From sweeping Disney animations to Sonic Youth banging odes to Fluxus, the exciting exchange of sound and image is examined in a special film series curated by artist/musician Christian Marclay. Concluding a residency in which he created the video installation Shake Rattle and Roll (fluxmix) (2004) and performed with turntable collective djTRIO, Marclay reflects on more than a century of sound in cinema. “I have selected 15 films, cartoons, and videos that challenge, explore, and celebrate this relationship,” he says. “Here sound is not subservient to the image; it is the focal point, if not the driving force. But neither one is superior to the other—their tenuous relation creates a magical art. Cinema is also sound art.” Presented in conjunction with the 6th Annual Sound Unseen Film & Music Festival, organized by Minnesota Film Arts.
Tickets to all Walker screenings are $8 ($6 Walker members). Members are offered discounted Sound Unseen Festival passes: Glam Pass: $100 ($90); All Film Pass: $75 ($70); Party Pass: $75 ($70). For the complete Sound Unseen schedule, visit www.soundunseen.com.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8
12 noon
Fantasia
Produced by Walt Disney
Ambitiously fusing animation with classical music, Fantasia melds Goethe’s poem based on the fairy tale The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with compositions by Bach, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Schubert, and Beethoven, among others. 1940, U.S., color, 35mm, 120 minutes.
Preceded by:
Study 8
Directed by Oscar Fischinger
Merging Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with animated abstract graphics, the film is frequently compared to the Fantasia sequence using the same score. 1931, Germany, BW, 16mm, 4 minutes.
2:30 pm
Lecture/Screening: Marcella Lista
Marcella Lista’s lecture has been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience.
7:30 pm
Live Current (Unter Strom)
Directed by Mauricio Kagel
Rarely screened outside of Europe, film-maker/composer Mauricio Kagel’s work is greatly influenced by Dada. In this film, instruments take a beating by heavy machinery and everyday objects. 1970, Germany, BW, video, 20 minutes.
Bumble Boogie
Produced by Walt Disney
In this boogie-woogie version of “Flight of the Bumblebee,” the bee is menaced by shape-shifting instruments—piano keys morph into snakes, and flowers become trumpets. 1948, U.S., color, 16mm, 3 minutes
Match
Directed by Mauricio Kagel
Kagel pairs new-music impresarios Siegfried Pal and Christoph Caskel as dueling musicians. 1966, Germany, BW, 35mm, 21 minutes.
Stockhausen’s Originale: Doubletakes
Directed by Peter Moore
Filmed during Charlotte Moorman’s Second Annual New York Avant-Garde Festival in 1964, Originale was performed by artists Allan Kaprow, Dick Higgins, and Nam June Paik; musicians Max Neuhaus, Moorman, and Alvin Lucier; filmmaker Robert Breer; and poet Allen Ginsberg. The film’s world premiere was held at the Walker in 1996 during the exhibition Beat Culture and the New America. This new print was just received by the Edmond R. Ruben Film and Video Study Collection. 1964/1996, U.S., BW, 16mm, 33 minutes.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9
1 pm
Piano Piece #13 (Carpenter’s Piece, for Nam June Paik)
Produced by Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth re-creates George Maciunas’ classic Fluxus piece, which involved driving nails into a piano. 1999, U.S., color, video, 4 minutes.
The Birthday Party
Produced by Walt Disney
Mickey Mouse serenades his birthday guests with a miniature piano and a xylophone in this early musical short. 1931, U.S., BW, 16mm, 7 minutes.
Ed Henderson Suggests Sound Tracks for Photographs
Directed by John Baldessari
In this series of hilarious short vignettes, artist/filmmaker John Baldessari describes clichéd images from National Geographic magazine while artist Ed Henderson adds tacky music to accompany the photos. 1974, U.S., BW, video, 28 minutes.
Skeleton Dance
Directed by Walt Disney
The first of Disney’s Silly Symphonies series features a nocturnal musical dance accompanied by the undead who use bones as drumsticks. 1929, U.S., BW, 16mm, 6 minutes.
Global Groove
Directed by Merrily Mossman
This garishly colorful pastiche of pieces pairs work by major artists of the 1960s and ’70s, including Merce Cunningham, Allen Ginsberg, and the Living Theatre, with video work and performances by Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman, including their TV Bra for Living Sculpture (1969). Black-and-white excerpts from this work are installed in Paik’s TV Cello (1971), currently on view in the Walker exhibition The Shape of Time. 1973, U.S., color, video, 29 minutes.
3 pm
Solo
Directed by Mauricio Kagel
This black comedy worthy of Kafka or Brecht centers on a conductor who faces a cheeky orchestra that defies his authority. 1967, Germany, BW, video, 26 minutes.
Magical Maestro
Directed by Tex Avery
A magician impersonates a conductor to enact revenge upon an opera singer who has replaced him on the bill. Using his wand, he conjures up a host of hilarious vocal pranks for the singer while keeping perfect time. 1952, U.S., color, 16mm, 6 minutes.
Ludwig Van
Directed by Mauricio Kagel
Created for Beethoven’s bicentennial, this is Kagel’s most celebrated film. Every inch of the composer’s studio is covered with his sheet music. A distorted sound track of the compositions is heard as a musician plays from the pages that have warped and overlapped the objects in the room. With Joseph Beuys and Dieter Roth. 1969, Germany, BW, video, 100 minutes.
7 pm
Rameau’s Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen
Directed by Michael Snow
In one of the most exhaustive analyses of the relationship between sound and image, Snow’s alter ego, Wilma Schoen, mounts an encyclopedic talking picture consisting of 25 sections. The outcome resembles a philosophical Jacques Tati film performed by some of the avant-garde artists of the time, including Nam June Paik, Jonas Mekas, Babette Mangolte, Amy Taubin, Annette Michelson, Ping Chong, and Peggy Gale. 1974, Canada, color, 16mm, 268 minutes.