- In lieu of a number of work related and artistic commitments, I've handed over the keys to the blog (temporarily) to Evan Louison, whose terrific takes on the Afro-Punk film festival are below. Look for more from Mr. Louison in the coming weeks.
- IFC Center opened a pair of splendid films yesterday. Kent MacKenzie's 50 year old The Exiles and Jacques Nolot's Before I Forget. Run and see them both - you won't be disappointed. Look for a full review of The Exiles from yours truly at Hammer to Nail and National Board of Review early next week.
- Shout out to Bruce Connor, the legendary avant-gardist, who passed away this week. I was quite taken with his collage driven found footage films, such as A Movie, Mongoloid and especially his take on the Kennedy assassination, Report, which uses loop printing of Kennedy's final moments, spasm like, seizure enducing strobes and sound pulled from radio reports of the assassination, to build an altogether terrifying cacophany of voices and documents. It is, in its own way, no less a nuanced portrait of the whole affair than Don DeLillo's Libra or Stone's JFK are. Here's a link to Manohla Dargis' wonderful appraisal of the man and his work - she most likely first saw Connor's films as I did, on educator and avant-garde filmmaker Jon Rubin's 16mm print, in his freshman seminar at Purchase's film conservatory.
