May 2nd, 2013 by Anne Richardson · News
On May 16, Oregon Cartoon Institute presents an evening of films by Portland born experimental animator Harry Everett Smith (1923 – 1991).
http://harrysmithpdx.wordpress.com/
“I like my films because I didn’t make them: God made them.” Harry Smith
Two of Harry’s gorgeous hand painted Early Abstractions will be followed by Heaven And Earth Magic, Harry’s surreal 66 minute stop motion/cut out animation masterpiece.
This is a rare opportunity to see Heaven And Earth Magic projected on the big screen, using the sumptuous, expanded cinema techniques Harry himself used! Famed film archivist Dennis Nyback will recreate Harry’s live projection, using multiple projectors to alter, color and shape the moving image.
All films on 16mm. Live music accompaniment by Matt Carlson and Jordan Dykstra. Sound design by Andrew Ritchey.
Harry Smith’s description of Heaven And Earth Magic:
“The first part depicts the heroine’s toothache consequent to the loss of a very valuable watermelon, her dentistry and transportation to heaven. Next follows an elaborate exposition of the heavenly land, in terms of Israel and Montreal. The second part depicts the return to Earth from being eaten by Max Müller on the day Edward VII dedicated the Great Sewer of London.”
3 Harry Smith films + 3 Harry Smith experts!
Here’s the lineup:
Sheldon Renan introduces Rani Singh, director of the Harry Smith Archives at the Getty Institute.
Rani Singh introduces Harry’s mindblowing films.
Following the films, Sheldon Renan, Rani Singh and Darrin Daniel discuss Harry, and take questions.
All three speakers knew Harry Smith personally.
Sheldon Renan met Harry in the 1960’s in New York City. He first wrote about Harry in An Introduction to the American Underground Film.
Rani Singh and Darrin Daniel met Harry during his three year tenure (1989-1991) as Shaman-In-Residence at Naropa Institute.
Rani Singh is the co-editor of Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde In The American Vernacular.
Darrin Daniel is the author of Harry Smith: Fragments Of A Northwest Life.
The Harry Smith Seance is presented by Oregon Cartoon Institute, an all volunteer organization dedicated to raising awareness of Oregon’s rich animation and cartooning history.
http://www.oregoncartooninstitute.com/
In addition to the Seance:
May 16 Harry Smith In The Pacific Northwest https://www.facebook.com/events/170498049771143/?fref=ts
May 19 Harry Smith Free For All https://www.facebook.com/events/134053396776175/?fref=ts
Oregon Cartoon institute partners with the Third Annual Northwest Animation Festival, which runs from May 17 – 19, and with the Hollywood Theatre, to present the Seance.
“I keep trying to inspire people but whether this compensates for my sins, I don’t know.” Harry Smith
http://harrysmithpdx.wordpress.com/
Tags: Andrew Ritchey·Darrin Daniel·Dennis Nyback·Edward VII·Harry Smith·Jordan Dykstra·Leo Daedalus·Matt Carlson·Max Muller·Rani SIngh·Sheldon Renan
April 21st, 2013 by Anne Richardson · Interviews
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Anne: Do you remember meeting Vanessa? Did you meet her first, or see her films first?
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Jon: I might’ve met Vanessa for the first time in the mid-90s, on a Wednesday night at Ringler’s Annex. Back then, a group of artists had a regular Wednesday-night thing at that bar. Mike Brophy, Eric Stotik, Randy Gragg, Cynthia Lahti. I bet Vanessa and I first crossed paths among that group. It was a great period. I met so many amazing artists at that table, some of whom, like Vanessa, have remained dear friends ever since.
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Anne: Vanessa is prolific. You’ve seen her work over the years. Recently, she won acclaim as a portraitist of the Pacific Northwest. When you met her, and saw her first films, did you expect this would be in her future?
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Jon: One does not speculate about Vanessa’s future. One only admires the singular, incredible wake of destruction in her path.
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Anne: How close to the surface was the “insanely ambitious” aspect of life in Portland when you, Matt McCormick, Vanessa, and Miranda July were brought together by
Matt McCormick’s
Peripheral Produce screenings? You all went on to careers which reached far beyond the Rose City. Was there some kind of critical mass achieved by the coming together of four emerging artists, aka the Fantastic Four?
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Jon: I don’t know that I ever contributed much to that group, except maybe as an ardently enthusiastic audience member. (Ed note: Raymond is being modest here – he directed, produced and starred in Battles On The Astral Plane – turns out he is a really good dancer!) I can say, though, that Vanessa’s peculiar form of ambition has always been really inspiring to me. She’s ambitious, yeah, but never in a way that has anything to do with status or competition. She’s ambitious about making new work and living an interesting life, and the measuring stick she uses is always solely her own. Maybe ambition isn’t even the word for what drives Vanessa. Maybe its just a fantastic, infectious, open-hearted love of life.
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Anne: Thank you, Jon!
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Other interviews in the Raw, Raucous & Sublime Three Question series:
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Tags: Cynthia Lahti·Eric Stotik·Jon Raymond·Matt McCormick·Mike Brophy·Miranda July·Randy Gragg·Vanessa Renwick
April 20th, 2013 by Anne Richardson · News
And that’s how Vanessa Renwick’s most recent ultra local work, Portland Meadows (2013, 15 min) was commissioned for $38.47 over lunch in San Francisco. You can see it on the big screen on April 26 at the Hollywood Theatre, as part of Raw, Raucous and Sublime: 33 1/3 Years Of Vanessa Renwick, An Oregon Department Of Kickass Retrospective presented by Oregon Movies, A to Z.
What else will you see?
9 is a Secret (2002, 6 min.) explores crows, death and divination.
Babyman (2010, 3 min.) philosophizes, in song.
Westward Ho (2001, 1 min. 20 sec) was shot during the Pendleton Round Up.
Completing the evening’s horse trilogy, Red Stallion’s Revenge (2007, 7 min.) repurposes Hollywood footage of a horse-bear fight.
Two films are repeated from the first evening of the retrospective.
Satan’s Holiday (2000, 3min.) is a portrait of a Portland painter.
And Portrait #2: Trojan (2006, 5 min.). T. J. Norris wrote:
Long defunct, the monumental tower was imploded earlier this year and Renwick decided to capture the haunting silhouette that has simply stood there menacingly for years. She calmly documents its demise, which is very much an anti-climax. The short film adores its subject, the towering cement structure. Over a varying course of time, with lapse and stills we view a building painted in pastel light, stark at night, at dawn and dusk. Its inevitable course in its history would be told through a moment in time when it was no more. In essence, the very moment of implosion infers the ultimate destructive potential of its former chilling power. The film, shot by veteran cameraman Eric Alan Edwards (To Die For, Copland, The Break-Up), is stunning to watch, and perfectly blunt.”
Vanessa’s series, Portrait #1: Cascadia Terminal (2005, 6 min.), Portrait #2 Trojan, Portrait #3 House of Sound (2009, 11 min.), fixates on disappearance. How do you capture what is no longer there? Cascadia Terminal, a hulk of a building in Vancouver BC, processes shipments of grain mechanically, more efficiently than the workers who once did it by hand; the Trojan nuclear power plant disappears before our eyes; and the House of Sound is a memorial to a North Portland business which closed. Taken as a set, the series treats dying, death, and remembrance.
All three will be shown on April 26, along with Mighty Tacoma (2011, 9 min.), which Rock Hushka praised for providing “a gentle but eloquent reminder of the fleeting and miniscule qualities of human endeavor“, which returns us to the subject Vanessa treats in Portland Meadows.
“And the music… Oh, the music! Renwick has commissioned some of the most badass original scores in the history of no-budget film. This program features scores by some of the Pacific Northwest’s best musicians (Sam Coomes, Chris Sand, Tara Jane O’Neil, Johnne Eschleman, Donovan Skirvin).” UnionDocs, in Brooklyn.
As you troop out of the theater, blissfully satisfied, you’ll be able to buy North South East West, All Around The Map With Vanessa Renwick, the long awaited DVD compilation.
What: Raw, Raucous and Sublime: 33 1/3 Years Of Vanessa Renwick, An Oregon Department Of Kickass Retrospective
Where: Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR (503) 281 -4215
When: April 25 & 26, 7:30 PM.
Plus: Filmmaker in attendance!
Interview: http://www.talltalestruetales.com/2013/04/vanessa-renwick-talks-why-portland/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/513729408679513/
Tags: Chris Sand·Donovan Skirvin·Eric Edwards·Johnne Eschleman·Mack McFarland·Mike Plante·Rock Hushka·Sam Coomes·T. J. Norris·Tara Jane O’Neil·Vanessa Renwick
April 19th, 2013 by Anne Richardson · News
Harry Smith fans know he was born on May 29, 1923, in Portland Oregon.
If they didn’t, they do now. Harry Smith love reaches a fevered pitch next month in Portland, with four events devoted to the artist-who-escapes-all-description.
The first two events are presented by Oregon Cartoon Institute in partnership with Northwest Animation Festival, Hollywood Theatre and KBOO, and take place at the Hollywood Theatre.
The Harry Smith Seance, at 7:00 PM, is preceded by the Harry Smith In The Pacific Northwest panel discussion at 3:00 PM.
Then on Saturday, May 18, Joe McMurrian presents a live Harry Smith tribute concert, Harry Smith’s Last Kind Favor,
Finishing up the weekend (with some singing and cake) will be Oregon Cartoon Institute’s Harry Smith Free For All, at The Cleaners downtown. Presented in partnership with Ace Hotel, Stumptown Coffee, KBOO, and The Late Now. Hosted by Leo Daedalus.
So the run down is: you have two free events to attend, and two for which you have to buy tickets. In other words, no excuses, for all you undernourished Harry heads! If you want more Harry in your life, come to Portland on May 16 -19, and we can fix you up!
Tags: Harry Smith·Joe McMurrian·Leo Daedalus·Oregon Cartoon Institute
April 19th, 2013 by Anne Richardson · Interviews
Matt McCormick came to Portland as a musician. He still is a musician, but you might know more about his
career as a filmmaker. Last year, the year Vanessa showed her work in Le Pompidou Centre in Paris, Matt was showing his work at the New Directors Series in New York. I asked Matt for a commemorative Oregon Department Of Kickass Retrospective interview.
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Anne: Matt, do you remember when you first met Vanessa?
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Matt: Jon Raymond introduced us, I think they came to an early Peripheral Produce show.
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Anne: Did you first meet her, or first see her work?
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Matt: I knew she was a filmmaker and was excited to meet her.
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Anne: I love the footage of Vanessa winning the audience award at the PDX Film Festival at the Hollywood. I remember how packed her first retrospective was, at the 5th Avenue Cinema. What is it, in your opinion, about Vanessa’s work which provokes such vociferous love and support?
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Matt: I think with Vanessa’s films you encounter an interesting situation where she is such an amazing character and her work is so auto-biographical that her being and her filmic work become a sort of packaged deal. I am not suggesting she is a performance artist, but in a sense she is a performance artist in that she is living a life that I think a lot of us fantasize living, and we can sort of vicariously achieve that through her and her work.
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Anne: People influence each other. Do you think you were influenced by Vanessa, as an artist?
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Matt: I think I have been influenced by Vanessa both as an artist and a human being. Inspiration is probably a better word then influence – Vanessa has inspired me to be brave in my filmmaking practice. (If it is not obvious by now I hold Vanessa in very high regard!)
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Anne: Here’s a bonus question. Vanessa told me that the deadlines you imposed on her for Peripheral Produce screenings were crucial to her developing awareness that she was a serious artist. Peripheral Produce included both Vanessa Renwick and Miranda July. Film is notoriously low on female directors. I wonder if it occurred to you at the time you were curating Vanessa’s and Miranda’s work that Portland’s experimental film scene was unusually gender diverse.
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Matt: Maybe a little bit, but I was just excited about the work they were making. I am happy that Peripheral Produce shows were “unusually gender diverse,” but that was simply a result of the
amazingly talented people around me making films and not a conscious issue on my part.
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Anne: Thank you Matt!
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Tags: Jon Raymond·Matt McCormick·Miranda July·Vanessa Renwick
April 17th, 2013 by Anne Richardson · News
Graphic designer Josh Winsor donated this poster design to Harry Smith PDX.
And this one, for the May 19 Free For All at The Cleaners, 403 SW 10th Avenue.
Tags: Harry Smith·Josh Winsor
April 17th, 2013 by Anne Richardson · News
The Yodeling Lesson (1998) 3 min.
If Raymond Kaskey didn’t draw inspiration from Moe Bowstern, its only because Vanessa Renwick’s film The Yodeling Lesson wasn’t around in 1984 when he sketched out plans for his Portlandia statue. Other than that, the long hair, serene expression, and graceful athleticism of the nine ton hammered copper figure kneeling over SW 5th Avenue in downtown Portland matches up perfectly with those of the solemn young poetess flying down Mississippi Avenue in North Portland no handed. Moe Bowstern even shares Portlandia’s obsession with the sea – when she’s not writing poems or putting on puppet shows, she’s hauling in nets as a fisherwoman.
You can see this one woman naked bike ride on the big screen on April 25, the first night of the two part Raw, Raucous & Sublime: 33 Years Of Vanessa Renwick, A Department Of Kickass Retrospective presented by Oregon Movies, A to Z.
Here’s what else you’ll see that night:
Vanessa Renwick’s intense engagement with the idea of The West, illuminated in flashes by her Romantic vision of the role of the artist.
In Crowdog (1984/1998, 7 min.) she visits the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
in Richart (2001, 23 min.) she visits an outsider artist in Centralia.
In S.F. HITCH (1981/2012, 5 min & 17 sec.) she visits San Francisco. While there, she buys James Broughton’s Seeing The Light, writing “This book had more effect on my vision for making films than any ever.”
Satan’s Holiday (2000, 3 min.) is a portrait of a Portland painter.
Vanessa’s no budget aesthetic showed up early – she scratched the credits for Toxic Shock (1983, 3 min) directly on film with a safety pin.
At the opposite end of the no budget spectrum, Portrait #2: Trojan (2006, 5 min), was shot on 35mm by her fellow Portland filmmaker and friend, Eric Edwards.
Vanessa’s films travel in time, as well as in space. She uses found footage in Britton, South Dakota (1938/2003, 9 min.) and in Food is a Weapon (1998, 4 min.) Other films you’ll see on April 25 are Worse (1994, 5 min.), U C A Box (1996, 3 min.) and Olympia (1984/1998, 11 min.).
“And the music… Oh, the music! Renwick has commissioned some of the most badass original scores in the history of no-budget film. This program features scores by some of the Pacific Northwest’s best musicians (Sam Coomes, Chris Sand, Tara Jane O’Neil, Johnne Eschleman, Donovan Skirvin).” UnionDocs, in Brooklyn.
As you troop out of the theater, blissfully satisfied, you’ll be able to buy North South East West, All Around The Map With Vanessa Renwick, the long awaited DVD compilation.
What: Raw, Raucous and Sublime: 33 1/3 Years Of Vanessa Renwick, An Oregon Department Of Kickass Retrospective
Where: Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR (503) 281 -4215
When: April 25 & 26, 7:30 PM.
Plus: Filmmaker in attendance!
Interview: http://www.talltalestruetales.com/2013/04/vanessa-renwick-talks-why-portland/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/513729408679513/
Tags: Chris Sand·Donovan Skirvin·Eric Edwards·James Broughton·Johnne Eschleman·Moe Bowstern·Raymond Klasky·Richard Herskowitz·Sam Coomes·Tara Jane O’Neil·Vanessa Renwick
April 15th, 2013 by Anne Richardson · Interviews
Vanessa’s multiple hats! Preparing for Raw, Raccous & Sublime: 33 1/2 Years Of Vanessa Renwick, An Oregon Department of Kickass Retrospective, I learned she helped grow the Small Press section at Powells. I interviewed the current Powells employee in charge of that department, writer/publisher Kevin Sampsell, to find out more.
Anne: Do you remember first meeting Vanessa?
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Kevin: It was right after I moved to Portland in the summer of 1992. I was in the early days of my own micropress,
Future Tense Books, and I wanted to see if they’d sell some copies of my scrappy little chapbooks. She was running the section (with someone else) and she bought some of my stuff. A couple of months later, I came back in with new stuff and she remembered me and said she liked the bio in one of my chapbooks that said I wanted to someday be “Sassiest Boy in America.” I thought that was funny but I think she was kind of serious and that was cool. I felt like I was taken seriously and like I was supported outside of my small circle of friends. That is a valuable feeling for any creative person to have. It encouraged me.
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Anne: How large was Powells’ Small Press section at that time?
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Kevin: I remember it being tucked away in the cafe I think. It was kind of unorganized but vibrant. A lot of different kinds of things, from politics to poetry. It was maybe about 1,000 titles.
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Anne: How big is it now?
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Kevin: It’s grown throughout the years and now it’s a nice corner chunk of the Blue Room–latest estimation says nearly 2,000 different titles.
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Anne: Do you think there is a connection between Vanessa’s vision for the Small Press section at Powells and the eventual opening of Independent Printing Resource Center?
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Kevin: She was definitely a trailblazer (no Portland pun intended) in that regard. When she left, Marty Kruse (RIP) took over the Small Press section for the next several years, and then when he left, I took it over. I know that other people in other cities opened up their own small press-minded bookstores after being influenced by Powell’s section. I’m not sure if Chloe Eudaly and her friend Rebecca were inspired by the Powell’s small press section when they opened the IPRC–they were also running Reading Frenzy–but Vanessa’s work definitely helped to make Portland’s burgeoning DIY writing scene what it is today.
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Anne: How small press crazy/zine crazy is Portland?
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Kevin: It’s pretty crazy. For a city that’s not huge, we have a lot of stuff going on and one thing I really think is great is that people in the zine scene here, or the literary scene in general, are really supportive of each other. We have a really exciting thing going on right now in this town–people starting out, people breaking through to bigger audiences. People are going to look back at this time and realize it was pretty extraordinary.
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Anne: When you first met Vanessa, did you know she was a filmmaker?
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Kevin: I learned that about her eventually. I think she invited me to some event where she showed a couple of her short films. I was really impressed by them. I was into stuff like Richard Kern and Karen Finley and I thought her work was in that same spirit. The first piece of journalism I ever published was an interview with Vanessa for Snipehunt, which was a legendary newspaper kind of zine in Portland for a while.
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Anne: Now I want to read it! Thank you, Kevin.
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Tags: Chloe Eudaly·Karen Finley·Kevin Sampsell·Marty Kruse·Richard Kern·Vanessa Renwick
Oregon Movies, A to Z presents Raw, Raucous and Sublime: 33 1/3 Years Of Vanessa Renwick, An Oregon Department Of Kickass Retrospective, a great chance to see Vanessa Renwick’s lifetime of work on the big screen at the Hollywood Theatre. April 25 & 26, 7:30 PM. The long awaited DVD compilation North South East West: All Around The Map With Vanessa Renwick will be on sale. Filmmaker in attendance.
Anne: How did you get started as a filmmaker?
Vanessa: I remember my mother taking me to the German movie house in Chicago when I was super young, like 4 or something. There was a movie about some musician going deaf, and even though I didn’t know German, I remember being really affected by it. That’s my earliest glimmer. Bambi, Little Big Man along the way, further down the line. Then I sold tickets at an art house theater, and got turned on to Fassbinder. I was a goner.
By this time I had already shot some Super 8, as my sister’s boyfriend gave me his Super 8 camera when I went on a high school trip to Germany. Later a friend gave me his Super 8 to use when I took off hitchhiking. Outside forces forcing Super 8 cameras into my hands while traveling. I used to joke that I had been stolen from a gypsy family and I had turned to filmmaking to make up for lost travel time.
Anne: Did you do still photography, or painting, before you made films?
Vanessa: I drew, I took photos, but neither much. What I did all the time non stop was write. I was a writer and still am.
Anne: You were already a filmmaker and an art school drop out when you arrived in Portland.
Vanessa: I don’t consider myself a drop out. I knew I was going to take some classes and then leave. I never ever had a desire for a degree. That just seemed like a boring waste of time and money to me. I had to get out and hitchhike and make films.
Anne: What year was this?
Vanessa: I came in 1981 when I was hitchhiking around, spent two months here, and left. Then came back in 1989.
Anne: I am struck by how collaborative you are. Was this a gradual evolution, or did you always make this choice, from the beginning of your career?
Vanessa: Having grown up in a very musical family, I developed an ear. I listen to a lot of music and a lot of my friends are musicians. I seem to have a knack to know which musician would be good for which film I am working on. Most of them have never scored films before. I have a bunch of film ideas waiting for the right musician, and also a bunch of musicians that I want to work with, waiting for the right film idea. It is most important to have the right musician for the piece.
Anne: What makes a collaboration work for you?
Vanessa: As far as working with musicians, I just hand them the finished picture edit and let them go do their amazingness. I am pretty hands off. So, what works? Knowing which musician will do the right piece for the film I am making and then letting them do what they do. No micromanaging on my part.
Anne: I came to your first retrospective, in 1998, at 5th Avenue Cinema. Standing room only, and the energy was intense. Tons of fans! Was there ever a time in your career when your work did not have an audience?
Vanessa: Before moving to Portland, I was shooting footage and writing and not bothering with showing the work. In Portland, Matt McCormick somehow found me, and I started furiously producing work for his bimonthly Peripheral Produce shows. It was great to be in a small community making experimental work and showing it frequently. Miranda July was here, and I was shooting her films for her, and shooting some stuff for her performances and Big Miss Movieola project. So I was seeing a lot of work by other makers through Big Miss Movieola as well.
Anne: Were you looking for a city where you could grow as an artist? What made Portland a match for you?
Vanessa: Getting a job at Powells right off the bat was great. I met so many great people who worked there. Kathy Molly was doing the paper Snipehunt, and I luckily was invited into that fold. I wrote a column entitled Beaver State, and also drove Kathy up and down the coast 4 times a year to deliver the paper to other cities. The XRAY Cafe was happening, The Blue Gallery, a lot of great places and good people making things happen. And there were often shows with film, music, reading, performance art all together, feeding off each other.
Anne: I’m going to list Portland institutions to which you have made signal contributions. You helped grow the Small Press/Journals section at Powells and started the Dew Claw Small Press reading series there. With Brian Borello you created the Zoo Bomb public art sculpture. You were PICA’s first in house videographer, the DP for Miranda July’s Portland films, and a member of the core group of Matt McCormick’s Peripheral Produce, which became the PDX Film Festival. You taught at NWFC, and are those your photographs of the Lovejoy columns on a recent RACC publication?
Vanessa: Do you mean the public art brochure that the columns are on the cover of and the zoobomb is on the back? Not my photos, but I was responsible for getting those columns up, as a developer, John Carroll, saw my video installation in the PDX Contemporary Art Window Project. I had footage of the massive effort made by RIGGA and others to save the Lovejoy columns, mixed in with footage from Drugstore Cowboy, where they are running around under the Lovejoy ramp. Mr. Carroll didn’t know the columns had been saved, and he then decided to put some of them up in a courtyard of a building he was just getting ready to build. It is exciting right now, as the Greek community is creating a Tom Stefopoulos (the artist who painted the columns) case in their Greek Musuem on Glisan. I am excited to say that my Lovejoy video will be finished this year with the new momentum happening there. It is a bittersweet story though. That is the reason I stopped working on it for awhile. Sometimes you just can’t go on, maybe your feelings are too wound up in disappointment, or something, and you need a break.
Anne: Basically, you were everywhere! There’s yet another Portland institution you interacted with - but I don’t know exactly what your relationship was. What about Portland Community Access?
Vanessa: Portland Cable Access…I broke down my film purism and went there to learn video, since I was broke, and it was cheap and close to my house. I was one of the many at the time who used their equipment, but did not have a TV or cable, so did not watch it. We created content, but then never watched it on TV. I was grateful for its existence, and met some good people there. Like P. C. Perry, from Flying Focus Video Collective, which I worked with for a while.
Anne: The digital revolution has permanently altered the landscape of American film. You were ahead of the curve on this. You always self funded and self distributed. What has it been like for you to see this transformation taking place around you?
Vanessa: I am happy I learned how to shoot on film. I think it taught me to really think before I shoot, since it was so very expensive. I also had the good fortune to learn to shoot and edit silent film first, before learning sound. Something one doesn’t learn with video. I feel that learning about the importance of the image, of making a silent film that works, was really important for me. Still, to this day, all my films now, the ones with no talking, I edit silently. Then I give the cut picture to the musician to score. I love to edit in silence first. I don’t listen to any music at all. SILENCE. To see the rhythm of the images alone as I edit. The picture story is solid before the sound is added.
Anne: Finding work life balance is tricky for artists, and tricky for artists who are parents. Separate from the discipline of finding time for everything, did you find that the work of raising two young humans informed any of your preoccupations as an artist?
Vanessa: It is probably the other way around, to start. Filming my friend have her home birth definitely had an effect on me. First birth I saw, it was only 3 hours long, so I probably had the idea, oh yeah, I can do that. Once my children, Damek and Montana, were here, I just continued living my life, but probably had more fun as well, since they were a lot of fun. They also helped me with my work, editing with me, schlepping equipment, doing voice overs, giving me their opinions. As far as influences or preoccupations, I don’t think they did that, only in terms of I do give them the last word if I am conflicted on an edit. I really trust them and value their opinions.
Anne: You are about to release a new DVD compilation of your work, North South East West: All Over The Map With Vanessa Renwick. Is this the first time your work has been available on DVD?
Vanessa: A few of my films have been on other compilations, as well as a split DVD with Greta Snider that Other Cinema put out. But those were only a few films. There are 22 films on this DVD as well as 4 more in the extras, and also some documentation of video installations I have made. It is a roller coaster ride thru the years.
Anne: Any particular favorites on North South East West?
Vanessa: I really like Satan’s Holiday. I thought I had lost all copies of it, but found one at the last minute while making the DVD. It is a portrait of Nyarlathotep Diabolus Rex, a local satanic painter at a time when Portland was much smaller.
The Portland Meadows piece, I just finished it, so it is kind of brand spanking new.
Portrait #2 Trojan. Sam Coomes did the best score ever, and Eric Edwards…such great cinematography. And I like seeing the nuclear cooling tower there, in the film, as now it is gone, and as I am very aware of its absence as I drive by it on Highway 30.
Same thing with the House of Sound. Very aware of its absence.
Worse is really raw, with horrible production values, but I love the content. Abortion protestor and pro choice ladies play off each other, twisting your brain around a bit.
I’ve literally seen Britton, South Dakota hundreds of times, but each time i see something new in it. I don’t know how that is even possible!
Anne: Thank you, Vanessa. See you April 25 & 26 at Raw, Raucous and Sublime: 33 1/3 Years Of Vanessa Renwick, An Oregon Department Of Kickass Retrospective at the Hollywood Theatre.
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What: Raw, Raucous and Sublime: 33 1/3 Years Of Vanessa Renwick, An Oregon Department Of Kickass Retrospective
Where: Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR (503) 281 -4215
When: April 25 & 26, 7:30 PM.
Plus: Filmmaker in attendance!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/513729408679513/
Tags: Brian Borello·Eric Edwards·John Carroll·Kathy Molly·Kevin Sampsell·Matt McCormick·Miranda July·Nyarlathotep Diabolus Rex·P. C. Perry·Rainier Werner Fassbinder·Sam Coomes·Tom Stefopoulos·Vanessa Renwick
James Chasse lived independently with severe and persistent mental illness in downtown Portland. On Sept. 17, 2007, he died in the custody of Portland police.
The sound of the impact of two bodies crashing against pavement attracted the attention of diners at Bluehour. Autopsy revealed that 16 of James Chasse’ ribs had been fractured. Was it from the weight of police officer Christopher Humphreys? Or could it have been the punches and kicks, witnessed by the horrified diners, which he received once he was down?
Tasered and hog tied, Chasse lay in a pool of his own blood while cops and medics wrote up the incident. They described him to bystanders as a drug using transient with a police record. Chasse was thin and filthy, but he had no drugs in his system nor in his possession. He had no police record.
Nevertheless, in his report Officer Humphreys faithfully recorded what his imagination told him about the bleeding man hogtied at his feet. Who would object if he entered the word “transient” where he could have entered the address plainly stated on Chasse’s ID? As it turns out, Chasse’s parents took exception to having their son beaten to death in broad daylight and took the City of Portland to court.
Brian Lindstrom’s approach as a documentarian has always been to use his camera to amplify the voices of people we ignore, a self effacing tactic which showcases his ability to listen, not to speak. In Kicking and Finding Normal, he focused on people struggling with substance abuse. In Pay My Way With Stories, he followed students in a writing workshop for at risk teens. His focus was always on his subject, not on his reaction to his subject. Embracing the stripped down visual aesthetic of cinema verite, he was attentive, patient, and heroically compassionate, if a little emotionally remote.
In Alien Boy, he steps away from all that. His fury animates every frame.
Lavishly made, Alien Boy is a visually sumptuous, riveting narrative. For the first time, Lindstrom does not lead with his heart. He leads with his eye. A very smart choice. The filmmaking is so strong that by the time (3/4 of the way in) you are watching the video surveillance footage – shot by one of those Orwellian overhead cameras in the police station – of the moments when Chasse, still hog tied and close to death, begs for water, you are in too deep to turn away. Alien Boy is a horror film in that sense.
Brian Lindstrom is furious that James Chasse died at the hands of Portland police. But he doesn’t romanticize his fury. Too canny for that! Instead, he prioritizes the storytelling. Is it possible to make a film in which a grieving mother’s tearful halting narrative is not the most heartbreaking primary source material? Grief, yes. Facts, yes. Lies, yes. Poetry (written by Chasse), yes. Lindstrom shows us everything. Stylistically, it is a tour de force.
Such focus. Such discipline!
Brian Lindstrom spent the six years which have passed since James Chasse died making a film which tells that story so powerfully it will be seen around the world. In Alien Boy, he comes into his own as an artist.
I hereby claim Alien Boy as an Oregon film, on the basis of every possible qualifying criteria.
Director: Brian Lindstrom. Cinematographer: John Campbell. Score: Charlie Campbell. Writer: Matt Davis. Editor: Brian Lindstrom. Asst. Editor: Andrew Saunderson. Animation: Andrew Saunderson. Producer: Jason Renaud.
Cast:
Randy Moe, Brian Lee, Steve Doughton, Mike Lastra, Eva Lake, Marian Drake, Betty Mayther, Rozz Rezbeck, Sam Henry, Michael Brophy, Brian Wasserman, Odette Dunbar, Yvonne Ingram, Russell Sacco, Richard Elliot, all James Chasse’s friends.
Linda Gerber and James Chasse, Sr. – James Chasse’s parents
Constance Doolan, Randall Stuart, Jamie Marquez, David Lillegaard – eyewitnesses
Matthew Charles Davis – Portland Mercury
Anna Griffin – The Oregonian
Karen Gunson, MD – Multnomah County Medical Examiner
Scott Westerman – Portland Police Association president
Tom Steenson – Chasse family attorney
Bob Joondeph – Disability Rights Oregon
Dan Handelman – Portland Copwatch
Karl Brimner – Director, Multnomah County Mental Health
Sam Adams – Mayor of Portland
Ted Wheeler – Multnomah County Commission chair
Alien Boy screens Feb. 24 – Mar. 7 at Cinema 21 in Portland, Oregon.
Tags: Andrew Saunderson·Brian Lindstrom·Charlie Campbell·Christopher Humphreys·James Chasse Jr·Jason Renaud·John Campbell·Matt Davis
