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Seven frames from Shrimp Chicken Fish by Deborah Stratman

2010, video, 5:13 minutes

Synopsis: An homage to Chicago’s East 95th Street Bridge, Calumet Fisheries and to a couple of the city’s beloved brothers. The take out restaurant still operates, propped along the edge of a drawbridge, bounded by the infamous Chicago Skyway and the industrial Calumet Harbor.

found via pythagoras film.

January 2010: The Film Society of the Lincoln Film Center conducts an avant-garde film and video poll:

FSLFC’s Preface: In the past decade, the making and showing of experimental film worldwide has gone from strength to strength, so much so that it can be categorically said that avant-garde cinema is as vital now as it has ever been. This addendum to our Jan/Feb end-of-decade wrap-up serves to acknowledge just some of the experimental film achievements of the 21st century’s first 10 years. The rankings on the three lists below were obtained through the tabulation of the number of mentions a given film or filmmaker received in poll responses from a 46-strong group of critics, programmers, and teachers.

Poll participants: Acquarello, Steve Anker, Thomas Beard, Ariella Ben-Dov, Amy Beste, Robin Blaetz, Nicole Brenez, Autumn Campbell, Fred Camper, Abigail Child, David Dinnell, Patrick Friel, David Gatten, Jacqueline Goss, Ed Halter, Alexander Horwath, Kristin M. Jones, Chris Kennedy, Nellie Killian, Lewis Klahr, Irina Leimbacher, Scott MacDonald, Matt McCormick, Mark McElhatten, Kevin McGarry, Don McMahon, Olaf Möller, Oona Mosna, Pablo de Ocampo, Susan Oxtoby, Andréa Picard, Tony Pipolo, Steve Polta, J.R. Rigsby, Jeremy Rossen, Lynne Sachs, Keith Sanborn, Michael Sicinski, Josh Siegel, P. Adams Sitney, Gavin Smith, Phil Solomon, Scott Stark, Chris Stults, Jim Supanick, Genevieve Yue

THE RESULTS

At Sea (2007) by Peter Hutton

BEST AVANT-GARDE FILMS & VIDEO 2000-2009

1. At Sea Peter Hutton, U.S., 2007 (18)
2. Pitcher of Colored Light Robert Beavers, U.S./Switz., 2007 (16)
3. ( ) Morgan Fisher, U.S., 2003 (15)
tie Ah Liberty! Ben Rivers, U.K., 2008 (15)
tie Observando el Cielo Jeanne Liotta, U.S., 2007 (15)
tie Star Spangled to Death Ken Jacobs, U.S., 1956-2004 (15)
7. Ten Skies James Benning, U.S., 2004 (14)
8. The Fourth Watch Janie Geiser, U.S., 2000 (13)
tie The Heart of the World Guy Maddin, Canada, 2000 (13)
tie RR James Benning, U.S., 2007 (13)
11. Black and White Trypps Number Three Ben Russell, U.S., 2007 (12)
tie The Decay of Fiction Pat O’Neill, U.S., 2002 (12)
tie The God of Day Had Gone Down Upon Him Stan Brakhage, U.S., 2002 (12)
tie An Injury to One Travis Wilkerson, U.S., 2002 (12)
tie Kolkata Mark LaPore, US/India, 2005 (12)
tie 13 Lakes James Benning, U.S., 2004 (12)
17. The General Returns from One Place to Another Michael Robinson, U.S., 2006 (11)
tie Song and Solitude Nathaniel Dorsky, U.S., 2006 (11)
19. False Aging Lewis Klahr, U.S., 2008 (10)
tie The Glass System Mark LaPore, U.S., 2000 (10)

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We love Deborah Stratman. 1) She’s from Chicago. 2) She experiments with film and other forms of media/technology. The following is a brilliant concept:  (more…)

Johnny Lavant of The Auteurs recently attended the 2009 New York Film Festival. Thus far, he has posted four comprehensive reviews of the NYFF’s Views from the Avant-Garde program. His first post trashed avant-garde film genre entirely; I thought it would end on a pessimistic note, however, his second and third posts reveal that Johnny does have a heart for the avant-garde when he’s watching films by Ben Russell, David Gatten, and Deborah Stratman.

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On the Various Nature of Things (1995)

Deborah Stratman is a Chicago-based artist and filmmaker whose work plies the territory between experimental and documentary genres. Her films and frequent work in other media, including photography, sound, drawing and sculpture often explore the history, uses, mythologies and control of highly varied landscapes: from Muslim Xinjiang China, to rural Iceland, to gated suburban California. She recently completed a series of works that collectively address concepts of the paranormal in the information age and is presently working on a new film about the milieu of elevated threat, patriotism, wilderness and the possibility of transcendence.

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A Film by Chris Marker & Mario Ruspoli (1972, France, 17 min)

If you’re in Chicago today (4/15/09), don’t miss Chris Marker’s documentary Three Cheers for the Whale, a 17 minute film that will preface Deborah Stratman’s O’er the Land.

Everyone is welcome, the event is free, and the seating it limited.   Please pass the word to those who enjoy obscure documentary gems.  Here is the viva doc event schedule for today:

5:15 Three Cheers for the Whale

5:45 O’er the Land (on 16mm!)

7:00 Open discussion with filmmaker Deborah Stratman (discussion may start 5-10 minutes earlier than expected)

“Whales, I love you.”

Synopsis: Three Cheers for a Whale, the 17 min. documentary from Chris Marker (Sans Solei, La Jetee), is a melancholy ode to the whale —  part of Marker’s Bestiary series, the majority of Whale is driven by still images and mixed with sparse, but violent, live action footage of Whalers spearing whales.

Pondering the slaughter of this majestic giant is a female narrator whose voice resembles an NPR host on Mescaline; awash with meditative voiceover, metaphor, and abstractions — signature elements of a Chris Marker film — Three Cheers for the Whale recalls some of his best poetic moments in a film he would later make, Sans Solei (1982).

2008, Deborah Stratman, USA, 52 min

On April 15th, 2009, experimental filmmaker Deborah Stratman will visit Columbia College of Chicago to screen and discuss her latest work, O’er the Land — an acclaimed, experimental documentary which recently premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and Internationally premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival — also, it should also be noted that O’er won best film at the Ann Arbor Film Festival a few weeks ago.  And the success continues.

The event is presented by the Columbia student organization Viva Documentary,  and admission is open to anyone with a strong interest in documentary filmmaking — be it a student from Columbia, the Art Institute, DePaul, UOC students — cinephiles of all shapes and sizes are welcome.  Seating is limited and is a first-come-first-seated system.

Admission is free and will be hosted in room 504 of Columbia’s 1104 S. Wabash Ave film building.  View the flyer

※ 1104 S. Wabash Ave, Chicago, IL, ※ RM 504 ※ 5:15pm ※ Free

Synopsis:

Deborah Stratman’s 2008 documentary considers the effect of technology on American history and the idea of freedom. The film is framed by the experiences of Colonel William Rankin, who was forced to eject from his fighter jet in 1959 only to be trapped in the whirling winds of a massive thunderstorm. 52 min. — Chicago Reader

Hope to see you there.  Bring your dearest friends (no enemies) and be sure to have your avant-garde-doc brain inserted and ready.  Also playing is Chris Marker’s Three Cheers for the Whale.

More:

Read the IFC Review of O’er the Land

Viva Documentary

Phythagoras Film

Deborah’s interview with the Cinemad Blog

A still from Deborah Stratman’s O’er the Land (2009).

In Order Not to Be Here is the inspired, award-winning vision from Chicago-based experimental filmmaker and artist Deborah Stratman. Rife with creepiness, In Orderfeels like a bad-dream—or a leaked surveillance video from a lurking shadow government—it’s a dreamy, objectively-haunting, quasi-surveillance video. It’s also a film that poses many questions, one being the inevitable query of categorization: docudrama or experimental narrative?

In Order opens with an aerial, infrared intelligence video of a k9-team, who is in the midst of a hunt; following radio command from a offscreen surveyor, the dog-team slogs through darkness to capture an unknown figure.

A more subdued middle-passage succeeds this gripping opening, shifting focus to an indexing of familiar suburban imagery (e.g. fast-food, fences, street-lights); alas, we confront the bleak reality of our consumer-driven milieu—and, yes, it’s also a reminder that we know the characteristics of a McDonald’s building far too well (!).

A memorable chase scene book-ends this and, again, Stratman experiments with the aerial point of view camera. In fact, Deborah employs a handful of experimental film techniques throughout, including modified usage of the Kuleshov Effect, which proves to be sharply effective in a small number of instances, the most notable being audio from a news report (or quasi-news report) detailing a fire, which plays over this concluding chase, and, in turn, bestowing new meaning upon the image—altering a unknown runner into a fleeing arsonist, adding a sense of suspense and story.

Subversive and soigne, subterraneous and shadowy, In Order Not to Be Here is trenchant proof that Deborah Stratman is a trail-blazer clearing her way to the forefront of contemporary experimental film. ▲

Deborah will screen and discuss her newest work, an 55 minute experimental doc, O’er the Land (2008), on 4/15/09, part of Viva Documentary’s Winter Film Series. Deborah’s doc, The BLVD (’99), examines Chicago’s the subterranean street-racing culture, and will screen at viva doc on 4/7/09).

Deborah Stratman’s website, Pythagoras Film