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December 9, 2009

Montreal exhibit expands view of space race

BY STEVEN HOWELL

MONTREAL — This vision of the future is brought to you by the Canadian Centre for Architecture. We'll be right back.

"Intermission: Films from a Heroic Future" is an eclectic collection of video shorts, experimental films and even unseen footage from outer space. The films come courtesy of NASA, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the National Film Board of Canada and UbuWeb, an online resource for avant-garde audio and video productions.

There are some 100 works from which to screen presented in themes such as "Space," "Pace," "Speed," "Flight," "Cosmonauts," "Motion Studies" and "Atmosphere." The films range from a four-minute short to the 22-hour "Secrets of Apollo," never-before-seen mission footage from the archives of NASA shot from 1967 to 1972. Shown continuously, it is indeed mesmerizing to watch, but you may have to stick around for a while to view highlights such as Earth rises over the moon taken from Apollo missions 11, 12 and 13; a driver's perspective taken from the lunar module; and Neil Armstrong's moon walk filmed by Buzz Aldrin.

You can view most of the films on any given day, but the venue within the museum space changes daily — from a room-sized installation gallery space that offers pristine white bleacher-style seating (it looks great but it is honestly not so comfortable) to individual computers with headphones for personal viewing.

ABSTRACT FILMS
UbuWeb's theme of "Speed" was being projected in the main large gallery the day I attended. All nine films were on the docket that day, ranging from "Liquid Vanilla," a seven-minute trippy-pastel-lava-lamp-come-to large-screen-life to shorter animated experimental (and somewhat repetitive) abstract films such as "Symphonie Diagonale," a 1924 silent German film, "Fuji," an animated train adventure to Japan's Mt. Fuji, and the jarring strobe-lit-esque "69," all of which required a bit of viewing patience.

Most intriguing were "Go! Go! Go!" a fast-paced homage to the busy streets of New York City created by Marie Menken in 1964. The film squeezes two years in the life of the Big Apple into a dizzying 11 minutes complete with street scenes, harbor fronts and traffic-intersection ballets interspersed with wedding processions, graduation ceremonies and social cotillions. Also worth sticking around for was "5 Seconds 10 Minutes 24 Hours," a hypnotic day and then some in the life of one small urban space in the very busy heart of Jakarta, Indonesia.

Much of what wasn't shown on the big screen that day could be viewed at the individual computer terminals. Indeed, opposite of the "Speed" theme is "Pace," which screened the likes of "The Awful Backlash," a 14-minute 1967 film that explores the art of disentangling a spool of fishing wire. It's actually funnier and more entertaining than it sounds.

SPACE RACE
National Air and Space Museum's "Space" series is worth a peek. These films include the entire Georges Melies 1902 classic "A Trip to the Moon," considered the first representation of space travel in film, says the accompanying text. But my favorite of all was "How Many Meals to the Moon," a 1968 promotional film created by Whirlpool. Hosted and narrated by "space reporter" Peter Hackes, it conveys the Golden Era of the Space Race, particularly Whirlpool's contribution in creating food for space travel. It's pure nostalgic fun that made me laugh out loud.

The exhibition also presents a number of films categorized as Curator's Choice, including "The Films of John Lennon and Yoko Ono 1970-1972," four rarely seen films to be screened Jan. 28, 30 and 31 (with curator's talk Jan. 28). In addition, select films will be screened at the Thursday Night Features series, which offers live music and a cash bar. Upcoming films include "Disney's Tomorrowland," Dec. 17 and Jan. 7, and "The Dawn of Air Travel" Jan. 14.

"Intermission" continues through Feb. 28.

The Canadian Centre for Architecture is at 1920 Baile St. downtown (Metro station Guy-Concordia). Admission costs $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and is free for students and children. Admission is also free for all Thursday evenings after 5:30 p.m. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; until 9 p.m. Thursdays. For more information call (514) 939-7026 or visit www..cca.qc.ca.

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