Spirit, Stream, Storm Chicago Filmmakers

Critic's Choice - Chicago Reader

"This program of 35-millimeter experimental films selected by Bruce Posner is a mixed bag, though there's no denying the intensity of the works. That may be part of the problem: including musical interludes between clusters of films is a good idea, but it backfires because two of the interludes are as aggressive as the films


1/26/96 - 1/26/96

8:00pm


This program of 35-millimeter experimental films selected by Bruce Posner is a mixed bag, though there's no denying the intensity of the works. Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader January 26, 1996

That may be part of the problem: including musical interludes between clusters of films is a good idea, but it backfires because two of the interludes are as aggressive as the films, denying us a contemplative moment when we might catch our breath. But I can still think of two good reasons for seeing this show. And then there are the dated but undeniably lively silent abstract expressionist works made between 1967 and 1992 by Stan Brakhage, the best of which are Night Music (1986) and The Dante Quartet (1987), where the tempi are sufficiently varied to justify the poetic and musical analogies implied in the titles. (The others tend to wear one down with their relentless pile-driver attack.) Posner's autobiographical The Analects, made between 1987 and 1995, comes last and registers least effectively. The other artists represented in the program are Jose Antonio Sistiaga, Thierry Vincens, and Kurt Kren.


Chicago Filmmakers offers a genuinely unusual, original and fascinating experimental program this weekend: Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune January 25, 1996

" Spirit Stream Storm" (8 p.m. Friday, Saturday), a 35 mm. collection of 16 short hand-crafted films by international filmmakers. The program's works are all painted, etched or scratched by a stellar group of directors who include France's Thierry Vincens, Spain's Jose Antonio Sistiaga, Austria's Kurt Kren and, from the U.S., Charles and Ray Eames, Bruce Posner and Amanda Katz. The highlights: four films by avant-garde legend Stan Brakhage and the last picture by the great Russian director Sergei Paradjenov ("Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors"), his 1990 "Confession".

Director
Stan Brakhage

Production
Chicago Filmmakers

Tags: Film, Old Europe, 1996