Chick Strand
Early Monthly Segments is excited to be able to present three films by the late great
Chick Strand, a founding figure of the West Coast film scene. Strand, a key figure of truly independent American film who died last year at the age of 77, left a remarkable legacy: in addition to her almost 20 films, she was a co-founder (with Bruce Baillie) of Canyon Cinema and a teacher at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Her works range from lyrical film poems to deft documentary explorations of inter-personal and cross-cultural relationships. The three films in this programme display some of the breadth and depth of her skills. Waterfall and Angel Blue Sweet Wings are what Strand called ‘film poems’, celebrating both the human form and the medium of film. Soft Fiction is a series of five film portraits that explore the complicated convergence of sexual desire, pleasure, pain, exploitation and enlightenment. As radical and shocking today as it must have been on its completion in 1979, Soft Fiction is a rare example of a film which shows women not just as passive victims of sexual exploitation, but as critical participants who are able to use the knowledge and understanding gained from extreme experiences to transcend pain with wit and grace.
Programme:
Angel Blue Sweet Wings, Chick Strand, 1966, 16mm, USA, 3 minutes, colour
Waterfall, Chick Strand, 1967, 16mm, USA, 3 minutes, colour
Soft Fiction, Chick Strand, 1979, 16mm, USA, 54 minutes, B&W
@ Gladstone Hotel, Art Bar | 1214 Queen St West
Tuesday November 16, 2010 | 7:30pm screening, $5 suggested donation
Angel Blue Sweet Wings
Soft Fiction
Angel Blue Sweet Wings
Special thanks to Irina Leimbacher, Canyon Cinema and the Gladstone Hotel.