BACK TO THE CALENDAR

While advances in home-viewing technologies have greatly improved both the accessibility and quality of video reproductions, it remains essential to view films on film and in the context for which they were created, i.e., theatrical screenings of light projected through a celluloid strip which bounces off a screen into the eyeballs.  Or, as Stan Brakhage put it, "on-off illumination of individual still images in sequence."

The Ocular Loci calendar lists Chicago-area screenings of films and videos in the following categories:

1. "classics" and other non-contemporary works of aesthetic merit;
2. "avant-garde" or "experimental" works, encompassing the wide variety of alternative ways of organizing basic cinematic elements (light/shadow, time/space, sometimes sound), beyond the narrow realm of character/plot-driven, synch-sound narrative; and
3. other works I believe are important or otherwise interesting (e.g., documentaries that address issues ignored by the corporate media).

As a rule, new releases with a regular run (those which screen daily for a week or more) are not listed.  While there are certainly many "arthouse" releases worth checking out, Ocular Loci is focused on the rarer opportunities:  not films which screen in Chicago six times a day, but those which may have six screenings a decade -- with the hope that drawing attention to these films will make these opportunities less rare.  When possible, links are provided to online texts about particular films or directors.  Recommendations are based on personal viewings or on a film's reputation among cinephiles who have demonstrated an interest in and knowledge of cinema's broad range of aesthetic possibilities.

PS:  the use of "selected/unselected" is in acknowledgment of master percussionist Paul Lovens