Laughtears Press is proud to announce the new book,
Strange Questions: Experimental Film as Conversation
by Gerry Fialka, Edited by Rachael Kerr, Foreword by David James. 
Publication date:  Published October 1, 2020
Available here in paperback and kindle from Amazon
 
Contact: Gerry Fialka 310.307.7330 pfsuzy@aol.com  https://laughtears.com/

Compelling interviews with notables in avant-garde cinema offer insights into moving image art--its creative processes, formative influences, and hidden psychic effects. Through interviews with George Manupelli, Chick Strand, Tom Gunning, Lynne Sachs, Jay Rosenblatt, Martha Colburn, Evan Meaney, Mike Hoolboom, Robert Nelson, and Nina Menkes, Strange Questions links powerful personal stories with the contemporary media-scape.

Questions addressed in this collection include:

What role does the audience play in the creative process?

Can art-making be egoless?
 
Is perception reality?

What is the role of intention in the creative process?

What counts as storytelling? Are experimental filmmakers telling stories a different way or doing something completely different?

What was the motive of the cave artists?
 
What is more important: conviction or compromise?
 
Is ambition based more on fear or joy?

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Accolades from award-winning experimental filmmakers:

"Fialka is a damn good interviewer. His questions are sometimes so precise that it tickles and sometimes so grand and thought provoking that one feels on the edge of a new spiritual awareness." --Lynne Sachs
 
"Fialka asks unexpected Questions about important Ideas, eliciting Answers that can surprise even those doing the answering.  My Interview with him taught me something about myself; it was a Gift." --David Gatten
 
"Fialka's was the funniest interview I have ever had. He has developed a very wise way of triggering thoughts in the interviewee." --Leighton Pierce
 
"Fialka's interview had me buzzing inside with thoughts and memories that his engaging questions set in motion. Super stimulation." --Larry Gottheim
 
"I thank Gerry Fialka so much. I really enjoyed his interview with me, especially his unjaded joie de vivre, hearty laugh, and endless pursuit of knowledge sparked by social curiosity." --Phil Solomon.
 
"Gerry Fialka is a master interviewer. Working out of his natural sympathies and his erudition, Gerry cannily and cheerfully guides his interviewees along a path of Socratic inquiry that goes far deeper than the average Q & A and possibly deeper than the interviewee thought himself/herself capable of going. With Gerry at the helm, the journey really is about the destination and not just the journeying." --Fred Worden
 
"Fialka is a meteor shower in the contemporary media arts discourse. He's blowing my mind." -- Craig Baldwin

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Gerry Fialka, artist, writer, and para-media ecologist, lectures on experimental film, avant-garde art, and subversive social media at NYU, USC, UCLA, Cal Arts and MIT. He has been called "the multi-media Renaissance man" by the Los Angeles Times and "a cultural revolutionary" by the LA Weekly.  Fialka's interviews have been published in books by Mike Kelley and Sylvere Lotringer. They have been heard on Pacifica KPFK radio, and have appeared in magazines: Canyon Cinema, OtherZine, CineSource, Artillery, AMASS magazine, LA Jazz Scene, Jazz News, Bird, Flipside, Venice BeachHead. "Gerry Fialka is Los Angeles' preeminent underground film curator." - Robin Menken, CinemaWithoutBorders

Rachael Kerr is a filmmaker, writer, and researcher. She is a 2017 graduate of the University of Michigan Department of Screen Arts and Cultures. As a student she collaborated on the feature documentary The Big House, now slated for theatrical release in Japan. In Winter 2017, Rachael was part of a UM course taught be Terri Sarris and supported by the University's Bicentennial Committee, which explored the AAFF's long relationship to the University.  

David E. James has written or edited a dozen books on avant-garde cinema and other forms of non-commodity culture, especially in Los Angeles.  His latest publication is  Rock ‘N’ Film: Cinema’s Dance With Popular Music (2016). His films have screened at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles Filmforum, and Canyon Cinema in San Francisco.

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Soon
Sunday 7pm at Beyond Baroque  681 Venice Blvd Venice CA FREE Admission
   
MOM - Movie Or Manuscript on Mother's Day  -  

Celebrate the publication of  Gerry Fialka's new book  Strange Questions: Experimental Film as Conversation
https://laughtears.com/strange-questions.html   
and  
 his  new feature film  The Brother Side of the Wake (test screening). Facebook=  https://www.facebook.com/events/173605590088661/

LilyCat Radio Show - Gerry talks about both book and film -  https://archive.org/details/20180225LilycatGerry

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Upcoming volumes in the Strange Questions book series: 

Experimental Film as Conversation, Continued.  This volume includes interviews with filmmakers 
David Gatten, Frank Mouris, P. Adams Sitney, tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE, Bill Brand, Pip Chodoov, Craig Baldwin, Bill Morrison, Braden King, Naomi Uman, John Smith, Patrick Turrant, Madison Brookshire, Tony Gault, Bill Daniel, Vera Brunner Sung, Alexandra Cuesta, Tooth, Fred Worden, Mark Street, Leslie Raymond, Jason Jay Stevens, Ben Russell, Bryan Konefsky, Owen Land, Peter Rose, Alfonzo Alvarez, Jesse Lerner, Terri Sarris, Chris McNamara, Oren Goldenberg, Jesse Drew, Roger Bebe, Jon Jost, Betsy Bromberg, Thom Anderson and more.

Michigan Aesthetics as Conversation.  This volume includes interviews with Mike Kelley, George Clinton, Sam Green, Jack Epps Jr, Grace Lee Boggs, Marshall Crenshaw, Ari Weinzweig (Zingerman's), Steve 'Muruga' Booker, John Sinclair, and Mary Jane Shoultz.

Venice Aesthetics as Conversation.This volume includes interviews with Venice artists Rip Cronk, Earl Newman, and Carol Fondiller.

Art as Conversation.  This volume includes interviews with artists William Pope.L, Alexis Smith, Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, George Herms, Doug Harvey, Winston Smith, and Robert Branaman.

Poetry as Conversation. This volume includes interviews with poets Amiri Baraka, SA Griffin, Suzanne Lummis,  ruth weiss, Linda Albertano, Les Plesko, Harry Northrup, and David Meltzer.

Political Activism as Conversation. This volume includes interviews with political activists Grace Lee Boggs, Tom Hayden, Haskell Wexler, Bill Ayers, Skip Blumberg, Jon Rappoport, Lila Garrett, and Marcy Winograd. 

Jazz as Conversation.  This volume includes interviews with musicians Horace Silver, Jon Hendricks, Annie Ross, Oscar Brown Jr, Hadda Brooks, David Amram, Perry Robinson, Theo Sanders, and jazz writers Kirk Silsbee and Greg Burk.

Literature as Conversation.  This volume includes interviews with writers Eric McLuhan, John Bishop, Chris Kraus, Kristine McKenna, Janet Fitch, Brad Schreiber, and Johanna Drucker.

Comedy as Conversation. This volume includes interviews with comedians Paul Krassner, Ric Overton, Paul Provenza, David Misch, Roy Zimmerman, Wes Skoop Nisker, Lady Lord Buckley, and Darryl Henriques.

Rock N' Roll as Conversation.  This volume includes interviews with musicians Mac Rebennack (aka Dr John), Pamela Des Barres, Steve Vai, Van Dyke Parks, Barry Smolin, Bruce Langhorn, Jeff Mosier, Roger Steffans, Paul Zollo, Billy Vera, Del Casher, Baby Gramps and John French.

Avant Garde Music as Conversation. This volume includes interviews with musicians DJ Spooky, Carl Stone, Patrick Gleeson, David Ocker, Blue Gene Tyranny, Frank Pahl, and Veronika Krausas.

Documentary Film as Conversation. This volume includes interviews with documentary filmmakers Ondi Timoner, Marina Goldovskaya, Rodney Ascher, Jay Weidner, Tiffany Shlain, Mary Jordan, William Farley, Chris Felver, Chris Metzler, Stan Warnow, and Jon Alloway. 

Performance Art as Conversation.  This volume includes interviews with performance artists Ann Magnuson, Heather Woodbury, Gordon Winiemko, Joseph Keckler, Mark Pauline, and Ed Holmes (aka Bishop Joey).

Dance as Conversation.  This volume includes interviews with dancers Simon Forti and Rudy Perez.

Hollywood as Conversation. This volume includes interviews with Hollywood people James Harris, Orson Bean, Timothy A. Carey, Mews Small, Abraham Polonsky, Jeremy Kagan, Jay Cassidy, Steve DeJarnatt, and Steve Fife.

Animation as Conversation. This volume includes interviews with animators Bruce Bickford, Karl Krogstad,and Gary Schwartz.

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This first book is the beginning of a 22-volume series. 
Upcoming Strange Questions will cover: 
More Experimental Film as Conversation 
Michigan Aesthetics as Conversation
Venice, California Aesthetics as Conversation 
Art as Conversation
Poetry as Conversation 
Political Activism as Conversation 
Jazz as Conversation
Literature as Conversation 
Comedy as Conversation
Rock 'n' Roll as Conversation
Avant-Garde Music as Conversation
Documentary Film as Conversation
Performance Art as Conversation
Dance as Conversation
Hollywood as Conversation 
Animation as Conversation 
Media Ecology as Conversation
Sculpture as Conversation
Photography as Conversation
Live Cinema as Conversation
Gaming & Coding: Information Technology as Conversation