"The Leap (Year) Show"
Friday the 29th of February at 7:30pm
at GOLDEN AGE
1500 W 17th Street, Chicago, IL
www.goldenagestore.com
$4
In celebration of Greeks who won't get hitched in intercalary years, of the "Ladies' Privilege", of the Gregorian calendar that extends our collective lives by one day for every 1460 lived, and of all y'all birthday leaplings, Ben Russell and your pals at GOLDEN AGE are proud to present an evening of Experimental Films Featuring Things That Leap. We're talking FROGS and TOADS, of course - so hop on down to Pilsen and check out our kino-swamp of frame-fluttering frogs, animatronic amphibians, pixellated pipas, and truly terrifying toads. Don't miss out - this is the sort of batrachian magic that only occurs once every four years...
FEATURING: Frogland by Ladislaw Starewicz (8:00, 35mm on video, 1922); A Frog on the Swing by Robert Breer (5:00, 16mm, 1989); Habitat Batrachian by Rose Lowder (8:30, 16mm, 2006); Cane Toads by Mark Lewis (65:00, video, 1988)
TRT 86:30
SYNOPSIS:
Frogland by Ladislaw Starewicz (8:00, 35mm, 1922)
Fleeing for his life following the Russian Revolution, Starewicz settled in Paris and began to infuse his work with a subtle political agenda. Sponsored by the expatriate Russian Art Society of Paris, this short, sometimes entitled "Frogland," uses actual preserved frogs as puppets to retell the fable of a group of frogs who demand Jupiter send them a king. At first, he sends a log, which sits and does nothing. Dissatisfied, the frogs plead to Jupiter (does he look a little like Karl Marx?) to send somebody a bit more active. So Jupiter sends a stork, who eats the frogs. Finally, Jupiter tops it all off with a lightning bolt attack on the survivors. A conspicuous critique of the recent political turmoil in Russia (from the disinterested tsar to the vengeful Lenin), this beautifully animated work stands as a political fable for any generation.
A Frog on the Swing by Robert Breer (5:00, 16mm, 1989)
This animated fable is centered around a backyard pond shown intermittently in live-action scenes. A small child appears and disappears in a ballet of crows, rabbits, monkey wrenches, and goldfish. When the police arrive there are pot-shots at backyard varmits, but the frog on the swing seems to survive it all. As usual in Breer films, the soundtrack is often conspicuously out of sync with the picture. Or is it vice versa when a crow goes "moo?"
Habitat Batrachian by Rose Lowder (8:30, 16mm, 2006)
In this film we move away from the notion of a work based on a preconceived filming procedure adjusting the visual characteristics of the image in order to approach the temporal dimension of a pond full of frogs. In front of such creatures that tend to be elusive there arises a question of more general interest as to how can one record moments that are meaningful, how can one render visible, present a moment that is alive and connect the items forming the different recorded moments up together?
Cane Toads by Mark Lewis (65:00, video, 1988) Cane Toads is a documentary detailing the spread of Hawaiian sugar-cane toads (toads which live in the cane fields) through Queensland and then into the rest of Australia following a mis-informed attempt to introduce them to counter pests. Turns out they wouldn't eat the 'cane grubs' but they would multiply like no one's business... and they have no natural enemies in Australia at all, partly due to their poisonous skin.
Frogland by Ladislaw Starewicz (8:00, 35mm, 1922)
Fleeing for his life following the Russian Revolution, Starewicz settled in Paris and began to infuse his work with a subtle political agenda. Sponsored by the expatriate Russian Art Society of Paris, this short, sometimes entitled "Frogland," uses actual preserved frogs as puppets to retell the fable of a group of frogs who demand Jupiter send them a king. At first, he sends a log, which sits and does nothing. Dissatisfied, the frogs plead to Jupiter (does he look a little like Karl Marx?) to send somebody a bit more active. So Jupiter sends a stork, who eats the frogs. Finally, Jupiter tops it all off with a lightning bolt attack on the survivors. A conspicuous critique of the recent political turmoil in Russia (from the disinterested tsar to the vengeful Lenin), this beautifully animated work stands as a political fable for any generation.
A Frog on the Swing by Robert Breer (5:00, 16mm, 1989)
This animated fable is centered around a backyard pond shown intermittently in live-action scenes. A small child appears and disappears in a ballet of crows, rabbits, monkey wrenches, and goldfish. When the police arrive there are pot-shots at backyard varmits, but the frog on the swing seems to survive it all. As usual in Breer films, the soundtrack is often conspicuously out of sync with the picture. Or is it vice versa when a crow goes "moo?"
Habitat Batrachian by Rose Lowder (8:30, 16mm, 2006)
In this film we move away from the notion of a work based on a preconceived filming procedure adjusting the visual characteristics of the image in order to approach the temporal dimension of a pond full of frogs. In front of such creatures that tend to be elusive there arises a question of more general interest as to how can one record moments that are meaningful, how can one render visible, present a moment that is alive and connect the items forming the different recorded moments up together?
Cane Toads by Mark Lewis (65:00, video, 1988) Cane Toads is a documentary detailing the spread of Hawaiian sugar-cane toads (toads which live in the cane fields) through Queensland and then into the rest of Australia following a mis-informed attempt to introduce them to counter pests. Turns out they wouldn't eat the 'cane grubs' but they would multiply like no one's business... and they have no natural enemies in Australia at all, partly due to their poisonous skin.
