Monday, June 2, 2008

Light Industry hosts "Tuning a Deaf Ear"

Tuning a Deaf Ear - Curated by Peggy Ahwesh

Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at 8pm
55 33rd Street, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY
Ticket Price - $6

"Where are the transmissions coming from? They're coming from Pittsburgh."
- Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)

A program of transmissions from Pittsburgh featuring small gauge oddities, punk documents from the late 1970's, home movies, industrial films of heavy industry and selections from the George Romero nostalgia vault. Playing off a combination of home movies that perform celebrity, performance in the punk underground and role playing in the silent film, this program presents aural and visual interplays and turns the tropes of sensorial convention on its ear: a vampire film by deaf children, a punk documentary, sound problems on
the Super-8 mag track, a silent work print version of a sound film.

Featuring a variety of films I saw originally while living in Pittsburgh in the late 1970's and early 1980's, these works are seared into my memory as fantastic microgems of cinematic invention and sublime eccentricity.

Featured in the program:

Miss You, Natalka Voslakov, Super-8, 1979, 3 mins
Natalka's kids Zoe and Zoltan perform the Rolling Stones classic.

Nosferatu in WPSD, Super-8, 1979, 18 mins
A Super 8mm rendition of the vampire story performed by kids from the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf under the guidance of their teacher Tippi Comden.

Debt Begins at 20, Stephanie Beroes, 16mm, 1980, 40 mins
Part fiction part documentary, with music by The Cardboards, The Shakes, Hans Brinker and The Dykes.

The Beach Bunnies at the Electric Banana, Peggy Ahwesh, Super-8, 1980, 10 mins
Acting out at the punk club one night.

About Peggy Ahwesh

Peggy Ahwesh came of age with 1970's feminism, Super-8 film and the punk
underground. She works in film and video, is on the editorial board of
Ediciones la Calavera, a book publishing initiative. Ahwesh plays music with
Barbara Ess in the band Radio/Guitar. She teaches film and video production
at Bard College.

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