For immediate release
Contact: Gerry Fialka 310-306-7330  pfsuzy@aol.com 

PXL THIS 23, the 23rd annual toy camera film festival featuring Pixelvision films made with the Fisher-Price PXL-2000 camcorder, screens Thursday, May 22, 2013, at 8pm at Echo Park FIlm Center, 1200 N Alvarado St, Los Angeles, CA 90026, 213-484-8846, $5, More info- http://www.echoparkfilmcenter.org/  and https://laughtears.com/PXL-THIS-23.html and https://www.laughtears.com/

PXL THIS 23 celebrates the 50th anniversary of the audio cassette. The PXL-2000 records picture and sound on the audio cassette tape, which was invented for Philips, by Lou Ottens, in 1963.

PXL THIS, the second oldest film festival in LA, celebrates visionary moving image artists from seminal experimental filmmakers to 4-years-olds to homeless to Hollywood professionals. PXL THIS is international with short films from France, Canada and across the US.

PXL THIS 23 highlights: (Most titles can be seen online, the links follow each blurb. Those marked * can be seen at https://archive.org/details/PXLThis232014 )

* Four-year-old Ruby Qi Tondelli's THE PONY POKIE poses the eternal questions - what is it all about? and why isn't there a head? Stills- http://www.flickr.com/photos/solargondola/

* Photographer Andy Bustin's FACES OF FUNNY FARM captures the "the toys of junk" humanity in the magical backyard of an artist. Press ready image of Andy Bustin with PXL: 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photogeographic/10148468323/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Non-pxl version: http://vimeo.com/77908184 

L. M. Sabo's CORPOREALITY captures a visceral contemporary dance performance. Press ready images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/88995969@N03/10063927013/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/88995969@N03/10063871576/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/88995969@N03/10063824515/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/88995969@N03/10063796084/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/88995969@N03/10063871586/
and video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6sebn7rxOI&list=UUECwS4CleBIn92smfsPFIOw

In THE EVERDEN, Clint Enns explores conflicted emotions about the city. Fears and anxieties surrounding movement and travel. Fragile dreams become nightmarish realities. Shot on a broken PXL2000 in 5 movements. From Canada. Stills:
http://clintenns.tumblr.com/post/64894778828

INDIANA DONUT & THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST CREAMPUFF - Ten year old PXL THIS favorite Chester Burnett returns with another playful laugh riot. See the preview trailer (aka Indiana Donut and the Film about Bad Filmmaking)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoCtFtXkehs&feature=em-upload_owner

Kalynn Campbell’s  MY DEAD MUSE - When a muse dies, one has no choice but to dispose of it. This can prove tricky. A twisted tale told through Dr. Seuss-like poetry and noir-ish imagery. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w2iqrs_5PM

Will Erokan's REMAINS is a revealing look at a field biologist's bones collection.  http://youtu.be/aavcrlEJeWA
 
Marc Bascougnano's SCOUT, from France, captures a very strange fellow with mysterious intentions roaming around a city. (5 min) https://vimeo.com/79374476

* In DOGMAN, Rey Wolf survives getting licked by literature,

* ME, DIVA & THE FIRM - Joe Nucci presents the final episode in his seven part series "Joe, the Limo Driver" recalling memories with Sigourney Weaver and Johnny Deep. Nucci has been a PXL THIS audience favorite since 2007.

SOUP IN THE GUTTER by Marvin Choi - A strictly formal piece. It's sort of an homage to chapter 3 of Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZU1w0tQGEE

DOWNTOWN NEWS - The latest romp from The Here & Now (aka Paolo Davanzo and Lisa Marr of The Echo Park Film Center) features all the news that's fit to PXL.  https://vimeo.com/86391008

Clifford Novey's IMAGINATION questions how photos can tell us so little about things. The text in this short film encourages you to share stories and experiences: "Your one life. Your one life will one day end. Your memories will be lost. Your experiences forgotton. It is good to share your memories with others. It is good to share your feelings with others. It is good to share your experiences with others. It is good to share your opinions with others. If you don't, all that can be gleaned from photos left behind are impressions and imaginary stories."  https://vimeo.com/82616669

* Gerry Fialka's CAST OFF YOUR METAPHYSICAL SHARK CAGES (One and Two) reimages Jean Renoir as a Leprechaun/Lupercalian social engineer/singing preacher. This mug's seismic rumbles merge abstract and linear meta-cognition via chance operations as adult swims.

Bruce Atchison's DEPARTURES LEAP DAY NIGHT LIVE CONCERT, FEBRUARY 1988. - This is a 42 minute documentary showing a unique event. Electronic musicians and avant-garde performers teamed up to play a live Leap Day Night concert which was aired from the studios of CJSR FM88 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The video shows the set-up preparations and the behind-the-scenes activities of the performers. One viewer of this documentary remarked on the immediacy of the video. Certainly this is a demonstration of the "home tapers" community's creativity.
Atchison's ARORA NET - This 3 minute tune and video were named after an on-air weekday meeting of amateur radio operators across Canada. The video shows Bruce Atchison's radio equipment and log book. He composed the music in 1988 using various synthesizers and keyboards. Two years later, he made the video for it with his PXL2000.
Atchison's THAT FEELING YOU GET WHEN YOU STAND IN A FOREST AND FEEL TIME - Bruce Atchison composed the music for this 5 minute video in October of 1986 using only guitars, shredded paper, and a cheap keyboard. Two years later, He made the video for this tune with his PXL2000 at a local ravine park in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The narration on the tune is also by Bruce Atchison. author of How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity.
STILLS - http://wp.me/pRDLs-pN.

* Paul Orso's OPENING SPONTO phones in a loving tribute to Venice gallerist and community stalwart Sponto. 

* Shirley Vernales's SPONTO LIVES celebrates the cool congos and spontofication rituals of a revered Venice voice (courtesy of Stuart Fordyce, who also supplies music). This Cinderella of Cinema's first film ever put the big squeeze on fish eating dinosaurs and sensual spontonium.

* Former Second City Music Director, comedian and co-creator and co-producer of TopTune, The Songwriters Game, Jonathan Menchin's MAKE NOISE embraces his inner child to jubilate caterwauling.

* Artist Ralph Loynachan contributes four short collage poems that juxtapose dynamic tension and parallel universes: STUDYB, SWELL JAM SESSION, TEAR TOUGH VEER and SWEET ODA.

* Wrasslin' Poodles' KEEP YA blasts beefy brews of avant Delta blues and deep see driving swamp muck.

* Joseph Weidinger's IMFM2RSUCS is a witty musical tribute to looparama animation. View the non-pxl version- Imfm2rSuCs https://www.youtubecom/watch?v=dqFnv5etPws 

Denny Moynahan's KING KUKULELE'S KUESTION explores the double-sides of performer's personalities in a special LIVE CINEMA presentation. Moynahan celebrates his 15th year in a row in PXL THIS. His innovative approach recalls Windsor McCay, Buster Keaton & Pat Oleszko.

Phil Marion's SPOON & PACKET IN THE AFTERNOON https://vimeo.com/82154643  - PXL THIS's witty favorites Spoon and Packet host a video playlist and talk show with today's favorite underground stars. Marion's ELEMENTAL TRIO is a 3 part meditation on one's environment. https://vimeo.com/82153508

PXL pioneer Doug Ing's FRIENDS is a five minute continuation of his annual interview with relatives and children. http://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&feature=vm&video_id=tsuxb88Xtp0

* Rex Butters & Paulie Dee's YOU'VE FORGOTTEN HOW TO SCREAM - sometimes you simply need to shout.

* Acclaimed musician Tad Dery's BASS FACE involves a funky talking instrument.

* Sunny War's FEEL FREE TO CRY shows why she is known as the Robert Johnson of Venice Beach.

* Nick Newlin's DESIREE juggles love and music with witty accordion melodies.

* Julien Mangogna's CANTO UBERTINO strums the light fantastic.

Chris Westhoff's META COGNITION gets funky in the non-physicality of Ohio.
https://archive.org/details/MetaCognitionPXL and https://vimeo.com/86074967 and
Non-pxl version: http://vimeo.com/50173332

Geoff Seelinger, avant-garde innovator, recalls his pet dog in TEDDY.

The infamous founder of the very first PXL Festival: tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE's PHILOSOPHER'S UNION MEMBER'S MOUTHPIECE brings up Wanda Villa's manifesto.

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PXL THIS 23 press:

***Venice Life Magazine https://laughtears.com/PXL-THIS-23-Venice-Life-article.html

*** Jonny Whiteside writes in the LA WEEKLY - Pick of the Week 12-5-13 -
The 23rd edition of PXL THIS, one of Los Angeles' longest-running film festivals and a gloriously offbeat realization of Marshall McLuhan's theory that "the medium is the message," is all about movies shot in black-and-white with '80s-era Fisher-Price toy camcorders. Spawned by freewheeling "media ecologist" Gerry Fialka, it's a wildly disparate collection of talents and themes -- artist profiles, a frolicsome day at the beach, withering indictments of Obama's drone warfare and corporate America's corruption -- from a roster of contributors that includes 10-year-old kids, creatively conscripted homeless, wild-eyed avant-gardeners, Hollywood professionals and some of the underground film community's most lionized provocateurs. The camera's limitations somehow invariably imbue its subjects with a strangely liberating quality, crashing into an uncharted region where high concept and low technology collide with oft-spectacular impact. PXL THIS never fails to stimulate its audience into a churning state of passionate intellectual arousal, and while it's gained an international flair, at its core the festival is genuine California culture at its marvelous best.  http://www.voiceplaces.com/los-angeles/pxl-this-23-2287637-e

*** The Argonaut - "Toying around with movie magic: More than two decades after Fisher-Price discontinued its PXL-2000, a festival of films made with the plastic camcorder rolls on in its honor" By Michael Aushenker 12-5-13 Expect a wild cinematic ride when PXL: THIS 23, the 23rd annual film festival featuring movies shot in PixelVision with the long-discontinued Fisher-Price PXL-2000 camcorder, screens Monday at UnUrban Café in Santa Monica. In 1987, Fisher-Price introduced the PXL-2000, a black-and-white video camera for kids, in Toys R’ Us stores nationwide.
The release came just as the home video industry was booming, said film and multimedia artist Gerry Fialka, who will emcee the evening. With video cameras costing about $1,000, the PXL carried an initial price-tag of $179. Kids, however, didn’t embrace the PXL. After a run of about 400,000 units in two years and a price drop to $100, the company stopped making it in 1989. Today, a PXL-2000 can be found at garage sales or floating around on eBay for anywhere from $200-400. “The kids rejected it, probably because it [shot movies] in black-and-white,” Fialka said. “PixelVision is very bare bones. It’s sort of like making a film with pencil and paper.” The product did, however, click with filmmakers. In his 1991 debut “Slacker,” Hollywood filmmaker Rich Linklater embedded a two-minute black-and-white sequence shot in PixelVision. Anne Hathaway messes around with a PXL-2000 in the 2010 romantic comedy “Love and Other Drugs.” Director Kevin Smith has discussed the device on podcasts. Sadie Benning, John Humphrey and Michael Almereyda have also emphatically embraced PixelVision.
“Artists picked it up and said, ‘Wow, I can make art with a camera for $100,’” Fialka said. As the PXL-2000 records picture and sound to audio cassette tape, this year’s festival also celebrates the 50 years since the invention of the audio cassette. Fialka, who also holds the monthly UnUrban showcase “Documental,” launched the PXL festival in 1990. He cites the philosophical underpinnings of works by James Joyce and Marshall McCluhan as inspiration for his annual celebration of PixelVision-produced creativity, likening his festival’s aesthetic to punk rock’s DIY (do it yourself) ethic: Anybody, from a 4-year-old kid to a nonagenarian, can pick up a PXL-2000 and make a movie.
Just ask four-year-old Ruby Qi Tondelli, whose existential “The Pony Pokie” will debut on Monday night; or 10-year-old Chester Burnett, who is entering for his third consecutive year with “Indiana Donut & the Raiders of the Lost Cream Puff.” Tondelli and Burnett are on the younger spectrum of the 41 entries in this year’s festival, which includes a pair from Fialka — parts one and two of “Cast Off Your Metaphysical Shark Cages,” which he said “re-imagines Jean Renoir as a leprechaun/lupercalian social engineer/singing preacher.” Groovy! http://argonautnews.com/toying-around-with-movie-magic-more-than-two-decades-after-fisher-price-discontinued-its-pxl-2000-a-festival-of-films-made-with-the-plastic-camcorder-rolls-on-in-its-honor/

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PXL THIS 23, Dec 9, 2013, Unurban, 310-306-7330 Laughtears.com

6pm preshow with live music comedy and poetry by Bill & Chester Burnett, Rag'n'Bones & Paulie D

 
PXL THIS 23, premiered Dec 9, 2013, Unurban,  
7pm
1- KING KUKULELE'S KUESTION - Denny Moynahan, 5 minutes
2- THE PONY POKIE - Ruby Qi Tondelli, 2m
3- INDIANA DONUT & THE FILM ABOUT BAD FILMMAKING - Chester Burnett, 3m
4- INDIANA DONUT & THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST CREAMPUFF - C. Burnett, 10m
5- TEDDY - Geoff Seelinger, 3m
6- MAKE NOISE - Jonathan Menchin, 3m
7- SPOON & PACKET IN THE AFTERNOON - Phil Marion, 8m
8- ELEMENTAL TRIO - Phil Marion, 5m
9- FEEL FREE TO CRY - Sunny War, 3m
10- STUDYB - Ralph Loynachan, 2m
11- FACES OF FUNNY FARM - Andy Bustin, 3m
12- CORPOREALITY -  L. M. Sabo, 2m
13- SWELL JAM SESSION - Ralph Loynachan, 2m
14- THE EVERDEN - Clint Enns, 15m
15- TEAR TOUGH VEER - Ralph Loynachan, 1m
16- SWEET ODA. - Ralph Loynachan, 1m
17- FRIENDS - Doug Ing, 4m 
18- SOUP IN THE GUTTER -  Marvin Choi, 4m 
19- DOWNTOWN NEWS - The Here & Now (Paolo Davanzo & Lisa Marr), 3m
20- MOUNTAIN AND MACHINES - Clifford Novey, 3m
9pm-
21- OPENING SPONTO - Paul Orso, 2m
22- SPONTO LIVES - Shirley Vernale, 4m
23- DOGMAN - Rey Wolf, 4m
24- MY DEAD MUSE - Kalynn Campbell, 4m 
25- BASS FACE - Tad Dery, 4m
26- ME, DIVA & THE FIRM - Joe Nucci, 5m
27- YOU'VE FORGOTTEN HOW TO SCREAM - Rex Butters & Paulie Dee, 4m
28- REMAINS - Will Erokan, 3m
29- SCOUT - Marc Bascougnano, 6m
30- CAST OFF YOUR METAPHYSICAL SHARK CAGES (One) - Gerry Fialka, 7m
31- AURORA NET - Bruce Atchison, 3m
32- THAT FEELING YOU GET WHEN YOU STAND IN A FOREST AND FEEL TIME - Atchison, 3m
33- DESIREE - Nick Newlin, 4m
34- CANTO UBERTINO - Julien Mangogna, 4m
35- META COGNITION - Chris Westhoff, 19m
36- CAST OFF YOUR METAPHYSICAL SHARK CAGES (Two) - Gerry Fialka, 7m
37- IMFM2RSUCS - Joseph Weidinger, 4m
38- KEEP YA - Wrasslin' Poodles, 7m
39- tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE's PHILOSOPHER'S UNION MEMBER'S MOUTHPIECE - Wanda Villa  - 6m
40- DEPARTURES LEAP DAY NIGHT LIVE CONCERT, FEBRUARY 1988. -Atchison, 42m

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PXL THIS
sites: http://pxl2000.blogspot.com/ and http://sites.google.com/site/pxlthis/ and http://www.youtube.com/user/pxlthis 
Check out this amazing site - past PXL THIS festivals online
http://willerokan.com/pxlthis.html

Patrick - PXL camera repairman - patrickg0799@yahoo.com Visit- www.bentstruments.com and
www.myspace.com/thesecretastronauts

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"Gerry Fialka is a meteor shower in the contemporary media arts discourse. I am SO happy that he writes for OtherZine. He's blowing my mind." - Craig Baldwin, who has published eight Fialka essays on his online film magazine OtherZine since 2009. The Fialka essay Nothing & Stay Out (on Rodney Ascher's Kubrick documentary Room 237) - http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/?issueid=29&article_id=172 - is included on the trailer for that film, released on dvd 9-24-13. Baldwin has programmed the PXL THIS Film Festival at his acclaimed OtherCInema 12 times in the last 14 years.



Gerry Fialka - photo by Alfred Benjamin

PXL THIS celebrates its 23rd year of creative filmmaking by everyone from kids to professionals. One of the most unique film festivals ever, PXL THIS has been attended by Oliver Stone, Daryl Hannah, Kim Fowley among many more. Pixelvision has even made it onto the big screen via Richard Linklater (Slacker), Michael Almereyda (Nadja, produced by David Lynch) and Craig Baldwin (Sonic Outlaws). The irresistible irony of the PXL 2000 is that the camera's ease-of-use and affordability, which entirely democratizes movie-making, has inspired the creation of some of the most visionary, avant and luminous film of our time.

 "If movies offer an escape from everyday life, Pixelvision is the Houdini of the film world." - SF Weekly

PXL THIS, featuring films made with the Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy camcorder, is one of the longest running film festivals in the entertainment capital of the world. Celebrating "cinema povera" moving image art, it evokes Marcel Duchamp's axiom "Poor tools require better skills." Pixelators from across the globe hoick up inventive approaches to the unassuming throw-away of consumer culture. These low-tech hi-jinx films come through loud and clear by reframing a new cinema language.  Past PXL THIS participants have included Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Chris Metzler (Fishbone & Salton Sea documentaries), James & Sadie Benning, Joe Gibbons, Cecilia Dougherty, Peggy Ahwesh, Jesse Drew, Margie Strosser, Cory McAbee (The Billy Nayer Show) and Michael Almereyda.

"Gerry Fialka’s annual PXL THIS is a reliably surprising and seductive round-up of recent work achieved with the PXL 2000 camera. This humble outdated “toy” continues to bring out the visionary child in filmmakers and viewers alike, and no one has kept the PXL flame burning longer or brighter than Gerry." - Michael Almereyda, director 

"Gerry Fialka's PXL THIS festival snaps, crackles and pops off the screen with the funky, user-friendly energy of real first-person cinema. Goofy, gorgeous, and altogether groovy, his provocative program of pieces produced with the Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy video camera is not only downright entertaining, but more, its blipping and buzzing black 'n' white picture-bits coalesce into a veritable inspiration to all those who cherish the playful, spontaneous gestures and low-cost of electronic folk art." - Craig Baldwin, director & curator. 

"All the PXL THIS videos reflect festival organizer Gerry Fialka's commitment to the freedom produced by making art without financial constraints. PXL THIS is a welcome highlight in the Los Angeles media scene celebrating the rich lexicon available in a tool which might initially seem rather limiting." - Holly Willis, LA Weekly. 

"Pixelvision may be firmly ensconced in the pantheon of once-popular dead media, but for many of the faithful it captures the heart of the American experience as it should be seen: in basic black and white." - David Cotner. LA Weekly 

"PXL is the ultimate people's video." - J. Hoberman, Premiere Magazine. 

Seminal film experimental filmmaker Hollis Frampton evokes PXL THIS in 1978 : "I didn't really like the work I thought was my best work. I liked the stuff I didn't like a lot more." 

"When the aliens are here and deciding whether to vaporize all mankind for our inhumanity, cruelty and greed, showing the aliens PXL THIS will save the world. PXL THIS shows our best nature as humanist creators and subversives against those who deserve it. Save the world. Support PXL THIS." - George Manupelli, founder of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, filmmaker, poet, collagist and political/environmental activist

Seminal film critic Pauline Kael evoked Pixelvision in her book Hooked: "I am still a child before a moving image." 

Hollywood Reporter called Pixelvision a "precursor of today's DV filmmaking."

PXL THIS Director Fialka - hires 300 dpi still with PXL Cam - https://www.laughtears.com/images/Gerry-360dpi.jpg and Bio - https://www.laughtears.com/bio.html

PXL THIS 23 probably will screen in San Fran in Nov, 2014

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