DOCUMENTAL shows films at the Unurban Coffeehouse, 3301 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA, 90 404, 3 10-315-0056, free admission from 6-10pm. Info: 310-306-7330 Laughtears.com
Mon, JAN 11- JAY ROSENBLATT FILMS - from 7-10pm - Rosenblatt, who has been making short films since the early 1980s, deals with a variety of themes - from birth and childhood to religious faith, tyranny and death. Frequently screened on public television and film festivals, Rosenblatt 's films are consistently recognized for their unique style and his commitment to taking risks. "I had been making traditional narrative films using actors and found it stressful. I happened to be working on a project -- it was a film sequence for a theatre piece -- that required some archival footage. The need to use existing footage led me to the optical printer, which is a machine that allows a filmmaker to manipulate existing footage in different, new ways. This was a real discovery for me and I began moving more and more toward the use of found footage to create my films. I wasn't trying to mask the found-footage aspect, to deliver a throughline but with the pieces in a kind of juxtaposition." - Rosenblatt. "An exquisite artist who makes beautifully crafted miniatures." - Atom Egoyan. "A transcendent channel-surfing passion play... Rosenblatt turns celluloïd water into wine." - Time Out, New York. "Rosenblatt has the humanity of a Lubitsch... combined with the analytical sensibility of a Bergman. His films are not merely good. Rosenblatt is seriously gifted, a significant artist." - SF Chronicle. 6pm preshow.
Mon, Feb 8- IMMOKALEE USA ('08, 77m) at 8:30pm - Georg Koszulinski's sobering look at the plight of immigrant workers from Latin America who are barely surviving as laborers on a massive tomato farm on the edge of the Big Cypress Swamp near Fort Myers. Farmworkers share their experiences in the field and at home, from Panchito, the lonely romantic who plucks his guitar with a weary hand, to the heart-breaking Mateo Diego, whose grasp on reality seems to fade with each succeeding interview. What is our collective role in this chain of servitude?, the film seems to ask us, providing an opening for self-reflection rather than didactic sermonizing. DEAR CARRY ('09, 45m) at 7pm- Joel Katz interweaves two stories of travel, told through films and letters. Carry Wagner began filming her worldwide travels in the Natal Province of South Africa in 1939. Joel Katz filmed his travels in Zimbabwe in 1995. Together these tales become a meditation on cameras and travel at the end of a century. Caroline Wagner (1896-1993) traveled the world on ocean liners and steamers between the nineteen twenties and sixties, her 16mm movie camera in hand most of the time. A Jew by birth, a Suffragette in her youth, a Greenwich Village jewelry designer by trade, a self-styled feminist and political activist by disposition, Carry was an original of her time. 6pm preshow.
Mon, March 8- VISION-CORE TWO from 6-10pm - These stellar experimental and documentary short films reinvent cinema language. Avant garde moving image artists include: Fred Worden, Peter Rose, Scott Nyerges, Danny Plotnick, Monica Gazzo, Jesse Drew, Will Erokan, Christine Carter, Jamie Hafler, Juan Camilo Gonzalez, Douglas Graves, Donigan Cumming, Scott Stark, Coleman MIller, Matt Nixon, Filemon Tesfamariam, Jason Britski, Jean C. Finley & John Muse. Many of the filmmakers have been featured in the Ann Arbor Film Festival.
Mon, April 12 - CRAZY WISDOM SAVES THE WORLD AGAIN! ('09, 75m) at 8:30pm - Friends! Earthlings! Humans! Who are we, why are we here, and how did we get into the mess we’re in? Is there any hope for us and our species? In this unique filmed comic monologue, Wes 'Scoop' Nisker explores the foolish human condition and the joys and sorrows of living in the modern age. He reveals the secrets of the Big Bang and anti-matter, explores the issues of war, species extinction and global warming, and exposes the true heart of the New Age spiritual movement. Mr. Nisker places today’s headlines in the context of biological evolution and all of human history, and thereby offers us the relief and laughter that only vast perspectives can bring. This is comedy for the rest of us.“His performance, laced with his original songs, manages to make suffering a knee-slapper. He delivers Zen zingers with Borsht Belt timing.” -NYTimes. "Scoop's show is not just crazy. It is wisdom, exactly the kind we need today. It points to satiric truths about science, the American empire, and the humanoid condition. Also, the show is very, very funny." Lawrence Ferlinghetti."Nisker is the missing link between sit-down meditation and stand up comedy.” -Paul Krassner. 6pm preshow.
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The UNURBAN is proud to be the home of DOCUMENTAL's rebirth. Curator Gerry Fialka's DOCUMENTAL series (established in March, 1995) at Santa Monica's Midnight Special, which was the oldest political bookstore in the world, ran for 8 years. DOCUMENATAL was praised as "L.A.'s pre-eminent documentary and experimental film showcase...the holy grail"-LA WEEKLY. In RES magazine, Holly Willis declaredGerry Fialka the "Los Angeles-based independent media hero." In the Independent Film & Video Monthly, Willis proclaimed Fialka an "exemplary devotee of cinema. Thanks to Fialka's penchant for the weird and wild, L.A. gets to see material we wouldn't otherwise." "Eye-opening with postscree ning chats that cook" -LA Magazine. The LA20TIMES calls Fialka "the multi-media Renaissance man." He continues to program 7 Dudley Cinema. "Documental at the Unurban is an incredible resource in Santa Monica. After my4 hour retrospective screening there, one of my students Ikko Suzuki best summarized: ' Frankly it was one of my most memorable movie going times because I've never had such an experience of sharing impressions with neighbors in such an intimate atmosphere.' I agree. Check it out." - Sheila Laffey, award winning filmmaker/producer