Video Mundi Program 5
WE'RE NOT DEAD YET: RECENT VIDEO MADE AT, BY, ABOUT
AND AROUND SQUEAKY WHEEL
Curated by Marc Moscato, Buffalo
Thursday, April 22 6:30pm at the Chicago Cultural
Center
Sunday, April 25 11:00am Video Bus Trip to Milwaukee
Despite a bad media rap, Buffalo, New York is home to a burgeoning and often unacknowledged d.i.y. media arts scene. Squeaky Wheel has been at the center of the city's independent media arts community and has been an indispensable resource for over fifteen years. A media access center by day, a screening and performance space by night, Squeaky Wheel offers film and video equipment rentals, educational workshops, produces a cable access show, publishes a magazine, provides residency programs, and offers a screening space for both local and traveling media artists.
Contrary to making a squeak, squeaking by, or squeaking along, the works in "We're Not Dead Yet" demand the grease! This collection of film and video work made in the last 4 years by people active at Squeaky Wheel explore issues and aesthetics in new ways that reflect the dynamic and critical media arts community of the city.
Jody Lafond
The Buffalo Tape, 2000, 3 min.
English/ French language flash cards, the artist explores
the delights and frustrations of living in a place that has so much to
offer, but gets so little acknowledgment for its pains.
A native of Buffalo, NY, Jody Lafond has been involved in media work as
an artist, producer, teacher, and historian for over twenty years. She
is a founding member of Squeaky Wheel.
Stephanie Gray
This is the bike ride to work, 2003, 10 min.
The bike ride to work is swiftly and slowly, dreamily
documented with stories of real life scenes along the way as the bike
ride heroine is thinking them. When was the last time you rode your bike
and noticed the neighborhood? It's all true you know.
Stephanie Gray is a committed super 8 filmmaker who received a 2003 New
York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Film. She is former Development
Director for Squeaky Wheel and now lives in Queens, New York.
Kelly Spivey
Why You Were Born, 2001, 6 min.
A Super 8 animation that utilizes found images delicately
cut form magazines from the 40's through the 70's. A hand-held camera
creates agitation and a frenetic frame speed penetrates women's roles
shown in advertising, shattering then and often offering sadistic feminist
and otherwise Sapphic solutions.
Kelly Spivey's work has been exhibited internationally at festivals such
as Splice This!, Madcat Experimental Women's Film Festival, and Thaw Festival.
She is former Associate Director for Squeaky Wheel and now lives in Queens,
New York.
Judge Kindel and Lindsay Sampson
The You are Special "Special" Live Analog Video , 2003, 2.5 min.
Taped in "one take" using a hand-crafted
Jones colorizer/sequencer, four tube cameras, a 33 record player, casio
sampler and Amiga, this piece is intended as entertainment for your average
robot.
Judge is currently Technical Director for Squeaky Wheel. Lindsay Sampson
is an active member and on the board of Squeaky Wheel.
Alan Rhodes
Great Success, 2003, 5 min.
A modern medical miracle with a pageant of vivid imagery
in the tradition of Pop Art/Design. The live-action actors, shot on super
8mm, exist in cartoonishness above the hyper-realistic video backgrounds
delivering a sinister childness in this modern hyper-parable.
Alan Rhodes has received grants from The Princess Grace Foundation, Niagara
Council for the Arts, and SUNY College of Arts and Sciences, and is an
active member at Squeaky Wheel.
Tammy McGovern
Entrance, 2003, 3 min.
Entrance is an experiment in re-contextualizing media
images in order to make the manifestation of meaning an immediate and
personal experience.
Tammy McGovern is a video maker and digital artist. She is currently working
at Squeaky Wheel as a program associate and instructs classes in animation
and web design.
Marc Moscato
Grow Your Own, 2004, 12min.
Sick of buying your food from a supermarket? Grow your
own! A document/ diary of going back to the land.
Termite TV Collective
Producers: Dorthea Braemer & Meg Knowle
THE WAR SHOW, 2003, 28min.
"The War Show" is a half-hour compilation/dialogue
of short experimental and documentary videos exploring dissent, moral
responsibility and emotional reactions to the United States' recent policy
in Iraq. Founded in 1992, Termite TV is a not-for-profit video collective
with members based in Philadelphia, PA and Buffalo, NY. To date they have
produced over 40 programs that have been broadcast and cablecast nationally
on television and screened at festivals and museums worldwide.
Contributors to "The War Show"
include:
Mike Kuetemeyer: A War that Lasts (4 min)
Dorothea Braemer: Interview with Michael Niman (2 min)
Meg Knowles: Civilian Training (Meal Provided), featuring Ron Ehmke
(6 min)
Dorothea Braemer: The Weasel Clause (4 min)
Anula Shetty: Double Vision (2 min)
Brian Milbrand & Tom Holt: From Bush to Hitler (4 min)
Cyan Meeks: Political Advertisement (:30)
Vince Mistretta: Women in Black (4 min)
Sarah Christman & Jen Simmons: Bush for Peace (2 min)
Meg Knowles is an experimental video artist whose work has been screened
at galleries and museums internationally, as well as on cable television
and PBS. She is currently the Technical Director at the Department of
Media Study, University at Buffalo and is vice-president of the Board
of Directors at Squeaky Wheel. Dorothea Braemer is a media artist who
recently moved to Buffalo from Berlin, Germany, to become Executive Director
of Squeaky Wheel.
Various
Summer 2003 Film Camp Shorts, 2003, 7 min.
Short films and digital animations made at youth education
programs taught at Squeaky Wheel.
Marc Moscato does a number of things, including curating and instigating events and making short documentary videos. He ran d.i.y. arts collaborative, My House, which presented 45 multimedia events based in a basement in Eugene, Oregon between the years 2002-2003. His other interests include community history, making stencils, gardening, punk rock, and activism. He currently resides in Buffalo, New York, where he does programming for Squeaky Wheel.