Robert Todd at the REDCAT
PRESS RELEASE
Robert Todd’s Cinema of Discovery
Mon March 30 | 8:30 pm
Robert Todd’s lyrical films demonstrate both a masterful command of the medium and an openness to chance. Painting, musical form and poetry infuse these short films. Of his latest work he writes, “These films offer a series of celebratory explorations, and, in some cases, transformations, of varied components of my life. To me, this set of works is an odd blend of performance and alchemical construction, freedom and control, a highly crafted and rather baroque diary.” Featured in this program are Dig, 21 Alleys, Riverbed, Interplay, Office Suite, Passing, and Rose.
In person: Robert Todd
“Since 1989, Boston-based filmmaker Robert Todd has been quietly developing one of the most distinctive bodies of work in the American film scene. Todd’s beautifully shot films draw together documentary and experimental elements; they don’t hew to a single, clearly defined style, but nevertheless show a consistency of poetic vision, spirit, and purpose. Through suspended moments of reflection and anticipation, Todd’s films explore the difficult-to-define emotions engendered by the stresses of civilization.” – Cinémathèque Ontario
Program
Dig (2007, 16mm, 2 min.) locks its gaze on an ever-shifting ground, the street in front of the filmmaker’s home as it was continually dug out, paved over, then ripped apart all over again. Over the staccato beats of a jackhammer, orange and yellow hieroglyphs point in all directions, a restless array of mysterious geometries whose meanings might not be known, but are doubtlessly headed for destruction. – adapted from “Views From the Avant-Garde,” New York Film Festival
21 Alleys (2007, 16mm, 8 min.)
Peering into the spaces that separate dwellings on a short, mixed-zoned street in Boston. Featuring interviews with varied members of a varied neighborhood.
Riverbed (2008, 16mm 18 min.)
A series of dances that follows the invisible stream that once powered a multitude of businesses and breweries in Boston, in a sesquicentennial celebration of the Stonybrook River’s culvert’s construction.
Interplay (2006, 16mm, 7 min.)
A dance piece humming along with the various places I inhabit: a play in three acts, a dance in three forms, three versions of paradise.
Office Suite (2007, 16mm, 15 min.)
If the lens of the camera is roseating, then I will take that as adding the red rub of a blush to things, that is to say, bringing a certain passion of vision to states/environments. We can feel/find rapture or elevation with strangers (seeking out the exotic), but how much more challenging (and/or subsequently rewarding) to find this within the familiar?
Passing (2008, 16mm 19 min.)
A eulogy (for my father-in-law) in four movements: sifting the four elements, the film searches for the spirit through both chance and ritual, repeating a call for a cycle of life to be left open.
Rose (top photo, 2008, 16mm, 9 min.)
My sustained appreciation for the richness of Light, developed initially in drawing media, has gradually met up with my development in filmmaking. Following the making of more externally directed films, I felt a need to turn inward and undertake a kind of Fantastic Voyage into my own lightstream-as-bloodstream.
All film descriptions written by Robert Todd unless otherwise noted.
Robert Todd is a Boston-based filmmaker as well as a sound and visual artist. In the past twelve years he has produced over 40 films that have been exhibited internationally at a wide variety of venues and festivals including the Media City Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Les Rencontres Internationale (Paris/Berlin), Black Maria Film Festival, Nouveau Cinéma in Montréal, Cinémathèque Ontario, the Harvard Film Archive, Pacific Film Archive, the Paris Biennial, Slamdance Film Festival, and others. His films have won numerous festival prizes, grants, and artist’s awards. He has taught film production at Boston College, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Art Institute of Boston, University of Massachusetts, and the Boston Film and Video Foundation.
He received a B.A. from Tufts University, B.F.A. from School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and an M.F.A. from Tufts University. He is currently Associate Professor and Director of Media Arts at Emerson College.
Program curated by Rebecca Baron.
Funded in part with generous support from Wendy Keys and Donald Pels.
REDCAT is located in downtown Los Angeles at the corner of W. 2nd St. and S. Hope St., inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex. Tickets may be purchased by calling 213.237.2800 or at www.redcat.org or in person at the REDCAT Box Office on the corner of 2nd and Hope Streets (30 minutes free parking with validation). Box Office Hours: Tue-Sat | noon–6 pm and two hours prior to curtain. Tickets: $9 [students $7, CalArts $5]
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This Robert Todd eve sounds awesome!