16th Annual Chicago Underground Film Festival

Midwest premiere!
Jennifer Kroot in person!
IT CAME FROM KUCHAR!
2009, Jennifer Kroot, USA, 86 min.

Long before YouTube, there were the outrageous, no-budget movies of underground filmmaking twins George and Mike Kuchar. This mesmerizing stream-of-consciousness tale interweaves the brothers’ lives, their admirers, a history of underground film, and a “greatest hits” of their works. Featured are interviews with filmmakers including John Waters, Buck Henry, Atom Egoyan, Guy Maddin, and Wayne Wang. IT CAME FROM KUCHAR! will introduce you to George and Mike—two brothers who love to make movies and continue to inspire others. HDCAM video. (Jennifer Kroot)

Director Jennifer Kroot will be present for audience discussion.

Shorts Program:
An Open Relationship with Vannevar Bush
2008-9, Various directors, Various nations, 78 min.

Digital culture is examined in Nick Briz’s A NEW ECOLOGY FOR THE CITIZEN OF THE DIGITAL AGE (2009, 4 min.). User-generated homes made in Google SketchUp weave together in Nick O’Brien’s MODEL HOMES (2009, 6 min.). Reality TV contestants stand on the brink of elimination in Jesse McLean’s SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW (2009, 6 min.). Jennet Thomas responds to John Smith's classic experimental film in RETURN OF THE BLACK TOWER (2008, 14 min.). Stom Sogo creates images inspired by epileptic seizures in SYNC UP ELEMENTS (2009, 22 min.). Also: videos by Harvey Benschoeter, Torsten Zenas Burns & Darrin Martin, Timothy McConville, and Jon Satrom. Various video formats. (CUFF)

Midwest premiere!
Todd Verow in Person!
THE BOY WITH THE SUN IN HIS EYES
2009, Todd Verow, USA, 91 min.

B-movie scream queens. One-hit disco wonders. A trail of hot lovers scattered across Europe. It sounds like a gay boy’s dream. But when John gets pulled into Solange’s glamorous world, they barely survive murderous performance artists and fatal food poisonings. He begins to realize that Solange's lifestyle is far more dangerous than he could possibly have imagined. It’s filled with trips, tricks and traps. And John's the bait. HDCAM video. (CUFF)

Director Todd Verow will be present for audience discussion at the Friday screening.

Midwest premiere!
Alex Ross Perry in Person!
IMPOLEX
2009, Alex Ross Perry, 75 min, USA

"An intelligent movie that is deceptively poignant and wide-open to interpretation.”—Wearemoviegeeks.com

Months after the end of World War II, a U.S. soldier has been sent by the army to locate and retrieve German rockets and rocket science. In the woods, he finds a German V-2 rocket, the most advanced long-range rocket created to date. As he searches for more, he’s confronted by a perplexing cast of characters—including a talking octopus—who just may help his mission. An unjustifiable blend of the bare-bones realism of John Ford's WWII documentaries and the glorious stupidity of Abbott and Costello, IMPOLEX sheds light on an obscure corner of military history. 35mm. (Alex Ross Perry)

Director Alex Ross Perry will be present for audience discussion.

Shorts Program:
Breaking the Bank
2003-9, Various directors, Various nations, 75 min.

These five videos explore the structure of economy in contemporary life. Eva Linder’s PAYING TAX IS SEXY (2005, 10 min.) profiles a 30-year employee of Sweden’s tax authority. Noah Klersfeld directs pedestrians and vehicles on a busy New York street in PAYROLL (2003, 10 min.). Beatrice Gibson and Alex Waterman’s A NECESSARY MUSIC (2009, 29 min.) is a science fiction film about modernist social housing referencing the video operas of Robert Ashley. Also: work by Harald Hund, Paul Horn, and Karel De Cook. Various video formats. (CUFF)

Shorts Program:
This Must Be the Place
2005-9, Various directors, Various nations, 80 min.

An 80-minute meditation on place and comfort: Ben Russell's TRYPPS # 6 (MAOLBI) (2009, 12 min.) is a single-take jungle adventure. Moira Tierney's AMERICAN DREAMS #4 (2008, 8 min.) documents the variety of business on a Brooklyn neighborhood corner. Yaron Lapid captures the hectic street life of Tel Aviv in ARCADIA, DOWNTOWN (2005, 15 min.). Jim Finn's DICK CHENEY IN A COLD HARD CELL (2009, 3 min.) beats the drums of retribution for us all. Also: work by Yin-Ju Chen & James T. Hong, Thorsten Fleisch, Grey Gerstein, and Karthik Pandian. Various formats. (Christy LeMaster)

Midwest premiere!
THE WILD AND WONDERFUL WHITES OF WEST VIRGINIA
2009, Julian Nitzberg, USA, 84 min.

Gas-huffing, shoot-outs, robberies, arrests, drug-dealing, pill-popping, family feuds, and Appalachian mountain dancing... It’s all part of being a member of the White family—a legendary clan known as much for their wild, excessive criminal ways as they are for their famous mountain dancing members (including Jesco White, the star of the cult classic documentary DANCING OUTLAW). This tragic-comic portrait of four generations, ages 9 to 90, unearths the real story behind the Whites and the remote Appalachian mountain culture that created them. DigiBeta video. (Julian Nitzberg)

Shorts Program:
The Watchful Eye
2007-9, Various directors, Various nations, 75 min.

Capital-O observation seams together these shorts. Thomas Draschen builds a delightful free-association visual landscape in FREUDE (2009, 2 min.). In BOY/ANALYSIS (2008, 5 min.), Steve Reinke distills a landmark 1961 study on child psychology into a linguistic dance. The prolific Robert Todd continues his career-long study of light in GROUNDPLAY (2009, 12 min.). BODY PARLOR (2009 14 min.), a video by Frédéric Moffet (taken from a performance by Katrina Chamberlin and James Kubie), invites viewers to observe rituals of animal husbandry. Also: work by Christina Battle, Mary Billyou, Andrew Busti, Kevin Jerome Everson, Adele Horne, and Katherin McInnis. Various formats. (Christy LeMaster)

World premiere!
Steve Stasso in Person!
CELLAR
2009, Steve Stasso, USA, 87 min.

A triptych about three outsiders working in Hell’s Kitchen: a Lebanese immigrant cooking at French restaurant, a Colombian manicurist at a Korean-owned nail salon, and a lesbian African-American veteran of the Iraq War suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Using both trained and untrained actors, many of whom are foreign born, and mixing factual and fictional elements, CELLAR depicts the lives of multi-ethnic immigrants as they clash with mainstream society. Beta SP video. (Steve Stasso)

Director Steve Stasso will be present for audience discussion.

Midwest premiere!
BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO
2009, Jennifer Oreck, USA, 89 min.

THE SOUND OF CRICKETS
2008, Justin Chouinard, USA, 6 min.

From videogames to vending machines, insects inspire an enthusiasm in Japan seen nowhere else in this world. Interspersed with the philosophies of best-selling author and anatomist Dr. Takeshi Yoro, and scattered with poetry and art from Japan’s history, BEETLE QUEEN challenges the viewer to observe the world from an uncommon perspective that just might change not only the way we think about bugs, but also the way we think about life. HDCAM video. (Jennifer Oreck)

Preceded by Justin Chouinard’s THE SOUND OF CRICKETS, an experimental dialogue between natural objects and the equipment that reproduces them. 16mm. (Justin Chouinard)

40th Anniversary!
GOLD
1968, Bob Levis, USA, 91 min.
With Del Close

“Full of good intentions and crude as hell, this is an indulgent, energetic, 90-minute burst of hoary symbolism and lovable counterculture craziness.”—Shock Cinema #21, 2002

Half-cocked gold prospectors, evicted citizens, right-wing conspiracy theorists, and rigged elections. Oh, the '60s, where’d they get such crazy ideas? Chicago improv legend Del Close stars as the “Hawk,” a Christ-like voice of reason who happens to dress like Che Guevara. GOLD is a psychedelic desert romp set in an inexplicable Old West mining town that brings forth the unalienable right that revolution and skinny-dipping are the American way. Features original music from MC5 and Ramblin' Jack Elliott. DigiBeta video, digitally restored from the original 35mm print. (Nicole Bernardi-Reis)

Shorts Program:
Magic Hands
2008-9, Various directors, USA, 81 min.

Imaginative breaks with reality rule this shorts program. A mod gal has vivid narcoleptic dreams in Mirka Morales’s ELFMADCHEN (2009, 17 min.) Anders Nelson’s PEACHES (2008, 14 min.) depicts the complex, secret relationship of a brother and sister. Scott Cummings’s LAUNDERMAN (2009, 14 min.) features the filmmaker in a performance inspired by Joan Jett, Jacques Tati, and Paul McCarthy. Jerzy Rose flips Hollywood genre masculinity on its head to tell a stunted love story in ALL GHOST WOMEN PLAY THE THEREMIN. Animated shorts by Jodie Mack, Steve Emmons, and Jo Dery complete this program. Various video formats. (Bryan Wendorf)

Shorts Program:
The Entire Cycle
2008-9, Various directors, Various nations, 77 min.

Adam Strafford’s THE SHUTDOWN (2009, 10 min.) recalls the intense experience of growing up next to one of Europe’s largest petrochemical plants. EARL (2008, 9 min.) by Nick Harvey gives an intimate look at a Christian exhibitionist. Basma Al-Sharif examines how image and sound communicate history, tragedy, and the complication of Palestinian nationalism in WE BEGAN BY MEASURING DISTANCE (2009, 19 min.). Akosua Adoma Owusa’s ME BRONI BA (2008, 22 min.) is a lyrical portrait of hair salons in Kumasi, Ghana. New works by Chris Kennedy, Naomi Uman, and Kevin Jerome Everson complete the program. Various formats. (Bryan Wendorf)

Midwest premiere!
CHINA TOWN
2009, Lucy Raven, USA, 53 min.

BETWEEN THE SHEETS
2008, Warren Cockerham, USA, 6 min.

12 EXPLOSIONS
2008, Johann Lurf, Austria, 6 min.

CHINA TOWN traces the deceptively simple process of copper mining and production from an open pit mine in Nevada to a smelter in China, where it is ultimately turned into electrical wire. This experimental video combines 7,000 still photos and ambient sound recorded on location to examine what it actually means to "be wired" and, in turn, to be connected, in today's global economic system. HDCAM video. (Lucy Raven)

Preceded by Warren Cockerham’s BETWEEN THE SHEETS, an experimental short that’s “part rollercoaster ride, part guilty shop at Wal-Mart,” and Johann Lurf’s 12 EXPLOSIONS, a tableau of beautiful things waiting to happen. Both in Mini-DV video. (CUFF)

World premiere!
Filmmakers in person!
AMERICAN RADICAL: THE TRIALS OF NORMAN FINKELSTEIN
2009, David Ridgen and Nicolas Rossier, USA, 84 min.

AMERICAN RADICAL is the definitive documentary about American academic Norman Finkelstein. A devoted son of holocaust survivors, ardent critic of Israel and US Middle East policy, and author of five notable books including The Holocaust Industry, Finkelstein has been steadfast at the center of many controversies, including his recent denial of tenure at DePaul University. Called a lunatic and disgusting self-hating Jew by some, and an inspirational revolutionary figure by others, Finkelstein is a deeply polarizing figure whose struggles arise from core questions about identity, academic freedom, nationhood, and justice. DigiBeta video. (Nicolas Rossier)

Directors David Ridgen and Nicolas Rossier will be present for audience discussion at the Sunday screening.

Shorts Program:
Coconuts and Cocaine
2008-9, Various directors, USA, 84 min.

JD Walsh rides the edge between real world and game-world in UNTITLED RPG (2008, 8 min.). Sabine Gruffat’s JAWS (2009, 8 min.) uses electronic oscillators and analog video switchers to create feedback-generated computer animations. Martha Colburn’s animated MYTH LABS (2009, 8 min.) interweaves Puritan visions, folk art, religious allegories, and victims of the current methamphetamine epidemic. In BLONDES IN THE JUNGLE (2009, 48 min.) by Lev Kalman, three teenagers in '80s Honduras buy drugs, hunt for the Fountain of Youth, and have magical encounters. Rounding out the program are videos by Marie Losier, Shana Moulton, and Usama Alshaibi. Various video formats. (CUFF)

Filmmakers in person!
THE TIME MACHINE
2009, Bill Brown and Sabine Gruffat, USA, 60 min.

IN THE JUNGLE
2009, Stephanie Barber, USA, 60 min.

THE TIME MACHINE is your guide through the fourth dimension! Watch and learn about Real-Time Rendering, Quartz, and Max patches as Sabine Gruffat steers you through the sensory drone of the digital and analog hyperspace. Bill Brown takes you on a guided tour of memory's roadside attractions by way of scratchy records and the hazy glow of 35mm slides, narrating the interspatial monuments of our extemporary voyage.

The program continues with IN THE JUNGLE, the tale of an unreliable narrator in a self-imposed exile. Combining live music, video images, and sound on tape, Stephanie Barber’s piece is part musical, part poetic lecture, part video transpiration-soaked performance. Various video formats. (CUFF)