Category: Programming

For posterity’s sake: the four-day program we haven’t (yet) been able to share with audiences because of COVID-19.

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Visiting Artists: Claire Denis and Tindersticks

Programmed by Darren Hughes, with Claire Denis and Stuart Staples

For nearly 25 years, acclaimed French filmmaker Claire Denis has worked closely with Stuart Staples and Tindersticks, who have scored nine of her feature films. Big Ears is celebrating Tindersticks’ first U.S. performance in nearly a decade by presenting four of the band’s most recent collaborations with Denis: Bastards, Let the Sunshine In, High Life, and a rare theatrical screening of The Waiting Room, a “visual album” of Tindersticks’ 2016 release, which includes a short film by Denis. The film program also includes Toward Mathilde, Denis’s documentary portrait of Mathilde Monnier, director of the Centre Choreographique National de Montpelier. Denis plans to attend.

• Bastards (Claire Denis, 2013)
• High Life (Claire Denis, 2019)
• Let the Sunshine In (Claire Denis, 2017)
• Toward Mathilde (Claire Denis, 2005)
• The Waiting Room (Various Directors, 2016)

Visiting Artist: Jessica Sarah Rinland

Programmed by Jessica Sarah Rinland and Darren Hughes

Argentine-British artist Jessica Sarah Rinland will present a nearly comprehensive showcase of her work, including an installation at the UT Downtown Gallery and three theatrical screenings. Her prize-winning, playful, and fiercely intelligent films often sit between documentary and fable, and have screened at prestigious festivals in New York, Locarno, Toronto, Vienna, London, Rotterdam, and Oberhausen.

• Those That, At a Distance, Resemble Another (2019)
• Shorts
  • Darse Cuenta (2008)
  • Nulepsy (2010)
  • Not as Old as the Trees (2014)
  • Electric Oil (2012)
  • Adeline for Leaves (2014)
  • Expression of the Sightless (2016)
  • Necropsy of a Harbour Porpoise (Seeing From our Eyes into Theirs) (2015)
  • The Flight of an Ostrich (Schools Interior) (2016)
• Mary Field and Bright Waters
  • The Blind Labourer (2016)
  • The Life History of the Onion (Mary Field, 1943)
  • The Life Cycle of the Newt (Mary Field, 1942)
  • Ý Berá – Aguas de Luz (Bright Waters) (2016)
• Installation at UT Downtown Gallery
  • Black Pond (2018)
  • Bosque (2008)
  • Moths Interior (2018)

Standard Definition

Programmed by Darren Hughes and Blake Williams

A curated program of nearly 20 films that demonstrate the astonishing breadth of work made during cinema’s short-lived “standard definition” era. The introduction of early consumer-grade digital cameras in the mid-1990s marked a key moment in cinema’s transition from celluloid film to digital. The small and relatively inexpensive technology allowed for greater access to the tools of filmmaking and gave established filmmakers and artists an opportunity to discover new images and new methods of production. Focusing primarily on non-commercial art, Standard Definition includes major auteurs who added digital video to their existing practice.

• Affettuosa Presenza (Franco Piavoli, 2004)
  • Paesaggi e figure (Franco Piavoli, 2002)
• Christabel (James Fotopoulos, 2001)
• Corpus Callosum (Michael Snow, 2002)
  • Cityscape (Michael Snow, 2019)
• Spicebush (Kevin Jerome Everson, 2005)
  • Company Line (Kevin Jerome Everson, 2009)
• Down There (Chantal Akerman, 2005)
• Five (Abbas Kiarostami, 2003)
• Friends of Friends (Dominik Graf, 2002)
• The Gleaners and I (Agnes Varda, 2001)
• Four by Hal Hartley
  • The New Math(s) (1999)
  • NYC 3/94 (1994)
  • The Other Also (1997)
  • The Sisters of Mercy (2004)
• Tchoupitoulas (Bill and Turner Ross, 2012)
• Windows (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 1999)
  • Worldly Desires (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2005)

Stereo Visions

Programmed by Blake Williams

In 2018, Big Ears and The Public Cinema presented Stereo Visions, a wide-ranging survey of nearly 30 3D films that employed a variety of 3D technologies and required five different kinds of 3D glasses. Stereo Visions returns in 2020 with a smaller selection of films that represent the “golden era” of 3D, along with contemporary work, both commercial and experimental.

• Blankets for Indians (Ken Jacobs, 2012)
• Cunningham (Alla Kovgan, 2019)
• El Corazon y la Espada (Edward Dein and Carlos Vejar hijo, 1953)
• Those Redheads from Seattle (Lewis R. Foster, 1953)
• Shorts : FRAMES / LIMITS
  • Pixillation (Lillian F. Schwartz, 1970)
  • Above the Rain (Ken Jacobs, 2019
  • Reframe (Nazli Dincel, 2009)
  • Shape Shift (Scott Stark, 2004)
  • Aykan (Sebastian Buerkner, 2018)
  • Marking Time (Malcolm Le Grice, 2005)
  • Cavalcade (Johann Lurf, 2019)
  • 2008 (Blake Williams, 2019)

Visiting Artist: Lily Keber

As part of the festival’s larger exploration of the music and culture of the Cuba-Haiti-NOLA triangle, Big Ears welcomes filmmaker Lily Keber, who will present two films and discuss and show clips from her latest work-in-progress, a documentary about Cuba. Winner of two awards at the 2018 New Orleans Film Festival, Backumping takes the pulse of present day New Orleans by turning to its dancers, the men and women who embody the distinct rhythms of their communities.

• Buckjumping (2018)
• Bayou Maharajah (2013)
• Cuba (a work in progress) (2020)

For Big Ears 2019, we presented the following program on alternating days as a month-long exhibition at the UT Downtown Gallery. Programmed by Darren Hughes and Blake Williams.

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Two New Films by Jodie Mack

• Hoarders Without Borders (2018)
• The Grand Bizarre (2018)

★ (Johann Lurf, 2017)

Recent Work by Beatrice Gibson

• F for Fibonacci (2014)
• The Tiger’s Mind (2012)
• Agatha (2012)
• I Hope I’m Loud When I’m Dead (2018)

Dead Souls (Wang Bing, 2018)

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)

Visiting Artist: Kevin Jerome Everson

Programmed by Kevin Jerome Everson and Darren Hughes

Installation: Open Ended

• Century (2012)
• Ninety Three (2008)
• Rough and Unequal: Oceanis Procellarum (2017)
• Workers Leaving the Job Site (2013)

Shorts: The Surface Below

• Ring (2008)
• Tygers (2014)
• Auditioning for Nathaniel (2016)
• R-15 (2017)
• Smooth Surface (2015)
• Production Material Handler (2015)
• Fe26 (2014)
• Ears, Nose and Throat (2016)

Visiting Artist: Janie Geiser

Programmed by Janie Geiser

Installation: Look and Learn (Parts 1 and 3)

Shorts: Double Vision

• Kriminalistik (2014)
• Ghost Algebra (2009)
• Kindless Villain (2010)
• The Floor of the World (2010)
• Arbor (2012)
• The Hummingbird Wars (2015)
• Cathode Garden (2015)
• Flowers of the Sky (2016)

Visiting Artist: Jem Cohen

Programmed by Jem Cohen and Darren Hughes

• Benjamin Smoke (2000)
• Instrument (2003)
• Lost Book Found (1996)
• Museum Hours (2012)
• World Without End (No Reported Incidents) (2016)

Flicker & Wow Kids!

Programmed by Darren Hughes

• Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, 1963)
• Duck Amuck (Chuck Jones, 1953)
• Blue Movement (Haruka Mitani and Michael Lyons, 2016)
• Begone Dull Care (Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren, 1949)
• Glistening Thrills (Jodie Mack, 2013)

Flicker & Wow 1

Programmed by Darren Hughes

• Empyrean (Kalpana Subramanian, 2016)
• Them Apples (Adam R. Levine, 2016)
• 1_ _ _ _1 (Karissa Hahn, 2015)
• Deux Champs (Two Fields) (By Kevin Obsatz, 2015)
• As Without So Within (Manuela De Laborde, 2016)
• Koropokkuru (Akiko Maruyama and Philippe Roy, 2015)

Flicker & Wow 2

Programmed by Darren Hughes

• Parallel Inquiries (Christina C Nguyen, 2016)
• Nova Remnants (Stefan Grabowski, 2016)
• Ghost Comb. (Ryland Walker Knight, 2017)
• Spotlight on a Brick Wall (Alee Peoples and Mike Stoltz, 2016)
• Little Orphant Annie (Bill Morrison, 2016)
• One Roll in the Blackness (Chris Kennedy, 2011)

Jonathan Demme: Life is Performance/Performance is Life

Programmed by Paul Harrill

• Another Telepathic Thing (2015)
• Cousin Bobby (1992)
• Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids (2016)
• Melvin and Howard (1980)
• Rachel Getting Married (2008)
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• Something Wild (1986)
• Stop Making Sense (1984)
• Storefront Hitchcock (1998)
• Swimming to Cambodia (1987)
• Who Am I This Time? (1982)