CALENDAR: EVENTS - SCREENINGS

ON-GOING
Saturday, May 3, 10, 17, 24 - Screenwriting Workshop
Instructor: Thomas Blank, Retired Hollywood Film and TV Director
Time: 9:00-Noon
Cost: $20 per class session, with a minimum registration for 4 Sessions required
Registration: Visit class or call 344-3482

Class sessions are devoted to review of student work and issues related to premise development, outline, draft, and revision of a script. Along the way structure, character, and form are emphasized.
    Registration is on going with new participants encouraged to join at the beginning of the month. Class size is limited to ensure adequate feedback from the instructor and fellow writers. As additional students join, new sections may be created.

ON-GOING
Tuesdays - May 6, 13, 20 and 27th. Figure Drawing Tuesdays
Time: 6-9pm
Cost: $25 all four sessions, $10 Drop-in. Open drawing session led by volunteer.

Saturday, May 3 - Screenwriting Workshop for Teens Part 2: "The Next Step" Writing a Screenplay
Instructor: Jon Labrousse
Time: 12:30 - 2:30pm
Cost: $25. Advanced registration recommended. Call: 344-3482

This session is for folks who already have that first idea and outline ready, and just need some help actually writing a script. We'll cover format, story arch, length, and that's only the start! Students will come with a list of scenes and leave with at least one of them written.

Sunday, May 4 - Seminar: Great Film Directors Series: Federico Fellini
Time: 1pm - 8:30pm with break
Instructor: Thomas Blank
Registration: Free - at the door or call 344-3482 to guarantee seat

The films of the great Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini will be featured. Fellini is known for such screen classics as La Dolce Vita (1960) and 8 1/2 (1963), among others. Fellini's films by mid-century became associated with personal expression and artistic fantasy in the cinema. In his own words, "I make a film in the same manner in which I live a dream..." Other directors in this series include François Truffaut on June 1st.
    Former Hollywood Director and DIVA Screen writing instructor Thomas Blank hosts this seminar series.

Friday, May 9 - Art Talk at Noon - The Quilt as Art
Time: 12 Noon - 12:30
Guest: Laura Jaszkowski Jennings
Cost: Free

Laura Jaszkowski Jennings work is part of the Currency Exchange International Quilt Exhibit at DIVA. She will give a presentation on what makes an art quilt different from a traditional quilt.

Friday, May 9 - 34th Northwest Film and Video Festival Touring Program
Series: Second Friday Film Forum
Time: 7pm
Admission: $5. Students/Members $3.

Northwest Film Center's Thomas Phillipson festival coordinator hosts the 34th NW Film and Video Festival touring program showcasing new work by media artists living in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
   After 34 years of Northwest Film & Video Festivals, we continue to draw our enthusiasm from the inspirational dedication we see from the filmmakers of the Northwest. We see the heroic feats of strength, tenaciousness and passion you engage to make your art and to make it good. We shudder at your financial turmoil, shake our fists to the wind for your technological breakdowns, and bleed for your rejections. You are a dedicated lot and this Festival is dedicated to you.

SARI’S MOTHER
James Longley / Seattle
In SARI'S MOTHER, filmed in Iraq over a period of one year, Longley (GAZA STRIP, IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS) follows a courageous mother as she struggles to get medical help for her 10-year-old son, Sari, who is dying of AIDS. An intimate, revealing portrait, SARI uncovers an aspect of life in Iraq that few outside the country have witnessed (21 mins.)

NO BIKINI
Claudia Morgado Escanilla / Vancouver, BC
“I had a sex change once, when I was six or seven years old.” The opening line of No Bikini introduces us to a young girl who defies convention during her summer swim class. Filled with humour, this film is less about defining one’s gender than it is about discovering personal strength. (8 mins.)

MORRIS
Adam Locke-Norton, Ryan Warren Smith, Nathan Fielder / Vancouver
Well into his eighties, Morris decides it’s time to come out of the closet. (6 mins.)

PORTRAIT #2 TROJAN
Vanessa Renwick / Portland
A looming icon of the Columbia River Gorge—either a throwback to or preview of a nuclear age—gets its stoic comeuppance in this requiem for a heavyweight. (5 mins.)

POTL: THE PENGUIN ON THE LEFT
Rick Guinan / Portland
On an ice flow where a penguin's life is subject to a walrus' appetite, a gun makes a difference. (3.5 mins.)

ALL BROKE UP
Mark O’Connell / Seattle
Masterful manipulation of archival footage weaves an indictment of justifications for torture and for the complacency of those standing by. (4 mins.)

SOMETIMES
Scott Amos / Victoria, BC
This reflection on the unintended dystopia of life is short, and, in its own way, sorta sweet. (30 sec.)

OPERATION: FISH
Jeff Riley / Portland
A child’s goldfish is abducted and an agent is dispatched to rescue it. (10.5 mins)

BY MODERN MEASURE
Matthew Lessner / Nehalem, OR
Two young Americans meet outside a Taco Bell in this stylish spree right out of the French New Wave. (6 mins.)

PATTERNS 3
Jamie Travis / Vancouver
In the vibrant split-screen musical finale to THE PATTERNS TRILOGY, Pauline and Michael reveal through songs the nature of their enigmatic relationship. (18.5 mins.)

Details Online

Saturday, May 10 - Umgamiwami Benefit for Aids Orphans in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Time: 7:30pm
Fund Raiser

A Night of Entertainment and Fun to help raise money for a good cause. The second annual Umgami Wami benefit returns to Eugene.
     As generous Eugenians continue to make a difference in the lives of AIDS orphans in Bulawayo, Zimbawe; children who are unable to go to school because of lack of funds for tuition or uniforms.
     The event is a collaboration between Lola Broomberg, a Counselor and long time teacher and performer in Eugene who grew up in Bulawayo and her father, Dave Broomberg, a psychologist practicing in Bulawayo who is the founder of the Matabeleland Aids Council, trustee of the Bulawayo Mayor's Orphans Fund and the chairman of the Bulawayo Terminally Ill Committee, And ANCIENT WAYS, an Oregon Based Non-profit which supports educational and cultural development programs in Zimbabwe.
     With every $35 raised being enough to put a child through school for a year, we’ve discovered that its fairly easy for local folks to make a difference in the lives of children far away.

The Umgami Wami! benefit will offer a host of different entertainments:

• Wine and cake tasting
• 12 x 5 minutes on a box
• The silent auction of fabulous local services and goodies.
• Ancient ways will open shop and sell hand-made items from Zimbabwe.
• Audience participation and Open-mic – for wanna –be box performers…
  (they only get a minute each)
• Loveness Wesa, dancer, choreographer, actress and singer from Bulawayo!

Forum and Slam

Sunday, May 11 - Videomaker's Forum and Slam
Time: Forum: 4:00 PM
Time: Slam: 5:30
Admission: Free
DIVA's expanded videomakers evening combines the opportunity to network and explore ideas with others and participate in a monthly competitive video slam.
    The forum is meant to inspire and assist upcoming video artists by providing the opportunity to share knowledge, experiences, and techniques with fellow video enthusiasts. Sessions include presentations, discussions, and periodic collaborative challenges.
    Videomakers are encouraged to bring their finished or works in progress to be screened in the friendly environment of an audience choice slam competition with winners going on to an annual slam festival in December. Hosted by Steve Newcomb and James Denier. Visit Videomakers Forum Web site.

Friday, May 16 - Art Talk: Sculptor Jud Turner
DIVA Art Talk Series
Time: Noon - Bring your lunch!
Admission: Free.

Sculptor Jud Turner will discuss his works, formed from welded steel 3/32" rods and currently on exhibit at DIVA - and his creation process in bringing it about. Bring your lunch and enjoy this Friday Art Talk Event.
    Turner received training in drawing and painting at the University of Oregon, under Professor Ron Graff and the late Professor Frank Okada, both renowned artists and educators. In the early 1990's, he transitioned to sculptural works as his main artistic output, focusing on direct welded steel work and found object assemblages.

Saturday, May 17- Screenwriting Workshop for Teens Part 3: Screenplay Feedback and Revision
Instructor: Jon Labrousse
Time: 12:30 - 2:30pm
Cost: $25. Advanced registration recommended. Call: 344-3482

You've written a script. You bring it, we workshop it. You go home with a ton of feedback for revision to make your script production-ready. The rest is up to you.

Saturday, May 17 - Johnnie Mazzocco film FOUND OBJECTS
Time:7pm
Admission: FREE - donations appreciated

Johnnie Mazzocco graduate student in the UO Digital Arts program presents her terminal project, a 30-minute narrative film that she wrote, directed, and acted in. Discussion with Mazzocco follows film.
    FOUND OBJECTS is about Claire Randall's attempts to alleviate her angst from feeling trapped in the domestic sphere. Claire's husband, Jack, owns his own business and is frequently gone from home. Jack's absence leaves Claire in sole charge of the house and their children and interferes with her compulsion to create shadowboxes made from found objects that she finds in antique stores and on walks in the country near her home.

Sunday, May 18 - Artist Salon "Writing an Authentic Artist Statement"
Time: 4:00 PM
Cost: $5 Public/Members - Free

Do you have questions about Artist Statements? Why do I need one? How do I write one? What good will it do for me? Should all artist statements sound like they were written by a highbrow art magazine? We will explore these questions and more in DIVA's monthly series on professional development for artists.
    This Artist Salon workshop will use presentations, group discussion and writing exercises to assist participants in the development of artist statements as powerful tools for personal promotion and career advancement.
     Participants may bring an existing artist statement for group feedback. Current DIVA members may also bring two or three examples of their artwork for the Members' Gallery selection. Members may propose exhibits as individuals, pairs, or groups, as long as everyone is a current member.

Tuesday, May 20 - Potter-Belmar Labs workshop: What Is Live Cinema, and How Do We Do It?
Time: 3pm
Admission: Workshop and Performance (see below) combination: $10. Student $8.

Potter-Belmar Labs (PBL) explores live cinema, a contemporary term for live, audio-visual performance, in which artists edit sound and moving-image as a live performance. The workshop offers an overview of PBL research on historical and contemporary live cinema, with an emphasis on those artists who have influenced and inspired them. A show-and-tell about the processes and equipment PBL uses to perform their own live cinema will be a part of this presentation.
    Potter-Belmar Labs is Leslie Raymond and Jason Jay Stevens, collaborating artists since 1999, with internationally exhibited work spanning a variety of media including interactive sculpture, installation, single-channel video, and performance.  They have won top prize in three performance competitions, including the Unreal Tournament at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and most recently won first prize for installation video at Orilla#06 at the Museu de Arte Contemporáneo in Santa Fe, Argentina.

"Fortune"

Tuesday, May 20 - "Fortune"Potter-Belmar Labs West Coast Spring Tour
Time: 8pm
Admission: General: $5-7ss. Students: $3.

Potter-Belmar Labs (PBL) is taking their live cinema performance "Fortune" to the U.S. West Coast in May 2008! This pair of itinerant 21st Century-style magic lantern story-tellers invites the audience to participate in a collective fortune-telling experiment, presented as a multimedia performance of sound and moving image.
     Each performance of Fortune by Potter-Belmar Labs is made up of a series of reconfigurable scenes in sound and image. The audience determines the selection and arrangement of the vignettes. PBL mixes on laptops and other electronic devices original and sampled music, sound and moving images producing a unique, live multimedia experience. Original sound and image compositions are interwoven with samples and soundscapes, generating a tapestry of allusion, abstract narration, and dreamlike hallucination.

Photos: John Spragens

Wednesday, May 21 - Photography Workshop and Jazz Performance with John Spragens and The Douglas Detrick Quintet

Workshop: 6pm - 8pm
Admission: Workshop + Concert- $20 regular. $15 DIVA members/Students

Concert: 8pm
Admission: $5 regular. $3 Members/Students

Performance Portraits. In this two session workshop students will have the opportunity participate in a round-table critique on the theme of performance photography (music, drama, dance). Participants are asked to bring about five of their own prints each, representing one of the following: a representative sample of their most current work, and/or a sample showing the progression of their work over time.
    Instructor John Spragens will lead off the discussion with his own jazz performance portraits, showing their progression over time. Considering both visual and technical challenges, Spragens will help students explore how they might push their work to get closer to the goals they set for themselves.
    After the critique students will have the opportunity to photograph local jazz favorites the Douglas Detrick Quintet performing at DIVA.  A follow-up critique session two weeks later will give students the opportunity to return for further discussion and feedback.
   John Spragens, who began serious photography as an undergraduate humanities major at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, has documented life from Texas wheat fields to Southeast Asian rice paddies, from the crowded subways of Tokyo to the throngs gathered for bike week in Daytona beach.  For more than five years he focused on the San Francisco Bay area jazz scene – celebrating the performers who bring us this inventive music.  Samples of his jazz photos and other work are featured at his online gallery.
    The Douglas Detrick Quintet plays original compositions and arrangements by its founder, Douglas Detrick.
     The group's repertoire ranges from classic, straight-ahead jazz to re-imagined versions of songs by Johnny Cash, Nick Drake and Radiohead tunes, to groove-oriented compositions that explore pop music styles. The quintet consists of Detrick on trumpet, Hashem Assadullahi on alto sax, Justin Morell on guitar, Josh Tower on bass and Ryan Biesack on drums.
     Detrick's arrangement of Duke Ellington's "Single Petal of a Rose" won Downbeat magazine's 2007 Best Jazz Arrangement Award, a contest entered by student composers all over the U.S. and Canada. Also, his composition for Brass Quintet, "As the Crow Flies," won the Meridian Arts Ensemble's Composition Contest in 2007 and will be performed as part of the group's repertoire in concerts and recitals all over the world.
     Detrick is a graduate teaching fellow at the University of Oregon.

Saturday, May 24 - Archaeology Film Channel Festival reception
Time: 6:00pm - 8:30pm
Admission: $5.00

The fifth annual installment of The Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival will take place May 20-24, 2008. This event, which includes a keynote address by the former Director of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, Dr. Donny George, is highlighted in TAC Festival 2008 Preview, the latest video feature on our nonprofit streaming-media Web site, The Archaeology Channel.
    Come celebrate the The International Film and Video Festival (May 20-24, 2008) wrap party and awards ceremony. This is an evening to celebrate the best in documentary and ethnographic filmmaking.

ON-GOING
Saturday, June 7, 14, 21, and 28 Screenwriting Workshop
Instructor: Thomas Blank, Retired Hollywood Film and TV Director
Time: 9:00-Noon
Cost: $20 per class session, with a minimum registration for 4 Sessions required
Registration: Visit class or call 344-3482

Class sessions are devoted to review of student work and issues related to premise development, outline, draft, and revision of a script. Along the way structure, character, and form are emphasized.
    Registration is on going with new participants encouraged to join at the beginning of the month. Class size is limited to ensure adequate feedback from the instructor and fellow writers. As additional students join, new sections may be created.

Sunday, June 1- Seminar: Great Film Directors Series: François Truffaut
Time: 1pm - 6:30pm with break
Instructor: Thomas Blank
Registration: Free - at the door or call 344-3482 to guarantee seat

The films of French director François Truffaut will be examined in this session. Truffaut is known as one of the founders of the French New Wave in filmmaking, and remains an icon of the French film. In a film career lasting just over a quarter of a century, he was screenwriter, director, producer or actor in over twenty-five films. His films such as, Shoot the Piano Player (1960) , Jules and Jim (1962), Day for Night (1973) are classics of the New Wave movement.
    Former Hollywood Director and DIVA Screen writing instructor Thomas Blank hosts this seminar series.

"The Invisible Forest"

Thursday, June 5 - NW Premier of Antero Alli's "The Invisible Forest"
Time: 9pm
Cost: $5.

"The Invisible Forest" is a new feature film by Antero Alli that tells the story of a theatre troupe camping out in a forest to perform their director's vision of French Surrealist Antonin Artaud's magic theatre of ghosts, gods and spirits. During their forest experiment Alex, the director, is haunted by disturbing dreams where Artaud appears and mocks his theatrical ambitions. When these strange nightmares persist, Alex stops sleeping in an attempt to regain control over his mind. Sleep-deprived and with his sanity pushed to its limits, he seeks help from a Psychotherapist who suggests hypnosis as a means to discover the source of his problems. What follows is a hypnagogic journey through the internal landscape of Alex's subconscious memories and dreams to a place beyond belief, beyond words, and beyond the mind itself.

Antero Alli is a Finnish born, Berkeley-based underground filmmaker whose deep background in experimental theatre infuses his films with a quirky dramatic sensibility all their own.

 

New Forum and Slam

Sunday, June 8 - Videomaker's Forum and Slam
Time: Forum: 4:00 PM
Time: Slam: 5:30
Admission: Free
DIVA's expanded videomakers evening combines the opportunity to network and explore ideas with others and participate in a monthly competitive video slam.
    The forum is meant to inspire and assist upcoming video artists by providing the opportunity to share knowledge, experiences, and techniques with fellow video enthusiasts. Sessions include presentations, discussions, and periodic collaborative challenges.
    Videomakers are encouraged to bring their finished or works in progress to be screened in the friendly environment of an audience choice slam competition with winners going on to an annual slam festival in December. Hosted by Steve Newcomb and James Denier. Visit Videomakers Forum Web site.

Friday, June 13 - Making of the film "The Story Pouch"
Series: Second Friday Film Forum
Time: 7pm
Admission: $5. Students/Members: $3.

Corvallis computer animator Todd Kesterson will screen selected scenes and discuss the progress of his team-based 3-D computer-animated short film, "The Story Pouch" a fantasy adventure following the journey of an individual on a path toward creative expression. The story is coming to life through the combined talents of conceptual artists, designers, modelers, animators, texture artists, rendering specialists, composers, actors, dancers, and musicians.

Sunday, June 15 - Stencil Nation with Russell Howze
Time: 1pm
Admission: Free

Author Russell Howze will be in Eugene to give a slide-lecture presentation related stencil art and his new book Stencil Nation: Graffiti, Community, and Art. His book contains work of hundreds of artists (known and unknown) that together provide a most concise chronology of the art form to date.

 

Wednesday, June 18 - Best of the ATA at DIVA
Time:
Admission:

The very best of the most "funky" Open Screening in Bay Area. 16 shorts by 16 Film makers, on dv, 8 mm, super 8, 16 mm and super 16 mm. An observational film/video show. Straight from ATA - Artists' Television Access is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, all-volunteer, artist-run, experimental media arts gallery that has been in operation since 1984. ATA hosts a series of film and video screenings, exhibitions and performances by emerging and established artists and a weekly cable access television program. Based in San Francisco www.atasite.org/openscreening

The Very Best of Open Screening

1. "Junkyard Blues" A Film by Caio Simbula 16mm B/W TRT: 5 min. Junkyard Blues is an absurd look into the existentialist world of a junkyard worker.

2. "Ups and Downs" A film by Alexander Troy 8mm TRT: 3 min. I shot this film to test out the 8mm camera and to see if there is a difference between living at the TOP of one of San Francisco's hills, and living at the BOTTOM. There most certainly is.

3. "Window" A film by Lukas Lukasik Super 8 TRT: 4:30 min. The film "Window" is a memory of his trip through a glass darkly forces and being captured into heaven. A refreshing flight over the most painful pleasures... to a creative solitude.

4. Water Moon A film by Sofia Cooper Czech Republic 2005 - Super 16 TRT: 10:45 min. How does one mark the important life passages? What elements, what ceremony, what defiances? What elucidations occur in the space of liminality as the child becomes a woman, as spirit departs from flesh, as the mind gives way to dreams? It is here, in the space between that the story begins and ends, in a valley deeply shrouded in green, where water meets rock.

5."Portrait of Greg" A film by Ralph Dickinson (1998, 5 min., black and white, 16mm and hand-processed Super 8 film transferred to video). A short experimental documentary about a man who dumpster dives and recycles cans between auditing philosophy classes at UC Berkeley and extemporaneously creating songs and glass sculptures.

6."Self Portrait" A film by Jake Cauty DV TRT:5 min. "A short award winning film delving deep into the disturbing mind of Jake Cauty. Try to understand the powerful imagery that is his mind, emptied out onto your screen. ' This is my Self Portrait.' "

7. "Dante's Inferno" A film by Alexis Waller 16 mm TRT: 6 min. A VERY abridged (and unfinished) version of Dante's Inferno, depicting the pilgrim's journey from the dark wood to the Giants in Canto XXXI, just before their descent in to Cocytus. I've sculpted the devil (he's stored in a shoebox in my closet) but haven't filmed that part yet. Theoretically, Purgatorio and Paradiso will follow. This is what happens when you graduated with a major in Italian lit in today's world.
Unemployment ensues, followed by acquisitions of 16mm cameras and months spent bringing exiled 13th century Florentine statesmen to life in plasticine. Enjoy the fruits of last year's joblessness. - Alexis Waller Music by Dhol Drum Foundation

8. "Death of Astro" A film by Douglas Katelus 16mm, TRT: 5:30 min. The second part of a trilogy about transition. This is a road trip movie, documenting the life and death of a great steel beast.
     Douglas Katelus is an observational film/video maker and improvisational musician based in San Francisco. His works focus on the ordinary, the underlying subtleties in everyday life. He also curates a regular experimental motion picture series at the New Nothing Cinema in SF.

9. "Biografia Completa" A film by Rita Piffer Super 8 TRT: 2:30 min. It's a short poem in super 8 about a possible/impossible "biography". A film by Rita Piffer

10. "The Unseen Hand" A film by Charles Chadwick TRT: 4:20 min. 16mm

11. "Death of a Dude" A film by Brad Clay 16mm TRT: 3 min.

12. "Seventeen Evergreen - Haven't Been yourself" Encyclopedia Pictura - Isaiah Saxon & Sean Hellfritsch DV TRT: 5 min

13. "Amateur" Lasse Gjertsen" DV TRT: 3 min.

14." Accidents, Leftovers" Unfortunately a Brian Gallagher film 16mm TRT: 3:15 min.

15. "Deus ex Machina" A film by Cora Foxx 16 mm TRT: 4 min.

16. Vivid Dream A film by Jim Granato Super 8 TRT: 4:30 min.

Television Access, 992 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110, (415) 824-3890. Artists' Television Access is supported in part by Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, the San Francisco Foundation, SF Weekly, individual donors, and volunteers.

Coming - Rape Of Europa - July 11,12, and 13th. Time TBA.