PXL THIS 21- toy camera film festival

For 21 years, the PXL THIS Film Festival has elevated a failed toy to an art form
featuring visionary shorts made by filmmakers young and old.

for immediate release
contact: Gerry Fialka 310-306-7330 pfsuzy@aol.com https://www.laughtears.com/

PXL THIS 21, the 21st annual toy camera film festival, screens Thurs, May 17, 2012, 8pm at Echo Park Film Center, 1200 Alvarado St (at Sunset Blvd) LA CA 90026, 213-484-8846, $5. http://echoparkfilmcenter.org/ ALSO screend at Other Cinema in SF Oct 13, 2012

Council member Bill Rosendahl's letter of commendation for PXL THIS 21
https://www.laughtears.com/PXL-THIS-21LETTER.html

PXL THIS sites: http://pxl2000.blogspot.com/ and http://sites.google.com/site/pxlthis/ and http://www.youtube.com/user/pxlthis

PXL THIS celebrates its 21st year of creative filmmaking by everyone from kids to professionals. One of the most unique international 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).

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 and Michael Almereyda.

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 Festival director Gerry Fialka, who has presented Pixelvision, James Joyce & McLuhan workshops world-wide, recently lectured at Cal Arts - "Pixelvision: Electronic Folk Art As McLuhan."

PXL THIS 21 highlights:

L.M. Sabo's TEA PARTY TAMMY examines the Tea Party movement through a pull string doll. Press ready stills:
http://members.cox.net/l.m.sabo/Tea-Party-Tammy-1.jpg &
http://members.cox.net/l.m.sabo/Tea-Party-Tammy-2.jpg &
http://members.cox.net/l.m.sabo/Tea-Party-Tammy-3.jpg &
http://members.cox.net/l.m.sabo/Tea-Party-Tammy-4.jpg

Philip Marion's SPOON & PACKET PRESENT: THE BEST OF HEL CENTRAAL TV brings
the Underworld Awards show to your living room. Press-ready stills:
http://www.spoonandpacket.com/PXL2011.jpg

Clint Enns' THE VALUE OF NOTHING - Demonstration/explanation of Camus’ Absurd using found super 8 footage of circus bears transferred to PXL2000. Press ready stills:
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f104/dogmatodisco/thevalueofnothing.jpg

Marc Bascougnano's (l'Enregistreur) PERIPHERIQUE - the city's blood pressure in a cruising cardio-vascular trip. Stills: http://runningtimeblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/periphstills.html & http://www.vimeo.com/user2865876 & http://cakeauboudin.blogspot.com/ & baskee1@hotmail.com

LAST DAYS directed by Mark Oughton is an explosive music video for Preston-based metal band ‘Stitchthread’ filmed on a circuit bent Fisher Price PXL 2000. The film is a meditation on Desolation and Human Environmental Impact influenced by the Black Metal Theory movement and by the films of Béla Tarr. It wails, "Lay down, face the sky, let the world take you in." Press ready still:
http://burntworld.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/LastDaysStill1-1.jpg &
http://burntworld.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/LastDaysStill1-2.jpg &
http://burntworld.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/LastDaysStill2.jpg
Video - http://www.archive.org/details/LastDaysByStitchthread

Nine-year-old Wednesday Webber's A POEM FOR DADDY... celebrates her theatrical inspirations and aspirations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLtf_gt9u4A&list=UUa5QDqRdPvsE8BNHrEWep1Q&index=1&feature=plcp

Pixelvision avatars Lisa Marr and Paolo Davanzo's PLEASE STAND BY - A test film about a test pattern.

Venice's own greatest cameraman Christopher Gallo's VENICE BEAT POET PAUL BROOKS: BARBARA documents old school poet paying tribute to his wife reading from his apartment in the Ellison, where he shared conversations with fellow poets John Thomas and Philomene Long.

Donovan Seelinger's BANANA SET OUT reworks Mario and Donkey Kong into ultra-pixelly and ghostly images.

Geoff Seelinger's POLITICAL SHUFFLE - Where they land nobody knows.

Acclaimed punk-folk-bluesy Sunny War finger claws another reel mutha fo'ya DON'T LET ME STRAY.

Gerry Fialka's WATCHDOG OF THE MIND probes poetry's influence on Marshall McLuhan via perceptive abstractions and cloned ESP.

Denny Moynahan's (aka KING KUKULELE) live interactive PXL involves his 5-year-old daughter Katie and their explorations into song, death, google maps and redemption in SATELLITE GRANDPA

Award winning filmmaker Terri Sarris renders BOBBLEHEAD. "He called me his good luck child..." Inspired by the Green Bay Packers and my father Pete. Music by Frank Pahl.

PXL innovator Doug Ing's CLASSICAL MUSIC 1 captures a Chinese man playing Chopin's Waltz No 9 at a Thanksgiving family gathering.

L.A. poet/spoken word artist Rich Ferguson's TO THE JUDGMENTAL, RUSHING-TO-CONCLUSIONS CASHIER AT MY LOCAL SUPERMARKET shows what happens when you mix new love with Astroglide, almond milk, graham crackers, and an unreasonable supermarket cashier.

Dancer extraordinaire Natasha Maidoff and maverick filmmaker MX Farina blend electronic and organic movements in REVIVIFY. Can we know the dance from the PXLs ?

Venice Boardwalk performer Joe Nucci's NFL XXX continues his popular series of hilarious limo driver recollections.

Paulie Dee's IS THIS MY BEER 2 ? pays tribute to the holy high hipster Lenny Bruce.

Clifford Novey's LINES renders sonic phantasmagoria.

Former Second City Music Director and comedian Jonathan Menchin gets timely with I GOT MONEY

PXL alchemist Will Erokan's IDEOMOTOR EFFECT stirs up mediamystical magic.

Poet Arthur Coleman's SUNBLIND gets light through words.

Wago Kreider's NOSTALGIA trips the light fantastic.

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PXL THIS 21 tour compilation - Laughtears.com 310-306-7330

1- A POEM FOR DADDY... - Wednesday Webber, 4minutes
2- BOBBLEHEAD - Terri Sarris & Frank Pahl, 4m
3- TEA PARTY TAMMY - L.M. Sabo, 3m
4- POLITICAL SHUFFLE - Geoff Seelinger, 3m
5- SPOON & PACKET PRESENT: THE BEST OF HEL CENTRAAL TV - Philip Marion, 9m
6- PLEASE STAND BY - Lisa Marr & Paolo Davanzo, 3m
7- VENICE BEAT POET PAUL BROOKS: BARBARA - Christopher Gallo, 2m
8- DON'T LET ME STRAY - Sunny War, 6m
9- TO THE JUDGMENTAL, RUSHING-TO-CONCLUSIONS
CASHIER AT MY LOCAL SUPERMARKET - Rich Ferguson, 5m
10- SATELLITE GRANDPA - Denny Moynahan, 5m
11- NOSTALGIA - Wago Kreider, 5m
12- REVIVIFY - Natasha Maidoff & MX Farina, 4m
13- LINES - Clifford Novey, 5m
14- THE VALUE OF NOTHING - Clint Enns, 3m
15- PERIPHERIQUE - Marc Bascougnano (l'Enregistreur), 4m
16- NFL XXX - Joe Nucci, 4m
17- WATCHDOG OF THE MIND - Gerry Fialka, 6m
18- IS THIS MY BEER 2 ? - Paulie Dee, 2m
19- CLASSICAL MUSIC 1 - Doug Ing, 4m
20- SUNBLIND - Arthur Coleman, 2m
21- IDEOMOTOR EFFECT - Will Erokan, 4m
22- LAST DAYS - Mark Oughton, 19m (excerpt)

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PXL THIS 20 press:
http://www.argonautnewspaper.com/articles/2011/12/09/entertainment/2w.txt
http://www.campuscircle.com/calendar/calendar_event.cfm?ceid=6124

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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.

"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 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."

"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

PXL THIS Director Fialka - hires 300 dpi still with PXL Cam - https://www.laughtears.com/images/Gerry-360dpi.jpg
& http://www.examiner.com/node/27597666 and Bio - https://www.laughtears.com/bio.html

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Program Notes for San Francisco Cinematheque's AN INVENTION WITHOUT A FUTURE -
PIXELVISION: ELECTRONIC FOLK ART. (comprehensive history of PXL THIS and Pixelvision)
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:VT1Pm-oc9goJ:www.sfcinematheque.org/ee/images/uploads/PN2_10PXL.PDF+%22san+francisco+cinematheque%22+pxl&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESii8N3c8YRRSdwGAdMDLt-VKxQRzG6MQ09Mj0i2zVNcte74oKqNp8XdA54dGE5LuWvVYUo96Z5hbhzIb_qYhhkkroluQYFeIiCSzSl6-Wp4wcbyC7fDzlR3Wr60Hi_x_HME_Zit&sig=AHIEtbTh3oEPNjWhZHgpiIsAm0RS4PQrMQ

Andrea Nina McCarthy's 2005 MIT thesis "Toying With Obsolescence: Pixelvision Filmmakers & The Fisher Price PXL 2000 Camera" is essential reading.http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pwHJLt5QPRkJ:cms.mit.edu/research/theses/AndreaMcCarty2005.pdf+pxl+2000+mit&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

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Pixelvision enables filmmakers to tap into that child-like innocence all artists seek in the creative process. What could be easier than starting with a kids toy. John Lane's 2001 book Timeless Simplicity articulates wabi-sabi, "the perfect antidote to the pervasively slick style of homogenized efficency." Pixelvisionaries evoke the spirit of Wabi-sabi: "This elusive philosphy is about sufficiency and restraint. It is about simplicity, the minor and hidden, the modest and humble, the imperfect and the evanescent. It is about treading lightly on the planet. An added dimension is its implicit message urging us to forget the seductions of success - wealth, status, power and luxury."

"PXL films are satisfying to watch on their own but something different happens when you watch them for hours in a theatre with others. The homogenous visual quality of the medium allows each film to act like scenes in the larger dreamlike movie of the evening. In order to keep dreaming, audiences and makers alike have returned to PXL THIS year after year for over two decades. Now that's a dream we can dream together." - Philip Marion, artist and writer

"As for the PXL 2000 camera, because it’s a child’s toy there’s a certain naiveté which is inherent in the productions. Yet due to its technology, the PXL 2000 camera produces these edgy, gritty, “rough as a night in jail” images. I find the juxtaposition of these two attributes very interesting and useful in many of the politically oriented pieces I’ve produced. From a technical perspective, I would say my primary contribution to the field is that I created a filmmaking style using the PXL 2000 which I call Machinima Vérité. Machinima Vérité combines Machinima (creating movies from 3D PC game engines) with Cinéma Vérité techniques to create a sense of realism. So basically I produce and render the movie from a game engine on a PC, display the video on a high resolution LCD, and recapture the video on the LCD using a PXL 2000 camera. My videos “CATACLYSM” and “bursting in air” are a couple of examples of this technique. I really appreciate all of the effort Gerry Fialka puts in with the PXL THIS festival. If it weren’t for Gerry, interest in the PXL 2000 would have died out many years ago." - L. M. Sabo

"Gerry Fialka's monthly film series 7 Dudley Cinema provides and oft nourishes the most avant/eclectic/experimental/kook/philosophical and damn downright entertaining filmmaking this side of Andre Breton and the Exquisite Corpse Crew. His programming is the only reason I will go west of Western Avenue, unless I'm neck deep in the Pacific Ocean. - Filmmaker/Actor Emmy (The Volcano) Collins

"Gerry Fialka is Los Angeles' preeminent underground film curator." - Robin Menken, cinemawithoutborders.com

Cinesource PXL article by Gerry Fialka - http://cinesourcemagazine.com/index.php?/site/comments/pxl_triple_fake/

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PXL THIS 21 - Dec 12, 2011, Unurban, Santa Monica CA Laughtears.com 310-306-7330
7pm:
1- SATELLITE GRANDPA - Denny Moynahan, 5 minutes
2- BANANA SET OUT - Donovan Seelinger, 3m
3- GHOST RIDERS IN THE SKY - Dale Rogers, 4m
4- POLITICAL SHUFFLE - Geoff Seelinger, 3m
5- A POEM FOR DADDY... - Wednesday Webber, 4m
6- I'M A PLANT - Nick Newlin, 4m
7- DON'T BE BLIND - Myriam Joliot, 3m
8- DON'T LET ME STRAY - Sunny War, 6m
9- SUNBLIND - Arthur Coleman, 2m
10- VENICE BEAT POET PAUL BROOKS: BARBARA - Christopher Gallo, 2m
11- REVIVIFY - Natasha Maidoff & MX Farina, 4m
12- NOSTALGIA - Wago Kreider, 5m
13- SPOON & PACKET PRESENT: THE BEST OF HEL CENTRAAL TV - Philip Marion, 9m
14- CLASSICAL MUSIC 1 - Doug Ing, 4m
15- PLAY - Doug Ing, 5m
16- THE VALUE OF NOTHING - Clint Enns, 3m
17- UNDREAMED, UNHEARD - Clint Enns, 3m
18- PLEASE STAND BY - Lisa Marr & Paolo Davanzo, 3m
19- BOBBLEHEAD - Terri Sarris & Frank Pahl, 4m
20- LINES - Clifford Novey, 5m
21- TIM FINNEGANS WAKE - Geoff Seelinger & Brad Kay, 14m

9pm:
22- TEA PARTY TAMMY - L.M. Sabo, 3m
23- NO ANIMALS OR INSECTS WERE TORTURED
OR KILLED IN THE MAKING OF THIS POEM - Rich Ferguson, 3m
24- I WON'T BE YOUR ZOMBIE - Dale Rogers, 5m
25- TO THE JUDGMENTAL, RUSHING-TO-CONCLUSIONS
CASHIER AT MY LOCAL SUPERMARKET - Rich Ferguson, 5m
26- ROCK'N'ROLL XX - Joe Nucci, 4m
27- NFL XXX - Joe Nucci, 4m
28- PERIPHERIQUE - Marc Bascougnano (l'Enregistreur), 4m
29- EL FUEGO - Julien Mangogna, 5m
30- IS THIS MY BEER 2 ? - Paulie Dee, 2m
31- I GOT MONEY - Jonathan Menchin, 2m
32- WATCHDOG OF THE MIND - Gerry Fialka, 6m
33- SOLITARY CONFINEMENT - Maureen Cotter, 7m
34- GIFT BACK TO GOD - Ava Bird, 4m
35- IDEOMOTOR EFFECT - Will Erokan, 4m
36- PHILOSOPHER'S UNION MEMBER'S MOUTHPIECE PXL Norman Yeh- tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE, 7m
37- PHILOSOPHER'S UNION MEMBER'S MOUTHPIECE Neil Feather- tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE, 7m
38- PHILOSOPHER'S UNION MEMBER'S MOUTHPIECE Valerie Dearing - tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE, 7m
39- LAST DAYS - Mark Oughton, 19m

PXL THIS 21 also screens on Thurs, May 17, 2012, 8pm at Echo Park Film Center, 1200 Alvarado St (at Sunset Blvd) LA CA 90026, 213-484-8846 EchoParkFilmCenter.org rents PXL cams, so please get creative & enter PXL THIS 22

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more PXL THIS 21 -

Clint Enns' UNDREAMED, UNHEARD is a found pxl 2000 tape from 1996. the tape contained music from the 1996 cassette (limited to 40 copies) version of Undreamed, Unheard by Winter Drones. 2010/1996, pxl2000, 2:51 (Black & White, Stereo). Press ready stills:http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f104/dogmatodisco/UndreamedUnheard1.jpg &
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f104/dogmatodisco/UndreamedUnheard2.jpg

Doug Ing's PLAY - The joys of virtual play on the computer compared to real life interactive play as reflected by 66 year old Phil and the Loor children.

L.A. poet/spoken word artist Rich Ferguson's NO ANIMALS OR INSECTS WERE TORTURED OR KILLED IN THE MAKING OF THIS POEM conjures a world of desires without ever harming a living creature.

Rootsy songster Dale Rogers fine tunes his original I WON'T BE YOUR ZOMBIE and GHOST RIDERS IN THE SKY.

Geoff Seelinger & Brad Kay's TIM FINNEGANS WAKE http://vimeo.com/24018381 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASjG3pZzrcY combines PXL and DV to reveal a hundred year old ballad, one of the oldest versions of the Finnegan's Wake song, the 1898 Berliner Disc co-presented by VeniceWake.org.

Venice Boardwalk performer Joe Nucci's ROCK'N'ROLL XX continues his popular series of hilarious limo driver recollections.

PXL pioneer tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE provides three from his captivating series PHILOSOPHER'S UNION MEMBER'S MOUTHPIECE with Norman Yeh, Neil Feather and Valerie Dearing.

Plus: Ace accordionist Nick Newlin's I'M A PLANT
Poet Ava Bird's GIFT BACK TO GOD,
Comedian/playwright Maureen Cotter's SOLITARY CONFINEMENT,
Dancer Myriam Joliot's DON'T BE BLIND,
Songster/painter Julien Mangogna's EL FUEGO

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PXL THIS 21 also screens on Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 8pm at Echo Park Film Center, 1200 Alvarado St (at Sunset Blvd) LA CA 90026, 213-484-8846, admission $5 http://echoparkfilmcenter.org/
EchoParkFilmCenter.org rents PXL cams, so please get creative & enter PXL THIS 22

PXL THIS 22 - Entry deadline Oct 22, 2012 - simply send a dvd to Gerry Fialka 2427 1/2 Glyndon Ave, Venice, CA 90291, 310-306-7330, pfsuzy@aol.com NO entry fee.

PXL THIS Director Gerry Fialka is available for Pixelvision & Media Ecology workshops. https://www.laughtears.com/workshops.html

"Gerry Fialka's Pixelvision: Electronic Folk Art As McLuhan is deeply thoughtful and very well planned. This presentation offered an enormous range of ideas and references. His ideas are well integrated and clearly stimulated critical thinking in new ways. I especially appreciate the way he involved the all forty plus students, something rarely achieved in the course of a full semester let alone during one evening. His selection of video pieces is expertly planned, both in terms of variety and in its length within the context of the larger presentation. The evening succeeded in being both a primer on the value and history of Pixelvision but also positioned it within a philosophical framework that gives it far more meaning than the work could have had on its own." - Steve Anker, Dean of Film and Video, California Institute of the Arts.

"Fialka's workshops are in depth communication of something extremely elusive - the history of the unimaginable - and his lively interpretation renders it useful." - William Farley, Award-winning filmmaker

"Gerry Fialka is awesome! I didn’t know that people like him – 'spiritual', intelligent, free-spirited, funny, personable, professional… even existed. He is greatly appreciated." - Andrew Papageorge, Life Purposer

Gerry at Other Cinema's PXL THIS 20 screening http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTUjjZ44rgo and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXCiTFC4Dhc

michaelkoshkin@gmail.com is making a documentary about Pixelvision.

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