The Big Revue

Ensemble for Somnambulists was a film Maya Deren made while teaching a workshop at the Toronto Film Society. It was never completed, and is officially "unpublished," but this title has been restored and it screens occasionally along with her other films. It is sort of a preliminary sketch for The Very Eye of Night. ~ David Lewis, Rovi

This animation is based on Stephen Coates composition under the same title. This film is about The Great Revolution of the British Cuckoos, who bravely took over London, forcing all the people to move inside the cuckoo clocks. Animation by Alex Budovsky. Music by "(The Real) Tuesday Weld."

This dance short film brings three sensual and brutal duets to the screen. Three stories overlap to tell the memory; what remains of the nostalgic feelings of their union. The choreographies sublimate the cracks that human experience generates and which settle in us like so many emotional vestiges.

Set to a classic Duke Ellington recording "Daybreak Express", this is a five-minute short of the soon-to-be-demolished Third Avenue elevated subway station in New York City.

The King Cole Trio and Ida James perform the title song in this Soundie.

The short follows the dream of a young boy in which strange whale teleports him to a fantasy land where a happy cat named Pero (modeled after the character in the Nagagutsu wo Haita Neko anime that serves as Toei Animation's mascot) appears. The piece is entirely dialogueless.

In this short animation film the triangle achieves the distinction of principal dancer in a geometric ballet. The triangle is shown splitting into some three hundred transformations, dividing and sub-dividing with grace and symmetry to the music of a waltz. The film's artist and animator is René Jodoin, whose credits include Dance Squared and several collaborations with Norman McLaren.

Original animated film made for the International Chopin Year. The soundtrack consists of Fryderyk Chopin's music performed by Justyna Steczkowska, Tomasz Stańko and Michał Urbaniak. The author rejects the pompous, exalted, pathos-laden, obligatory admiration that paralyses the possibility of hearing Chopin's music in a fresh way.

"Gus Arnhein and His Coconut Grove Orchestra" is an agreeable short--and one of the earlier Vitaphone released. While the band is just about totally forgotten today, they had a nice sound and are a nice representative of the era. And, like most Vitaphone films of the day, the camera is mostly stationary and there are no fancy effects--just a straight recording of the act--which included several nice songs.

The music video for English recording artist M.I.A.'s "Born Free" was directed by Romain Gavras. The video, which depicts a genocide against red haired people, was filmed in California and directed by Romain Gavras as a nine-minute short film without the prior knowledge of M.I.A.'s record labels.

Freeform is the first student film by artist Jacob Sizemore. The narrative follows a woman in a mask as she longs to be free. The video is set to the musical piece Reach by Jeremy Levin.

This abstract video art piece was made for the purposes of being a backdrop to a semi-improvisational three person dance piece and live spoken word monologue in collaboration with other artists of various fields. Blurring the line between tradition and creating something new- this work looks at the evolution of artistic practice. Hazy visuals enter the process of creative ideas with such art forms as dancing, drawing, and photography. At an audio standpoint, the score goes through a similar creation by being a recording of a guitar pluck being altered into an atmospheric synth and overlaid with field recordings of art making. The piece takes into account the various ideas and thoughts that go into artistry, and lead the viewer from the traditional aspects of preparation and through to the breaking of tradition to create something unique and personal to the artist.

Comments on the background and popularity of disc jockey "Emperor" Bob Hudson, who bases his shows on the idea that radio is a fantasy.

“Kim's nieces shot this video and Kim and I put it together for Kill Rock Stars' first VHS video comp. I guess we made it in the mid/late 90s. Always reminded me of a Sympathy for the Devil/Le Gai Savoir take on Tony Oursler's "EVOL" or something. Our master was on S-VHS. It's all we could afford.” —Katie Erdman

Drift by Max Hattler sees the body as a metaphorical landscape. Eerie and sometimes too close for comfort the film manages to transform the familiar and mundane into something poetic and mysterious. A narrative grows out of what at first seems like nothing, but by the time the journey is over the viewer is left wanting more. What has happened is uncertain and maybe unimportant. The mood is at the heart of this piece. One part horror film and one part nature study certainly makes for a compelling mix.

A video collage created as a backdrop for music.

“La Fontaine d'Aréthuse” opens with what has been described as a “shimmering wash of sound in the piano, octave leaps in the left hand passing above and below repeated chords in the right,” a tune which apparently suggests the splashing waters of a fountain. The story “told” by the music involves a naked water goddess on the river shore, who is pursued by a hunter, before disappearing into thin air to join her water once again. (IMDb)

Set in the future: Two men learn that a mysterious winged girl has been taken prisoner, and then decide that they must free her at any cost.

It’s an underground world. Up on the ground there are many people coming and going. There lives a garbage bag. . . underground. He has no work, no home and no family. This is a story in which a dirty black garbage bag gains a new life through. . . various experiences.

Hal and Mitzi have known each other since they were babies. Tap dancer Hal now works as a window dresser in Blake's Department Store, owned by Mitzi's dad. Mr. Blake hates jazz music and dancing. He refuses to let Mitzi marry Hal, because Hal's ambition is to be a dancer on stage. When Mitzi reveals a secret about Mrs. Blake's past, her father soon changes his tune.