Sunday, November 14, 2010 - 6:00 PM

That Tortured Feeling
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After more than seven years, our 44th president declared an end to the Iraq War on August 31, 2010—but fear, anger—and arguably the war itself—rages on. Though the films of this program were shot prior to the declaration, the fear, anger and cynicism presented are just as relevant as they were on August 30, 2010. These films are not just about the current war in Iraq. They reference a range of wars, periods and atrocities. . . Not simply protest works, some like Gay Pool Party juxtapose the martial and the serene, while others (such as Inititation and The Dance) offer a harrowing window on torture and violence in a mysterious context. Still others such as Was Für Material!, suspend conventional expectations, narrative norms and political orthodoxy by leaving judgment of the actions and characters to the viewer, leading to unexpected sympathies and questions.

Curated by the Festival Programming Committee. TRT: 87 min.

Gay Pool Party 1968

Rudy Lemcke

2009, USA, video, color, sound, 4 min. NY Premiere
Scenes from a decadent pool party full of bare chests, sunshine, swimming pools, cocktails and fun are intercut with stirring archival images of social unrest from the 60s.

Anti-Itiraflar Vol. 1

Aykan Safolğlu

2007, Turkey, video, color, sound, 3 min. US Premiere
Against a rainbow flag backdrop, a gay suicide bomber bids farewell.

The Dance

Bandit Queen

2007, Canada, video, color, sound, 4 min. US Premiere
Lo-res images (suggesting surveillance or documentation) are poetically edited in this meditation on the torture at Abu Ghraib, where women are both victims and perpetrators of organized violence. “But the Abu Ghraib photographs are an event in themselves...they make it clear that the east and the west are joined intimately and unwillingly, in a diabolical pas de deux of violence and death: joined in image and reality, as perpetrators and voyeurs.” —Susie Linfield, Dissent Magazine

Three Minutes

Jenn Garrison

2009, USA, video, color, sound, 4 min.
Two women, resisting an unnamed despotic regime, race through a war-torn city to spend three minutes together. Once reunited, they’re able to let their inhibitions go wild through romantic choreog- raphy ... but for only three minutes.

Blue Movie (Afghanistan)

Jeanne Hilary

2010, USA, video, color, sound, 11 min.
World Premiere
A chilling look at the relationship between eroticism and violence. Blue Movie combines blue illustrated images with still photographs taken in Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002.

Featuring MIX’s own Luc Goodhart.
Text by Jean Genet & Georges Bataille.

Was Für Material!

Mark Ther

2004, Czech Republic, video, color, sound, 17 min.
Gay love lives of the Hitler Youth. Tonguing the flame. Running through the fields, Nazi flag in hand. Pissing on crosses and licking it off. They are happy to know each other.

Initiation. 1, Vegemite

Paul Gunn

2010, USA/Australia, video, color, sound, 24 min World Premiere
Initiation. 1, vegemite combines the format of Al Qaeda prisoner of war video with enactments of fraternity, military and gang initiation rituals in an exploration of methods of entry to limited access groups.

See Something, Say Something

Jerry Tartaglia

2010, USA, 8mm, 16mm, video, color, sound, 20 min. World Premiere
This is the second installment of the film cycle “The Way of The World,” the first part of which, The Mystery School, was completed in 2009. Using manipulated multiple projections and live performance, the film begins with a brief FBI Warning, after which the Pope (Pauline VI), visits America in 16mm and with the help of a new audio track, clarifies the foundations of our Imperial system. Later, American soldiers enacting the “Saga of Western Man” burn civilian villages while superimposed gay porn unmasks the sublimated sexual energy that prevents them from asking or telling. In the live action segment the filmmaker attempts to communicate directly with the audience, but succumbs to the temptation of academic sanitation. See Something, Say Something takes the experiment from the passive re-reading of heterocentric imagery of The Mystery School into a proactive re-contextualizing of the fetishes of hetero-sanctity. See Something, Say Something is a live, real time, moving image projection that employs 16mm film, digital video/audio, super8 film and live action. The presentation at MIX includes Tyler Arcaro, John Schlegel and Sean Michael Kirk.