Alternative Visions

September 11–November 20, 2024

Alternative Visions features new restorations of great films by Man Ray and Nicolás Guillén Landrián, classic works on film by Pat O’Neill, and artists in person, including Shu Lea Cheang, Charif Kiwan, Lewis Klahr, Jennifer Reeves, Scott Stark, and Amanda Strong.

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The Gloria of Your Imagination
UKI
Music in the Air
Mia’
Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray

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Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray
Man Ray
France, 1923–29/2023
Wednesday, September 11 7:00 PM
Between 1923 and 1929, Man Ray made Le retour à la raison, Emak-Bakia, L’étoile de mer, and Les mystères du château du dé, which represent a high watermark of early European avant-garde cinema. Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan’s musical combo, SQÜRL, presents these remarkable classics with a newly recorded soundtrack.
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The Blue Rose of Forgetfulness
Lewis Klahr
United States, 2021
Bay Area Premiere
Wednesday, September 18 7:00 PM
Lewis Klahr in Person
Los Angeles–based filmmaker Lewis Klahr’s latest feature-length series of collage films creates intricate worlds of fantasy and intrigue by culling two-dimensional ephemera for his short films, most of which are works of stop-camera animation.
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Water and Power
Pat O’Neill
United States, 1989
Wednesday, September 25 7:00 PM
A moving meditation on industrialization, Water and Power is an ingenious merging of optical printing and time-lapse cinematography. Screening with By the Sea (1963) and Horizontal Boundaries (2008).
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The Gloria of Your Imagination
Jennifer Reeves
United States, 2024
World Premiere
Wednesday, October 2 7:00 PM
Jennifer Reeves in Person
Jennifer Reeves’s dual-projection performance continues her cinematic investigation into psychiatry and psychology via a layered portrait of Gloria, a single mother who served as the case study in the 16mm educational film Three Approaches to Psychotherapy (1965).
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Abounaddara Shorts
Wednesday, October 9 7:00 PM
Charif Kiwan, Stefania Pandolfo, and Anneka Lenssen in Conversation
Accompanying the opening of the exhibition Abounaddara: The Ruins We Carry, this program of shorts from the anonymous collective of Syrian filmmakers depicts people in dialogue with themselves and others amid the intimate revelations of a society undergoing transformation, revolution, and civil war.
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UKI
Shu Lea Cheang
Germany, United States, 2023
Wednesday, October 16 7:00 PM
Shu Lea Cheang and Mel Y. Chen in Conversation
Pioneering queer media artist Shu Lea Cheang’s sci-fi viral alt-reality movie imagines the travails of beings and bodies of a future world. “An extraordinary tour de force of contemporary digital collage” (Matthew Fuller).
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Landrián
Ernesto Daranas Serrano
Cuba, Spain, 2023
Wednesday, October 23 7:00 PM
Introduced by Lázaro González
Nicolás Guillén Landrián, Cuba’s first Black filmmaker, faced censorship, imprisonment, and exile because his distinctive style clashed with the Cuban state. In 2019 efforts to restore his “cursed” films began, leading to this documentary. Join us for this special screening, which opens the series Cuban Cinema without Borders.
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Landrián Restored
Thursday, October 24 7:00 PM
Prerecorded Video Introduction by Dean Luis Reyes and Lázaro González
Despite the censorship and oblivion of the Cuban national film industry, Nicolás Guillén Landrián’s films survive as one of the most potent archives of Afro-Cuban lives. This program features the California premiere of new restorations, offering a rare glimpse into Landrián’s enduring legacy.
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Stop-Motion Storyteller Amanda Strong
Wednesday, October 30 7:00 PM
Amanda Strong and Bracken Hanuse Corlett in Person
BAMPFA and UC Berkeley’s Arts Research Center welcome Michif (Métis) stop-motion storyteller Amanda Strong to present her animated films. Depicting Indigenous realities, stories, and dreams, the works provide a compelling cinematic counterpoint challenging historical narratives of Indigenous peoples.
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Amanda Strong and Bracken Hanuse Corlett: Artists’ Talk
Free for UC Berkeley students, staff, and faculty
Friday, November 1 4:00 PM
Amanda Strong and Bracken Hanuse Corlett in Conversation
Award-winning multimedia Indigenous artists Amanda Strong (Michif) and Bracken Hanuse Corlett (Wuikinuxv and Klahoose) share insights on the creation of their films, including their current project, eight years in the making and now on the cusp of its world premiere.
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Scott Stark in Person
Wednesday, November 20 7:00 PM
Scott Stark in Person
From an improbably epic single-shot journey across the varied designs of a hotel’s carpets, through an abandoned trainyard and a contemporary bowling alley, to mid-twentieth-century Kodachrome parades, Scott Stark traces, tracks, and transforms everyday surfaces with a variety of cinematic tools.
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Alternative Visions

September 11–November 20, 2024

BAMPFA’s long-running annual series of avant-garde and experimental film, Alternative Visions celebrates the work of cinematic innovators from throughout film history and around the world. The series begins with new restorations of Man Ray’s foray into cinema in the 1920s, scored by Jim Jarmusch’s band SQÜRL. New restorations of Black Cuban filmmaker Nicolás Guillén Landrián’s long-unavailable films from the 1960s are screening in conjunction with Cuban Cinema without Borders. The documentary Landrián provides fascinating context about the life and work of one of Cuba’s most unique filmmakers. Pat O’Neill’s ingenious merging of optical printing and time-lapse cinematography, Water and Power, screens alongside Cities & Cinema: Los Angeles. Animator Lewis Klahr presents a compilation of collage films that imbue two-dimensional mid-century ephemera with atmospheric drama. Jennifer Reeves’s dual-projector performance, The Gloria of Your Imagination, also repurposes twentieth-century materials, including a film documenting three different approaches to psychotherapy. Artist-in-Residence with UC Berkeley’s Arts Research Center, Michif (Métis) stop-motion storyteller Amanda Strong presents a program and artist’s talk about her three-dimensional puppet animation reflecting contemporary Indigenous concerns. Also in person, Taiwanese American artist Shu Lea Cheang presents UKI; set in 2060, the sci-fi viral alt-reality feature combines digital animation and live action to imagine possibilities of resistance in an eerily familiar future dystopia. Accompanying the opening of the exhibition Abounaddara: The Ruins We Carry, a program of works by the anonymous video collective Abounaddara—with representative Charif Kiwan in person—chronicles daily life in Syria in times of revolution and war. Alternative Visions welcomes back Scott Stark to present a program of films, videos, and a dazzling dual 16mm projector performance that transform everyday materials into fascinating cinematic experiences.

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Alternative Visions was created by Kathy Geritz and is cocurated by Susan Oxtoby and Kate MacKay and is presented in conjunction with Cities & Cinema: Los Angeles, Cuban Cinema without Borders, and Jacob Gaboury’s course Experimental and Alternative Media Art in UC Berkeley’s Department of Film & Media.

Shu Lea Cheang’s visit is made possible with the support of the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Endowment. Amanda Strong’s visit is made possible by UC Berkeley’s Arts Research Center, with support from the Dean’s Office of the Division of Arts & Humanities, and cosponsored by the Berkeley Center for New Media, the Departments of Art Practice, Film & Media, and Ethnic Studies, the Native American Studies Program, the Canadian Studies Program, and the Joseph A. Myers Center for Research on Native American Issues.

Thanks to Beth Piatote, Laurie Macfee, UC Berkeley’s Arts Research Center; Brian Belovarac, Janus Films; Brett Kashmere, Seth Mitter, Canyon Cinema; Edda Manriquez, Academy Film Archive; Spotted Fawn Productions; Stefania Pandolfo, Anneka Lenssen; and Jürgen Brüning.