Avanto presents:
CITIES IN MOTION
programmed by Ian Helliwell
@ Tampere Film
Festival
Tampere-talo, Studio, 8. & 9.3. 2001, 7PM
Avanto Festival presents two
screenings of experimental city films
programmed by Ian Helliwell. Soundtracks For The City - Super 8mm
films
from Helliwell's collection with specially comissioned new music
(by Op:l
Bastards, Ektroverde,
Pram, Testcard, Raum, Kaleidephon etc) and
City Visions, which brings together documentary and experimental
films
made between 1940s and the present.
***
Avanto presents:
CITIES IN MOTION
Programmed by Ian Helliwell
CITIES IN MOTION developed out of Ian Helliwell's (on the
right) involvement with
filmmaking, soundtrack music, Super 8 & 16mm film collecting and an
abiding interest in the sights and sounds of the urban environment. The
combination of these led to the first Soundtracks For Super 8
project
in
1997, where silent short films on various themes were screened with new
and inventive soundtracks from a host of Brighton's underground
composers. It not only gave these obscure films a new lease of life, but
provided a stimulating challenge for a range of music makers, many of
them unsung and with little opportunity of reaching an audience. In 1999,
to celebrate the first moon landing, a selection of 8 mm Nasa Apollo
films were given the new soundtrack treatment, and this led later that
year to the themed grouping of urban/travel films under the title
Cities
In Motion. The current updated programme, divided into two, includes
Soundtracks For The City - Super 8mm films with new music from
Helliwell's collection and City Visions, which brings
together
documentary and experimental films made between 1940s and the present.
Ian Helliwell is filmmaker, composer & collector living and working in Brighton. His output with home-designed electronic instruments together with beautiful hand-painted abstract Super 8 mm films is simply unique in its quality. Helliwell has completed 26 short films between 1994-2001. He has also arranged several specially programmed experimental screenings in Brighton and London. All his projects are marked by a refined sense of true craftsmanship and careful attention to details. His short films were presented to an international audience for the first time in November 2000 at Avanto Festival in Helsinki.
City Visions program at Tampere Film Festival is made possible with
the
help of Avanto Helsinki Media Art Festival.
"SOUNDTRACKS FOR THE CITY"Tampere-talo, Studio, Thursday 8.3., 19.00
Geneva (music: Tele:funken, 2 min)
A Birmingham based one-man operation, Tele:funken employs a cheap drum machine and sampler for this electro stab at Geneva.The Post Office Tower (m: Ian Helliwell, 3 min)
A radio and Helliwell's home-made tone generators give this classic GPO documentary an added drive and urgency.Las Vegas (m: The Itch, 3 min)
Known for his session work in the rock mainstream, guitarist "The Itch" creates his own musical vision for the neon lights of the gambling mecca.Sights of Paris (m: Raum, 2 min)
The straightforward Parisian sights get the Raum treatment from this London based composer and his modular analogue synthesizers.Traffic Cop (m: Jonesco, 3 min)
An atmospheric documentary on the work of a US policeman is matched by the near melancholic electronic music of Englishman Jonesco.100 mph Through London Streets (m: Kaleidophon, 2 min)
Denizens of Brighton, the duo Kaleidophon draw on their rock experience for this frenetic journey across 1940s London.Hollywood (m: Iain Paxon, 3 min)
Another Brighton based musician, Iain Paxon, specialises in amplifying and coaxing small sounds often produced from toy instruments and gadgets.Speedway To Paris (m: Testcard, 3 min)
The nucleus of Testcard is Adrian Shephard who on this soundtrack works with selected collaborators.Carnival In Rio (m: Pram, 3 min)
The Birmingham based multi-instrumental Pram capture the mood of the carnival with their layered percussion, keyboards, guitars and effects.Around Town With Forrest Tucker (m: Robert Worby, 3 min)
From his base in London, Robert Worby has worked in radio, TV and film. His carefully edited samples and effects here create the backdrop for roaming bigshot Tucker.Exotic Nippon (m: Kaleidophon, 3 min)
Synthesizers and guitars in a dub-like Japanese fusion.700 mph Journey By Train (m: Gus Garside, 3 min)
Experienced jazz musician Gus Garside uses his double bass as the sound source for this vintage trip from London to Brighton.California Golden State (m: Virgil, 2 min)
Violinist with Brighton group Electron Guns, David Bramwell appears here in solo Virgil guise.Copenhagen (m: Op:l Bastards, 3 min)
With moody electro-acoustic feelings, Helsinki's Op:l Bastards set the tone for the Wonderful City.New York N.Y. (m: Ian Helliwell, 3 min)
A cocktail of tone generators and old LPs of sound effects and big band jazz creates a colourful city collage.Fascinating Hong Kong (m: Testcard, 3 min)
Visit To London (m: Ektroverde, 3 min)
Experimental improv-collective from Pori, Finland, provide an easy-tempered exit for the show.
"CITY VISIONS"
Tampere-talo, Studio, Friday 9.3., 19.00Ian Hugo: Jazz of Lights (USA, 1954, 15 min)
The Lights of Times Square are used to create intricate patterns of form and colour as blind composer Moondog, and Hugo's wife Anais Nïn travel across New York. The electronic music is by Louis and Bebe Barron who also scored an earlier Hugo film Bells of Atlantis (1952), and later the celebrated feature Forbidden Planet (1956).Hy Hirsch: Defense D'Afficher (1958, 7 min)
Experimental filmmaker Hirsch takes his camera across a Parisian landscape of billboards, capturing paper, paint and colourful abstract patterns.Arne Sucksdorff: Rhythm of A City (Sweden, 1947, 18 min)
This classic film shot on the streets of Stockholm provides an impressionistic portrait of the city and its inhabitants at work and at play.Andrew Kotting: Jaunt (Great Britain, 1995, 6 min)
Using Super 8 film and comments from crew and passengers, this boat trip up the Thames from Southend to Westminster showcases Kotting's humorous and individual filmmaking style which he developed further in his feature length film Gallivant.Charlie Barber: New York - Don't Walk (Great Britain, 2001, 3 min.)
World premiere of this rapid fire Super 8 film reflecting the pace and energy of contemporary New York City. Barber also created the soundtrack using processed sounds and his own field recordings.Costain Film Unit: Voice of A Region (Great Britain, 1970, 10 min.)
Conceived as a promotional film for a local newspaper, this view of Manchester at the turn of the 1970s, provides a vivid portrait of the English city.D.A. Pennebaker: Daybreak Express (USA, 1958, 6 min)
An early work from renowed filmmaker Pennebaker, who later made documentaries on Bob Dylan, the Monterey Pop Festival and David Bowie. With music by Duke Ellington, an early morning train ride on New York's elevated railway gathers in intensity and abstraction.William C. Bopp: Hello Toronto (Canada, 1965, 14 min)
A vintage celebration of the entertainment Toronto had to offer the visitor in the mid-1960s. The film is raised above routine travelogue by its accomplished camerawork, evocative style, and close attention to sound and image editing.
