Lo Fi Landscapes: Pictures From the New World

This tour took place in April, May and June 2005.

Filmmakers Thomas Comerford and Bill Brown follow-up their 2002 Lo Fi Landscapes Tour with a new program of films about the space of history and the history of spaces. These films explore how historical text becomes physical texture, and how filmmaking itself is memory recovered from landscape's amnesia. The filmmakers will travel the Mississsippi Valley, Southwest and West Coast with their 16mm films and a projector in tow for 3 weeks of screenings.

The Program:

“Mountain State” by Bill Brown, 2003, 16mm sound, color, 22 mins.
“Land Marked/Marquette” Series by Thomas Comerford, 2005, 16mm sound, b&w/color, 23 mins.
“Chicago Detroit Split,” by TC and BB, 2005, unslit 8mm, approx 10 mins. TRT: approx 60 mins.

DESCRIPTIONS:
Brown’s “Mountain State” is a brief history of the westward expansion of the United States as told by 25 roadside historical markers in the state of West Virginia. History is a ghost, and every historical marker tells a ghost story.

Comerford’s “Land Marked” is a series of four landscape films, each examining a specific place in Chicago. These places are connected in their relationship to 17th-century exploration of the Chicago area by Europeans, in particular, the highly-celebrated French Jesuit missionary, Jacques Marquette. Rather than attempt to tell Marquette’s story or offer history, the films examine the monuments to Marquette--the "stories" they tell--and the relationship of the monuments to their surroundings.

In “Chicago Detroit Split," Brown and Comerford find the common ground of shared street names in their respective cities, yet they employ the unslit 8mm format to juxtapose these like-named tracts of land--the juxtapositions allowing for chance encounters across time and space between these two midwestern cities.

TOUR DATES:
CHICAGO APRIL 28 THU
Gene Siskel Film Center

CHICAGO APRIL 29 FRI
Film Studies Center, University of Chicago

DETROIT MAY 20 FRI
Detroit Film Center

ST LOUIS MAY 24 TUE
Hartford Coffee Company

MEMPHIS May 25 WED
Memphis Digital Arts Coop

SHREVEPORT MAY 26 THU
Mini-Cine

NEW ORLEANS MAY 27 FRI
Zeitgeist

HOUSTON MAY 28 SAT
Aurora Picture Show

HOUSTON MAY 29 SUN
Aurora Picture Show (matinee)

DALLAS MAY 30 MON
Magnolia Lounge

ALBUQUERQUE JUNE 1 WED
Basement Films

TUSCON JUNE 3 FRI
The Screening Room

SAN DIEGO JUNE 4 SAT
Outdoor Screening

LOS ANGELES JUNE 5 SUN
LA Film Forum

LONG BEACH June 6 MON
Open Books

BERKELEY JUNE 7 TUE
Pacific Film Archive

SACRAMENTO JUNE 8 WED
Sacramento State University

HALF MOON BAY JUNE 11 SAT
Coastside Movie Night

SAN FRANCISCO JUNE 12 SUN
SF Cinematheque

EUGENE JUNE 13 MON
DIVA

PORTLAND JUNE 14 TUE
40 Frames--screening

OLYMPIA JUNE 15 WED
Olympia Film Society Media Studio

PORTLAND JUNE 16 THU
Northwest Film Center--exhibition/distribution workshop

SEATTLE JUNE 17 FRI
Northwest Film Forum