Structuring Strategies: Charlotte Pryce and Igor Kovalyov
7:00 PM, May 6, 2008

TUESDAY, MAY 6, 7:00 PM

BIJOU AUDITORIUM

STRUCTURING STRATEGIES

CalArts faculty/experimental filmmakers

Charlotte Pryce & Igor Kovalyov

Films by Charlotte Pryce

(all films are hand processed and reprinted on an optical printer).

Concerning Flight: Five Illuminations in Miniature

(2004, 16mm, sound, 8 min).

A Kinomatographic Film comprised of Five Brief Fictions in Which is Explored the Mystery of Insect Fight: Interpretations of a Mythological and Fantastical Nature Illuminated in Motion and Time.

Thin Breath - Quivering

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

Departure from the Garden

Conjuring Forth the Fire Fly

Keepers of the Labyrinth


Discoveries on the Forest Floor
1-3


(2007, 16mm, silent, 4.5 min).


Three miniature, meticulously constructed
metaphorical illuminations - heliographic studies of plants, observed
and imagined. They are collages of illustrations, found footage and
original film that have been subjected to chemical processes and manipulations
of the emulsion. The strangeness of color and light, and curious magnifications
of reality are framed and re-combined using an optical printer. The
"discoveries" are metaphorical and fantastical, as the films are
studies in delight and wonderment of living organisms, drawn in sunlight
and recorded in oxidized residues.


Burnt
Umber/ pale ochre/ Burnt Umber


The title refers to earth pigments,
the chemical constituents of color, and also to the subtle shifting
and yielding of the rootless "resurrection plant."


The
Talk of Lichen on a Lonely Day

The film was inspired by the writing of a young savant, Opal Whitey (1897-

1989). Lichen is a community of plants, the film is the imagined chatter of texture and form.

Those Whose Attachment to the Earth is but Tentative

The film hints at the yearnings and possible dreams of the sundew, an insectivorous plant, whose nourishment is found in the air.

The Parable of the Tulip Painter and the Fly

(2008, 16mm, silent, 4 min).

"Inspired by Dutch paintings from the 17th century - as indeed are all my films - it features a tulip, the painting of a tulip and a fly." (CP)

Films by Igor Kovalyov

Hen, His Wife - 1989, 14 min., 35mm (shown in DVD)

A troubled, but apparently normal household is shattered when a masked stranger arrives without warning and alerts the husband that his wife is actually a hen. Produced at Studio Pilot before Kovalyov moved to the US.

Bird in the Window - 1996, 11 min., 35mm (shown in DVD)

A man returns to visit a woman who lives with a gardener, two Chinese men, and a small child. The man, frustrated by his inability to see what is being hidden from him, leaves.

Flying Nansen - 2000, 10 min., 35mm (shown in DVD)

Nansen meets bears, hunters and finally a woman before continuing his journey to the North Pole, which continues on... and on... but for what? He remains alone throughout.

Milch - 2005, 15 min., 35mm (shown in DVD)

The centerpiece of Milch isn't so much the milk as the girl who delivers it. She's pretty, and the boy of the house is falling for her big time. Trouble is, Dad already has. In fact they've probably had an affair. Mom knows, and she's bitter as hell, which doesn't make life any easier. Daily household living is the subject of the short, and every family dynamic is exposed, from the boy's alternating admiration and rage at his father to Grandma's top-of-the-pyramid role as caregiver to grandson, son and invalid husband.

Igor Kovalyov is an internationally acclaimed designer, animator and director. His award winning films include: Andrei Svislotsky, Hen His Wife, Bird in the Window and Flying Nansen. Born in Kiev, Ukraine, he was the co-founder of Moscow the legendary Pilot School of Animation. Since 1991, he has worked at the Klasky-Cuspo studio in Hollywood, where he directed the first Rugrats feature film (1998).

Charlotte Pryce has been making experimental films, photographs and optical objects since 1986. Born in London, she graduated with a BFA from the Slade School of Art, University College London and completed an MFA in Fine Art/ Film at the Art Institute of Chicago.

She has taught Experimental Film at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, The San Francisco Art Institute, The Academy of Art, San Francisco, Kent Institute of Design, England, and is currently teaching at the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles.