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Conference focuses on magic and cinema, March 11
Posted March 2, 2006; 09:26 p.m.
A conference titled "Magic and the American Avant-Garde Cinema" will
take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, March 11, in the Stewart
Film Theater, 185 Nassau St.
The gathering will focus on the ways in which ideas of magic have
shaped the American avant-garde cinema since Maya Deren made her first
films in 1943. Scholars, poets and independent authorities on magic and
filmmaking will explore the relationship of projected images to the
traditions of magic and hermetica.
During the previous week, a series of films by such artists as Deren,
Kenneth Anger, Harry Smith and Zoë Beloff will be screened at Anthology
Film Archives in New York City in conjunction with this event. Many of
these films have been shown on successive Wednesday nights in the
Stewart Film Theater as part of a seminar on the same topic taught by
P. Adams Sitney, professor of the Council of the Humanities and visual
arts.
Each speaker will make a short presentation followed by an open
discussion. The public is invited to attend the free event, which is
sponsored by the Program in Visual Arts and the David A. Gardener '69 Magic Project.