NC Moving Image Archivists

[Kirston Johnson <kirston.johnson AT duke.edu>]

Title: JHOVE Video Validation

Hello, all –

I want to invite you to an event in Duke’s Rare Book Room on April 6^th, 2010.  I have asked Duke Distinguished Visiting Filmmaker, David Gatten, to give a talk and present his 2004 film “The Great Art of Knowing.”  This event is very near and dear to my heart, as I’ve admired Gatten’s work for years and it is very difficult to see his films outside major cities around the world.  He only allows his films to be shown on film, so he will be projecting himself!  Please see the press release (below) and attached flyer for more information.

Best,

Kirston  

…

The Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library present: “The Library, The Archive, The Collection: Research as Studio Practice in the Art of the Moving Image,” a screening and talk by Duke Distinguished Visiting Filmmaker David Gatten.

 

Mary Duke Biddle Rare Book Room, Perkins Library

Tuesday, April 6th, 12:30 – 2:00
Contact: Kirston Johnson, 919-681-7963, kirston.johnson AT duke.edu

 

Award winning avant-garde filmmaker and Guggenheim Fellow, David Gatten, will give a talk and present his 2004 film "The Great Art of Knowing" on April 6th in Duke's Perkins Library.  Gatten is the 2010 Duke Distinguished Visiting Filmmaker in the Program of the Arts of the Moving Image at Duke University.  His residency is funded by the Provost's Council for the Arts Visiting Artist Residency grant.

Over the last ten years David Gatten's films have explored the intersection of the printed word and the moving image, while investigating the shifting vocabularies of experience and representation within intimate spaces and historical documents. Through traditional research methods (reading old books) and non-traditional film processes (boiling old books), the films trace the contours of both private lives and public histories, combining elements of philosophy, biography and poetry with experiments in cinematic forms and narrative structures.

 

“The Great Art of Knowing” is one film in a series by Gatten exploring the extensive library of William Byrd II, a prominent eighteenth century Virginian landowner and author. Taking as a point of departure the volume of the same title by the 17th century Jesuit priest Athanasius Kircher, this film attempts a reanimation of the lives of William Byrd and his daughter Evelyn, and underlines the centuries-old desire to build systems of total knowledge and complete understanding.  Additional material is drawn from Byrd’s papers, Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex on the Flight of Birds, as well as writings by Ludwig Wittgenstein and Jules-Etienne Marey. The black and white, silent film is approximately 40 minutes long.

Gatten's films have been included twice in the Whitney Biennial. and are screened regularly in the world’s most prestigious film festivals, museums and galleries. His work resides in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Whitney Museum of American Art, as well as in numerous university and private collections. Gatten's films are included on over two dozen film history syllabi at universities and colleges in the US, Canada and Europe. They have won more than twenty awards at festivals around the world since 1997 and in 2005 Gatten was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to continue his film series investigating the library of William Byrd. A former Associate Professor & Chair of the Department of Cinema & Photography at Ithaca College, Gatten has also taught the history, theory and practice of filmmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art in New York City. He is the recipient of two awards for Excellence in Teaching.

 

 

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