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Media Arts Preview: Radical Light Series, Open Projector Night & More

By Holly Willis
January 13, 2011
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Avant-garde films and videos from San Francisco illuminate Los Angeles this week as the Radical Light series kicks off a city-wide celebration with screenings at multiple venues around LA...

Thursday, January 13

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Offworld, the UCLA Design | Media Arts undergraduate exhibition, opens today at 5:00 p.m. in the New Wight Gallery on the UCLA campus. These events are always a great chance to see new directions in media art, and this one sounds particularly auspicious: "Offworld is a liminal realm of pure possibility... the apex of the creative process." Indeed.

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Friday, January 14
"Radical Light" references the recent publication of a book chronicling more than 50 years of experimental film and video production in San Francisco, and tonight's screening at UCLA is the first event in an ongoing citywide celebration. The screening showcases projects that are interested in the landscape, and includes the extraordinary portrait of San Francisco in Side/Walk/Shuttle by the inimitable Ernie Gehr and the recently discovered 1958 short North Beach by Dion Vigne. The co-editors of the book (and all-around avant-garde icons) Steve Anker, Kathy Geritz and Steve Seid will be present.

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The Luckman Fine Arts Complex presents a special showcase of recent French films, offering a chance to see several new and provocative features that deserve large-screen projection, including Karin Albou's Le Chant Des Mariées, dubbed "a seductively fluid and tactile drama" by The New York Times and Frederick Wiseman's portrait of the Paris Opera Ballet in La Danse, described by A.O. Scott as "one of the finest dance films ever made." The series starts at 2:00 p.m. today, and continues through Saturday.

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Sunday, January 16
The Radical Light showcase continues tonight at Filmforum at the Egyptian Theater with a show of 11 experimental film projects, including several key projects by women from the 1980s and 1990s. Nina Fonoroff's 1986 film Department of the Interior is a beautiful and enigmatic study in black-and-white, while Cauleen Smith's Chronicles of a Lying Spirit (by Kelly Gabron) plays deftly with identity and autobiography in a humorous and visually layered project that still resonates powerfully.Artist and filmmaker Madison Brookshire is featured in Artist Curated Projects at the Culver City gallery Parker Jones. Curated by Erika Vogt, the four-day show includes films, with a closing reception on Wednesday, January 19 from 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. featuring Tashi Wada and Mark So performing in conjunction with Brookshire's Color Film 6.

Monday, January 17
The third screening in the Radical Light celebration takes place at REDCAT and features films made between 1949 and 1959 in a show titled Experimental Film in Beat-Era San Francisco, including Sydney Peterson's The Lead Shoes, Patricia Marx's Things to Come, and Bruce Conner's groundbreaking compilation film, A Movie, from 1958.

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Tuesday, January 18
The Hammer Museum invites attendees to bring films and videos under 10 minutes in length for Open Projector Night, MC'd by the Sklar Brothers. Submissions start at 7:00 p.m., and the screening, with free popcorn, starts at 7:30 p.m.

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