The Absurd, The Dark, The Melodramatic

Tuesday, August 5
Admission: free, $10 minimum
Showtimes: 7:30pm
reservations are recommended


For The Rest Of Your Natural Life Productions presents
The Absurd, The Dark, The Melodramatic:
An eclectic night of new video work by Erika Yeomans and some of her favorite short videos by other filmmakers. The program includes videos by Ry Russo-Young, William Lamson, Michael Medaglia, Christine Giorgio and Brent Hoff of Wholphin.

PROGRAM LINE UP:

Erika Yeomans' New Genre Projects: Paging Dr. Freud (4 frame video, 18 mins., 2007)
Experimental montage as docu-drama of archival footage of performance art. Featuring Casey Spooner, Ford Wright, Brynn Magnus and Bobby Conn among others.
Fragments from Death Comes for Britney Spears (Music Video, 8 mins., 2008)
In collaboration with novelist and Mc Sweeney's contributor Ben Greenman
Boo! (Horror/Suspense, 4 mins., 2008)
A horror haiku where a Cat Lady ropes in a Young Man.
Grand Gorge: No God But Me (Western, 12 mins., 2008)
A twisted look at the western genre; where white men seek revenge and redemption.
Michael Medaglia's Foot Fetish (2.5 mins, Super 8, 1997)
It's not just about the feet.
Ry Russo Young's Marion (6 mins, 2005)
A deconstruction of the Jason Leigh character from Psycho.
William Lamson videos (combined running time 6 mins., US):
Action Videos: 1,3,6,7,8,10
Sublunar Falling
Monument Valley Flight
Crash
Brent Hoff / Wholphin's Bees (7 mins, Original Wholphin short)
A funny documentary on drunken bees.
Jared Larson's Fifty States (montage, 3 minutes, Benten DVD)
Jared's father narrates a speedy montage of snapshots taken all over the country. An inspired "motivational home movie".
Christine Giorgio's The Bitter End (18 mins, 16 mm, 2008) SNEAK PEEK
A Bunuelesque short about a group of friends who set sail for a day trip only to mysteriously disappear one by one. A film that plays with the thrill of peril and the evolution of a friendship while adrift at sea.

ARTIST BIOS

Erika Yeomans (WRITER/DIRECTOR) For the past 20 years, Yeomans has created an extensive body of work in theater, mixed media and film. As the co-founder and artistic director of the performance company Doorika (1989-1999), she has worked with various artists and musicians such as Jon Langford (Mekons), Bobby Conn, Ken Weaver, Casey Spooner (FischerSpooner), Ken Kobland (Wooster Group) and Eric Koziol. In addition to the Doorika productions, she also created many high-profile multimedia projects including an installation titled Cardboard, Vinyl, Rhinestones: The Denim Fiance (1999), commissioned by Levi's for the Downtown Arts Festival with visual artist Virgil Marti and later presented at the 2000 Delaware Biennial. Since 1999, Yeomans has focused primarily on filmmaking. Her videos and films have screened at film festivals and ar institutions around the world, including: Lincoln Center's New York Video Festival at the Walter Reade Theater, IFP's Buzzcuts, London's Exploding Cinema!, Video Arts Plastique at the Contemporary Art Museum in Normandy, Berlin's Transmediale, Los Angeles' Disney Hall/REDCAT Theater, Silver Lake Film Festival, Pioneer Theater, Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum, Austria's Ars Electronica, Cinematek at the Danish Film Institute, Anthology Film Archives, among many others. In 2007, she had a special feature program of her short films at The Tank in New York City. Her debut feature film POSE DOWN (super 16mm, 90 mins, 2006) was awarded a New York State Council for the Arts Media Grant. Her video In Search of Bas Jan's Miraculous has been featured on NPR's This American Life. Recently, she participated in filmmaker Lynne Sachs' web based video project for New York Public Library http://abecedariumnyc.com/. Her feature film and short videos continue to screen at festivals and galleries in the US and Europe. She is previewing two new genre works at Monkey Town; the horror/suspense Boo! and western Grand Gorge: No God But Me.

Michael Medaglia studied film at the Art Center in Pasadena. He also has a degree in computer science from Caltech, possibly making him one of the nerdiest directors ever. Playing to his strengths, Medaglia combined his skill sets to pursue a career in the emerging hybrid world of film and internet. After honing his chops directing music videos (Kids Of Widney High), web promos (ParkVogel, Overture) and short television documentaries (Current TV), Michael used his tech pedigree to develop and pioneer what he calls '1.5D technology' with his edgy narrative short 'The Ratsnitch Angel'. The award-winning film was a hit at such fests as AFI Fest, Silver Lake Film Festival, and South by Southwest.

Ry Russo-Young grew up in downtown Manhattan. She attended Saint Ann's School where she studied photography and made her first 16mm film. Before graduating from Oberlin College in 2003, her 35mm short, BABES IN TOYLAND, was shown at the Torino Film Festival. Ry also studied drama at Yale and HB Studios as well as film production at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. In 2004, Ry was featured on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in an article about growing up with lesbian mothers. She and her family also appeared in OUR HOUSE, an awardwinning PBS documentary about gay families. Ry's short film, MARION, an homage to PSYCHO, won the Jury Award for Best Experimental Short at the 2006 SXSW Film Festival and at the 2005 Chicago International Film Festival. MARION recently won 1st prize at the Potenza Film Festival for Best Emerging Vision. The film has played at many festivals in 2006 including the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2006, Ry produced and directed a series of short films about neighborhoods and landmarks in New York City for the Discovery Channel and www.Turnhere.com. RY appeared as Rocco in Joe Swanberg's new feature film, HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS. Ry's first feature film, ORPHANS, won the special jury prize for narrative feature film at SXSW in 2007.

William Lamson is a Brooklyn based artist who works in video, photography, performance and sculpture. He received his MFA from Bard in 2006 and his work has been shown at P.S.1, The Brooklyn Museum, Pierogi Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe among others.
www.williamlamson.com

Brent Hoff is currently the editor and co-founder of Wholphin DVD where he films drunk bees, crying competitions, and illegal trans-border volleyball matches. Before that he authored Mapping Epidemics, a book on pandemic disease transmission, made TV at The Daily Show, VH1, and Nickelodeon, and wrote articles about squid.

Christine Giorgio has worked with numerous artists and filmmakers as both an editor and producer. In 2005 she served as Post-Production Supervisor and Staff Editor at the non-profit organization Film/Video Arts. The organization, founded in 1968, has a prestigious reputation for serving the independent film community in New York City. At F/VA, Christine assisted independent filmmakers in all aspects of post-production and completed work for corporate clients such as Viacom, Koch Records, the San Diego Philharmonic, and others. From 2005 to 2007, she produced and edited web videos for the New York Philharmonic. She worked with Teddy-award winning filmmaker Daniel Stedman as both editor and associate producer on his short film MOTHER (12min, 35mm, 2006). She has also edited various television and film work director Paul Borghese, including DINNER WITH THE FOODFELLAS. As a producer, Christine collaborated with documentary filmmaker Maria Yatskova on the filming of a live performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. She also served as an additional editor on Yatskova's feature documentary MISS GULAG (62 min, 2007). In early 2007, Christine joined with artist and film director Erika Yeomans to found the Sag Harbor Lab, a fiscally sponsored endeavor for developing short film/video projects. Through the Lab, Christine produced THE BITTER END (16mm short film) and BOO! (HD short), a film directed by Yeomans. Most recently, Christine produced the feature film written and directed by Marlene Rhein, THE BIG SHOT-CALLER (90min, HD, 2008), which is currently making its rounds on the festival circuit worldwide. Currently, she is in post-production on her short film THE BITTER END and a new documentary short from director Maria Yatskova on the lives and friendship of Mstislav Rostropovich and Sergei Prokofiev.