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  • 1989? MONDO 2000, PXL - The Philosophical Toy by Brian Goldberg
  • 11-15-91 LA READER, Every PXL Tells A Story by Rich Robinson
  • Winter 1991 INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY by Erika Suderberg
  • 8-92 FILM THREAT, PXL THIS
  • 2-18-93 EVENING OUTLOOK
  • The Argonaut 2-2002
  • 4-93 PREMIERE, Un Film de Fisher-Price by J. Hoberman
  • 12-7-93 VILLAGE VOICE, Up From The Underground by Susan Sturgis
  • 10-94 VIDEO, Toys'R'Art by Stewart Applegath
  • 2-7-97 LA WEEKLY, PXL THIS SIX by Paul Malcolm
  • 11-6-97 AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN by Alison Macor
  • 11-21-97 LA WEEKLY, PXL THIS SEVEN by Paul Malcolm
  • 1-99 MOTHER JONES, Not Drowning, But Waning by Ana Marie Cox
  • 2-00 SANTA MONICA SUN, PXL THIS by Lori Brookhart
  • 11-17-00 LA WEEKLY, PXL THIS TEN by Holli Willis
  • 7-4-01 DETROIT METRO TIMES, Pixel Chronicles by Deborah Hochberg
  • 11-9-01 LA WEEKLY, PXL THIS ELEVEN by  Paul Malcolm
  • 11-15-01 SANTA MONICA MIRROR, Old Toy New Life by Sasha Stone
  • 1-02 MIX, Surreal Sound, Toy Cameras by Arlan Boll
  • 2-3-02 OC WEEKLY, Sore Eyes by Greg Stacy
  • 2-21-02 THE ARGONAUT, PXL THIS 12 by Rahne Pistor
  • 4-3-92 LA WEEKLY, PXL THIS 12 by Holli Willis
  • 5-28-02 VILLAGE VOICE, Knitting Factory show review by Amy Taubin
  • 11-8-02 THE FLINT JOURNAL by Ed Bradley
  • 11-9-02 LA TIMES, Coming To You In Glorious Pixelvision by Lynn Smith
  • 1-03 RES, Low Res Plastic Fantastic by Lara Simon
  • 3-7-03 LA WEEKLY, What Is Art? By Madelynn Amalfitano
  • 4-24-03 SF WEEKLY, Pixel Yourself by Hiya Swanhuyser
  • flintjournal.com  pxl article by columnist ed bradley on 11-8-02
  • la times article by lynn smith 11-9-02 in Calendar section
  • 11-13-03 THE ARGONAUT "Dark, grainy PXL fest shows art of bare-bones filmmaking" by Rahne Pistor
  • 11-03 BROKEN PENCIL Issue #23 "15 Years of Pixelvision from Baltimore to Venice Beach" by Rob Thomas

 

 

 

  Gerry Fialka Interview by Carla La Fong, the Blackboard newspaper,
Bakersfield, CA, July, 2004

Carla: What motivated you to start the PXL THIS toy video camera festival?

Gerry Fialka: I started out with nothing and still have most of it left! I
started PXL THIS, which is generously underwritten by no one, in 1991 to
celebrate "kinephilia", the pleasure of motion. I was raised with home movie
consciousness by my parents. I studied art history and film studies at the
University of Michigan. From 1972 to 1980, I was involved in the oldest
experimental film festival in the world, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, and
the Ann Arbor 8mm Film Festival. While working for Frank Zappa in the 80s, I
met the writer Cindy Lamb, who showed this unique plastic toy to Frank. I
was hooked. I found the PXL-2000 to be an essential tool for creativity
proving right both Bucky Fuller ("It is literally possible to do more with
less") and Jean Cocteau ("Film will only become art when its materials are
as inexpensive as pencil and paper"). Graphic design pioneer Milton Glaser's
declaration about paper and pencil applies to Pixelvision: "I like the idea
that this ultimate reductive simplicity is the way to elicit the most
extraordinary functions of the brain." The more you know, the less you need.
Marshall McLuhan declared "Art is anything you can get away with." Marcel
Duchamp proclaimed, "Poor tools require better skills." Just before Zappa
employed me, I worked with Filmex, one of the largest film festivals ever.
So in a McLuhanesque tetradic flip, I started the cheesiest no-budget film
festival ever � PXL THIS, which is now entering its 14th year in 2004. James
Wickstead, the inventor of the PXL-2000, never thought this toy would last
more than 3 or 4 years. Critic Amy Taubin says just picking up one of the
cameras is breaking the rules. Pixelvision is much like the Dada art
movement, and Wabisabi (the Japanese art philosophy where everything is
reduced to its simplest incarnations). Like the Surrealists, 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. "Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees" �Paul Valery.
"Communication of the new is a miracle, but not impossible" �McLuhan.

C: Tell us about the 13th festival.

G: PXL THIS 13, which screens July 10 at Maestri Gallery (and August 24 in
Jacksonville, FL - subterraneancinema.com), gathers 19 shorts from across
the US into a two hour program. Our lucky 13th year in a row illustrates the
aphorism: "The more you practice, the luckier you get." In Gregg Rickman's
"Pixel Dust � The Extreme Sport of Low Resolution" article in the SAN
FRANCISCO WEEKLY, April 21, 2004, he wrote: "In an age of perfect high-tech
imagery, the fuzzy black-and-white images of Fisher-Price's PXL-2000 camera
retain their appeal for many no-budget filmmakers. Now, the 13th annual PXL
THIS Fest offers a pleasing demonstration of just what a children's toy that
records images and sound onto audiocassettes can do. The best tapes on show
take advantage of the camera's built-in smeariness to abstract into pure
form such childhood stalwarts as skateboarding (Jason Bickford's 30th
STREET) and horses (Tedi Tate and Eliot Fons' HORSE). Even better, John
Humphrey's PEE WEE GOES TO PRISON pulls authenticity from the PXL's
surveillance-camera aesthetic for its parable of the comedian's arrest,
acted out with old Pee-wee's Playhouse puppets. Characters you haven't
thought of in years (Jambi, Chairry) make cameos, and Pee-wee's jury of
peers is made up of trademarked PEZ dispensers. Keeping the toy motif going,
Joe Gibbons' droll THE STEPFATHER tries to discourage Ken from marrying the
rebellious Barbie. A number of the shorts employ the PXL's DIY aesthetic for
political commentary: In Dahvi Bolog's HIPPIES USE SIDE DOOR, a long-hair is
re-educated with successive barbering jobs into upright citizenship. Perhaps
the funniest short for film buffs is Ross Craig's PXL MANIFESTO, a hilarious
sendup of Denmark's self-righteous and purity-demanding Dogme 95 movement
(No color! Hand-held camera!). After this program you'll never dismiss the
aesthetic capacities of any toy again." LA TIMES critic, Kevin Crust,
praised: "Stephen Rose's SOUVENIR, which plays like Guy Maddin directing a
Charlie Kaufman script inside a snow globe, and DOWNTOWN ODYSSEY by Joe
Golling, in which a young man's reaction to urban chaos is mirrored by the
fractured black-and-white imagery." Other highlights: Robert Dobbs
reswindles Menippean memory with new punctuation, the DOUBLE-DUTY
INTERROBANG. Joe Frese's LAWN STATUES is a surrealistic dark comedy about an
ex-con whose life takes an unexpected turn. King Kukulele, the Ernie Kovac
of Pixelvision, encounters his live PXL-self, Denny Moynahan, in KUKULELE
CUBED. Eli Elliott's ASSCROFT exposes the absurdities of the US Attorney
General. Steve Craig's hilarious NEO-CON HYBRIDS concerns alien abductions
and our current administration. Eight-year-old Juniper Woodbury offers a
detailed lesson ABOUT FLOWERS, and the funny MARKER.

C: So PXL THIS may be the only festival where one can view a work by a child
next to the work of a film pro?

G: Yes, we are very proud to show eight-year-old Juniper Woodbury next to
Eliot Fons, a professional film and TV cameraman. This toy was intended for
kids, and PXL THIS proves it has not been completely hijacked by adults. In
McLuhan's tradition of rewording statements, I've reworked Henry Kissinger's
scary claim, "Oil is much too important to be left to Arabs," to
"Pixelvision is much too important to be left to adults." In fact, I've also
reworked the words McLuhan used to describe James Joyce's use of the pun:
"Pixelvision is a way of seeing, hearing, and feeling the paradoxical
exuberance of being through moving image art."

C: What are the unique features of the PXL-2000?

G: From 1987 to 1989, Fisher-Price toy company released 400,000 of these
$100 plastic camcorders, which record sound and picture onto
audio-cassettes. The technology, similar to security cameras, utilizes
approximately 2,000 black & white dots instead of the 200,000 dots you see
on normal TV. This electronic mosaic is rooted in Seurat's Pointillism,
which predated the TV image as a swift succession of dots. The viewer
actively puts them together into a simultaneous picture like a mosaic. The
PXL-2000 creates a dreamy, grainy look. Another distinguishing feature is
its "in-focus" capability from zero to infinity, also referred to as
"infinity focus." The "in your face" attitude restores a certain human
vitality to the overpowering sensory overload that bombards us daily. It
illustrates McLuhan's percept that television is tactile: you can
practically touch the dots. With less information, the audience is drawn in
to fill in the gaps, which makes for a more participatory viewing
experience. Much like Salvador Dali's 1968 cover painting for TV GUIDE of
two thumbs exhibiting two TV screens as thumbnails, Pixelvision hoicks up a
perpetual state of participation and completion. The technical limitations
of the camera can challenge the user and be incentives to reinvent film art.
The possibilities are endless. Peter Greenaway asserted: "Cinema is much too
rich a medium to be left to storytellers." For more specifics, PXL pioneer
Michael O'Reilly details the camera in his excellent article "The Art &
Science of Pixelvision" found on his website: <michaelorielly.com>

C: Can one still get a PXL camera?

G: Yes. I know someone who bought one in a thrift shop in Vermont for two
bucks in 2000. Just last year, another friend got one off Ebay for forty
dollars. Browse Internet auction sites and visit thrift shops.

C: How does one enter PXL THIS?

G: It's really simple. Send a VHS copy of your PXL to me: Gerry Fialka, 2427
1/2 Glyndon Ave, Venice, CA 90291, phone 310-306-7330, pfsuzy@aol.com,
website <www.indiespace.com/pxlthis>. Though we have shown all the greatest
Pixelators in past festivals, you do not have to declare yourself a
"filmmaker" to enter. We simply celebrate a tool of expression. Many folks
made PXL shorts 10 years ago - we want them! Please spread the word, and
don't be shy. We get entries from across the US, and occasionally from
Canada, England, Japan and France. We are also honored that The Academy Film
Archives is storing all our past festival tapes. They are in good hands
being preserved in vaults.

C: What kind of reactions do you get from showing PXL THIS across the US?

G: We get a variety of feedback, and welcome all reactions. Hazel-Dawn
Dumpert wrote in the LA WEEKLY, November 12, 1999: "The camera accommodates
usage both as a tool of artistic maturation and as a gateway to adolescent
regression." One audience member said, "Making something profound with a toy
camera does not always work, but making something silly can sometimes be
profound." We encourage Pixelators to take advantage of its limitations. PXL
enables art to be made in an almost offhand manner, without
self-consciousness. There's no pressure. One can create with ease. PXL can
cultivate transgressions. Duchamp proposed the question: "How do you make a
piece of art that's not a piece of art?" John Cage succeeded with his
"silent" composition, 4'33". James Joyce succeeded by inventing the Internet
and disguising it as a book entitled "Finnegans Wake." Cage might have
quipped to Duchamp: "That's a very good question, I don't want to ruin it
with an answer." Documentary pioneer Richard Leacock showed his feature
MONTEREY POP to a TV mogul, who grumbled, "This does not meet industry
standards." "Does it have any?" asked Leacock, who did not apologize for its
quality; he celebrated it. We celebrate the funky PXL look. Though it does
look better on a TV set, we prefer to project it and share the screening
experience with larger groups of people. In Seattle, we showed PXL THIS to
50 folks jammed into a pizza parlor's backroom. It was a rip-roaring time.
McLuhan said, "There's no such thing as a good or bad movie; it's a good or
bad viewing experience." That was a good and unforgettable experience,
followed by an enthusiastic discussion.

C: What other events do you produce?

G: Since 1995, I have hosted the Marshall McLuhan-Finnegans Wake Reading
Club <jesgrew.org/wake/> on first Mondays at the Venice Library. Our ongoing
series - 7 Dudley Cinema <81x.com/7dudley/cinema> shows counter-current
films at Sponto Gallery, formerly the Venice West Café, where the Beats read
poetry in the late 50s and early 60s. The MESS (Media Ecology Super
Sessions) series continues to feature writers, filmmakers, activists and
artists at Bergamot Books in the Fall, 2004. "Gerry Fialka is very special;
sincere, well prepared and ready to take risks - I learned things about my
self! My kind of interviewer." -Martin Perlich, author "The Art of the
Interview".

C: Any recommendations?

G: Kudos to the Maestri Gallery for cultivating a thriving community of film
and art creators and appreciators. I suggest showing Luis Bunuel, Chris
Marker, and especially Craig Baldwin of San Francisco's Other Cinema. His
idea of "cinema povera" culture jams the mainstream, and like Toto, helps
reveal who is behind the curtain controlling things. Baldwin says, "Create
something unexpected." He encourages creating something from nothing! RES
magazine editor Holly Willis summarized "cinema povera" in the LA READER:
"All the PXL THIS videos reflect festival organizer Gerry Fialka's
commitment to the freedom produced by making art without financial
constraints." I am especially honored by Craig Baldwin's testimony: "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."
 
PXL This in the Argonaut See the article/review in the Argonaut, Feb. 21, 2002.

"In 1987, the Fisher-Price company released the PXL 2000, a toy camcorder which enabled kids to record video footage onto ordinary cassette tapes. Little did the company know that years later it would be adults who were seeking to snatch up the toy cameras — adults using the PXL 2000 in the name of art and filmmaking.

The toy, which runs on AA batteries, had a short shelf life and was generally unpopular among kids. Fisher-Price discontinued the camera in 1989. Through the '90s, it gained cult status among filmmakers with a low-fi fetish, allowing Venice PXL enthusiast Gerry Fialka an opportunity to birth a film festival dedicated solely to short films shot with the PXL 2000."

Check the link below for the complete review..

http://www.argonautnewspaper.com/display/inn_whats_on/wo1.txt

 

 

 

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