EZTV Avant Video: Works by Video Innovators
Thru the CRT (1985)
Los Angeles Filmforum, Elizabeth Purchell, and Hollywood Entertainment present
EZTV Avant Video: Works by Video Innovators
Part of Video Capital of the World: 45 Years of EZTV in L.A.
Monday March 31, 2025, 7:30pm
At 2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90057
Tickets: $15 general, $10 students/seniors, free for Filmforum members
Link: https://link.dice.fm/L2748a5621d5
The program will be followed by a panel with EZTV Director / Founding Member Michael J. Masucci and videomakers Nina Rota and James Williams moderated by Programmer/historian Elizabeth Purchell
In person: EZTV Director / Founding Member Michael J. Masucci and videomakers Nina Rota and James Williams
When the EZTV Video Gallery first opened in the summer of 1983, founder John Dorr envisioned the space as presenting “an alternative vision of contemporary culture and reality, a vision in no way controlled by the mass media, lowest-common-denominator ethic.” This was done through EZTV’s wildly varied programming, which featured everything from more traditional narrative video to live performance and cutting-edge video and computer art—and often works that incorporated multiple elements from all of the above. For this program, we’ll present three mid-length works that were originally packaged together in August 1985 as Avant Video: New Works by Video Innovators, along with a handful of shorter pieces spanning the breadth of EZTV’s history.
About EZTV:
“[EZTV]... literally put digital art on the map.” - Melanie Lenz, Curator of Digital Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum
“Museum level.” - Peter Frank, L.A. Weekly
"an avant-garde video production and digital art center" -Wired.com
"the first and best place to see computer arts publicly in Los Angeles" -Peter Frank, art critic
"some of the core pioneers and advocates of digital technology in the moving image arts" -American Film Institute
"the pioneering video showcase" -Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
About The Series:
Video Capital of the World: 45 Years of EZTV in L.A. is an expansive weeklong screening and performance series programmed by Elizabeth Purchell and Hollywood Entertainment. The series honors both the diverse range of artists, videomakers, and communities that have found a home at Los Angeles’s EZTV over the course of its first 45 years of existence and the global influence that it has had on the development of video, digital, and performance art. Featuring a wide range of unique events at REDCAT, Brain Dead Studios, Whammy! Analog Media, 18th Street Arts Center, the Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles Filmforum, and online, Video Capital of the World: 45 Years of EZTV in L.A. is a first-of-its-kind tribute to a still under-understood L.A. institution.
KabbaLAmobile
KabbaLAmobile
dir. James Kent Arnold, 1985, video transferred to digital, color, sound, 30m
Video of Rachel Rosenthal’s elaborate performance staged as part of 1984’s Carplay series at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.
Under the Crucifix
Under the Crucifix
dir. T. Jankowski, 1985, video transferred to digital, color, sound, 15m
“A frenzied, voyeuristic interpretation of the Stabat Mater.”
Thru the CRT
Thru the CRT
dir. Jamie Walters, 1985, video transferred to digital, color, sound, 23m
“Exploration of the themes of human alienation through technology.”
Chance Encounters
Chance Encounters
dir. James Williams, 1983, video transferred to digital, color, sound, 6m
Minimum budget and maximum creativity marry to produce an ever-changing mandala of light and color.
Clear Canvas
Clear Canvas
dir. James Williams, 1984, video transferred to digital, color, sound, 5.5m
An expressionistic video poem exploring the creative urge in its purest form.
Larger Than Life
Larger Than Life
dir. Dave Curlender & David S. Goodsell, 1985, video transferred to digital, color, sound, 2m
“Larger Than Life” is a digital animation that incorporated early motion-capture techniques and other innovative computer graphics techniques. Using the university's molecular biology supercomputer, this was a project by then UCLA engineering/design student Dave Curlender and UCLA medical research doctoral candidate David S. Goodsell. This finished project premiered to the public at the collaborative event On the Threshold (see “On the Threshold” promotional video) and was one of a number of early computer graphic works screened at EZTV, first as a work in progress and then numerous times over the years. Most recently, this 1985 piece was used as part of the finale for the opening of the Getty Museum's Pacific Standard Time.
Luscious
Luscious
dir. Nina Rota, 2006, video transferred to digital, color, sound, 5m
An exploration of gender and flesh in eight scenes of luscious pencil-drawn animation.