FESTIVAL NEWS, VISITING ARTISTS, AND SPECIAL EVENTS

This year’s PDX Fest is simply overflowing with a full roster of amazing visiting artists, Portland premieres, and all new events! First off, we are incredibly excited to welcome our two featured guests Travis Wilkerson and Shana Moulton. Travis will be making the trip up from Boulder, to share two programs of his work including a rare presentation of his multi-media performance, Proving Ground, (which premiered at Sundance last year), as well as a special screening of his critically praised documentary, An Injury to One. Video and performance artist, Shana Moulton, will also be joining us for an exciting program featuring selections from her on-going Whispering Pines series, including a special live video performance!

A number of other extraordinary filmmakers will also be making the trip to Portland to share their work with us! Matt Wolf will present the NW Premiere of his excellent documentary, Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell as this year’s opening night feature. Craig Baldwin will also be on the scene to give us a super special, closing night presentation of his brand-new feature, Mock Up on Mu. Stephanie Barber will be joining us from Baltimore to present a program of her gorgeous films. And Sam Green will be here as well for an exclusive sneak peak into his upcoming feature, The Universal Language, via a special PowerPoint performance! Keep your eyes peeled for a bevy of other visiting artists making their way into town, including Ben Russell, Anne McGuire, Michael Robinson, and Marianna Ellenberg, as well as a massive showing from our own always impressive local filmmaking talent! Portland Rocks!!

The Peripheral Produce Invitational VII

Celebrating its seventh year of main event action, The Invitational gears up for another rock-em, sock-em experimental film battle royale. With 93-year old filmmaker and reigning champ George Andrus back to defend his title against a rowdy band of outlaw filmmakers, this competition is going to be as fierce as ever! Watch out - this one could get bloody.

The First Ever Experimental Filmmaker Karaoke Throwdown

@ galleryHomeland

Join us for a brand new PDX Fest event! We have invited a handful of our favorite filmmakers to create homemade karaoke videos to their favorite karaoke songs. Audience members will get to perform songs from this custom made catalog and experience an all-new way of doing Karaoke!

BEYOND THE SCREEN

Surreal Systems

@ galleryHomeland

2505 SE 11th Ave (on the corner of 11th and Division) inside The Ford Building

Surreal Systems is a satellite exhibition to the PDX Fest featuring video work that exists outside of the cinematic experience. Curated by local artists Stephen Slappe and Mack McFarland, this exhibit features video installation, sculpture and single channel works from across the country.

Opening Night Party

@ galleryHomeland

Celebrate opening night with us at galleryHomeland, where our satellite exhibition Surreal Systems will be unveiled for your eager eyes.

Closing Night Party

@ The Moon & Sixpence
2014 NE 42nd Ave

Join us down the street at the Moon & Sixpence as we bid a fond farewell to PDX Fest 2008!

FILMMAKER WORKSHOPS

We are pleased to join forces with the Northwest Film Center again this year to present three very special filmmaker workshops taught by our wonderful featured artists. All workshops will be held at the School of Film, 934 SW Salmon. For more information or to register, go to < www.nwfilm.org or call (503) 221-1156 x25.

REVIVING THE LOST ART OF AGITATION
with TRAVIS WILKERSON

SATURDAY, MAY 3, 10 AM-1 PM, $35

Join in a lively exchange about the documentary filmmaker as provocateur. Is the independent documentary community fully realizing its potential to instill social change? If not, how can media artists most effectively narrate the complex and often elusive threads of contested social history and make them relevant to the present? This workshop will screen clips from and discuss the instructor’s practice of "third cinema.” Adopted by the filmmaker after a chance meeting with legendary film propagandist Santiago Alvarez, the third cinema approach weds politics to the non-fiction film form, suggesting that there is a utopian sphere where art and science collide, and where the imaginative capacities of the cinema can be put to meaningful use. Open to all with an interest in media activism, with or without actual production experience.

DO-IT-YOURSELF GREEN SCREEN
with SHANA MOULTON

SUNDAY, MAY 4, 10 AM-1 PM, $35

How can you make yourself look like you’re climbing up a ladder when it’s really a plant? Through green screen of course! This workshop will explore the creative opportunities presented by chroma key, or green screen, which allows filmmakers to superimpose images by using blue or green fields as an electronic palette. The instructor will share her insights into the possibilities of this expressive tool, screening examples from Desiree Holman, Mike Smith, and her own work, explaining the mechanics of keying in layperson’s terms. Participants will then have the opportunity to shoot footage with a simple chroma key setup and manipulate it with Final Cut Pro and After Effects software. Backyard approaches involving fabric and paint will also be discussed. Students are encouraged to bring in image files to play with. Open to all with an interest in digital effects.

FLIX REMIX: A FOUND FOOTAGE WORKSHOP
with CRAIG BALDWIN

MONDAY, MAY 5, 6-9:30 PM, $45

Put your hands on celluloid and experience found footage filmmaking, the ultimate form of “green” production! Drawing on his own vast experience as a found footage guru, the instructor will discuss this genre’s influence on alternative cinema, screening clips from his found footage classics, TRIBULATION 99 and SONIC OUTLAWS, and other works. Then, the creative and critical methods of working with archival film prints will be demonstrated through hands-on activities. Using projectors, rewinds, viewers, splicers and an optical-sound reader, participants will compose ’re-purposed’ cine-poems, with either the extant soundtrack(s), or set against some other audio source (bring your own CD). Uncanny, even anomalous 16mm industrial film stock provided. No experience required, just a willingness to experiment.