Critic, urban and media historian, and School of Critical Studies faculty Norman Klein joins the post-screening conversations of back-to-back Los Angeles Filmforum programs this Sunday, April 27 at 2220 Arts + Archives in Los Angeles.
Kicking off at 3 pm is Vatican to Vegas: Director’s Cut. Curated by SeeVa Dawne Kitslis, the program features three screenings, followed by a conversation between Klein and Art and Technology Program Director Tom Leeser. Klein’s live presentation is an exploration of “narratives of distortion,” and the ways in which artists have used them over the centuries as a vehicle for understanding their environs:
Norman Klein’s cult classic The Vatican to Vegas: A History of Special Effects (2004, 2023) traces this lineage over four hundred years as special effects are seen as narratives of distortion. Klein coined the term scripted spaces to refer to Elizabethan masques, machina versatilis, Rococo Gizmos and Fireworks, 19th-century magic lanterns and panoramas, and Gilded Age amusement parks from Coney Island forward. In this special director’s cut, Klein excavates cinema’s architecturally engineered illusions, historic CGI effects. Norman Klein’s live narrative mines the links between techno illusion and power within Hollywood’s dark noir and blockbuster classics such as scenes from the 1995 BBC-TV special The Mall, Killer of Sheep, Kiss Me Deadly, The Crowd, Ko-Ko’s Earth Control, Punch and Judy, and many more.
The screening schedule is as follows:
“Design for Dreaming”
MPO Productions, 1956, color, sound, 9:16 min. From the collection of the Prelinger Archives“King-Size Canary”
Directed by Tex Avery, 1947, color, sound, 8 min.Vatican to Vegas: Director’s Cut
50-55 min with clips from multiple films
Taking place shortly after the Vatican to Vegas presentation is Memory, FX, and the City, also curated by Kitslis. The program similarly explores distortion, special effects, and cinematic illusion, featuring screenings of seven shorts “in conversation with Norman Klein’s matinee feature and Klein’s longstanding concerns.” The screenings—beginning with a presentation of fellow CalArtian Deborah Stratman’s (Film/Video MFA 95) “Hacked Circuit,” a single-shot documentation of the Foley process—are followed by a discussion with Klein, Courtney Stephens, and Chris Peters, and moderated by Kitslis.
The Memory, FX, and the City lineup:
“Hacked Circuit”
Directed by Deborah Stratman
2014, digital, color, sound, 15 min“Media Hostages: S.S.S.”
Directed by Antonio Muntadas
1985, digital, color, sound, 6:24 min“Pasadena Freeway Stills”
Directed by Gary Beydler
1974, 16mm, color, silent, 16 min“Country Ball, 1989-2012”
Directed by Jacolby Satterwhite
2012, digital (HD video), color, sound, 12:38 min“Mating Games”
Directed by Courtney Stephens & KJ Relth
2017, 16mm, color, 8 min“SpaceCaptainScurvy: Scurvy @ the Threshold” (World premiere)
Directed by Chris Peters and Karl Montevirgen
2024, digital, color, sound, 4:34 min“Poemfield No. 5”
Directed by Stan VanDerBeek
1967, 16mm or digital, color, silent, 7 min
Find more information at LA Filmforum.
