Space is the Place:
NEW YORK EYE AND EAR CONTROL WILL NOT BE SHOWN, JUST SPACE IS THE PLACE AND CRY OF JAZZ-AN EXCELLENT PROGRAM! BOTH FEATURE SUN RA'S ARKESTRA.
Michael Snow, Ed Bland Sun Ra, Free Jazz, and more next month at Film Society!
Program:
CANCELLED: New York Eye and Ear Control by Michael Snow(1964, 16mm, 34 minutes) features a free jazz score by Albert Ayler and Don Cherry and Snow's "walking woman."
"New York Eye and Ear Control prefigures the experiments with perspective and duration that Michael Snow would develop more fully in his later work. Its two-part structure reflects the theme of duality which runs throughout the film both structurally and visually. In the first part, cut-out figures from his Walking Woman Works series of painting and sculptures are placed in various landscapes whose depths contrast with the flat figures. In the second, numerous people pose in a loft with the same figures. The overall calmness of the imagery finds its opposite in the free jazz soundtrack that accompanies it. New York Eye and Ear Control brings together the worlds of jazz and visual art that fed Snow’s creativity, but its bluntly obvious structure seems primitive when compared to the more complex structural variations of Wavelength and Back and Forth." —IMDb
POSTPONED: Cry of Jazz by Ed Bland (1959, 34 min) With music by Sun Ra and Julien Priester.
Cry of Jazz is a film by Ed Bland documenting Chicago's black neighborhoods. It includes interviews with artists and intellectuals and performances by Sun Ra and John Gilmore. In 2010, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The Library of Congress had this to say of the film and its significance: " Cry of Jazz...is now recognized as an early and influential example of African-American independent filmmaking. Director Ed Bland, with the help of more than 60 volunteer crew members, intercuts scenes of life in Chicago’s black neighborhoods with interviews of interracial artists and intellectuals. "Cry of Jazz" argues that black life in America shares a structural identity with jazz music. With performance clips by the jazz composer, bandleader and pianist Sun Ra and his Arkestra, the film demonstrates the unifying tension between rehearsed and improvised jazz. "Cry of Jazz" is a historic and fascinating film that comments on racism and the appropriation of jazz by those who fail to understand its artistic and cultural origins." wikipedia
POSTPONED: Space is the Place (1974, 82 minute directors cut) This cult classic is presented in it original uncut form. Sci-Fi, Cosmic Free Jazz and radical race politics combine with special effects and an outrageous plot line in this film as an intentional homage to the low-budget science fiction films of the 50's and 60's.
