MARVELOUS MOVIE MONDAYS!!
guest curator: Brian C. Short

SOUND & MOTION
I want to concentrate on the close relation between music and the moving image. This of course is nothing new, but is an intrinsic relationship within cinema, and has been since the earliest days of silent films projected to musical accompaniment. But there are moments when image and sound speak to one another quite directly, beyond the emotional or thematic cues of a musical soundtrack in support of storytelling, or the beats an editor may cut against in a commercial work to match its rhythm or compress a “message” into 30 seconds exactly. There are moments when not only does the music enhance the image, but the reverse also happens, when image supplements music, and the two become a singular, dynamic whole very much like dance. Perhaps it is because I worked for a few years in the particular rigors of advertising post production, or because I grew up in the era of the music video as media wallpaper, but it is within the condensed interplay of music-to-image that I now find my work naturally gravitates, and that I would like to consider here. Because my own work tends to fall within or very near the framework of a music video, I want to feature a number of similar pieces, most of which are intended as music videos, though of a sort that I think transcends their function with a particular experimentalist edge.

Happy 2017!! As we ring in the new year, we welcome a new guest curator for MARVELOUS MOVIE MONDAYS, our weekly online-only screening series where we bring in a new film/video artist each month to bring a bit of super-cool cinema into your Facebook feed every Monday. We’re excited to announce that the curator for the month of January will be…

BRIAN C. SHORT!!

Brian is a Washington State native currently living on an island in the Pacific Northwest. He is an experimental filmmaker, novelist, and sound artist. His films, which incorporate his original music, have screened at the Seattle International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and others. He also works as a graphic designer and pastry cook. He has a background in motion graphics, having worked in the field from the late ‘90s to the mid ‘00s. His debut novel, New People of the Flat Earth, will be published by Repeater Books in January of 2018.

MARVELOUS MOVIE MONDAYS!!
guest curator: Erica Magrey

For a change of pace, I make an offering this week that might actually fly at your annual Christmas gathering, as it offers something for both young and old without alienating “normals” with campy edginess. Instead, we have a genuinely sweet tale, a favorite in my family, centered around cartoon character Ziggy, the star of his own comic strip in the 70s and 80s. Ziggy’s Gift, which aired in ’82, is essentially about goodwill, and I think we could all use a healthy dollup of that right now. So without further ado –
ZIGGY’S GIFT! 

MARVELOUS MOVIE MONDAYS!!
guest curator: Erica Magrey

December spews forth a tumultuous wave of colder, darker realism and discomforts of every persuasion, tempered only by the simultaneous rush of shine and sparkle and pep, a promise of something warm and golden. In the pursuit of Ye Olde Holiday Spirit we on occasion craft a product lush with hope and humor and song and sweet sweet somethings that are whispered into an elf’s ear. This rare delicacy, a very peculiar format, should be studied and appreciated for its often jumbled collection of elements that form a glorious feast when amassed. I invite you to join me at the table so we can break bread and share the elusive bird – cue spotlight – THE HOLIDAY SPECIAL! In our studies we will examine a sampling of those that evoke blushing cheeks on the face of the holiday genre.

MARVELOUS MOVIE MONDAYS!!
guest curator: David Zlutnick

This month’s theme is “Documenting the Movements,” featuring short video covering contemporary struggles for social justice. With the election of Donald Trump this is proving to be a more fitting theme than I initially imagined – or hoped it ever would be. While failing to secure the popular vote, the President-elect managed to win the electoral college, ushering in a frightening new age in American politics. And let’s be quite clear: it is a politics that champions authoritarianism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. It is one that threatens to cause immense damage to communities of color, women, LGBTQ+, immigrants, Muslims, and countless others. And so it is a time when strong movements for justice are needed more than ever – ones that are intersectional, based in a politics of solidarity, are participatory and include more of us than ever. Clarifying the moment, some of this has already been seen in the unprecedented protests that have been taking place since election night.