Video Mundi Program 4
"THE USA IS TOO GREAT A COUNTRY TO BE SILENT"
Curated by Jim Finn, Chicago

Wednesday, April 20 8:00pm at the Chicago Cultural Center
Sunday, April 25 11:00am Video Bus Trip to Milwaukee

Six months before Pearl Harbor, the Soviet Union and the British signed a mutual aid pact against the Nazis. During the press conference, a reporter asked if the United States would be a silent partner in the fight against fascism. The Soviet Foreign Commissar replied, "The USA is too great a country to be silent." (from Russia at War, Alexander Werth)

At a time when a good chunk of the world associates our country with dangerous adventurism and corporate-cultural imperialism, I thought it might be nice to take a look at some of the humans here. I picked a film from the year I was born in 1968, the Bicentennial year of 1976, a film that was shot on super-8 in 1982, a cable access show with footage from the 50s, and other work made in the last few years. Some representative samples from the nation-state: a gentle freak show for our communist friends.

Jon Blackstone and Derek Turner
Pimpy, 1995, 12 min.
The tag line of this film is: "The adventures of an odd but pleasant young man." This strange super-8 film in 1982 was made as part of a series of TV shows they were working on (some of whose episodes are playing in the background). It's the classic idiot boy archetype: only this one can't function in a capitalist society. The director of the film converted to Christianity in the 90's and his congregation raised money for the editing, musical score and release of the film.

R n' R
Mall of America Talent Competion, 2000, 3 min. (exerpt)
This was made as part of CAN-TV cable access show in Chicago. Rosie and Rebecca had a bake sale and went to join the talent competition at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. On their way out of the mall, they stopped in a video karaoke booth and this blue-screen, fashion-forward musical was the ending of a great trip.

Roger Beebe
Famous Irish Americans, 2003, 8 min.
"At long last, the burning question has been given the proper perspective: Just how Irish is Shaquille O'Neal? Is he a "White Negro"? Or "Smoked Irish" perhaps? Roger Beebe's reconsidering of often over-, or at least, mis-emphasized ethnic nomenclature comes out swinging like a good Irishman to set the fools straight one more time." –Cinematexas

Dean Rank
Portrait: Athlete, 2000, 1 min.
A man rehearsing his exhortations like Hitler rehearsing his gestures.

Unknown
Atomic TV, 1990's, 2 min. (exerpt)
Found footage hijinks from cable access in Baltimore: a japanese boy, a pie in the face game, a 1950's gym teacher discussing masturbation, and a pump-action water shotgun.

Marjie Short
Kudzu, 1976, 17 min.
A 16mm film about the imported vine taking over the South like the Republican party. Jimmy Carter weighs in with his '76 campaign opinion on the subject.

NFL Films
Broadway Joe, 1968, 4 min.
The same year as the Tet Offensive, the election of Nixon, the assassinations of RFK and MLK, Joe Namath was at his peak. The voice of John Facenda narrates with a song by The Super Chicks.

Laura Parnes
Untitled (Herzog on Fassbinder), work-in-progress, 3 min.
An audio recreation (featuring the voice of Kel O'Neill) of Werner Herzog discussing Rainer Werner Fassbinder. This piece is famous among those in attendance at Werner Herzog's screening and q & a at the 2002 Cinematexas festival in Austin.

Bill Brown
Mountain State, 2004, 20 min.
A brief history of the westward expansion of the United States as told by 25 roadside historical markers in the state of West Virginia.

Bryan Boyce
Suckers! 2004, 1 min.
The 30-second history of Halliburton in Iraq.

Shannon Plumb
Crackers, Peanut Butter, and Dental Floss, 2001, 2 min. 30 sec.
A lower-east-side fin-de-siecle Charlie Chaplin is back for another video mundi.

Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay
Je changerais d'avis, 2001, 4 min.
Benny is representing the 51st state in a sign-language, CNN-styled, weather report Francoise Hardy loveathon!

ABOUT THE CURATOR:

Jim Finn (b. 1968, St. Louis) lives in Chicago and makes videos about gerbils, Jimmy Carter, and communism among other things. His work has screened at festivals such as the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Cinematexas, and the NY Underground Festival. His work has appeared in Harpers magazine and on PBS. He is the co-founder of Video Mundi at the Chicago Cultural Center. In 2001, he curated the "Out of the Vault" festival of rescued 16mm films from the Chicago Public Library.