A German and Mexican Tour Comes to Abq!!

2007-06-07T18:19:00.000-07:00

Straight from Austin, TX "A German and a Mexican Tour" showcases work from filmmakers Katja Straub and Miguel Alvarez. Both love, tell and collect stories - narrative or documentary - always with an emphasis on visual exploration. Their rather non-traditional shorts range from personal documentary to narrative film, from experimental to cinema verité. Drawing upon their unique cultural roots, Katja and Miguel offer up stories of Bavarian weather candles, inherited music toys in the forest of Latin America, imprisoned African magic in Berlin, and the like.

06/15/20007 Austin, TX The Chippendale House, 8pm
06/20/2007 Seattle, WA TBA
06/21/2007 Portland, OR Rake Art Gallery, 8pm
06/24/2007 San Francisco, CA ATA Gallery, 8pm
06/27/2007 Tuscon, AZ University of Arizona
06/30/2007 Albuquerque, NM Basement Films, 8:30

and probably some cities in-between...

The Lineup:

All White People are French

documentary, 12min, miniDV ©2004
The childhood memory told by an asylum-seeker
living in Berlin. These stories of African magic
meet drawings on the walls of a prison in Berlin,
where refused asylum seekers are kept prior to
their expulsion to their countries of origin.

The White Bunny

experimental short, 7min,16mm ©2005
Explores the conscious and sub-conscious
longings of the human mind, told through the
story of a woman, an injured boy, a small girl
in a red dress, and a white bunny.

Veterans

documentary,13min, Super8 ©2007
A documentary portrait of the filmmaker's father and
grandfather, two men whose lives are ultimately defined
by the wars they've waged both abroad and within themselves.

You're Not a Cowboy Unless You Got a Hat

documentary, 16min, miniDV/Super8 ©2006
Explores the difference between German and American perceptions
of the American West. The film follows three elder gentlemen who all
claim to be cowboys. They talk about the cowboy mentality and
lifestyle and how it feels for them to live in a world where these
values are more and more shifting.

Tadpoles

short narrative, 8min, 16mm ©2005
A story, told through the eyes of a young boy, about
the tendency that people have to ignore the lessons
learned from allowing inhuman actions to pervade
humanity in times of war.

The Greeting From my Mother

documentary, 12min, 16mm/Super8 ©2007
Traces the sublime and almost invisible bonds of motherhood,
daughterhood and sisterhood over "one hundred years and two
world wars." Notes of faith and the passage of time, are
combined in a collage of images.

Katja Straub comes from Berlin. She studied experimental media at the University of the Arts and worked as a scenic painter and art director before traveling to the US. Miguel Alvarez comes from San Antonio. Depending when found, he is at times, an engineer, writer, or photographer. Both are award-winning filmmakers whose work has screened in the Museum of Modern Art, on PBS, and at numerous festivals around the world. They met in 2004 as graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin and have been friends ever since.

For more info, please visit:
http://www.rocketfilm.de
http://www.estebandido.com

A New Blog!!

2007-04-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

That's right, we're resurecting the idea of online communication about all things off beat underground film, video and other sorts of moving images. So let us know what you think, what you're up to, what you need help with, etc.