Acclaimed film curators from both sides of the country will meet at the University of Colorado at Boulder to help celebrate the Fifth Annual Stan Brakhage Symposium on March 14-15.

Steve Seid, video curator at the Pacific Film Archive at the University of California, Berkeley, and Mark McElhatten, New York City curator and archivist for Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese, will present programs intended to "shed light on the contemporary world of avant-garde filmmaking and artistry, focusing on the exploration of moving visual art, past, present and future."

The two-day event is sponsored by the CU-Boulder Film Studies Program and will be held in the ATLAS building on the Boulder campus. Each day will feature short films, presentations and panels that will examine the contemporary avant-garde world. All events are free and open to the public.

The symposium began in 2005 to recognize, honor and carry on the legacy of the late Stan Brakhage, who is credited by many visual artists as a man who once all but defined the American avant-garde film movement. Brakhage taught at CU-Boulder from 1981 until his death in 2003 and held the title of distinguished professor of film studies.

Brakhage began his filmmaking career in 1952 and completed more than 350 films, ranging from the psychodramatic works of the early 1950s to autobiographical lyrics, mythological epics, "documents" and metaphorical film "poems."

Each year the symposium brings members of the experimental film and video community together to celebrate art, to share ideas and to promote the evolution of the moving image.

The symposium was made possible by grants from The William H. Donner Foundation and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

For a complete schedule of events visit the Films Studies Program's Web site at www.colorado.edu/FilmStudies/brakhage/symposium_5.htm.

Contact

Don Yannacito, 303-492-1532
don.yannacito@colorado.edu
Dirk Martin, 303-492-3140