Those still suffering from a case of post-Hurricane Ike cabin fever can find refuge this weekend as Caroline Collective hosts its Final Friday Screening Series – a night of short films, live music and free beer – starting at 7 p.m. Friday at Caroline Collective, 4820 Caroline St.
The Final Friday Screening Series, organized by Microcinema International and Asthmatic Kitty Records, brings the latest shorts of up-and-coming independent filmmakers into the collaborative space of Caroline Collective on the last Friday of every month.
This Friday’s screening will feature a musical act curated by Houston Press Music Editor Chris Gray followed by Independent Exposure Animation Edition 2008, a 66-minute compilation of 15 animated shorts.
The collection of films painstakingly mesh intricate audio into the visual realm to provide viewers with a treat as stimulating to the ears as it is the eyes.
IV.6, a three-minute instrumental video directed by Mike Winkelmann, syncs each element of instrumentation from a musical arrangement into the colorful animation of each sound.
With bleak 2D and 3D animations, Michael Salkeld’s North Circular translates improvised experimental sound into the form of visual poem.
Using hair, window cleaner and paper cutouts as a visual platform, Una Lorenzen’s It Goes Without Saying takes the music of Nico Muhly and juxtaposes the seemingly effortless, organic flow of music with a structural counterpart.
In Discovery of the Sprite Erin Dunn uses multimedia renderings as the basis for virtual landscape depicting abstracted sea gulls, praying mantises and swans frolicking amidst heavy layers of incredibly detailed animations.
Malcolm Sutherland’s Bird Calls awakens the written languages of birds, and ‘Eacute;loi M’eacute;nard’s La Bo√Æte will offer viewers a three-minute snapshot into a realm in which his characters’ actions are motivated by the projection of visuals on a wall.
Lanky creatures provide a liberating visual interpretation of Erik Satie’s 1914 collection of piano compositions Sports et divertissements in Bum Lee’s black and white four-minute short Sports and Diversions, directed by Ton Meijdam and B’eacute;la Zsigmond, grounds the overwhelming visual impact of increased commercialization in a six-minute black and white film.
Limited edition silk-screened posters, made specifically for each screening of Caroline Collective’s Friday night film festival by Evan O’Neil, will be available free of cost to the first 20 patrons. Additional silk-screened posters will be for sale.
St. Arnold’s Brewery will provide free drinks for the event.
Admission is $5. Doors open at 6 p.m. Call (713) 825-4613 or visit http://carolinecollective.cc for more information about upcoming showings of the Final Friday Screening Series.