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Event
Erin Espelie: True Life Adventures
Los Angeles Filmforum at the Egyptian presents
Erin Espelie: True Life Adventures
Sunday, November 10, 2019, 7:30 pm
At the Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles
Erin Espelie in person. Los Angeles premieres! Some films on 16mm
The films of Erin Espelie strike sparks at collisions between the scientific and the poetic. Her lustrous images experiment with representations of nature and light, sometimes in seemingly straightforward pictures of animals or trees in the wild; other times experimenting with matted frames and superimpositions. Her rich soundtracks create tensions with the images, finding the ironic contrast between traditional nature films with their anthropomorphizing tendencies against her poetical organizations and concern with language; other times crafting a bold layering of natural sonic possibilities. Conventions of science films fall asunder as a different form of nature film is built. Conventions of poetic films are similarly questioned through the regular referencing to the scientific. Were delighted to host Erin Espelie, who also currently serves as the editor-in-chief of Natural History magazine, at the first screening of her short films in Los Angeles.
My moving-image work spans the poetic and the scientific, which as the astronaut Mae Jemison said are both avatars of human creativity. So by exploring metamorphosis, or the effects of time on a planet, on a landscape, on an archival interview, on a historic icon, on a medium, or on a species (like a hummingbird or a human), then I can better understand where weve been, where we are, and where we might be headedall inevitably different iterations of the same materials, subjects, and meanings. Erin Espelie, ("Landscapes & Language of the Anthropocene," Labocine Spotlight, 23 July 2017)
Erin Espelie is a filmmaker, writer, researcher, and editor, whose science-based experimental and poetic documentaries have shown at the New York Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the British Film Institute's Experimenta, CPH:DOX, the Copernicus Science Center in Warsaw, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and more. With a degree in molecular and cell biology from Cornell University and an MFA in experimental and documentary arts from Duke University, Espelie taught courses in environmental issues and the documentary arts from 2012 to 2015 at Duke Universitys Center for Documentary Studies, the Nicholas School of the Environment, the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, and the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image. She currently serves as Editor in Chief of Natural History magazine, and works at the University of Colorado Boulder as an assistant professor in Cinema Studies & Critical Media Practices and co-director of NEST (Nature, Environment, Science & Technology) Studio for the Arts.
Tickets: $10 general; $8 students (with ID)/seniors; $8 for American Cinematheque members; free for Filmforum Members. Paid tickets available in advance through the American Cinematheque from Fandango at https://www.fandango.com/egyptian-theatre-hollywood-AAOFX/theater-page?mode=general&q=90028 or at the door.
Filmforum member tickets available through Brown Paper Tickets at or at the door. Filmforum members reserve tickets through lafilmforum@gmail.com
For more information: www.lafilmforum.org or 323-377-7238.
Screening:
What Part of the Earth Is Inhabited
2010, Super8 to 16mm, color, silent, 8 min.
California Premiere
Plants, age-old rocks, algae, fungus, lizards, crabs, and other sea creatures pass before the camera, but for the presence of which we might imagine they have done so for eons quite indifferent to the curiosity and observations of the human race . . . [T]his film seems bent on humbling our conceptions of the world, reminding us of how much we will never see or know. (Tony Pipolo)
Silent Springs
2011, Super8 and 16mm to 16mm, color, sound, 13 min.
Los Angeles Premiere
Try as we might, we cannot autopsy (from Greek, to see for oneself) the whole natural world. As diversity of life reduces, we further lose the ability to be amphibious (from Greek, to lead dual lives), to be above a surface and below, not to mention achieving focus in a single plane. Texts include A Treatise on Optics (1845) by David Brewster; Atlas of Nerve Cells (1896) by Moses Allen Starr; and The Microscope (1899) by Simon Henry Gage
The Sea Seeks Its Own Level
2014, Super 8 film to 16mm, color, sound, 5 min.
Los Angeles Premiere
A journey from ice-capped mountains down to the Irish Sea.
Beyond Expression Bright
2012, HD digital video and Super8 film mastered to HD digital video, color, sound, 9 min.
California Premiere
Trespassing upon the past and the present in the study of sunlight.
True-Life Adventures
2014, HD digital video, color, sound, 16 min.
Los Angeles Premiere
Using audio from early eponymous Disney films, this trilogy confounds traditional nature documentaries in its adherence to strict time and spatial limits, ratcheting up false expectations about wildlife behavior.
Tenebrio molitor (Violent Death Spirits / Consumers)
2019, HD digital video, color, sound, 6 min.
World Premiere
10 quintillion insects live on the planetthat is, 300 pounds of insects for every pound of human flesh. They drive decomposition, dissolution, and decay that makes way for the new. They run counter to the accumulation and accretion of the Anthropocene.
(A Net to Catch the Light)
2016, HD digital video & hand-processed 16mm (hi-con), color and B&W, sound, 9 min.
Los Angeles Premiere
With a nod to Wallace Stevens (the light is like a spider), this piece contrasts digital imagery with hand-processed 16mm footage of an orb-weaver. Its sonically charged with spider vibrations, the voice of Steve Jobs, and a compression of Mac/Apple computer start-up sounds from the 1980s to now.
(Inside the Shared Life)
2017, HD digital video & 16mm film, color and B&W, sound, 9 min.
Los Angeles Premiere
Underwater creaturessnapping shrimp and bearded seals and morepopulate the soundscape here, alongside the ghost voice of biologist Lynn Margulis, who rails against authority, societal amnesia, and easy answers, to explain the beauty of complex inheritances.
75 min. total
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Los Angeles Filmforum screenings are supported by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles. We also depend on our members, ticket buyers, and individual donors.
Los Angeles Filmforum is the citys longest-running organization dedicated to weekly screenings of experimental film, documentaries, video art, and experimental animation. 2019 is our 44th year.
Coming Soon to Los Angeles Filmforum:
Nov 10 - Erin Espelie, at the Egyptian Theatre
Nov 14 - Thurs - All That You Cant Leave Behind, at MOCA
Nov 21 - Thurs - My First Film, with Zia Anger
Nov 24 - To Be Announced, at the Egyptian Theatre
Dec 5 - Thurs - Teo Hernandezs Salome with live music by Dorian Wood, at the Philosophical Research Society
Dec 8 - The 11th Festival of (In)appropriation, at the Egyptian Theatre
Memberships available, $70 single, $115 dual, or $50 single student
Contact us at lafilmforum@yahoo.com.
Find us online at http://lafilmforum.org.
Become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LosAngFilmforum!
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LocationSpielberg Theatre at the Egyptian (View)
6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: Yes! |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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