The film and video component of this multidisciplinary arts festival continues Friday and Saturday, August 17 and 18, at the Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln, 773-348-2143; Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division, 773-278-1500; Congress Theater, 2135 N. Milwaukee, 773-509-5050; Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee, 773-342-4597; and Local Grind, 1585 N. Milwaukee, 773-489-3490. Unless otherwise noted, all screenings will be video projection. Tickets are $7, available at the venue one hour before showtime; admission is free with a festival pass. For more information and complete festival listings, see sidebar in Section Three.
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These ten works from Chicago’s Video Data Bank (some of them excerpts) demonstrate the diversity and complexity of modern feminism, as each of the artists asserts her uniqueness as a person. Susan Mogul seems proudly self-sufficient in Take Off (1974), talking about her vibrator, displaying all its spent batteries, and apparently using it under the table. Linda Montano, on the other hand, is devastated by the sudden loss of her ex-husband in Mitchell’s Death (1978); the intense, high-contrast close-up of her face focuses attention on the spooky monotone of her voice as she reads her story. In Suzanne Lacy’s bizarre Learn Where the Meat Comes From (1976) a cooking lesson morphs into an almost erotic interplay between chef and meat, and in Nina Sobell’s Hey! Baby! Chickey! (1978) a woman cradles a cooking chicken like a baby as romantic songs on the sound track suggest a joke on the sexist uses of baby and chick. Also on the program, which will run about two hours, videos by Martha Rosler, Eleanor Antin, Barbara Latham, Janice Tanaka, and Steina Vasulka. Curator Maria Troy will attend the screening. (FC) (Chopin Theatre, 3:30)
Pirates, Zinesters, and Ciphers
Short works by Janet Wondra, Red Emma, Kim Collmer, Shoham Arad, Kelly Kirshner, Janice Inskeep, Sadie Benning, and Samuael Topiary. (Heaven Gallery, midnight)
Short works by Susan Kim, Anne Olson, Rosyln Rhee, Salome Chasnoff, and Miranda July. (Heaven Gallery, 3:00)
Plaster Caster
