ILLA CAMERA OBSCVRA (The Dark Room)

2001, 16mm sound, b&w, 12 mins. Latin intertitles w/English translation. Rental: 45.00

This pinhole film examines the "camera obscura"--the "dark room"--as metaphor for cinema and as site for shifts in perception and understanding perception. Inspired, in part, by the writings of art historian, Jonathan Crary, in Techniques of the Observer. Part of the "Cinema Obscura" series.

Exhibition
• California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA, 9 September 2005.
• Expanded Vision, Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 22 and 26 October 2004
• Lo Fi Landscapes, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 4 March 2004
• I Like it When Things Fall Apart, Texas Ballroom, Chicago, IL, 18 December 2003
• Chicago Show and Tell, Wimbledon College of Art, London, 20 November 2003
• Moving Intervals, University of Arizona, Tuscon, AZ, 1 October 2003
• The Chicago Connection, Dresden Small Film Festival, Germany, 31 May 2003
• Chicago Film Scene(s), Kino Arsenal, Berlin, Germany, 3 May 2003
• Films by Deborah Stratman and Thomas Comerford, Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL, 5 December 2002
• Penumbra, Artists’ Television Access, San Francisco, CA, 22 September 2002
• Lo Fi Landscapes: Films by Bill Brown and Thomas Comerford, 26-show touring program, May-June 2002.
• Images Festival: Independent Film and Video, Toronto, ON, Canada, 11-20 April 2002
• 2002 Thaw Festival, Institute for Cinema and Culture, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 10-13 April 2002
• Modesty: Cinematic Retreats from Grand Ambitions, First Person Cinema, Boulder, CO, 5 November 2001
• Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, 26 September 2001
• Pinhole Cinema: The Obscure and the Illumined, Northwest Film Forum, Little Theatre, Seattle, WA, 22 August 2001
• Philosophies in Light, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Biograph Theatre, Chicago, 21 August 2001
• Chicago’s Own: New Experimental Works, Chicago Filmmakers, 9 June 2001

PRESS
• "Chicago's Own: New Experimental Works," by Fred Camper. Critic's Choice. Chicago Reader.
• "Film Reviews," by Jonathan Miller. Radio Broadcast, 848, WBEZ, Chicago.