Josh B Mabe

Before Brakhage and Landow, there was Kurt Heyl, a South Side native, musician, and School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s first film student, who briefly held together that school’s experimental film program with spit, spirit, and stubborn grit. Built from Heyl’s own words and images, this video essay kicks off the Chicago Media Histories Project with a rough-edged tribute to a nearly forgotten chapter in underground cinema.

Cheap video, cross-processed Kodachrome and years-old animations combine in this film, made around – but not of – a funeral. Flipcam, cross-processed Kodachrome, old animations. Big Creek, VA.

An appropriation and reframing of Stan Brakhage’s Stellar, Pastoral is a fascinating tribute to the late artist. Despite being further abstracted, hyper-saturated and degraded by various means of reproduction, the late artist’s distinctive rhythm and composition remain recognizably intact. Altering landscape. Cheeky. Chicago, IL.

No synopsis available yet.

Two Christmastime films. Two sides of the mountain. Richlands, VA.

Junkyard cows and animators hands. Title lifted from Charles Simic. Chicago, IL & Chicago Heights, IL.

Before Brakhage and Landow, there was Kurt Heyl, a South Side native, musician, and School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s first film student, who briefly held together that school’s experimental film program with spit, spirit, and stubborn grit. Built from Heyl’s own words and images, this video essay kicks off the Chicago Media Histories Project with a rough-edged tribute to a nearly forgotten chapter in underground cinema.

Cheap video, cross-processed Kodachrome and years-old animations combine in this film, made around – but not of – a funeral. Flipcam, cross-processed Kodachrome, old animations. Big Creek, VA.

An appropriation and reframing of Stan Brakhage’s Stellar, Pastoral is a fascinating tribute to the late artist. Despite being further abstracted, hyper-saturated and degraded by various means of reproduction, the late artist’s distinctive rhythm and composition remain recognizably intact. Altering landscape. Cheeky. Chicago, IL.

No synopsis available yet.

Two Christmastime films. Two sides of the mountain. Richlands, VA.

Junkyard cows and animators hands. Title lifted from Charles Simic. Chicago, IL & Chicago Heights, IL.

Library Art. Chicago Heights, IL.

A fire. A figure. A flash. Rock Hill, SC.

A tiny film. Richlands, VA & Rock Hill, SC.