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film festival - Established in 1991 to celebrate the
Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy video camera. We are now accepting entries
for PXL THIS 18: deadline for entry Sept 22, 2008. It premieres in
Venice CA at 7 Dudley Cinema on Nov 15, 2008 - visit
www.81x.com/7dudley/cinema and
www.myspace.com/sevendudleycine We now accept entries on DVD. Send one DVD copy to Gerry Fialka 2427 1/2 Glyndon Av, Venice CA 90291 and another copy to: DOUG ING, 1522 Alewa Drive, Honolulu, HI 96817 douging@aol.com 808-371-6845 Doug's preferred formats: 1) A quicktime movie miniDV codec burned to either a CD ROM for those under 4 minutes or a DVD ROM for films under 20 minutes. (Note this isn't DVD but DVD ROM). 2) MiniDV tape- tapes will be returned (do not send masters & send him return postage, please). 3) DVD. PLEASE NOTE: A press ready 300dpi photo of Gerry Fialka (with the PXL cam) by Alfred Benjamin is actually available to download at: http://www.laughtears.com/ Fialka's bio:
http://www.venicewake.org |
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 PXL
This celebrates its 20th year! Photo by Ned Sloane of Solomon
Turner & MX Farina's PXL video (shot entirely on audio cassette)
entitled UTOPIA, which captures Venice Boardwalk performer "The
Snakeman" rapping transcendental righteousness. CLICK ON IMAGE FOR
THE PRESS RELEASE |
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CONTACT: Gerry Fialka 310-306-7330 pfsuzy@aol.com Visit: www.myspace.com/sevendudleycinema and more links follow "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." -Craig Baldwin, Other Cinema. Established in 1991, Clap Off They Glass Productions supports independent video-making by sponsoring the annual PXL THIS Festival, which is the oldest of its kind in the world. Even with no corporate sponsors, no color brochures, no big shot movie director board members, no ticketmaster access, PXL THIS has been featured on PBS, IFC and NPR, and most recently screened at MIT. PXL THIS spans many genres: documentary, poetry, drama, art, music, political activism, cinema povera, comedy and the avant-garde. The unique Fisher-Price toy camcorder PXL 2000, which records sound and image directly onto audio cassettes, continues to empower artists. This failed toy was only made in the US from 1987 to 1989. The magical PXL 2000 restores a certain humanity to the overpowering technology of video. The irresistible irony of the PXL is that the camera's ease-of-use and affordability, which entirely democratizes movie-making, has inspired the creation of some of the most visionary, av ant and luminous film of our time. Films featured in past PXL THIS festivals are archived and available for viewing at the Academy Film Archive in Hollywood. For viewing appointments and information, please call (310) 247-3016 x 387, or visit the archive's web site at www.oscars.org/filmarchive.
"In past years, PXL THIS gave us some fascinating
work...definitely an out-there experience. In the last few years, PXL
videos have made it to such hallowed domains as the Whitney Museum of
Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Sundance, and the London Film Festival,
where they have been admired for their characteristic spontaneity,
highly personal perspective, visual uninhibitedness and raw, grainy
truths." - Mary Beth Crain, LA Weekly.
"PXL THIS is worthy of praise...spellbinding. The shifting bricks of light and dark that form the Fisher-Price PXL 2000's picture lend themselves well to personal essays, creating an invigorating mesh of ambiguity and intimacy in every frame." - Paul Malcolm, LA Weekly. "Since the start of the 21st century, I've attended the annual screenings of the PXL THIS toy camera festival at San Francisco's OTHER CINEMA. I have discovered several patterns of Pixelators that are similar to the pioneering video artists of the 60's. One, they reclaim film as a one-person project. Contrary to the popular belief that filmmaking must be collaborative, the solo vision is dominant and documented here. Two, in PXL-land, personal and deeply individualistic issues - frequently in the form of confessionals - are dominant. Pixelvision forms a quiet sub-genre within the larger category of the 'personal essay' film, an intimate art-world of privacy, whose entries frequently resemble message-in-a-bottle intimacies. These patterns show that expanding the vocabulary of moving image art is still possible - and, indeed, is growing." -Steve Polta, San Francisco Cinematheque curator. According to filmmaker Bryan Konefsky: "Pixelvision is the haiku of cinema: the minimum of means delivering the maximum of meaning. The PXL 2000 toy camera's limited image-quality forces moviemakers to focus on essentials, and thereby to produce a richly connotative cinematic experience. In fact, PXL may be the best instantiation of Stan Brakhage's luminous quote: 'The true meaning of cinema can be found between the frames.'"  In spirit, the PXL-2000 toy camera resembles the cheap throwaway still
camera, known as the Holga. Writing in ESQUIRE, Joshua Liberson called
the Holga: "The world's most unserious serious camera...the Holga takes
strangely beautiful, dreamlike pictures. Its two-part interlocking
design allows light to bleed through constantly from the sides, making
it almost impossible to take a boring picture, regardless of the subject
matter." "Most exciting art movements have been reactions against
technical sophistication. Many have gone 'backwards' to find honesty and
truth, the essence of things." - Guy Maddin
Film programmers and curators - please be aware
that many different PXL THIS programs (90 to 120 minutes each) are
available for exhibition by contacting Gerry Fialka, phone 310-306-7330
or
pfsuzy@aol.com
Programs include BEST OF PXL THIS, PXL THIS 10, 11, 12,
13 (on DVD, read praise from The LA TIMES and SF WEEKLY in the
Blackboard interview with Fialka on the Articles page), 14, 15, 16, etc.
In the past, they have screened successfully in San Fran at
www.OtherCinema.com, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Echo Park Film
Center
www.echoparkfilmcenter.org, New York
rbmc.net, Vancouver
blindinglight.com, Irvine,CA, Austin,TX, Albq., NM, Jacksonville,
FL, Seattle, Eugene and Portland,OR. These are truly dynamic shows of
low-tech video folk art that can draw big crowds
NEW! - link to articles about Pixelvision PXL THIS was declared one of the ten BEST VIDEO FILM FESTIVALS by CHRIS GORE in his book "The Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide." Gerry Fialka offers various workshops on Pixelvision and more. Click here for information... SUBMISSIONS COTG is now accepting entries for PXL THIS. For more information, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope or call Gerry Fialka, 2427 1/2 Glyndon Ave, Venice, CA 90291, #310-306-7330. The rules for entry are the same every year. Submissions must be shot with the PXL 2000 camera (but not exclusively), and entered on DVD and/or VHS videotape at SP (2 hour) speed. Do not send originals; no returns. All categories accepted, Deadline for entry is always Sept 22. Mail to: PXL, 2427 1/2 Glyndon Ave., Venice, CA 90291, 310-306-7330. Please include a synopsis and THREE first-class postage stamps with each entry. Email PXL THIS at pfsuzy@aol.com or elienation@hotmail.com Continue to feel free to write or call.
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