Faceodd by Amir George
At ATA on Friday, August 17.
What and/or Who is “The Cinema Culture”?
The Cinema Culture is a programming group, I started it out of a college dorm around 2007. We want to give movies an outlet outside of a film festival. We put on our own annual events. We do booking for movies, suggest festivals for movies and work with festivals on special programs and marketing. We just want to show cool movies everywhere.
You are based in Chicago. How would you describe the experimental film and video scene there?
Everyone does their own thing. Nelson Carvajal is a great part of the scene here with all that he does. Yonder Vittles of Everything is Terrible has been doing some great vaudeville style video events recently. There’s also 3 Minute Movies which encourages people to make 3 minute pieces on one theme. People are making more things small and big and more film festivals that appreciate experimental work are going on. Its just going to keep growing.
How did you select the films for this program?
Watch This is a program I wanted to put together for some time now. The program is just an eclectic mix of awesomeness. Everyone brings something fresh to the program, the motion picture artist featured are Alice Cohen, Nelson Carvajal, Anansi Knowbody, Lewis Vaughn, Lindsay Denniberg, Jason Ogawa, and myself. Everybody in the show are at similar levels with their bodies of work respectively. This show is saying watch this from us now and stay tuned for what we have coming soon.
This is one of the last stops on your US tour. Has the show been received differently in various parts of the country?
New York at Spectacle Theater was love, it was a great show. Chicago was good, it was the first time almost everybody apart of the show was in the same room together. It was a good feeling. On our to way to Kansas City me and Lewis Vaughn were in a bus accident. Its a real heavy thing to still do the show. Im just happy he and I are alive.
2 of your works are featured in the program. What motivated you to make these video experiments?
FaceOdd, I made with my partner Gina Lira. Its a minimal experiment that focuses on faces and moods it was inspired by make up styles. El Quatro, I made cause I like numbers. The movie is about how the number 4 evolves and what it represents. The projects were previewed at Film is Dead, a video art show curated by Nelson earlier this year.
Watch This! is a “program celebrating the work of visual experimentalists”. Why should the work of visual experimentalists be celebrated? And why now?
If we don’t celebrate what we do nobody will. We can’t rely on the approval of a festival for people to see what we make. Its an important time in cinema to be making things and allowing people to see them.