Spring 1986: On Saturday, June 14, from 1-5:30 p.m., The Brooklyn Museum will present “Best of the West: A Festival of Short Films and Video”. Drawing from the finest short film and video works being produced in the western United States in the last few years, “Best of the West” will offer a wide range of genres, techniques, and styles. Included in the after-noon’s program will be documentary, narrative, and experimental pieces, and works utilizing animation, claymation, and color xerography. Moods range from the lyrical to the satiric.
Many prize-winning pieces will be shown, including the 1985 Academy Award-winning short, “UpI”, by Mike Hoover, a stunning film relating the art and allegory of a young man’s hang-gliding adventure. “Suspicious Circumstances”, by Jim Blashfield, uses collaged and animated xeroxes to tell the surreally humorous story of the strange disappearance of Lenore’s husband. Bill Plympton’s delightfully satiric animation “Boomtown”, based on a Jules Pfeiffer script, introduces the Android Sisters and their view of the changing military-industrial complex. In “Place of Emergence”, Paul Brekke has created a powerful mosaic of images revolving around a primeval Garden of Eden theme.
A number of films focus on uniquely Western phenomena. Nancy Kelly’s “Cowgirls: Portraits of American Ranch Women” looks at three generations of women ranchers, and “Last Call Forever”, by Irv Broughton and Gerry Cook, provocatively explores the impact of the closing of The Magnet Bar, a mostly Indian hangout in Spokane. “Tater People” dishes up some deliciously deadpan small-town humor, focusing on the trials and tribulations of a potato farmer’s wife.
The program runs from 1-5:30 p.m. and is free with Museum admission. Seating is limited and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Nick Manning, founder and coordinator of the long-running New York Filmmakers’ Exposition, will be on hand to make introductory remarks and to respond to any questions about the works.
“Best of the West” is being held in conjunction with The Third Western States Exhibition , organized by the Western States Arts Foundation and The Brooklyn Museum and on view at the Museum from June 6 through August 5, 1986. The exhibition and film program are supported by a generous grant from the Philip Morris Companies, Inc. For further information on “Best of the West”, call (718) 638-5000, ext. 232.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1971 - 1988. 1986, 002.
