Event

Soundings

Chicago Filmmakers is reprising a retrospective on filmmaker James Herbert. Although he was better known for the music videos he directed for R.E.M. (It's The End of The World As We Know It), Herbert made a series of entrancing short films and a few acclaimed features. Each of these films is a highly stylized nude study of beautiful young heterosexual couples in decayed settings in the American south (Herbert is based in Athens, Georgia) that suggest new beginnings from old ruins: Automan (1988, 20 min.) takes place in the back seat of a broken down car, Piano (1988, 20 min.) in a crumbling theater, Soundings (1986, 20 min.) in an old prairie house. Unlike the others, Frontiers (1984, 20 min.) is shot in a studio, but the juxtaposition of sexual contact with the audio recording of a recent argument conveys a similar interest in cycles of struggle and evolution. (retrospective 1984 88, Total 80 min., 16mm).