Detail of still from Old Joy, which opens tonight

The Portland Documentary and eXperimental Film Festival (PDX Film Fest for short) begins today and runs through April 30, 2006 at the Guild Theatre.

Presented by Peripheral Produce and the NW Film Center, the festival will showcase provocative, artistic, and firmly uncompromising films from around the globe. The festival is an offshoot of Peripheral Produce, a video distribution label and screening series started by Portland filmmaker Matt McCormick. 2006 is the 10-year birthday of Peripheral Produce, and since it’s inception in 1996, Peripheral Produce has grown from a small, DIY project into an internationally respected venue and outlet for contemporary experimental cinema.

festival highlights include:

Old Joy: Portland Premiere with filmmakers in attendance tonight at 7:30. Shot in the Portland area and fresh from its debut at the Sundance Film Festival, the PDX Film Fest is proud to host the Portland Premiere of the new feature film Old Joy. Directed by Kelly Reichardt, the film stars musician Will Oldham (aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy), was co-produced by PortlanderTodd Haynes (dir. Far From Heaven) and based on a novel by Portland author Jon Raymond. Those in the art scene have seen this project progress from a collaborative book project between Justine Kurland's photography and Jon Raymond's prose. I felt that the visuals overwhelmed the narrative in that initial collaboration but I suspect the re-writes and the filmaker's savvy brings this one around.

featured guest: Martha Colburn Friday at 8:00
The PDX Film Festival is very excited to present the work of featured guest Martha Colburn. Martha Colburn is an animator, filmmaker and artist whose latest film “Cosmetic Emergency” screened in the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and was selected into the 2006 Whitney Biennial. A self-taught filmmaker, she began in 1994 with found footage and Super 8 cameras and has since completed over 40 films. She also recently directed a music video for Deer Hoof and created an animation segment for the feature length documentary 'The Devil and Daniel Johnson.'

The 2006 Peripheral Produce Invitational
The Peripheral Produce Invitational (dubbed the ‘World Championship of Experimental Cinema’) will once again pit filmmakers from Portland and beyond against each other in a rock-em-sock-em, trash talkin’ competitive film showdown. At Last year’s event, history was made, as Vladimir became the first ever Back-to-Back winner of the Invitational. In similar fashion to 2004, Vladimir showed up to the theatre with 400 view-masters in tow, distributed them amongst the capacity crowd, and conducted her signature “communal view-master experience” with Vladmaster disks that she photographed, cut-out, and glued together. But in order to make it three in a row, Vladimir will have to defend her title against a rabid pack of filmmakers who have their sights set on the prize. With all the filmmakers in attendance and the audience deciding who wins, who knows what will happen in this battle-royale of experimental film.

Portland Premieres and Visiting Artists
The 2006 PDX Film Festival is very proud to be presenting the Portland Premieres of several much anticipated films, including Adele Horne’s The Tailenders, a feature length documentary filmed in the Solomon Islands, Mexico, India, and the United States, that explores the connections between missionary activity and global capitalism. The Tailenders examines a missionary organization’s use of ultra-low-tech audio devices to evangelize indigenous communities facing crises caused by global economic forces. *Another very exciting premiere is Bill Brown’s new experimental documentary The Other Side, which reveals a geography of aspiration and insecurity along the 2000-miles of the U.S./Mexico border. While documenting the efforts of migrant activists to establish a network of water stations in the borderlands of the southwestern U.S., the film explores the border as a landscape, at once physical, historical, and political. *And from executive producer Gus Van Sant, we have Wild Tigers I Have Known, the debut feature from Cam Archer that is an unconventional story about adolescent longing and the confusion of teenage isolation.

Several artists will also be making the trip to Portland, including David Gatten, who will presenting the first four parts from his Secret History of the Dividing Line series, and Larry Goetheim, who will presenting two recently restored prints in a program presented by Cinema Project.

for more information about the films and festival please visit
www.peripheralproduce.com

The Portland Documentary and eXperimental Film Festival

April 26-30, 2006
at the Guild Theatre, Portland Oregon USA.
829 SW 9th Ave. tickets $7 at the door



Holly Andres' My Little Pony video installation at Rake gallery

Festival Schedule:
(all events at the Guild Theatre unless otherwise noted)

wednesday april 26
7:30 Old Joy
9:30 opening night party at Holocene w/White Rainbow

thursday april 27
5:00 Lay Down Tracks
7:15 Cinema Project presents Larry Gottheim
8:00 Out of Sync video installation-performances (at Rake Gallery). Artists include:Holly Andres, Ian Coronado, AGF.3 + SUE.C, Carl Diehl, Disjunct, The EarthwUrms, Ogo Eion, Jesse England, Alex Felton, Shawna Ferreira, Emily Franz, Colin Ives, Jo Jackson, Alex Mackenzie, Mack McFarland, Gabe Parque, Tom Sherman and Stephen Slappe.
9:30 Who is Bozo Texino

friday april 28
5:30 shorts program #1: underground/experimental
8:00 Martha Colburn
10:00 Wild Tigers I Have Known

saturday april 29
1:00 shorts program #2 : friends and neighbors
3:30 Blockade / How Little We Know
6:00 The Tailenders
9:00 The Peripheral Produce INVITATIONAL

sunday april 30
1:00 David Gatten: Secret History of the Dividing Line parts I-IV
3:15 shorts program #3: short documentaries
5:30 shorts program #4 : avant garde
8:00 The Other Side + shorts

can’t be at the festival? or maybe you just can’t get enough of the
festival? than tune in to www.urbanhonking.com for 24 hour festival
blogging coverage.


the 2006 pdx film festiva site