Exploring Your Inner Demons

A programme compiled by Jack Stevenson. Viewed at Cinema Orion, 28 Feb 2009. 16mm
The programme note with comments.

EXPLORING YOUR INNER DEMONS: A SAMPLING OF AMERICAN UNDERGROUND CINEMA
Presented by Jack Stevenson
"American author and print collector Jack Stevenson has complied an entertaining and thought-provoking program that spans American Underground cinema from the Mid-60’s to the modern day and captures the essence of what personal (aka ‘underground’) filmmaking is all about."
In order of play:
BEHIND EVERY GOOD MAN - 1966, 9 min., by Nikolai Ursin. Home movie style docu-drama about a day in the life of a negro transvestite living in mid-60's Los Angeles. / AA: recovered by Jack from an unmarked cardboard box
HOLD ME WHILE I'M NAKED - 1966, 15 min., color, by George Kuchar. One of the best loved films of the 60s underground, a playful satire of motion picture making: the fantasy of Hollywood glamour collides with the reality of loneliness in the Bronx. /AA: colour ok in GK's most famous film, exploring his own feelings in a mode now familiar from webcams, the diarist format, 0 budget
THE CRAVEN SLUCK, 1967, 23 min. b/w, directed by Mike Kuchar. This film concerns itself with the sordid domestic routines of a typical Bronx married couple, Adel and her goofy salaryman husband, Brunswick, played by Bob. Adel - played with verve by Floraine Connors - seeks escape in the arms of a secret lover, Morton, played by George Kuchar. To complicate matters, Morton is married, to a rotund, pill-popping frump called Florence, played by Bob in a cheap wig. Yet all these complications of the flesh are suddenly rendered inconsequential by a squadron of attacking UFOs that vaporize the leading lady and bring the plot to an unexpected and gloriously implausible halt. The skillful use of music in the Hollywood tradition makes the story come alive. / AA: the fascination with glamour, living in the most unglamourous Bronx, the mixture of horror, melodrama, scifi, 0 budget
ROCKFLOW: 1968, 9 min. color, directed by Bob Cowan. This 9 minute film is constructed largely of footage Bob shot at The Electric Circus (in NYC) in connection with the opening of a boutique there at which the Chambers Brothers rock band played. Mod fashions are on display as folks pack the dance floor, including Donna Kerness (in trademark antenna headgear) and Hopeton Morris (their outfits designed by Hope). But what appears to be a straightforward if experimental fashion/dance/rock document changes mid-point into a psychedelic nightmare as eerie music creates an ominous mood, the images grow more hallucinatory and the editing more rapid-fire. Donna now reappears in a solitary setting in close-up, swinging giant earrings and staring at the camera as if she's casting a spell. The effect is sinister and trance-like as special effects bombard the screen. / AA: a fascinating psychedelic discovery, a fine example of rock music and dance film, a great sense of rhythm
LOVE IT / LEAVE IT: 1970, 15 min., color. This second film by Tom Palazzolo more fluidly weaves sound and image together to create an hallucinatory montage of urban America at the height of anti-war demonstrations. Equal parts totalitarian nightmare and candy-coated consumer fun fair, it is like most of his work: devoid of overt editorial comment and full of ambiguity – a searching to capture the spirit and times and people without imposing the filmmaker’s own political agenda. /AA: a nudist movie juxtaposing militarism and nudism, with a fine musique concrète score
SIAMESE TWIN PINHEADS - 1972, 4 min., b&w, Kurt McDowell and Mark Ellinger do their perverse ‘siamese twin pinhead’ act.The two would stand at the center of San Francisco’s rebellious underground film scene of the 70’s. / AA: the makers of Thundercrack! in an offensive short film of two masturbating imbecile twin pinheads, compared by Jack with Lars von Trier's Idiots
ASTHMA – 1995, 2 min., by Martha Colburn / an early collage film on the subject of smoking. One of her most straight-forward films, it hints at the more frenetic style she would later adopt. / AA: belongs to the music video phenomenon, wonderful, broken, rapid cutting, rhythm, dots, patterns, signs, interesting music by Smoking Jaunties
SPIDERS IN LOVE – 2000, 2.5 minutes, by Martha Colburn / A gloriously chaotic take on sex, spiders and various other hallucinations – handmade annimation and some found footage clips. / AA: belongs to the music video phenomenon, "an arachnorgasmic musical", rapid cutting, penis obsession, death imagery
END

The Films of Mika Taanila 3

Tampereen elokuvajuhlat 2008 traileri / Tampere Film Festival 2008 Trailer (2008) 35mm, 0'30"
Pidän tästä hiljaisuudesta / I Like This Silence (1983-1986) dvd, 1'20"
Fysikaalinen rengas / A Physical Ring (2002) 35mm, 4'40"
Täydellisen pimennyksen vyöhyke / The Zone of Total Eclipse (2002) 2 x 16mm, 6'
Optinen ääni / Optical Sound (2005) 35mm, 2,35:1, 6'
Thank You For the Music - elokuva muzakista / Thank You For the Music - A Film About Muzak (1997) 35mm, 24'
RoboCup99 / RoboCup99 - We Have a Dream (2000) 35mm, 25'
Total duration of the programme: 75 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 7 Feb 2009.

A great programme with a wonderful variation, and the many technical challenges were met perfectly, including the special double-16mm presentation of The Zone of Total Eclipse with two moving 16mm projectors.

Tulevaisuus ei ole entisensä

The Future Is Not What It Used to Be / Framtiden är inte vad den brukade vara. FI 2002. D: Mika Taanila.
Excerpts from Erkki Kurenniemi's short films:
- Winterreise (1964)
- Electronics In The World of Tomorrow (1964)
- Computer Music (1966)
- Firenze (1970)
- Sex Show (1968)
- Flora & Fauna (1965)
- Carnaby Street (1968)
and the video work of Kurts:
- Videokirje tulevaisuuteen [A Video Letter to the Future] (1990)
Also excerpts from tv programs (YLE):
- Kahdeksan tahtia tietokoneelle [Eight Beats for the Computer] (1967)
- Tv-aktuellt (1968)
- Ihmisen uudet mahdollisuudet [Man's New Opportunities] (1969)
- Ungdom för helvete [Youth for Hell] (1969)
- Dimi-baletti [Dimi Ballet] (1971)
- Mihin menet Suomi? [Where Do You Go To, Finland?] (1979)
- A-studio (1980)
- A-raportti: Mikrojen maihinnousu [The Invasion of the Micro Computer] (1982)
- Numero 110384-1984, rekisteröity, tilastoitu ja kauko-ohjattu kansalainen [Number 110384: the Registered, Statistically Computed and Remote-Controlled Citizen] (1984)
- Lauantailokki (1987)
- TV-uutiset (1999)
And commissioned films by Filminor:
- Pakasteet [Frozen Foods] (1969, D: Jarva, M: EK)
- Tietokoneet palvelevat [The Computer At Your Service] (1968, D: Jarva, M: EK)
- Cosmic Love (Ruotsi, D: Jonas Sima) [Thank you, Mika Taanila, 10 Feb 2009, for the excerpt credits.]
54 min. A 35mm SES print with English subtitles by Jaana Wiik. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 31 Jan 2009. - Presented by Mika Taanila. - A good print.
Official synopsis: "A documentary film about Erkki Kurenniemi (b. 1941), whose career represents a surprisingly natural blend of music, film, computers, robotics, science and art. His project of collecting everything around him will perhaps be the most significant of all his works. Kurenniemi records his thoughts, observations, objects and images constantly, with manic precision, with the ultimate goal of merging man and machine - reconstructing the human soul."
"Kurenniemi's story is a fascinating and forceful depiction of a forgotten visionary; it is significant because of the cultural history of the unique, never-before-seen archive material alone. The documentary includes footage of the unique DIMI instruments developed by Kurenniemi, and segments from unfinished experimental short films from the 1960s."
"The Future is not what it used to be is a film about the 1960s avant-garde in music and film, the early history of microcomputers and the open questions of 21st century science."
"The film is a logical and thematic follow-up for Mika Taanila's earlier works exploring technology and the world around us; namely Thank You For the Music, Futuro and RoboCup99. The film looks into the past, but very clearly far ahead into the future through it."
Revisited the fascinating documentary by Mika Taanila, which is also a great experimental film, about a great experimental man.

THE FILMS OF MIKA TAANILA 1 + PORI WITH CIRCLE LIVE

Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 17 Jan 2009.

Futuro - tulevaisuuden olotila / Futuro - en framtidsutopi / Futuro - A New Stance for Tomorrow. FI (c) 1998. Kinotar. D: Mika Taanila. 30 min. - A good SES print with English subtitles by Jaana Wiik. - Revisited: the brilliant documentary on the UFO-shaped Futuro house (1968) by Matti Suuronen.

Circle in live concert (Janne Westerlund: guitar, vocals - Mika Rättö: vocals, keyboard, percussions - Tomi Leppänen: drums - Jussi Lehtisalo: bass, vocals - Tuomas Laurila: sound design - Janne Tuomi: percussions) to the film

Pori. FI (c) 1998 Mika Taanila / Kiasma. With inserts from Porin uusi silta (The New Bridge of Pori, Adams Filmi, 1926). A triptych (like Abel Gance's Polyvision) in Cinerama proportions of three 16mm projectors and colour slides. 35 min. - A good print, a perfect performance.
Circle is a many-sided band which has been associated with space rock, experimental music, metal music, post-rock, Krautrock and maybe also neo-psychedelia. Their performance was dynamic and inspired.
The film is a tribute to the seaside city of Pori, mixing old newsreels with new footage, sewer video surveillance imagery, abstract flashes and SMPTE test and leader strip. It starts with the waves of the sea upside down, the seagull in the sky, and the new bridge (of 1926) replacing the old Charlotta. There is footage from a concert at the Yyteri sand beach, showgirls, vapour, night lights, electric towers, the half moon in the sky. The abstract passages are great.