Ongoing to Mar 6, 2010 8:00 PM EST Anti-Jazz: The New Thing Revisited with Four Show Subscription at International House - Philadelphia, PA $55.00 - $65.00

Saturday, October 31 - Sun Ra Arkestra - Founded under the leadership of Sun Ra, the Arkestra pioneered a unique brand of afro-futurism, forging intersecting musical pathways that explore outer space and Egyptian mythology. Drawing on the work of Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson, the Arkestra are pioneers of the bop-derived avant-garde and collective improvisation. Their work has had tremendous impact on scores of musicians. Saturday, December 6 - Exploding Star Orchestra - A crucial figure in the development of Free Jazz, he organized the October Revolution in Jazz ? "The New Thing"'s equivalent to the Armory Show - introducing Free Jazz to a broader audience. For this very rare live appearance, Dixon performs with the Exploding Star Orchestra, led by Rob Mazurek. Featuring some of the most distinctive voices in Chicago's post-rock and jazz communities, the ESO is known for their adventurous and kaleidoscopic performances. Saturday, January 30 -Circulasione Totale Orchestra - Influenced by the work of Albert Ayler, Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane, Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad came to prominence as one of British drummer John Stevens' key collaborators. This electro-acoustic and multi-generational large ensemble features some of the most talented improvisers today. Most significantly perhaps is the the inclusion of Bobby Bradford, one of the great trumpeters to emerge from the avant-garde. A member of the Ornette Coleman Quartet from 1961 to 1963, it is said that Bradford largely fulfilled the potential of Don Cherry. Saturday, March 6 - Art Ensemble of Chicago - The Art Ensemble of Chicago is the flagship ensemble of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and one of the most influential collectives in jazz history. Their performances combine music from the late 19th and early 20th century America with a modernist spirit of experimentation. Join us for this rare visit from one of America?s greatest artistic treasures.

Nov 21, 2009 at 2:00 PM EST Hollis Frampton's Hapax Legomena Program II at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $8.00

Traveling Matte -Hapax Legomena IV -Traveling Matte is the pivot upon which the whole of Hapax Legomena turns. ? Hollis Frampton This film metaphors an entire human life: birth, sex, death ? the framing device is the fingers and palm of the maker?s hand, wherein others only attempt to read the future. ? Stan Brakhage Ordinary Matter - Hapax Legomena V - A vision of a journey, during which the eye of the mind drives headlong through Salisbury Cloister (a monument to enclosure), Brooklyn Bridge (a monument to connection), Stonehenge (a monument to the intercourse between consciousness and LIGHT)? visiting along the way diverse meadows, barns, waters where I now live; and ending in the remembered cornfields of my childhood. ? Hollis Frampton Remote Control - Hapax Legomena VI - ?[In Remote Control], the images speed up to the point where every successive frame is different from every previous frame, so that if there is an image in it, it?s a kind of inner voice within the images, as sometimes music will have many voices that can be written out on the paper, and then in the listening the real shape of the music is to be found in the voice that is generated among them? It was shot in a single evening, off the tube, right off the ordinary TV set, in the course of an evening.? Hollis Frampton Special Effects - Hapax Legomena VII - I wanted to affirm and honor the film frame itself. Because so much of what we know now, so much of our experience is something that comes to us through that frame. It seems to be a kind of synonym for what we are conscious of. I have only seen the pyramids of Egypt within that frame. I have only seen ? endless things ? most of what I believe I have e

Nov 21, 2009 at 7:00 PM EST Flowers of St Francis (Francesco, giullare di Dio) at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $8.00

In a series of simple and joyous vignettes, director Roberto Rossellini and co-writer Federico Fellini lovingly convey the universal teachings of the People?s Saint ? humility, compassion, faith, and sacrifice. Gorgeously photographed to evoke the medieval paintings of Saint Francis' time, and cast with monks from the Nocera Inferiore Monastery, Flowers of St Francis is a timeless and moving portrait of the search for spiritual enlightenment.

Nov 25, 2009 at 7:00 PM EST Part II: Notes on Emigration with No se Admite Personal / Field for Men / 52 Sundays at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $8.00

Part II: Notes on Emigration - The motion picture camera ceased to be innocent as more and more disquieting images were captured through its lens, such as the river of people that where ejected out of the train onto Franca station in Barcelona. These were people trying to leave the poverty of the countryside behind but instead ended up in city slums. Within Franco?s regime, this was viewed merely as the price of progress. For filmmakers at this point, it was not just about trying to make the spectator think or be surprised by a curious image, but about trying to mobilize people to stand up against authority. No se Admite Personal (Plaza de Urquinaona) - Spain?s rural population rose in the earliest hours to board buses for the center of Barcelona where they waited for unscrupulous employers to find them as cheap labor, without contracts, agreements or social security. Field for Men (El Campo para el Hombre) - Featuring two extremes of agricultural property in the Galician and Andalusia regions and clearly critical of the living conditions of the farmers, the film represents the work of the only women directors making these clandestine movies. 52 Sundays (52 Domingos) - With breathtaking expressiveness, eloquence and raw and honest testimony about the world of bullfighting, this work chronicles the misadventures of young people seeking better lives by becoming matadors, the only way to break free of their social stratum. 52 Sundays is considered among the best films of the world of bullfighting.

Nov 29, 2009 at 8:00 PM EST Ellery Eskelin-Erik Deutsch-Allison Miller Trio at International House - Philadelphia, PA $12.00

Dec 2, 2009 at 7:00 PM EST Nollywood Babylon at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $8.00

?Nollywood?, a play on Bollywood and Hollywood, is a film genre that speaks to the everyday experiences of Nigerians. Nollywood produces 2,500 films a year that tell urban stories infused with voodoo and magic and reflect the collision of traditional mysticism and modern culture, including Christian evangelism. Nigeria?s contemporary film industry, which just began in 1992, is now the third-largest in the world after India and the United States. Nollywood Babylon with a booming soundtrack of 1970s African underground music, takes viewers into the chaotic Idumota market, and introduces them to Nigerian filmmakers, stars and fans.

Dec 4, 2009 at 7:00 PM EST Every Man For Himself (Sauve qui peut) at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $8.00

Godard?s entrancingly beautiful return to film after a decade of working in video, Sauve qui peut (la vie) follows the messy relationships between a television producer (named Paul Godard), his girlfriend, and a prostitute (Isabel Huppert). This deeply personal, stylistically and intellectually radical film finds the director exploring a multitude of his favorite themes: film, capitalism, sex and art.

Dec 5, 2009 at 8:00 PM EST Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra featuring Bill Dixon at International House - Philadelphia, PA $17.50 - $20.00

Rob Mazurek, cornet + computer; Bill Dixon, trumpet; John Herndon, drums; Josh Abrams, double-bass; Jeff Parker, electric guitar; Nicole Mitchell, flute + voice; Jeb Bishop, trombone; Jason Adasewicz, vibraphone; Matt Lux, electric bass; Matt Bauder, bass clarinet + tenor saxophone; Mike Reed, drums (personnel subject to change). A crucial figure in the development of Free Jazz, trumpeter Bill Dixon (b. 1925) was first associated with the ensembles of Cecil Taylor and Archie Shepp, and was one of the main architects of the Jazz Composers Guild. In 1964, he organized the October Revolution in Jazz ? "The New Thing"'s equivalent to the Armory Show - introducing Free Jazz to a broader audience. In the late 60s he devoted himself to teaching, creating the Black Music Division at Bennington College, Vermont in 1973. Returning, albeit infrequently, to recording in 1980, Dixon has since collaborated with William Parker and Tony Oxley, among many others. For this very rare live appearance, Dixon performs with the Exploding Star Orchestra, led by Rob Mazurek, best know for his work with Isotope 217 and Chicago Underground projects in addition to collaborations with Stereolab, Tortoise (members of which are featured in ESO) and Sam Prekop. Featuring some of the most distinctive voices in Chicago's post-rock and jazz communities, the ESO is known for their adventurous and kaleidoscopic performances.

Dec 6, 2009 at 8:00 PM EST John Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet at International House - Philadelphia, PA $12.00

Dec 7, 2009 at 8:00 PM EST Wooley-Yeh-Corsano Trio + Rempis-Rosely Duo at International House - Philadelphia, PA $12.00

Dec 8, 2009 at 7:00 PM EST The Next Up Short Film Showcase at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $8.00

Some of the best films made by up-and-coming filmmakers of color from across the country.

Dec 9, 2009 at 7:00 PM EST Dance with Camera Shorts Program at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $8.00

Goshogaoka - Each segment of Goshogaoka functions like a motion study, recording different stages in a practice session of a Japanese girls? basketball team. The girls stretch, jog, dribble, perform tricks, and keep count by chanting in unison. Director Lockhart collaborated with Stephen Galloway, then ballet director of the Frankfurt Opera, to choreograph the girls? elegant, synchronized movements. Rosas danst Rosas - In the early 1980s, Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker?s created her masterpiece Rosas danst Rosas in close collaboration with composers Thierry De Mey and Peter Vermeersch. Fifteen years later, de Mey filmed the stunningly expressionistic dance performed by the second generation of Keersmaeker?s Rosas dance company. Rosas danst Rosas was awarded the Grand Prix International Video Danse in 1997 and the special prize of the Jury of the International Festival of Film and New Media on Art in Athens in 1998. Water Motor - Filmed in two parts, Water Motor (a solo by famed choreographer Trisha Brown) was captured in ?real time? at 24 frames per second and at half-speed (aka slow motion). For the second part, Brown?s movements appear elongated in time, the slowed frame rate making visible what was previously inaccessible to the naked eye. As director Mangolte describes, ?the movement takes on a luscious quality that informs the viewer of what was missed before.? Solo - Solo features an electric performance by choreographer William Forsythe, beginning with a close-up on the balletic movements of his feet, scanning up his frame and then finally zooming out to capture his frenetic movements across a starkly lit stage. The dance is accompanied by an atonal violin composition by Thom Willems and occasional direction from an off-camera male voice. Solo premiered at the 1997 Whitney Biennial.

Dec 10, 2009 at 7:00 PM EST Chick Strand - Image, word and first person epistolary at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $8.00

Born Mildred Strand (1932 - 2009), she was given the nickname Chick by her father. Strand studied anthropology at Berkeley, and in the early 1960s organized film happenings with Bruce Baillie. She edited Canyon Cinema-News with Baillie and Ernest Callenbach, which became a focal point for the West Coast independent film movement. For over thirty years Strand made regular trips to Mexico with her second husband Neon Park. Strand's ethnographic films are distinctive for their complex layering of sound and image, and the juxtaposition of found footage and sound with images she shot herself. Shorts included: Cartoon le Mousse, Krystallnacht, Soft Fiction, Coming up for Air, Waterfall, Mujer De Milfuegos, and Mosori Monika

Dec 11, 2009 at 8:00 PM EST An Evening with Christina Battle at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $8.00

Christina Battle has established herself as a significant artist and arts educator in the Toronto film community since moving there from Edmonton in 2002. She rigorously combines celluloid hand-processing techniques with a variety of other imaging methods. Battle?s tactile, DIY approach to film production finds a powerful accompaniment in the themes she explores - history and counter-memory, ideology and political mythology, gender, and environmental catastrophe. Effectively, the combination of Battle?s processes and subject matter is a hand-to-hand artistic engagement with some of our most pressing historical and contemporary issues. - Scott Birdwise, Programmer, The Canadian Film Institute (2008). Shorts include: oil wells: sturgeon road & 97th street, paradise falls, new mexico, buffalo lifts, hysteria, three hours, fifteen minutes before the hurricane struck, Behind the Shadows, wandering through secret storms, and suddenly everything changed.

Dec 12, 2009 at 5:00 PM EST Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi: Fragments and Assemblages at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $8.00

Milan-based filmmakers Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi are renowned for their accomplished work with archival footage derived principally from the 1910s and 1920s. Thoughtfully juxtaposing images, Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi also re-photograph their material, adjusting the film's speed, adding tinted color and spare soundtracks, and reframing the image to focus on key details. Such meticulous manipulation encourages viewers to read the footage instead of simply watching it, so as to consider not only what the images mean, but how. The spare and intense films of Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi wring both irony and a strange, mournful in the images they select, bearing witness to the ravages of time and the destructive power of the European nations and their armies. Karagoez - In 1977, Yervant Gianikian came upon a whole store of 9.5mm films dating from the beginnings of motion pictures to 1928 - silent movies reproduced from 35mm copies (the originals of which have been lost). There were Enrico Guazzoni?s minor works, Il canto dell?amore trionfante and Messaline of 1923, Arnold Fanck?s 1926 Der heilige Berg starring Leni Riefensthal, and a score of other, unidentifiable fiction and documentary films. In wanting to show all of human behavior, Karagoez: Catalogue 9.5 manages only to disclose our most mysterious poses. Inventario Balcanico (Balkan Inventory) - The accumulation of images of human and ecological disasters from the former Yugoslavia prompted us to look for evidence of pre-existing essential values, which could not possibly not exist. Records of life as it was. Material for a film which celebrates life over conflict and division. A work of analysis, based on formats no longer used, no longer even projectable, to make indestructible the memories preserved in the images we have found: films shot by amateurs, by travelers, by Nazi soldiers in the Balkans. - Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi.

Dec 12, 2009 at 7:30 PM EST Jim Finn: Fabrications & Recycling at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $8.00

Director Jim Finn in person. Jim Finn is a critically acclaimed filmmaker who uses humor and historical fiction to examine ideology, capitalism and revolutionary art practices. Interkosmos, the first of his trilogy of feature-length films looking at Marxist ideology, was called "a retro gust of communist utopianism" by the Village Voice and "charming and fantastic, so full of rare atmospheres" by Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin. His second feature, La Trinchera Luminosa del Presidente Gonzalo was listed by the Village Voice as one of 2007?s top ten experimental films. The Juche Idea - Ready for a Marxist-Leninist-musical documentary? Jim Finn, the Busby Berkeley of propaganda, follows a South Korean video artist in North Korea who hopes to revitalize Juche cinema. This is no kitsch mockumentary, just a careful analysis of the love of cinema that is as surreally funny as it is true. Isn't art revolutionary? - Cinevegas Film Festival

Dec 14, 2009 at 7:00 PM EST Closer to the Dream at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $10.00

It?s early 2008. With the American presidential campaign gathering steam, an unrelenting roar has been mounting, resonating all the way to Paris, where African-American expatriate filmmaker, Guetty Felin has been living a self-imposed exile for the last 20 years. Unable to resist the political turbulence back home, she enlists French husband, Herve Cohen (co-director) and their two sons, 15 year-old Yeelen and Joakim, 11, on a journey to bear witness to the historical grassroots movement that is uniting Americans across party and racial lines. And so, what began as a video diary of the political coming of age of their sons, would later turn into an electoral road movie across the country in the quest of rediscovering America and redefining oneself in it.

Dec 16, 2009 at 7:00 PM EST Part III: Clandestine Networks with Paris, 20 de juny de 1971 Mitin en Montreuil at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $8.00

Part III: Clandestine Networks - The film camera was now a political instrument. Police used confiscated films to identify possible suspects. Therefore it was better if credits did not appear on the prints and to interview people in silhouette, or if possible, frame the interviewee from the neck down. A clandestine distribution network was created where the films were given false names, stored in private homes, catalogued into lists camouflaged among medieval poetry texts, and later distributed to interested parties under total secrecy and anonymity. Footage of demonstrations, strikes and other actions was distributed by clandestine networks known as ?Volti?. Paris, 20 de juny de 1971 Mitin en Montreuil - On June 20, 1971, a massive political gathering led by Dolores Ibarruri and Santiago Carrillo took place in the village of Montreuil, near Paris. The filmed demonstration was distributed and screened clandestinely. The film reveals itself, now, as a tool for reflection on the political history and the changes produced in the Spanish State by the second President of the government.

Dec 19, 2009 at 7:00 PM EST Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles at International House - Philadelphia, PA $5.00 - $8.00

A singular work in cinema history, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles meticulously details, with a sense of impending doom, the daily routine of a middle-aged widow whose chores include making the beds, cooking dinner for her son and turning the occasional trick. In its enormous spareness, Akerman?s film seems simple, but it encompasses an entire world. Jeanne Dielman is an astonishing, compelling movie experiment that has been analyzed and argued over for decades.

Jan 17, 2010 at 7:00 PM EST Festival of New Trumpet | Philadelphia at International House - Philadelphia, PA $12.00

Jan 22, 2010 at 8:00 PM EST Ken Vandermark performs the music of Don Cherry at International House - Philadelphia, PA $12.00

Jan 30, 2010 at 8:00 PM EST Circulasione Totale Orchestra at International House - Philadelphia, PA $17.50 - $20.00

Frode Gjerstad, saxophone + clarinet; Sabir Mateen, saxophone, clarinet + flute; Bobby Bradford, cornet; Anders Hana, electric guitar; Lasse Marhaug, electronics; Kevin Norton, vibraphone; Berre Melstad, tuba; Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, double-bass; Nick Stephens, double-bass; Morten J Olsen, electronics + drums; Louis Moholo - Moholo, drums; Paal Nilssen-Love, drums. Influenced by the work of Albert Ayler, Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane, Norwegian saxophonist Frode Gjerstad came to prominence as one of British drummer John Stevens' key collaborators. He's led a trio with William Parker and Hamid Drake, was a founding member of Ultralyd, and performed with Derek Bailey, Han Bennink and Peter Br?tzmann. Founded by Gjerstad in 1984, this electro-acoustic and multi-generational large ensemble features some of the most talented improvisers today, including native Philadelphian Sabir Mateen, South African drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo, and members of experimental Norwegian acts The Thing, Jazkamer, MoHa! and Atomic. Most significantly perhaps is the the inclusion of Bobby Bradford (b.1934), one of the great trumpeters to emerge from the avant-garde. A member of the Ornette Coleman Quartet from 1961 to 1963, it is said that Bradford largely fulfilled the potential of Don Cherry. In his over-60 year career Bradford has collaborated with Eric Dolphy, Wilco?s Nels Cline, David Murray and Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra.

Mar 6, 2010 at 8:00 PM EST Art Ensemble of Chicago at International House - Philadelphia, PA $17.50 - $20.00

Roscoe Mitchell, reeds; Hugh Ragin, trumpet; Harrison Bankhead, double-bass; Famoudou Don Moye, drums + percussion. Founded in 1969, the Art Ensemble of Chicago is the flagship ensemble of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and one of the most influential collectives in jazz history. Originally comprised of saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, trumpeter Lester Bowie, bassist Malachi Favors, and later, drummer Famoudou Don Moye, the Art Ensemble of Chicago are pioneers of multi-instrumentalism and, for over 40 years, have given unforgettable performances in which music, ritual and Dadaist theatre are interwoven. Their performances combine elements of jazz?s history and pre-history - music from the sanctified church services, minstrel shows and bawdy houses of late 19th and early 20th century America - with a modernist spirit of experimentation. Join us for this rare visit from one of America ?s greatest artistic treasures.