Scrappers

ReelTime @ Evanston Public Library
Monthly documentary series sponsored by Percolater Films

http://www.percolatorfilms.org/percolatorfilms/Reeltime.html

Wednesday, October 26th
7pm

Discussion follows w/ filmmakers and members of the Evanston Re-Building Warehouse

Hyde Park Art Center
http://www.hydeparkart.org/events/2012-01-05-movie-screening-and-discussion-scrappers-recycling-the-american-dream

In conjunction with the photography exhibition No Place Like Home

Thursday, January 5th, 2012
6pm

Discussion follows w/ filmmakers

Attention cultural centers of the West!

Scrappers coming your way, for 2 one-night screenings..

SAN FRANCISCO
Trashed: Two Films About Garbage
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
September 15, 2011
7:30pm
http://www.ybca.org/trashed-two-films-about-garbage

“Patient, humane, committed” — SF Weekly (link)

“Without recourse to a voice-over, Scrappers details economic unrest as well as the complex race and class hierarchies of Chicago’s scrap scene. This is all secondary, however, to the film’s enduring interest in learning how Oscar and Otis actually go about their work — noteworthy in a documentary field crowded with predigested arguments.” — SF Bay Guardian (link)

LOS ANGELES
Doc Night
Echo Park Film Center
September 17, 2011
7pm
http://echoparkfilmcenter.org/cinema/schedule.html

Ben Kolak in person at both screenings!

Adrian, Otis and Loretta at Otis’ 77th birthday party

Check out this mini-biography of Otis’ life and travels by Micah Uetricht, published in this month’s AREA Chicago:
http://www.areachicago.org/p/issues/immigrations/you-dont-have-go-mississippi/

The international premiere of Scrappers is coming up in 2 weeks at Revelation: Perth International Film Festival in Perth, Australia.

Sunday 7/17, 3:30pm
Saturday 7/23, 12:30pm

“[Tells] the stories of people whose lives are rarely seen on the screen. Ultimately Scrappers shows how people try and survive, against all odds.”

http://www.revelationfilmfest.org/go/films/documentaries/scrappers

And if you’re actually going to be at this fest, definitely also make sure to catch CELEBRATING THE CHICAGO UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL, a shorts program from the history of the festival with CUFF director Bryan Wendorf in person!

http://www.revelationfilmfest.org/go/films/special-event-screenings/celebrating-the-chicago-underground-film-festival

The post-production of Scrappers was partially funded by the Chicago Instructional Technology Foundation, who run Chicago Classroom TV.

Chicago Classroom TV provides educational programming to Chicago Public Schools over a channel they own, completely 100% free. If your school signs up, CCTV will deliver a free LCD TV, a free DVR so teachers can record programming and use it when and how they wish, and install all the necessary hardware, for free. All true!

You can learn more about CCTV and how to receive their programming by downloading this document: CCTV 1-Page Summary, or visiting their website, http://chicagoclassroomtv.org.

CCTV is broadcasting Scrappers to its 30+ participating CPS schools from April 1 through the end of the school year. To learn more about how you could use Scrappers in your class, download this brief lesson guide: SCRAPPERS_CITF.

For more info about receiving Scrappers over CCTV, CCTV’s other programming, or signing up, contact CCTV Director Jonathan Holmer, M.Ed, by any of the means listed here: http://chicagoclassroomtv.org/contact.php

Below is a list of many of the educational venues where Scrappers has been incorporated into curricula, or where the filmmakers have guest taught classes or discussed the film in person, over the past year — from elementary schools through graduate and professional programs, covering topics from environment/recycling through filmmaking and social sciences/public policy.

Hopefully it will give you some ideas about how you might put Scrappers to use in your teaching!

Institutional DVDs of Scrappers with educational performance rights can be purchased directly from the filmmakers, at $100 for colleges/universities and $65 for K-12 schools and public libraries. Please email scrapmovie@gmail.com. And of course, we’re always available to discuss your educational ideas.

If your school or library uses them, institutional DVDs are also available through Action! Library Media Services and The A/V Cafe.

————

Better Boys Foundation of Chicago:
FilmLab@1512 apprenticeship (grades 9-12)

Brooklyn Law School:
Environmental Law Society

The Chautauqua Institution:
The Fiction of Documentary

Columbia College Chicago:
Documentary 1
Documentary Projects

DePaul University:
Documentary Production

Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT):
Boeing Scholars Academy (grades 9-12)
Inequality
Promises & Problems of Public Policy

Kenyon College:
The Documentary

LaSalle II Magnet School, Chicago (grades 5-6)

Michigan State University (MSU):
Anthropology of Art: Art, Things & Globalization
Global Publics

Northern Michigan University (NMU):
Digital Cinema 1

Roosevelt University:
Toward the Sustainable Future

School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC):
Parasitic Cities
Research Colloquium – Collecting

University of Chicago (U of C):
Career & Placement Services – Careers in documentary arts
Center for International Studies – Summer teacher institute
Ethnographic Methods
Fire Escape Films – Documentary funding workshop
Law School – Institute for Justice clinic on entrepreneurship

Walter Payton College Prep, Chicago:
Humanities Festival (grades 9-12)

Yollocalli Arts Reach, Chicago:
Commercial Free – Youth Performance, Video & Social Change (grades 9-12)

[you can view these posts, and posts by other Southern Circuit filmmakers, at http://southerncircuit.blogspot.com]

Brian here. See, to talk about Memphis, you have to talk about the Mississippi Delta.

We used our day off to check in on Clarksdale, MS, where Otis, one of the 2 stars of Scrappers, was born and raised (as were Son House, Muddy Waters, Ike Turner, Tennessee Williams, Sam Cooke, John Lee Hooker, Nate Dogg — the list goes on).

Otis traces his self-reliant worldview to shining shoes and mowing lawns in Clarksdale starting from age 8, saving up a stash to hitchhike north at age 13, in 1949. He wasn’t the only one who left around then.

We visited Otis’ childhood home, a 2-house brick compound built by his grandmother, Willie Mae Turner, on the corner of Page and Peacock Aves. One of the 2 houses remained:

Only a pile of bricks (which were for sale) was left from the other house.

When we ask Otis why he hasn’t visited Clarksdale more often, he usually says, “have you been to Mississippi?” Well, while we were hanging around the neighborhood, we met a gentleman with a much more positive view of the Delta:

Paul Clark: Clarksdale, Mississippi from scrap movie on Vimeo.

Thanks for kickin it with us, Mr. Tall Paul Clark. If Paul is right, Otis is going to have a change of heart, and come home to roost in Clarksdale before too long.

Our screening in Memphis, the last of our Southern Circuit, was excellent. Thanks, Memphis! (And thanks, Cindi, Cindi, and Jon!)

And thanks, South! (And thanks, Teresa, Allison, Jimy, Alan, and South Arts!) We hope to see you again some day…

[you can view these posts, and posts by other Southern Circuit filmmakers, at http://southerncircuit.blogspot.com]

Ben Kolak here, writing while Brian cruises past Alligator, Mississippi.

Wednesday we screened at the stunning Manship Theater in Baton Rouge, LA, where we were disappointed to discover that their staff member in charge of Southern Circuit coordination had been made a victim of state budget cuts. Nonetheless, we were happy to meet a sizable, diverse and enthusiastic audience.

This visit to Louisiana has turned me into a Crawfishphile: whether in po boys, souffle or, my favorite, boiled, which our awesome host on our day off in New Orleans, Kristi Orange, got for us at the delectable Cajun Seafood. While in the big easy we were also able to catch an incredible performance by Tuba Skinny, who played their butts off at a benefit to raise legal fees for their anarchist buds who had gotten arrested while marching a few weeks ago, and even had their radical library shut down in retaliation. To quote from the show: “If you can’t march freely in New Orleans, then where are you supposed to go?” On the advice of my favorite anarchist, Prof. David Graeber, let me recommend London.

The Arts Council of Central Louisiana really outdid themselves: on the evening of our screening in Alexandria, this town of 50,000 had an artwalk with dozens of exhibitors, a opening at the local arts complex featuring an edgy young illustrator from brooklyn, and even kept their sprawling art museum open late, free of charge. Huge thanks to our hosts the Holcombes, whose extensive collection of CenLa folk art would wow any fan of Chicago’s Intuit or Baltimore’s American Visionary Art Museum.

[you can view these posts, and posts by other Southern Circuit filmmakers, at http://southerncircuit.blogspot.com]

I’m writing on the road from Montgomery to Jackson, just crossing the Chunky River in the deep deep green of the Black Belt. Ben was kind enough to do another timelapse so you can see for yourself, also featuring some Spanish moss we picked up last week in Savannah so we could ride in style:

Scrappers on Southern Circuit #2.5 from scrap movie on Vimeo.

We had the pleasure of screening at the second theater on our tour, Montgomery’s 1941 art-deco Capri:

The Capri Community Film Society is lucky to have a charismatic Director / Programmer / Fundraiser / Foreman Projector / House Manager / Ticket & Concession Salesman and all-around Crusading Knight Templar of Independent Cinema for Alabama wrapped up in Martin McCaffrey:

If Martin has an analogue in Chicago, it’s in the shadowy figure of James Bond, walking encyclopedia of film projection, who physically keeps independent cinemas all over the nation running. And who, un-coincidentally, sold the Capri its 35mm and 16mm projectors, still going 20+ years later. A Montgomery ode to you, James:

Martin took us on an excellent, freewheeling tour of the… if I may?… psycho-geography of the city of Montgomery. Civil War, Civil Rights, integration, disintegration, revitalization. There were crosses on the lawn:

Space missions:

A fountain spewing pink water,

Interventions from the heirs of Hank Williams:

And, of course, plenty of information about the tragically lost histories of movie theaters in Montgomery, Alabama, and the USA.

The tour ended near the quixotic intersection of Jefferson Davis and Rosa Parks Avenues..

And did I mention that today is the 150th anniversary of the first salvo of the Civil War?

About 25 friendly Montogomerians came out and talked with us afterward.Lest this sound small to your big city mind, Martin slipped us data to prove that Scrappers at the Capri out-grossed nearly all the nearby multiplex films for the night, including:

Soul Surfer / Insidious / Arthur / Hanna / Diary of a Wimpy Kid / Your Highness / Limitless / Source Code / The Lincoln Lawyer / Red Riding Hood / Rango / Sucker Punch / HOP / Big Mommas: Like Father Like Son / Battle: Los Angeles / Paul … and The King’s Speech

Southern Circuit for the win!

Since I’m a little late actually getting this post up, let me also thank Melissa and all the students, faculty and community members who came out to our screening at Millsaps College in Jackson. It might sound like I’m repeating myself at this point in the trip, but we had one of the lengthiest and best discussions so far — traversing cinematography, economics, ethics, and the reasons why anyone should either make or watch documentary films. As well as some after-hours conversation with our gracious hosts Conner and Scott about the Jackson Volcano. Thanks to all, and keep it up!

[you can view these posts, and posts by other Southern Circuit filmmakers, at http://southerncircuit.blogspot.com]

Friday evening Brian and I were greeted by a friendly University of Chicago alumni contingent before screening at Duke’s University’s Center for Documentary Studies. Huge thanks to the CDS staff for their hospitality and gorgeous projection of the film! Was interesting to meet folks from a Durham reuse center and a Raleigh food bank that follows a gleaner model.

With the Research Triangle emerging as a center for organic food in the wake of tobacco buyouts, many of these fellow UChicagoans were interested in my work documenting John Edel’s vertical farm, as well as how we had spent the night before at Capt. John’s Lamb Farm, where our pal Sean is putting his SAIC degree to good use as…a shepherd! Coming from that background, Sean was more than willing to allow us to do re-purpose his flock as a projection screen. Perhaps we’ve found another venue for the Southern Circuit?

Videoflock, NC from Ben Kolak on Vimeo.