BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
X-WR-CALNAME:www.indybay.org
PRODID:-//indybay/ical// v1.0//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:Indybay-78553
SEQUENCE:78553
CREATED:20051018T003300Z
DESCRIPTION:History is typically brought to us in its official form—the sponsored 
 version, validated by power and assembled by authorized agents. But the 
 visual evidence of history has its unsanctioned and overlooked sources, 
 troves of images from elsewhere. The exacting Hungarian artist Peter 
 Forgacs has plundered one such trove, that of home movies shot primarily in 
 the thirties and forties by Hungarian Jews. “The films became more than 
 evidence, more than fact,” Forgacs has said. “They became a complex 
 cultural and archaeological site for me.” Forgacs shapes the footage into 
 elegiac “family sagas” that have the specificity of particular people 
 yet bear, through poetic resonance, an unofficial history of a time-bound 
 culture. Forgacs’s minimalism is a vital attribute: subtle cues, a word 
 placed in the frame identifying a notable person or poignant moment, ride 
 gently upon restrained waves of image manipulation. Composer Tibor 
 Szemzˆ’s haunting soundscapes further accentuate both visual detail and 
 emotional strains. Private Hungary, a series initiated in the late 
 eighties, now includes a dozen works; in the mid-nineties, Forgacs began 
 resurrecting home movies from other countries such as Spain, the 
 Netherlands, and Greece, adding breadth to his “private” world. These 
 three programs offer an official look at an unauthorized history that 
 demands our recognition.  -Steve Seid   
 -------------------------------------------------------  2nd Program:   
 Thursday November 3  First Impressions/Peter Forgacs  5:30  The Maelstrom   
 Peter Forgacs (The Netherlands, 1997)  Free First Thursday Screening!  
 Tickets available at the PFA Theater starting at 4:30  The Maelstrom traces 
 the Peereboom family, Flora, Jozeph, and their three sons, from the early 
 thirties to the early forties when Holland is occupied by Nazi forces. 
 Living just outside Amsterdam, the Peerebooms lead a comfortable life, 
 almost an idyll, as businesses prosper and the children grow and 
 marry—and all the while, just outside the frame, National Socialism is 
 advancing. The Maelstrom charts the private complacency of a family seeking 
 normalcy in the worst of times.—Steve Seid    (60 mins, B&W/Tinted, Beta 
 SP, PFA Collection, permission of the artist)    [This series is presented 
 in conjunction with the Judah L. Magnes Museum exhibition The Danube 
 Exodus: The Rippling Currents of the River, coproduced by Peter Forgacs and 
 the Labyrinth Project, on view through January 22, 2006. For information, 
 visit http://www.magnes.org.]\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/10/17/78553.php
SUMMARY:The Unofficial Histories of Peter Forgacs, Part 2 of 3 - FREE 1st Thursday
LOCATION:Pacific Film Archive  2575 Bancroft Way  Between College and Telegraph  
 Berkeley, CA 94720
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/10/17/78553.php
DTSTART:20051104T013000Z
DTEND:20051104T023000Z
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR