BB Exhibitions

October 13, 2007 - February 2, 2008

Espace Gantner
Belfort, France

PAUL SHARITS, FIGMENT
"Sound Strip/ Film Strip", a 1972 4-screen "locational" work reconstructed by Bill Brand, 2007

Friday May 4, 2007

Milwaukee Underground Film Festival
Walker's Point Center for the Arts
911 W. National Avenue

8 pm. Program 2: GLUTTONY

MAGICIAN’S HOUSE - Deborah Stratman
PHOTOSYNTHESIS - Lisa Danker
THE PASSENGER - Kathryn Ramey
SWAN’S ISLAND - Bill Brand and Katy Martin
READING THE WATER - Nicolas Vollmer
AURORA IN THE SEA - Charlotte Taylor

Tuesday April 10, 2007

Pacific Film Archives link
FRAME BY FRAME: AVANT-GARDE FILM PRESERVATION:

6:00 A Self Preservation Workshop for Film/Video Makers

Bill Brand
Booksigning

Drawing on his and Toni Treadway's recent article, "A Self-Preservation Guide for Film/Video-Makers," Brand will talk about how artists can implement simple steps to take better archival care of their films and videos. Copies of Anthology Film Archives's Results You Can't Refuse: Celebrating 30 Years of BB Optics, edited by Andrew Lampert, which includes the article, will be available for purchase and for signing by Brand.

(c. 60 mins)

7:30 BB Optics

Bill Brand in Person

For the last thirty years, Bill Brand has been an artist and an archivist, making films while also doing highly regarded optical printing and preservation work for filmmakers and institutions under the name BB Optics. Tonight's program features an array these projects, including a number of his blowups from super 8 to 16mm. New Left Note marries Saul Levine's two driving pursuits, political activism and experimental filmmaking. The Nixon White House Staff Super 8 Motion Picture Film Collection contains FBI-confiscated films recorded between 1969 and 1973. More than 200 reels of film were preserved for the Nixon Presidential Library at the National Archives in 2000-01. The Fallen World by Marjorie Keller and Daffodils by Katy Martin are both intimate portraits of their husbands. Fire in my Belly, an incomplete work by David Wojnarowicz that was preserved through the efforts of the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS, and Home Avenue by Jennifer Montgomery are seething portrayals of sexuality and violence. Robert Huot's Black and White Film is an elegant study of the female figure.--Bill Brand

New Left Note (Saul Levine, 1968/82, Silent, 28 mins, 8mm on 16mm, From the artist. Nixon White House Super-8 Films (Reel S-10) (1969-73, Silent, 18 mins, Super 8 on 16mm, From Brand. The Fallen World (Margorie Keller, U.S., 1983, Color?, 9 mins, 16mm,, From Film-makers' Coop. Fire in my Belly (David Wojnarowicz, 1986-87, Silent, 13 mins, Super 8 on 16mm, From Fales Library, NYU, with permission of the Estate of David Wojnarowicz. Home Avenue by Jennifer Montogmery, 1989, 17 mins, Super 8 on 16mm, From Women Makes Movies. Black and White Film (Robert Huot, 1968-69, B&W, Silent, 13 mins, 16mm, From Artist). Daffodils (Katy Martin, 1979/81, Silent, 3 mins, Super 8 on 16mm, From artist)

(Total running time: 99 mins, U.S., Color, unless indicated otherwise)

Sunday and Monday April 15 + 16, 2007

CINEMA PROJECT link
Portland, Oregon

BB OPTICS – BILL BRAND
[New American Art Union | 7:30pm]
Underwritten in part by Randy Rapaport

Cinema Project is honored to present two evenings with Bill Brand. For over three decades Bill Brand has been an artist, educator, activist and film preservationist. Starting with his film studies under Paul Sharits in the early 70s, he went on to found Chicago Filmmakers in 1973. Since 1976 Bill Brand has operated BB Optics, an optical printing service specializing in 8mm blow-ups and archival preservation particularly of films by artists. In 1981 he completed a permanent public art project, Masstransiscope, a mural installed in the subway system of New York City that is animated by the movement of passing trains. Brand is currently Professor of Flim and Photography at Hampshire College and teaches film preservation in the graduate Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program at NYU.

Bill will present a number of his own films as well as work that he has preserved. Bill Brand's own films begin with formal, structural studies, which have lead to more personnel works that address personal and family history dealing with the implications of being the only sibling of five not to have inherited Polycystic Kidney Disease. Among the many remarkable films presented this two evenings is an extremely rare public presentation of The Nixon White House Staff Super 8 Motion Picture Film Collection, which contains FBI-confiscated films recorded between 1969 and 1973. The films were found in the office files of John Ehrlichman after he resigned his post as Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs on April 30, 1973 and show Nixon and the First Family in a combination of banal and official scenarios. Other great works include films by Saul Levine, Peter Herwitz, and Jack Waters.

Bill Brand will also be presenting a workshop at the Northwest Film Center on April 14th! Please check www.nwfilm.org for more details.
—ARTIST IN ATTENDANCE—

April 15 • The Radical Image in Politics
Reel S-10 Nixon White House Super-8 Films [1969-73, Super8 on 16mm, silent, 18 min]
New Left Note by Saul Levine [1968-82, 8mm on 16mm, color, silent, 28 min]
Coalfields by Bill Brand [1984, 16mm, color, sound, 38 min]

April 16 • Interior Landscape
Angular Momentum by Bill Brand [1973, 16mm, color, sound, 20 min]
Winter Dream Lieder by Peter Herwitz [1993, Super 8 on 16mm, color, silent, 12 min]
Berlin NY by Jack Waters [1984-86, super8 on 16mm, b&w and color, sound, 20 min]
Swan's Island by Bill Brand and Katy Martin [2006, 16mm, color, sound, 5 min]
Suite by Bill Brand [1996-2003, video, color, sound, 28 min]

Saturday April 14, 2007

Northwest Film Center link
Portland, Oregon

DO IT YOURSELF FILM/VIDEO PRESERVATION:
A GUIDE FOR INDEPENDENT FILM/VIDEO MAKERS
SATURDAY, APR 14, 1-4 PM
Its difficult to think about archiving or preserving one's work for the future when the daily demands of production and survival are so great. Yet the way you care for, document and store your film, videotape and digital media now will directly affect the future shelf life of that body of work you've worked so hard to create. A few simple and practical steps can go a long way in helping to minimize the effects of time and the elements on your legacy. In this workshop, presented from the working artists' point of view, you will learn to assess what needs to be done, and be instructed on the basic practices associated with inventorying, inspecting and storing your collection of film and video, from measuring film prints for shrinkage and checking for "vinegar syndrome" to dealing with outdated video and digital formats. You will learn about optimal archival storage containers and conditions as well as practical solutions for less than ideal opportunities. Open to film/videomakers of all levels. Librarians, archivists, family historians and collectors are also welcome. Participants may bring in samples of their materials for discussion. Co-presented with Cinema Project. Participants will receive a copy of "Results You Can't Refuse: Celebrating 30 Years of BB Optics" published by Anthology Film Archives.

1 SESSION
TUITION: $20 ($15 Certificate Students)

Monday March 26, 2007

New Directors / New Films - Retrospective link
Walter Reade Theater - Lincoln Center
New York City

3:20 pm. Home Less Home (Bill Brand, USA, 1990) - ND/NF #20
double bill:
2:00 pm. Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (Mark Lewis, Australia, 1987) - ND/NF #17

Sunday, Dec. 17, 2006
8 pm

The Tank
279 Church Street between Franklin and White
New York, NY

New York Experimental presents:
Bill Brand: Mistakes, Out Takes and Good Deeds

It Dawn Down (1974)
Angular Momentum (1973)
Chuck's Will's Widow (1982)
Suite (1996-2003)
Mistakes, Out Takes and Good Deeds (2006) an improvisational installation/performance of never before seen or rarely screened bits and pieces from Brand's studio.

October 19 - November 10, 2006

Through Our Own Eyes: Belfast / NY
a group exhibition of Artists Exchange International, Green Dog Arts and Belfast Festival at Queens

former Northern Bank (Assembly Rooms)
Waring Street
Belfast Ireland

Suite by Bill Brand
a 30-minute video playing continuously

Artists in the exhibition:

Jo Wood Brown, Barbara Friedman, Michael Zwack, Ross Neher, Gwenn Thomas, Maura Sheehan, Sandi Slone, Mimi Gross, Bill Brand, Katy Martin, Edward Shalala, April Vollmer, Mark O’Grady and Robert Janz.