Pauline, all day.

Light Matter submission deadline extended to next Friday August 22. Because 1200+ submissions for ~60 spots wasn't difficult enough.

In response to the NYT lists, I called for contributors to submit 15 titles for Best Experimental Cinema of the 21st Century. 109 ballots, 940 films, and 550 artists later, these are the results. Huge thanks to @filmmakermagazine.com.web.brid.gy for stepping up to publish. tinyurl.com/484u9f2z

Deadline is today. No extensions!

If you are submitting a list for my Best Experimental Cinema of the 21st Century poll, you now have until 11:59 on Sunday August 3. If you'd like to participate by submitting an unranked list of 15 titles, let me know. I've received 65 votes and would still love to have more.

💔

the Trump administration in a nutshell - abandoning consent decrees on police departments in favor of consent decrees on universities edition.cnn.com/2025/01/22/p...

RIP Émilie Dequenne. I taught ROSETTA for several years and was floored by her performance every time. Legendary.

Mourning the loss of Linda Williams. It’s hard to think of another scholar whose work helped define such a diverse range of subfields. For me, her 1981 essay “Film Body: An Implantation of Perversions” was a beacon showing how fundamental feminist analysis could be for early cinema. RIP

Nice to see a Luther Price program at Ann Arbor. I wonder how many folks will make it through FANCY…

Vote PJ Harvey!

Um…

Counting my blessings 🤩

This might be a doozy

Dish to pass at a Super Bowl party? Okay, I will spend 24 hours making chili.

Making chili again. Finally found a use for my 100% cacao from Peru. Low and slow. Should I just keep cooking all night??? (I’ve made chili about four times in my life. First time where I just LOTS of time to keep going…) #snowstorm

Finished BILLIARDS. Of course Böll didn’t like NOT RECONCILED. The novel absorbs character’s interiority across an historical scale; meanwhile, NR (via S/H) keeps the viewer as an outside witness - the characters are figures (images?) who can only be seen/heard from a distance. Unless dynamite.

First time reading Heinrich Böll this year to dig into Straub/Huillet course. Students who read “Bonn Diary” were floored by MACHORKA MUFF. I’m now reading BILLIARDS to prep for NOT RECONCILED, and boy oh boy am I eager to watch the film again. Love the book. Fragmented af. Go S/H, go!

“And the sheroes” Poor guy

Oh my god. They’re actually going We Are the World. This is truly a moment.

“Will Smith apologia tour was forgotten quickly tonight as Erivo shines at The Grammys…more at 11!”

Interesting to read Vittorini’s CONVERSATIONS IN SICILY alongside Straub/Huillet’s film. Shocker: the film is an authentic adaptation that ignores 65% of the novel. The novel made me love what S/H do, and the film helped me appreciate the novel. That’s how this should work.

Why are posts about my Straub Huillet class mildly blowing up on Twitter? Unexpected.

Has anyone read or engaged texts that Straub / Huillet adapted? I’m trying to read sources alongside screenings in my S/H class. Feel like this is kind of a wild thing to do? I think going “deep in the weeds” a few times a year with SOMETHING is good for my brain ? #Gemini

RIP Gunvor Nelson.

Oh damn, RIP Richard Foreman, avant-garde legend. I saw him explain SIDE/WALK/SHUTTLE to Ernie Gehr during a Q&A once, chiding anyone who couldn't make sense of what the film was saying. Recent production of SYMPHONY OF RATS was a 2024 highlight. RIP!

I hope the James Hansen I am confused for here knows I exist because this is not the first time we've been connected. I hope somewhere he's like "Ugh, no, I don't curate an experimental film festival, I'm the one who worked at NASA for 40 years, sorry."

I did not program this film, unfortunately, but I hope someone else finds it and does. My Alfred audience(s) apparently thought there were enough perplexing choices this year as it is/was. I dunno. Uniqueness ranks pretty high when you watch 1000 films in 90 days.

Now that this is public news: very sad to hear Tomonari Nishikawa has been diagnosed with Stage IV cancer and is struggling. His wife Miki and his Binghamton colleagues have set up a fundraiser to help with immediate expenses. Help out if you can. www.gofundme.com/f/help-suppo...

Mandy Eugeniou has a wonderful project working further on this project / history with “online spheres” and digital storytelling in mind. (Showed LM 2022). Worth a look! www.theblacktower.co.uk

Bsky is where I can be my self so experimental film and sports. I know none of my followers care about sports. But. Passion is passion. No idea what Bengals are doing tonight. ZT decides he needs to be aggressive to not lose his job, but he’s aggressive for the sake of it. Idiotic coaching.

So my parents and I just had dinner with Jenn Reeves? That was not on the Bingo card.

Each Light Matter feels like I'm upping the ante. Last year, multi hour programs. This year Jodie Mack gallery show, two other gallery installs, multiple live performances, and 11 programs (shorter!) across two continents. Remind me to chill out next year. 2026 gonna be big though. Maybe.

The 2024 Light Matter Film Festival programs are here! 81 films. 2 continents. 10 World premieres. 12 North American premieres. 10 South American premieres. 5 US premieres. 15 New York premieres. 3 Argentine premieres. 2 Buenos Aires premieres. Wowza! www.lightmatterfilmfestival.com

The 2024 Light Matter Film Festival programs are here! 81 films. 2 continents. 10 World premieres. 12 North American premieres. 10 South American premieres. 5 US premieres. 15 New York premieres. 3 Argentine premieres. 2 Buenos Aires premieres. Wowza! www.lightmatterfilmfestival.com

RIP Lillian Schwartz www.nytimes.com/2024/10/14/t...

If any writers want to cover Light Matter 2024, let me know. It’s officially an “international co-production” with four shorts programs and six (!) special presentations in Alfred NY (Nov 1-3) followed by two additional shorts programs in Buenos Aires (Dec 6-7). Because why not.

I still laugh about the older lady who proudly sold DVDs on the subway: “DVDs! 1 for 5. 2 for 10.” I regret never asking her if I could get 5 for 25. Glad to see her economic legacy lives on.

I’ve been in New York for a week. Seven Robert Beavers programs, four operas, IMAX Megalopolis (obviously good), Aberration of Starlight (for a second time) and a few excellent restaurants later, I think maybe I’m read to be home.

Five programs into the comprehensive Robert Beavers retro at Anthology. Each show has been sold out or close to it. Amazing. Very grateful to be here.

There’s an opera based SILENT LIGHT just fyi showing in NYC this weekend on top of NYFF, Beavers retro, Lew Klahr, and who knows what else www.nationalsawdust.org/event/silent...

To the second peer reviewer who complained about my use of Frederic Jameson in an essay about nostalgia (in 2022): your comments were really really stupid and I still mock them whenever the opportunity arises. RIP to a legend whose work still has so much to say to all of us.

Even Terminal 5 can’t ruin a PJ Harvey show. Lucky to share her presence tonight.

Didn’t have archival found footage documentary legal drama on my Light Matter submission Bingo card. Always good to be surprised.

Great CHOPPED episode: 1. White dude tells food truck femme she has an inferiority complex about working in a food truck 2. Gets beat to the ice cream machine 3. “My food edged her out for sure” 3. Baffled and disagreeable when Chopped “Can’t stop what’s comin’” -Chigurh or somebody