The Frontier

Signal area of WNED-7V, Channel 17, Buffalo

Supported by the New York State Council on the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Canada Council-Conseil Des Arts Du Canada THE PRODUCERS &DIRECTORS

Tom Sharpe TOM SHARPE is currently a Director for WNED-TV, Channel 17 in Buffalo . He previously worked in industrial television for GET In Stamford, Connecticut. In 1977 he produced and directed a videotape which won a Gold Award at the International Film and Television Festival in . He studied Television Produc- tion at Temple University and Lighting Design with Imero Fiorentino As- sociates in New York City. He has taught workshops on studio and loca- tion lighting techniques at Media Study/Buffalo . BARBARA LATTANZI has taught filmmaking workshops at Media Study/Buffalo, and has worked as a film technician in laboratories in James Blue 1930-1980 photo by Jane Hartney -Chicago and San Francisco. She THE received her Master's degree in film- FRONTIER is dedicated to the video makers to the attention of their regions of the globe - on all of its making from the memory of . Center For Media James Blue who died in regional public television station continents. I n the end, he returned Study at SUNYIBuffalo . She has had June, 1980. He served as Executive audiences. He did this in his role as from Europe, Africa, the Orient and shows at the Cinematheque in San Producer for THE FRONTIER in Its producer of programs in two cities, South America and began to produce Francisco, Berks Filmmakers in first . season He was its founding through his participation in a variety and plan his documentary works in Pennsylvania, the University of force, just as he had given birth to of federal and state government fun- Houston and Buffalo. Of all his con- Wisconsin/ Milwaukee, the Collective THE TERRITORY, a series which is ding agencies, by his teaching at un- temporaries, his was the most in- for Living Cinema, Media Study/Buf- aired in Houston, Texas. iversities in the South, the West and tense commitment to independence falo, and as part of the Beau Fleuve James Blue gave much of his energy the Northeast, and in his writings. He and interdependence, to the making program in . Her film, Rings to bringing and himself had made films in all the of boundaries into frontiers. will be shown in THE FRONTIER Gerald O'Grady series.

Gerald O'Grady Wiley Hance Lynn Corcoran Barbara Lattanzi GERALD O'GRADY is founder and Festival, and is scheduled for transmis- Director in charge of Pilot Project, a 1975 Athens Film Festival . Fighting President of Media Study/Buffalo, and sion on European television. He is also unit established to determine the Back: The Ellicott District Concerned Director of the Educational Com- Project Director for The World of feasibility of utilizing the resources Taxpayers (1975) and Here at the munications Center and the Center for Tomorrow, a Johnson-Bird film on the and personnel of TIME, INC. as the LBJ (1977) both examined housing Media Study at State University of New New York World's Fair of 1939, sup- basis for television programs and issues important to the local com- York at Buffalo. In 1976, he hosted ported by the New York Council for the series. His The Eyes Have It was munity. Heavy Drinking (1979) con- "Filmmaking, " a series of thirteen in- Humanities. awarded a Silver Medal at the 1973 sidered the experiences of terviews with experimental filmmakers International Film and TV Festival in alcoholics . In 1979 she did camera -- Stan Brakhage, Donn Pennebaker, New York. He also did independent work for The Invisible City, a five-part Peter Kubelka and others - for production for Times Four Produc- WILEY HANCEis Executive Producer experimental documentary series for Channel 17, and it was later aired by tions, including the award-winning El public television in Houston, Texas. many PBS stations. I n 1978, he was of all programs, network and local, Greco and The Changing Image. He originated She has just completed In Our Own Project Director for "American Lost by WNED-TV, Channel 17 has produced programs on opera, in Buffalo. He is producer of the Mark Backyard, an examination of the and Found, " an interpretative ballet, drama and music as well as complex Russell Comedy Specials for Public issues raised by the Love documentary of the 1930's produced archeology, the campus politics of the Canal disaster. The Broadcasting Service and was Ex- project was sup- and directed by Tom Johnson and 1960's, and drug rehabilitation . ported by grants from the New York Lance Bird on grants from the National ecutive Producer/Producer for The Council for the Jotfrey Ballet Live From Arfpark Humanities and the Endowment for the Humanities and and Artists TV Workshop A Tribute to Martin Luther King, both of WXXI-TV. The Documentary Fund of Channel 13, LYNN CORCORAN is an independent She has taught documentary two-hour "live" presentations for video New York, supported in turn by the producer of videotape documentaries production at State University PBS. He was Manager of Public Af- which examine social of New National Endowment for the Arts and issues. Her York at Buffalo and at Media fairs for the radio and television work includes Engine 18 Squad 10, The Ford Foundation. The film was air- Study/Buffalo. Corcoran of the American was also ed twice on the PBS system, granted networks Broad- made in collaboration with Glen producer of THE FRONTIER's casting Company from first awards at film festivals, including a 1951-1971, Muschio, which received the award season of programming in 1979- Blue Ribbon by the American Film and in 1972-73 was Producer- for Best Video Documentary at the 1980. PROD CTIONOFTHE FRONTIER by Lynn Corcoran

Lynn Corcoran, Producer

THE FRONTIER, a series of six new programs featuring the work of independent Whenever possible, the filmmakers and videomakers were present in the filmmakers and videomakers from the signal area of WNED-TV, the Buffalo, New Channel 17 studios during the transfer of their work to broadcast videotape. The York P.B.S. affiliate, premieres on Channel 17 Saturday, October 3, at 10:30 PM . This television engineers provided an explanation of the transfer process and discus- is the second season of programming for THE FRONTIER. Sixteen hour and half-hour sed any technical problems which occurred. The transition from film to videotape can programs from Western New York and Southern artists were broadcast in bring about major changes in the appearance of the work. Colors sometimes shift, the 1979 and 1980. edges of a film (seen clearly when the film is projected) are masked by the frame on film transferred to video. Many other The use of the term "independent" may be unfamiliar to many television the front screen of a television set when the is viewers, and the fact that it is points to an important reason for presenting this subtle changes occur. The experiences in the Channel 17 studios will prove valuable possible broad- series. Independent filmmakers and videomakers do not produce their work for a to the video and film makers as they produce work in the future with client or a sponsor who provides not only the financial support, but also determines the cast distribution in mind. content of the work. The films and videotapes of independent producers freely express Viewers will find the format of THE FRONTIER unique. It reflects a primary their own creature imagination and vision. emphasis on the films and videotapes, not on the packaging of the programs. But independents have limited opportunities for showing their work . With THE There is no host to mediate between the work and the audience. No material was FRONTIER, we hope to change that, and, at the same time, to make television re-edited or excerpted, and there are no themes to tie works in a single program audiences more familiar with independent work. together. The six FRONTIER programs will introduce the Channel 17 audience to a An important presentation of the films and videotapes is the use variety of independent approaches, aspect of the subjects and styles, including experimental, of brief introductions to some works by the artist. It is essential to introduce those personal and documentary work. The 19 films and videotapes shown are the films and tapes which use less familiar forms or techniques, in order to make the work work of 14 film and video makers, four of whom work in Buffalo and ten in the accessible to a wide audience. The purpose of an introduction is not to explain or area. The programs were compiled from more than 75 works submitted describe the work, but rather to identify it as coming from a personal concern or ex- by artists from across this region. The series includes 18mm and super-8mm film, and perience of the artist. 314" video originals, varying in length from 3 minutes to 27 minutes. The filmmakers' and videomakers' fascination with the contradictions, the The current series is dedicated to James Blue, Executive Producer of THE secrets, and the possibilities of manipulation of the processes of film and video FRONTIER's first season of programming, who died in 1980 . THE FRONTIER recurs throughout the six weekly programs. John Porter's short films use pixilated, or was Blue's idea. It was one of many ways he used imagination and a great deal of speeded-up, techniques. Rick Hancox's Wild Sync is a humorous film-essay on the hard work to help independent producers . An independent filmmaker himself, he filmmaker's problems recording synchronous sound, and Jim Hartel's videotapes taught young filmmakers, helped them get started in their careers, worked to see make the camera and the television monitor not only the tools, but the subjects of his that funding agencies and media centers gave them the support they needed, work. and with efforts like THE FRONTIER, he established new possibilities for ex- hibiting the films and produced . A dedication to James Barbara Lattanzi considers the possibilities of "films" that are a few seconds videotapes they Blue by THE FRONTIER's Executive Producer, Gerald O'Grady, appears in this publica- long, themselves part of a larger film in Rings, and in This is the Title of my Film, tion. Drew Morey calls attention to the dramatic function of dialogue by having his ac- tors deliver descriptions of their lines instead of the lines themselves. Several films are biographical or autobiographical . In Wedding Before Me, Patrick Jenkins uses a home movie of his parents' wedding and interprets the event by re-photographing and re-editing the images . Richard Kerr recalls memories of growing up on the Wetland Canal in Canal, and Marcelie Pecot's Volatile Memories represents on film a pattern of mental images which express a range of emotions. A question for all artists, particularly for those who work in film and video, is A Canadian Festival asked by the Toronto video and performance group, General Idea, in Test Tube. from, and styles They borrow at the same time comment on, familiar television Paralleling work while asking how artists can express themselves in the modern era of mass com- its broadcast of Canadian on THE FRONTIER, Media Study/Buffalo has programmed a Canadian Festival, presenting other munications. Canadian film and video artists in Buffalo this fall. In September, Norman White of the On- THE FRONTIER is produced by Media Study/Buffalo, in cooperation with tario School of Art installed electronic sculptures and lectured on "Art as WNED-TV, a collaboration between a regional media center and a public televi- Onlooker", and was followed by videomakers A .A. Bronson, Clive Robertson and sion station that has been accomplished in only a few cities nationwide. Media Lisa Steele, and filmmakers R. Bruce Elder, David Simmer, Chris Gallagher, Study/Buffalo selects the individual films and videotapes and plans each of the Kathy Li, Robert Rayher, Veronlka Soul, and James B . Kelly. On October 2, film- programs, while WNED-TV provides the technical support to package the programs maker AI Razutis will appear at Media Study/Buffalo and on October 8, Michael on videotape . Snow will present his new work, Presents, in the Evenings for New Film program Albright Knox Art Grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Canada Council at the Gallery under the combined auspices of the Gallery, provide fees for each artist whose work is broadcast . For Media Study/Buffalo, Media Study/Buffalo and the Center for Media Study, SUNY at Buffalo. Media Lynn Corcoran is Producer and Gerald O'Grady is Executive Producer. Wiley Study/Buffalo's Canadian Festival was supported by the Canadian Consulate in Hance is Executive Producer for Channel 17. Buffalo. THE PROGRAMS/THE MAKERS

JIM HARTEL Captured Tool and Reflection will be Captured Tool shown with an introduction by the (1977) 314" videotape, videomaker. black & white, sound, 3 minutes Reflection (1979), 314" videotape, Jim Hartel studied fine arts at New black & white, sound, 4 minutes York University, State University College at Buffalo and the University Jim Hartel, a sculptor, uses the video of Colorado/Boulder, where he monitor as a sculptural form - a studied sculpture and served as physical space - in which, through Assistant Curator in the University Art irony both and visual paradox, the video Museum . He was a teaching assis- medium is allowed to comment upon tant at the Center For Media Study at itself. - the State University of New York at Hartei's work also presents puzzling Buffalo, where he received his contradictions between our percep- Master's degree in video. Hartel has tion of an image and our comprehen- exhibited his work in the Denver Art sion of it, as with the steady centered Museum, the University of Colorado, gaze of the rapidly spinning camera the State University College at Buf- in Reflection. On this piece Hartel falo in conjunction with Hallwalls writes, "Reflection not only refers to Gallery, Media Study/Buffalo, and as what happens as the mirror `reflects' part of the "Beau Fleuve" exhibition the camera's eye back at itself, but it in France. also characterizes a state of in- For distribution information contact: trospection that occurs in the mind Media Study/Buffalo when thought itself is made the ob- 207 Delaware Avenue ject of thought." Buffalo, New York 14202

From Wild Sync by Rick Hancox Program RICK HANCOX Wild Sync (1973) 16mm film, color, Hancox himself with friends, is "a sound, 9 minutes combination Christmas home Production still from Captured Too/ An impulse which manifests itself in movie/instructional film on how to much of Hancox's work, and notably make lip-sync sound films withonly your in Wild Sync, is the maker's inten- average wind-up camera and wild tape tional de-mystification of the film- recorder." making process. Rick Hancox was awarded a Canada As a student at Ohio University, Han- Council grant for graduate work in cox first began to react against a type film, and received the degree of of filmmaking which based its stan- Master of Fine Arts, after studying at dards of quality upon a film's degree New York University and Ohio of professional veneer. He observed University. As a student, his films there, among certain filmmakers, an won virtually every major prize in the intoxication with "high tecnology" as Canadian Student Film Festival, as an end in itself. He also strongly well as several American and- inter- reacted against the peculiar pretense national awards. After working in the of that type of filmmaking that an New York City film industry, he audience participate in the filmic illu- returned to Canada to teach film at sion to the degree that it entirely ig- Sheridan College, in Oakville, On- nore the film's artifice, that is, ignore tario, where he continues to experi- the fact that it is watching a film at ment in the film medium. Zum fitter all! and House Movie were broadcast on the first FRONTIER series . In Wild Sync, Hancox pointedly sub- verts such mystification by letting the For information about distribution filmmaking process itself be the sub- contact: ject of the film . At the same time Canadian Filmmakers Distribu- Hancox reveals his love of 2 filmic tion Centre forms - the autobiographical form 144 Front Street West, Suite 430 and home movies. According to the Toronto, Ontario M5J 21_7 filmmaker, Wild Sync, which features Canada From Reflection by Jim Hartel DREW MOREY

This Is the Title of My Film (1979) Drew Morey began filmmaking at age 16mm film, black & white, sound, 7 12, working on his own in minutes super-8mm. He made This is the Title "Communication is only as effective as of My Film while a student of the film- the motive is pure. Each of us every day maker, Rick Hancox, at Sheridan makes someone else think we mean College in Oakville, Ontario. something other than we do, in order to This Is the Title of My Film received achieve our own ends . This the "Special Jury Award" in 1980 at phenomenon, is clearly seen in the 11th Canadian Student Film business and political language . Festival in Montreal . Also in 1980, the "This is the Title of My Film, on a sur- film won an award at the Ann Arbor face level, is a soap opera satire in Film Festival and was an American Film Festival which stage directions, actor motives finalist . and descriptions of dialogue replace For distribution information contact. the dialogue itself . Underlying this Canadian Filmmakers Distribu- outward form is a subtle exposition of tion Centre the tragic purposelessness in the 144 Front Street West, Suite 430 lives of people, seen in the parody of Toronto, Ontario M5J 21-7 the shallow, soap opera conflict ." Canada --- Drew Morey From This Is the Title of My Film by Drew Morey

Angel Baby (1979) super-8mm film, color, silent, 2 minutes The filmmaker acknowledges his debt to Norman McLaren who gave him the idea for Angel Baby. In this film Porter speculates upon what it would be like to fly.

Down On Me (1980) super-8mm film, silent, 4 minutes "Down On Me combines many feelings which affect my films. Flight, depth, speed, and vertigo.

"I wanted to film myself from the viewpoint of a failing-camera so I threw a simple, light camera, running at normal speed, up in the air on a small parachute. It was too difficult to get under it and catch it and the resulting film was too blurry and abstract. So I bought a strong fishing pole and tied the line to my automatic single-frame camera, running at one second per frame . Stephen stood with the pole at the tops of roofs, bridges and staircases and slowly lowered and raised the camera while I waited and posed at the bottom . "This film is still expanding as we find more locations to shoot from." -John Porter

From Down on Me by John Porter Santa Claus Parade, Amusement Park, Angel Baby, and Down On Me will be shown with an introduction by Program the filmmaker. JOHN PORTER Amusement Paris (1978) super-8mm, "I had filmed Toronto's color, silent, 6 minutes Since an early age, John Porter has Santa Claus Parade (1976) super- Santa Claus been seriously involved in acting and 8mm, Parade for three years trying to cap- "After shooting time-lapse films color, silent, 3.5 minutes photography. In 1975 ture the humor I saw in it, but without (single-framing with time exposures he studied car- "in 1976 I got a permanent, full-time tooning, illustration, success. In 1976 I tried filming it with on each frame) for almost three ballet dancing job and spent my first pay cheque on and attempted to start a my new camera using its automatic years, I favoured brightly-lit subjects filmmakers' a Braun Nixo super-8 camera with an theatre. In 1978 he joined The single-frame motor. The result was so at night. The bright movement against Funnel automatic intervalometer and a con- Experimental Film Theatre, of which successful that I went on to shoot as a dark background created ex- stantly open shutter. Like no other he became - vice-president many parades and similar events as I aggerated wiping or blurring with in 1980. camera, it enabled me to freely ex- Porter recently was could find . pastel colours, and there was almost awarded a grant periment with two of my oldest ideas: for no chance of over-exposure. filmmaking from the Ontario Arts and pixilation which is "For this film I obtained permission to Council. "The spinning coloured lights of the quick and easy to shoot; and the wip- shoot- from the roof of an office rides at the ing of images with time exposures. I building Canadian National Exhibi- where 1 used to work. It is For distribution information contact : started shooting tion were the perfect subject. i n 1978 pixilated portraits or eight floors high and right at the end The 1 shot cioseups of each ride at one Funnel documents of my favorite subject: of Toronto's widest street, on the second per 507 King Street East people and their actions. I shot frame. In 1979 1 took an over parade route. The camera ran at Toronto, Ontario M5A I M3 100 films in overall shot from the top of a tower this series which I call three seconds per frame and turned a and tried an experiment in over- Canada Porter's Condensed Rituals. Most of three hour event into a three minute exposure. I kept slowing the them are a single, continuous shot, film." camera from a very high viewpoint, down, eventually to twenty seconds of an en- - John Porter tire event. per frame causing twenty-second ex- posures on each frame, and it still looked good." - John Porter brilliant Clockwork Orange), is real human blood in this film but Ramones' Blitzkrieg Bop, Sex Pistols' you will have to keep guessing which Anarchy in the U.K., and God Save scenes are real) ." the Queen . Visuals of real punks -Suzanne Naughton were hard to come by in the Fall of Previous to her filmmaking studies at 1977 but there are some from the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, magazines and record covers com- Suzanne Naughton gained a wide bined with live footage from New range of experience in commercial Rose, a party, live studio footage and and technical still photography, both pixilation. Several still photographers in England and in Canada . R.P.I ., contributed local material and this all where Naughton received her degree went onto the animation stand along in film and photography in 1978,_ was with the actual 16mm workprint, the filmmaker's "home base" at the some of which l re-photographed time of making Mondo Punk. to frame for frame (7 or 9 frames Her involvement in Canadian film and action one) to optically slow the television has included work as a down. I deliberately mixed negative free-lance film editor and as an assis- and positive stocks, black and white tant producer for commercial televi- and colour film, filmed off xerox sion productions. She has directed I'll 35mm contact sheets, colour-filtered Be Waiting, a film adaptation of the black and white and monochromed Raymond Chandler short story. colour to give the film a raw For information about distribution . rom Mondo Punk by Suzanne Naughton aggravating edge. A few razor blade contact: special effects were done live by pix- SUZANNE NAUGHTON wanted to see about `Punk' - 340 Canadian Filmmakers Distribu- ilation right on the animation stand shots in six minutes cut to four edited tion Centre Mondo Punk film, allowed the filmmaker to give (1978) 16mm classic music selections . In order: which 144 Front Street West, Suite 430 color, sound, 7 minutes thrills while escaping Beethoven's 9th Symphony Song of vicarious Toronto, Ontario M5J 21_7 relatively unscathed (although there "It is everything most people never Joy (m~ reference to Kubrick's Canada

From Volatile Memories by Marcelle Pecol From Canal by Richard Kerr

Program #3 in every which MARCELLE PECOT projection animates RICHARD KERR movements. The film frame itself them on the screen once again. becomes "lock" for the flow of pre- Canal (1981) 16mm film, color, Volatile Memories (1980) 16m m film, Volatile Memories will be shown with sent images --- particularities of light, sound, 21 minutes black & white, silent, 3 minutes an introduction by the filmmaker. texture, and rhythm - as they "The imagery of Canal captures the reverberate in the memory of the "Images we make are part of Marcelle Pecot began her work as a activity of freighters, ships' crews, filmmaker. our minds ; they are living painter, moved to still photography, carry our dock workers and the historical organisms that on and eventually turned to filmmaking masonry that the original Welland Richard Kerr began filmmaking as an mental lives for us darkly, while an undergraduate attending the Canal was constructed from . . . The outgrowth of his work in still whether we pay them any mind University of Southwestern Louisiana. film is about going to my 'own world photography. He studied Media or not ." She received a Master of Arts degree of youth' and spontaneously Production at Sheridan College in -Hollis Frampton in filmmaking from the Center for documenting the canal environment Oakville. In recent years he has also Memories derives from per- Media Study at the State University of Volatile as an adult." begun to explore painting and sonal experiences of the filmmaker. New York at Buffalo. Screenings of -Richard Kerr woodsmanship . Kerr's current film Yet the film is not autobiographical in her films have taken place at the project is a diaristic landscape film Art both color and the sense of narrating these ex- Albright Knox Art Gallory, at the Through Kerr's use of which examines its subject-matter film stocks, selectively periences . The shards of evidence Institute of Chicago, and at Global black & white over a time-span of six years . exist right there on the screen - Village in New York City. Pecot's chosen to contrast present with past without intervention of narrative con- films have also been part of group events, and also through his com- presently serves as a member tinuity to impose a psychological dis- shows of work from Buffalo screened binations of imagery with text, the Kerr of the staff at Canadian Filmmakers tance upon them (an "imposition", at The Funnel in Toronto, the filmmaker invokes the canal as a living Distribution Centre . given the necessities of this film's Neighborhood Film Project in presence . The canal itself becomes making) . They exist in as straight- Philadelphia, Miami-Dade Communi- witness to all events that have occurred forward a way as possible as actual ty College, and as part of the 1979 or will occur along it. For distribution information contact: Canadian Filmmakers Distribu- images/memories from Pecot's life. "Beau Fleuve" exhibition in France. Returned to over and over in Canal is 111 Never Be a Dancer and Give tion Centre The word "volatile" derives from the But, imagery of the passage of massive 144 Front Street West, Suite 430 Latin term, volare, meaning "to fly". Over Air My Mind were included on forms of freighters and rock for- FRONTIER series . Toronto, Ontario MW 21_7 And the images of the film DO ex- the previous mations as they enter the film frame, Canada plode out in the shifting patterns of For distribution information contact: swell out to its edges, then 'empty light which hit the screen and render Media Study/Buffalo out' of the frame in slow deliberate them visible. Yet the images are as 207 Delaware Avenue persistent as memory, re-membered Buffalo, New York 14202 From Wedding Before Me by Patrick Jenkins Program #4 PATRICK JENKINS Wedding Before Me (1976) super- 8mm film, color, sound, 6 minutes "Wedding Before Me was shot and completed in April of 1976. The original footage was shot by my Un- cle John in 1953 as a record of my parents' wedding. Hence the original footage was shot before I was born . "When I first saw this original footage in 1976 immediately I began to reflect on my feelings about family struc- tures and social rituals (i.e. wed- dings, baptisms) that exist in our society. The original footage seemed to contain a lot of the repressed feelings of interpersonal tensions that family structures and ritual do so Preliminary sketches for Ruse much to contain and control . by Patrick Jenkins "In order to emphasize this repressed 1 violence repeated gestures and "However, Ruse is not intended as a movements via optical printing ." mere documentation and scientific -Patrick Jenkins exploration of light. It is also about Ruse (1980) super-8mm film, color, my reaction to my immediate living sound, 7 minutes environment and my feeling that in some ways the world is an immensely "Ruse is an intensely poetic film . It was shot over a period of four months deceptive and illusory place to live. The overall in my house in Toronto. The main im- tone of the film is somewhat romantic age of the film is light penetrating and pathetic. The viewer is not quite sure glass windows, venetian blinds and what to believe in as traditionally solid glancing off objects. Similar to the ob- paintings of the jects such as tables and windows impressionists, Ruse lose their solidity explores how light affects objects and under the camera's eye . " our perceptions of the world around us . -Patrick Jenkins "The dictionary defines the word ruse Wedding Before Me and Ruse will be as meaning, `illusion, trick, or ar- shown with introductions by the film- tifice'. By using extreme close-ups of maker. 8 Film Festival. Jenkins' work has Jenkins was awarded an Ontario Arts household objects, they are given the Patrick Jenkins was trained as a been seen in numerous solo and Council Film Grant to continue his ex- `illusion' of being abstract . Slowly the sculptor and mixed media artist at the group shows in Canada, U .S .A., plorations of the film medium. camera is pulled back to reveal that Banff School of Fine Arts and York South America and England including what we thought was abstract was University. In 1976, Jenkins began Media Study/Buffalo ; S.W.A .M .P . For information about distribution only a small facet of a household ob- film production with Wedding Before Houston, Texas; and the Art Gallery contact : ject. Illusion is further explored in Me. Since that time Jenkins has of Ontario, Toronto. Reviews of his Patrick Jenkins numerous images of layers of drapery made eight films including the con- film and visual art activities have #167-798 Richmond Street West over a window that increase our troversial Fluster (1978) which won appeared in Vanguard Magazine, Toronto, Ontario M6J 3P3 sense of the multilayered quality of first prize in the experimental Cinema Canada, Art Magazine and Canada light. category of the 1979 Toronto Super- the Globe and Mail . Recently Mr.

From Rings by Barbara Lattanzi BARBARA LATTANZI Rings (begun 1980) 1Bmm film, color, silent, 3 minutes "Rings, a work-in-progress, is com- prised of a series of brief films, each less than 10 seconds in length. Each film, or `ring', is self-contained and complete within itself. Between each 'ring' occurs a blank segment, ap- proximately 5 seconds long, which gives the spectator an interlude for the final plodding stages in visual cognition of the `ring' preceding. By this I mean that since there is no time to both see and think about the visual ideas, the spectator must reflexively construct them out of nearly nothing, out of brief glimpses. "The temporal shapeliness of each 'ring' is analogous to the shapes that a juggler traces in thin air with objects which he must keep in constant motion . The idea that visual integrities were possible within such narrow time- frames was crystallized for tme by Tony Conrad, to whom I am very grateful." -Barbara Lattanzi Rings will be shown with an introduc- tion by the filmmaker, Barbara Lattanzi has taught film- making workshops at Media Study/Buffalo, and has worked as a film technician in laboratories in Chicago and San Francisco . She received her Master's degree in Film- From Abroad; Peeled Skin & Cheers by Michael G . Mathews making from the Center for Media MICHAEL G, MATHEWS Study at the State University of New Abroad, was but one of several short Syracuse University where he was York at Buffalo . She has had shows Abroad; Peeled Skin & Cheers (1977) films produced by a group of poetry editor for the school's literary at the Cinematheque in San Fran- 1fimm film, color, sound, 7 minutes American independent filmmakers arts magazine. Currently he is working who traveled throughout England on a screenplay for a feature length film cisco, Berks Filmmakers in Penn- "Abroad. Peeled Skin & Cheers is a assisting one another in the production he hopes to produce in the near future, sylvania, the University of Wiscon- of young short, poetic interpretation a of their respective films." and has been hired to film the motion sin/Milwaukee, the Collective for Liv- man's personal reflections upon ing Cinema, Media Study/Buffalo, -Michael G . Mathews picture The Eyes of the Amaryllis this traveling outside his homeland for the fall in Nantucket, Mass. and as part of the Beau Fleuve very first time. Centered around the Michael G . Mathews is a commercial program in France. She is the Assis- writing of a letter, the film attempts cinematographer and film editor tant to the Producer for THE through various signs and symbols whose work includes local and FRONTIER. ultimately through the narrative television spots, state (and national For information about distribution For information about distribution structure of the film itself) to address educational films, and most recently contact: Everlasting. contact: the marvelous fear and beauty the motion picture Tuck Media Study/Buffalo Media Study/Buffalo resulting from culture shock and Born in Buffalo, New York, Mr. 207 Delaware Avenue 207 Delaware Avenue assimilation . Filmed in Surrey, Mathews received his B.S. degree in Buffalo, New York 14202 Buffalo, New York 14202 England in the summer of 1977. Advertising/ Public Relations from Program #5 JIM ANDERSON Canada Mini-Notes (1975) 1fimm film, color, sound, 14 minutes Canada Mini-Notes is a playful in- vestigation into the mechanics of the film process. Using as his subject the flipbook, Anderson invites considera- tion of how film works: like a flipbook, a film is a series of still images view- ed in rapid succession . The flipbook is both child's game and proto-cinematic form and Anderson takes it to the limits of inventive possibility. For Anderson, "It sort of becomes filmed theatre or maybe it's cinema verite . The flipbook becomes a movie about a book and/or a book about a movie." Canada Mini-Notes will be shown with an introduction by the filmmaker. Since his involvement with the Toron- to Filmmakers' Cooperative during the early 1970's, Jim Anderson has been active in the community of in- dependent artist/filmmakers in Toronto and is currently a member of The Funnel Experimental Film Theatre. Anderson's films have been screened at Cinema Parallele in Mon- treal, National Gallery of Art in .Ot- tawa, Hallwalls Gallery in Buffalo, Film Forum in New York, Oppenhaussen Film Festival in Ger- many, as well as The Funnel . Canada Mini-Notes received an award at the 1978 Ann Arbor Film Festival . Work, Bike & Eat, co-directed by Anderson and Keith Lock, was shown in the first FRONTIER series . For intormatlon about distributilon contact: The Funnel 507 King Street East Toronto, Ontario M5A 1M3 Canada

From Canada Mini-Notes by Jim Anderson

by Lin Rankin Production still from The Aud(vid)ition by Lin Rankin From The Aud(vid)i[ion contact: LIN RANKIN ding an understated and measured Lin Rankin studied video at the Ryer- For distribution information action, and the other role being more son Polytechnical I nstitute in Toronto . Trinity Square Video The Aud(vid)tion (1980) 3/4" Street West, Suite highly exaggerated and stylized . The She has also attended the University 299 Queen color, sound, 5 minutes %Tideotape, split-frame device is used throughout of Toronto and the Ontario College of 500 Ontario M5V 1Z9 Using a split-screen technique The the videotape, in which side-by-side Art . Rankin maintains an active Toronto, Aud(vid)ition explores contrasts of the images function separately: infor- association with Trinity Square Video Canada color, mood, time, and movement . ming each other, fighting with each in Toronto, where The Aud(vid)tion 198Q. The event is of the same actor other, contradicting each other, rein- was taped in auditioning for two contrasting forcing and developing out of each theatrical roles - one role deman- other.

From Untitled (O) by Michaelle McLean

MICHAELLE MC LEAN this, McLean was interested in dis- Untitled (Cl) will be shown with an in- films have been included in group covering "what would happen when troduction by the filmmaker. shows of Toronto films screened at Untitled (1980) super-8mm film, this square was translated from a Michaelle McLean is one of the par- Media Study/Buffalo, at Chicago color, silent, 4 minutes graphic into film" . mark- straight She ticipating members of The Funnel Ex- Filmmakers, and at the Detroit Film Michaelle McLean's work in film- ed the square out on a parking lot, perimental Film Theatre, Toronto's Project. She is a. recent recipient of making is directly related to her stood in the middle and moved the artist-run, alternative showcase for an Experimental Film Grant from the background as a graphic artist. But it camera around, and "in effect sort of independent film. Along with her film- Ontario Arts Council . is what McLean calls her "interest in `drew' out a film" . During the editing making activities, McLean works in a For distribution information contact: secrets" which led her ultimately to process McLean "disrupted and variety of media and has exhibited The Funnel Jilmmaking . I n Untitled (0) a par- restructured the visual and temporal her work at Peter Whyte Gallery in 507 King Street East ticular graphic - a square - is used sequence" which enabled her "to Banff, Alberta, and also at The Funnel Toronto, Ontario M5A 1 M3 as subject-matter for the film . For manipulate the temporal experience and Mercer Union in Toronto. Her Canada of the shape" .

Program #fi GEN ERAL I DEA

Test Tube (1979) 2" and 314" videotape, color, sound, 27 minutes General Idea, a Toronto-based group, was formed in 1968 by A.A. Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal to work collaboratively in film, video, print, performance and other media. Their work generally adopts and parodies the forms of popular media - the glossy photographic periodical, the beauty pageant, the television talk show - to reflect the role of the con- temporary media artist . Among General Idea's best-known works are FILE Magazine, a quarterly which they edit and publish, and their Miss General Idea Pageants, perfor- mances which began in 1970.

"Test Tube uses the media to create a complex visual portrait of the artist in the eighties. The program is hosted by the three members of General Idea - A.A. Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal - in the setting of an unusual bar, the Colour Bar Lounge, in which walls and floors have been replaced by electronically generated colour. In this video environment, they are watching television, but the show they are watching is a story they have themselves constructed, about a woman artist and the dilem- mas she encounters in her very modern life. This programme is in- terrupted by occasional television commercials for the Colour Bar Lounge itself, and its witty semantic General Idea cocktails. Within this triple structure, Production still from Test Tube by General Idea uses television formats and video special effects to outline the ideological, ethical and lifestyle responsibility', which is of course a General Idea has presented its per- House in London, England, Lucio problems facing the artist who wants drink served at the Colour Bar formances, installations and Amelio Gallery in Naples, Canadian to be effective in an era of mass com- Lounge. General Idea's Test Tube is videotapes in many galleries and Cultural Center in Paris, Saman munications. The program touches the first in a series of television museums throughout North America Gallery in Genoa, deAppel Gallery in on communism, fascism, capitalism programs by artists being in- and Europe, including one-person Amsterdam, and Centre d'Arte and revolution in the process of for- dependently produced by De Appel, shows at the Art Gallery of Ontario Contemporain in Geneva. mulating its own recipe for `trendy Amsterdam ." and the Carmen Lamanna Gallery in For distribution information contact. -General Idea Toronto, Western Front Gallery in Art Metropole , Optica and Galerie B in 217 Richmond Street West Montreal, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1W2 Parachute Center in Calgary, Canada Canada 10 THE INSTITU-TIONS

P r l r~ r> r~ril~.~Il~l~ lrlr~llrr

Media Study/Buffalo is a unique Western New York regional center established WNED-TV signed on the air as the first educational TV station in New York State to encourage the creation and understanding of media - especially on March 30, 1959. Its purpose: to encourage the educational and cultural photography, film, video and sound composition - by people of all ages in the growth of the community . area. It is also exploring the electronic and computer-generated arts, visual and aural, and is researching broadcast, cablecast, microwave and other concepts. WNED-TV is a modern, state-of-the-art TV production and broadcast center Media Study/Buffalo is a not-for-profit public service foundation established un- operated by a skilled staff of more than 50. Policy is set by the Western New York der grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endow- Public Broadcasting Association, a non-profit educational corporation chartered ment for the Arts which supports: by the New York State Board of Regents in 1955. The Corporation has a 33- member Board of Trustees, elected from the community . I ACCESS to production equipment for all citizens, especially serious artists, emerging makers and youth. WNED-TV has one of the most powerful transmitters in the state, broadcasting II WORKSHOPS in image/sound experimentation and production, in circuit- with 1,150 .000 watts . Its signal reaches the eight counties of Western New York building and the design of electronic art tools, and in teaching creative media. and north to Toronto. Cable TV and translators extend its coverage in to Cat- III EXHIBITION - screening, viewing, display, installation, presentation, per- taraugus County and throughout Southern Ontario. Approximately 425,000 formance and discussion of all formats of creative image and sound. households watch Channel 17 at least once a week. Of these, some 175,000 are IV INFORMATION AND PROJECTS resources, conferences, residencies and in the U.S. and 250,000 in Canada . media programming relating to creative image and sound and their psy- chocultural and environmental interactions . V PRODUCTION PROJECTS by independent image and sound artists, local and national, and involvement in the legal and distribution problems associated with them . V I MANAGEMENT of the above facilities, the facilities housing them, and relations with individuals and agencies supporting them.

THE AUDIENC It is the intention of Media Study/Buffalo and from Toronto and Southern Ontario in Canada . WNED-TV Channel 1 7 to continue THE Please send your comments on the current FRONTIER program with a series of new in- programs and your suggestions for future dependent film and video makers from Buffalo programs to : and Western New York in the United States and

Media Study/Buffalo WNED-TV Channel 17 207 Delaware Avenue 184 Barton Street Buffalo, New York 14202 Buffalo, New York 14240 THE FRONTIER: SCHEDULE Saturday Evenings 10:30 p.m. WNED-TV-Channel 17

The Frontier Air Dates

Program # Air Date Title of Film/Videotape and Artist 1 Oct. 3, 1981 Wild Sync (9 minutes) Rick Hancox, Toronto. Captured Tool (3 minutes) and Reflection (4 minutes) Jim Hartel, Buffalo. This Is the Title of My Film (7 minutes) Drew Morey, Toronto.

2 Oct . 10 Santa Claus Parade (3.5 minutes), Amusement Park (6 minutes), Angel Baby (2 minutes), and Down On Me (4 minutes) John Porter, Toronto. Mondo Punk (7 minutes) Suzanne Naughton, Toronto .

3 Oct. 17 Volatile Memories (3 minutes) Marcelle Pecot, Buffalo . Canal (21 minutes) Richard Kerr, Toronto.

4 Opt. 24 Wedding Before Me (6 minutes) and Ruse (7 minutes) Patrick Jenkins, Toronto. Rings (3 minutes) Barbara Lattanzi, Buffalo. Abroad; Peeled Skin & Cheers (7 minutes) Michael Mathews, Buffalo

5 Oct. 31 Canada Mini-Notes (14 minutes) Jim Anderson, Toronto. The Aud(irid)tion (5 minutes) Lin Rankin, Toronto . Untitled (0) (4 minutes) Michaelle McLean, Toronto .

6 Nor. 7 Test Tube (27 minutes) General Idea, Toronto .

Visual Designer/ Richard Macakanja

NON-PROFIT ORS. Media Study/Buffalo U.S. POSTAGE PAID Buffalo, N.Y. 207 Delaware Avenue Permit No. 898 Buffalo, New York 14202 (716) 847-2555

The Peace Bridge, Connecting Buffalo, New York with Fort Erie, Ontario, has been, since its dedication in 1927, symbolic of the close ties and friendship between Canada and the United States.