A video screening and live reading
by Michael Paul Lopez
Friday, May 2nd, 2014 at 8 pm, $7-10
The video program will be accompanied by a LIVE READING of a collection of short fiction by the author himself!
Michael Paul Lopez is a Chicago-based video artist, illustrator, performer, and fiction writer. In 2013 he starred in the feature-length independent black comedy Crimes Against Humanity that has screened at festivals nationwide. His recent videos have screened at the University of Chicago Film Studies Center, the MCA, and the Chicago Underground Film Festival. 1950s horror comics, true crime, and blockbuster movies inspire Lopez’s self-published collections of short illustrated stories. He writes with a rawness, humor, weirdness and singular voice of a simple outsider retelling the creepy lore of dark and twisted characters.
The Twin (2013) 10 mins
The Twin is an animated short of subtitled stills, inspired by 1950s horror comics, that depicts the origin and supernatural demise of a disabled police officer living in an aggressively cruel and mysterious world. The simple presentation of the dense narrative in a disjointed manner, coupled with the loose soundtrack, create a chilling tale that includes executions, transformations and betrayal.
The Cons’ Competition (2013) 13 mins
The Cons’ Competition depicts two caper stories progressing in unison through hand-drawn illustrations, titles, and sound. Dense illustrations portray a female grifter apprehended and roughed up by vengeful gangsters on a steamboat, while the titles tell of a scarred con artist searching for the rumored Cons’ Competition in a South American jungle. Presented in a simple, yet vividly colored and rhythmic manner, the two entwined narratives produce a tense, abstruse soundtrack, at times appropriate and anarchic in relation to the two plots.
Some Southern Country (2014) 30 mins
A 13-chapter video comic book, wherein a teenage boy experiences sexual adventures and overcomes obstacles of the heart atop a generic, racially ambiguous, American 80s world determined to perpetuate tribal war in a southern jungle. Green people blackmail, torture, spy, cry and trash their bedrooms in a private high school while a concurrent narrative in text details the sexploits of a privileged middleclass jerk overcoming his fear of love. These conflicting narratives are rendered together with gradual color changes, sound effects, synth and faux orchestral arrangements.
Filed under:
animation,
artist in attendance,
experimental,
performance,
video
Collaborative Performance by
Peter Burr & Fern Silva
Friday, April 18th at 8:00 pm, $7-10
Peter Burr’s and Fern Silva’s explosive creative energies will expand the Nightingale’s usual cinema setup with a mixed media collaborative performance to be preceded by three recent video works by Burr.
PROGRAM DETAILS
WAYWARD FRONDS Performance by Peter Burr and Fern Silva (2014)
A 3-part journey through simulated Earth. Fern Silva and Peter Burr merge their filmmaking practices in a performance involving 8mm film, video projection, and live performance.
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Filed under:
animation,
artist in attendance,
experimental,
new media,
performance,
video
Nicaragua in the ‘80s:
LAS NICAS & LAMENTO
Two Video Documentaries by Julia Lesage
Julia Lesage in person!
Presented by White Light Cinema &
Hopscotch Cinema
Saturday, April 12th at 7:30pm, $7-10
White Light Cinema, along with Hopscotch Cinema and The Nightingale, are pleased to present two little-seen video documentaries, about the lives of women in Nicaragua in the 1980s after the Sandinista revolution, by videomaker, professor, author, and Jump Cut magazine co-founder and co-editor Julia Lesage. Lesage will be in person to introduce and discuss this important work that provides a snapshot of a troubled nation in a moment of optimism.
The Sandinista Revolution in 1979 and the years following were filmed by many solidarity workers traveling to and living in Nicaragua. However, after that period ended in 1990, much of the interest here in video about Nicaragua declined. Invited to teach video production to young artists in a workshop in the Sandinista labor union, Julia Lesage made three visits in 1981, 1984, and 1987, living there for months at a time. For her, it was an utopian moment, sharing young videomakers’ aspirations and dreams for a better life. (JL)
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Filed under:
artist in attendance,
documentary,
experimental,
film,
video
Works of Dani Leventhal
(Followed by the Nightingale’s
6th Birthday Party)
Friday, April 11th, at 8:00 pm, $7-10
We are so pleased to screen works from Chicago favorite Dani Leventhal, spanning 2010-2014. With her ability to channel tension and beauty within the daily and the extraordinary it will be impossible to look away.
This also marks The Nightingale’s 6th Birthday so we invite all to join us after the screening for a rowdy birthday party! Brian Chankin of ODD OBSESSION will bring the jams! There will be cake and we will premiere the Nightingale 2014 trailer, shot and edited by Ian Curry with sound collected by Jesse Malmed. Also hit us up for those oh so tardy Kickstarter awards (our apologies!).
PROGRAM DETAILS:
NIKOLE- 5 minutes 2014
A 27 second clip of Nikole dancing in drag stretched out to 5 minutes.
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Filed under:
BIRTHDAY PARTY,
experimental,
video