two upcoming Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular book events
Book Signing and Conversation
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
7:00 PM
Book Soup
8818 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular editors Rani Singh and Andrew Perchuk, plus special guests, will discuss the life and works of Harry Smith.
~~~~~~~~~~~~Thursday, January 28, 2010
7:00 PM
Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
Free; limit one ticket per person on a first come, first served basis.
Join Patti Smith and friends at the Hammer Museum for a night of film, live music, and remebrance of filmmaker, musicologist, ethnographer, bohemian, and occultist Harry Everett Smith.
posted 25 November 2009
Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde in the American Vernacular now available for pre-order!
This new, wide-ranging study of Harry Smith's life and work, published by the Getty, will be available on November 30th. It's being sold for pre-order on Amazon and at the Getty bookstore.
Filmmaker, musicologist, painter, ethnographer, graphic designer, mystic, and collector of string figures and other patterns, Harry Smith (1927-1991) was among the most original creative forces in postwar American art and culture, yet his life and work remain poorly understood. Today he is remembered primarily for his Anthology of American Folk Music (1952)--an idiosyncratic collection of early recordings that educated and inspired a generation of musicians and roots music fans--and for a body of innovative abstract and nonnarrative films. Constituting a first attempt to locate Smith and his diverse endeavors within the history of avant-garde art production in twentieth-century America, the essays in this volume reach across Smith's artistic oeuvre.
In addition to contributions by Paul Arthur, Robert Cantwell, Thomas Crow, Stephen Fredman, Stephen Hinton, Greil Marcus, Annette Michelson, William Moritz, and P. Adams Sitney, the volume contains numerous illustrations of Smith's works and a selection of his letters and other primary sources.
Andrew Perchuk is assistant director for Contemporary Programs and Research at the Getty Research Institute. Rani Singh is senior research associate in Contemporary Programs and Research at the Getty Research Institute as well as the director of the Harry Smith Archives.
posted 25 November 2009
film festival tour of The Old, Weird America
download press kit here
Boulder, Colorado
Sun, Jun 20, 2008 / 8 PM / The Performing Arts Center
director in person
The Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre
Los Angeles, California
Thurs, May 15, 2008 / 8:00 PM
director in person
The Ninth Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival
Belfast, Ireland
May 1-12, 2008
Mon, May 5, 2008 / 8:00 PM / The John Hewitt
Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente
Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 8 - 20, 2008
Fri, Apr 11 / 7:15 PM / Alianza Francesca
Tues, Apr 15 / 1:15 PM / Abasto Salas Hoyts Sala 7
Thurs, Apr 17 / 3:45 PM / Alianza Francesca
Sheffield, UK
April 12-18, 2008
Sun, Apr 13 / 6:30 PM / Showroom
IN-EDIT Music Documentary Film Festival Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain
October 25 - November 1, 2007
Stockholm International Film Festival
Stockholm, Sweden
November 15-25, 2007
Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
New York, New York
November 9-11, 2007
Sat, Nov 10 / 8:15 PM / American Museum of Natural History
screening with Mirror Animations (1957)
London, UK
October 24-28, 2007
Sun, Oct 28 / 1:45 PM / FreeDM Studio, Roundhouse
Vienna, Austria
October 19-30, 2007
Mon, Oct 22 / 11:30 PM / Urania
Tues, Oct 23 / 9:00 PM / Urania
Warsaw International Film Fest
Warsaw, Poland
October 12-21, 2007
Fri, Oct 12 / 9:00 PM / PALLADIUM
Sun, Oct 14 / 4:00 PM / PALLADIUM
Calgary International Film Festival
Calgary, Alberta
September 21-30, 2007
Sun, Sept 23 / 9:15 / Uptown - Upstairs
Athens International Film Festival
Athens, Greece
September 20-30, 2007
Minneapolis, Minnesota
August 22-26, 2007
Sun, Aug 26 / 7:15 / the Ritz Theater
Los Angeles, CA
August 15, 2007
Wed, Aug 15 / 7:30 / Harold M. Williams Auditorium
Melbourne Film Festival
Melbourne, Australia
July 25 - August 12, 2007
Sun, Jul 29 / 01:00 / Greater Union
San Francisco Film Festival
San Francisco, California
April 26-May 10, 2007
Fri, Apr 27 / 08:55 / PFA / OLDW27P view details
Sat, Apr 28 / 06:15 / Kabuki / OLDW28K
Mon, Apr 30 / 08:30 / Kabuki / OLDW30K
Wed, May 2 / 03:45 / Kabuki / OLDW02K
Film Fest DC
Washington D.C.
April 19-29, 2007
Saturday April 21 6:30 PM The Greenberg Theatre
Performance by the Hoover Uprights band following the Screening
IndieLisboa
Lisbon, Portugal
April 19-29, 2007
21, SÁBADO/SATURDAY, 23H30, SÃO JORGE 3
27, SEXTA/FRIDAY, 23H30, SÃO JORGE 3
more cities and dates to come!
The Old, Weird America airs July 4th on OvationTV
“Old, Weird America: Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music”
Wednesday, July 4 – 9:00 PM
The idiosyncratic experimental film artist Harry Smith began collecting one-of-a-kind folk recordings in the 1940’s. Shellac was a war material – supplies had been cut off, and these irreplaceable early recordings were being melted down and lost to the world forever. Smith amassed a huge collection, part of which was eventually released on Folkway Records in 1952 as the now-famous Anthology of American Folk Music. This release seeded the folk
revival of the 1960’s, and has reverberated through popular music ever since. Old, Weird America tells Harry Smith’s story, complete with new performances of some of the folk songs he rescued by contemporary artists, including Beck, Elvis Costello, Lou Reed and Sonic Youth.
About Ovation TV:
Launched in 1997, Ovation TV is focused on entertaining, inspiring and engaging the artist in all of us. The 24-hour channel is the only television network devoted exclusively to art, personal creativity and making the arts more accessible to viewers in their daily lives. The network showcases the world’s greatest artists in theater, dance, opera, literature, film, visual and fine art, music, popular arts, design, photography and architecture. Ovation TV features original programming and a multi-platform content strategy that includes partnerships with leading American cultural and art institutions and educational organizations. After launching nationally on DIRECTV, Ovation TV will reach nearly 15 million subscribers, and has cable distribution in key U.S. markets and master distribution agreements in place with most major cable operators. In August 2006 Ovation TV was acquired by Hubbard Media Group and a group of other private investors which includes Arcadia Investment Partners, Corporate Partners II, Perry Capital, and The Weinstein Company.
posted June 27, 2007
World television premiere on OvationTV
As part of Ovation TV's "American Revolutionaries" series, airing July 1 -15, The Old, Weird America will make its world television premiere on DirecTV.
Details will be posted soon for the air date for The Old, Weird America.
view full article here
posted June 6, 2007
East Bay Express on the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival
"An array of musical mavens — Greil Marcus, Elvis Costello, Philip Glass, Beck, Lou Reed — line up to sing the praises of the late musicologist Harry Smith, whose Anthology of American Folk Music emerges as the Rosetta Stone of the American musical experience, a never-ending source of inspiration for roots musicians and scholars. The more you hear of filmmaker Rani Singh's exploration into Smith and the folk music he exalted, the more you want to hear."
view full article here
posted April 27, 2007
New York Times reviews The Old, Weird America
"With this film fans can not only see remarkable clips of those performances, but gain unprecedented insight into the mind of the man who never stopped working to preserve the music that spoke to his soul."
view full article here
posted April 27, 2007
indieWIRE mentions Old, Weird America in San Francisco line-up
"This year's documentary line-up includes Rani Singh's "The Old, Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music," the North American premiere of "The Key of G," by Robert Arnold and about the life of a developmentally disabled 22-year-old, and "Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project," on embattled photographer Gearon..."
view full article here
posted April 13, 2007
Variety reviews The Old, Weird America
"Harry Smith set out to preserve idiosyncratic performances of traditional songs so he could capture an alternative, rough-edged America; archivist-turned-helmer Rani Singh pays tribute to the man and his musical legacy in "The Old, Weird America...""
view full article here
posted March 3, 2007
Rotterdam's Daily Tiger reports on The Old, Weird America
"The excellent archival material used in the film contexualizes the wild and eclectic spirit of the tradition, channelled through modern day performances. Put together with an introduction by Hal Willner, interviews with performers and a smattering of frames of the outrageously eccentric man himself, this film is a comprehensive portrait of Harry Smith, his films, his art - and his devotion to collecting the music that would become his legacy."
posted February 1, 2007
The feature-length documentary directed by Rani Singh will have its world premiere at the 36th Rotterdam Film Festival, from January 24 - February 4, 2007. Screenings will take place on February 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.
posted December 1, 2006