Welcome to year 3! The Art & Design Film festival continues to expand this year to 12 days! We are also pleased to add The Jamestown Arts Center to our list of venues. All films in Providence are showing at the CABLE CAR CINEMA unless otherwise noted. Regular admission is $10 per screening time, students and seniors $9. Opening night reception and film admission is $30. DISCOUNTED TICKETS ONLY APPLY AT THE CABLE CAR CINEMA.
CABLE CAR CINEMA — 204 South Main St. Providence,02903 / 401-272-3970
RISD MUSEUM AUDITORIUM — 20 N. Main St. Providence, 02903 / 401-454-6500
NEWPORT ART MUSEUM — 76 Belleview Ave, Newport, 02840 / 401-848-8200
JANE PICKENS THEATER — 49 Truro, Newport, 02840 / 401-846-5474
JAMESTOWN ARTS CENTER — 18 Valley St. Jamestown, RI 02835 / 401-560-0979
Christian is the respected curator of a contemporary art museum, a divorced but devoted father of two who drives an electric car and supports good causes. His next show is “The Square”, an installation which invites passersby to altruism, reminding them of their role as responsible fellow human beings. But sometimes, it is difficult to live up to your own ideals: Christian’s foolish response to the theft of his phone drags him into shameful situations. Meanwhile, the museum's PR agency has created an unexpected campaign for ”The Square”. The response is overblown and sends Christian, as well as the museum, into an existential crisis.
Driving Dreams documents the most visionary car designers of the 20th century, known by many as the Italian Automotive Renaissance. Interviews with top designers accompanied by exquisite images of their projects and cars, Migliarotti captures the passion, creativity and charisma that made these men leaders in their field.
Q&A with Industrial Designer Michael Lye
Michael Lye is an industrial designer and educator teaching advanced studios and seminars at the graduate and undergraduate levels. He is currently senior critic and NASA coordinator and specializes in human-centered design with an emphasis on design research and analysis. He has extensive experience teaching interdisciplinary, partnered studios. Some partners include: NASA, Sikorsky Aircraft, Intel and Maytag. Since 2004 he has overseen Design for Extreme Environments, an advanced design studio in collaboration with NASA, where RISD students work with engineers and designers from Johnson Space Center to develop innovative concepts for future spacecraft and habitats. He was a designer and project manager for the Universal Kitchen Project, an award-winning re-examination of the home kitchen environment. Along with his degree in Industrial Design, he also studied physics at The Johns Hopkins University. He has lectured internationally on design for elders and currently holds nine patents in his name.
Corsicato’s intimate film, chronicles the early beginnings of the Brooklyn-born Schnabel’s formative years in Brownsville, Texas; the beginning of his professional career in New York City in the late Seventies; and his Eighties rise to superstar status in Manhattan’s art scene as well as international acclaim as a leading figure in the Neo-Expressionism movement.
This film is Sponsored by Taylor Box company- practicing the art and acumen of packaging since 1885.
Q & A Ian Alden Russell, Ph.D.
Ian is a contemporary art curator. Currently the Curator of Brown University’s David Winton Bell Gallery, he was previously Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art and Curatorial Practice at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey and a guest lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Recent exhibitions include Melvin Edwards’s Festivals, Funerals, and New Life, Pierre Huyghe’s Untitled (Human Mask), the US premier of Kurdish Turkish artist Fatma Bucak, the Irish premier of Mark Dion’s Against the Current at Ormston House, Limerick, and the premiers of Vincent Valdez’s The Strangest Fruit series, Iraqi American artist Wafaa Bilal’s The Ashes Series, and Jin Shan 靳山’s My dad is Li Gang! 我爸是李刚!. Recent projects include the Don’t Follow the Wind colloquium with Art in General, New York, contributions to the Safina Radio Project at the 56th Venice Biennale, the Hong Kong Umbrella Festival responding to the 2014 Hong Kong Demonstrations, “Socially Engaged Art Practices and Education in Contemporary Discourse” at UNIDEE, Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto, and An Innocent City in Istanbul, Turkey responding to Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence. His writings have been published by Cambridge University Press, Cittadellarte, deCordova Museum & Sculpture Park, Lars Muller Publishers, Oxford University Press, Springer-Kluwer, University of Chicago Press, and Yapı Kredi Publishers. Born in Richmond, Virginia and educated in Ireland, he holds a Ph.D. in History from Trinity College Dublin and has held fellowships at Brown University, University of Notre Dame, and University College Dublin. He currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
Emperor of Time
Drew Christie • USA • 2016 • 8 min
The strange tale of Eadweard Muybridge, the man who accidentally invented motion pictures.
116 Cameras
Davina Pardo • USA / UK • 2017 • 16min
Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss preserves her story in the form of a hologram.
Slower Black
Jessica Edwards • USA • 2017 • 8 minutes
Celebrated tattoo artist shows off her traditional hand-poked technique.
Rachel Blumberg Short Films
Rachel Blumberg • USA • 3 - 8 min
Animations of artist and musician Rachel Blumberg ( drum teacher extraordinaire to Moses and Olive)
Raised By Krump
Maceo Frost • USA • 2016 • 21min
A film about “krumping”, a California born dance movement.
Foam Sweet Foam
Kelly Loudenberg & Jillian Mayer • USA • 2017 • 3min
Peer Inside a live shoot house, where police officers train surrounded by solid foam furniture designed specifically for target practice.
Q & A with Local Artist Rachel Blumberg following the screening
Rachel Blumberg is a self-taught interdisciplinary artist and educator who works in the fields of visual art, music, and film. As a visual artist she makes paintings, drawings, found object pieces and other work inspired by dream land, folklore, history, nature, and people’s stories. She shows regularly as well as creating many commissioned works. As an animator/filmmaker she creates stop motion shorts and music videos using cut paper, found objects, paintings, drawings, and people, and has made music videos for the likes of Gillian Welch, Iron & Wine, and Tom Hagerman (Devotchka). As a musician/drummer she has toured, recorded, and played with many widely acclaimed artists including The Decemberists, M.Ward, Bright Eyes, Califone, Tara Jane O’Neil, Michael Hurley, Sam Beam (Iron and Wine), and Death Vessel, as well as composing music for others and playing with her own projects Arch Cape and Field DRUMS. The culmination of all these artistic practices manifests in Blumbergs' solo performances and recordings, where she creates improvised emotional soundscapes to her animated films. Originally raised around in the woods and waters of the Pacific Northwest, she now resides in coastal Rhode Island.
From the producers of Maker and Design & Thinking, Hanzi Explores how designers approach the making of Chinese typography. FIlmmakers from New York, Hong Kong, London and Taipei interview designers ShaoLan, founder and creator of Chineasy in London; Akira Kobayashi, reknowned Japanese Roman font designer, and Sammy Or, a veteran Chinese font designer based in Hong Kong. A visit to Ri Xing Type Foundry, the last traditional Chinese letterpress in the world, helps put into perspective, the artistry and long history of chinese lettering and asks us to question how language shapes identity and what is gained and lost when a culture transitions from hand lettering to the digital age. This film is sponsored by Providence's own typography wonderland, Paper Nautilus Books.
Q&A with Douglass Scott Senior Critic, June Shin Type designer, Cem Eskinazi Type Designer
Douglass Scott is a graphic designer and teacher of graphic design history, typography, exhibit design, information design, and graphic design courses of many levels. He teaches at Rhode Island School of Design (since 1980), Yale University (since 1984), and Northeastern University (since 2010). He received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Nebraska, has a Master of Fine Art from Yale University, and studied the history of design at Harvard University with Louis Danziger. For 35 years he worked as a graphic designer and creative director at WGBH Boston, public television and radio. Scott currently designs books, exhibits, and identities.
Cem Eskinazi is a Turkish typeface designer/graphic designer living in Providence, RI. He studied Marketing Communications at Boston’s Emerson College and received his Master's of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is currently working as a type designer at Morisawa USA (Providence Drawing Office) while continuing to pursue his own studio practice as a full time member of the Design Office Providence. His favorite color is yellow.
June Shin is a designer based in Providence, Rhode Island. She studied art history at Cornell University and received her master's degree in graphic design from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is currently a typeface designer at Morisawa USA's Providence Drawing Office. When not drawing type, she can be found working on graphic design and lettering projects from her desk at the Design Office (thedesignoffice.org), where she is a member.
Manolo is an imaginative, affectionate profile of the extraordinary designer whose artistry is unparalleled in the shoe industry. Known to call his creations “creatures” Manolo was born in the Canary islands and found his passion early as he discovered a love for making by transforming foil wrappers from candy bars into shoes for reptiles.
Q&A With Anne Marika Verplogh Chasse
Anne Marika Verploegh Chassé is a shoemaker, designer and artisan from Switzerland and the Netherlands.For over ten years she has been building made-to- measure, hand-sewn footwear employing traditional techniques in her atelier in Brooklyn, NY. Fascinated by the physicality of the making process – and the challenge of combining design, math,
ergonomics and artistry – she has studied all over the world with skilled master-craftsman to learn the craft. In her new workroom “:|STIEFELwerk|: “(meaning “bootwork”) she creates bespoke and custom boots – a personal favorite – as well as shoes for individual clients. Her fine-arts background bleeds into her designs. Examples include bold lines, curves, hand-stitched details, multicolor rows of threads and leather surfaces marked by nature. In addition to working with a wide variety of clients, she has been teaching footwear design and construction at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) in Providence, RI as well as FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) in NYC.
The world's first fully oil painted feature film, brings the artwork of Vincent van Gogh to life in an exploration of the complicated life and controversial death of one of history's most celebrated artists.
Q&A with Painter Kat Knutsen - one of 120 artists who worked on Loving Vincent
In 2016 Kat was selected as one of the 120 artists among 5,000+ worldwide applicants to work on ‘Loving Vincent’ in Gdansk, Poland. ‘Loving Vincent’ is the first feature length film to be produced entirely with the traditional media of oil on canvas. Kat studied figurative painting and interdisciplinary research at the University of North Carolina at Asheville where she combined fine art and social psychology and received MFA at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. After school she started an independent monthly art publication called ‘The Siren’ that focused on the art, literary and music scene in and around New Bedford, Massachusetts.
As an instructor, Kat incorporates her studio research in her teaching practice. Her favorite aspect of making art is combining aesthetics with information, Her studio practice has a multidisciplinary approach where the concept drives her selection of media.
This biographical drama traces the life and artistic career of erotic illustrator, Touko Laaksonen, known as Tom of Finland. The story follows Laaksonen through his service in the military and post war struggle with his identity as a homosexual man being forced to marry and have children to evade persecution. Working in secret, Laaksonen developes his personal style, drawing muscular men with exaggerated attributes. Tom of Finland became the symbol of a generation of men and fanned the flames of a gay revolution. This Film is sponsored by Headmaster Magazine
Q & A with Taylor M. Polites
Taylor lives in Providence, Rhode Island with his small Chihuahua Clovis. His first novel, The Rebel Wife, was published by Simon & Schuster and his work has appeared in anthologies as well as arts and news publications. He is a partner with Ann Hood and Hester Kaplan in Goat Hill, a collaboration dedicated to bringing writers and writing professionals to Southern New England, and works with local organizations to cultivate storytelling and community in his home city. He is a graduate of the Wilkes University Creative Writing MA/MFA program where he was awarded the Norris Church Mailer Fellowship. He teaches in the Wilkes University Creative Writing MFA program and at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Elsa Dorfman, known for her large Polaroid portraits, found her medium in 1980 after struggling to find her identity as a young woman in the 1960’s. Once a colleague gifted her a Hasselblad camera she announced that she was a photographer and spent the next several decades photographing her friends and characters in the Cambridge neighborhood she knew so well. The 20x24 and 40x40 Polaroids she became most known for, capture the simplicity of the human portrait, emphasizing the beauty of her subjects just as they are.
Mindy Alpert has beat the odds. She is represented by one of Los Angeles’ top galleries and for most of her 56 years she has suffered from debilitating depression and anxiety. Suffering through electro-shock therapy, multiple commitments to mental institutions and a 10-year period without speech, her only consistent means of communicating has been through her powerful and provocative drawings and sculpture.
Q&A with Media Producer, Thatcher Bean
Thatcher joined MASS in 2013 to document the construction and use of MASS Design Group’s health infrastructure in Rwanda. The resulting videos accompanied Alan Rick’s TED talk on how buildings can heal communities. Since then he has worked with MASS as a media producer to explore how video can be used as a unique tool to assess and convey the impact of our built environments. Thatcher obtained a BFA from the University of Colorado film studies program.
Explore the artistic design process of the influential and enigmatic fashion designer, Yohji Yamamoto. More than just a maker of clothing, Yamamoto is a craftsman whose art transcends the limitation of definition. Go behind the scenes to discover the values at the core of this 73 year old icon as he shares his life story and his insights about the contemporary fashion world. This film is sponsored by Blueprint 5 Men's Apparel!
Q & A with Alan Bilzerian who is featured in the film
Founder of Alan Bilzerian, the exclusive Boston boutique catering to fashion visionaries. His Newbury Street store has long showcased groundbreaking designers such as Yohji Yamamoto, Jean-Paul Gauthier, Issey Mikaye, John Galliano, Ann Demeulemeester, Rick Owens, Comme des Garcons, and Alexander McQueen. Bilzerian first met Yohji Yamamoto in 1980 and they soon began a collaboration, which included building the Yohji Yamamoto stores in London and New York. Their relationship has grown into an almost 40-year long friendship which they continue to enjoy today.
Hedy Lamarr, considered the world’s most beautiful woman, had a secret life as an inventor and designer of wireless communications systems. Developing intricate programs that would later become the foundation for Bluetooth and WIFI, her public role as actress and beauty queen kept her from revealing her secret talent for decades until the discovery of forgotten audio tapes expose the actress’s hidden genius. This film is sponsored by Cluck Farm + Garden Supply and Stock Culinary Goods- two awesome businesses owned by local Providence Bombshells!
Q & A with Industrial Designer Matthew Bird.
Matthew Bird has participated in many activities that have helped define Providence from running the RISD street sale to opening retail ventures like RISD works and The Curatorium. He has taught Industrial Design at RISD for 12 years, and designed a number of iconic objects of local interest like the Manchester Street Power Station mugs and t-shirts and the RISD tote bag and umbrella. As a design historian he is on the hunt for under-represented designers who helped shape our world, and focused on identifying female designers who have worked in the shadows of fame but deserve a brighter spotlight.
An unprecedented analysis of the iconic shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO (1960) and the screen murder that profoundly changed the course of modern cinema. Narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis, Elijah Wood, Guillermo Del Toro, Peter Bogdonavich and Bret Ellis
With just a few notes a musician can create the most dramatic and memorable moments in film. An exclusive look behind-the-scenes with Hollywood’s leading composers who share the history, challenges and inner workings of their craft. Explore how music and sound have been used as a driving force to turn motion pictures into fully immersive experiences - Featuring interviews with James Cameron, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Trent Reznor, Quincy Jones, Moby, and many more.
Yuri Ancarani’s films are a mesmerizing combination of contemporary art and documentary film. They are exquisite products of extensive focus and research of his subjects. The Challenge focuses on an elite group of wealthy Qatari Sheikhs with an opulent obsession for falconry. With unbelievable access into a world rarely seen, Ancarani takes us on an extravagant tour of the Qatari elite class, riding in Ferrari's with pet cheetahs across the dunes to watch falcons race across the blue desert sky.
Michael Schindhlem’s documentary tells the remarkable story of Uli Sigg, his impact on the Chinese art market and his influence on Chinese economic policy toward the West. Take a look into the world’s most significant collection of Chinese contemporary art before it is donated to Hong Kong’s M+ Museum set to open in 2019.
Q&A with Ian Alden Russell, Ph.D. Curator, David Winton Bell Gallery Brown University
Once a year in the tiny town of Tultepec, Mexico, people flock to revel in a week of visual splendor. The National Pyrotechnics Festival brings firework enthusiasts to a town where they are the most prominent industry. This visual tone poem immerses viewers in the competitions and celebrations of this festival.
Paa Joe has seen success. He was once the premiere fantasy coffin maker in Ghana, known to carve human size replicas of coke bottles, alligators, cows, cars, peppers, and birds. His work shipped worldwide and has been seen in museums and galleries. His trajectory is drastically changed when he has to move locations and he finds himself without work and needing to take a big risk to restart his artistic career.
Q&A With Tom Weiss
Tom Weis is an Assistant Professor in the Industrial Design department at the Rhode Island School of Design. Weis works with both undergraduate and graduate students Drawing upon a background in sculpture, cabinetry and wooden boatbuilding, Weis pursued Industrial Design to further develop a creative process. It is this process that has led his work into such places as the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, Time magazine’s Best Inventions of 2010 and the Mass General Hospital’s Russell MD Museum of History and Innovation. Weis is the co-founder of the design firms, Hello, we are _____ and the Steel House. Since 2015, Weis has explored how design and creativity might work to reduce nuclear threats. He has presented at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Disruptive Futures Nuclear Weapons Summit and has recently joined the Nsquare Innovation Network that is examining issues related to nuclear security.
What does a medieval Italian village do to confront issues of the modern day? They turn their lives into a play! Spettacolo is a beautiful portrait of a town and its 50-year-old tradition, where the piazza becomes a stage and every villager is invited to participate.
As their fortunes amass, Russian Oligarchs are flowing into the global art market, hoarding art, and hiding their fortunes. Tania Rakhmanova’s revealing documentary exposes how this new elite are gaining favor with the Kremlin and attaining power and prestige as they try to emulate the early art collectors of the 20th century.
Q&A with Michal Oklot
Michal Oklot is an associate professor of Russian literature at Brown University. He has published widely on Russian and Polish 19th- and 20th-century literature. His recent book, Phantasms of Matter in Gogol (and Gombrowicz) is published by Dalkey Archive Press. Currently, he is working on a book on ideas of weakness and passivity in Russian modernism, especially in works of Russian philosopher, Vasily Rozanov, as well as on a book on Emil M. Cioran’s literary engagement with Russian literature and thought.
Exploring universal themes of identity, dreams, family, loss and love, Rebels on Pointe is the first-ever feature documentary celebrating the world famous Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. The all male, comic ballet company was founded over 40 years ago on the heels of New York's Stonewall riots and and has a diverse cult following around the world. Rebels on Pointe is a creative blend of gender, diversity, passion and purpose. A story which ultimately proves that a ballerina is not only a woman dancing -- but an act of rebellion in a tutu.
An imaginative and affectionate profile of the extraordinary shoe designer Manolo Blahnik whose artistry is unparalleled in the shoe industry. Known to call his creations “creatures”, Manolo was born in the Canary islands and found his early passion as he discovered a love for making shoes by transforming foil wrappers from candy bars into footwear for reptiles.
The world's first fully oil painted feature film, brings the artwork of Vincent van Gogh to life in an exploration of the complicated life and controversial death of one of history's most celebrated artists.
Q&A with Painter Kat Knutsen - one of 120 artists who worked on Loving Vincent
In 2016 Kat was selected as one of the 120 artists among 5,000+ worldwide applicants to work on ‘Loving Vincent’ in Gdansk, Poland. ‘Loving Vincent’ is the first feature length film to be produced entirely with the traditional media of oil on canvas. Kat studied figurative painting and interdisciplinary research at the University of North Carolina at Asheville where she combined fine art and social psychology and received MFA at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. After school she started an independent monthly art publication called ‘The Siren’ that focused on the art, literary and music scene in and around New Bedford, Massachusetts.
As an instructor, Kat incorporates her studio research in her teaching practice. Her favorite aspect of making art is combining aesthetics with information, Her studio practice has a multidisciplinary approach where the concept drives her selection of media.
Elsa Dorfman, best known for her large scale Polaroid portraits didn’t find her artistic medium until studying in her late 20’s to become a teacher. A colleague in the program handed her a Hasselblad camera that changed everything. Elsa spent the next several decades photographing her friends and characters in the Cambridge neighborhood she knew so well. The 20x24 and 40x80 Polaroids she became most known for, capture the simplicity of the human portrait, emphasising the beauty of her subjects just as they are.
Q&A with Francine Weiss, Curator Newport Art Museum
Francine Weiss is the Senior Curator at the Newport Art Museum in Rhode Island. A Ph.D. photo historian, she has worked as the Curator at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University and Editor of Loupe journal. Her past positions include Acting Assistant Curator in the Department of Photographs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and Curatorial Fellow at the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park and in American art at the Harvard University. In addition to her curatorial work, Francine has taught courses in the American art, contemporary art, and the history of photography at Boston University and Wellesley College. She also teaches critical theory in the low-residency MFA program at New Hampshire Institute of Art.
After one of the worst natural disasters in Haiti’s history, infectious disease specialist, Dr. Jean-William Pape challenged MASS Design Group to design a cholera treatment center where the construction process and finished building could address the underlying structural and social conditions that allowed the epidemic to spread. This film is sponsored by Cluck Farm + Garden Supply and Stock Culinary Goods. Two RI businesses owned by amazing Bombshells!
Yuri Ancarani’s films are a mesmerizing combination of contemporary art and documentary film. They are exquisite products of extensive focus and research of his subjects. The Challenge focuses on an elite group of wealthy Qatari Sheikhs with an opulent obsession for falconry. With unbelievable access into a world rarely seen, Ancarani takes us on an extravagant tour of the Qatari elite class, riding in Ferrari's with pet cheetahs across the dunes to watch falcons race across the blue desert sky.
Inspired by the Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s fountain in Rome, artist James Grashow spends 4 years building a giant fountain out of cardboard. As he struggles with loss in his personal life, Grashow decides to place the sculpture outside so that he can document its disintegration over time. His artistic process reveals Jimmy’s genius as well as the fragility of human experience.
With just a few notes a musician can create the most dramatic and memorable moments in film. An exclusive look behind-the-scenes with Hollywood’s leading composers who share the history, challenges and inner workings of their craft. Explore how music and sound have been used as a driving force to turn motion pictures into fully immersive experiences - Featuring interviews with: James Cameron, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Trent Reznor, Quincy Jones, Moby, and many more.