Needle Through Thumb: The Broken Magic Trick
Screening and Discussion
Saturday 13 October, 2012
7pm, $0/Rsvp
The Intercourse
159 Pioneer Street, Brooklyn
The Intercourse Foundation is pleased to present an evening of 16mm short films curated and introduced by Alexander Stewart titled, Needle Through Thumb. The screening will begin at 7:00pm on Saturday, October 13th at 159 Pioneer St. Brooklyn, NY 11231. This presentation of films is in conjunction with our current exhibition, Seeker an’ the Trick by Joey Frank.
Named after a classic sleight-of-hand trick involving a hidden carrot, Needle Through Thumb takes the idea of prestidigitation as its starting place, and focuses on the strategy of mis-direction and distraction as a thematic motif. The red silk handkerchief in the left hand is needed to draw attention away from the careful work being done by the right hand of hiding the carrot. In this program, the cinematic equivalent of Vaudevillian stage antics and cornball puns frame a series of visual tricks, which range from the casual to the sophisticated. Diversions of attention are employed, slapstick abounds, illusions are accomplished and then broken. Along the way, cinematic puns appear that are so ingenious as to cause the films to collapse in on themselves. Then, amid the polish and patter and clever tricks, certain moments in these films offer glimpses into the humanity, introspection and anxiety of the filmmakers that lie just beyond the surface of the performance, like lines of sweat running through pancake makeup under hot stage lights.
Included in this program are avant-garde classics as well as lesser-known works. John Smith’s Gargantuan presents a pun so air-tight that the film can barely withstand the contradiction. Leighton Pierce’s subtle Glass pulls the viewer through a series of optical effects that reveal themselves through shifts in focus. The illusion in Gary Beydler’s Glass Face is quickly deduced by the viewer, but the pleasure of the trick’s effect escalates, independent of the integrity of the illusion. Reflexfilm/Familyfilm, an overlooked masterpiece from Chicago filmmaker Dana Hodgdon, uses ingenious camera tricks to pun on canonical experimental films by Robert Nelson and Michael Snow, and offer a portrait of the filmmaker’s own domestic life. While not particularly concerned with illusion, Nelson’s own film Oh Dem Watermelons uses goofball antics and a hypnotic phase-music composition by Steve Reich as diversions for an extended riff on a potentially loaded racial trope. Capping it all off is Chicago legend Tom Palazzolo’s Love It/Leave It, which creates an overwhelming near-psychedelic crescendo of patriotism and nudity as a distraction while the moral weight of the juxtaposition slowly sinks in.
Screening Lineup
John Smith – Gargantuan, 1:00, 1981
Mark Toscano – Rating Dogs on a Scale of 1 to 10, 2:30, 2011
Robert Nelson – Oh Dem Watermelons, 10:45, 1965
James Otis – On Your Own, 2:00, 1981
Gary Beydler – Glass Face, 3:00, 1975
Leighton Pierce – Glass, 7:00, 1998
Dana Hodgdon – Reflexfilm/Familyfilm, 22:00, 1978
Owen Land – New Improved Institutional Quality, 10:00, 1976
Tom Palazzolo – Love it / Leave it, 15:00, 1973
Scott Stark – Hotel Cartograph, 12:00, 1983
Named after a classic sleight-of-hand trick involving a hidden carrot, Needle Through Thumb takes the idea of prestidigitation as its starting place, and focuses on the strategy of mis-direction and distraction as a thematic motif. The red silk handkerchief in the left hand is needed to draw attention away from the careful work being done by the right hand of hiding the carrot. In this program, the cinematic equivalent of Vaudevillian stage antics and cornball puns frame a series of visual tricks, which range from the casual to the sophisticated. Diversions of attention are employed, slapstick abounds, illusions are accomplished and then broken. Along the way, cinematic puns appear that are so ingenious as to cause the films to collapse in on themselves. Then, amid the polish and patter and clever tricks, certain moments in these films offer glimpses into the humanity, introspection and anxiety of the filmmakers that lie just beyond the surface of the performance, like lines of sweat running through pancake makeup under hot stage lights.
Included in this program are avant-garde classics as well as lesser-known works. John Smith’s Gargantuan presents a pun so air-tight that the film can barely withstand the contradiction. Leighton Pierce’s subtle Glass pulls the viewer through a series of optical effects that reveal themselves through shifts in focus. The illusion in Gary Beydler’s Glass Face is quickly deduced by the viewer, but the pleasure of the trick’s effect escalates, independent of the integrity of the illusion. Reflexfilm/Familyfilm, an overlooked masterpiece from Chicago filmmaker Dana Hodgdon, uses ingenious camera tricks to pun on canonical experimental films by Robert Nelson and Michael Snow, and offer a portrait of the filmmaker’s own domestic life. While not particularly concerned with illusion, Nelson’s own film Oh Dem Watermelons uses goofball antics and a hypnotic phase-music composition by Steve Reich as diversions for an extended riff on a potentially loaded racial trope. Capping it all off is Chicago legend Tom Palazzolo’s Love It/Leave It, which creates an overwhelming near-psychedelic crescendo of patriotism and nudity as a distraction while the moral weight of the juxtaposition slowly sinks in.
Screening Lineup
John Smith – Gargantuan, 1:00, 1981
Mark Toscano – Rating Dogs on a Scale of 1 to 10, 2:30, 2011
Robert Nelson – Oh Dem Watermelons, 10:45, 1965
James Otis – On Your Own, 2:00, 1981
Gary Beydler – Glass Face, 3:00, 1975
Leighton Pierce – Glass, 7:00, 1998
Dana Hodgdon – Reflexfilm/Familyfilm, 22:00, 1978
Owen Land – New Improved Institutional Quality, 10:00, 1976
Tom Palazzolo – Love it / Leave it, 15:00, 1973
Scott Stark – Hotel Cartograph, 12:00, 1983