New York City has a rich history of artist groups working together in a variety of ways. Exploring local issues as well as the universal, these collectives, collaboratives, and other partnerships utilize unique structures of organization and production.
Tonight we will showcase short docs from a variety of contemporary local groups: the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, Round Robin Artist Collective, Internets Celebrities, Meerkat Media, and Rumur. While their subject matter, tone, and approach may differ, they all offer something exciting and unique to our rich landscape of group production.
Program length: 35 minutes
Meerkat Media is a self-organized community of makers committed to creating innovative and thought-provoking film and new media. Inspired by the communal nature of meerkats, we value shared authorship and consensus process in our day-to-day operations as well as in our artistic endeavors. Under a cooperative model, our members give creative and administrative time to the collective in exchange for material and non-material support. We share skills, equipment and ideas with a firm belief that a healthy, inclusive process is as important as crafting quality work.
Occupy the DOE, USA, 2011, 5:13 minutes, digital projection
This film was made in 12 hours. It served to be an exercise in combining the educator’s perspective with the filmmaker’s eye to quickly tell the story of an Occupy action. Using shared language of process and politics developed by years of collaborating together, we brought our footage straight from the action to our studio – and edited together into the night. The goal was to create an accessible and compelling document that would be ready for dissemination as soon as possible, to show what is possible within the movement and to inspire others to create media quickly with a direct message.
Round Robin Artist Collective is a group of thirteen Brooklyn-based artists. The Round Robin Artist Collective interacts regularly, creating a discourse that exists apart from commercial galleries.
A Conversation, USA, 2011, 4:25 minutes, digital projection
A collaborative video project by Mary Billyou and Audra Wolowiec. Created in conjunction with Round Robin Artist Collective.
In a playful yet mediated collaborative series, the two artists rotate in unison, flip through index cards and keep past time in disjointed loops of communication. Connected by phonetic ticks and Helvetica clicks, a split screen of Morse code responds without answer. Dotted lines taken from Saussure’s linguistic diagram draw attention to the disparity between language as a formal system and the unpredictable dialectics of real-time communication.
Internets Celebrities make videos exposing injustice of all sorts— economic, political and culinary. Dallas Penn and Rafi Kam—two accomplished bloggers who bring their bold style to the visual realm—along with director Casimir Nozkowski uncover truths and celebrate urban culture. Bending and breaking the fine line between non-fiction and satire, Dallas, Rafi and Casimir shoot exclusively on-location, uncovering the hard-to-reach but no less fascinating corners of our society. The ICs will stop at nothing to speak truth to power in videos that employ their unique, accessible, dramatic, and cost-effective aesthetic.
Checkmate, USA, 2008, 9:45 minutes, digital projection
The Internets Celebrities Dallas Penn and Rafi Kam go in for an investigative report on Check-Cashing. Themes explored include usury, economic instability, commercial banks and their profit line, and the cycle of poverty. Oh yeah, it’s a comedy.
Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective is a tight-knit community of professional filmmakers in Brooklyn, NY who are dedicated to innovative approaches to filmmaking. The collective comes together through weekly peer workshops to provide sustained feedback and critiques throughout the life of its members’ projects. It is the mission of the BFC to inspire groundbreaking films and maximize exposure of the best work from Brooklyn-based filmmakers.
Matthew 21:14, USA, 2011, 5:56 minutes, digital projection
Collaboratively created by Laura Hadden, Tennessee Watson, Iva Radivojevic, and Alex Mallis. Presented by Brooklyn Film Collective.
For most, movements are usually a means to an end. For Matt, the end is a means to a movement and he only has until May 21st to get the message out.
Rumur is an award winning multimedia studio based in Brooklyn. Working in all mediums and using a broad scope of technologies, we offer a comprehensive suite of services, ranging from creative consulting to web development, motion picture production, digital distribution and marketing.
Month One, USA, 2011, 10:24 minutes, digital projection
A short film about the first month of Occupy Wall Street. The majority of clips are shot by Michael Galinsky and Joanna Arnow.
