JEROME FOUNDATION GRANT AWARDEES

December 11, 2019

The Jerome Foundation Board of Directors authorized 12 grants based on the recommendations of the New York City Film, Video and Digital Production Grant Program Review Panel. This program supports production costs and post-production costs connected to the creation of new narrative, documentary, experimental or animated works in film, video or digital formats by early career filmmakers in New York City. Of the 213 applications submitted, twelve grants totaling $345,100 were authorized: Jessica Beshir, for the documentary Feyatey; Shirley Bruno, for the narrative film Just-Come/Been-To; Arisleyda Dilone, for the documentary This Body, Too/Y Este Cuerpo También; Charlotte Glynn, for the narrative film The Gymnast; Jon-Sesrie Goff, for the documentary After Sherman; Haisi Hu, for the animated film Shopping For Love (working title); Chithra Jeyaram, for the documentary Our Daughters (working title); Shalini Kantayya, for the documentary Code for Bias (working title); Keith McQuirter, for the documentary The 3,000 Project; Michael Premo, for an untitled feature film; Isabel Sandoval, for the narrative film Lingua Franca; and Mónica Savirón, for the experimental film The Ledger Line. Information about the projects can be found here.

BROKEN TONGUE, AN INSTALLATION AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM IN SWITZERLAND

September 23, 2019

After having been experienced on theater screens, the film Broken Tongue (Mónica Savirón, 2013) will for first time become a video installation, and it will be at the Natural History Museum Naturmuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, inside a ship containing photographs and other objects from the Museum's collection on the history of colonialism. The exhibition opens on September 28th.

FOUND SOUNDS PROGRAM IN VIENNA

June 01, 2019

The 35mm and 16mm prints of the show FOUND SOUNDS: Barbara Meter's Avant-Garde Films will be presented at the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna on June 4th. The program is curated by Mónica Savirón, and will be introduced by Simona Monizza (EYE Filmmuseum) and Jurij Meden (Österreichisches Filmmuseum). For bookings, please contact here, and there is more information about the screening here. 

FOUND SOUNDS SHOW IN PARIS

December 03, 2018

The first avant-garde cinema art house in France, the Studio des Ursulines, opened in 1926. It has been kept as it was when it served to premiere the works by André Breton, Luis Buñuel, René Clair, Man Ray and Germaine Dulac. The projection of her first film provoked a loud fight in the room between Breton and Louis Aragon that stopped the projection. On December 11, the Studio will host Barbara Meter’s 35mm, 16mm, and dual-projection film works for Light Cone's SCRATCH series, with an introduction and Q&A by Emmanuel Lefrant and Mónica Savirón; projected by Thomas Koenig and Lefrant, with support of all Light Cone's team. FOUND SOUNDS: A Retrospective of Barbara Meter's Avant-Garde Films includes audio poetry, film prints preserved by EYE Fillmuseum with Simona Monizza and Guy Edmonds, plus John Cage, Steve Reich, Remco Campert, Guy Sherwin, Sally Potter, Jos Schoffelen, Mattijn Seip, Pim van Isveldt, Mike Dunford, Kathleen Ferrier’s and Gerald Moore’s recordings, Franz Schubert, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Cecilia Bartoli, György Fischer, Antonio Caldara, Giulio Caccini's music as speech, Johann Sebastian Bach, radio war, loud silence, and Francesco Tuma’s Stabat Maters. More information here.

LIGHT CONE'S ATELIER 105 RESIDENCY

November 26, 2018

Mónica Savirón will be helping ten avant-garde short/medium/feature-length film/video projects from any nationality to be finished at Light Cone's facilities in Paris from February to July 2019. This ATELIER 105 RESIDENCY gives access to a fully-equipped post-production workspace, including the digitization of 16mm and 35mm film in 2K and 4K, an editing station, sound mixing hardware and software, a color-correction monitor, as well as dedicated computers for encoding video files and DCPs. The artist-in-residence will also have full access to Light Cone's documentation center and screening room. Technical and creative assistance will be offered during the entire process, as well as promotion and distribution. One of this residency's main concerns is to facilitate exchange and share experiences, creating an artistically and functionally available working environment--a genuine platform for experimentation and dialogue.

THE COLLECTED POEMS OF STORM DE HIRSCH

September 25, 2018

Microscope Gallery, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, and Sigthtline Books present the launch of Mythology of the Soul: The Collected Poems of Storm De Hirsch, edited by Stephen Broomer. This is the first poetry edition by the artist published since the early 1960s. On September 30, at 7:30pm, Raha Raissnia, MM Serra, Elle Burchill, Mónica Savirón, Emily Apter, Bradley Eros, Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs, Devon Narine-Singh, and Stephen Broomer will be reading a selection of the poems. Among the films that will be shown throughout the event are several of De Hirsch's Super-8mm Cine-Sonnets, the 16mm trilogy The Color of Ritual, The Color of Thought, and the dual-projection film Third-Eye Butterfly. More information here.

COURTISANE FESTIVAL: SELECTION

March 08, 2018

María Palacios Cruz (LUX Moving Image, The Visible Press) and Courtisane Festival are inviting Mónica Savirón to Gent, Belgium to present a program of her work in dialogue with crucial under-seen avant-garde films by international female artists. This co-curated selection integrates Savirón's avant-garde films as part of a larger, intergenerational, intercultural, long-standing purpose, including the world premiere of Lisa, by Ute Aurand, and the thirteen chapters of Lis Rhodes's Hang on a Minute. Also: Rounds, by Jenny Okun; Song for Four Hands, by Barbara Meter; Shake Daddy Shake, by Julia Heyward; G, by Susan Stein; Fatima's Letter, by Alia Syed; Frames, by Annabel Nicolson; Chameleon, by Tanya Syed; and Broken Tongue and Answer Print, by Mónica Savirón. The projection will be on Saturday March 31 at 2:30pm, with an introduction and posterior conversation. More information about the program in the Festival's catalogue, and on their website.

LOOKING BACK ON 2017: ART

December 14, 2017

BOMB Magazine asked which films, books, exhibits, albums or performances helped contributors to process 2017. Obviating the works programmed/written about this year, Mónica Savirón highlights A Measure of Silence: Works on Paper by Jon Beacham (The Brother in Elysium) in this Looking Back: Art. Complete series here.

EYE FILMMUSEUM LAUNCHES DISTRIBUTION PACKAGE

November 28, 2017

EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam has launched a distribution package of the program FOUND SOUNDS: A Retrospective of Barbara Meter's Avant-Garde Films, curated by Mónica Savirón for the Milwaukee Underground Film Festival in Wisconsin, the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, and the (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico in A Coruña. Program notes downloadable here. For bookings please contact Edith van der Heijde at experimental@eyefilm.nl or international.eyefilm.nl. More information at EYE Collections' site.

RETROSPECTIVE OF FILM AND VIDEO WORK

November 11, 2017

Microscope Gallery in New York presents the first retrospective of Mónica Savirón's avant-garde films and videos in a program together with artist Alison Nguyen's works. It will be on November 13th, at 7:30pm. This event counts with the support of the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation. More information here. Poster designed by Bradley Eros.

GRANT FOR THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF SPANISH CULTURE

May 29, 2017

Spain's Public Agency, Acción Cultural Española, AC/E, has awarded Mónica Savirón with a Visitors Program grant for the Internationalization of Spanish Culture (PICE) to present her work at the (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico in A Coruña, Spain, to establish collaborations with other artists and cultural agents, and to serve as an advisor on the development of expanded cinema projects as part of the program, INPUT.

GUEST ARTIST AT THE NEW SCHOOL

May 02, 2017

Please join me on Thursday, May 4, at 7pm for a guest artist presentation as part of the class Recycled Images and Non-Camera Filmmaking at The New School, 6 East 16th Street, room 600, in New York City. Course imparted by filmmaker and scholar Joel Schlemowitz.

VAL DEL OMAR AT ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES

March 16, 2017

On Saturday March 18 at 6pm, at Anthology Film Archives, Mónica Savirón will be introducing the most colorful and sensual of works by Spaniard avant-garde filmmaker José Val del Omar (1904 - 1982), the Variations on a Pomegranate (1975), followed by Eugeni Bonet's, Throw Your Watch Into the Water (2004). More than a tribute, Bonet approached this work as both impersonator and documentarian, taking up on the next "Alhambra"-themed film that Val del Omar had planned but never made due to a fatal car accident. Interestingly enough, in Spanish "pomegranate", "Granada" (the city where Val del Omar was born), and "grenade" are the same word. A poet working with the sound of words, multichannel audio tracks, and the tactility of light, while making his way through a Civil War, a dictatorship, and more or less successful coup d'États, Val del Omar insisted in devoting his life to experimenting with the sensorial possibilities of cinema. He was also an inventor, and created his own zoom lenses that would allow him to explore the idea of what we call now "expanded cinema". He considered his films unfinished and, instead of the credit "The End," he would write "Without End" or "Never Ending"... Curated by Lur Olaizola Lizarralde, the screening is part of the first retrospective of Val del Omar in NYC.

JUROR AT THE FESTIVAL DE CINE LIMA INDEPENDIENTE

June 28, 2016

Mónica Savirón will serve as a juror for Fronteras Destruídas, the avant-garde film & video programs of the Festival de Cine Lima Independiente (Perú), from June 30 to July 9, 2016. This international competition has been selected by Los Angeles based programmer and artist Andrea Franco. With works by Levin Boaz, Ryan Jeffery, Dane Komljen, James Lattimer, Cynthia Madansky, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Johanne Gómez Terrero, Heather Trawick, Diego Lama, Carolina Caycedo, Pablo Mazzolo, Mike Stoltz, Rajee Samarasinghe, Luciano Piazza, Lois Patiño, Péter Lichter, Liao Jiekai, Jodie Mack, Prapat Jiwarangsan, Sarah Beddington, Keina Espiñeira, Ignacio Tamarit, Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, Laida Lertxundi, and Tzan Wu.

THE LEGACY OF JOSEPH CORNELL IN AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE CINEMA

April 28, 2016

Presented in conjunction with the Vancouver Art Gallery’s exhibition MashUp: The Birth of Modern Culture, the 16mm print of Broken Tongue will be part of the program Shadow Boxing: The Legacy of Joseph Cornell in American Avant-Garde Cinema. With works by Joseph Cornell, Jeanne Liotta, Abigail Child, Jason Livingston, Stephanie M Barber, Jen Proctor, Deborah Stratman, Dara Birnbaum, Janie Geiser, Chuck Workman, Lawrence Brose, Ernie Gehr, Lewis Klahr, Larry Jordan, William Burroughs & Jonas Mekas. May 25 & 26, 2016, at The Cinematheque. Curated by Kim Knowles & Angela Piccini.

99 YE∀ЯS OF DADA: IN DIALOGUE WITH THE PRESENT

November 06, 2015

The 16mm print of Broken Tongue will be projected for first time as part of 99 YE∀ЯS OF DADA: In Dialogue with the Present, celebrated by the 19th Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, in Switzerland, on November 8th, at 2:30pm. To commemorate the upcoming 100-year anniversary of Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich and the birth of Dada, these two programs offer a conversation of historical Dada films (Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp, René Clair, Oskar Fischinger) with contemporary takes on the European avant-garde movement (Laure Prouvost, Miranda Pennell, Mirai Mizue, Jean-Gabriel Périot). Curated by Aline Juchler & John Canciani.

BROKEN TONGUE WINS COLORLAB'S SUMMER SHORTS CONTEST

July 20, 2015

The motion picture film lab, Colorlab, has awarded Broken Tongue as winner of its "Summer Shorts Contest" and we will receive a 16mm intermediate negative, soundtrack, and print. Broken Tongue was entirely shot on 16mm but we couldn't afford to finish it on film. This is a dream come true. We are looking forward to experiencing Broken Tongue with the added sound of the film projector... Thank you to all at Colorlab, and to everyone who collaborated with me and continues to support this project.

BROKEN TONGUE PART OF "FILM WITHOUT SCREEN"

July 16, 2015

Broken Tongue is part of the program curated by Silvia Rey, Film Without Screen, of works projected on a stone wall. All the films selected explore the concept of sound. The event is organized by AADK Spain, a permanent space of investigation and contemporary creation in CENTRO NEGRA, Blanca, Murcia. Open doors at 11pm.

BROKEN TONGUE AT HUNTER COLLEGE

July 05, 2015

Broken Tongue is part of the 2015 NEH Summer Seminar for Teachers, “Asian Americans In New York: Film and Literature". The program consists of a two week curriculum built to help K-12 educators from around the nation build stronger teaching tools for their diverse student bodies. During the seminar, 16 educators from Alaska to Minnesota to New Orleans will convene in New York to discuss how to best teach ideas of Asian American history, identity and politics in the classroom. Complete curriculum here.

THE POETICS AND POLITICS OF SOUND IN AVANT-GARDE FILMMAKING

April 09, 2015

Mónica Savirón, juror of IC DOCS 2015, will kick off the film festival on April 9th, at 3:30pm, with the show The Poetics and Politics of Sound in Avant-Garde Filmmaking, followed by a Q&A session moderated by filmmaker Jason Livingston. It will be a one hour and a half program, half-radio show and half-critical analysis, supported solely on sound. Celebrated at Iowa University, this event is free and open to the public. More information here.