Aurora is pleased to welcome and support a festival preview of cinematic programs from the Houston Cinema Arts Society on November 21st at 7PM with rising digital media artist and filmmaker Alex Rivera. In conversation with Margarita de la Vega-Hurtado, film scholar and curator, Alex Rivera, video artist and filmmaker, will discuss and present video art works from 1995-2006, that preceded his first feature film Sleep Dealer.
Rivera will screen Papapapá, Dia de La Independencia, Braceros, Cybraceros and The Borders Trilogy.
Tickets for each of the scheduled events are $10 per adult; $8 for seniors and students and can be purchased on-line at www.cinemartsociety.org or at the box office prior to each event. Aurora members can present their membership card for a discounted admission of $8.
THE HOUSTON CINEMA ARTS SOCIETY The Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS), a newly formed non-profit organization has joined Houston’s cultural landscape. Created under the direction of a dedicated task force with the support of Mayor Bill White and the leadership of Franci Crane, the organization will focus on presenting cinema, mixed-media performances and new media art and installations during an annual festival every November in Houston. HCAS plans to collaborate with Houston museums, art centers, theaters, cultural organizations and other urban spaces to co-host new media offerings. Curator Richard Herskowitz has deliberately programmed this Cinema and Media Arts Festival to serve as a framework for the full week-long festival that will launch in November 2009. Central to each year’s festival will be tributes to influential media artists whose work will be explored in depth, and who will engage in on-stage conversations with leading artists and critics about their careers. Surrounding these centerpiece programs will be an array of live events integrating cinema, music, and performance, outdoor projections, interactive installations in galleries, and Internet-designed and generated movies, as well as theatrical presentations of international films and videos.
Additional information and tickets for these screenings and conversations are available by visiting www.cinemartsociety.org.
ADDITIONAL SCREENINGS:
Screening and Conversation with Filmmaker Alex Rivera, FREE Thursday, November 20, 2:30 p.m. Rice Media Center, Rice University Free and open to the public Film and video maker Alex Rivera will discuss his career and present examples from his early autobiographical work through his first feature film including the full documentary, The Sixth Section. He will demonstrate the new on-line art project Low Drone about the Mexico/U.S. border.
Screening of Sleep Dealer and conversation with filmmaker Alex Rivera Thursday, November 20, 7 p.m. River Oaks Landmark Theater Video artist and filmmaker Alex Rivera has created a visually dazzling feature-length debut film which explores contemporary economic globalization through a science fiction narrative. In Sleep Dealer, Mexican laborers tap into a virtual reality of labor for American factories, without ever entering the country and threatening the populace. After the film, Rivera will talk about the process of creating his first feature film and talk with the audience about his work.
Lynn Hershman Leeson: Screening and Conversation Reception Part One: New Media Projects Saturday, November 22, 7 p.m. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Brown Auditorium Lynn Hershman Leeson will join festival curator Richard Herskowitz for a conversation on her latest digital media projects. During the conversation she will premiere her new film, Curing the Vampire (25 min.) in which she portrays Gene Ware, a character from the virtual world of Second Life. Leeson and Oscar-award winning actress Tilda Swinton pose questions to a selection of guests, including a politician, journalist, scientist and lawyer. Leeson will do a live demonstration of her interactive on-line archive on Second Life, Life Squared. To conclude the evening, she will show a preview of her upcoming feature documentary, which combines interviews, artwork, and rarely seen archival film and video footage chronicling the feminist art movement in the United States from 1968 to the present.
Lynn Hershman Leeson: Screening and Conversation Part Two: Early Explorations Sunday, November 23, 2 p.m. Museum of Fine Arts Houston Brown Auditorium The Sunday afternoon program will explore the roots of Hershman Leeson’s current new media work in her early video and performance art exploring the formation of identity, including her interactive video art disk, Lorna (1979-82); her video installation, A Room of One’s Own, and a screening of her Electronic Diary: An Ongoing Life-Cycle Video Series.
