Both humorous and chilling, these performance art pieces were created some of the most fearless and innovative women artists. Watch Yoko Ono try to extricate herself from the confines of her underclothes in Freedom. Ono puts her trust in the audience as she sits and allows them to participate with her and a pair of scissors in Cut Piece. Carolee Schneeman writhes naked and covered with molasses and wallpaper paste in a pile of paper, becoming her own Body Collage 1967. Valie Export presents a shocking and intimate comment on femininity and pain with a hint of maternal instinct in her film RemoteÖRemote. Film critic and filmmaker Amy Taubinís direct address trilogy, See, Like and Duck, confronts the audience with audacious declarations. Moniek Toebosch creates a bizarre, sidesplitting and ultimately tear-jerking "happening" in her rarely seen 1977 gem, Solokonsert voor recensent en fotograaf. (Ariella Ben-Dov)

For a full line up please go to http://www.madcatfilmfestival.org

Long a pioneer of personal filmmaking, for nearly four decades Jon Jost has produced a diverse and powerful body of works recognized for their formal beauty and narrative innovation as well as astute and scathing political critiques. Since the mid-90s, Jost has been a controversial advocate for digital cinema, producing works exploring the aesthetics of this younger medium. A handful of recent short works-Dharma Do as Dharma Does, Vera x 3, Tanti Auguri, and A View of Mount Baker from Port Angeles, Washington (for Hokusai)-will be screened and discussed alongside the masterfully visual works of Peter Hutton (Landscape (for Manon)), Nathaniel Dorsky (Alaya) and Leighton Pierce (Wood). Also screening: a single-channel excerpt of Jostís seven-channel installation work Trinity. (Steve Polta)

Using both found footage and her own camerawork, New York/Dublin artist Julie Murrayís films apply artful editing and inventive juxtapositions to make images come alive with new and often startling possibilities. As part of our ongoing "Dialogues in the Dark" series, Murray returns to San Francisco to present new and older work in 16mm and digital video, as well a sampling of films made by others who have influenced and inspired her. Murray will present her 16mm films I Began To Wish, Micromoth, Untitled (Blood), Forest, and Deliquium, her video OTHERREHTO, Bruce Connerís Take the 5:10 To Dreamland, Chick Strandís Loose Ends, and a lively compendium of educational films, texts, sounds and scents. (Scott Stark)

Boston-based Acadian French-Canadian filmmaker Louise Bourque creates intensely personal and beautifully handcrafted films. Mostly under five minutes long and made with unorthodox techniques (including hand-processing), each seems to burst forth from a complex emotional experience, often stemming from childhood, into the light and onto the screen. Bourque will screen her Jours en fleurs, Self Portrait Post Mortem, Going Back Home, Fissures and Imprint, as well as her newest LíÈclat du mal/The Bleeding Heart of It. These will be interspersed with other short works that have made an impression on her, because of their affective force and their formal construction-Joyce Wielandís Sailboat, Bruce Baillieís All My Life, Michael Wallinís Decodings, Patrick Bokanowskiís DÈjeuner du matin, and Paul Sharitsí T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G. (Irina Leimbacher)

A constellation of analogue/digital explorers unlock inter-media light patterns. The fusion of works take on a "between space" through literal, metaphorical or un-metaphorical screenings/writings/performances: Muses of Cinema by Kerry Laitala; Scott Starkís Chromosthetic Response and The Sound of his Face; Rick Danielsonís 153 Simultaneous Exposures of Me; live video scrubbing by Katherin McInnis; Matt Hulseís Take Me Home; Nomi Talismanís Everything I knew about America I learned from the Movies; Elizabeth Blockís film/poem excerpt Make Haste, Slowly; Kim Miskowiczís here a little AND there a little, Deborah Stratmanís Waking, Heike Lissí Surface and Time Tape #4. Includes poetry by Laynie Brown, Diane di Prima, Lisa Jarnot and Susan Gevirtz, and the publication Documents Between. (Elizabeth Block)

http://www.atasite.org

From San Francisco to Boston, Gibbons practices his brand of subversive cinema mischief. Working in a quasi-diaristic genre for more than thirty years, he leverages his own neuroses to mock and critique the norms of our consumer- and work-driven society. We screen his early Super-8 Spying, an "exercise in applied voyeurism," shot in San Francisco, as well as the hilarious award-winning short version of his lifeís "research" into himself and society, Confessions of a Sociopath, Part 1 in which he demonstrates his skills at perching on high ledges, stealing from the Bay Areaís best-known bookstores and museums, and entertaining probation officers and psychiatrists. Weíll conclude with some of his darkly humorous pixel-vision performances starring, alongside Gibbons, Barbie and a four-legged friend: Multiple Barbie, The Stepfather and Final Exit. (Irina Leimbacher)

For more information about this program, please visit www.humanities.uci.edu/jpex. For more information about the entire JPEX series, of which this program is a part and which is co-presented with Pacific Film Archive on October 19 and 26, please visit www.bampfa.berkeley.edu)

Sex Underground features an eclectic and rarely-screened assortment of four decades of Japanese film (single and multiple projection), video, and animation exploring sexuality, power, gender and the body. Utilizing theatrical traditions and a powerful performative agency, film and video makers such as Ito Takashi, Nakajima Takashi, Donald Richie, Terayama Shuji and Imaizumi Koichi subvert and reconfigure sexual difference, queer subjectivity and gender performativity. From Idemitsu Makoís lighthearted invocation of traditional gender roles and Tamano Shiníichiís perversely magical realism, to Saito Yukieís terrifying and oppressive exploration of male-female power dynamics, the works presented in Sex Underground collectively open unexpected pathways for desire and its subjects. (Jonathan Hall, Michelle Puetz)

One of Japanís foremost documentarians, Tsuchimoto Noriaki has dedicated much of his career to exploring the consequences of environmental disaster, especially those associated with Minamata disease, the result of mercury dumping in southwest Japanís stunningly beautiful Shiranui Sea. Over 35 years, Tsuchimoto made a number of films with and about the people of Minamata, films that played a crucial role in publicizing the long-term effects of mercury poisoning and that argued for corporate responsibility. Shiranui Sea (1975) is a tender and exquisitely photographed observational portrait of a community and a region that lives-and sometimes still denies-the horrific consequences of industrial negligence. Tsuchimotoís rapport with his subjects, the grace of his camera-eye, and the continuing relevance of the topic make this a masterpiece of nonfiction film. (Irina Leimbacher)

In this special pre-election show, an anonymous home movie from New Jersey in 1938 reports on an American Nazi rally. From postwar Germany, an Army film written by Dr. Seuss warns troops against fraternizing with the enemy. Bruce Baillieís San Francisco of 1963 is the site of A Hurrah for Soldiers. Saul Levine reports on Charlie Chaplin and the Boston police in The Big Stick /An Old Reel. Tom Palazzolo sends his dispatch, Love it / Leave it, about Americana from post-1968 Chicago. Jim Finn has Jimmy Carter narrate Reaganís grim inaugural procession in Decision 80. Phil Patirisí Iraq Campaign was media remix ahead of its time (or did history repeat itself all too soon?) and leads to a 1955 Britannica film on how to recognize Despotism, which brings us keenly into the present. (Konrad Steiner)

2,4 and 6 pm

Antonio Muntadas In Person

Like Bruce Springsteen in "57 Channels and Nothing On," we channel-surf pointlessly. Then, just between Olympic diving and Pimp My Ride, we stop on a talking head in a blue serge suit saying something deadly serious about America, its friends and foes. Every four years, electioneers engineer promo spots that commercialize ideology as just another discount-shopperís object of desire. For an appropriately timed Halloween show, installation artist Antonio Muntadas and poet and video artist Marshall Reese present the latest version of their ever-expanding Political Advertisement, a series of campaign commercials stretching back more than fifty years, just as the medium and the message first became acquainted. By running these spots back-to-back without commentary, Muntadas and Reese allow their all-star cast (Eisenhower! Nixon! Ford! Regan! Bush!) to dig their own graves (and ours) in primetime. "Feeling Good about America," Fordís ë76 spots promised. If onlyÖ (Steven Jenkins)

8 pm

In the early 1968, away from Hollywood, a small, low-budget movie by the name of Night of the Living Dead jump-started a reinvention of the North American horror film. George Romero in Pittsburg, Tobe Hooper in Austin, Wes Craven in Connecticut, and David Cronenberg in Toronto began to incorporate social commentary and limb-hacking, gut-spilling effects in place of political metaphors. No more giant ants masquerading as communism or blood-sucking vampires, the monsters are our neighbors and family members. Interviewing the masters of the genre, with generous clips from their works, The American Nightmare (Adam Simon, 2000) shows how film sublimated disturbing media images of the Vietnam War, the turmoil of a war-time, racist society, and the darker side of the sexual revolution. (Konrad Steiner)

Media activist, author and co-founder of Paper Tiger Television and Deep Dish Satellite Network, Dee Dee Halleck has worked for more than forty years at the forefront of the movement for democratic use of communication technology. Combining a DIY aesthetic and brazen humor, she creates films, videos and internet projects that smash mainstream media myths and encourage the establishment of community-based media. Her work has been featured at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Austrian Triennial of Photography, the Wexner Center for the Arts and the Berkeley Art Museum. Tonightís lecture features pivotal clips and agitprop urgings.

From the primal intimacy of the womb to the universal wonderment of the great beyond, British filmmaker Simon Pummell takes us on a kaleidoscopic lifecycle journey in Bodysong, his highly acclaimed documentary consisting entirely of stunning archival footage. Recalling Koyaanisqatsi and Baraka in its visual sweep and lack of conventional narrative- yet less moralistic and more intimate than both- Bodysong eschews easy "itís a small world" platitudes in favor of free-flowing images and ideas grouped thematically around birth, growth, sex, violence, death and dreams. This complex composite of global scenes, home movies, historic broadcasts, medical studies and porno reels is an epic ode to human endurance amid the thrills and hazards of everyday life. Featuring a remarkable score by Radioheadís Johnny Greenwood. Exclusive Bay Area premiere! (Steven Jenkins)

See the November 8 listing above for the full description.

See the November 8 listing above for the full description.

Buildings and Grounds/The Angst Archive, Ken Koblandís newest video continues his long concern with using framed landscapes and urban spaces as building blocks for the contemplation of the human condition. This award-winning piece explores placeless-ness by juxtaposing both appropriated and original images and sounds. What emerges from these contrasts is a language of loss, of "[t]ransience, consciousness and desire. Between the landscapes and the thoughts, there is, more often than not, a distance, disbelief or irony." (Ken Kobland) Also screening are two 16mm films from 1977-8: Frame restructures a seashore landscape through a car window. Vestibule (in 3 Episodes) explores the typical entryway to New York City apartment buildings. By reframing this small area through his camera eye, Kobland depicts what may seem mundane as a richly inhabited urban space. (MaÔa Cybelle Carpenter)

Artists utilizing animation and motion techniques think Outside the Box in this spirited group show featuring new works by artists from the Bay Area and beyond. Identity issues, drug wars, future shocks, reckless yuppies, forbidden swimming, transgender experience and life during wartime are on view here alongside Chicago No Wave-Indie-Afro-Funk band Mahjongg and a plethora of memorable characters enacting scenes both sad and satiric. Featured artists include Jed Bell, Louise Bourque, Tyrone Davis, Mahri Holt, Le Sheng Liu, Ken Paul Rosenthal, Michaek Rudnick, James Sansing, Michael Wilson and a bunch of fellow out-of-the-boxers. (Sharon Jue)

Notes on the Port of St Francis (1952) by Frank Stauffacher edits scenes of San Francisco to Robert Louis Stevensonís eponymous prose poem read by Vincent Price. In Between (1955) is a rare sound film by Stan Brakhage starring the renowned visual artist Jess with a cameo by his partner Robert Duncan, soundtrack by John Cage. In Lawrence Jordanís mystical Visions of a City (1957/78) Michael McClure plays a man trapped in the glazed surfaces of the city. Charles Olsonís 1968 reading is visually inflected in early experimental video, one of three National Center for Experiments in Television (NCET) tapes weíll be screening. Finally the San Francisco reprise of Daydream of Darkness (1963) by poet Helen Adam and painter William McNeill screens with a new CD soundtrack by Kristin Prevallet, Drew Gardner, Lee Ann Brown, Beth Brown and Nada Gordon. (Konrad Steiner)

Beirut has been a lively center for experimental documentary ever since the Lebanese civil war ended with so many questions unanswered. These works use various anti-photographic techniques to make contact with the virtual. Lina Ghaibehís Sad Man captures the undercurrent of emotion shaping daily life in Beirut. In Face A/Face B by Rabih MrouÈ, there is almost no visible image, only a sound recording by the artist and his brother from 1978. The video invites the viewer to mourn the warís destruction of political ideals as well as human life. This Day, a new feature-length work by Akram Zaatari, inquires into the truth value of archival images, including documentary photographs of Bedouin life, and heroic portraits of young militia fighters during the war; a search for truth that concludes in the editing suite. (Laura U. Marks)

Plagiarism (1981) is Henry Hillsí documentary of the New York "language poets" in their milieu, with Bruce Andrews, Charles Bernstein, James Sherry and Hanna Weiner. The Last Clean Shirt (1964) is a Manhattan road movie shot by Alfred Leslie from the back of a convertible. A woman speaks gibberish, a man listens, and Frank OíHara fills you in with the subtitles. Robert Creeley creates a minimalist gem on video for NCET in One and One (1968). Theresa Hak Kyung Chaís two brief pieces VidÈoËme (1976) and Re Dis Appearing (1977) display her searing intensification of language and image. And in this rare screening of Alan Sondheim and Kathy Ackerís The Blue Tape (1974) be prepared for several raw and explicit takes on psycho-sexual intercourse. (Konrad Steiner)

Join us for an evening of original and provocative new work from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Included will be Chateau/Poyet, a signature new film by avant-garde film pioneer Lawrence Jordan; Threnody, Janis Crystal Lipzinís ode to the passing of friends and innocence; Bay City Detours, George Kucharís poignant and hilarious portrait of several Bay Area luminaries; Robert Foxís suite of brief visual interludes Mixed Accidentals; Brook Hintonís frenetic landscape exploration Slow Force Glimpse; Jun Jalbuenaís mesmerizing Apparatus of Recreation, Furniture for the Future; former San Franciscan Caroline Savageís The American Past (part 1); MaÔa Cybelle Carpenterís dizzying Lasso (work in progress); Paul Bushís kaleidoscopic retelling of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde; and Jeroen Offermanís clever ode to overdone rock songs, Stairway at St. Paul. (Scott Stark)

Pointing their cameras at themselves, the artists in Shoot Yourself use their own images to frame their explorations of body, psyche, sexuality and social construct. From Sharon Hayesí Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) Screed #16, a re-enactment of a kidnapped Patty Hearstís letter to her parents, to Kerry Laitalaís auto-romantic dance of light and body Torchlight Tango, to the lurid deflowering of Joe Gibbonsí Barbieís Audition, these artists use the cameraís unblinking eye to record their most human and unguarded moments. Also: Bridget Irishís Nude Ascending a Staircase, Dara Greenwaldís Bouncing in the Corner #36DDD, Haruko Tanakaís I Love You, Mexican artist Amaranta Sanchezís M·xima protecciÛn and Deshielo Manual, Brian Fryeís Strip Tease, Scott Starkís Chop, and a special live performance of Jun Jalbuenaís Eating Raisins and Moving Mountains. (Scott Stark)

The third show in our series features collaborations between local filmmakers, artists and poets, including four premieres and three more rarities. The Menage (2002) is Anne Waldman and Ed Bowesí setting of Carl Rakosiís poem. Joanne Kygerís read "through" the Meditations of Descartes (1968) is our final NCET sponsored tape. Cecilia Dougherty screens the latest in her video portrait series, Dodie Bellamy (premiere). Before the War (1990, premiere) is an uncanny premonition or memory of what is always with us, using Laura Moriartyís poem and Jiri Veskrnaís images. Leslie Scalapinoís reading from her book way is accompanied by Konrad Steinerís montage in delay series (premiere). Aliengnosis (premiere) pairs Robert Gl¸ckís subconsciously inspired misreadings with visual artist Dean Smithís video imagery. Swamp (1991) is Abigail Childís soap opera starring Carla Harryman, Steve Benson, Marga Gomez, Susie Bright et al, plus sudsy video effects. (Konrad Steiner)

A mother and son are about to be evicted from their hotel room in San Franciscoís Tenderloin district. The award-winning Foo-Foo Dust movingly documents their complex relationship over a period of a few days. Stephanie is a 52-year-old Berkeley graduate and an amateur artist; she is also a crack addict who supports her habit with prostitution. Her twenty-something son Tony is addicted to heroin. They seem to desperately need each other, and also to be unable to provide anything that could lead to a change in either of their lives. This gripping portrait is not for the squeamish: it respects the time, desires and emotions of its subjects, and it does not moralize. Levy and Johnson also will show excerpts from new footage of Stephanie and Tony. (Irina Leimbacher)