MOCK UP ON MU

So this is the new film by Aurora Advisory Board member Craig Baldwin! He is the godfather of microcinema one could say. In a radical hybrid of spy, sci-fi, Western, and even horror genres, Craig Baldwin's Mock Up On Mu cobbles together a feature-length "collage-narrative" based on (mostly) true stories of California's post-War sub-cultures of rocket pioneers, alternative religions, and Beat lifestyles. Pulp-serial snippets, industrial-film imagery, and B- (and Z-) fiction clips are intercut with newly shot live-action material, powering a playful, allegorical trajectory through the now-mythic occult matrix of Jack Parsons (Crowleyite founder of the Jet Propulsion Lab), L.Ron Hubbard (sci-fi author turned cult-leader), and Marjorie Cameron (bohemian artist and "mother of the New Age movement"). Their intertwined tales spin out into a speculative farce on the militarization of space, and the corporate take-over of spiritual fulfillment and leisure-time. Definitely a must see!!!

NY THEATRICAL PREMIERE RUN!
Craig Baldwin’s
MOCK UP ON MU
January 14 – 20
ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES
32 SECOND AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10003; (212) 505-5181 fax (212) 477-2714

Alex Rivera's Web Project

Visiting filmmaker Alex Rivera shared with Aurora all sorts of video work, shorts and awesome films; nevertheless, his take on the immigration issue does not end there. He is also working with Angel Nevarezon on a web project called Low Drone which consists of a remote controlled low-rider spy drone that jumps in between the US and Mexico in order to increase the level of satire surveying the US border patrol.

Aurora visiting artist, Ximena Cuevas

The Yes Men in the "special edition" of today's New York Times.

If you had the chance to see The Yes Men in 2005 at Aurora, you might be interested in what they came out with:

In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged pickup locations, where thousands of volunteers stood ready to pass them out on the street. Early this morning, commuters nationwide were delighted to find out that while they were sleeping, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had
come to an end...

Toypunks Rocks the House

Aurora Picture Show hosted filmmakers Chris Nelson and Carl Wormley (pictured) this weekend with a screening of their recently completed documentary Toypunks featuring designer toy creators Bounty Hunter and Frank Kozik. Nelson and Wormley filled audience members in on the highlights of shooting in the Harajuku shopping district of Tokyo and plans for a next installment of the documentary series. To hear Chris Nelson's interview about Toypunks on KUHF-FM (Houston's NPR affiliate), download the interview from the station's website here.

Extremely Shorts Rock the House

Aurora closed our the first half of our calendar year with a packed house for Extremely Shorts Eleven. The weekend kicked off with four hundred plus attending a "Best of" Extremely Shorts screening at
Discovery Green Park(photo provided by Arie Moghadden-thank you Arie), followed by three screenings at the Aurora home venue of new shorts from emerging film and video artists hosted by curator Ed Halter. This years top three films were David Purdie's "Astrowhirled", Sarah Grass' "I'd Rather Have a Puppy" and Brandon Van Meter's "Who I'll Be." After several hours of karaoke the final night of the festival, Aurora is ready for some much deserved R&R. Please join us again in August for Houston filmmaker Chris Nelson's screening of Toypunks. Get ready for toys, fashion, and punk rock!

Weiss Talks

Bart Weiss, founder of the Dallas Video Festival, hosted two screenings of the "Best of Fest" from the past twenty years of his festival at Aurora Picture Show this weekend. He also kicked off Aurora's debut salon series with a short talk entitled "What is Video Art?" at Aurora's video library on Sunday. Weiss walked visitors through the main periods of video art history and some of the more defined genres such as performance-based video art, showing samples of works from William Wegman and
Ant Farm, both of which are available to view for free at Aurora's video library, 1524 Sul Ross.

Harrell Fletcher is a Member, Are You?

Join or renew your Aurora Picture Show membership now and be entered to win a limited edition Harrell Fletcher print made exclusively for Aurora Picture Show. All new or renewed memberships, purchased between now and June 30, 2008, will be entered for one chance to win this special artwork.

A participant in the 2004 Whitney Biennial, Fletcher´s work has been shown at SF MoMA, the de Young Museum, The Berkeley Art Museum, and Yerba Buena Center For The Arts in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Drawing Center, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Sculpture Center, Domain de Kerguehennec in France, and The Royal College of Art in London. In 2002, Fletcher started Learning To Love You More, an ongoing participatory web site with Miranda July. Visit the
Harrell Fletcher site for more about his work.

Join now for a chance to win this exclusive work by clicking
here to become a member.

Aurora Does it Again

Aurora Picture Show rounded out another successful annual multimedia festival last Saturday, with the final performances of Media Archelogy: Live and Televised. This year's performers included Negativland, who performed at Rice University; Brent Green, who performed with musicians Howe Gelb (of the popular band Giant Sand), Jeremy Gara (of the band Arcade Fire) and Thoger Lund at the Orange Show and artists Tara Mateik, and Shana Moulton, who performed at DiverseWorks. Photos featured include shots from Tara Mateik's "Putting the Balls Away" and Moulton's "Cynthia's Moment." The artist-heavy week drew great audiences and closed with an extravagant brunch hosted by Hotel Icon's new restaurant Voice. Our thanks goes out to all the Media Archeology artists, sponsors, volunteers and Aurora staff who helped make this a festival like no other.

Aurora Adds New Faces to Advisory Board

Aurora Picture Show has added some familiar Aurora friends to the official Aurora family. Curators Bree Edwards and Astria Suparak have graciously agreed to join the Aurora Advisory Board. Welcome Bree and Astria!

Bree Edwards is an independent curator and cultural producer who has held the positions of Program Manager at the Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston and Curator of Public Programs at the Asheville Museum of Art. In Asheville she organized a year-long, interdisciplinary series focused on the legacy of the experimental college Black Mountain College (1933-57). She has organized numerous group exhibitions and screenings and her writing has been published by The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Museu do Chiado in Lisbon, as well as appearing in various blogs and art publications.

Astria Suparak is the Director of Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. From 1998-2000 she directed the weekly Pratt Institute Film Series in Brooklyn, which included live music, performance and installations. In 2006 she became the inaugural director of the contemporary art space The Warehouse Gallery at Syracuse University, organizing acclaimed and sometimes controversial exhibitions including Faux Naturel, COME ON: Desire Under the Female Gaze, and Networked Nature with Rhizome. Her conceptually and aesthetically diverse shows have exhibited and screened at sites including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The Kitchen, Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo, Yale University School of Architecture, The Liverpool Biennial, P.S.1, Anthology Film Archives, International Film Festival Oberhausen, Eyebeam and Participant, Inc. Gallery.

Grover Cleans Up

Aurora's fearless Artistic Director Andrea Grover cleaned up this past weekend at the DiverseWorks Gala. Grover was one of three "visionary" honorees for the evening which included Project Row Houses' Rick Lowe and Fotofest founders Wendy Watriss and Fred Baldwin. Other honorees included artists Mel Chin , William Steen, and Sharon Engelstein and patrons Cindy Bishop and David Donnelly (Cindy is also an Aurora Board member!), Charles Mary Kubricht, Ron Sommers and Jeff and Toni Beauchamp. Congratulations Andrea! (Photo features Andrea Grover and Delicia Harvey).

You Are Here Symposium: Instant Replay

If you missed the December symposium You Are Here, you can watch video documentation online (courtesy of Bree Edwards and Johnny DeKam).

You Are Here- Nato Thompson

You Are Here- Matt Coolidge/CLUI

You Are Here- Institute for Applied Autonomy

You Are Here- Matt McCormick 1

You Are Here- Matt McCormick 2