Mark Street: The Refracted City

• Venue: The Film-Makers' Cooperative

• Address: 475 Park Ave South, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10016

• Dates & Times: Tuesday, October 28th, at 7:00 PM

• Prices: Tickets available for purchase here.

• Artists & Collaborators:

  • Mark Street: Longtime Film-Makers' Cooperative filmmaker-member.
  • Matt McKinzie: Collaborated on curating the program and designed the poster.
  • Featured Filmmakers from Coop's Collection: Marie Menken, Donna Deitch, Rudy Burckhardt, Stan Brakhage, Rick Liss.

• Activity Description: Mark Street will present a suite of his recent, abstract city symphony shorts on 16mm and digital formats. These works recall urban filmic abstractions by avant-garde luminaries such as Marie Menken, Rudy Burckhardt, and Stan Brakhage. Street re-presents and "refracts" familiar metropolitan imagery by using various objects and membranes (photographic slides, architectural glass, magnifiers) between his camera lens and the scenery.

  The evening will begin with an hour-long program of Street's films, followed by a selection of city-themed shorts from the Coop's collection, curated by Street in collaboration with Matt McKinzie. A Q&A and discussion with Street will conclude the screening.

  Films by Mark Street (55 minutes total):

  1. River of Days (7 minutes)
  2. Lunette (8 minutes)
  3. All Day and All of the Night (13 minutes)
  4. Clear Ice Fern (12 minutes)
  5. The Grain of Belfast (6 minutes)
  6. Descent (9 minutes)

  Selections from The Coop, Curated by Street and Matt McKinzie (27 minutes total):

  1. Go Go Go by Marie Menken (1964, 11 minutes)
  2. She Was a Visitor by Donna Deitch (1970, 2 minutes)
  3. Square Times by Rudy Burckhardt (1967, 7 minutes)
  4. The Wonder Ring by Stan Brakhage (1955, 4 minutes)
  5. No York City by Rick Liss (1983, 3 minutes)

  The total run time for the films is 82 minutes, plus the Q&A and discussion.

• Editorial Recommendations:

  • Phillip Lopate, eminent film critic and essayist, remarked: "Mark Street combines the strength sof hte city symphony, the essay film and the expeimrental film in one tender, dazzling pakcage which conveys the weirdness and fresh humanity of daily life."
  • Noted curator and archivist Jon Gartenberg echoed: "The globe is Mark Street's cinematic canvas onto which he impresses shimmering reflections and lyric montage sequences."