WALKER CINEMA: SEPTEMBEROCTOBER 2014

IN THE CINEMA
COMMEMORATING DEREK JARMAN
Painter, writer, activist, gardener and filmmaker, Derek Jarmans creative endeavors always intersected with a concrete subject, whether reflecting upon class inequality, sexual freedom, or raging against the repressive politics of his British government. Commemorating the 20th anniversary since his death from AIDS-related illnesses, the Walker presents a season of Jarmans films from the Ruben Bentson collection, unpacking his cinematic legacy in parallel with his wider interests.

The season is comprised of two parts. The first, Ideal and Ideas, reflects upon Jarmans paired engagement with politics and philosophy. From the brazen punk of Jubilee, to his portrait of Ludwig Wittgenstein, as well as the lush music videos Jarman produced for iconic musicians, Ideal and Ideas looks at Jarmans experimental approaches to anarchy and reason, revolution and resistance, highlighting the function of anachronism as a strategy for historical reflection.

The second part, Apparatus, deals with Jarmans structural engagement with his filmic mediumhow he operated with an acute awareness of the film industry while maintaining his experimental aesthetic. Apparatus shows an adeptness of technique, including Jarmans use of Super-8 film, various in-camera techniques, culminating in his most influential and final work Blue, a film without image. All screenings introduced by Bentson Visiting Film Scholar Isla Leaver-Yap.

Ideal and Ideas, Pt. 1
BROKEN ENGLISH
THE QUEEN IS DEAD
JUBILEE
Directed by Derek Jarman
Wednesday October 8, 7 pm
$9 ($7 Walker members and seniors)
Walker Cinema

[Jubilee is] an uneasy mix of exuberance and bleakness Tony Peake, author of Derek Jarman

Queen Elizabeth I finds herself transported to a futuristic 1970s England, a post-apocalyptic landscape populated with nihilistic violent youths. Performed by a cast of British punk icons, Jubilee (1977, DCP, 106 minutes) approaches the Jacobean form with unabashed DIY ethos. This screening is paired with Jarmans heady music videos for pop icons The Smiths (1986, 35mm, 12 minutes) and Marianne Faithfull (1979, 16mm, 12 minutes). Total program 130 minutes.

Apparatus, Pt. 1
THE ANGELIC CONVERSATION
Directed by Derek Jarman
Wednesday October 15, 7 pm
Derek Jarman at Walker Art Center 1988
Derek Jarmans Jubilee 1977
Derek Jarmans The Angelic Conversation 1985
Walker Cinema: September October 2014_3
$9 ($7 Walker members and seniors)
Walker Cinema

A world of magic and ritual. Derek Jarman

Returning to Jarmans early experimentation with Super-8, The Angelic Conversation transforms the apparatus of the moving image into sequence of photographic formsa dream world where the male figurative pose is the locus of desire. The film features a soundtrack featuring music by Coil and Benjamin Britten, and Judi Denchs narration of 14 of Shakespeares sonnets. 1985, 35mm, 78 minutes.

Ideal and Ideas, Pt. 2
WITTGENSTEIN
Directed by Derek Jarman
Wednesday October 22, 7pm
$9 ($7 Walker members and seniors)
Walker Cinema

Stridently experimental. New York Times

Aesthetically terse yet theatrically exuberant, this portrait of twentieth-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein confronts the public reception of ideas. A collaboration with political theorist Terry Eagleton, Wittgenstein features a familiar ensemble of Jarman players at its most minimal: Karl Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Michael Gough, and the young Clancy Chassay. 1993, DCP, 72 minutes.

Apparatus, Pt. 2
BLUE
Directed by Derek Jarman
Wednesday October 29, 7pm
$9 ($7 Walker members and seniors)
Walker Cinema

One of the most intimate films I've ever seen. Cinematographer

When Jarman publicly declared himself HIV-positive in 1987, he acknowledged many would expect a response to AIDS within his work. I left it as long as possible, because making a film about illness is jolly difficult. The result is his final work, Blue, a film comprising a single shot of International Yves Klein Blue and a narrative full of pathos. This print has only been screened a handful of times and was acquired directly from Jarman. 1993, 35mm, 79 minutes.

EXCLUSIVE RUN
A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT
Directed by Ana Lily Amirpour
Friday, October 24, 7:30 pm
Saturday, October 25, 2 & 7:30 pm
Walker Cinema: September October 2014_4
Sunday, October 26, 2 pm
Friday, October 31, 7:30 pm
$9 ($7 Walker members and seniors)
Walker Cinema

An auspicious debut feature. Variety

One of the surprise discoveries of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, this amalgamation of graphic novel, rock, techno, spaghetti western, and horror films marks the start of an Iranian New Wave. The ghost town of Bad City is full of seedy charactersjunkies, prostitutes, thieves, and pimpsand a lone skateboarding vampire, out to combat the lowest of the towns peopleand to fall in love. Stupendously shot in high black-and-white contrast with deep shadows, this unexpected romance brings a new perspective to the concept of love. 2014, DCP, In Farsi with English subtitles, 104 minutes.

FREE CINEMA SCREENINGS
WAC@75 SCREENINGS
Celebrate both the Walker Art Centers 75th anniversary and the history of cinema with four free screenings from the Ruben Bentson Film Collection. Ranging from 1925 to 2002, silent to sound, and narrative to experimental, each film is a marker of the Collections expansive and varied selections.

THE GOLD RUSH
Directed by Charlie Chaplin
Thursday, October 16, 2 pm
Walker Cinema

The greatest and most elaborate comedy ever filmed Variety

One of Chaplins early masterpieces, this screening also marks the 100th anniversary of the first appearance of Chaplins character The Little Tramp. Its the lonely adventure of Chaplin as The Little Tramp battling the elements, rogue spectators and love in the harsh Alaskan frontier. Eventually life becomes so miserable and his hunger so intense that hes forced to eat his shoe, in one of the most iconic and hilarious sequences of any Chaplin film. 1925, video, 72 minutes.

BED AND SOFA
Directed by Abram Room
Friday, October 17, 2 pm
Walker Cinema

A brilliant psychological chamber drama Film Reference

Coined the most daring love triangle tale of its time, Bed and Sofa follows Liuda, pregnant and not knowing which of her two housemates is the father. Her predicament is exasperated by the patriarchy of 1927.

Moscow society, but Room also exploits the comic elements of the situation. Natural performance combined with a complex plot leaves no simple resolution. 1927, 16mm, 95 minutes, silent with English intertitles.

THE AMERICAN DREAMER
Directed by L.M. Kit Carson and Lawrence Schiller
Friday, October 17, 7:30 pm
In Person: Lawrence Schiller with a post-screening discussion
Walker Cinema

One of the great lost films of the early seventies Cinephilia and Beyond

One of the rarest films in the Walkers Ruben/Bentson Film and Video Study Collection, the four remaining 16mm prints were used to create this digital color restoration of The American Dreamer. The film follows Dennis Hopper at the height of his infamy, in the midst of editing The Last Movie (1971), documenting what was then the American film industrys most notorious work-in-progress. Hopper muses on filmmaking, photography, art, sex, and politics as Old Hollywood found itself out of synch with a rising youth culture. Hopper is unguarded and candid in this revealing portrait of 1970s counterculture. 1971, video, 90 minutes.

WHO ARE YOU, POLLY MAGGOO?
Directed by William Klein
Saturday, October 18, 2 pm
Walker Cinema

A daring deflation of cultural pretensions and institutions Criterion

Kleins first feature took the European film press by storm with its tongue-in-cheek portrayal of the 1960s pop explosion. Shot in black and white by a former Vogue photographer, he skewers the fashion world with his devilishly sharp wit, capturing the spirit of the time in all its fury. 1965, 35mm, 105 minutes.
MNTV CELEBRATION
Saturday, October 18, 7:30 pm
Walker Cinema

Get a sneak peek of the new season of MNTV featuring selections of the best short films by Minnesota filmmakers. Visit walkerart.org for full screening details.

DECASIA: THE STATE OF DECAY
Directed by Bill Morrison
Sunday, October 19, 2 pm
Walker Cinema

A stirring, haunting modern masterpiece The Guardian

Constructed entirely with decaying celluloid film, this first screening of our new print, is melded to the haunting music of Bang on a Can's Michael Gordon, performed by the 55-piece Basel Sinfonietta. The result is a moving avant-garde work that is as much about moving images as it is about the physical artifact of film. He transforms the decomposition of a strip of film into an assemblage of life and beauty, one that flows between abstraction and reality in which the images are about to disappear. Decasia celebrates the temporality with the ephemeral frame-by-frame resonance that translates the effects of the natural world. 2002, 35mm, 64 minutes.

FREE LECTURE ROOM & BEST BUY VIDEO BAY SCREENINGS
STREET OF CROCODILES with
A PERSONAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN THEATER and
THE CABINET OF JAN SVANKMAJER
September 228, 2014
Lecture Room

American audiences were introduced to the fascinating intricate animation of the Brother Quay in this episode. Drawing on broken toys, dust, and detritus they create a mesmerizing mysterious scenario in the Streets of Crocodiles and a homage to the great Czech animator in The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer (1987, video, 28 minutes). This is paired with A Personal History of the American Theater (1985, video, 28 minutes). Demonstrating the unique talents of Spalding Gray, the celebrated actor and story tellerreveals often amusing monologues that transform his personal life into a powerful series of one-man shows.

WHAT YOU MEAN WE? with
SISTER SUZIE CINEMA
September 30November 2, 2014
Lecture Room

Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson parodies celebrity culture as she clones herself to join a fake talk show in which shes interviewed about her popularity in What You Mean We (1986, DCP, 28 minutes). Her segment marks the series most popular episode. This is paired with Sister Suzie Cinema (1986, DCP, 28 minutes), a high-voltage 50s style "doo wop" opera about adolescent love and romantic movies of the 40s and 50s. Composed by Bob Telson, written by Lee Breuer (Gospel at Colonus) and directed by special effects wizard John Sanborn, this program spotlights music by a cappella doo wop group 14Karat Soul.

ALIVE FROM OFF CENTER
Various Directors
July 1 2014 February 7, 2015
Best Buy Video Bay

A lively collection . . . may leave you excited, intrigued, angry or completely mystified, but rarely bored New York Times

Alive from Off Center took performance into the realm of broadcast TV, featuring groundbreaking work from a new generation of international artists working on the frontiers of comedy, dance, music, performance, and video. Selections of this classic Walker Art Center and Twin Cities Public Television (KTCA) creative collaboration include shows from the first three seasons. 1984-1987, video, each episode runs 28 minutes.