For this winter season kick-off we open the doors wide at Cinematheque's Ninth Street home for a free evening of new local film, video, installation and music. In the back space: new works by Sow Yee Au (the performed Tristes Tropiques), Rick Bahto (The Soft Things), Elizabeth Block (Strewnpackedcinderwhateverlight), Robert Fox (The Greater Vehicle), Marijke Jorritsma (Stutter), Katherin McInnis (Landscapes in Alphabetical Order), Kim Miskowicz (Here a Little AND There a Little), Angel Vasquez (Azul) and Hiromi Yoshida (Weeping Willow). In the front space: Twilight of the Celluloid Age (pickled cinematic specimens by Christian Bruno and Nataija Vekic), Wet Gate (the all-projector orchestra) screening on the windows, and the sinister organ sounds of the Spider Compass Good Crime (All Vulture) Band! (Steve Polta)

Songs of sorrow meandering under the deserted land; whispers and stories unleashed from the throat of the mute keepers of secrets.  The hibernated truth lies within.  Garden of wonders aroused. Titles: Target Practice by Caroline Key [Winner of Monaco Labs services award $600 for Achievement in Narrative/Fiction]; Dead People by Roger Deutsch [Winner of Jurors' Citation]; Shudder by Helen Pau; Bird, Bath & Beyond by Marie Losier [Winner of Jurors' Citation]; Hazlo Por Cuba by David Ellsworth [Winner of Kodak Film stock award  $500 for Achievement in Non-Fiction]

Traces of the recollected, traces of time, sculpting the beauty of the ordinary. Titles: Marathon by Jefferson Pinder; Watch by Robert Todd [Jurors' Citation]; Lower Case "w" Wife by Marina Potok [Jurors' Citation]; Observations at Gettysburg by Brian Frye [Jurors' Citation]; Flora's Film by Michael Wilson; Aerial Elegy by Michael Wilson; Danzante by Sergio Batiz; Time Zones Explained by Use of Light by Nikolai Ostergaard

These two documents of vast scope and rich detail are descendents of Walter Ruttmanís 1927 Berlin: Symphony of a City, a seminal film of the organic, teeming urban day. Times have changed. The city has sprawled and beneath the human din you can hear a monotonous hum of electromechanical remote security. The Giant (1983) is a new "day in the life" told with found surveillance footage, eavesdropping on the sinister deadpan of German mounted remote surveillance cameras and simulators. Endless (1990) is an homage to Chicagoís plain, its Cartesian grid of streets overlayed on the prairie the land once knew. The film is an optical meditation on the cityscape panning down luscious, high-contrast stills, creating an eternal city out of a few months of instants. (Konrad Steiner)

A world of delicacies, of the unseen faces, of the intimate dance around the prospered heart.  It's all through the looking glass. Titles: Skirr by Rachel Clarke and Stephen Blumberg [Jurors' Citation]; Poor White Trash Girl - Class Consciousness by Kelley Spivey; Orange by Gregg Biermann; Fragment Film by Aurelio Kopainig; Lunch Break on the Xerox Machine by Marie Losier; Alicia in Wonderland by Francien Van Everdingen; I am (not) Seen by Takahiko Iimura; Take Me Home by Matt Hulse [Winner of Kodak Award  of Film Stock  $250 plus $250 Cash  for Achievement in Animation]; Sui Generis by Alexandre Nothis

A cinema based on touch, gestures of contact between the surface of film and the world, is the basis of tonightís screening. Emulsive transformations, both human and the earthís, palimpsests of paint and scratchings, or traces left by light and life transform the site of film into a new experience of sight. Films include Alexis Bravosí The Worldís Dry Lever; Karen Johannesenís Untitled; Saul Levineís Light Lick: Only Sunshine; Izabella Pruska-Oldenhofís Light Magic; Steve Poltaís A Glimpse of Soviet Science; Luis Recoderís Silver Recovery; Rock Rossí Psycho Porpoise; siltís performance of their triptych Untitled (excerpted from All Pieces of a River Shore), a continuation of their investigations of film emulsion as a microcosmic peering into the earthís crust; Phil Solomon and Stan Brakhageís Concrescence; and Fred Wordenís Automatic Writing 2. Cinematheque curator Steve Polta will introduce the screening. (Irina Leimbacher, Steve Polta)

Flowing of light, a gentle breeze, a thunderstorm or a hypnotized face gazing into the weeping and smiling world.  A valentine for the crystallized heart. Titles: Kristy by Stephanie Gray; Snow Flow by Caroline Savage [Festival Award for Achievement in Alternative Processing]; Oil Derric by Robbie Land; Photograpm Blue and Red by Karen Johannesen; 76 Station by Karen Johannesen [Dwayne's Photo Award of super-8 film and processing  $110   for Achievement in Super-8mm];  Fissures by Louise Bourque; Penumbra by Nicky Hamlyn [ARS NOVA XXI Award presented by Christopher Coppola for Achievement in Experimental Form- $500]; Pistrino by Nicky Hamlyn; Floating in the Ether by Scott Nyerges; Trilogy #1, Freedom by Seokhan Ryu [ARS NOVA XXI Award presented by Christopher Coppola for Achievement in Experimental Form - $500]; Untitled by Ginelle Hustrulid [Festival Award for a Digital work - $200]; Daddy Kill by Tommy Becker [Jurors' Citation]; Not Too Much Remember by Tony Gault [Jurors' Citation]

Gregg Biermannís feature-length digital video Material Excess uses supermarket coupons, catalogs, flyers and advertising inserts to pierce through the glossy surface of all manner of printed matter and find a frenetic and visceral currency of cultural excess. Borrowing its three-part structure from Danteís The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise), the mesmerizing pastiche of Material Excess presents a troubling and fascinating odyssey through the bubbling cauldron of modern commercialism. Steve Bartoo writes, "Material Excess isnít exactly a rejection of materialismÖ It's a difficult, frequently funny, and ultimately humane discourse on humanityís primary intellectual activity." (Scott Stark)

Festival continues through Sunday, February 22

The Armenian Film Festival includes films and videos with Armenian themes from filmmakers in Armenia and throughout the worldwide diaspora. The unique, topical works in this festival range from narrative to experimental, documentary to fiction, features to shorts, all made by filmmakers in the Middle East, Europe and North America. Rather than focusing on historical or contemporary canonical filmmakers such as Bek-Nazarian, Paradjanov or Pelechian, programs highlight current pieces that reveal a surprising breadth of approaches and issues relevant to the current moment. Across formal and geographical differences, recognizable themes of displacement, loss, memory, trauma, and recognition emerge. Experimental works include Hrayr Anmahouni's Tebi Gyank, Serge Avedikian's Ligne de Vie, Nigol Bezjian's Road Full of Apricots and Vardan Hakopian's The Duduk. For complete festival info, please visit www.armenianfilmfestival.org. (Anahid Kassabian, Festival Director)

It can be said that Cornell made two kinds of films in two distinct periods of activity: collage films, made by recombining found materials; and directed films, on which he worked with cinematographers (including Stan Brakhage, Rudy Burckhardt and Larry Jordan) to document his fantasies and experiences of wandering in New York. Though rarely exhibited during his lifetime, these mysterious works nonetheless have had a deep and lasting influence on various prominent avant-garde makers. This program includes Rose Hobart, Vaudeville Deluxe, Bookstalls, By Night with Torch and Spear, Aviary, GniR RednoW, Nymphlight, and A Legend for Fountains. (Bradley Eros, Jeanne Liotta)

This program of restored early films from Cornell's unique private collection provides insight into the sources, materials, inspirations and obsessions of the artist. It includes fantasy trickfilms, nickleodeon shorts, early animations and classic MÈliËs that Cornell selected for a film soiree in 1949 at A New Art School, New York City. Among the films: A Picture Rarely Seen, Unusual Cooking, Hanky Panky Card Tricks, Feuilladeís When Leaves Fall, MÈliËsí The Knight of Black Art, Metamorphosis and Loie Fuller. (Bradley Eros, Jeanne Liotta)

Visual magician Zoe Beloff joins us from New York with Lost, Shadow Land and a sneak preview of her installation The Ideoplastic Materializations of Eva C. Beloff wants to "reanimate the great nineteenth century visual forms that have been discarded-the ghost show, the sÈance, the stereo-view, the diorama and the phantasmagoria-to create new cinematic languages and open up spaces where phantoms of history can cross over into our world." In Lost-a performance with stereo slides, hand-cranked film and an 78 rpm gramophone-storefronts, like dusty dioramas of a forgotten museum, come to life. Shadow Land and Eva C., both based on accounts of materializing mediums, present the sÈance as "home theatre," at once proto- and post-cinema, where unconscious desires are conjured up and acted out. (Irina Leimbacher)

These pieces by radical German film essayist Harun Farocki explore the complex and shifting relationships between violence, visibility and technology in the context of war. Produced at the height of Vietnam, Inextinguishable Fire (1969) presents a Brechtian analysis of the production and use of napalm, corporate involvement in the technology of terror, and how violence is rendered (in)visible. Thirty-four years and dozens of films later, Farockiís War at a Distance (Erkennen und Verfolgen, 2003) brilliantly navigates and explores the connections between machine-vision, violence and capitalist production practices in the context of the Gulf War and the global economy. Farocki demonstrates that our naive anthropocentric notions of vision and the visible are obsolete in todayís world. This is a special Bay Area preview. (Irina Leimbacher)

South Korean writer-director Gina Kim is mastering the art of baring oneís soul in front of the camera. In her debut narrative feature Invisible Light, lingering, meticulously framed shots expose the turbulent and varying emotions of inner struggle and psychological extremes. Choi Yoon Sun and Lee Sun Jin give daring performances as two women faced with despair, yet struggling to reclaim their mental strength. Gah-in is having an affair with Do-heeís husband. Distressed by her illicit affair, she retreats into her house, disconnects the phone and loses herself in a self-hating routine of starving and binging. At the same time, Do-hee learns that she is pregnant with another manís child, leaves her husband and returns to Korea. Alone throughout much of the film, both women are stripped naked, both physically and psychically, as Kim provides an unflinching gaze into their darkest hours. (Innbo Shim, SFIAAFF 2004 Program Guide)

http://www.naatanet.org/festival

The Harry Partch Foundation has given us a very rare opportunity to see the original 16mm film of maverick composer Harry Partchís most accomplished masterpiece. Delusion of the Fury-A Ritual Dream and Delusion enacts two interlocking fables, one Japanese and one African. It was written for six actors, four singers and a large ensemble of Partchís own handmade instruments, and premiered in January 1969 at UCLA. The piece is one of the best examples of Partchís concept of "corporeality," or "total theater," integrating music, dance, stagecraft and ritual. Directed by Madeline Tourtelot and edited by Les Blank, the film version further incorporates this idea, with the camera itself moving among the mimes and musicians on stage. (Konrad Steiner)

One of the central figures of the avant-garde film movement that emerged in the Bay Area in the 1960s, Swedish native Gunvor Nelson returns to San Francisco for a much-anticipated screening of recent and older work. Known for her exquisite compositions, painterly activation of the filmís surface, and playful blending of physical and cinematic space, Nelsonís works reveal deeply personal responses to her subjects. Tonightís program includes her three recent digital video works: Tree-Line (1998), Snowdrift (2001) and the local premiere of Trace Elements (2003), as well as a mini-retrospective of 16mm films spanning three decades: Schmeerguntz (1966), My Name is Oona (1969), Take Off (1972) and Time Being (1991). Steve Anker writes, "The films of Gunvor Nelson compose one of the great bodies of independent work in the history of the medium." (Scott Stark)

Claire Bain and Al Hernandez have performed in their own and in each othersí work for over a decade, simultaneously constructing and deconstructing various personae for the camera. Taking the subject/object politics of photographic representation into their own hands, their multiple characters play to the camera or to each other. Sometimes studied, sometimes ad-libbed, they often inhabit the slippery spaces between self-mockery, playfulness and serious social commentary. Tonightís program features both recent and older work: Bainís True Nature (2003), their collaborative double-channel video New Yearís Resolution (1999-2000-remember Y2K?), Hernandezí lyrical Super-8 Jump Fence (2002 condensed version) and his new exploration of identity as performance My Name is Alejandro! (2003). Weíll conclude with a short performance by Bain as her video alter ego Jennifer. (Irina Leimbacher)

We're excited to present a SNEAK PREVIEW of Barbara Hammerís new film, Resisting Paradise, a provocative experimental documentary that leads viewers on a participatory journey of discovery through very timely questions: What are our responsibilities during political crises? How does art exist during a time of war? The filmmakerís personal voice ruminates on these themes through the frame of the historical and actual landscape of the town of Cassis, France. We uncover the actions of WWII French Resistance fighters Marie-Ange Allibert Rodriguez and Lisa Fittko; Hammer, as an artist struggling with the proximity of the war in Kosovo; the correspondence between Matisse, painting in Cassis, and his friend Bonnard; and the spectre of German Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin. This range of subjects and materials forms an archaeology of human will that interweaves the questions and responsibilities of artistic production during political upheaval. (MaÔa Cybelle Carpenter)

"Understanding cinema as kynema, motion, and understating that image is not a visual prerogative, blind films hitch perceptible sources in a homemade animated theatre place." So writes Basque composer, improvisor and instrument builder Alex Mendizabal, who will visit tonight for a rare presentation of his mysterious and moving Blind Films, spatialized cinematic experiences of pure sound, performed live in pure and total darkness, over, under, around and through the traditionally seated audience. "A set of sound motion and low synthesis sources such as wall harps, voice transmitters, cowboy horns, distant string-actioned cups, cold-water boiling pans, chamber birds, low fi acoustic multi channel, .... pursuing daguerrosound images and movies out of vision." (Programmed by Steve Polta)

The first of our Matta-Clark programs focuses on early, performative works for which the artist climbed tall trees and hung precariously from nets (Tree Dance), set fire to urban detritus in Brooklyn (Fire Child) and surrendered his beloved truck, Herman Meydag, to the gleeful clang and wreckage of bulldozers (Fresh Kill). Provocative, playful and physically daring, these performance films paved the way for Matta-Clark's singular mode of deconstruction, evident here in Bingo, for which he divided the exterior faÁade of a small townhouse in Niagra Falls into nine sections. Rounding out the program is Office Baroque, a revealing documentary of Matta-Clark working on a massive project in Antwerp. Following the films, Jane Crawford-Matta-Clark's widow and the executor of his estate-will present a slide show, providing a very personal perspective on the artist, his life and work. (Steven Jenkins)

Five more films that delve deep into Matta-Clark's obsession with buildings, gaps, cuts, slicesÖand fish? Indeed, while challenging himself with increasingly ambitious deconstructions both in the U.S and Europe, Matta-Clark donned a chef's hat and opened Food, which became a popular greasy spoon in downtown Manhattan. The informally observational Food hungers for the possibility of conceptual art through capitalist ventures and secret recipes, while the formally abstract City Slivers seeks privacy in the public sphere of New York City's sliced, diced streets. Conical Intersect finds Matta-Clark creating a silent "son-et-lumiere" in Paris, while Clockshower finds him as silent film star Harold Lloyd, having a close shave on top of Manhattan's Clocktower. Day's End rounds out the program on an appropriately solitary note. Following the films, a panel of architects, artists, filmmakers and curators will discuss Matta-Clark's films and his legacy as our last action hero. (Steven Jenkins)