Bill Brown is one of my all-time fave filmmakers. I first met him when I set up a screening of his work @ the WOW Hall in Eugene, with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone and S.M. Gray. I can’t remember much about the show except the sound guy took all the money and I could only pay Bill like $50, even though the show was packed.
I later became Bill’s “personal press agent” in my work at Peripheral Produce, which released his excellent “The Next Best Place” DVD collection, as well as at Microcosm Publishing, where I promoted his “Dreamwhip” fanzine-turned-book.
In any event, the dude makes good films. 16mm beautifully composed filmic essays. Poetic, funny, smart, a little political. Sort of a wanderlust, dreamy quality to them.
This Saturday, August 15, Bill and his sweetheart Sabine Gruffat will be @ Disjecta (8371 N. Interstate) to present Time Machine, a multimedia performance of “video, spoken word, scratchy records and 35mm slides.” According to their website, Brown’s performance involves reading about roadside attractions paired with a slideshow, while Gruffat live mixes video and audio feedback. Weird, possibly interesting, and, if Brown’s previous projects are any indication, something definitely important and worthy of checking out.
Tonight is the first night of The Portland Documentary and eXperimental Film Festival, a five-day underground media shebang, happening at the Clinton Street Theatre & Gallery Homeland, May 6-10. As a former Co-Director of the festival, I’m looking forward to just hanging out and taking it all in this year.