Monday, February 19, 2007

Tuesday, February 20

*** JUST ADDED!! ***

WORKSHOP WITH GAME DESIGNER TRACY FULLERTON
3-6; 7-9pm MIT B91

Tracy Fullerton will be giving a presentation and workshop on gaming and interactive media in the Film 115 Media Archaeology class. The class meets from 3-6 in Mitchell B91 but her workshop will also extend into an evening session from 7-9 PM.

Guests are welcome to attend the entire workshop but are especially encouraged to attend the evening session when they will have an opportunity to participate as game testers and give feedback to the designers.

Tracy Fullerton, M.F.A., is a game designer, educator and writer with over a decade of professional experience. She has designed games for MTV, Microsoft, and Disney and is currently collaborating with artist Bill Viola on The Night Journey, a unique game/art project hybrid. Tracy is an Assistant Professor in the Interactive Media Division of the USC School of Cinema-Television where she serves as Co-Director of the new Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab.

The schedule of her workshop is as follows:

3-4:30 PM: Presentation
4:30-6:00 PM: Game design exercise (break-out groups)
7-7:30 PM: Playtesting presentation
7:30-9:00 PM: Playtesting of design exercises (break-out groups)

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7pm ** FREE **

UWM Union Theatre

Experimental Tuesdays at the Union Theatre

Specters of an Everyday: The Poetic Documents of Sergei Loznitsa


Experimental Tuesdays at the Union Theatre presents the regional premiere of films by acclaimed Russian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa.


Four films from one of Russia's most acclaimed documentary filmmakers, whose poetic, observational films offer a portrait of a landscape and a people in transition. Documenting the changes in his country since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Loznitsa offers beautifully photographed, precisely detailed, and thereby haunting essays on the ways of life of people caught in the curl of time.

Celebrated at festivals across Europe and Canada, Loznitsa's work has rarely been seen in the States. Tonight's program, to be presented entirely on 35mm, comes to Milwaukee thanks to the efforts of filmmaker/curator David Dinnell, currently of the UWM Film Department.

The program was made possible thanks to the support of the Center for International Education at UWM


Artel (30min., 2006)










Sergei Loznitsa’s newest film, an examination of the details of wintertime everyday life within a small fishing community.


Halt (24min., 2000)

Trains travel through the night without stopping. The clatter of the carriages quickly disappears, along with the wail of the locomotive. The people at the station are all asleep. Why are they so exhausted? What are they waiting for?


Portrait (28min., 2002)

A timeless film about human dignity and grace, 'Portrait' consists of what at first appear to be photographs of Russian peasants and farmers. But as we watch the carefully composed scenes, small details in the background begin to catch our eye - the rustling of tree leaves, water flowing in a stream. The peasants, mostly elderly men and women, stand in their everyday clothes, often with tools by their side, looking into the camera. Occasionally someone shifts their weight, or turns slightly, or blinks.

Evoking the photographic portraits of August Sander or Dorothea Lange, this remarkable short film captures a people, and a world, that is quickly vanishing. With poetic rigor and stunning black-and-white cinematography, 'Portrait' offers us a thoughtful meditation on man and nature, city and country, old Russia and new.


Factory (30 min., 2004)
Stunningly photographed in rich sacral tones, 'Factory' takes the viewer on a visually mesmerizing tour through the belly of an old Soviet industrial plant. In near pitch-dark conditions, male workers toil over fiery blast furnaces, pour molten steel into giant casting ladles, and hammer metal spikes into colossal machines (echoes of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis abound), as their female counterparts in a slightly more hospitable environment operate the assembly lines, endlessly moving clay blocks from one conveyor belt to another.
Unlike some of Loznitsa’s previous films, which dealt with rural and environmental issues, 'Factory,' a brilliant subversion of the Soviet-era idealization of the worker, is concerned with industry, labor, and development. It is an unapologetic questioning of Russia's ability to emerge as a modern industrial nation in the 21st century.


(descriptions courtesy of Deckert Distributon and The Cinema Guild)