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.