About the Tour

The Cities:

Seattle : Northwest Film Forum
Portland :  The Waypost
Springfield : Ditch Projects
San Francisco : The Muni Lines
Sacramento : Beatnik Studios
Nevada City : The Basement
Santa Barbara: Mainstage
Los Angeles: Echo Park Film Center

The Band:

Dusty Organ is a Silicon Valley-based music project with an ever-changing lineup of musicians. Phillip Villarreal, the central figure of the project, plays mountain dulcimer, electronics, and the project’s namesake organ. Dusty Organ seeks to explore emotional and sometimes dark textural spaces via experimental pop music. Listen to the music here, http://www.myspace.com/dustyorgan . He will be touring with us!

The Films:

Selective Service System (1970) by Warren Haack and Dan Lovejoy
“Since 1956 the United States has been involved in a ground war in Asia. The American commitment had led to an ever increasing involvement in that area of the world – despite growing dissatisfaction here at home. To implement this country’s mobilization, the draft system had been stepped up. This system made virtually no exemptions for those who felt this war was immoral and unjust. These young men either had to serve in a war in which they did not believe, or face the bleak alternatives to service. Some chose prison. Some sought refuge in other countries. This film documents another alternative. There was no attempt to alter the proceedings that took place.”

Do It Yourself Macroscopic Microscope (2008) by Mackenzie Mathis
“The world of the large and small as viewed through the lens of the gargantuan and the tiny.”

Sensuous Geographies (2008) by Emily Davis
“Bye, Bye! She’s giving you up. P.S. You are now officially a cabbage patch kid with your very own special adoption papers.”

No Name Nostalgia (2008) by Mallary Abel
“This montage uses images with sounds to express something personal regarding biology, femininity, and most of all, sexuality.”

First (2008) by Suzanne Oshinsky
“My work is about cognition and the social phenomenology of perception. I use video, photography, and text to direct the attention of the viewer to how we experience perception by emphasizing and physically confronting the materiality, as well as the limits, of screen/image, and language.”

Sally’s Dream (2008) by Diana Stasko
“‘Sally’s Dream’” uses found and super 8 footage, layering and blending images to create a surreal dreamscape which explores themes of feminine appearance, and the visible and hidden roles women historically inhabit.”

Supplanted Environment, Subsequent Adaptation (2008) by Lucky Gesher
“Birds equal trees. Humans equal concrete. Birds equal concrete. Humans don’t equal trees. Birds don’t equal trees. Birds don’t equal humans.”

Mirror Mirror (1987) by Paula Levine
“Shot in Venice, California at Muscle Beach, this is a short vignette about viewing and being viewed.”

Straightboy Lessons (1999) by Ray Rea
“Straighboy Lessons is the recreation of one drive in a truck after I told a co-worker, Bo, that I was transitioning female to male.”

Oh Dem Watermelons (1965) by Robert Nelson
“‘A major American underground classic. This film originally served as a theatrical intermission in the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s social-political satire. “A Minstrel Show, or Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel”, but it quickly took on a life of it’s own. Oh Dem Watermelons takes hilarious and absurd jabs at the watermelon as a tired black stereotype, using a wild mix of collage, animation, and irreverence, set to propulsive soundtrack by Steve Reich”‘ (Mark Toscano).

Where’s my Boyfriend? (2005) by Gretchen Hogue
“A biological clock explosion. Penises and Fetuses. This one is for the ladies. Can you hear the ticking?”

POP! (2008) by Navid Sinaki
“An inventive hand-painted collage film that constructs a story about a young homosexual man using fragments of melodramas from pre-Islamic Revolution Iran.”

Horn (2008) by Milenko Skoknic
“Horn is an experimental documentary about a car blaring it’s horn for hours inside an empty parking lot, and its acoustic effects on the neighborhood.”

DISILLUSIONED (2007) by Brenda Contreras
“Here my aim it to tackle the concept of futile wars but I do not offer a single interpretation. Accordingly to the title and the subject matter, this film aims to create disillusionment for the viewer through its abstracted audio design and by limiting the viewer to what they are allowed to see.”

Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath (2009) by Phillip Villarreal
“‘Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath” is a pop music video inspired by the famous, eponymous photograph, in which a mother bathes her deformed daughter, who suffers from severe congenital mercury poisoning. The video and song are part of a greater project exploring the theme of motherhood within the context of widespread environmental pollution.”

FLOAT (2007) by Mackenzie Mathis
“At an opportune moment, a restless feather makes its long awaited escape from the Earth.”

Scene Scene (2008) by Suzanne Oshinsky
(see First)

Two Things at One Time (2007) by Jenny Gag
“Two Things at One Time is a four minute single channel video performance. This is what I do on a typical day, twice, and then four times. The begins with a banal activity meant to be a singular action, and then complicates, as it is interwoven with another singular action. This piece points to the capacity and process of video production: the ability to capture anything and everything. However, this apparent limitlessness is contradicted by the linear unfolding of time based media.”

and

A Conversation with Enthusiasts: Mushroom People (2008) by John Robert Moore, Jocelyn Jones, Lisa Winsor, and Danielle Didonato
“Why mushrooms, and for what reason” A film that taps into obsession and admiration of something many don’t understand.”

Need more info?

Contact us at:

bren_contreras[at]yahoo[dot]com

or

mallaryabel[at]gmail[dot]com