JOEL SCHLEMOWITZ

FILMS on DVD

For institutional purchases of work please contact
The Film-Makers' Cooperative

"Joel Schlemowitz
short experimental films"

a three disc DVD set of 45 short works

Available spring 2008 from
Microcinema International


Also available from
The Film-Makers' Cooperative
Individual sale price: $60
Institutional sale price: $150


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excerpts from this DVD set

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Total Running Time: 3hr 21 min
Format: DVD
ISBN: 978-0-9800414-0-8

Disc 1 - Short Experimental Films 1 through 20
1734 • 40/4000 • Abrasions • Angelbubble • Bacchanale • Bagatelle Biologique • Bagatelle in Neon • Birds of Prey • Birth of Eros • Channeled Energies • Dame Darcy - a film portrait • Doris' Garden • Extemporized • Eye Music • Film Poem • Filmpoem for Wanda Phipps • Fogg • For Joe • The Glowing Woman • In the Orbit of Marie Menken

Disc 2 - Short Experimental Films 21 through 40
Invitation to a Voyage • Little Nothings • morning poem #38 • morning poem #40 • morning poem #43 • Morris Engel Time Sculpture • Pillowbook • Poem for the Past • Purple Candle Poem • Reverie • Rip • Silo • Tombeau for Arnold Eagle • Typeoclavecin Film - Variations on the Blues for JoJo #10 • Übel • Unmeasured Prelude for Kerry Laitala • we came... we filmed... we left... • Weeping Film • Weimar • When He Leaves

Disc 3 - Collaborations and Experimental Documentaries
All Saints Day • Boulder-Brooklyn • Moving Images - the Film-Makers' Cooperative relocates • Loudmouth Collective/Ugly Duckling Presse • Teslamania • Bonus footage: the Film-Makers Coop's move by Brian Frye • "Grand Magic Lantern Exhibition!" documentation by Jeanne Liotta

"Joel Schlemowitz is a wizard of cinema, and this collection of short experimental films is a marvel to behold. Each piece is a unique gem — quirky, provocative, playful, often handmade, and always daring — celebrating Joel's astonishing mastery of the tools of filmmaking, and his poetic grasp on the art of cinema." — Alan Berliner

"Moving Images - the Film-Makers’ Cooperative relocates"

running time: 14 minutes

Available from The Film-Makers Cooperative

The day the Film-Makers' Cooperative was forced by loss of lease to move from their offices at Lexington Ave and 31st Street in New York City filmmaker and Coop member Joel Schlemowitz showed up with a camera to document the historic moment. Rather than record the event per se, a freewheeling use of roving handheld, time lapse and double exposure were employed to create a visually evocative, impressionistic documentary about the Film-Makers' Cooperative. On the soundtrack Jonas Mekas, one of the Coop's founders, and MM Serra, the current executive director, describe the Coop's beginnings, the organization's recent struggles, and the difficulties of finding space for the arts.

The Film-Makers' Cooperative, founded in 1962 as a filmmaker-run distribution center, is now the largest archive and distributor of independent and avant-garde films in the world, with over 5,000 films and videos. Since 1967 the Coop had its offices at Lexington Ave and 31st Street New York City. It has now relocated to the Clocktower Gallery at 108 Leonard Street.

Screenings include: Millennium Film Workshop, 2001; Humboldt Film Festival, 2002; Thaw02 Film and Video Festival, 2002; Art Film Festival (Solvokia), 2002; Sydney Film Festival, 2002; Rhode Island International Film Festival, 2002; Seattle Underground Film Festival, 2002; Chicago International Film Festival, 2002; Denver International Film Festival, 2002

Honorable Mention, Thaw02; Silver Plaque, 38th Chicago International Film Festival

"Loudmouth Collective
Ugly Duckling Presse"

Now on DVD!

running time: 20 minutes

"Best Short Documentary" – Chicago Underground Film Festival, 2004

Available from Ugly Duckling Presse

And The Film-Makers Cooperative

A film-portrait of the Loudmouth Collective and Ugly Duckling Presse. These poet-provocateurs are the creators of the infamous "Anti-Reading" series, a carnival-like alternative to the traditional poetry reading. On the film's soundtrack we hear how the Anti-Readings were started, descriptions of various Anti-Reading activities including the Poetry smokable poems known as Poetry Cigarettes, the memory tester called "I Forgot," and the Diary in the shape of a Bunny. The film includes footage shot at Anti-Readings, with time-lapse, double exposures, distorting lenses, and frenetic non-traditional camerawork evocative of the playfully chaotic spirit of the events.

Awarded BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY Chicago Underground Film Festival