Cinema Project Travels to the Stan Brahkage Film Symposium

Apr 12 2011

In March, Cinema Project's Jeremy Rossen and Heather Lane went to Boulder, Colorado for the 7th Annual Stan Brahkage Film Symposium. Programming for this event was orchestrated by three curators: Bill Nichols, Sally Berger, and our buddy Scott MacDonald. It was great to be in the sun, great to meet with film friends old and new, and great to see Lucien Taylor and Ilisa Barbash's film Sweetgrass in what felt like an appropriately mountainous setting.  We saw a performance by Nao Bustamonte (someone who should be brought to Portland!) and new video work by James Benning that catalogues the cabins he’s built over the last couple of years. One of the cabins is a replica of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and the other is Ted Kaczynski’s cabin.  The highlight of the trip was starting off Sunday morning with Sharon Lockhart’s stunning new film, Double Tide, a 90-minute work composed of two 45-minute shots. Originally captured on 16mm and then transferred to video to dissolve the reel changes, the film shows a woman picking clams on a Maine shore, first in the morning and then later that evening.  It was beautiful and quiet, and held us all captivated. We hope to show it in Portland next year.  We would like to thank the University of Colorado for putting on the symposium, Don Yannacito, all the volunteers, and the curators for all of their work.