Lecturer Laida Lertxundi wins The Kazuko Trust Scholarship Award

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Kazuko Trust Announce First Two Recipients of the Kazuko Trust Scholarship Award Grants for 2012 at the 2012 NYFF Views from the Avant-Garde

Filmmakers Laida Lertxundi and Michael Robinson to receive $5000 grants for recognized excellence in their field

NEW YORK, October 03, 2012 | SHOOT Publicity Wire | --- The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Kazuko Trust announced today that filmmakers Laida Lertxundi and Michael Robinson will be the first two recipients of the Kazuko Trust Scholarship Award Grants to be presented during the 16th edition of NYFF's Views from the Avant-Garde, the popular yearly touchstone for experimental film around the world... The filmmakers will each receive a $5000 grant in recognition of excellence in their field. Both filmmakers will also debut new works at this year's Views From the Avant-Garde. Lertxundi's THE ROOM CALLED HEAVEN will make its World Premiere on Saturday, October 6 at 12:00PM in the Howard Gilman Theater and Robinson's CIRCLE IN THE SAND will have its World Premiere on Friday, October 5 at 5:30PM in the Francesca Beale Theater.

The Kazuko Trust was established upon the death of Kazuko Oshima, a Patron of the Film Society who loved film, experimental film most of all. It was her wish to contribute to this worthy area of the film world after her passing, by awarding the Film Society with a five-year $50K grant ($10,000 a year or $5000 for two filmmakers per annum) for the purpose of creating a scholarship fund for worthy experimental filmmakers featured in NYFF's Views from the Avant-Garde. In addition, a seat in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center was named in her honor.

The filmmakers will each receive a $5000 grant in recognition of excellence in their field. Both filmmakers will also debut new works at this year's Views From the Avant-Garde. Lertxundi's THE ROOM CALLED HEAVEN will make its World Premiere on Saturday, October 6 at 12:00PM in the Howard Gilman Theater and Robinson's CIRCLE IN THE SAND will have its World Premiere on Friday, October 5 at 5:30PM in the Francesca Beale Theater.

The Kazuko Trust was established upon the death of Kazuko Oshima, a Patron of the Film Society who loved film, experimental film most of all. It was her wish to contribute to this worthy area of the film world after her passing, by awarding the Film Society with a five-year $50K grant ($10,000 a year or $5000 for two filmmakers per annum) for the purpose of creating a scholarship fund for worthy experimental filmmakers featured in NYFF's Views from the Avant-Garde. In addition, a seat in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center was named in her honor.

Kazuko Oshima (1942-2007) was born in Hiroshima on January 4, 1942 and was 3 years of age when the atomic attacks took place. Moving to the U.S. from Tokyo when she was in her early 20's Kazuko began experimenting with photography and later with video art. She made many notable contributions to the world of film and theater, artisanal jewelry and design and was known for her idiosyncratic style and convictions. Onscreen, Kazuko acted in Robert Frank's and Rudy Wurlitzer's film CANDY MOUNTAIN and was a narrator for two documentaries on Hiroshima-Nagasaki. Known throughout the city of New York as a notable art loving, art practicing woman, Kazuko made exclusive jewelry creations for Bianca Jagger and others as well as designing the wedding veil used by Madonna in the 1984 video for "Like A Virgin." These are but a few footnotes to her career.

Laida Lertxundi's films have been selected for the 2012 Whitney Biennial, and other venues and festivals where her work has been shown include MoMA, LACMA, the Viennale, Views from the Avant Garde at the New York Film Festival, and the Rotterdam International Film Festival. She received the Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker at the 48th Ann Arbor Film Festival and was named in Cinema Scopeʼs "Best of the Decade" reviews and as one of the "25 Filmmakers for the 21st Century" in Film Commentʼs 2010 Avant-Garde Film Poll. She is a film and video programmer in the U.S. and Spain, and has published various articles on film, most recently in the anthology La risa oblicua and Bostezo magazine. Lertxundi teaches film at the University of California San Diego and lives in Los Angeles, California.
Michael Robinson's work has screened in both solo and group shows at a variety of festivals, museums, and cinematheques including The 2012 Whitney Biennial, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the New York Film Festival, the London Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, the Wexner Center for the Arts, Tate Modern, MoMA P.S.1, Impakt, Courtisane, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The Walker Center, Cinematexas, PDX, Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, and the San Francisco, Melbourne, Leeds, Vienna, Singapore and Hong Kong International Film Festivals. He was the recipient of a 2009 residency from the Headlands Center for the Arts, a 2011-2012 Film/Video Residency Award from the Wexner Center for the Arts, a 2012 Creative Capital grant, and his films have received prizes from the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Images Festival, Media City, Onion City, and the Chicago and Milwaukee Underground Film Festivals. Originally from upstate NY, Robinson holds a BFA from Ithaca College, a MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Cinema at Binghamton University.

The 16th edition of Views from the Avant-Garde (October 5-8) once again will offer a robust slate of programming at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center including free-to-the-public screenings in its Amphitheater, as it presents four days of singular work from the frontiers of innovative moving-image making curated by Mark McElhatten and Gavin Smith and sponsored by Film Armada.

The opening day of Views will kick off with a Special Presentation of Phil Solomon's "EMPIRE" in a free public presentation with reception in the Elinor Bunin Film Center Amphitheater. The four-day event will conclude with a special day devoted to Avant-Garde master Peter Kubleka, including the U.S. Premiere of Martina Kudlácek;s four hour documentary FRAGMENTS OF KUBELKA and the special multiple projector piece MONUMENT FILM, a World Premiere presented by Peter Kubelka himself.

Additional highlights include a retrospective presentation of Ferdinand Khittl's rarely seen THE PARALLEL ROAD, as well as tributes to the late Chris Marker (the first NYFF showing of SANS SOLEIL) and Raul Ruiz (the presentation of the fabled but rarely screened THE BLIND OWL).

In addition Views is proud to once again include stellar new work by Deborah Stratman, Janie Geiser, Erin Espele, April Simmons, Mike Gibisser, Ben Russell, Shambhavi Kaul. Dani Leventhal, Fern Silva Ernie Gehr, James Benning, and many others.

Also for the first time this year, web-based film distributor Film Armada has come onboard as a sponsor for Views From the Avant-Garde. Film Armada takes an editorial approach to web-based independent film distribution, focused on building a profitable channel for vanguard cinema.

Other Views presentations of special note:

Luther Price a notorious and perennial favorite at Views from the Avant-Garde will be featured with his first one-person show, A LUTHER PRICE BESTIARY. Each film screened is a unique art object carefully sculpted, treated, and collaged. Price was included in the 2012 Whitney Biennial where Roberta Smith of the New Times praised his work as one of the outstanding highlights of the exhibition.

The first NYFF showings of Turner prize nominee Luke Fowler, internationally known artist Camille Henrot, and the installation artist and filmmaker, cinematographer, Peter Bo Rappmund.

The presentation of Peggy Ahwesh's new restoration super 8 to 16mm blow-ups of her infamous and widely celebrated MARTINA'S PLAYHOUSE along with rare screenings of then new restorations of the work of Joe Gibbons. Both artists will be present at the screenings.

The 17-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring top films from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent. The selection committee, chaired by Peña also includes: Melissa Anderson, Contributor, Village Voice; Scott Foundas, Associate Program Director, The Film Society of Lincoln Center; Todd McCarthy, Chief Film Critic, The Hollywood Reporter; and Amy Taubin, Contributing Editor, Film Comment and Sight and Sound.

The New York Film Festival is generously sponsored by Royal Bank of Canada, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stella Artois, illy, HBO, Trump International Hotel and Tower, WABC, WNET, the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts.

General Public tickets will be available September 9th. There will be an advance ticketing opportunity for Film Society of Lincoln Center Patrons and Members prior to that date. For more information visit www.Filmlinc.com/NYFF or call 212 875 5601.

Film Society of Lincoln Center
Under the leadership of Rose Kuo, Executive Director, and Richard Peña, Program Director, the Film Society of Lincoln Center offers the best in international, classic and cutting-edge independent cinema. The Film Society presents two film festivals that attract global attention: the New York Film Festival, currently planning its 50th edition, and New Directors/New Films which, since its founding in 1972, has been produced in collaboration with MoMA. The Film Society also publishes the award-winning Film Comment Magazine, and for over three decades has given an annual award—now named "The Chaplin Award"—to a major figure in world cinema. Past recipients of this award include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks. The Film Society presents a year-round calendar of programming, panels, lectures, educational programs and specialty film releases at its Walter Reade Theater and the new state-of-the-art Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from Royal Bank of Canada, American Airlines, The New York Times, Stella Artois, the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com and follow #filmlinc on Twitter.

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Photo of Filmmaker Laida Lertxundi is courtesy of the artist.

Professor Ruben Ortiz Torres nominated for award

Smithsonian American Art Museum Announces Artists Nominated for its Contemporary Artist Award

By the Smithsonian American Art Museum on August 6, 2012

The Smithsonian American Art Museum announced today the nominees for its contemporary artist award, established in 2001 to recognize an artist younger than 50 who has produced a significant body of work and consistently demonstrates exceptional creativity. The 15 nominees are Matthew Buckingham, Kathy Butterly, Christina Fernandez, Amy Franceschini, Rachel Harrison, Oliver Herring, Glenn Kaino, Sowon Kwon, Ruben Ortiz-Torres, Jaime Permuth, Will Ryman, Ryan Trecartin, Mark Tribe, Mary Simpson and Sara VanDerBeek. Nominated artists work in a diverse range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, film and video.

Artists must be nominated by a juror to be considered for the award; there is no application. The $25,000 award is intended to encourage the artist’s future development and experimentation. Previous winners were Pierre Huyghe (2010); Mark Dion (2008); Jessica Stockholder (2007); Matthew Coolidge, director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation (2006); Andrea Zittel (2005); Kara Walker (2004); Rirkrit Tiravanija (2003); Liz Larner (2002); and Jorge Pardo (2001). From 2001 to 2008, the award was known as the Lucelia Artist Award. The award is part of the museum’s ongoing commitment to contemporary art and artists through annual exhibitions, acquisitions and public programs.

“The artists nominated this year draw on a wide range of cultural and aesthetic experiences to create work that is both visually stimulating and conceptually rigorous,” said Joanna Marsh, The James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Marsh is coordinating the jury panel selection and the nomination and jurying process. Five distinguished jurors, each with a wide knowledge of contemporary American art, were selected from across the United States. The panel nominated the artists and will determine the award winner in a day of discussion and review, remaining anonymous until the winner is announced in October. Past jurors have included John Baldessari, Klaus Biesenbach, Lynne Cooke, Richard Flood, Elizabeth Murray, Jerry Saltz, Rochelle Steiner, Nancy Spector and Robert Storr, among others.

About the Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Smithsonian American Art Museum celebrates the vision and creativity of Americans with artworks in all media spanning more than three centuries. Its National Historic Landmark building, a dazzling showcase for American art and portraiture, is located at Eighth and F streets N.W. in the heart of a revitalized downtown arts district. Museum hours are 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, except Dec. 25. Admission is free. Museum information (recorded): (202) 633-7970.

americanart.si.edu.

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Makers is a historic video intiative Explore the stories of these trailblazing women and
inspire your own through MAKERS.com See Trailer

Professor Emeritus Faith Ringgold selected for Makers

AOL AND PBS ANNOUNCE

MAKERS: WOMEN WHO MAKE AMERICA

LANDMARK DIGITAL VIDEO AND BROADCAST INITIATIVE REVEALS
A NATION TRANSFORMED BY WOMEN  

NEW YORK, NY — February 28, 2012 — Today AOL, a premier digital media company, and PBS, the nation’s largest non-commercial media organization, are launching “MAKERS: Women Who Make America,” an unprecedented digital video and broadcast initiative. Produced by filmmakers, the multi-platform initiative aims to become not only the largest but also the most dynamic collection of women’s stories ever assembled.

MAKERS originated from a very clear premise: over the last half century, the work of millions of women has altered virtually every aspect of American culture. The MAKERS platform tells the story of these exceptional women — both famous and heretofore unknown individuals — whose pioneering contributions continue to shape the world in which we live.

MAKERS profiles Supreme Court Justices, Secretaries of State and CEOs. They are athletes, activists and entertainers. They are groundbreakers who have sparked change, been firsts-in-their-fields, and paved the way for those who followed.  The richness of the MAKERS initiative extends beyond profiling these incredible groundbreakers to tell the stories of hundreds of women who are driving and realizing social change today. MAKERS draws on the archival and narrative possibilities of a digital video experience to create a new way to explore these women’s stories and highlight a new generation of women whose impact is just beginning to be felt and understood.

“AOL wants to be known for groundbreaking firsts in the digital media industry, and we are thrilled to be partnering with PBS as they stand alone in their unparalleled ability to educate the world on the most important movements of our time,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman & CEO of AOL. “Partnering together to bring MAKERS to life is exactly the type of future-forward programming we believe in.”

“By spotlighting some of the most inspirational women in our nation’s history, MAKERS will tell the comprehensive story of how women have advanced in America during the last half century. I hope that the MAKERS project will become the seminal record of women’s achievement, and inspire a new generation of leaders,” said Paula A. Kerger, President and CEO of PBS.  “PBS and our member stations are proud to support this celebration and dialogue about the role of women in our society.” 

MAKERS begins today at MAKERS.com. The site is an AOL-developed interactive video platform, presented by Simple, a new line of facial skincare products, featuring original content edited and curated by the filmmakers.  PBS will also launch a companion site at pbs.org/makers, featuring select MAKERS stories and information on the upcoming documentary.

MAKERS is optimized for viewing across every mobile device, including an innovative iPad app that offers a unique video-viewing experience. The stories will be expanded weekly, ultimately bringing hundreds of inspiring women to the public throughout 2012 and beyond.

“MAKERS is a vivid and evolving living library containing hundreds of original interviews that we know will inspire people everywhere,” said Maureen Sullivan, CMO of AOL. “MAKERS.com was built to utilize the latest innovation in video and mobile technology and enables users to individually curate and discover the stories of these women.”

"We're honored to be a part of this initiative and celebrate these incredible women who have made such a tremendous impact," said Alison Clark, Brand Building Director, Unilever US, Skincare.  "When we first heard the stories of these amazing women, it just felt right for Simple to be a proud supporter of MAKERS.  As a new line of facial skincare products in the U.S., we look to engage with women and salute those whose authenticity, ideals, and pioneering spirit have inspired us to endeavor to have the same impact."  

As MAKERS.com grows and expands its content and community throughout 2012, the premiere on PBS in 2013 of a 3-hour documentary will extend that audience even further.  The documentary, “MAKERS: Women Who Make America,” will tell the story of the Women’s Movement over the last half century.

In addition to the digital video platform and broadcast, PBS will utilize its broad community and grassroots networks to draw the American public into an ongoing conversation about MAKERS and how women transform all aspects of our country and our world today. The project producers are working with PBS member station WETA Washington, D.C., the flagship public broadcaster in the nation’s capital, to develop the project. Public television stations across the country will create local initiatives designed to spark reflection and debate on the driving creative force of American women. This outreach will include major partnerships with local PBS stations and women and girl empowerment groups.

“It’s exciting to be going after a massive story in a new and wonderfully fine-grained way,” said filmmaker Dyllan McGee, the founder of MAKERS.  “My partners, Betsy West and Peter Kunhardt, and I realized there was a need to track and preserve the story of how individuals transform a culture — something that hasn’t been done before on this scale. Our hope is that the new combination of an expanding digital platform rolled out over time, along with a major PBS television broadcast, will ignite sustained dialogue. It’s about how far women have come and where we need to go in the future.”

The world-class women who have supported this project and are featured in the MAKERS platform are the foundation of the MAKERS community that will grow and expand to a global audience.

Visit MAKERS.com to look for stories from MAKERS including Linda Alvarado, Brenda Berkman, Judy Blume, Carol Burnett, Ursula Burns, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Katie Couric, Ellen DeGeneres, Geraldine Ferraro, Theresa Kane, Billie Jean King, Maya Lin, Susan Love, Marissa Mayer, Robin Morgan, Sandra Day O’Connor, Maria Pepe, Michelle Rhee, Condoleezza Rice, Faith Ringgold, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Zainab Salbi, Sheryl Sandberg, Phyllis Schlafly, Barbara Smith, Gloria Steinem, Martha Stewart, Kathrine Switzer, Diane Von Furstenberg, and Barbara Walters.

“MAKERS celebrates women’s achievement and I’m flattered to be included in this amazing group of women,” said Ellen DeGeneres. “I hope that my story and the stories from other MAKERS will inspire new generations of women to use their talents to create positive change.”

“Women’s progress has been a collective effort,” said Gloria Steinem, a contributor to MAKERS. “I am thrilled we will now have a dynamic resource that will chart how far we have come and how far we need to go in the future.”

The project is founded by filmmaker Dyllan McGee.  Executive Producers are Dyllan McGee, Betsy West and Peter Kunhardt, who worked in consultation with a team of advisors to select the groundbreaking MAKERS featured, and Dalton Delan, Executive Producer for WETA.  The documentary is produced by Kunhardt McGee Productions, Storyville Films and WETA Washington, D.C., in association with Ark Media.  Foundation funding is provided by The Charles H. Revson Foundation, NoVo Foundation, Ford Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Rice Family Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation and others.

For more, visit MAKERS.com/press and follow @MAKERSwomen on Twitter and visit Facebook.com/makerswomen on Facebook.

About AOL Inc.
Having helped millions of Americans to get online, AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is on a mission to inform, entertain and connect the world. The home of a world-class collection of premium brands, AOL creates original content that engages audiences on a local and global scale. We help marketers connect with these audiences through effective and engaging digital advertising solutions.

About PBS and WETA Washington, D.C.
PBS, with its 356 member stations, offers all Americans — from every walk of life — the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and online content.  Each month, PBS reaches nearly 123 million people through television and more than 21 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; hear diverse viewpoints; and take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org.

WETA Washington, D.C., is the third-largest producing station for public television.  Other WETA productions and co-productions include “PBS NewsHour,” “Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal,” “The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize” and documentaries by filmmaker Ken Burns, including the premiere this fall of “The Dust Bowl.” Sharon Percy Rockefeller is president and CEO of WETA.  More information on WETA and its programs and services is available at www.weta.org.

About the Filmmakers
Executive Producers are Dyllan McGee, Peter Kunhardt and Betsy West.  Kunhardt and McGee are partners in the Emmy Award-winning documentary company Kunhardt McGee Productions.  Working with PBS, HBO, and all the major networks, Kunhardt McGee’s documentary films capture the people and the ideas that have shaped our history. Recent Kunhardt McGee projects include “Finding Your Roots” (PBS), “Gloria: In Her Own Words” (HBO), “Teddy: In His Own Words” (HBO); “Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.” (PBS); “This Emotional Life” (PBS); and “African American Lives 1 and 2” (PBS).  Betsy West, a veteran of ABC and CBS News and currently an associate professor at the Columbia Journalism School, has more than twenty-five years experience in television news and documentary films. Her senior roles at “Turning Point” (ABC), “Nightline” (ABC), “60 Minutes” (CBS), “48 Hours,” and “9/11” (CBS) have earned her 22 Emmy Awards and two duPont-Columbia Awards.  Joining Storyville Films in 2006, she co-produced the feature documentary “Constantine’s Sword” and is executive producer of “The Lavender Scare,” currently in production.

About Simple
Simple, a new brand of facial skincare products made especially for women with sensitive skin, originated in the UK 50 years ago, helping to transform the way women look at skincare and winning scores of passionate devotees.  Today, Simple is the No. 1 facial skincare brand in the UK. As Simple makes its debut in America, the brand is celebrating the many different women who make America great.  Simple joins AOL and PBS in saluting these women who inspire us – with their authenticity, their ideals, their pioneering spirits and their unwavering commitment to a cause, a goal or a personal philosophy.

Contact:
MAKERS; 212-402-4680, press@MAKERS.com

http://www.pbs.org/about/news/archive/2012/makers-news-release/

Similar story on: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/aol-and-pbs-announce-makers-women-who-make-america-2012-02-28

MFA Alumnus Allan Sekula and Professor Emeritus David Antin Win CAA Awards

The College Art Association has announced the recipients of the 2012 Awards for Distinction, which honor the outstanding achievements and accomplishments of individual artists, art historians, authors, conservators, curators, and critics whose efforts transcend their individual disciplines and contribute to the profession as a whole and to the world at large.

CAA will formally recognize the recipients at a special awards ceremony during the 100th Annual Conference in Los Angeles, on Thursday afternoon, February 23, 2012, 12:30–2:00 PM, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Led by Barbara Nesin, president of the CAA Board of Directors, the awards ceremony will take place in West Hall Meeting Room 502AB, Level 2; it is free and open to the public. The Los Angeles Convention Center is located downtown, at 1201 South Figueroa Street adjacent to the Staples Center.

Allan Sekula, Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing on Art

Allan Sekula has devoted his life as an artist to writing, photography, installation, and film. While his multidisciplinary approach to problems of representation and politics has earned him accolades as an artist, his writings have helped students, scholars, and the public to think critically about interventions in the political and social realities of our world. The essays collected in his first book, Photography against the Grain: Essays and Photo Works 1973–83 (1984), significantly altered the way in which the documentary function of photography was conceptualized. His more recent volumes—such as Fish Story (1995), Titanic’s Wake (2003), and Performance under Working Conditions (2003)—mobilize us through his vision and words to carefully consider the effects of capitalism, globalization, information formats, and the dematerialization of image and word.

David Antin, Frank Jewett Mather Award

David Antin has been a singular, combative voice in art criticism since the mid 1960s. His Radical Coherency: Selected Essays on Art and Literature 1966 to 2005 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011) demonstrates his sustained critical commitment, constant formal experimentation, and a style of thought and expression that is unique to both the visual arts and poetry. The essays and “talking poems” in Radical Coherency display a no-nonsense, skeptical intelligence squaring off firsthand with the work of artists—many of them his contemporaries—who were bent on radically transforming art, from Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol to the artists of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s 1971 exhibition Art and Technology.

To see a comprehensive list of all CAA awards please visit:  http://www.collegeart.org/awards/2012awards

Art Journal Award

CAA will announce the recipient of the 2012 Art Journal Award in late January or early February.

Contact

For more information on the 2012 Awards for Distinction, please contact Lauren Stark, CAA manager of programs. Visit the Awards section of the CAA website to read about all past recipients.

Published on January 18, 2012.