The
Balagan Experimental Film
& Video Series was conceived in the summer
of 2000 when the Coolidge Corner Theatre approached
us with an opportunity to host a regular program highlighting
local experimental film/video makers in their
brand new Screening room.
The
New room is a wonderful compliment to Boston's most
treasured art Deco moviehouse and a wonderful opportunity
to present experimental films & videos in an
intimate theatrical setting. As filmmakers ourselves,
struggling to find venues to exhibit our works, we were
excited for the challenge of establishing a new space
for experimental works by local and international
film/video artists who are rarely represented in Boston
cinemas.
Our
mission in creating the series is to promote films and
filmmakers whose works do not fit into the traditional
genres of the film "industry". These works traditionally,
throughout the history of cinema, have been labeled
as avant-garde, art-house, or experimental.
Although
an experimental film/video often can contain
or combine elements of traditional narrative or documentary
filmmaking, experimental filmmakers, as difficult
as they can be to define, tend not to make their films/videos
for the "industry". Their works are made for very personal
and intimate reasons and their visions and creations
are uncompromised by the constraints of "mainstream
media".
That
said, experimental filmmakers create their works
to be screened, exhibited and experienced by an audience.
Balagan aims
to create a "space" where an audience can experience
the visions of the artists. Balagan
aspires to nurture and develop the rich community of
artists working in film & video in New England and abroad.
The series provides an outlet for artists to exhibit
their works and to see, meet and discuss works by other
artists within the "community".
We
hope to continue to collaborate with a variety of film/video
artists and film organizations in bringing diverse and
exciting programming to Boston and to introduce Boston's
experimental film/video artists to the rest of
the world.
What
is BALAGAN
Balagan
was a type of travelling theatre troop common during
the 18th to early 20th centuries in Russia.
Balagan as a theatre genre, combined
elements of commedia dell'arte and French street performance.
Cities and villages would eagerly anticipate the coming
of the Balagan
wagons as they traveled from one city plaza to the next
bringing laughter, joy, drama and a chance for people
to forget about the ordinary doldrums of day to day
life.
Curated
by local filmmakers Alla Kovgan and Jeff Silva, Balagan
aims to rekindle the spirit and essence of the traditional
Balagany experience. The Balagan
Experimental Film series promises to
surprise you with a different experience every time.
Come and see for yourself.
Who
We Are
Jeff
Silva
is a filmmaker, curator, & teacher from Somerville,
MA. Jeff is the co-founder and co-curator of the Balagan
Film Series at the Coolidge Corner TheatrJeff studied
Cinema and Photography at Ithaca College in NY and has
since gone on to produce several award winning films
& videos that have screened around the world. His
most recent video is currently in the BAC!05
contemporary art festival in Barcelona, Spain. Jeff
works professionally as a Multi-Media producer at MIT
and has most notably produced all 100 of the Walter
Lewin Physics series on MIT's OpenCourseWare
and MIT
World. He also works independently as a freelance
editor and cinematographer while continuing to make
his own short films, documentaries, and multi-channel
video installations. He's currently working on several
personal projects, including Hard Reigns: Fighting
Wars, Fighting Time, which is an experimental
documentary about his travels to Serbia and Kosovo in
2000. He's also working on a short 16mm film diary about
Mexico City entitled Lucha Libre.
Alla
Kovgan is a filmmaker/curator originally from
Moscow, Russia. Her films have been screened at film
festivals in the North and South America, Canada, Europe
and Australia including Museum of Fine Arts (Boston,
MA), Dance on Camera Festival at Lincoln Center (New
York, MA), Brooklyn Academy of Music (Brooklyn, New
York), DeCordova Museum (Lincoln, MA), The American
Dance Festival: Dancing for the Camera (Durham, NC),
and others. Alla co-founded and co-curates Balagan
Experimental Film and Video Series in Boston
(http://www.coolodge.org/balagan/)
and St. Petersburg International Dance Film
Festival KINODANCE, Russia
(http://www.kinodance.com/russia/).
She is also a member of the Kinodance Company
(http://www.kinodance.org),
an intermedia collective that explores dance film collaborations
on stage. Among her most recent endeavors are co-curating
the Dance on Camera Special Program (Art’s
Close-Up) for the Boston’s public television
station WGBH; co-directing her second feature film about
Contemporary African Dance “Movement (R)evolution”
produced by Joan Frosch, and editing the local documentary
“Traces of the Trade” (http://www.tracesofthetrade.org/)
by Katrina Browne about the white privilege in America.
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