Advanced tickets for all Zeitgeist events are available here
Opening March 2:
CRAZY HORSE by Frederick Wiseman. Inside Paris’s Crazy Horse Cabaret – the most famous nude dance show in the world. Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman explores one of the most mythic and colorful places dedicated to women, the Crazy Horse – a legendary Parisian cabaret club, founded in 1951 by Alain Bernardin. Over the years it has become the Parisian nightlife ‘must’ for visitors, ranking alongside the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. Wiseman’s impeccable eye finds the Crazy Horse a uniquely French showcase, with an emphasis on elegance, perfectionism and a grueling schedule (2 shows a night and 3 on Saturdays, 7 days a week). The film shows us the rehearsals for and the unveiling of the brand new show – Désir – created by the renowned French choreographer Phillippe Decoufle.
Saturday, March 3 @ 10:00 p.m.
EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE presents DOGGIE WOGGIEZ! POOCHIE WOOCHIEZ! All Dogs Go on Tour! EIT!, as they have been lovingly dubbed by their followers, are the video collective responsible for some of the most intriguing and horrifying viral videos in the Universe. From cat massages to pedophile-hunting yellow dinosaurs, EIT! salvages the best VHS moments from thrift stores across the nation and posts their daily finds on the Internet for the world to see. Each year, the group edits thousands of these resurrected treasures into one mind-melting feature-length movie. With DoggieWoggiez! PoochieWoochiez!, EIT! has elevated their craft to new heights, creating a remake of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 Film, The Holy Mountain, using only dog-related found footage! After a grueling year of combing every Air Bud movie for something remotely worthwhile, the group is groomed and ready to tour the continent in homemade, full-body mascot costumes, delivering a psychedelic live show experience that can not be rivaled. This all-new “live in the fur” show picks up where Cirque Du Soleil and The Rock-A-Fire Explosion left off… finally. Oh yeah, and ARFFFF! $10 at door. $8 in advance.
Opening March 9:
TOMBOY by Celine Sciamma. In “Tomboy,” filmmaker Céline Sciamma’s (“Water Lilies,”) second feature, a family with two daughters, 10-year-old Laure (brilliantly portrayed by Zoe Heran) and 6-year-old Jeanne, moves to a new suburban neighborhood during the summer holidays. With her Jean Seberg haircut and tomboy ways, Laure is immediately mistaken for a boy by the local kids, and decides to pass herself off as “Mikael,” a boy different enough to catch the attention of leader of the pack Lisa, who becomes smitten. At home with her parents and girlie younger sister, she is Laure: hanging out with her new pals and girlfriend, she is Mikael. Finding resourceful ways to hide her true self, Laure takes advantage of her new identity, as if the end of the summer would never reveal her unsettling secret. Céline Sciamma brings a light and charming touch to this contemporary coming-of-age story, which is also about relationships between children, children and parents, and the even more complicated one between one’s heart and body. Winner Teddy Award – Best Feature – Berlin Film Festival; Jury Prize – Best Feature – Philadelphia Int. Gay & Lesbian Film Festival; Audience Award – Frameline: San Francisco Int. Gay & Lesbian Film Festival; Best Feature – Torino Int. Film Festival; Best Actress – Zoe Heran – New Fest – NY.
Opening March 9:
MICHAEL by Markus Schleinzer. Michael (Michael Fuith) is a mousy insurance agent who lives alone — or so everyone thinks. In a move that obliterates the established norms of audience empathy towards a central character, he’s the protagonist and antagonist in a movie about an extremely controversial subject, one that will jolt even the most hardened filmgoer. Michael is a child molester who keeps a ten-year-old boy (David Rauchenberger) locked up in his basement. And yet he is still given a loving mother (Christine Kain) and a sister (Ursula Strauss) who doesn’t want him to spend the holidays alone. In terms of shocking crime films, Michael is the equivalent of a whisper. The film muffles out the details as to whether taking prisoners is a frequent habit or something the character has never done before. Michael isn’t a psychological drama about what has already gone wrong in this predator’s life — it’s a tense and artfully crafted thriller about whether or not he is ever going to get caught. Schleinzer tells an emotionally restrained story and resists passing judgment on his character’s monstrous nature. In this context, Michael is one of the best suspense films to show its (admittedly contentious) face on this year’s festival circuit. Having worked as an actor and casting director since the early nineties, Markus Schleinzer has a special knack for introducing viewers to characters they cannot help but stare at, even if they don’t particularly like them. (His work as casting director on Michael Haneke’s 2009 film The White Ribbon is a prime example of this.) As carefully crafted as so many of these characters were, Schleinzer’s provocative directorial debut, Michael, puts his talent to the ultimate test. Winner Best Feature – Viennnale; Best Actor – Michael Fuith – Max Ophuls Prize.
Saturday, March 10 @ 5:00 p.m.
CHILDRENS’ FILMS
presented by visiting filmmaker MOIRA TIERNEY (SOLUS FILM COLLECTIVE, Dublin, Ireland.) The first four of these films were shot during Super-8mm workshops, given by the Film Flamme Association in Marseille and by Moira Tierney in Dublin, Fermanagh and Toulouse. The children were at total liberty to proceed as they desired; adult input consisted of technical support (how the camera and sound equipment works) and post-production (the films were primarily edited in-camera; post production consisted of assembling the images and sound according to the childrens’ instructions). The fifth film was shot by children in the Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area) of County Cork, Ireland, during a workshop led by Donal O’Ceilleachair.
PROGRAMME:
LA DREAM TEAM Super-8mm 3 mins
Shot by children from the Joliette neighbourhood in Marseille during a workshop given by the Film Flamme Association. This film is one of a series entitled CinéJoliette.
LIBERTY KIDS Super-8mm 5 mins
Shot by the children of 4th class, St. Audoen’s Primary School, Dublin, during a workshop given by Moira Tierney. The Liberties is a low-income area of Dublin’s inner city; St. Audoen’s is a public school with very meager resources, but one very energetic teacher who hosted the workshop, which took place during her regular classroom hours.
BELLEFONT 31! Super-8mm 20 min
Shot by a group of children from l’Acceuil Jeune at the Centre Culturel Alban Minville in Bellefontaine, Toulouse, during a workshop given by Moira Tierney. Bellefontaine, aka Bellefont, is a housing estate outside Toulouse.
COLLECTIVE FILM Super-8mm 22 mins
Shot by children from Florencecourt and Killyhommon Primary Schools in Eniskillen, County Fermanagh, during a workshop given by Moira Tierney. Fermanagh is just over the border into Northern Ireland; the workshop was part of the Peace III Project 2010.
FÉILEACÁN SOLAS DVD/35mm 5 mins
Inspired by Stan Brakhage’s Mothlight, the children of Coláiste Ghobnatan, Scoil Chúil Aodha, Scoil Bhaile Mhúirne, Scoil Chill na Martra, Scoil Ré na nDoirí, Scoil Bhéal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh and Scoil Mhuire i mBéal Ath’n Ghaorthaidh (7 schools in County Cork, Ireland) have made their own collective 35mm collage animation film.
Sunday, March 11 @ 5:00 p.m.
GRACE SPACE PROGRAMME (FILMS BY MOIRA TIERNEY) A compilation of short films documenting performance art events, 2008-2011 Produced by Grace Exhibition Space Brooklyn; Shot and edited by visiting filmmaker Moira Tierney (SOLUS COLLECTIVE, Dublin, Ireland).
GRACE EXHIBITION SPACE, opened in 2006, is the only gallery in New York City devoted to Performance-Art. Over the course of four years (2008-2011) Moira Tierney documented a variety of performances by international artists at the space. Limited to 3-5 cartridges of film, Tierney captures the essence of these ephemeral events. The editing is primarily in-camera; the raw footage gives us a fleeting sense of the experience of these action-based events. Grace Exhibition Space is directed by Jill McDermid and Erik Hokanson, who participate in international performance art festivals as artists and curators in Europe, Asia and Central and South America. Grace Space is committed to exhibiting the world’s leading performance artists, whether emerging, mid-career or established. Events are presented in a Brooklyn loft, with performances taking place on the same level as the viewers; the boundary between artist and audience is dissolved. Grace Space believes that this is how performance art should be viewed, presented and experienced. Its mission is the glorification of performance art. www.grace-exhibition-space.com
PROGRAMME:
Eat Lamb – A performance by Eric Hokansen at the Jajo Gallery, Newark New Jersey, november 15th 2008 with Jill Mcdermid, Rachel Hoffman & Germaul Barnes; Super-8mm/DV 7 mins silent b/w
Live Action New York – Scandinavian performance art at Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn New York, november 11th 2009: Featuring Eric Hokansen, Joakim Stampe, Roi Vaara andMimosa Pale; super-8mm/DV 15 minutes silent b/
Performance – a performance by Jill Mcdermid at English Kills Gallery, Brooklyn New York, december 2009; Super-8mm/DV 4.5 minutes silent b/w
Live Large, Baby! – Performance art at Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn New York, march 12th 2010: Featuring Chen Shi-Yo, Chen Jin, Coral Short, Jeffery Byrd and Steve Vanoni; super-8mm/DV 19 minutes silent b/w
Non Grata US Tour – Performance by the Non Grata Group at Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn New York, november 5th 2010; Super-8mm/DV 10 minutes silent b/w
Thursday & Friday, March 15 & 16 @ 7:30 p.m.
PUBLIC DOMAIN presented by visiting Canadian filmmakers RYAN STEC & VERONIQUE COUILLARD. In June 2009, SAW Video in Ottawa commissioned seven media artists to create new video works from public domain materials in the film/video/audio collection at Library and Archives Canada. The result is Public Domain, a program of six new videos that premiered in Ottawa June 23rd, 2010 and will tour across North America and Europe in 2011-12. The range of mid-career and established media artists selected for this project represent a broad cross-section of media artists working in Canada. Bringing critical perspectives to bear on their found materials, the artists mine the nature of the image for its visual, narrative, mnemonic and evocative potential. While some of the resulting videos highlight the fragility and disappearance of images, others focus on their renaissance through re-contextualization.
The ARTISTS
Gennaro de Pasquale (Montreal) – Vortex, 12:08
Sara Angelucci (Toronto) – The Beauty Pageant News, 8:47
Maureen Bradley (Victoria) – Beyond the Pale, 16:00
Ryan Stec/Véronique Couillard (Ottawa) – Library and Archives Canada Public Domain Reels Documenting Spots of Beauty and Interest in Ontario and Quebec Sometime Ago Remixed Today (VCRS): 19752010, 3:00
Suzan Vachon (Montreal) – chant [dans les muscules du chant], 23:32
Steve Reinke (Chicago/Toronto) – Not Torn (Asunder from the Very Start), 9:57
The seven artists chosen to participate in the Public Domain project bring a range of approaches and artistic styles. Steve Reinke (Chicago/Toronto), already known for the use of archival documents in his video essays, transgresses the nature of the archival images he employs by giving them new context and meaning using a voice-over narrative. Sara Angelucci (Toronto) links the fragility and physical evanescence of the image with the volatility of memory and identity. Maureen Bradley (Victoria) employs a feminist and political approach in the form of essays which join the force of documentary images with a kind of personal docu-fiction. Gennaro de Pasquale (Montreal) collects images and sounds from multiple sources, which he then assembles in video collages according to their formal and semantic properties. Suzan Vachon (Montreal) gleans the archival collection looking for images with oneiric and evocative possibilities which she incorporates into her lyrical essay. The artistic duo Véronique Couillard and Ryan Stec (Ottawa) are particularly interested in the graphic qualities of analogue images, which they manipulate digitally using a process of live retouching and mixing that imparts a new rhythm and nature to the images.
Library and Archives Canada holds thousands of film documents which have become free of copyright. These documents cover a wide range of historic events which played a role in the collective history of Canada, such as the First and Second World Wars and our industrial development. In addition to documents of these historic events, the large collection of materials also includes home movies of private events such as garden parties, sporting matches and scenes of camaraderie amongst friends, soldiers and workers. These audio-visual recordings are traces of the private history of individuals, and each provides a different perspective on the passing of time. The high cost of royalties makes it difficult for many independent artistic projects to use archival documents. If royalties are not paid, the incorporation of archival material, while widespread, is often illegal, which immediately eliminates the possibility of public exhibition in galleries, at screenings, on television, etc. As a result, the use of archival documents and materials from Canadian history is often restricted to corporations and big-budget commercial productions. While Library and Archives Canada offers artists an inexpensive and publicly accessible alternative to this dilemma, researching, finding, and obtaining rights to materials at LAC can be complex, daunting and time-consuming. In order to facilitate access to audiovisual works in the public domain and to eliminate many of the obstacles which could hinder artists’ research, SAW Video provided research support throughout the duration of the Public Domain project. In screening the new videos and describing the process of the project year, Public Domain seeks to inspire artists to see the archives as a treasure trove for their own work. The project also raises broader questions about copyright/copyleft and specifically about the complex term public domain, a topic at the centre of an international critical discourse.
Of all the venues on the PUBLIC DOMAIN tour, Zeitgeist is the only one that has requested to host two separate screenings – one screening where the artists present the original films they selected – one screening of the new films created by the artists, so audiences can contrast and see how the work was manipulated and changed and explore the artistic processes directly.
RYAN STEC AND VÉRONIQUE COUILLARD
RYAN STEC is a Winnipeg born/Ottawa based media artist and curator. His work experience and community involvement spans a wide variety of disciplines and interests. He has been heavily involved in the artist-run culture of Ottawa since 1998. He is currently the Artistic Director of Artengine.
VÉRONIQUE COUILLARD is a visual artist who works mostly with video, live video performances and video installation. A graduate from the fine arts program at the University of Ottawa, her work has been exhibited in Moncton, Guelph, Saskatoon, Québec, Tracadie-Sheila, Gatineau and other Canadian cities and towns, as well as in Cape Town (South Africa) and Vaasa (Finland).
Opening March 16:
BULLHEAD by Michael R. Roskam. Academy Award nominee “Best Foreign Language Film” from Belgium, BULLHEAD is a harrowing tale of revenge, redemption and fate. Domineering cattle farmer Jacky Vanmarsanille (Matthias Schoenaerts in a ferocious breakout performance), constantly pumped on steroids and hormones, initiates a shady deal with a notorious mafioso meat trader. When an investigating federal agent is assassinated and a woman from his traumatic past resurfaces, Jacky must confront his demons and face the far-reaching consequences of his decisions. Acclaimed at festivals worldwide including Berlin, AFI and Fantastic Fest, BULLHEAD is a visceral saga bursting with rage.
Opening March 23:
THIS IS NOT A FILM by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb & Jafar Panahi. On December 20, 2010, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (The White Balloon, Offside) was convicted of “assembly and colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the country’s national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” His sentence: six years in prison and a twenty-year ban on filmmaking or giving any form of interview. This is not a Film is a philosophical reflection on the nature of making art; it is also an urgent and personal defense of the artist. Smuggled into France on a USB stick hidden inside a cake (flavor unidentified to shield the identity of its baker and/or courier), it is officially credited as an “effort” by Panahi and Mirtahmasb. On September 17, 2011, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb was arrested in Iran along with five other filmmakers. This Is Not a Film is one of the most brave and powerful political films ever made. It is the ultimate work against censorship and oppression.
Wednesday, April 4 @ 7:30 p.m.
Visiting filmmaker/poet RUTH WEISS. Dave Brinks from the Gold Mine Saloon is bringing legendary beat poet Ruth Weiss for a long overdue tribute. One of the last surviving members of the “Beats”, Ruth Weiss lived in the French Quarter on Toulouse and was involved in the New Orleans jazz poetry scene 61 years ago, before heading out to San Francisco and being integral (but undersung) to what became the “beat poetry movement”. She was also friends with Ferlinghetti, Kerouac, etc. This is her first time back in New Orleans since. As well, she had a new book published this year, “Can’t Stop The Beat.”
Ruth Weiss comes to Zeitgeist for one night to present an extremely rare screening of her films “The Brink” (1961) is a 40 min. black-and-white. Stan Brakhage called The Brink “one of the most important San Francisco films of the period”. It’s a playful love story about two lonely people and was photographed by Paul Beattie, the painter. As well, there is an 18 min. documentary on her, “Ruth Weiss Meets Her Prometheus,” a 12 min. poetry performance footage “Las Cuevas De Albion,” and a 7 min. piece “Turnabout.” “The Brink” has been screened at the Whitney Museum, Venice Biennale, the Beat Museum, etc.
Opening April 13:
KEYHOLE by Guy Maddin. The new comedy by the maverick, world renowned Canadian filmmaker (My Winnipeg, Tales From The Gimli Hospital, Archangel, Saddest Music In the World, etc.) In a house haunted with memories, gangster and father Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric) arrives home after a long absence towing the body of a teenaged girl and a bound and gagged young man. His gang waits inside his house, having shot their way past police. There is friction in the ranks. Ulysses, however, is focused on one thing: journeying through the house, room by room, and reaching his wife Hyacinth (Isabella Rossellini) in her bedroom upstairs. His odyssey eventually becomes an emotional tour, as the strange nooks and crannies of the house reveal more about the mysterious Pick family. Also starring Udo Kier, Kevin McDonald, David Wontner, Louis Negin, etc. Screens as part of our monthly series CANADA IS BIGGER THAN THE U.S.
Opening April 20:
GOON by Michael Dowse. Written by Jay Baruchel & Evan Goldberg. Not content with his job as a bouncer at a local Beantown bar and a bit of an embarrassment to his accomplished family, Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott) dreams of the kind of success enjoyed by minor league hockey goon Ross Rhea (Liev Schreiber). When a chance encounter with an on-ice thug leads to a bloody fist fight that Doug easily wins, the coach of the Halifax Highlanders sees potential in this mammoth sized man who is only hampered by his lack of any hockey playing ability and his brother’s old figure skates. Standing up to the taunts of the other players, Doug manages to join the team, and with the encouragement of his hockey obsessed best friend (Jay Baruchel) quickly becomes a rising star. Soon he’ll have the opportunity to face off against Ross “The Boss” Rhea and perhaps finally land a girlfriend. Now – all he needs is to learn how to skate. Also starring Eugene Levy, Kim Coates, Alison Pill, Marc-Andre Grondin, etc. Screens as part of our monthly series CANADA IS BIGGER THAN THE U.S.
Coming April 27 through May 6:
ZEITGEIST CREATIVE MUSIC CONCERT SERIES
Coming May 9 through 13:
the 9th PATOIS: NEW ORLEANS INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL
