April 21, Saturday, MIDNIGHT
EXPERIMENTAL FILM AT MIDNIGHT!
THE FILM FARMERS COLLECTIVE PRESENTS
REMINISCENCE / RECONNAISSANCE

In this short film program, elements of personal documentary, experimental narrative, and lyrical filmmaking are used in an attempt to understand individual pasts. These films were created with a subconscious mission: to pull visual memory from mind into matter.

Guest Curated by Lisa Kletjian

PROGRAM:

Home Sweet Home, (Matthew Beals) 14 min. [video]
A home video love letter to my childhood home and the former "me's" that once inhabited it.

 

 


Jack-of-all-Trades (Lisa Kletjian) 9 min. [video]
My uncle Jack Hoplamazian proves that the Renaissance Man isn't dead.

Farvel the Marvel (Marin Tockman) 11 min. [video]
Philip Kosnitsky, a.k.a. Farvel the Marvel, reflects back on his life and career in magic.

Parting (Christina Hunt) 4 min. 30 sec. [16mm]
Life presents us with situations that are part of the growing process.  
We grow up knowing they will come, but are never really prepared for how
these events will unfold.   Some friends lose touch, some get cut out…the memories remain.


 

Elegy (John Warren) 6 min. 15 sec. [16mm]
This lyrical documentary interprets the dreams and memories
of an elderly woman as she looks back on her life.

 

Make me (Megan Hessenthaler) 12 min. [16mm]
Did you ever know someone who makes you want to cry, throw up, and laugh hysterically all at once? Me too.

One Hundred Steps (Anelisa Garfunkel) 16 min. 11 sec. [video]
This personal documentary tells the story of the filmmaker's father.  
After forty years devoted to the rights of the disabled, Frank Garfunkel
found himself the victim of a catastrophic accident, disabled, battling his way
through pain, despair, and hospital policy.  

 

Maybe In Michigan (Andrea Maio) 5 min. 14 sec. [video]
Nostalgia for a summer that has not happened yet.

TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 80 Min.

FILMMAKER BIOS

Matthew Beals is a singer, filmmaker and sound designer who recently realized that every story or film he has created is in some way about a loss of innocence.   He wonders what that says about himself as he sits in his apartment in Queens, NY.

Anelisa Garfunkel is a Boston-based independent filmmaker.   She has just finished production on “St. Milly”, a short film shot on 35mm due for festival release this summer.

Megan Hessenthaler was reared on the same street as 100 of her loudest cousins.   She's currently a boat dweller in Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal where she cranks out films almost as fast as she fills up "honey" buckets.   Watch out, she'll probably ask to use your shower.

Christina Hunt received her Bachelor's degree from Emerson College in film and photography.   Christina's films express her personal inspirations and impressions through a combination of sound portraits and image collages.

Lisa Kletjian works as an Avid editor and independent curator.   She is from Simsbury, Connecticut, but now considers her home to be Brooklyn, New York.  

Andrea Maio lives in Milwaukee. She has a dog named Butchie.

Marin Tockman was the only Jew in her class growing up in a small town in Maine.   She now works as an art/media curator for a Brooklyn-based organization called Rabbit In a Turtle Shell.   Marin recently worked on the PBS documentary film “Andy Warhol” (Peabody Award winner) with filmmaker Ric Burns.   By making portrait films, Marin uncovers stories about people and their places in history.

John Warren produces independent short films that screen around the United States and Canada. He works in Boston as an Avid editor for a new children's show on PBS.

A NOTE ON THE FILMMAKERS

After screening Reminiscence/ Reconnaissance in the winter of 2005, a group of us were inspired to form a Filmmakers' Collective called The Film Farmers .   The intention of this group is to re-create a forum for viewing and discussing our own films, which was an aspect collectively lacking in our 20-something lives after having moved on from the university atmosphere.   The Film Farmers are Emerson College Alumni, and have been heavily influenced by the styles of Avant-Garde filmmaking and personal documentary.   Our goal is to maintain a creative open forum as we continue to pursue our own filmmaking interests, as well as to routinely display these works in public screenings.   The Film Farmers are currently in the process of setting up a U.S. tour to screen some of our more recent work in a show titled Faces & Spaces.   The Film Farmers are: Matthew Beals, Megan Hessenthaler, Christina Hunt, Lisa Kletjian, Marin Tockman, Ginny Warren, and John Warren.