New York Experimental: Bill Brand: Mistakes, Out Takes and Good Deeds December 17, 2006

NEW YORK EXPERIMENTAL
Bill Brand: Mistakes, Out Takes and Good Deeds
Sunday - December 17 - 8:00 pm
The Tank - 279 Church Street – New York, NY - 10013

New York Experimental, The Tank’s monthly experimental film and video screening series, is pleased to present an evening of works by renowned experimental filmmaker and preservationist, Bill Brand. Ranging from structuralist experimentations of the 1970’s to intimate explorations of the body through the lens of hereditary disease, the program will also feature an improvisational installation/performance of never before seen or rarely screened bits and pieces from Brand’s studio including selected optical printing out-takes from among his hundreds of BB Optics projects since 1976.

In It Dawn Down (5 minutes, 1974) a black and white image of a classic 16mm take-up reel spins to making delicate patterns and even sometimes colors. The film is part of the series titled “Cartoons” that presents riddles and jokes about then contemporary concepts in avant-garde film.

In Angular Momentum (20 minutes, 1973) continuous color changes rotate around a spectrum, at varying speeds of rotation and degrees of intensity. A precise mathematical score describes a kind of double helix structure and determines the rich color combinations that unfold. The soundtrack made especially for the film is an improvisation on the Moog synthesizer by the pioneering electronic composer/performer Richard Teitelbaum.

Chuck’s Will’s Widow (13 minutes, 1982) is a eulogy film shot in the mountain woods where the ashes of the filmmakers parents are scattered. Jagged shapes swarm the surface acting variously as frames, veils, and fragments of recognizable photographic scenes. Visually complex, the film's emotional qualities emerge in unexpected and subtle ways bringing to the surface themes of mourning, loss and tradition.

Suite (30 minutes, 1996-2003) is a collection of five short poetic videos that look at the biological and psychological systems of the body as subject. All together they address personal and family history, in part, dealing with the implications of being the only sibling of five NOT to have inherited Polycystic Kidney Disease, an incurable disorder. In these works, the body is a site both of beauty and abjection. Suite is comprised of My Father's Leg, Interior Outpost, Double Nephrectomy, Moxibustion and Gazelle.

Bill Brand’s art explores relationships of system to form and meaning with films, videos and public art installations. His recent work looks at the body as subject and examines the social construction of medicine in relation to attitudes toward chronic disease and organ replacement. Bill Brand’s films and videos were first shown at Anthology Film Archives in New York City in 1973 have since been screened extensively in the US and around the world in museums, independent film showcases, colleges and universities, and on television. They have been featured at major film festivals including the Berlin Film Festival, New Directors/ New Films, Tribeca Film Festival and Rotterdam Film Festival.

For over three decades Bill Brand has been an artist, educator, activist and film preservationist, and his work is discussed in numerous histories of cinema including books, news and journal articles. Since 1976 Bill Brand has operated BB Optics, an optical printing service specializing in 8mm blow-ups and archival preservation particularly of films by artists. In 1981 he completed a permanent public art project, Masstransiscope, a mural installed in the subway system of New York City that is animated by the movement of passing trains. Brand is Professor of Flim and Photography at Hampshire College and teaches film preservation in the graduate Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program at NYU.

For more information on the work of Bill Brand please visit www.bboptics.com

For more information on New York Experimental contact susan[at]thetanknyc[dot]org and visit www.thetanknyc.org

Official Website: http://www.thetanknyc.org