Pxl This 15 film festival

Sat, Apr 8
8:30pm
$5

PXL THIS 15, the 15th annual film festival featuring the Fisher Price
PXL 2000 toy video camera screens Saturday, April 8 at 8:30pm at
OTHER CINEMA at ATA, 992 Valencia St, San Francisco, 415-824-3890,
admission is $5. Visit:www.indiespace.com/pxlthis
and www.othercinema.com

A two hour program of short films made with the failed kid's toy will
begin with a short "lo-fi hi-jinx" presentation by PXL THIS festival
director Gerry Fialka. Other Cinema's Craig Baldwin writes in the
program "the highlight may end up being Fialka's legendary
introduction, trading on lofty McLuhanisms, Joycean run-ons and other
goofy puns" and connecting them to the new subculture of
Pixelvision's personal cinema.

PXL THIS 15 highlights include: Terrence Handscomb's THE REVELATION/
THE PASSION ACCORDING TO ANDREI inverts the hypocrisy of American
militarism by examining the Abu Ghraib political torture issues as if
Tarkovsky was into noir beefcake. Two more startling revelations from
seminal Pixelators Steve Craig (the hilarious MY BROTHER DOESN'T
KNOW) and Ross Craig (A STAKE TO THE HEART - THE LAST PXL MOVIE,
which the LA Weekly proclaimed "fully showcases the unique palette of
the PXL 2000"). Bart Ezra Plaskoff's GURUDEV explores humility, love,
materialism and the human condition by revealing that a homeless man
is actually a God-Realized Guru engaging in his final meditation.
Robert Dobbs' TV AIN'T NO TACTILE probes Marshall McLuhan's dangerous
breakthroughs via the cloning esp and morphic resonance of Salvador
Dali's 1968 TV Guide cover. Michael Possert's informative HELEN
POSSERT: A WWII ROSIE recalls her time as a "Rosie the Riveter." Paul
Richley's SPING traverses the textures of color. Bryan Konefsky's
BEAUTIFUL DREAMER views an unsuspecting passenger on a cruise ship in
Vancouver, BC as he becomes the object of the filmmaker's desire. I'M
IN THE MOOD is Konefsky's colorful portrait of the Ann Arbor,
Michigan legendary street performer Shaky Jake, as he serenades
pedestrians. Adam Gould's THE EIFFEL TOWER WILL NEVER SEE ITSELF is a
personal investigation into the reality of the recorded moving image
and the reality of the filmmaker's own existence. Kelly Jones' TEN
MOVEMENTS AMERICA (which the LA Weekly called "well-edited...most
poetic") slices up "live free or die" Americana while visiting her
grandmother. Eli Elliott's ONE is the third film in an inspired
trilogy of figuring out one's farcical self. Dahvi Bologh's thought-
provoking THE CELLULAR PHONE uncovers the hidden effects of this
current dominant invention. Geoff Seelinger's funny yet tragic SECRET
RECIPE takes a look at a day working with a friend at his "Mc-job,"
as a Kentucky Fried Chicken manager. Doug Ing investigates the
problems, perils & vulnerability of people as revealed through the
physical function of SLEEP. John Humphrey delivers the funky PXL
punchline PSA#1. Lisa Marr & Paolo Davanzo's THE YEAR OF
TRANSFORMATION cultivates the here and now. Elric Kane's INNER BEAUTY
CONTEST exposes the over saturation of seductive online imagery.
Denny Moynahan, the Ernie Kovacs of Pixelvision, delivers another
interactive gem, KING KUKULELE QUAD.

"PXL THIS is something that has to be seen and experienced at least
once in a lifetime." -Santa Monica Mirror

"Sometimes the best art comes from the worst medium. The Fisher Price
PXL-2000: no smoke, no mirrors, just plain old down-and-dirty
technology from the 80's. It makes cool films, as evidenced by the
15th annual PXL THIS film festival." -Michael Mannheimer, LA
Alternative Press

"All the PXL THIS videos reflect festival organizer Gerry Fialka's
commitment to the freedom produced by making art without financial
constraints. PXL THIS is a welcome highlight in the Los Angeles media
scene celebrating the rich lexicon available in a tool which might
initially seem rather limiting." - Holly Willis, editor of RES magazine.

"The irresistible irony of the PXL is that the camera's ease-of-use
and affordability, which entirely democratizes movie-making, has
inspired the creation of some of the most visionary, avant and
luminous film of our time." -Steve Schneider, New York Times.

"PXL is the ultimate people's video." - J. Hoberman, Premiere Magazine

"Gerry Fialka's PXL THIS festival snaps, crackles and pops off the
screen with the funky, user-friendly energy of real first-person
cinema. Goofy, gorgeous, and altogether groovy, his provocative
program of pieces produced with the Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy video
camera is not only downright entertaining, but more, its blipping and
buzzing black 'n' white picture-bits coalesce into a veritable
inspiration to all those who cherish the playful, spontaneous
gestures and low-cost of electronic folk art." -Craig Baldwin.

Established in 1991, Clap Off They Glass Productions supports
independent video-making by sponsoring the annual PXL THIS Festival,
which is the oldest of its kind in the world. Even with no corporate
sponsors, no color brochures, no big shot movie director board
members, no ticketmaster access, PXL THIS has been featured on PBS,
IFC and NPR, and most recently screened at MIT. PXL THIS spans many
genres: documentary, poetry, drama, art, music, political activism,
cinema povera, comedy and the avant-garde. The unique Fisher-Price
toy camcorder PXL 2000, which records sound and image directly onto
audio cassettes, continues to empower artists. This failed toy was
only made in the US from 1987 to 1989. The magical PXL 2000 restores
a certain humanity to the overpowering technology of video.

Films featured in past PXL THIS festivals are archived and available
for viewing at the Academy Film Archive in Hollywood. For viewing
appointments and information, please call (310) 247-3016 x 387, or
visit the archive's web site at www.oscars.org/filmarchive.

"In past years, PXL THIS gave us some fascinating work...definitely
an out-there experience. In the last few years, PXL videos have made
it to such hallowed domains as the Whitney Museum of Art, the Museum
of Modern Art, Sundance, and the London Film Festival, where they
have been admired for their characteristic spontaneity, highly
personal perspective, visual uninhibitedness and raw, grainy truths."
- Mary Beth Crain, LA Weekly.

"PXL THIS is worthy of praise...spellbinding. The shifting bricks of
light and dark that form the Fisher-Price PXL 2000's picture lend
themselves well to personal essays, creating an invigorating mesh of
ambiguity and intimacy in every frame." - Paul Malcolm, LA Weekly.

"Since the start of the 21st century, I've attended the annual
screenings of the PXL THIS toy camera festival at San Francisco's
OTHER CINEMA. I have discovered several patterns of Pixelators that
are similar to the pioneering video artists of the 60's. One, they
reclaim film as a one-person project. Contrary to the popular belief
that filmmaking must be collaborative, the solo vision is dominant
and documented here. Two, in PXL-land, personal and deeply
individualistic issues - frequently in the form of confessionals -
are dominant. Pixelvision forms a quiet sub-genre within the larger
category of the 'personal essay' film, an intimate art-world of
privacy, whose entries frequently resemble message-in-a-bottle
intimacies. These patterns show that expanding the vocabulary of
moving image art is still possible - and, indeed, is growing." -Steve
Polta, San Francisco Cinematheque curator.

In spirit, the PXL-2000 toy camera resembles the cheap throwaway
still camera, known as the Holga. Writing in ESQUIRE, Joshua Liberson
called the Holga: "The world's most unserious serious camera...the
Holga takes strangely beautiful, dreamlike pictures. Its two-part
interlocking design allows light to bleed through constantly from the
sides, making it almost impossible to take a boring picture,
regardless of the subject matter."

"Most exciting art movements have been reactions against technical
sophistication. Many have gone 'backwards' to find honesty and truth,
the essence of things." - Guy Maddin

Contact: Gerry Fialka 310-306-7330

Venue:

Ata
992 Valencia St
San Francisco
415-824-3890
othercinema.com

in the Mission district

Additional Info:

415-824-3890
othercinema.com