Experimental film is a genre unlike any other. Don’t go expecting for a happy ending. Don’t go always expecting to even understand what you’ve seen. It takes an open mind, a love of filmmaking, the art of critiquing, and the ability to reflect to really get into the vision of the experimental filmmaker. The hardest part about delving into such a genre is that it isn’t always easy to find experimental films. It isn’t as though you can walk into the local Blockbuster and find a rare experimental film.
Thankfully, for the experimental film buff and those looking to explore the fringes of filmmaking, Squeaky Wheel provides a one-month long NEA-funded artist residency to someone they feel has exceptional talent and then screens their creation. This year Cade Bursell was chosen to create an experimental film. Bursell has had her work screened internationally, was a Jacob K Javits Fellow from 1998 through 2002, was nominated for the 2005 Rockefeller Fellowship in Media Arts, and received her MFA from San Francisco State University.
Bursell currently teaches media arts production in the Cinema and Photography Department at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, but has also taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, the Film Arts Foundation, and her alma mater. Her work generally focuses on nature, landscape, memory, and environmental concerns. In residency at Squeaky Wheel, she created “Warming Trend,” which combines educational films about global warming and the suggested effects of global warming on the rural landscape in a kind of experimental collage.
Though that is alluring, there will also be other films presented. Rose Lowder’s “Bouquets 21-30,” a bouquet of film frames; Katherin McInnis’ “Woodward’s Gardens,” which explores a now defunct 19th century amusement park in San Francisco; and Jeanne Liotta’s “Observando El Cielo,” which consists of seven years of celestial field recordings; will be shown along with Bursell’s film. The cost to see these films is relatively low, $6 for non-members and $4 for members, and you may never have another opportunity to see them again.
The screening will take place on Thursday, November 13th and it starts at 8 PM at Squeaky Wheel at 712 Main Street. If you’d like to learn more about Squeaky Wheel, please visit their website.
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