyk – I Love (St.) Louis

Natalie Abshez – 3 Kisses

Casey Swoyer – Court

Alex Ingersoll – condiment

Sunday, December 2 at 7pm
Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak
(2009, 39 min., DVD)
Dir. Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze

Location:  Spellbound Children’s Bookstore
Inside ZaPow! 21 Battery Park, Suite 101, Asheville, NC
$5 Suggested Donation

From Oscilliscope Picture:

From Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze, acclaimed director of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, comes A PORTRAIT OF MAURICE SENDAK, a loving look at one of the most cherished and controversial figures in children’s literature. Featuring TELL THEM ANYTHING YOU WANT, this is a deeply moving tribute to Sendak, a seminal talent whose conflicts with success and lifelong obsession with death have subtly influenced his work.

Sendak is best known for his book, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, which he wrote twelve years into his career as a writer and illustrator. WILD THINGS would go on to become one of the most beloved and critically lauded children’s books of all time and, much to Sendak’s chagrin, would come to define his career. Through his own words, personal photos, and illustrations, Sendak offers a rare, intimate, and unexpected look at his exceptional life.

Friday, November 2nd at 7pm
Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed
(2004, 77 min., DVD)
Dir. Shola Lynch

Co-sponsored by Asheville Women for Equality
Featuring special guest speakers!

Location: YMI Cultural Center Gallery
39 South Market Street, Asheville, NC
$5 Suggested Donation

Join us to remember and discuss Shirley Chisholm’s bravery and eloquence on the 40^th anniversary of her run for president. Chisholm fought to be heard and to be taken seriously – a feat she accomplished, even if she failed to win her party’s candidacy.

Eloquent speeches, psychedelic campaign posters, and fiery social justice rhetoric – this documentary film examines her run for president with a remarkable depth. With George McGovern’s passing last month, it’s a good time to reflect on this time period and the evidence of how much the social and economic policies of both parties have changed.

Saturday, October 20, 3pm – 6pm
Home Movie Day
Black Bear Coffee, 318 N. Main Street, Hendersonville

Home Movie Day is a celebration of amateur films and filmmaking held annually at many local venues worldwide. If you have home movies on film that you’ve never seen, or haven’t watched since you inherited them from your grandparents–bring them to Home Movie Day! We will have the capacity to show S8 and 16mm films.

Home Movie Day gives people the opportunity to see and share their home movies with their community, and to see their neighbors’ in turn. It’s a chance to discover the value of these films and to learn how to care for them.

Saturday, September 29, 2012 at 7pm
Firestorm Café and Books
48 Commerce Street, Asheville, NC 28801
FREE

The theme is vagabonds, travelers, towns and trains, and places left behind. These three films are ghost histories about space and an America that once was.

Who is Bozo Texino? (56 min.) by Bill Daniel
Hub City (15 min.) by Bill Brown (artist in person)
SAVE (5 min.) by Roger Beebe

Who is Bozo Texino? The Secret History of Hobo Graffiti

Dir. Bill Daniel

2005, 56 min., B/W photographed on S8 and 16mm, mastered on Digibeta NTSC
Who is Bozo Texino? is the picaresque chronicle of a 16-year search for the source of a ubiquitous rail graffiti—a simple sketch of a blank-staring character with an infinity-shaped hat and the scrawled moniker, “Bozo Texino”—a drawing seen on railcars for over 80 years. Daniel rode freight trains across the West carrying a Super-8 sound camera and a 16mm Bolex, interviewing tramps and brakemen and in his quest discovered the roots of a folkloric tradition that has gone mostly unnoticed for a century. Taking inspiration from Beat artists Robert Frank and Jack Kerouac, the film functions both as a subcultural documentary and a stylized fable on wanderlust, outsider identity, and escape.  www.billdaniel.net

Also short films by Roger Beebe and Bill Brown

S A V E (2006, 5:15, 16mm)
Dir. Roger Beebe
A disused gas station offers a curious imperative to passersby: “SAVE.” A riddle posed in the form of architecture: what is there to save? One more installment in the history of Americans pointing their cameras at gas stations; an attempt to figure out something about where we’ve been, where we’re headed, and what’s been left behind.

Hub City (1997, 15 min., 16mm)
Dir. Bill Brown
HUB CITY is a short about Lubbock, Texas, the home of Buddy Holly. It is also about trajectories of death and small towns in general.

Filmmaker Bill Brown will be in attendance to introduce his film Hub City and to answer questions.

BILL BROWN is a “nomadic” filmmaker, photographer, and author. He has produced films on the United States–Mexico border, North Dakota missile silos, the Trans-Canada Highway, among other places. His work has been exhibited throughout the world. He’s also the author of the travel zine Dream Whip and the book Saugus to the Sea (2001). www.heybillbrown.com