Trailer for EXquisite Corpse Cinema

EXquisite Corpse Cinema premieres Tuesday, December 9th at Grand Illusion Cinema in Seattle.
See the trailer now

What is Exquisite Corpse Cinema?

Exquisite Corpse Cinema is a collaborative film project that incorporates randomness and chance. Thirteen filmmakers were asked to make films between 2- 5 mins long on any subject they wish. Their only requirements were the use of prompts, an interpretation of a prompt given to start their film and another to end it. The prompts would become seques leading to the next film.  There are thirteen prompts for thirteen films, and each filmmaker randomly picked their prompts, unaware who's film would come before or after theirs.

For example one of the prompts was Whistling Tea Kettle/ Naked Foot . The filmmaker was challenged how to connect the dots of this random pairing. The following filmmaker had Naked Foot/ Burning match
 which lead to another random pairing and other possibilities.

Many of these filmmakers have never met, and live in different cities and countries. They have no idea how their films fit into the finish project. On Tuesday night six of the filmmakers will be in the audience at Grand Illusion seeing the entire project for the first time! 

EXquisite Corpse Cinema

THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS: THREE FILMS BY BEN RUSSELL

In addition to our quarterly programs we will occasionally host visiting experimental filmmakers. We are honored to have Ben Russell on our calendar in November. Ben will be in town November 15th- 17th. He will screen his feature made with Ben Rivers, A Spell to Ward off the Darkness at NWFF on the 15th, host a workshop there on the 16th, then on the 17th he will screen a trilogy of films at EXcinema/ Grand Illusion Cinema. Below is a synopsis of Garden of Earthly Delights.

Taking its title from a 15th century Hieronymus Bosch triptych in which the pleasures of Eden are conflated with the torments of Hell, this new trilogy of (mostly) non-fiction works by artist-filmmaker Ben Russell and occasional collaborator Jim Drain examines the ecstatic limits of utopia in the present. Moving from a documentary portrait of Atlantis to a vertiginous inquiry into immortality to a post-colonial vision of Melanesian cargo cults, these films take a visceral, embodied, and ethnographic approach towards their subject (which is also us). From Malta to Greece to Vanuatu to Miami to Seattle: utopia is now! Or, in the words of Samuel Beckett, "What do we do now, now that we are happy?"

September 23rd, 2014

We at EXcinema love our 16mm projector. With the diminishing venues for film projection  we hope to keep film as film alive by including as much as we can in our quarterly programs. This month we feature three filmmakers who work with direct animation. Caryn Cline who has been working with botanicals on film for years will show In the Conservatory. Caryn is also teaching a botanical workshop at Northwest Film Forum next month. Jon Behrens has been a major presence in the local experimental film community for decades, and will show one of his hand painted films, Fragments of Distant Memories. And Eric Ostrowski, another local experimental veteran and EXcinema programer who works with a variety of these techniques will contribute a live 16mm performance. In digital format Winnipeg filmmaker Scott Fitzpatrick will show Up, in 3D (glasses included), Salise Hughes will show Everyone I Have Ever Known, and there will be films by Reed O'Beirne, and from Mexico City, Rafael Balboa.

This screening will take place as always at Grand Illusion Cinema, on September 23rd at 7:00 pm.

Films by Rafael Balboa, Jon Behrens, Caryn Cline, Scott Fitzpatrick, Salise Hughes, Reed O'Beirne, and Eric Ostrowski.

Above still is from Eric Ostrowski.

Fragments of Distant Memories, Jon Behrens

In the Conservatory, Caryn Cline

Up, Scott Fritzpatrick

Everyone I Have Ever Known, Salise Hughes

                        Still from LUCKY, dir. Salise Hughes

At 7pm on Tuesday June 17th, join us at the Grand Illusion Cinema for the inaugural edition of EXcinema!  To experience and discuss the outer limits of cinema, we invite filmmakers and film-lovers to see works by Martha Colburn, Salise Hughes, Eric Ostowski, Tony Gault, Reed O'Beirne, Kelly Sears and Devon Damonte.

EXcinema

17 June, 7pm

Grand Illusion Cinema

1403 NE 50th St., Seattle, WA 98105 (map)

(Children welcome)

                                 Still from METAMORFOZA, dir. Martha Colburn

                                   Still from FULL OF EMPTY, dir. Reed O'Beirne

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                                 Still from THE DRIFT, dir. Kelly Sears

                               Still from YUGOSLAVIAN HOME MOVIES, dir. Salise Hughes

                                          Still from FOUR CUBIC FEET OF SPACE, dir. Tony Gault

                                        Still from ALIEN HUNTING, dir. Eric Ostrowski

NEW EXPERIMENTAL FILM SERIES

The first edition of our new film series: EXcinema will be June 17th, 7:00 pm at the Grand Illusion Cinema. It will be a sample of near and afar, a slice of contemporary experimental cinema: Martha Colburn, Salise Hughes, Reed O’Beirne, Eric Ostrowski, Kelly Sears, and more. Features a live multiple projector performance.