EVENT!: Unusual Animals, Portland, OR, 10/20

We’re excited to finally have an event on the left coast. On 10/20, we’re joining up with Asthmatic Kitty Records to take part in their Unusual Animals series. You may know AKR best for Sufjan Stevens, but the label is stacked with countless other amazing talent, as well.
See all the event details below, and if you’re in the area be sure and say hi.

WHAT: The “Unusual Animals” show, presented by The Journal of Short Film, Meow Meow Presents, and Asthmatic Kitty Records. All ages. Free show.
WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 20th, 3pm
WHERE: Urbangrind Coffee Eastside, 2214 NE Oregon, Portland, OR

Featuring music of Half-handed Cloud, Lake, The Beauty, Upsidedown Cat, and Kelli Schaffer; films by Vanessa Renwick, Karl Lind, Chel White, Jeremy Bird, Uli Beutter, Stephen Slappe, Ryan Jeffery, and Matt McCormick.

Here is some backstory from AKR:
“Unusual Animals, an imprint of the internationally celebrated music
label Asthmatic Kitty, was created as a side-project aimed to expose
more conceptual and experimental projects not fitting squarely into
any one genre of music. Originally, Unusual Animals explored these
sounds through vinyl-only releases, pairing its own artists with
friends and sometimes-unlikely bedfellows.

“During this year's SXSW music festival, however, Asthmatic Kitty took
the Unusual Animals' series one step farther by hosting a live event
that forced the Unusual Animals' artists from the dash of car stereos
and into live performances. The combination of local art, music,
piñatas, food, and culture brought about the second evolution in the
series and a shift in focus. No longer strictly highlighting
underexposed artists, the series now explores the contribution of all
community members, urging the planet to recognize the variety of
activities that make up the cultural being that defines a given city.”

So in stepped the JSF to line up some films, with the help of Karl Lind. Oh, and there will also be puppetry. The all-Portland-artist event should be a great, weird time. The venue is in a nice, warehouse-y section of NE PDX near 22nd and Oregon. Join us!
For more info:
Asthmatic Kitty Records
Meow Meow Presents

Screenings: Neil Ira Needleman (fall) and Daniel King (10/5)

Before we start sending press releases for some big upcoming JSF events, we want to share the news of various screenings by Journal alums and acolytes.

1) Neil Ira Needleman (JSF, Vol.2) is involved in a slew of screenings this fall. His films A Trip to Prague, Meditation, and TANZ!, among others, are being shown in no less than ten film festivals across the U.S., Europe, and South America. Fests include the Berkeley Film & Video Festival, the Boston Jewish Film Festival, the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, and the Thin Line Film Festival. Meditation can also be seen online at the Independent Film Channel website---www.ifc.com, at the top menu bar go to “Short Films,” then down to “Rooftop Films,” in the June listings.

2) Daniel King, our virtuosic graphic designer, is included in San Francisco’s Studio 27’s Impure Cinema: Hybrid Works Rupturing Media Boundaries fest this Friday, Oct.5th, at 9pm. Check out Authority Head Exorcism, his multi-layered visual expression of time spent as a propagandist. His excellent film is not kidding around, for sure.

And stay tuned over the next two weeks for many exciting updates, or at least two or three.

Article in KAMERA.CO.UK

The Journal’s sojourns S.W.-ward are over and it’s time to return to our planning for world domination. Or at least to clean out the Inbox, send out some orders, and go see Sunshine and Rescue Dawn.

But today we mostly want to draw attention to a new article in the online Brit film mag KAMERA.CO.UK. Antonio Pasolini wrote a small piece on “How to get seen.” Our esteemed publisher has a quote or two that divulge the JSF’s secret formula for marketing and make what appear to be at least one or two passive-aggressive admonitions. To whom, we’re not sure, but we recognize the tone.

KAMERA is a fine film site. Recently this writer benefited from its review of a new book by Mike Figgis. "Digital Filmmaking" is a short, accessible near-manifesto on moviemaking today. Very short. Unencumbered by depth, really, which was fine by me, at the time. The book’s optimism and lack of pretension were refreshing.

Anyway, read Antonio's article HERE.

Screening: Matt Meindl, Columbus, OH, 8/15

As mentioned below (7/31 post), Matt Meindl (JSF, Vol.7) will be part of the CineMUSEica show in Columbus on 8/15. If you’re anywhere nearby, don’t miss it!

UFVA Conference

To reconnect with our colleagues, friends, and fans in Academia, we are attending the UFVA conference next week. We’ll be screening films, accepting submissions, meeting new people, and eating as many tacos as legally allowed by the TX state legislature. If you’re attending, drop by and see us!

Screenings, News, Vlogs, Etc.

The only thing better than putting out a new volume of the JSF is getting to relax after it’s finished. To that end, it’s time to sit back, eat a burrito, and share some news of upcoming events.

1) Matt Meindl (JSF, Vol.7) will be involved in the CineMUSEica series here in Columbus on August 15th at the Grandview Drexel theater. Matt’s films will be accompanied by music from the band The Giants of Gender in a multimedia show the likes of which is rare around here. Be sure to say hi to Matt.

2) Potter Belmar Labs (JSF, Vol.1) will be in NYC from Sept. 3-8 for their live, improvised cinema show at The Lab at Roger Smith Hotel. Also, check out their blogs for more events, examples of their work (art installations, etc.), and travel reports (Venice Biennale!). (PBL blog; Leslie’s blog)

3) Brian Liloia (JSF, Vol.4) has started a video blog to document his experience at the Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri this summer. It’ll be fun to see Brian apply his New Jersey-based filmic profundity to the gtritty fecundity of an ecovillage in the sticks. We will be sure to revisit this in the near future.

4) We have confirmed a date for the joint Journal of Short Film – slash – Asthmatic Kitty Records event in Portland, OR, this fall. It will happen on Sat., October 20th. This all-Portland artist event will combine stunning music by AKR with films from the JSF and various PDX filmmakers. More details to come.

5) There is another JSF event tentatively scheduled for Detroit this fall, but we’ll have to keep you in suspense on the details.

That’s all for now. Come back and see us.

Press Release: The Journal of Short Film Releases Volume 8 (Summer 2007)

for immediate release

(July 31, 2007) The Journal of Short Film released Volume 8 (Summer 2007) today. The JSF is a quarterly DVD featuring exceptional, peer-reviewed short films. To date, the JSF has published over 80 filmmakers from 10 countries. Volume 8 includes the Journal’s first films from Romania and Iran.

Volume 8 covers more ground than most previous volumes, walking through fields in Romania, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in 1899, busing the streets of San Francisco, and touring a prehistoric site in Mexico. But before a theme can take hold, the collection of 11 films continues the Journal’s policy of diversity. Other settings range from urban Iran to a sheep farm to a morgue to a birthing room full of surprises.

The Journal was pleased to host Chicago-based filmmaker Deborah Stratman as a guest editor for Volume 8. She is known for her work through her production company Pythagoras. She was highly praised for her short work In Order Not To Be Here, and she recently completed Kings of the Sky, a feature documentary about Muslim Uyghur tightrope walkers in western China.

The Journal continues to have a free and open submissions process. Submissions should be sent to The JSF, PO Box 8217, Columbus, OH 43201, USA. The Journal also remains ad-free, committed to independent and underrepresented work, and insistent that art and entertainment are not mutually exclusive.

Following is a list of the films in Volume 8:

1. LAMPA CU CACIULA (THE TUBE WITH A HAT) – Radu Jude [Romania] (2006, 23:00) A father and son carry their TV set to the city to have it fixed before the afternoon movie. 2. THE BOY IN THE AIR – Lyn Elliot (2005, 2:00) An enigmatic advertisement inspires a letter. The corporation writes back. 3. MANUELLE LABOR – Marie Losier (2007, 10:00) A collaboration with Guy Maddin leads to a birthing scene unlike any other. 4. ART/WORK – Avram Dodson (2006, 5:00) A realistic look at the relationship between the artist and the day job. 5. FLIP-FILM – Ellen Ugelstad and Alfonso Alvarez (1999, 1:05) A staccato peek at San Francisco from the inside of a bus. Made in the tradition of Biograph’s 1890 Mutoscope. 6. MARDHA HAMDIGAR RA BEHTAR MIFAHMAND (MEN UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER) – Marjan Alizadeh [Iran] (2007, 8:00) Two men and a woman: it seems men understand each other better. 7. UNIFIED FIELDS – Brandon Walley (2006, 9:00) During a hot summer weekend in the country with my family, I tried to capture an odd sense of interconnectedness yet isolation. 8. OUTERBOROUGH – Bill Morrison (2005, 8:30) A split-screen extrapolation of a film taken while crossing the Brooklyn Bridge in 1899. 9. NOTHINGNESS – Arzu Ozkal Telhan (2005, 2:55) Nothingness is about resignation; an unwilling state of existence under the weight of insatiable humanity. 10. MARTIN – Bill Basquin (2004, 5:00) Martin is a poetic portrait of a sheep shearer and his philosophical musings on rural life. 11. TO THE SOUTH WAS 72 – Sabine Gruffat (2005, 11:00) “A personal guided tour of the largest prehistoric city north of Mexico.” -Anonymous

Contact: Karl Mechem, publisher, The Journal of Short Film, contact@theJSF.org

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