with filmmaker Michael Robinson
The films and videos of Ithaca College alum Michael Robinson are a strange mix of the "deftly beautiful and exquisitely suspicious." (Carl Bogner) Exploring the poetics of loss and the dangers of mediated experience, these award-winning works (some of which were screened in last year's "Views from the Avant-Garde" program at the New York Film Festival) cultivate resonances between seemingly disparate elements, distilling new integrities from otherwise commodified materials. "The sitcom-perfect world of Full House devours itself in the demonic Light is Waiting; National Geographic centerfolds unfurl into oblivion in You Don't Bring Me Flowers; and a radio tunes in karaoke transmissions from beyond in the elegiac And We All Shine On." (Amy Beste) Eight shorts will be screened in total. more at www.poisonberries.net Various formats.
- YOU DON'T BRING ME FLOWERS
2005, 8 minutes, 16mm color film
Viewed at its seams, a slideshow of National Geographic landscapes from the 1960's and 70's deforms into a bright white distress signal. -
THE GENERAL RETURNS FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER
2006, 11 minutes, digital video
A Frank O'Hara monologue (from a play of the same title) attempts to undercut the sincerity of the landscape, but there are stronger forces surfacing. - TIDAL
2001, 6.5 minutes, 16mm color film
A love story told through the newly haunted home my parents shared for twenty-eight years. -
AND WE ALL SHINE ON
2006, 7 minutes, 16mm color film
An ill wind is transmitting through the lonely night, spreading deception and myth along its murky path, singing the dangers of the mediated spirit. -
LIGHT IS WAITING
2007, 11 minutes, digital video
A very special episode of television's Full House devours itself from the inside out, excavating a hypnotic nightmare of a culture lost at sea. -
CHIQUITITA AND THE SOFT ESCAPE
2003, 10 minutes, 16mm color film
Twin attempts at structuring images of home and loved-ones suffer a gentle breakdown in the face of the romantic. -
ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT
2007, 6 minutes, digital video
A charred visitation with a brutally icy language of control. -
VICTORY OVER THE SUN
2007, 12.5 minutes, 16mm color film
Dormant sites of past World's Fairs breed an eruptive struggle between spirit and matter, ego and industry, futurism and failure.
color, 1 hour 13 minutes, USA