Rick Prelinger: No More Road Trips?
No More Road Trips? by Rick Prelinger
Sunday November 15, 2015, 7:30 pm
At the Downtown Independent, 251 S. Main Street Los Angeles, CA 90012
NOTE THE CHANGE IN OUR USUAL LOCATION
Rick Prelinger in person! Los Angeles premiere!
Rick Prelinger, the person most known for being behind the Prelinger Archives and its online manifestation at Internet Archive, visits Los Angeles for the local premiere of his wonderful home movie compilation, No More Road Trips?
Rick Prelinger, an archivist, writer, filmmaker and teacher founded Prelinger Archives, a collection of ephemeral non-theatrical film, in 1982. The collection has since transitioned into an archives of home movies and amateur film. His films PANORAMA EPHEMERA (2004) and NO MORE ROAD TRIPS? (2013) have played around the world, and he has made 18 participatory interactive urban history films throughout the U.S. In 2004, he co-founded Prelinger Library, an appropriation-friendly library in San Francisco. He is Associate Professor in UC Santa Cruz’s Department of Film & Digital Media. More at http://www.prelinger.com/
“…The audience is actively encouraged to shout at the screen, making this easily the most interactive SFIFF event, equal parts enlightening and fun.” – Sherilyn Connelly, SF Weekly, http://tinyurl.com/oa8k8zh
Rick Prelinger will be doing a completely different presentation on Monday November 16th at REDCAT, Lost Landscapes of Los Angeles.
And for those of you interested in all of this, check out the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s symposium on November 13-14, This Is the City: Preserving Moving Images of Los Angeles, followed by a great film series.
For more event information: www.lafilmforum.org, or 323-377-7238
Tickets: $10 general, $6 students/seniors; free for Filmforum members. Available by credit card in advance from Brown Paper Tickets at http://bpt.me/2378983 or at the door.
Directions:
http://www.downtownindependent.com/page/directions-2
The theatre is located between 2nd and 3rd Sts. at:
251 S. Main St. Los Angeles, CA 90012
Main St. is one-way, running north, 2nd St. runs both ways, 3rd St. runs one-way west
Conveniently located near the 110, 10, and 101 freeways.
Lotted and garage parking is available twenty-four hours at 233 S. Main St. Limited street parking is also available after 6pm.
from No More Road Trips? by Rick Prelinger
No More Road Trips?
(2013; digital video from film, 79:35 min.), a dream ride through 20th-century America made= entirely from home movies, asks whether we've come to the end of the open road. Have we reached "peak travel"? Can we still find fortune (and ourselves) on the highway? Are we nomads or stay-at-homes? A journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific made from a collection of 9,000 home movies filmed 1924-1979, No More Road Trips? reveals hidden histories embedded in the landscape and seeks to blend the pleasures of travel with premonitions of its end.
The audience constructs the soundtrack for this fully participatory film as we recall our shared pasts and predict the future.
“Audience members obliged, speaking for characters in the movie, commenting on the action, and supplying cheesy sound effects while Prelinger identified locations, dates, and the occasional fact about the people we were watching. It all gave the afternoon the loose, companionable feel of an MST3K screening as we watched a cannily edited compilation of clips, most of them from home movies, that spanned much of the nation and most of the last century.
“The footage, which hopscotches through time, starts with the early days of the automobile in the 1920s and ends in the late 1970s or early '80s. It investigates the notion of exploring the country by car, alternating between footage shot on the road and shots of particular places, most of which capture a flavor that has since been diluted or lost: coal dust blanketing Pittsburgh in 1928, a man flying over a crowd for a few seconds with the help of a jet pack, or an early shot of newly completed highway, a Howard Johnson already anchoring the brand-new rest stop.” – Elise Nakhnikian, Slate, http://tinyurl.com/nwqppfn