Lewis Klahr: Visiting Artist
Programmed by Lewis Klahr and Darren Hughes
Big Ears will host LEWIS KLAHR and present a multi-program selection of his films, including an installation at the UT Downtown Gallery, a program of his short films, and a screening of his most recent feature, Sixty Six (2015). Named one of the greatest avant-garde filmmakers working today by Film Comment, Lewis Klahr has been making films since 1977. He is known for his uniquely idiosyncratic films, which use found images and sound to explore the intersection of memory and history.
- 10,000 Shards of Bliss (Installation at UT Downtown Gallery) – A looped, rotating selection of films that explore the vicissitudes of time and memory.
- Sixty Six (2015)
- Drowsy with Ions: The City as Collage
- Two Hours To Zero (2004)
- Black River Falls (2017)
- City Film (1992)
- Well Then There Now (2011)
- High Rise (2017)
- The Occidental Hotel (2014)
Open Eye Sleep (2012)
A Sense of Place: A Retrospective of American Regional Cinema, 1960-1989
Programmed by Paul Harrill
Collecting ten films made over a thirty-year span, this retrospective will survey groundbreaking films by artists living and working outside the commercial film production centers of Los Angeles and New York. Featured filmmakers includes major auteurs like Pittsburgh’s George A. Romero, Baltimore’s John Waters, and Portland’s Gus Van Sant. Also included are genre films with a deep sense of place (like Victor Nunez’s A Flash of Green), formally adventurous works like Trent Harris’s The Beaver Trilogy, and seminal films like Eagle Pennell’s The Whole Shootin’ Match, which inspired Robert Redford to launch the Sundance Institute. John Waters’ Polyester will be screened with scratch-n-sniff Odorama! cards.
- The Beaver Trilogy (Trent Harris, 1979/1981/1985/2001)
- Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962)
- Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant, 1989)
- A Flash of Green (Victor Nuñez, 1984)
- It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (Richard Linklater, 1988)
- Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968)
- Northern Lights (John Hanson and Rob Nilsson, 1978)
- Polyester (John Waters, 1981)
- Property (Penny Allen, 1979)
- The Whole Shootin’ Match (Eagle Pennell, 1968)
Stereo Visions: A Survey of 3D Cinema
Programmed by Blake Williams
Stereo Visions encompasses and demonstrates the full visual and affective capacities of our favorite on-again/off-again format. From Norman McLaren to Johnny Knoxville, Ken Jacobs to Alfred Hitchcock, Lillian M. Schwartz to Jodie Mack, the filmmakers showcased here have been unpacking the creative potential of 3D image-making for decades, with each representing unique incarnations, moments, and impulses. Stereo Visions was curated in collaboration with Blake Williams, whose acclaimed new 3D feature, PROTOTYPE, is the opening film of Big Ears.
- Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Werner Herzog, 2010)
- Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
- Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
- Jackass 3D (Jeff Tremaine, 2010)
- PROTOTYPE (Blake Williams, 2017)
- Seeking the Monkey King (Ken Jacobs, 2011)
- Another Occupation (Ken Jacobs, 2011)
- Ulysses in the Subway (Ken + Flo Jacobs and OpenEndedGroup, 2016)
- Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat 3D (Auguste & Louis Lumière, 1935)
- Shorts: CHROMA_DEPT
- 3D Movie (Paul Sharits, 1975)
- Olympiad (Lillian F. Schwartz, 1971)
- Enigma (Lillian F. Schwartz, 1972)
- Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies (Ken Jacobs, 2014)
- NOT AND OR (Simon Payne, 2014)
- Let Your Light Shine (Jodie Mack, 2013)
- Shorts: EXTRA_TERRESTRIAL
- Now is the Time (To Put On Your Glasses) (Norman McClaren, 1951)
- Around is Around (Norman McClaren, 1953)
- A to A (Johann Lurf, 2011)
- All Sides of the Road (Paul Kaiser & Marc Downie aka OpenEndedGroup, 2012)
- Terra Incognita (Kerry Laitala, 2009)
- UFOs (Lillian F. Schwartz, 1971)
- Apotheosis (Lillian F. Schwartz, 1972)
- Speechless (Scott Stark, 2008)
- Shorts: STRETCH_FOLD
- Twelve Tales Told (Johann Lurff, 2014)
- Insight’s Cataract (Willy Le Maitre, 2008)
- more than everything (Rainer Kohlberger, 2018)
- 2012 (Takashi Makino, 2013)
Canyon Cinema at 50
Programmed by David Dinnell
In celebration of 50 years since CANYON CINEMA’s incorporation we will present three shorts programs – 36 films running 270 minutes – selected by noted avant-garde film programmer David Dinnell. Canyon Cinema’s unique collection of artist-made films – comprised of digital media, 8mm, Super 8, 16mm, and 35mm prints – traces the vital history of the experimental and avant-garde filmmaking movements from 1921 to the present.
Together, these three programs offer a masterclass in American experimental filmmaking. The individual films are nearly impossible to see outside of limited gallery and academic screenings. The Canyon Cinema programs will be presented in 16mm and will be free and open to the public at the Knoxville Museum of Art.
- Associations
- Releasing Human Energies (Mark Toscano, 2012)
- What is a Man? (Sara Kathryn Arledge, 1958)
- Associations (John Smith, 1975)
- Hot Leatherette (Robert Nelson, 1967)
- Dyketactics (Barbara Hammer, 1974)
- Flower, The Boy, The Librarian (Stephanie Barber, 1997)
- The Snowman (Phil Solomon, 1995)
- Swiss Army Knife with Rats & Pigeons (Robert Breer, 1981)
- Confessions (Curt McDowell, 1971)
- Thine Inward-Looking Eyes (Thad Povey, 1993)
- Mercy (Abigail Child, 1989)
- Akbar (Richard Myers, 1970)
- Decodings
- Terrace 49 (Janie Geiser, 2004)
- Duo Concertantes (Lawrence Jordan, 1964)
- Billabong (Will Hindle, 1969)
- Love It/Leave It (Tom Palazzolo, 1973)
- Removed (Naomi Uman, 1999)
- Chronicles of a Lying Spirit (by Kelly Gabron) (Cauleen Smith, 1992)
- Point de Gaze (Jodie Mack, 2012)
- Encounters I May Or May Not Have Had With Peter Berlin (Mariah Garnett, 2014)
- Lie Back & Enjoy It (JoAnn Elam, 1982)
- Decodings (Michael Wallin, 1988)
- Studies in Natural Magic
- Light Lick (Amen) (Saul Levine, 2017)
- Catfilm for Katy and Cynnie (Standish Lawder, 1973)
- Ciao Bella or Fuck Me Dead (Betzy Bromberg, 1978)
- 28.IV.81 (Bedouin Spark) (Christopher Harris, 2009)
- Redshift (Emily Richardson, 2001, 4 minutes)
- A Study in Natural Magic (Charlotte Pryce, 2013)
- Starlight (Robert Fulton, 1970)
- Swish (Jean Sousa, 1982)
- Hand Held Day (Gary Beydler, 1975)
- Portland (Greta Snider, 1996)
- Degrees of Limitation (Scott Stark, 1982)
- Shrimp Boat Log (David Gatten, 2006/2010)
- Boston Fire (Peter Hutton, 1979)
- Orchard (Julie Murray, 2004)