Image: The Disappointment: Or, The Force of Credulity, Brian Springer, 2007
“Brian Springer presents his latest work The Disappointment: Or, The Force of Credulity (2007) at Conversations at the Edge this Thursday, March 17, 2011.
Followed by a Q&A with the artist and Brian Holmes.
‘An unexpected masterpiece.’ — Grady Hendrix, New York Sun
Best known for his scathing news media exposé Spin (1995), Brian Springer’s latest film is a labyrinthine, semi-autobiographical documentary about the search for four disparate treasures buried on his family’s farm in Missouri. These include gold coins left behind by a 16th Century Spanish explorer; silver from the Civil War; the legendary lost diary of anarchist Kate Austin, who lived on the farm in the 1890s; and a mysterious limestone sculpture of dubious origin. Springer interweaves the stories surrounding these treasures with those of his family to spin a tale of spirit possession, Napalm, Indian massacres, early American opera, fanatical obsessions, 200 tons of dirt, and the way mothers try to protect their families from wounds that never heal.
At its core, The Disappointment meditates on the ways history is passed along, altered, and sometimes lost through archeological findings. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the artist and writer Brian Holmes.”
2007, Brian Springer, USA, Beta SP video, 70 min plus discussion.
BRIAN SPRINGER (b. 1959, Kansas) studied video at the State University of New York at Buffalo and received his MFA in Art from the University of California Santa Barbara. While in Buffalo, Springer worked with a group of artists to create Squeaky Wheel, a nationally respected grassroots media arts center. Springer’s work has been shown at the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Germany, the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), the Whitney Museum (NYC), the Institute for Contemporary Art (London), and the Centre Pompidou (Paris), and has been broadcast nationally in the UK. He currently lives in Ohio, where he works in the public schools through the Ohio Arts Council’s arts residency program.
Co-presented by Video Data Bank, in collaboration with Conversations at the Edge, a program of the Film, Video, New Media and Animation Department at SAIC.
SCREENING DETAILS
Thursday, March 17, 2011, 6:00 PM
Gene Siskel Film Center
164 N. State Street
Chicago, IL
312.846.2600
www.conversationsattheedge.org
More:
The Disappointment on VDB.org
