UbuWeb has converted all of its rare and out-of-print film & video holdings to on-demand streaming formats. via WFMU.
posted by treepour on Nov 28, 2006 - 11 comments

A video broadcast of György Ligeti's Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes (AVI, French), with helpful background on the controversial piece located here. For those who know French, you may also be interested in 1993's György Ligeti: Portrait, A Documentary by Michel Follin, showing Ligeti as "the displaced cosmopolitan", through the metaphor of train ride through the European countryside. These and many other avant-garde films can be found at Ubuweb, including features with William Burroughs, a recent "performance" of Cage's 4'33", and Varése and Le Corbusier's 1958 World Fair collaboration Poême électronique, a 400-speaker soundspace installation predating later, more experimental feedback pieces.
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Jul 2, 2006 - 14 comments

“The Emperor Jones was a landmark drama, not only in conception but also in production: a black actor, Charles Gilpin, was permitted for the first time to enact the leading role in a New York drama.” James Earl Jones and collaborators discuss and rehearse a later production. Currently Elizabeth LeCompte directs Kate Valk, a middle-aged white woman in blackface, in a contemporary production from the Wooster Group. They’ve courted this type of controversy before. The NYTimes loved the show, this review isn’t as glowing.
posted by jrb223 on Mar 28, 2006 - 8 comments

DIVA 2006The Digital & Video Art Fair just opened in New York (nytimes) some highlights if you don’t live in the New York area, or have a better way to spend $10: Martin Sastre’s BOLIVIA 3: Confederation Next (Barney represents Matthew Barney, see here he is slaying Sastre with a lightsaber) part of his Iberoamerican Trilogy; Vincent Goudreau’s Sub-Paradise – about sugarcane farming in Hawaii (excerpted .mov here); My Favorite – ‘Panoscopic’ images by Luc Courchesne. more inside.
posted by jrb223 on Mar 10, 2006 - 11 comments