SF-Oakland Oct 2013 events

TO PRESS For immediate release Contact: Gerry Fialka 310-306-7330 pfsuzy@aol.com http://www.laughtears.com/ Please inform your readers, and do consider a feature article on these three upcoming FILM (and CULTURAL Happening) EVENTS hosted by Gerry Fialka Gerry Fialka has been called "the multi-media Renaissance man” - LA Times, a "cultural revolutionary" - LA Weekly, and "Los Angeles' preeminent underground film curator" - Cinema Without Borders. +++++++++++++++ I will you be in sf in oct. We welcome you to join in on our events. I hope to see you soon. Please spread the word on my three upcoming events. Oct 17, Thurs, 8pm - RIA LIVE & Lake Shrine Lecture at New Nothing Cinema 16 Sherman St (off Folsom between 6th & 7th), San Fran CA 94103, phone 310-306-7330. FREE ADMISSION Oct 18, Fri, 8pm - Winston Smith interview (and rare film clips) at Oddball Film 275 Capp St, San Fran CA 94110, 415-558-8112, rsvp info@oddballfilm.com, www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com $10 Oct 19, Sat, 8pm - RIA LIVE at Oakland’s Krowswork Gallery Will Erokan, Gerry Fialka & guests, 480 23rd Street (side entrance), Oakland CA 94612, 510-229-7035, FREE ADMISSION More details follow. (also - I encourage you to attend Phil Solomon Oct 16 at PFA http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN20432 I will be there) Thank you, Gerry Fialka 310-306-7330 PFSuzy@aol.com bio http://www.laughtears.com/bio.html http://www.laughtears.com/ and www.venice wake.org +++++++++++++ Thurs, Oct 17 at 8pm DOUBLE BILL ***Lake Shrine History with ERIC DUGDALE at 8pm ***RIA LIVE at 8:45pm with Will Erokan, Gerry Fialka & special guests: V Vale & Rock Ross (730 pm pot-luck), free admission at New Nothing, 16 Sherman St (off Folsom between 6th & 7th), San Fran CA 94103, phone 310-306-7330. New Nothing Cinema 8pm= Eric Dugdale presents the history of the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine His talk will begin with the Indians and walk listeners through the Marquez Rancho days, the Inceville film studio, developer Alphonzo Bell and the SRF, located on Sunset about a half-mile north of Pacific Coast Highway. Inceville Studio was located on the property, but burned down around 1924. Developer Alphonzo Bell, who hoped to create a residential community in Santa Ynez Canyon like the one he had established in Bel Air, hydro-blasted the site to ready it for construction in 1927. The work inadvertently created a large mud hole, later transformed as Lake Santa Ynez. But Bell's plans never came to fruition and H. Everett 'Big Mac' McElroy, the assistant superintendent of set construction for 20th Century Fox Pictures, took over the property in 1940 to build his future residence. Dugdale, a real estate broker whose passion is local history, will tell the details of those stories and how a later plan by a Texas oilman to build a resort in the canyon was altered by a dream of 'a church of all religions' and the various benefactors who made that dream come true. He will also share photographs of the property and maps of the old Rancho land grant. Dugdale's personal experience with Lake Shrine began in the early 1950s when his family joined the SRF, and the property is well entwined with his own personal history. His father was a builder and, as a boy, Dugdale tagged along when he did some remodeling on a small two-story house which later became the SRF Sunday school and now houses the SRF museum and gift shop. In 1956, the SRF monthly magazine ran a photo of Dugdale as a five-year-old, sitting in full lotus position, meditating. 8:45pm RIA LIVE CINEMA (aka OUR EYE AYE = RIA = Resonant Interval Algorythmns) http://laughtears.com/RIA.html Video artists-Social engineers Will Erokan, Gerry Fialka & guest poets, dancers, musicians = LIVE CINEMA probing the filmed close-up on the human eye, as seen in Un Chien Andalou, Man With The Movie Camera, Frank Zappa's 200 Motels, and Blade Runner. Delve deep into the reel motives and consequences of the Ludovico treatment from A Clockwork Orange, which originated in the novel by Anthony Burgess, who was directly influenced by James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. The Wake turns the eye into an ear via Finneganese (language about language): "Television kills telephony in Brothers’ broil. Our eyes demand their turn. Let them be seen." and "what can't be coded can be decorded if an ear aye seize what no eye ere grieved fore." Experience the RIA "live cinema" immersion into post-hypnotic hyper-maximum stimulation triggering McLuhan's Menippean satirized Gesamtkunstwerk. Peter Greenaway presaged the complex clairvoyance of Erokan's birth on September 30, 1983 by declaring "Cinema's death date was 31 September 1983, when the remote-control zapper was introduced to the living room, because now cinema has to be interactive, multi-media art." The retrocausality of this non-existent date renders an effects-precede-causes half- truth. "A half truth is still alot of a truth" – McLuhan. Explore & re-explore the sensory simultaneity of integral awareness (IA being the flip of AI - artificial intelligence) in passing through the vanishing point when seeing oneself both as oneself and as the other. It may be the death and rebirth of agraRIAn, AlgeRIA, antiquaRIAn, appropRIAtion, AquaRIAn, barbaRIAn, & AbdeRIAn laughter, which comes from rustic simpletons who would laugh at anything or anyone they did not understand. RIA is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea. This evokes the Wake and Frank Zappa's "The ocean is the ultimate solution." "But that the white eye-lid of the screen reflect its proper light, the Universe would go up in flames" - Luis Bunuel. RIA LIVE also - SAT Oct 19 http://laughtears.com/RIA.html RIA will be 2 hours at Oakland’s Krowswork Gallery Will Erokan, Gerry Fialka & guests, 480 23rd Street (side entrance), Oakland CA 94612, 510-229-7035, FREE ADMISSION. Check out the new issue of Canyon Cinema Magazine #2 with Fialka's article I WANT MY RIA, po box 16163, oakland ca 94610 (not available online) +++++++++++ Friday, Oct 18 ODDBALL FILM + VIDEO is proud to host MESS (Media Ecology Soul Salon) at 8:00pm, $10 - The public is invited to this engaging WINSTON SMITH interview by Gerry Fialka. MESS is modern thinkers addressing the metaphysics of their callings and the nitty-gritty of their crafts. www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com 275 Capp St, San Fran CA 94110, 415-558-8112, rsvp info@oddballfilm.com, More info- http://www.laughtears.com/mess.html 8pm= rare film clips, 8:30pm= interview Winston Smith is an artist who primarily uses the medium of collage. He is probably best known for the artwork he has produced for the American punk rock group Dead Kennedys. He also designed the Motéma Music logo. A version of an illustration which had been on the back cover of the Biafra/D.O.A. album Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors was later featured on the cover of the April/May 2000 issue of The New Yorker magazine. His work has also appeared in Spin, Playboy, Wired, Utne Reader, Mother Jones, Metro Silicon Valley, Ugly Planet, National Lampoon, and numerous punk fanzines, such asMaximumrocknroll, Seconds, Punk Planet, etc. Smith is particularly known for his collaborations with Jello Biafra and Alternative Tentacles, for whom he has done numerous covers, inserts, advertisements, flyers, and logos. He is responsible for the famous Alternative Tentacles logo as well as the well-known Dead Kennedys logo and six of their record covers. One of his compositions, God Told Me to Skin You Alive, was used as the cover ofGreen Day's album Insomniac. His name is a reference to the character of the same name in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Smith left the U.S. in 1969 to study art in Italy and, struck by the profound social changes that had occurred during his absence from the U.S., adopted the name after returning to America in 1976. In Italy, Smith attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence studying classical Renaissance art and later won a scholarship to study Cinema at the International University of Art (Florence & Rome). For a few years he traveled throughout Italy, roadie-ing for well-known Italian jazz band Perigeo. Over the last 30 years, Winston has had numerous one-man shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, London, Antwerp, Berlin and Rome. His work has been included in numerous books chronicling the punk rock era as well as having his work included in art text books plus several book covers, such as Greg Palast's best-sellers "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" and "Armed Madhouse". In addition, Winston has designed over 50 record covers including covers and insert art for Jello Biafra, Burning Brides, George Carlin and Ben Harper. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Smith_(artist) and http://winstonsmith.com/ "Gerry Fialka asks unexpected Questions about important Ideas, eliciting Answers that can surprise even those doing the answering. My Interview with him taught me something about myself; it was a Gift." - David Gatten "Great interviewing requires a stimulating interviewer and Gerry Fialka is certainly that. Best part is that he makes the rare act of deep thinking in public before an audience flow as creatively and easily as a Basquiat painting." - Jay Levin, LA Weekly founder and former editor-in-chief "Fialka's cool questions are right at the heart of all my work. By far the best interview I have ever been treated to." - Ondi Timoner, only two time Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury winner "My experience in Gerry Fialka's MESS series was a scintillating discussion of history, culture, philosophy, sociology and the creative process. His questions and ideas transcend the accepted, traditional limitations of 'the interview.' " - Brad Schreiber, author, producer, screenwriter, journalist "Fialka's interview with me was an invigorating, pleasurable, philosophical, specific, awakening journey." - Harry Northup, actor and poet "Fialka's was the funniest interview I have ever had. He has developed a very wise way of triggering thoughts in the interviewee--or at least in me. He didn't ask any of the questions I always hate to be asked. It was good talking with him" - Leighton Pierce, Dean, School of Art and Design, Pratt Institute "Fialka's interview had me buzzing inside with thoughts and memories that his engaging questions set in motion. Super stimulation." - Filmmaker Larry Gottheim "Gerry Fialka comes up with some dynamite questions that never occurred to me, and he has an astonishing memory for quotations. I appreciate his great work. " - Author Kristine McKenna “I had such a great time at Gerry Fialka’s MESS Interview Series! Such provocative and unexpected questions; it was a delightful exercise for my mind. I thank him for his generosity of spirit and positive affirmations during the interview process; he made it really easy! “ Poet/Author Terry Wolverton "I had so much fun. I don't think I've ever heard such wonderful questions." - Author Janet Fitch "Fialka's interviews are more gratifying than one could imagine, exploring ideas that don't normally get discussed. With his MESS (Media Ecology Soul Salon) series, a cumulative effect emerges as each progressive interview builds upon and enhances the previous ones. His diligent efforts examine the impulses that motivate people. The secret to good conversation lies in the questions, and Fialka's questions are an art form." - William McNally, Activist/Author "My interview with Fialka was both a rollicking journey into the heart of deep thought and some sort of hard core, cosmic tennis match. He uses quotes to spur new thought more than old thought. It was truly 'far out.' I am grateful." - Fred Dewey, writer, teacher, editor/publisher, former director of Beyond Baroque "I was so honored to be selected for an afternoon of stimulating and rollicking conversation with you! It's rare to have an opportunity to communicate for any length of time these days. What a gift you give to your interviewees of your bright, probing and convivial interaction. You've created a simultaneously celebratory and profound happening unlike anything else anywhere. What a splendid combo of fun and intelligence you possess! Your creativity enlivens our community enormously, and I truly appreciate you. " - Poet Linda Albertano to Gerry GERRY FIALKA, film curator, writer, lecturer, probe artist and paramedia-ecologist has conducted interactive workshops at Cal Arts, UCLA, MIT, USC, San Francisco's Yerba Buena Art Center, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Culver City High School, Massey University (New Zealand), and more. His public interview series MESS has included the likes of Mike Kelley, Alexis Smith, Abraham Polonsky, Mary Woronov, Paul Krassner, Ann Magnuson, Heather Woodbury, Norman Klein, Chris Kraus, P. Adams Sitney, Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, Kristine McKenna, John Sinclair, Van Dyke Parks, Orson Bean, George Herms, Doug Harvey, Janet Fitch, Jon Rappoport, Brad Schreiber, Simon Forti, Rudy Perez, Barry Smolin, SA Griffin, Bruce Bickford, Stan Warnow, Rip Cronk, Marina Goldovskaya, Harry Northup, John French, Jon Alloway, Bill Daniel, Phil Proctor, Ed Holmes (aka Bishop Joey), Marcy Winograd, Greg Burk, Kirk Silsbee among many others. Fialka's interviews have been published in books by Mike Kelley and Sylvere Lotringer. His William Pope.L interview is published in the magazine ARTILLERY Jan'08 issue. Fialka's MESS retrieves the original 1970 MESS (McLuhan Emergency Strategy Seminar) with McLuhan, Buckminster Fuller, and Ted Carpenter (They Become What They Behold) all of whom stressed that breakdowns can be breakthroughs. Fialka has also interviewed Grace Lee Boggs, Ondi Timoner, Timothy A. Carey, George Clinton, Colonel Bruce Hampton, Ben Watson, Tom Gunning, Mac Rebennack (aka Dr John), Martha Colburn, tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE, Bill Brand, Pip Chodorov. Craig Baldwin, DJ Spooky, ruth weiss, MA Littler, Jesse Malmed, Nina Fonoroff, Gregorio Rocha, BILL MORRISON, MARK PAULINE, STEVEN CERIO, DAVID GATTEN, VERONIKA KRAUSAS, John Smith, PHIL SOLOMON, GENE YOUNGBLOOD, JAMES B HARRIS and many more. - - - - - - MESS (Media Ecology Soul Salon), produced by Gerry Fialka since 1997, is based on Marshall McLuhan's insight: "If you don't study the effects of technology, you become its slave." And by "technology" McLuhan was referring to anything humans invent, from language to computers, from philosophy to books, from toothpicks to bulldozers. In dialogues with modern thinkers, MESS provides a forum for probing both the form and the content of media, and for comprehensively surveying-its services and disservices, avoiding bias or point of view. MESS is percept-plunder for the recent future. In his book "I, Fellini," Federico Fellini wrote, "I don't mind speaking autobiographically because I reveal less of myself talking about my real life than I do if I talk about the layer underneath, the one of my fantasies, dreams and imagination." MESS peers into the portals of discovering this layer. MESS seeks what lies beyond this layer. Participants -- including writers, artists, filmmakers, musicians and activists -- are the early radar systems and rear-view mirrors detecting how major transformations in technology affect us. As we live in a MESS-age, this interactive series shakes people out of their regular agendas and reality tunnels. MESS promotes mapmakers who search for new lands and new data. MESS seeks meticulous understanding of every thing we see, hear , feel, taste, and smell, passionately needling the somnambulists and proving that learning can and must be fun. As McLuhan asked, "How are you to argue with people who insist on sticking their heads in the in visible teeth of technology, calling the whole thing freedom?" "Technologies are not mere exterior ads," said Walter Ong, "but also interior transformations of consciousness." And, in his book Immediatism, Hakim Bey observed, "Simply to meet face-to-face is already an action against the forces that oppress us by isolation, by loneliness, by the trance of media." "If it works, it's obsolete." -- McLuhan. "Another fine MESS." - Random Lengths News. - - - - - - - "Gerry Fialka's MESS series is a unique opportunity to meet special artists in a unique, intimate and revealing setting. His intelligence and dedication to research leads to a stimulating and highly interactive interview that is both entertaining and amazingly enlightening." - Phil Proctor of the "Firesign Theatre" "Gerry Fialka is very special, well prepared and ready to take risks - I learned about my self! My kind of interviewer. " -Martin Perlich, author THE ART OF THE INTERVIEW "Gerry Fialka is willing to enter in new discussions even if they go against his current views. Fialka's multilayered delivery of ideas encourages the search for new questions and new paradigms that extend beyond. He is well-informed, off-beat and articulate - one of the most fascinating people I've met." - Keith Jeffries, Ascalon Films "What a great interview Fialka conducted with me. He made it so easy. There used to be people on TV who conducted interviews in depth, though few as good as Fialka. Tom Snyder was the last." - Orson Bean "Fialka is a Zen master of media shuffling your mind with McLuhanisms, and stacking the deck with fresh insights into our culture." - David Selsky, Independent Film Programmer & author of 'Worlds of Silence' "Like an eye-exam of flashing dots, my answers to Gerry Fialka's insightful questions worked like an i-exam catapulting me into my many faceted stories." - ruth weiss "Gerry Fialka is a wonderful host, able to create a joyful relaxing and concentrated atmosphere. During the Q&A he showed himself as a very eloquent critic asking deep and serious questions- always with humor, knowledge and full of energy." - Ine Poppe, Professor at the Willem de Kooning Art Academy, Amsterdam "I am very impressed by Gerry Fialka's energy in bringing together groups of people to think about ideas. That is very much in the McLuhan spirit, to create and foster interdisciplinary, living, educational projects in which people can talk about ideas. [Fialka] creates forums that bring together a plurality of critical perspectives into one multivalent conversation. " - Janine Marchessault, author of MARSHALL McLUHAN:COSMIC MEDIA. "When I participated in Fialka's MESS, he created a unique through-space kind of meditation. This collective free high fires up the ability/consciousness of not judging. It makes a gap between saying and meaning leaving a lot of room for interpretation. Really amazing event." - Marc Herbst, editor-Journal of Aesthetics and Protest. "Fialka's MESS interview series is a fascinating evening with stimulating questions and approaches. I surely enjoyed the depth of the arena and a chance to pontificate on questions of the spirit in a relaxed scenario and free speech surrounding." - Lady Lord Buckley "Gerry’s interview with me was like hypnotherapy without the snapping of the fingers to bring you back. I really felt good after that." - Lucky Otis, grandson of Johnny Otis and son of Shuggie Otis & the GTO’s Miss Mercy “Gerry Fialka has built up an important body of work in his decades of interviews. My challenge to him is: get a book deal, already.” - Tibby Rothman, Feature Writer LA Weekly, Founder/Editor VenicePaper "Gerry Fialka's interview with me at Experiments In Cinema 2011 Film Festival was a highlight. He is my new favorite person. He is writing a book on Avant Garde Film & The Ann Arbor Film Festival. He is such a trip! Totally brilliant and passionate about everything about human existence it seems, but in particular media theory, media art, media activism. He asked me all sorts of great questions." - Julie Perini, filmmaker, writer and teacher "Gerry interviewed me. I've given talks all over the world and none of them touched what happened in that interview. For 2 hours and 45 minutes, the spontaneous river rolled on. At the end of every outpouring, Gerry turned the page with a new question, and the new page was just as exciting as the last one. I guess I've been waiting for an interview like that all my life. Gerry Fialka is the world champion of interviewers, it's not even close" - Jon Rappoport, author & journalist. "Fialka is a damn good interviewer. His questions are sometimes so precise that it tickles and sometimes so grand and thought provoking that one feels on the edge of a new spiritual awareness." - Lynne Sachs, award-winning filmmaker "Being interviewed by Gerry Fialka was a real high point in my film career. His questions are wacky, discursive, cosmic, probing, thought provoking and, yes, experimental and avant garde. I left brimming with a renewed passion for the wide world of film and ideas. Gerry's enthusiasm and restless intellect are contagious." - Mark Street, award-winning filmmaker “Fialka’s questions are challenging and thought provoking. These questions rattled me for days.” -Mary Jordan, filmmaker of Jack Smith documentary "I am inspired and excited that Gerry Fialka, who holds an affinity for the Ann Arbor Film Festival, is writing a history of it. Having attended two of his 2008 AAFF workshops, I can testify he is intimate with experimental cinema and media philosophy, and is deeply dedicated to the exploration of new knowledge. " - Leslie Raymond, Professor of Art & New Media, University of Texas. "Gerry Fialka is the Studs Terkel of Venice, California - nurturing active participation for common ground." - Michele Raven, Writer/Producer "Gerry Fialka is one of the most giving impresarios that ever landed in Venice, California. He continues to fulfill Venice founder Abbott Kinney's dream of Chautauqua's influence on people. Fialka is the glue of the Venicessance. " - Jeffrey Solomon, Historian, Venicebeachwalkingtours.com - - - - - - "The confusion is not my invention...It is all around us and our only chance is to let it in. The only chance of renovation is to open our eyes and see the mess." -Samuel Beckett. "It's crazy how you can get yourself in a mess sometimes and not even be able to think about it with any sense and yet not be able to think about anything else. " - Stanley Kubrick ++++++++++++++++++++ "Gerry Fialka is Los Angeles' preeminent underground film curator." - CinemaWithoutBorders.com Fialka's new book project - AVANT GARDE FILM & The ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL HISTORY BOOK http://www.laughtears.com/Ann%20Arbor%20Film%20Festival.html GERRY FIALKA's Otherzine articles- Fall 2013 TRICKSTER CINEMA http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/may-attract-other-coyotes-or-putting-on-put-ons-the-artist-as-trickster/ Spring 2013 Nothing and Stay Out http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/?issueid=29&article_id=172 Fall 2012 - Mike Kelley And Meme http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/index.php?issueid=28&article_id=165 Spring 2012 - Occupy Awake:Conscious Mapmakers On World Wide Watch http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/?issueid=27&article_id=148 Fall 2011 - McLuhan's City As Classroom Flips Into All-At-Onceness As Classroom http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/index.php?issueid=26&article_id=135 Spring 2011 - McLuhan & WikiLeaks: 'Hoedown' and 'Hendiadys' http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/?issueid=25&article_id=123 Spring 2010 - Looking Glass - Review of Millennium Film Journal #51 http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/?issueid=23&article_id=99 Spring 2009 - Dream Awake -HOW JOYCE INVENTED OTHER CINEMA & DISGUISED IT AS A BOOK http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/index.php?issueid=21&article_id=85 Thank you, Gerry Fialka pfsuzy@aol.com 310-306-7330 http://www.laughtears.com/ Bio - http://www.laughtears.com/bio.html Lectures -http://laughtears.com/workshops_summary.html and http://www.laughtears.com/workshops4.html "I left Fialka's Pixelvision Workshop inspired, recharged, eased and reconnected to the cosmic artist club!!" - Brian Thomas Bailey, artist

PXL THIS 22

PXL THIS is the annual toy camera film festival featuring Pixelvision films made with the Fisher-Price PXL-2000 camcorder. The second oldest film festival in LA, PXL THIS celebrates visionary moving image artists from 4-years-olds to professionals.



for immediate release

contact: Gerry Fialka 310-306-7330 pfsuzy@aol.com http://www.laughtears.com/



PXL THIS 22, the 22nd annual toy camera film festival, screens Mon, Dec 10 at 7 & 9pm (two different shows, with 6pm preshow) at Unurban, 3301 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica CA 90401, 310-315-0056, free admission



Featuring new entries from seminal Pixelvision filmmakers: Lisa Marr, Paolo Davanzo, Paul Bacca, Doug Ing,

Will Erokan, Clifford Novey, Denny Moynahan, Will Erokan and many more.



PXL THIS sites: http://pxl2000.blogspot.com/ and http://sites.google.com/site/pxlthis/ and http://www.youtube.com/user/pxlthis



PXL THIS celebrates its 22nd year of creative filmmaking by everyone from kids to professionals. One of the most unique film festivals ever, PXL THIS has been attended by Oliver Stone, Daryl Hannah, Kim Fowley among many more. Pixelvision has even made it onto the big screen via Richard Linklater (Slacker), Michael Almereyda (Nadja, produced by David Lynch) and Craig Baldwin (Sonic Outlaws). The irresistible irony of the PXL 2000 is that the camera's ease-of-use and affordability, which entirely democratizes movie-making, has inspired the creation of some of the most visionary, avant and luminous film of our time.



"If movies offer an escape from everyday life, Pixelvision is the Houdini of the film world." - SF Weekly



PXL THIS, featuring films made with the Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy camcorder, is one of the longest running film festivals in the entertainment capital of the world. Celebrating "cinema povera" moving image art, it evokes Marcel Duchamp's axiom "Poor tools require better skills." Pixelators from across the globe hoick up inventive approaches to the unassuming throw-away of consumer culture. These low-tech hi-jinx films come through loud and clear by reframing a new cinema language. Past PXL THIS participants have included Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Chris Metzler (Fishbone & Salton Sea documentaries), James & Sadie Benning, Joe Gibbons, Cecilia Dougherty, Peggy Ahwesh, Jesse Drew, Margie Strosser and Michael Almereyda.



"Gerry Fialka’s annual PXL THIS is a reliably surprising and seductive round-up of recent work achieved with the PXL 2000 camera. This humble outdated “toy” continues to bring out the visionary child in filmmakers and viewers alike, and no one has kept the PXL flame burning longer or brighter than Gerry." - Michael Almereyda, director



"Gerry Fialka's PXL THIS festival snaps, crackles and pops off the screen with the funky, user-friendly energy of real first-person cinema. Goofy, gorgeous, and altogether groovy, his provocative program of pieces produced with the Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy video camera is not only downright entertaining, but more, its blipping and buzzing black 'n' white picture-bits coalesce into a veritable inspiration to all those who cherish the playful, spontaneous gestures and low-cost of electronic folk art." - Craig Baldwin, director & curator.



"All the PXL THIS videos reflect festival organizer Gerry Fialka's commitment to the freedom produced by making art without financial constraints. PXL THIS is a welcome highlight in the Los Angeles media scene celebrating the rich lexicon available in a tool which might initially seem rather limiting." - Holly Willis, LA Weekly.



"Pixelvision may be firmly ensconced in the pantheon of once-popular dead media, but for many of the faithful it captures the heart of the American experience as it should be seen: in basic black and white." - David Cotner. LA Weekly



"PXL is the ultimate people's video." - J. Hoberman, Premiere Magazine.



Seminal film critic Pauline Kael evoked Pixelvision in her book Hooked: "I am still a child before a moving image."



Hollywood Reporter called Pixelvision a "precursor of today's DV filmmaking."



"When the aliens are here and deciding whether to vaporize all mankind for our inhumanity, cruelty and greed, showing the aliens PXL THIS will save the world. PXL THIS shows our best nature as humanist creators and subversives against those who deserve it. Save the world. Support PXL THIS." - George Manupelli, founder of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, filmmaker, poet, collagist and political/environmental activist



"I didn't really like the work I thought was my best work. I liked the stuff I didn't like a lot more." Hollis Frampton evoking Pixelvision in 1978,



PXL THIS Director Fialka - hires 300 dpi still with PXL Cam - http://www.laughtears.com/images/Gerry-360dpi.jpg and Bio - http://www.laughtears.com/bio.html & http://gerryfialka.blogspot.com/



PXL THIS 22 screens May 23 at http://www.echoparkfilmcenter.org/



PXL THIS 23 - Entry deadline Oct 22, 2013 - simply send a dvd to Gerry Fialka 2427 1/2 Glyndon Ave, Venice, CA 90291, 310-306-7330, pfsuzy@aol.com NO entry fee.





**********************************

Program Notes for San Francisco Cinematheque's AN INVENTION WITHOUT A FUTURE -

PIXELVISION: ELECTRONIC FOLK ART. (comprehensive history of PXL THIS and Pixelvision)

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:VT1Pm-oc9goJ:www.sfcinematheque.org/ee/images/uploads/PN2_10PXL.PDF+%22san+francisco+cinematheque%22+pxl&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESii8N3c8YRRSdwGAdMDLt-VKxQRzG6MQ09Mj0i2zVNcte74oKqNp8XdA54dGE5LuWvVYUo96Z5hbhzIb_qYhhkkroluQYFeIiCSzSl6-Wp4wcbyC7fDzlR3Wr60Hi_x_HME_Zit&sig=AHIEtbTh3oEPNjWhZHgpiIsAm0RS4PQrMQ



Andrea Nina McCarthy's 2005 MIT thesis "Toying With Obsolescence: Pixelvision Filmmakers & The Fisher Price PXL 2000 Camera" is essential reading.http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pwHJLt5QPRkJ:cms.mit.edu/research/theses/AndreaMcCarty2005.pdf+pxl+2000+mit&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us



*******************************************

Toy Stories by David Cotner LA Weekly 5-12-11 - 1987 was a fairly dull year for culture. Hardcore's fire dwindled and modern art faded into the background amidst the rise of EuroDisney, Pat Robertson for President and the founding of Aum Shinrikyo. Occasionally there were high points: the KLF, Final Fantasy and the issue of the Fisher-Price PXL2000. Meant to be a child's first video camera, it used cassettes as its recording medium, producing grainy, security-cam-quality images. The PXL THIS Film Festival enters its 20th year of life, with festival founder Gerry Fialka and PXL2000 filmmakers appearing tonight to screen their films. Featured in the fest: Wickstead's Wonder, a film about PXL2000 inventor James Wickstead; Arroyo Seco River Song, a tribute to the L.A. River tributary; 4-year-old Anwyn Lees' remake of The Wizard of Oz on her front porch with her dad and mom; Baltimore dada/experimentalist tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE's film Philosopher's Union Member's Mouthpiece; and Fialka's own Parallel Worlder, a cross between the dance of Martha Graham and the satire of W.C. Fields. Pixelvision may be firmly ensconced in the pantheon of once-popular dead media, but for many of the faithful it captures the heart of the American experience as it should be seen: in basic black and white.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Blur + Sharpen If it Works, It's Obsolete by Holly Willis 12-11-10

http://www.kcet.org/socal/voices/blur-sharpen/if-it-works-its-obsolete.html

Gerry Fialka is LA's tireless advocate for alternative media and DIY culture generally, and the creative potential of the PXL 2000, a cheap, plastic toy video camera made by Fisher-Price in the 1980s, in particular. The camera produces a glitchy, chunky black-and-white image that's, well, often quite beautiful. For 20 years, the Venice-based media proponent has been showcasing videos made with the PXL 2000 camera in the PXL This video festival, which returns with a celebratory 20th annual showcase this Monday night, December 13, with two shows (7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.) at the Unurban Coffeehouse at 3301 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica. I took the anniversary as an opportunity to ask Gerry a few questions, starting with what makes the PXL 2000 camera interesting in a world where we now have so many video camera options.



"McLuhan said, 'If it works, it's obsolete,'" says Gerry. "The PXL is remarkable because it does not work." Gerry is referring here to the fact that the camera does not even attempt to mimic reality; it's not interested in clarity, resolution or fidelity. Instead, the camera produces a glimpse of the world, one that underscores visual manipulation and dismisses attempts at perfection. "Giving the viewer less information might mean more involvement by the viewer," Gerry suggests. "It enables the possibility of 'breakdown as breakthrough.'" Considering the array of camera options, Gerry adds, "There's lots of video cams on the market that have some similar features, but none with the unique gothic dreamy look - there are lots of cool words that have described its services and disservices!"

Shooting with the PXL 2000 is also fun. It's nicely shaped, lightweight, and now, nearly 30 years after its birth, boasts a sleek retro look that the little Flip video camera will never have. Oddly enough, the camera records onto sound cassettes, and the image itself is framed with a black matte, giving the resulting footage an elegant look in contrast with the chaos of the imagery itself. When you use a PXL Vision camera, you really have to negotiate with the camera; the process is about discovery rather than capture. "We are really about McLuhan's adage, 'We shape our tools, then they shape us,'" adds Gerry. "That's the meta-cognition here." He goes on to suggest that often artists try to rekindle the visionary delight of children, and using a toy contributes to that sense of creativity and rule-breaking.

Gerry notes that technically he does not "curate" the festival. "I show every entry," he explains. "We welcome kids and homeless people and rich art kids and so on. We celebrate a tool, and we leave it to the audience and press to make aesthetic judgments." He adds that audience reactions definitely shift each year. "'Anything that's popular is a rear-view image,'" Gerry adds, again quoting Marshall McLuhan. "We are not a popular festival." That said, the show is an annual highlight for those seeking offbeat imagery and storytelling, and creativity that emerges in dialogue with imperfect and magical toy tools. More info: 310-306-7330. [Images taken from a PXL 2000 user's manual, available here.]

*************************************



Introducing Gerry Fialka's PXL THIS 20 Film Festival by Joseph Mael 11-30-10

http://www.examiner.com/santa-monica-city-buzz-in-los-angeles/introducing-gerry-fialka-s-pxl-this-20

"Curator Gerry Fialka puts together events of films both experimental and socially conscious." - LA City Beat

Maybe certain happenings are meant to be kept discreet but then again there is always that “A-HA!” moment when circumstances lend to the belief that a certain happening is going to blow up. For the PXL THIS Film Festival, it hasn't happened yet. Or maybe it has. Creator of L.A.'s 2nd longest running film festival, Gerry Fialka, brings PXL THIS 20 to life to continue the underground legacy of the revolutionary PXL 2000 video camcorder on December 13th, 2010 at Unurban Cafe in Santa Monica. Produced by Fisher Price (there were 400,000 units released for sale from 1987 to 1989), this “toy” renders a unique video image and now has a legendary history that has firmly left a fingerprint on the history of film-making. The camera produces an image from 2,000 “dots” that is in contrast with modern film technology, particularly when held up to the 150,000+ dots on today's televison, the PXL 2000 elicits a unique image directors enjoy incorporating with heavy duty film machinery.

I had the opportunity to ask Gerry about this year's PXL THIS this week and here's how he answered a couple questions I found relevant:

Q: Can I get a quick reflection by you on PXL THIS 20? What does it mean to you?

A: What the PXL THIS Film Festival means to me is deconstructing moving image art-making and the whole idea of a film festival. We gather the community to share in the creative process, bare bones style. Both in making and in watching, PXL THIS encourages participation, the same way that the PXL image offers little and requires the viewers to heighten their awareness and fill in the blanks. The gap is where the action is - the resonating interval. In Marcel Duchampian spirit, how do you make a film festival that is not a film festival? T S Eliot said that poetry is outing your inner dialogue. What form is your inner dialogue in? Maybe its that dreamy illusive Pixelvision image for some. An extension of consciousness? The next medium ? The Non-physical? The possibility of a world without words? Low definition can mean high participation. PXL THIS means to me connectedness not consumerism, hoicking up an ecstatic new state of tribal immediacy and involvement, simultaneity, all-at-onceness. The Balinese have no word for art, they do everything as well as they can. I salute all Pixelators and PXL THIS audience members who for two decades have mustered up multi-dimensions and multi-sensuousness.

Q: Is PXL THIS the largest publicly accessible pixelvision collection in the world?

A: YES, our archives are stored at The Academy, which is truly a major hoot. The cheeziest genuine fake film festival in the world is treated by the most important Film Archives in the world with respect. They feel that its worth storing and preserving. It reflects what humans can do. As McLuhan said, we shape our tools then they shape us



Pixelvision History



Fialka, self-described as a para-media ecologist based in Venice, CA, is the visionary behind the PXL 2000 fetish. To say he has a way with words is an understatement. He describes the festival by stating, “PXL THIS features films made with the Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy camcorder, is one of the longest running film festivals in the entertainment capital of the world. Celebrating "cinema povera" moving image art, it evokes Marcel Duchamp's axiom "Poor tools require better skills." Pixelators from across the globe hoick up inventive approaches to the unassuming throw-away of consumer culture. These low-tech hi-jinx films come through loud and clear by re-framing a new cinema language. Past PXL THIS participants have included Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Chris Metzler (Fishbone & Salton Sea documentaries), James & Sadie Benning, Joe Gibbons, Cecilia Dougherty, Peggy Ahwesh, Jesse Drew, Margie Strosser and Michael Almereyda.” When he describes how the outside world has described PXL THIS he proudly states, "We really love that the “New York Times” called PXL THIS “small” and that lots of our best entries come from Venice California’s Boardwalk performers (as in “houseless” — not homeless because the earth is everyone’s home)."



Pixelvision's history as a tool of choice by experimental filmmakers took off after a grant by the Rockefeller Foundation was awarded to Sadie Benning for her work with the PXL 2000 in 1993. PXL 2000 footage was used in the films Slacker (1991) and Hamlet (2000). Over time, from its brief period on the shelves as a toy for for children to current day, the PXL 2000 format has resurfaced from a failed technology to a prized cult object that even became a thesis topic for some students (McCarty, 2005).

“There is something about the quality of the image that is really dreamlike and it has a feeling of being in the past already even though you just shot it. It is not quite reality or not quite representational of what's really happening at that moment, so it already has this distancing effect of feeling like it's already in the past somehow. “ – Sadie Benning, Award-winning Pixelvision artist



Most of the videos included in the PXL THIS 20 film festival are between 3 and 6 minutes in length though some of the gems in past PXL THIS festivals extended over ten minutes in duration. The festival's following is quite dedicated but it somehow keeps a low profile. If you missed the October submission deadline, don't fret, this film festival has a cult-like following and Fialka receives a growing number of entries each passing year. If you have old PXL 2000 films laying around, your entry into the next PXL THIS is always welcome. Fialka says, "Pixelators return to innocence by using, and even misusing, moving image art to view worlds that usually go unnoticed, evoking children's spirited desire to explore."



Low brow, or high brow? You decide, but as J. Hoberman of Premier Magazine said, “PXL is the ultimate people's video.”



Gerry Fialka believe's PXL THIS is best described by his hero, George Manupelli, founder of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, who said, “When the aliens are here and deciding whether to vaporize all mankind for our inhumanity, cruelty and greed, showing the aliens PXL THIS will save the world. PXL THIS shows our best nature as humanist creators and subversives against those who deserve it. Save the world. Support PXL THIS.” Yep, that's a tough thought to top.



"Gerry Fialka’s annual PXL THIS is a reliably surprising and seductive round-up of recent work achieved with the PXL 2000 camera. This humble outdated “toy” continues to bring out the visionary child in filmmakers and viewers alike, and no one has kept the PXL flame burning longer or brighter than Gerry." - Michael Almereyda, director



********************************



Pixelvision enables filmmakers to tap into that child-like innocence all artists seek in the creative process. What could be easier than starting with a kids toy. John Lane's 2001 book Timeless Simplicity articulates wabi-sabi, "the perfect antidote to the pervasively slick style of homogenized efficency." Pixelvisionaries evoke the spirit of Wabi-sabi: "This elusive philosphy is about sufficiency and restraint. It is about simplicity, the minor and hidden, the modest and humble, the imperfect and the evanescent. It is about treading lightly on the planet. An added dimension is its implicit message urging us to forget the seductions of success - wealth, status, power and luxury."



"As for the PXL 2000 camera, because it’s a child’s toy there’s a certain naiveté which is inherent in the productions. Yet due to its technology, the PXL 2000 camera produces these edgy, gritty, “rough as a night in jail” images. I find the juxtaposition of these two attributes very interesting and useful in many of the politically oriented pieces I’ve produced. From a technical perspective, I would say my primary contribution to the field is that I created a filmmaking style using the PXL 2000 which I call Machinima Vérité. Machinima Vérité combines Machinima (creating movies from 3D PC game engines) with Cinéma Vérité techniques to create a sense of realism. So basically I produce and render the movie from a game engine on a PC, display the video on a high resolution LCD, and recapture the video on the LCD using a PXL 2000 camera. My videos “CATACLYSM” and “bursting in air” are a couple of examples of this technique. I really appreciate all of the effort Gerry Fialka puts in with the PXL THIS festival. If it weren’t for Gerry, interest in the PXL 2000 would have died out many years ago." - L. M. Sabo



"Gerry Fialka's monthly film series 7 Dudley Cinema provides and oft nourishes the most avant/eclectic/experimental/kook/philosophical and damn downright entertaining filmmaking this side of Andre Breton and the Exquisite Corpse Crew. His programming is the only reason I will go west of Western Avenue, unless I'm neck deep in the Pacific Ocean. - Filmmaker/Actor Emmy (The Volcano) Collins



"Gerry Fialka is Los Angeles' preeminent underground film curator." - Robin Menken, cinemawithoutborders.com



PXL THIS Director Gerry Fialka is available for Pixelvision & Media Ecology workshops. http://www.laughtears.com/workshops.html



"Fialka's workshops are in depth communication of something extremely elusive - the history of the unimaginable - and his lively interpretation renders it useful." - William Farley, Award-winning filmmaker



Cinesource PXL article by Gerry Fialka - http://cinesourcemagazine.com/index.php?/site/comments/pxl_triple_fake/



****************************

Check out this amazing site by Will Erokan, who posted the past 20 PXL THIS festivals online

http://willerokan.com/pxlthis.html



and here's the individual links...

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_01

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_02

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_03

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_04

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_05

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_06

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_07

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_08

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_09

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_10

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_11

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_12

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_13

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_14

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_15

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_16

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_17

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_18

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_19

http://www.archive.org/details/PXLTHIS_20



*************************************************************************

michaelkoshkin@gmail.com is making a documentary about Pixelvision.

Interview invite

Hello

I would like to interview you (either in public http://www.laughtears.com/mess.html or not in public - for Otherzine http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/?issueid=28&article_id=165 ).

Please, lets talk.

Here's more info.

Thank you,

Gerry Fialka 310-306-7330 PFSuzy@aol.com

bio http://www.laughtears.com/bio.html

http://www.laughtears.com/ and www.venice wake.org





"Great interviewing requires a stimulating interviewer and Gerry Fialka is certainly that. Best part is that he makes the rare act of deep thinking in public before an audience flow as creatively and easily as a Basquiat painting." - Jay Levin, LA Weekly founder and former editor-in-chief



"Fialka's cool questions are right at the heart of all my work. By far the best interview I have ever been treated to." - Ondi Timoner, only two time Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury winner



"My experience in Gerry Fialka's MESS series was a scintillating discussion of history, culture, philosophy, sociology and the creative process. His questions and ideas transcend the accepted, traditional limitations of 'the interview.' " - Brad Schreiber, author, producer, screenwriter, journalist



"Fialka's interview with me was an invigorating, pleasurable, philosophical, specific, awakening journey." - Harry Northup, actor and poet



"Gerry Fialka comes up with some dynamite questions that never occurred to me, and he has an astonishing memory for quotations. I appreciate his great work. " - Author Kristine McKenna



“I had such a great time at Gerry Fialka’s MESS Interview Series! Such provocative and unexpected questions; it was a delightful exercise for my mind. I thank him for his generosity of spirit and positive affirmations during the interview process; he made it really easy! “ Poet/Author Terry Wolverton



"I had so much fun. I don't think I've ever heard such wonderful questions." - Author Janet Fitch



"Fialka's interviews are more gratifying than one could imagine, exploring ideas that don't normally get discussed. With his MESS (Media Ecology Soul Salon) series, a cumulative effect emerges as each progressive interview builds upon and enhances the previous ones. His diligent efforts examine the impulses that motivate people. The secret to good conversation lies in the questions, and Fialka's questions are an art form." - William McNally, Activist/Author



"My interview with Fialka was both a rolicking journey into the heart of deep thought and some sort of hard core, cosmic tennis match. He uses quotes to spur new thought more than old thought. It was truly 'far out.' I am grateful." - Fred Dewey, writer, teacher, editor/publisher, former director of Beyond Baroque



GERRY FIALKA, film curator, writer, lecturer, probe artist and paramedia-ecologist has conducted interactive workshops at Cal Arts, UCLA, MIT, USC, San Francisco's Yerba Buena Art Center, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Culver City High School, Massey University (New Zealand), and more. His public interview series MESS has included the likes of Mike Kelley, Alexis Smith, Abraham Polonsky, Mary Woronov, Paul Krassner, Ann Magnuson, Heather Woodbury, Norman Klein, Chris Kraus, P. Adams Sitney, Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, Kristine McKenna, John Sinclair, Van Dyke Parks, Orson Bean, George Herms, Doug Harvey, Janet Fitch, Jon Rappoport, Brad Schreiber, Simon Forti, Rudy Perez, Barry Smolin, SA Griffin, Bruce Bickford, Stan Warnow, Rip Cronk, Marina Goldovskaya, Harry Northup, John French, Jon Alloway, Bill Daniel, Phil Proctor, Ed Holmes (aka Bishop Joey), Marcy Winograd, Greg Burk, Kirk Silsbee among many others. Fialka's interviews have been published in books by Mike Kelley and Sylvere Lotringer. His William Pope.L interview is published in the magazine ARTILLERY Jan'08 issue. Fialka's MESS retrieves the original 1970 MESS (McLuhan Emergency Strategy Seminar) with McLuhan, Buckminster Fuller, and Ted Carpenter (They Become What They Behold) all of whom stressed that breakdowns can be breakthroughs.



Fialka has also interviewed Grace Lee Boggs, Ondi Timoner, Timothy A. Carey, George Clinton, Colonel Bruce Hampton, Ben Watson, Tom Gunning, Mac Rebennack (aka Dr John), Martha Colburn, tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE, Bill Brand, Pip Chodoov, Craig Baldwin, DJ Spooky, ruth weiss, MA Littler, Jesse Malmed, Nina Fonoroff, Gregorio Rocha, BILL MORRISON,and many more.

- - - - - -



MESS (Media Ecology Soul Salon), produced by Gerry Fialka since 1997, is based on Marshall McLuhan's insight: "If you don't study the effects of technology, you become its slave." And by "technology" McLuhan was referring to anything humans invent, from language to computers, from philosophy to books, from toothpicks to bulldozers. In dialogues with modern thinkers, MESS provides a forum for probing both the form and the content of media, and for comprehensively surveying-its services and disservices, avoiding bias or point of view. MESS is percept-plunder for the recent future.



In his book "I, Fellini," Federico Fellini wrote, "I don't mind speaking autobiographically because I reveal less of myself talking about my real life than I do if I talk about the layer underneath, the one of my fantasies, dreams and imagination." MESS peers into the portals of discovering this layer. MESS seeks what lies beyond this layer.



Participants -- including writers, artists, filmmakers, musicians and activists -- are the early radar systems and rear-view mirrors detecting how major transformations in technology affect us. As we live in a MESS-age, this interactive series shakes people out of their regular agendas and reality tunnels. MESS promotes mapmakers who search for new lands and new data. MESS seeks meticulous understanding of every thing we see, hear , feel, taste, and smell, passionately needling the somnambulists and proving that learning can and must be fun. As McLuhan asked, "How are you to argue with people who insist on sticking their heads in the in visible teeth of technology, calling the whole thing freedom?" "Technologies are not mere exterior ads," said Walter Ong, "but also interior transformations of consciousness." And, in his book Immediatism, Hakim Bey observed, "Simply to meet face-to-face is already an action against the forces that oppress us by isolation, by loneliness, by the trance of media."

"If it works, it's obsolete." -- McLuhan. "Another fine MESS." - Random Lengths News.



- - - - - - -



"Gerry Fialka's MESS series is a unique opportunity to meet special artists in a unique, intimate and revealing setting. His intelligence and dedication to research leads to a stimulating and highly interactive interview that is both entertaining and amazingly enlightening." - Phil Proctor of the "Firesign Theatre"



"Gerry Fialka is very special, well prepared and ready to take risks - I learned about my self! My kind of interviewer. " -Martin Perlich, author THE ART OF THE INTERVIEW



"Gerry Fialka is willing to enter in new discussions even if they go against his current views. Fialka's multilayered delivery of ideas encourages the search for new questions and new paradigms that extend beyond. He is well-informed, off-beat and articulate - one of the most fascinating people I've met." - Keith Jeffries, Ascalon Films



"What a great interview Fialka conducted with me. He made it so easy. There used to be people on TV who conducted interviews in depth, though few as good as Fialka. Tom Snyder was the last." - Orson Bean



"Fialka is a Zen master of media shuffling your mind with McLuhanisms, and stacking the deck with fresh insights into our culture." - David Selsky, Independent Film Programmer & author of 'Worlds of Silence'



"Like an eye-exam of flashing dots, my answers to Gerry Fialka's insightful questions worked like an i-exam catapulting me into my many faceted stories." - ruth weiss



"Gerry Fialka is a wonderful host, able to create a joyful relaxing and concentrated atmosphere. During the Q&A he showed himself as a very eloquent critic asking deep and serious questions- always with humor, knowledge and full of energy." - Ine Poppe, Professor at the Willem de Kooning Art Academy, Amsterdam



"I am very impressed by Gerry Fialka's energy in bringing together groups of people to think about ideas. That is very much in the McLuhan spirit, to create and foster interdisciplinary, living, educational projects in which people can talk about ideas. [Fialka] creates forums that bring together a plurality of critical perspectives into one multivalent conversation. " - Janine Marchessault, author of MARSHALL McLUHAN:COSMIC MEDIA.



"When I participated in Fialka's MESS, he created a unique through-space kind of meditation. This collective free high fires up the ability/consciousness of not judging. It makes a gap between saying and meaning leaving a lot of room for interpretation. Really amazing event." - Marc Herbst, editor-Journal of Aesthetics and Protest.



"Fialka's MESS interview series is a fascinating evening with stimulating questions and approaches. I surely enjoyed the depth of the arena and a chance to pontificate on questions of the spirit in a relaxed scenario and free speech surrounding." - Lady Lord Buckley



"Gerry’s interview with me was like hypnotherapy without the snapping of the fingers to bring you back. I really felt good after that." - Lucky Otis, grandson of Johnny Otis and son of Shuggie Otis & the GTO’s Miss Mercy



“Gerry Fialka has built up an important body of work in his decades of interviews. My challenge to him is: get a book deal, already.” - Tibby Rothman, Feature Writer LA Weekly, Founder/Editor VenicePaper



"Gerry Fialka's interview with me at Experiments In Cinema 2011 Film Festival was a highlight. He is my new favorite person. He is writing a book on Avant Garde Film & The Ann Arbor Film Festival. He is such a trip! Totally brilliant and passionate about everything about human existence it seems, but in particular media theory, media art, media activism. He asked me all sorts of great questions." - Julie Perini, filmmaker, writer and teacher



"Gerry interviewed me. I've given talks all over the world and none of them touched what happened in that interview. For 2 hours and 45 minutes, the spontaneous river rolled on. At the end of every outpouring, Gerry turned the page with a new question, and the new page was just as exciting as the last one. I guess I've been waiting for an interview like that all my life. Gerry Fialka is the world champion of interviewers, it's not even close" - Jon Rappoport, author & journalist.



"Fialka is a damn good interviewer. His questions are sometimes so precise that it tickles and sometimes so grand and thought provoking that one feels on the edge of a new spiritual awareness." - Lynne Sachs, award-winning filmmaker



"Being interviewed by Gerry Fialka was a real high point in my film career. His questions are wacky, discursive, cosmic, probing, thought provoking and, yes, experimental and avant garde. I left brimming with a renewed passion for the wide world of film and ideas. Gerry's enthusiasm and restless intellect are contagious." - Mark Street, award-winning filmmaker



“Fialka’s questions are challenging and thought provoking. These questions rattled me for days.” -Mary Jordan, filmmaker of Jack Smith documentary



"I am inspired and excited that Gerry Fialka, who holds an affinity for the Ann Arbor Film Festival, is writing a history of it. Having attended two of his 2008 AAFF workshops, I can testify he is intimate with experimental cinema and media philosophy, and is deeply dedicated to the exploration of new knowledge. " - Leslie Raymond, Professor of Art & New Media, University of Texas.



"Gerry Fialka is the Studs Terkel of Venice, California - nurturing active participation for common ground." - Michele Raven, Writer/Producer



"Gerry Fialka is one of the most giving impresarios that ever landed in Venice, California. He continues to fulfill Venice founder Abbott Kinney's dream of Chautauqua's influence on people. Fialka is the glue of the Venicessance. " - Jeffrey Solomon, Historian, Venicebeachwalkingtours.com

- - - - - -

"The confusion is not my invention...It is all around us and our only chance is to let it in. The only chance of renovation is to open our eyes and see the mess." -Samuel Beckett.



"It's crazy how you can get yourself in a mess sometimes and not even be able to think about it with any sense and yet not be able to think about anything else. " - Stanley Kubrick



++++++++++++++++++++



"Gerry Fialka is Los Angeles' preeminent underground film curator." - CinemaWithoutBorders.com



Fialka's new book project - AVANT GARDE FILM & The ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL HISTORY BOOK http://www.laughtears.com/Ann%20Arbor%20Film%20Festival.html



GERRY FIALKA's Otherzine articles-

Fall 2012 - Mike Kelley And Meme http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/index.php?issueid=28&article_id=165

Spring 2012 - Occupy Awake:Conscious Mapmakers On World Wide Watch

http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/?issueid=27&article_id=148

Fall 2011 - McLuhan's City As Classroom Flips Into All-At-Onceness As Classroom

http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/index.php?issueid=26&article_id=135

Spring 2011 - McLuhan & WikiLeaks: 'Hoedown' and 'Hendiadys'

http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/?issueid=25&article_id=123

Spring 2010 - Looking Glass - Review of Millennium Film Journal #51 http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/?issueid=23&article_id=99

Spring 2009 - Dream Awake -HOW JOYCE INVENTED OTHER CINEMA & DISGUISED IT AS A BOOK

http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/index.php?issueid=21&article_id=85





Thank you,



Gerry Fialka

pfsuzy@aol.com 310-306-7330

http://www.laughtears.com/

Bio - http://www.laughtears.com/bio.html

Lectures - http://www.laughtears.com/workshops4.html

Gerry Fialka SF events Oct 11-14, 2012

Gerry Fialka SF events Oct11-14, 2012

Here's info on events hosted by Gerry Fialka, who has been called "a cultural revolutionary" by the LA Weekly and "the Renaissance multi-media man" by the LA Times.

Thank you,
Gerry Fialka

pfsuzy@aol.com
310-306-7330
http://www.laughtears.com/

BIO - http://www.laughtears.com/bio.html

Oct 11, Thursday - Pixelvision Percept Plunder & THOMAS INCE (double feature) at 8pm (730 pm pot-luck), free admission at New Nothing, 16 Sherman St (off Folsom between 6th & 7th), San Fran CA 94103, phone 310-306-7330, film history and the future of live cinema with music improv by V Vale, Rock Ross.

Oct 12, Friday - MARK PAULINE INTERVIEW- 8:30pm at Oddball Films & Video http://www.oddballfilm.com/ 275 Capp St, San Fran CA 94110, 415-558-8112, $12 rsvp info@oddballfilm.com 30 minutes of rare film clips followed by Pauline interview by Gerry Fialka.

OCT 13, Saturday- PXL THIS 21- annual toy camera film festival, screens at 8:30pm at Other Cinema, 992 Valencia St (& 21st), SF 94110, 415-648-0654, http://othercinema.com/ $6. Plus new PXL documentary. New Mike Kelley article- http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/?issueid=28&article_id=165

OCT 14, Sunday- MESSIN' With MEZZ MEZZROW 4:30pm, free admission at Bird & Beckett Books & Records 653 Chenery Street, SF- Glen Park, CA 94131, 415-586-3733 http://www.birdbeckett.com/ Gerry Fialka, George Russell & jazzbos reinvent the seminal music book Really The Blues by Mezzrow (Louis Armstrong's herbalist) and Bernard Wolfe (cybernetics pioneer) with LIVE music & readings.

OCT 14, Sunday - Pixelvision Cut-up Phantasmagoria at 8pm at Krowswork, 480 23rd Street (between Telegraph & Broadway, use side entrance), Oakland, CA, 94612, 510-229-7035 http://www.krowswork.com/ Free admission. Multi-media participatory social media.

MORE DETAILS follow - FULL VERSIONS OF PRESS RELEASES :

Thursday, Oct 11 - DOUBLE FEATURE - Thomas Ince and Pixelvision Improv (45 minutes each program) at 8pm (730 pm pot-luck), free admission at New Nothing, 16 Sherman St (off Folsom between 6th & 7th), San Fran CA 94103, phone 310-306-7330.

at 8pm - THOMAS INCE & SF- Historian ERIC DUGDALE probes the motion picture studio pioneer Thomas Harper Ince and his SAN FRANCISCO connections. Ince was involved with famous & powerful people including Thomas Edison, William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davies and Charlie Chaplin. Ince invented many of the systems of modern movie making, working with D.W. Griffith & Mack Sennett. He built studios where Sunset Blvd. now meets Pacific Coast Highway and later in Culver City. Ince used real cowboys & Indians from a wildwest show in Venice Beach. He filmed in natural settings, pioneering production-line techniques, and produced hundreds of films. Hearst's newspapers reported Ince's death in 1924 from indigestion at his home, but there is evidence Ince was shot at his birthday party on Hearst's yacht.

at 8;45pm - PIXELVISION PERCEPT PLUNDER - Media archaeologists Gerry Fialka and Will Erokan host this interactive multi-media event interconnecting the images of Pixelvision (Fisher Price Toy Camera videos) and social media subversions. Live musical accompaniment by V. Vale & Rock Ross. This vibrant interactive screening/workshop is a kind of social engineer's report on the terrain hazards and mandatory processes of the new electric environment. "Fialka's workshops are in depth communication of something extremely elusive - the history of the unimaginable - and his lively interpretation renders it useful." - William Farley, Award-winning filmmaker. http://www.laughtears.com/workshops3.html

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Oct 12, Friday - MARK PAULINE INTERVIEW- 8:30pm at Oddball Films & Video http://www.oddballfilm.com/ 275 Capp St, San Fran CA 94110, 415-558-8112, Admission: $12 rsvp info@oddballfilm.com , 30 minutes of rare film clips followed by Mark Pauline interview by Gerry Fialka. www.oddballfilms.blogspot.com

http://www.oddballfilm.com/oddballftp/oddball_pr_blast_007.pdf

http://www.facebook.com/oddballfilm

http://twitter.com/Oddballfilms

PAUILNE is

an

American performance artist and inventor, best known as founder and director of Survival Research Labs. He is a 1977 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. Pauline founded SRL in 1978 and it is considered the premier practitioner of "industrial performing arts", and the forerunner of large scale machine performance. SRL is known for producing the most dangerous shows on earth. Although acknowledged as a major influence on popular competitions pitting remote-controlled robots and machines against each other, such as BattleBots and Robot Wars, Pauline shies away from rules-bound competition preferring a more anarchic approach. Machines are liberated and re-configured away from the functions they were originally meant to perform. Pauline has written of SRL, "Since its inception SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare." Since its beginning through the end of 2006, SRL has conducted about 48 shows. In the summer of 1982, Pauline blew his hand off while experimenting with solid rocket fuel. In August 1990, ArtPark, a state-sponsored arts festival in Lewiston, New York, canceled a Pauline performance when it turned out he intended "to cover a sputtering Rube Goldberg spaceship with numerous Bibles" that would "serve as thermal protective shields" and be burned to ashes in the course of the performance. According to Pauline "I like to make machines that can just do their own shows... machines that can do all that machines in the science fiction novels can do. I want to be there to make those dreams real."[3] Obtainium - The word obtainium likely originated from but was most certainly popularized by SRL crew finding or liberating discarded or obsolete items and re-directing them from industry, science, and the military and re-purposing them for anarchic machine performances. This event is a MESS (Media Ecology Soul Salon) - The public is invited to these engaging interviews by Gerry Fialka with the following modern thinkers who'll address the metaphysics of their callings and the nitty-gritty of their crafts. http://www.laughtears.com/mess.html & http://www.laughtears.com/

"Great interviewing requires a stimulating interviewer and Gerry Fialka is certainly that. Best part is that he makes the rare act of deep thinking in public before an audience flow as creatively and easily as a Basquiat painting." - Jay Levin, LA Weekly founder and former editor-in-chief. "Fialka's cool questions are right at the heart of all my work. By far the best interview I have ever been treated to." - Ondi Timoner, only two time Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury winner. "My experience in Gerry Fialka's MESS series was a scintillating discussion of history, culture, philosophy, sociology and the creative process. His questions and ideas transcend the accepted, traditional limitations of 'the interview.' " - Brad Schreiber, author, producer, screenwriter, journalist. "Fialka's interview with me was an invigorating, pleasurable, philosophical, specific, awakening journey." - Harry Northup, actor and poet

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

OCT 13. Saturday- PXL THIS 21

21st annual toy camera film festival, screens at 8:30pm at Other Cinema, 992 Valencia St (& 21st), San Fran CA 94110, 415-648-0654, admission $6 Plus sneek preview of new PXL documentary.

PXL THIS sites: http://pxl2000.blogspot.com/ and http://sites.google.com/site/pxlthis/ and http://www.youtube.com/user/pxlthis ALSO includes sneak preview of new documentary - Pixel Visions: High Art, Low Resolution http://www.naomifilms.com/

PXL THIS celebrates its 21st year of creative filmmaking by everyone from kids to professionals. One of the most unique international film festivals ever, PXL THIS has been attended by Oliver Stone, Daryl Hannah, Kim Fowley among many more. Pixelvision has even made it onto the big screen via Richard Linklater (Slacker), Michael Almereyda (Nadja, produced by David Lynch) and Craig Baldwin (Sonic Outlaws). Past PXL THIS participants have included Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Chris Metzler (Fishbone & Salton Sea documentaries), James & Sadie Benning, Joe Gibbons, Cecilia Dougherty, Peggy Ahwesh, Jesse Drew, Margie Strosser and Michael Almereyda. The irresistible irony of the PXL 2000 is that the camera's ease-of-use and affordability, which entirely democratizes movie-making, has inspired the creation of some of the most visionary, avant and luminous film of our time. "If movies offer an escape from everyday life, Pixelvision is the Houdini of the film world." - SF Weekly

PXL THIS 21 highlights: L.M. Sabo's TEA PARTY TAMMY examines the Tea Party movement through a pull string doll. Press ready stills: http://members.cox.net/l.m.sabo/Tea-Party-Tammy-1.jpg &

http://members.cox.net/l.m.sabo/Tea-Party-Tammy-2.jpg &

http://members.cox.net/l.m.sabo/Tea-Party-Tammy-3.jpg &

http://members.cox.net/l.m.sabo/Tea-Party-Tammy-4.jpg

Philip Marion's SPOON & PACKET PRESENT: THE BEST OF HEL CENTRAAL TV brings
the Underworld Awards show to your living room. Press-ready stills:
http://www.spoonandpacket.com/PXL2011.jpg

Clint Enns' THE VALUE OF NOTHING - Demonstration/explanation of Camus’ Absurd using found super 8 footage of circus bears transferred to PXL2000. Press ready stills:
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f104/dogmatodisco/thevalueofnothing.jpg

Marc Bascougnano's (l'Enregistreur) PERIPHERIQUE - the city's blood pressure in a cruising cardio-vascular trip. Stills: http://runningtimeblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/periphstills.html & http://www.vimeo.com/user2865876 & http://cakeauboudin.blogspot.com/ & baskee1@hotmail.com

Nine-year-old Wednesday Webber's A POEM FOR DADDY... celebrates her theatrical inspirations and aspirations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLtf_gt9u4A&list=UUa5QDqRdPvsE8BNHrEWep1Q&index=1&feature=plcp

Pixelvision avatars Lisa Marr and Paolo Davanzo's PLEASE STAND BY - A test film about a test pattern. Venice's own greatest cameraman Christopher Gallo's VENICE BEAT POET PAUL BROOKS: BARBARA documents old school poet paying tribute to his wife reading from his apartment in the Ellison, where he shared conversations with fellow poets John Thomas and Philomene Long. Gerry Fialka's WATCHDOG OF THE MIND probes poetry's influence on Marshall McLuhan via perceptive abstractions and cloned ESP.

+++++++++++++

OCT 14, Sunday- 4: 30pm to ^;30pm, free admission at Bird and Beckett 653 Chenery Street San Francisco, CA 94131, 415-586-3733

MESSIN' With MEZZ MEZZROW - Gerry Fialka, George Russell & jazzbos reinvent the seminal music book Really The Blues by Mezz Mezzrow (Louis Armstrong's herbalist) and Bernard Wolfe (cybernetics pioneer) with LIVE music, readings and rare film clips. Mezz influenced everybody from Henry Miller to the Beats to Tom Waits to gangster rappers.

Wolfe's word's best describe what's on tap in "Really the Blues" - "Not very many people have gotten a good look at their country from that bottom-of-the-pit angle before, seen the slimy underside of the rock. It's a chunk of Americana, as they say, and should get written. It's a real American success story, upside down: Horatio Alger standing on his head. In a real sense, Mezz, your story is the plight of the creative artist in the USA. -- to borrow a phrase from Henry Miller...It's the odyssey of an individualist, through a land where the population is manufactured by the system of interchangeable parts. It's the saga of a guy who wanted to make friends, in a jungle where everybody was too busy making money an dodging his own shadow."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Krowswork Gallery is proud to host Pixelvision Cut-up Phantasmagoria on Sunday, October 14 at 8pm at Krowswork, 480 23rd Street (between Telegraph & Broadway, use side entrance), Oakland, CA, 94612, 510-229-7035 http://www.krowswork.com/ Free admission, donations appreciated and encouraged. contact: Jasmine Moorhead krowswork@gmail.com

Cultural revolutionary Gerry Fialka and Video artist Will Erokan multi-mix short films from the PXL THIS Film Festival and subversive social media, archival films and audio to access an elusive psychospiritual energy never before seen or heard. Experience the death of the Ego as the ecstatic relationships between spatial and emotional conditions is revealed. Join these merry pranksters on a FUN trip.

PXL THIS features films made with the Fisher Price toy video camera. The irresistible irony of the PXL 2000 is that the camera's ease-of-use and affordability, which entirely democratizes movie-making, has inspired the creation of some of the most visionary, avant and luminous film of our time.

"If movies offer an escape from everyday life, Pixelvision is the Houdini of the film world." - SF Weekly

PXL THIS is one of the longest running film festivals in the entertainment capital of the world. Celebrating "cinema povera" moving image art, it evokes Marcel Duchamp's axiom "Poor tools require better skills." Pixelators from across the globe hoick up inventive approaches to the unassuming throw-away of consumer culture. These low-tech hi-jinx films come through loud and clear by reframing a new cinema language.

"Gerry Fialka's PXL THIS festival snaps, crackles and pops off the screen with the funky, user-friendly energy of real first-person cinema. Goofy, gorgeous, and altogether groovy, his provocative program of pieces produced with the Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy video camera is not only downright entertaining, but more, its blipping and buzzing black 'n' white picture-bits coalesce into a veritable inspiration to all those who cherish the playful, spontaneous gestures and low-cost of electronic folk art." - Craig Baldwin, director & curator.

"When the aliens are here and deciding whether to vaporize all mankind for our inhumanity, cruelty and greed, showing the aliens PXL THIS will save the world. PXL THIS shows our best nature as humanist creators and subversives against those who deserve it. Save the world. Support PXL THIS." - George Manupelli, founder of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, filmmaker, poet, collagist and political/environmental activist

PXL THIS Director Fialka - hires 300 dpi still with PXL Cam - http://www.laughtears.com/images/Gerry-360dpi.jpg and Bio - http://www.laughtears.com/bio.html

Krowswork is named for crows, genus corvus, which are ubiquitous, democratic, ornery, smart, serious, funny, community-oriented, watchful, and fearless. All these words apply to this very special multi-media event at this very special gallery.