Calendar : Otherfilm Presents Mary Ellen Bute Tribute: Mary Ellen Bute: A Hundred Light Years To Here
23 November 2006 7:00pm
Screening Frenzy in Brisbane Powerhouse with Mary Ellen Bute, Camilla Hanann, Bec Cunningham, Snap Crotch, Velvet, Scraps and Dollface.
MARY ELLEN BUTE TRIBUTE
Otherfilm presents Mary Ellen Bute TriBUTE
Mary Ellen Bute: A Hundred Light Years to Here
2006 sees the centenary of Mary Ellen Bute's birth. Who, you ask? One of the first abstract animators ever, and one of the first women to excel in a field historically dominated by male artists, her name may not be well-known now – but we intend to change all that!
Originally planning to become a painter, she said, "I was deeply impressed by the wonderful Picassos, the African art, the Paul Klees, the Braques, the Kandinskys. Kandinsky used abstract, nonobjective canvas the way you experience a musical composition. Well, I thought it was terrific but these things should be unwound in [a] time continuity. It was a dance. That became my objective."
Her desire to blend music, abstract imagery and movement led her to New York, where she studied with electronics wizard Leon Theremin. From there she proceeded to make abstract and non-objective films that 'danced' to various pieces of music. Sensuous swirling motions are her aesthetic signature, as are brilliant colours, and bold geometric shapes. Her interest in 'visual music' and synaesthesia (the blurring of the senses to the point where one 'sees sound' or 'hears colour') led her to experiment with the oscilloscope, a laser-like device that produced attractive light squiggle-patterns.
Today her work tends to be known only by a handful of aficionados, and seen by even fewer. This wasn't always the case; as Dr William Moritz points out, ' during a 25-year period, from 1934 until about 1959, the 11 abstract films she made played in regular movie theaters around the US'.
With this program of rarely-seen Mary Ellen Bute films, and the TriBUTE experimental sound/vision show, we salute an amazing creative life, a pioneering woman artist and a very special birthday.
Passages from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake 1965 16mm film 90mins
This was the first attempt to cinematize the works of Irish author James Joyce. Based more on a stage adaptation by Mary Manning than the Joyce novel itself, the film concentrates on Dublin pubkeeper Finnegan (Martin J. Kelly), who while in the throes of inebriation has a vision
of his own death. As the bemused Finnegan lies in his coffin, his friends gather for his wake. The "corpse" tries to cut through the keening and platitudes by probing the innermost thoughts of those closest to him. The surprising aspect of this film is that so much of its difficult text works on screen--a tribute to the loving care of scripter/director/ editor Mary Ellen Bute, who, while preparing this film spent her waking hours picking the brains and burrowing through the resource materials of the James Joyce Society.
Dada 1936 DVD 3mins
'In 1931, Universal had run one of Oskar Fischinger's Studies as a novelty item in their newsreel. Mary Ellen had seen it, and proposed to Universal that they use one of her films in a similar fashion. Since they could use only two or three minutes, Mary Ellen made a special
piece, Dada, which Universal distributed in 1936'. (William Moritz)
Escape 1939 DVD 5mins
'Beginning with the 1939 Escape, Mary Ellen began to work in color, and used more conventional animation for the main themes in the music, but still combining it with "special effect" backgrounds--sometimes swirling liquids, clouds or fireworks, other times light effects created with conventional stage lighting, such as imploding or exploding circles made by rising in or out of a spotlight'. (William Moritz)
Polka Graph 1952 16mm film 5mins
An animated film utilizing electronic images, filmed oscilloscope patterns superimposed through colour filters and composed in counterpoint to music (Shostakovich's Polka from the Age of Gold). Also features some of the "characters" of ghosts and bats drawn directly on film strips from another film, Spook Sport.
Mood Contrasts 1954 16mm film 8mins
Abstract animation utilizing filmed oscilloscope generated images superimposed through colour filters and compared in counterpoint to the soundtrack of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Hymn to the Sun" and "Dance of the Tumblers. According to Moritz, in this film 'she created her most complex collage of animation and special effects, including a striking sequence of colored lights refracting through glass bricks in oozing soft grid patterns'.
Mary Ellen Bute Big Boisterous Birthday TriBUTE Party
Abstracts to Make Lovin' Sounds To
Ladies, join us as we make a joyous noise unto Her Abstract Greatness (or, if you like, Her Great Abstractness). There's going to be, as Nana would say, 'a great to-do', and it'll be an impromptu ladies' noise orchestra scoring beautiful, locally-made images! Expect the unexpected as Camilla Hannan, Rebecca Cunningham, Velvet Pesu, Snap Ctotch / Gary's Box and noisical others make weird, wonderful and way-out sounds in response to a veritable feast of local and national abstract films! Help us celebrate MEB's birthday in crazy, chaotic,
melodic fun-loving improv style.
LadyFilm program put together by Danni Zuvela for OtherFilm and Ladyfest!
VENUE Brisbane Powerhouse, Turbine Rehearsal Room venue information
TICKETS Entry by Gold Coin donation
Added by joel on 23 November 2006
