Monday, February 14, 2011

PXL THIS 20 (2011)

PXL THIS 20, the 20th annual toy camera film festival featuring Pixelvision films made with the Fisher-Price PXL-2000 camcorder.

Wouldn't this make a great story?
 
PXL THIS 20, the 20th annual toy camera film festival featuring Pixelvision films made with the Fisher-Price PXL-2000 camcorder, screens May 19, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. PXL THIS, the second oldest film festival in LA, celebrates visionary moving image artists from 4-years-olds to professionals.
 
for immediate release
contact: Gerry Fialka 310-306-7330
pfsuzy@aol.com Visit: http://pxl2000.blogspot.com/ and http://sites.google.com/site/pxlthis/ and http://www.laughtears.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/user/pxlthis

PXL THIS 20, the 20th annual toy camera film festival,
screens Thursday, May 19, 2011, 8pm at Echo Park Film Center, 1200 N Alvarado St. (at Sunset Blvd.) Los Angeles, CA, 90026, 213-484-8846, admission $5, http://www.echoparkfilmcenter.org/ (where one can actually rent a PXL 2000 camcorder & past PXL THIS dvds). More PXL THIS info: 310-306-7330 http://www.laughtears.com/
Preshow features a sneak preview of Wickstead's Wonder - an interview with James Wickstead, the inventor of the Fisher Price PXL 2000 camcorder. Wickstead jwda@wicksteaddesign.com is available for interviews. Scroll down to read a recent article on him.

PXL THIS 20 press:
http://santamonica.patch.com/articles/toy-camcorder-fest-focuses-on-wild-imaginations
http://www.kcet.org/socal/voices/blur-sharpen/if-it-works-its-obsolete.html
http://www.examiner.com/santa-monica-city-buzz-in-los-angeles/introducing-gerry-fialka-s-pxl-this-20
PXL THIS celebrates its 20th year of creativity by everyone from kids to professionals. One of the most unique film festivals ever, PXL THIS has been attended by Oliver Stone, Daryl Hannah, Kim Fowley among many more. Pixelvision has even made it onto the big screen via Richard Linklater (Slacker), Michael Almereyda (Nadja, produced by David Lynch) and Craig Baldwin (Sonic Outlaws). The irresistible irony of the PXL 2000 is that the camera's ease-of-use and affordability, which entirely democratizes movie-making, has inspired the creation of some of the most visionary, avant and luminous film of our time. "If movies offer an escape from everyday life, Pixelvision is the Houdini of the film world."
SF Weekly

PXL THIS, featuring films made with the Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy camcorder, is one of the longest running film festivals in the entertainment capital of the world. Celebrating "cinema povera" moving image art, it evokes Marcel Duchamp's axiom "Poor tools require better skills." Pixelators from across the globe hoick up inventive approaches to the unassuming throw-away of consumer culture. These low-tech hi-jinx films come through loud and clear by reframing a new cinema language.  Past PXL THIS participants have included Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Chris Metzler (Fishbone & Salton Sea documentaries), James & Sadie Benning, Joe Gibbons, Cecilia Dougherty, Peggy Ahwesh, Jesse Drew, Margie Strosser and Michael Almereyda.
"Gerry Fialka’s annual PXL THIS is a reliably surprising and seductive round-up of recent work achieved with the PXL 2000 camera. This humble outdated “toy” continues to bring out the visionary child in filmmakers and viewers alike, and no one has kept the PXL flame burning longer or brighter than Gerry."
- Michael Almereyda, director

"Gerry Fialka's PXL THIS festival snaps, crackles and pops off the screen with the funky, user-friendly energy of real first-person cinema. Goofy, gorgeous, and altogether groovy, his provocative program of pieces produced with the Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy video camera is not only downright entertaining, but more, its blipping and buzzing black 'n' white picture-bits coalesce into a veritable inspiration to all those who cherish the playful, spontaneous gestures and low-cost of electronic folk art."
- Craig Baldwin, director & curator.

"All the PXL THIS videos reflect festival organizer Gerry Fialka's commitment to the freedom produced by making art without financial constraints. PXL THIS is a welcome highlight in the Los Angeles media scene celebrating the rich lexicon available in a tool which might initially seem rather limiting."
- Holly Willis, LA Weekly. 

"PXL is the ultimate people's video." - J. Hoberman, Premiere Magazine

Hollywood Reporter called Pixelvision a "precursor of today's DV filmmaking."

"When the aliens are here and deciding whether to vaporize all mankind for our inhumanity, cruelty and greed, showing the aliens PXL THIS will save the world. PXL THIS shows our best nature as humanist creators and subversives against those who deserve it. Save the world. Support PXL THIS." - George Manupelli, founder of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, filmmaker, poet, collagist and political/environmental activist

Cinesource PXL article by Gerry Fialka -  http://cinesourcemagazine.com/index.php?/site/comments/pxl_triple_fake/

PXL THIS Director Fialka - hires 300 dpi still with PXL Cam - http://www.laughtears.com/images/Gerry-360dpi.jpg and Bio - http://www.laughtears.com/bio.html
PXL THIS 20 will also screen in San Fran in 2011 tba

PXL THIS 20 highlights include:
Always a favorite at PXL THIS, L M Sabo's OIL KILLS takes you on a journey of America's love affair with Big Oil and the devastating consequences. Press ready stills: http://members.cox.net/l.m.sabo/Oil-Kills-1.jpg & http://members.cox.net/l.m.sabo/Oil-Kills-2.jpg & http://members.cox.net/l.m.sabo/Oil-Kills-3.jpg &
http://members.cox.net/l.m.sabo/Oil-Kills-4.jpg & http://members.cox.net/l.m.sabo/Oil-Kills-5.jpg
 
Nicole & Michael Possert's ARROYO SECO RIVER SONG, starring George Willis, is a moving tribute to the most important tributary to the Los Angels River. This historical corridor has been home to Native Americans, missionaries, rancheros, explorers, artists and dreamers who have sculpted this valley into LA's seminal region. The founding of the City of Los Angels is at the confluence of these two rivers.  Press images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/2007pxl/sets/72157625268199688/
Philip Marion's SPOON & PACKET conjures a miniature parable for a larger world. Press ready stills: www.eveningalbum.com/SpoonAndPacketPXLstills.jpg

It's a family affair with visionary PXL-Dad Geoff Seelinger contributing 3 titles (two co-made with his children): BEACH DAY, LIGHT PLAY http://vimeo.com/17718439 - A dreams beach day is captured in high contrast, stuttered motion by the magic of a PXL2000. Abstractions are created through motion, reflections, hi-lights and shadow. The PXL images of beach activities to open up into an immense imaginary space.

Geoff's children: 7 year-old Donovan's SHRINGLY: SCI-ENCE http://vimeo.com/17687291 delves into the reaches of his imagination about the mysteries of extreme science. Donovan uses seeds in motion, layering and abstract images to illuminate possibilities and ideas of his fancy. A collaboration with PXL dad -- Geoff Seelinger

4 year-old Gwyneth's AND THEY PLAYED & THEY PLAYED & THEY PLAYED http://vimeo.com/17694873 shares a stream of consciousness, that includes stories from the heart, songs about poop, ugly words and other joyous indiscretions.

PXL THIS superstar Eli Elliott's ROXY RUBICON EPISODE 5 alternatively energizes Menippean satire and time warps all systems from collapsing, just in time to save the future. His SUZY & BRAD'S PINCHBACK bellows Bessie Smith blues big time.

With jubilant innocence four-year old Anwyn Lees remakes THE WIZARD OF OZ on the front porch with Mom & Dad.

Jesse Drew's DOLBY - Technocultural professor's industrial shots of factory job recalls Russian Constructivism.

Seminal cinema experimenter Bryan Konefsky's FERTILE GROUND CORPORATE SLUG suggests the nitty gritty influences of media visionary, Gene Youngblood  (author of the ground-breaking book Expanded Cinema) as described by investigative journalist Greg Palast. http://vimeo.com/17020232
Award winning filmmaker Terri Sarris contributes three: DEAD MAN'S CLOTHES (Sarris & Frank Pahl - Oh, the stories second-hand things might tell...) and SPARKLE (Fourth of July, 2010) and GLITCH. http://vimeo.com/user3842874 Every decade sees one PXL that really captures the inherent uniqueness of Pixelvision. For example, James Benning's TABLETOP in the very first PXL THIS, and Lisa's Marr's RUGRAT in 2004. Sarris astutely utilizes PXL's innate characteristics in GLITCH.

Moving image artist extraordinaire David Sherman's PROJECTION/EJECTION shutters the ephemeral light in blinding the baseness of bodies in motion.

Squeezebox tickler Nick Newlin's TWICE AS NICE feels the love. Newlin interprets Thelonius on the accordion in MONK.
 
Michael Vile's THE MADGICIAN astounds with a floating cigarette.
PXL Pioneer tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE's PHILOSOPHER'S UNION MEMBER'S MOUTHPIECE yelps with fresh ideas from modern thinkers: Alan Rabbit Suit, Richard Tryzno Ellsberry and John Berndt.

Six-year-old Chester Burnett's CALIFORNIA STUDIOS playfully quakes the Hollywood template.
Paul Yates' DRAWBRIDGE demonstrates how surreal PXL in-camera effects can be. http://www.vimeo.com/4319553

Robin Carter's intriguing PYTHAGORAS AS POET explores the birth of science, mathematics, and philosophy. When the Phoenician's brought their writing system to the Greeks, it started a revolution of mind. In the midst of this, Pythagoras emerged in 500BC as the first philosopher. Myth and magic were as much apart of his world as number and theory. Since time immemorial the archivist of cultural knowledge was the poet, and Pythagoras followed this tradition and divined the properties numbers and space from the gods. The alphabet changed the world forever, as it changed the minds of the ancient Greeks. As the alphabet anchored in culture after culture, the mind of humankind has been shaped in kind, but as digital technology usurped the power of reading, what does that mean for us?

TROG ALLEY is another installment of Will Erokan's epic pxloitation compendium, Las Trampas, Joe recalls a highly transformative visionary experience, involving black magic, brotherhood symbolism & crystal meth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSK4SSqLUGM

Venice Boardwalk performer Joe Nucci's SEE NOTE is the fourth episode in the captivating trilogy of hilarious limo driver recollections.

PSALM 4 "3" + ME by Giuseppe Nuccini evokes the Venetian Rock Opera.

Mary Jane Shoultz's SPILTERACY probes the death of the visual, linear straight-jackets of books as a plus. Schoultz, education professor, founder of the "open" school movement and a close advisor to Marshall McLuhan, Norman Mailer & Ivan Illich, updates our consciousness with the electric environment as the major learning tool. "Our young people are not illiterate, they are post-literate. Today's students want immediate roles, not far-off goals." - McLuhan. The "S" is SPILTERACY should be a dollar sign $. "The trouble with a cheap specialized education is that you never stop paying for it." - McLuhan

Stormin' Norman & Suzy Williams' VENICE LULLABY swings rag'n'roll with joyous passion.

Jason Danti's BIRD merges bebop visuals with music as ideas.

Robert Dobbs' SEX, DEATH & PIXELVISION reignites the Menippean marshalling of McLuhan's science and the certainty of obscure artifacts.

In WASTING TIME LOOKIN' IN THE MIRROR, Pixelator Dahvi Bolog realizes his life.

Mariko Drew's IT'S A LEMONHEAD - Grade school gals profess quizzical inquiries about life.
Rex Butters' 7 DUDLEY conjures a montage of Sponto Gallery home movies filmed in words.

Maureen Cotter's COWBOY PUSSY recounts her experiences as a chaplain in a mental hospital.

Gerry Fialka's PARALLEL WORLDER doubles the single unified theory as Martha Graham and WC Fields dig duality dancing in mysterious metaphors of Beefheartian time & Vorticist space.

PXL innovator Doug Ing provides two engaging shorts: DEATH (Ruminations on death by the Loor Children and 65 year old Phil Kaplan) and BEST LAVA VIEW RIGHT HERE (Ing, his father and friends explore the aftermath of a recent volcano eruption on the island of Hawaii from the balcony of a house amidst the lava field).

Pixelvision avatars Lisa Marr and Paolo Davanzo's GOOD GRIEF repurposes pop culture with pixelated wit
Arthur Coleman's FOG ON GLASS breathes gray azure over the mirror. His MARIGOLD SERENADE mutes ambient birdsongs.

Clifford Novey's ROUNDS comprehensively circles illusive visual domains.

Elric Kane's SLOW DRAW appropriates bad action films evoking something more intimate than mere on-screen carnage via Pixelvision.

PXL Pioneer Paul Bacca's TETRAHEDRALLY trips the light fantastic in grass roots guerrilla radio waves fashion, Former Second City Music Director and comedian Jonathan Menchin's HEY YOU IN THE FUTURE alerts wanna-bes not yet born.

Called the female Robert Johnson, Sunny War's SHEEP grazes musicality supreme.
Denny Moynahan's KING KUKULELE KOGNITION joins Denny's live self and PXL-self as they ruminate on his 46th birthdays' inner thoughts.

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 PXL THIS 20 premiered Monday, Dec 13, 2010, two different shows 7 & 9pm at the Unurban Coffeehouse, 3301 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA, 90404, 310-315-0056, free admission. More info: 310-306-7330 http://www.laughtears.com/
7pm:
1- THE WIZARD OF OZ  - Anwyn Lees, 8 minutes*
2- CALIFORNIA STUDIOS - Chester Burnett, 3m*
3- AND THEY PLAYED & THEY PLAYED & THEY PLAYED - Gwyneth & Geoff Seelinger, 5m
4- BEACH DAY, LIGHT PLAY- Geoff Seelinger, 3m
5- SHRINGLY: SCI-ENCE - Donovan & Geoff Seelinger, 5m
6- 7 DUDLEY - Rex Butters, 3m*
7- TWICE AS NICE - Nick Newlin, 4m*
8- FOG ON GLASS - Arthur Coleman, 2m*
9- OIL KILLS - L. M. Sabo, 2m
10- PROJECTION/EJECTION - David Sherman - 3m
11- PYTHAGORAS AS POET - Robin Carter, 5m
12- SUZY & BRAD'S PINCHBACK - Eli Elliott, 4m
13- DEAD MAN'S CLOTHES - Terri Sarris & Frank Pahl, 3m
14- SPARKLE - Terri Sarris, 3m*
15- GLITCH - Terri Sarris, 3m
16- SPOON & PACKET - Philip Marion, 12m
17- SEE NOTE - Joe Nucci, 6m 
18- PSALM 4 "3" + ME - Giuseppe Nuccini, 1m*
19- BEST LAVA VIEW RIGHT HERE - Doug Ing, 4m*
20- IT'S A LEMONHEAD - Mariko Drew, 3m*
21- DOLBY - Jesse Drew, 3m*
9pm:
22- KING KUKULELE KOGNITION - Denny Moynahan, 4m
23- ARROYO SECO RIVER SONG - Nicole & Michael Possert, 4m
24- ROUNDS - Clifford Novey, 6m
25- FERTILE GROUND CORPORATE SLUG - Bryan Konefsky, 4m
26- DRAWBRIDGE - Paul Yates, 3m*
27- SLOW DRAW - Elric Kane, 7m
28- THE MADGICIAN - Michael Vile, 3m*
29- VENICE LULLABY - Stormin' Norman Zamcheck & Suzy Williams, 3m*
30- COWBOY PUSSY - Maureen Cotter, 4m*
31- PARALLEL WORLDER - Gerry Fialka, 10m*
32- HEY YOU IN THE FUTURE - Jonathan Menchin, 4m
33- GOOD GRIEF -  Lisa Marr & Paolo Davanzo, 2m
34- DEATH - Doug Ing, 5m*
35- TROG ALLEY - Will Erokan, 6m
36- ROXY RUBICON EPISODE 5 - Eli Elliott, 6m
37- WASTING TIME LOOKIN' IN THE MIRROR - Dahvi Bolog, 3m*
38- SHEEP - Sunny War, 4m*
39- SPILTERACY - Mary Jane Shoultz, 4m
40- MONK - Nick Newlin, 4m
41- SEX, DEATH & PIXELVISION - Robert Dobbs, 4m*
42- BIRD - Jason Danti, 4m*
43- MARIGOLD SERENADE - Arthur Coleman, 3m*
44- PHILOSOPHER'S UNION MEMBER'S MOUTHPIECE: Alan Rabbit Suit - tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE, 6m*
45-PHILOSOPHER'S UNIONMEMBER'S MOUTHPIECE:RichardTryzno Ellsberry-tENTATIVELYacONVENIENCE,6m*
46- PHILOSOPHER'S UNION MEMBER'S MOUTHPIECE: John Berndt - tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE, 6m*
47- TETRAHEDRALLY - Paul Bacca, 5m*
 (*means this short will be shown on tour if time permits)
 
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Blur + Sharpen If it Works, It's Obsolete by Holly Willis  12-11-10
http://www.kcet.org/socal/voices/blur-sharpen/if-it-works-its-obsolete.html
Gerry Fialka is LA's tireless advocate for alternative media and DIY culture generally, and the creative potential of the PXL 2000, a cheap, plastic toy video camera made by Fisher-Price in the 1980s, in particular. The camera produces a glitchy, chunky black-and-white image that's, well, often quite beautiful. For 20 years, the Venice-based media proponent has been showcasing videos made with the PXL 2000 camera in the PXL This video festival, which returns with a celebratory 20th annual showcase this Monday night, December 13, with two shows (7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.) at the Unurban Coffeehouse at 3301 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica. I took the anniversary as an opportunity to ask Gerry a few questions, starting with what makes the PXL 2000 camera interesting in a world where we now have so many video camera options.

"McLuhan said, 'If it works, it's obsolete,'" says Gerry. "The PXL is remarkable because it does not work." Gerry is referring here to the fact that the camera does not even attempt to mimic reality; it's not interested in clarity, resolution or fidelity. Instead, the camera produces a glimpse of the world, one that underscores visual manipulation and dismisses attempts at perfection. "Giving the viewer less information might mean more involvement by the viewer," Gerry suggests. "It enables the possibility of 'breakdown as breakthrough.'" Considering the array of camera options, Gerry adds, "There's lots of video cams on the market that have some similar features, but none with the unique gothic dreamy look - there are lots of cool words that have described its services and disservices!"

Shooting with the PXL 2000 is also fun. It's nicely shaped, lightweight, and now, nearly 30 years after its birth, boasts a sleek retro look that the little Flip video camera will never have. Oddly enough, the camera records onto sound cassettes, and the image itself is framed with a black matte, giving the resulting footage an elegant look in contrast with the chaos of the imagery itself. When you use a PXL Vision camera, you really have to negotiate with the camera; the process is about discovery rather than capture. "We are really about McLuhan's adage, 'We shape our tools, then they shape us,'" adds Gerry. "That's the meta-cognition here." He goes on to suggest that often artists try to rekindle the visionary delight of children, and using a toy contributes to that sense of creativity and rule-breaking.

Gerry notes that technically he does not "curate" the festival. "I show every entry," he explains. "We welcome kids and homeless people and rich art kids and so on. We celebrate a tool, and we leave it to the audience and press to make aesthetic judgments." He adds that audience reactions definitely shift each year. "'Anything that's popular is a rear-view image,'" Gerry adds, again quoting Marshall McLuhan. "We are not a popular festival." That said, the show is an annual highlight for those seeking offbeat imagery and storytelling, and creativity that emerges in dialogue with imperfect and magical toy tools. More info: 310-306-7330. [Images taken from a PXL 2000 user's manual, available here.] (scroll down for the complete answers from Fialka for Holly's questions)
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Toy-Camcorder Fest Focuses on Wild Imaginations by Hank Rosenfeld 12-14-10 Patch.com

http://patch.com/A-c7VP  and http://santamonica.patch.com/articles/toy-camcorder-fest-focuses-on-wild-imaginations

PXL This 20, held at the Unurban coffee house, raised a junked toy to artistic heights, howls and hilarity on Monday night.

This was not your father's film festival. More like your funny uncle's.

PXL This 20–the 20th installment of the annual fest curated and hosted by Gerry Fialka–featured nearly four dozen very short films at Unurban on Monday night. They were all shot with the same kind of camera: the PXL 2000, a toy camcorder that was created by Fisher-Price and then discontinued two years later.

The market couldn't handle it back in 1987-89, but thanks to thrift stores, Web sites and family members, the camera–which sells for $40 to $60–is more popular than ever. Today, some experimental directors who dig the camera's funky, low-tech imagery have turned what was a failed toy into a cheapo art tool.

"The toy is much too important to be left [only] to children," Fialka said playfully Monday night–even though the fest included many films made by kids.

The first section of the festival featured pieces shot by children under 10 years old. "And They Played & They Played & They Played" was Gwyneth Seelinger's imaginative, sharply edited tour of her hobbies, while her older brother Donovan's "Shringly: Sci-ence" featured him explaining wormholes and time-travel.

"California Studios," a three-minute documentary, had Chester Burnett employing stuffed animals to give the history of a lost part of Hollywood history. Also featured during this segment: an eight-minute version of "The Wizard of Oz," where Anywn Lees' parents played all the parts, and the 4-year-old narrated and handled lensing chores.

"It's how we put our ideas down," 7-year-old Donovan Seelinger told the audience when asked why he used a PXL cam to explain his ideas about neutrons and space.
Can you say "inspired"?

Many of the PXL films have the grainy quality of Ingmar Bergman black-and-white starkness, or a ghostly bank-security cam.

"Marshall McLuhan said TV is tactile," Fialka explained. " 'Tactile' is exactly the chunky look the PXL 2000 illustrates. You can practically touch the roundness of the dots–all 2,000 of them."
A typical TV screen contains about 200,000 dots of light, or pixels.

"This is a magic toy," Fialka continued. "It's a utensil for creativity that reeks of humanity while Hollywood seems to believe only in spectacle."

PXL This 20 highlights included L M Sabo's "Oil Kills," Clifford Novey's "Rounds," Philip Marion's "Spoon & Packet" and Jonathan Menchin's "Hey You in the Future." Also featured were short musical delights by Brad Kay, Suzy Williams and Denny "King Kukulele" Moynahan; and the "Arroyo Seco River Song" by Nicole and Michael Possert.

Next year, the best of the fest, which included films from across the country and Europe, will play other venues, among them the Echo Park Film Center on May 19. Meanwhile, the entry deadline for PXL This 21 is Oct. 22; submissions can be sent in DVD form to Fialka (310-306-7330, pfsuzy@aol.com) at 2427 1/2 Glyndon Ave., Venice, CA 90291.

Fialka's own entry, "Parallel Worlder," was a culture-jamming mix of Georges Méliès' 1902 film "A Trip to the Moon" and local imagery. His philosophy behind the festival and his other entertainments?
"Think," he said, quoting musician George Clinton. "It ain't illegal yet." http://www.laughtears.com/
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Introducing Gerry Fialka's PXL THIS 20 Film Festival by Joseph Mael 11-30-10
http://www.examiner.com/santa-monica-city-buzz-in-los-angeles/introducing-gerry-fialka-s-pxl-this-20
"Curator Gerry Fialka puts together events of films both experimental and socially conscious."
- LA City Beat

Maybe certain happenings are meant to be kept discreet but then again there is always that “A-HA!” moment when circumstances lend to the belief that a certain happening is going to blow up. For the PXL THIS Film Festival, it hasn't happened yet. Or maybe it has. Creator of L.A.'s 2nd longest running film festival, Gerry Fialka, brings PXL THIS 20 to life to continue the underground legacy of the revolutionary PXL 2000 video camcorder on December 13th, 2010 at Unurban Cafe in Santa Monica. Produced by Fisher Price (there were 400,000 units released for sale from 1987 to 1989), this “toy” renders a unique video image and now has a legendary history that has firmly left a fingerprint on the history of film-making. The camera produces an image from 2,000 “dots” that is in contrast with modern film technology, particularly when held up to the 150,000+ dots on today's televison, the PXL 2000 elicits a unique image directors enjoy incorporating with heavy duty film machinery.

I had the opportunity to ask Gerry about this year's PXL THIS this week and here's how he answered a couple questions I found relevant:
Q: Can I get a quick reflection by you on PXL THIS 20?  What does it mean to you? 
A:  What the PXL THIS Film Festival means to me is deconstructing moving image art-making and the whole idea of a film festival. We gather the community to share in the creative process, bare bones style. Both in making and in watching, PXL THIS encourages participation, the same way that the PXL image offers little and requires the viewers to heighten their awareness and fill in the blanks. The gap is where the action is - the resonating interval. In Marcel Duchampian spirit, how do you make a film festival that is not a film festival? T S Eliot said that poetry is outing your inner dialogue. What form is your inner dialogue in? Maybe its that dreamy illusive Pixelvision image for some. An extension of consciousness? The next medium ? The Non-physical? The possibility of a world without words? Low definition can mean high participation. PXL THIS means to me connectedness not consumerism, hoicking up an ecstatic new state of tribal immediacy and involvement, simultaneity, all-at-onceness. The Balinese have no word for art, they do everything as well as they can. I salute all Pixelators and PXL THIS audience members who for two decades have mustered up multi-dimensions and multi-sensuousness.
Q:  Is PXL THIS the largest publicly accessible pixelvision collection in the world? 
A:  YES, our archives are stored at The Academy, which is truly a major hoot. The cheeziest genuine fake film festival in the world is treated by the most important Film Archives in the world with respect. They feel that its worth storing and preserving. It reflects what humans can do. As McLuhan said, we shape our tools then they shape us

Pixelvision History
Fialka, self-described as a para-media ecologist based in Venice, CA, is the visionary behind the PXL 2000 fetish. To say he has a way with words is an understatement. He describes the festival by stating, “PXL THIS features films made with the Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy camcorder, is one of the longest running film festivals in the entertainment capital of the world. Celebrating "cinema povera" moving image art, it evokes Marcel Duchamp's axiom "Poor tools require better skills." Pixelators from across the globe hoick up inventive approaches to the unassuming throw-away of consumer culture. These low-tech hi-jinx films come through loud and clear by re-framing a new cinema language. Past PXL THIS participants have included Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Chris Metzler (Fishbone & Salton Sea documentaries), James & Sadie Benning, Joe Gibbons, Cecilia Dougherty, Peggy Ahwesh, Jesse Drew, Margie Strosser and Michael Almereyda.”  When he describes how the outside world has described PXL THIS he proudly states, "We really love that the “New York Times” called PXL THIS “small” and that lots of our best entries come from Venice California’s Boardwalk performers (as in “houseless” — not homeless because the earth is everyone’s home)."

Pixelvision's history as a tool of choice by experimental filmmakers took off after a grant by the Rockefeller Foundation was awarded to Sadie Benning for her work with the PXL 2000 in 1993. PXL 2000 footage was used in the films Slacker (1991) and Hamlet (2000). Over time, from its brief period on the shelves as a toy for for children to current day, the PXL 2000 format has resurfaced from a failed technology to a prized cult object that even became a thesis topic for some students (McCarty, 2005).

“There is something about the quality of the image that is really dreamlike and it has a feeling of being in the past already even though you just shot it. It is not quite reality or not quite representational of what's really happening at that moment, so it already has this distancing effect of feeling like it's already in the past somehow. “
– Sadie Benning, Award-winning Pixelvision artist

Most of the videos included in the PXL THIS 20 film festival are between 3 and 6 minutes in length though some of the gems in past PXL THIS festivals extended over ten minutes in duration. The festival's following is quite dedicated but it somehow keeps a low profile. If you missed the October submission deadline, don't fret, this film festival has a cult-like following and Fialka receives a growing number of entries each passing year. If you have old PXL 2000 films laying around, your entry into the next PXL THIS is always welcome.  Fialka says, "Pixelators return to innocence by using, and even misusing, moving image art to view worlds that usually go unnoticed, evoking children's spirited desire to explore."

Low brow, or high brow? You decide, but as J. Hoberman of Premier Magazine said, “PXL is the ultimate people's video.”

Gerry Fialka believe's PXL THIS is best described by his hero, George Manupelli, founder of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, who said, “When the aliens are here and deciding whether to vaporize all mankind for our inhumanity, cruelty and greed, showing the aliens PXL THIS will save the world. PXL THIS shows our best nature as humanist creators and subversives against those who deserve it. Save the world. Support PXL THIS.” Yep, that's a tough thought to top.  

The Show Details
The PXL THIS 20 film festival screens December 13th at the (underrated) Unurban Cafe in Santa Monica (3301 Pico Blvd.), and admission is FREE.

The 6PM pre-show features a sneak preview of Wickstead's Wonder - an interview with James Wickstead, the inventor of the Fisher Price PXL 2000 camcorder!  In October, PXL THIS 19 was held in San Francisco, and Wickstead introduced the first (and possibly only) PXL 2000 color camcorder.  No word on if this will be part of the L.A. festivities, but perhaps there is a chance.

"Gerry Fialka’s annual PXL THIS is a reliably surprising and seductive round-up of recent work achieved with the PXL 2000 camera. This humble outdated “toy” continues to bring out the visionary child in filmmakers and viewers alike, and no one has kept the PXL flame burning longer or brighter than Gerry." - Michael Almereyda, director
********************************
more PXL THIS 20 press:
http://www.broowaha.com/articles/8643/introducing-gerry-fialkas-pxl-this-20-film-festival
http://www.campuscircle.com/calendar/calendar_event.cfm?ceid=6124
________________________________
 
PXL PERFECT? by Gerry Fialka - Answers to four Holly Willis questions for
her blog http://www.kcet.org/socal/voices/blur-sharpen/
HW-1• there's been a tremendous proliferation of inexpensive video cameras in the last few years, including the Flip: what makes the PXL 2000 camera remain remarkable? Can people still find these cameras? And is there any similar camera currently on the market?

GF- McLuhan said, "if its works, it obsolete." PXL is remarkable because it does not work. It depends on what you mean by remarkable, one audience member said that with all the great new digital effects/equipment seems as though you could "fix" the picture...duchamp said that poorer tools require better skills...without even making a value judgement, i'd say that one can make moving image art BOTH with expensive or non expensive tools.. we are really about mcluhan's "we shape our tools, then they shape us," that's the meta-cognition hEAR.

***remarkable that PXL is a failed toy yet continued to be used as a creative tool (or as the la weekly said one year - a tool for creativity AND adolescent regression, whatta want from a kids toy? amy taubin said just pickin one up is breakin the rules, aren't artist tryin to evoke children's innocence, it continues to delight the visionary child in pixelators, so why not just start out with a kids toy, the balinese have no word for art, they do everything as well as they can...like the joke: kid comes of age when he realizes his dad goes to work, kid- dad what is your job? art teaching dad-i teach people how to draw, kid- you mean they forgot?).
***it's remarkable because giving the viewer less info might mean more involvement by the viewer (user as content) or simply have folks react with "this sucks"...so it enables the possibility of "breakdown as break-through"...

"Anything that's popular is a rear-view image" -McLuhan. We are not a popular festival.
YES, you can still get one of the 400,000 that were made - on ebay, or thrift shops or garage sales, etc
There's lots of vid cams on the market that have some similar  features, but none with the unique gothic dreamy (lots of cool words that have described its services and disservices) look and this amazin analog to digital bkgrnd and history

HW- 2• have there been any noticeable aesthetic shifts in the videos you've programmed for this year's festival as opposed to festivals in the past?

GF- i don't really program, i show every entry, we celebrate a tool, we leave it to the audience and press to make aesthetic judgements, opinions..havin studied and developed my own personal aesthetics, yes there are shifts every year and the same ol'thing, but a rare gem comes thru, not worth stopping.

but every year the audience reactions change...defining what you and me mean by aesthetic shifts and what the normal person on the street is different.. we welcome kids and homeless people and rich art kids and so on..
********MOST IMPORTANT= SEEING AND ATTENDING our festival LIVE is really what its ALL ABOUT.. the highly desired communal experience that expands cinema by combining performance art, poetry (thats what pxl really is poetry, outting your inner dialogue, your inner consciousness, poerty/pxl can communicate before its understood, both of these are applied "t s elliot"), music, dance with film has been featured for years at PXL THIS and a critic cannot experience it fully by seeing a video document of it in their lonely teenage room on a TV set (referring to King Kukulele's 10 years of combing his filmic self with his PXL-self). Then again, evoking Zappa, we are satirizing the tribe, rugged individualism and perpetutaing the myth.

HW- 3• as video becomes more and more an everyday vernacular, what makes a video festival-worthy, in your opinion?

GF- any and every gathering of people to discuss the effects of our inventions is worthy, even if its nano-community, we are fine with being called a "small " festival in the NY TIMES, and, at the same time, thriving for 20 years, and being shown in New Zealand, UK and across North America & US with fiery discussions always included. In pizza parlors and art museums.

***worthy to study the hidden effects of hybridizing a light through medium (TV, video) and a light on medium (film, stain glass) (seeing it in the movie theater setting, with a video projector)..

***worthy for festivals like PXL THIS to hoick up satire to uncover the hidden environments of moving image art...we are a genuine fake film festival - havin no entry fee, no budget, no nothing...(sometimes staring at a blank screen, which is what has happened at past PXL THIS festivals, that's the McLuhan "Media Fast," that media ecology, that's sustainability.)

***a video festival enables people to be antenae of the race, thats what ezra pound called artists -  "the antennae of the race" broadcasting the hidden effects of what we invent, so we can learn how to COPE with these effects. As James Joyce said to all us finnegans "WAKE," "wake up and learn and unlearn what video festivals, tv, pixelvision all do to you." Needle the somnabulist to cord-cut the cloud?

HW- 4 • if you had to single out one or two of the most significant cultural shifts related to video in our culture, what would they be?

GF-  "Culture is our business" - McLuhan.

The opportunity to actually read, study and discuss McLuhan, Joyce & Robert Dobbs via free events like http://www.venicewake.org/ and http://www.venicewake.org/Events/current.html Delving deep into McLuhan's translation of FINNEGANS WAKE by james joyce (he invented facebook and disguised it as a book). Dobbs' translation of them both transforms and reinvents percept plunder for the recent future. Video screenings are available in public meetings and online to uncover the hidden effects of video, and why we ignore the hidden effects.

"The next medium - whatever it is - may be an extension of consciousness. It will include television as its content, not as its environment and will transform television into an art form." - McLuhan.
______________________________
PXL 2000 Inventor- James Wickstead (of JWDA) jwda@wicksteaddesign.com,
Article on Wickstead-
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20101102/BUSINESS05/101101065/1003/BUSINESS/Cedar-Knolls-N.J.-inventor-applying-experience-to-new-technology
Cedar Knolls N.J. inventor applying experience to new technology by Sally Silverman 11-2-10 The Daily Record HANOVER — James Wickstead is founder of James Wickstead Design Associates in Cedar Knolls, a company that specializes in product development for the medical, telecom, commercial and consumer markets. Founded in 1968, JWDA has generated more than 40 patents and product licenses on behalf of clients including AT&T, C.R. Bard, Becton Dickenson, Fisher Price, Parker Brothers, Siemans and many more. Most sought after products: "Anything new in technology like applications for software, global positioning systems and wireless applied to all products," Wickstead said. His best inventions: The Black & Decker vegetable steamer; a patient-controlled analgesia device; a device to measure the chemistry of animals by analyzing their blood called the Vettest; and the PXL-2000 camcorder for Fisher-Price. Worst invention: A device that uses high-energy plasma to cure arthritis. "We are asked to implement somebody else's idea. Whether it sells, is something else," Wickstead said. Inventor's traits: "Everybody is an inventor, but you need a massive amount of curiosity and look at things as to how they can be made better," Wickstead said. Beginnings: Wickstead was born in Pompton Plains in 1941 and grew up there. After high school, he attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he received a degree in industrial design. "While in high school, I didn't know this type of work existed," Wickstead said. "I was interested in building cars, but an uncle of mine who was a landscape architect suggested industrial design. Before that, I was considering mechanical engineering," he said. Career path: After working for several small companies in New York and Philadelphia, Wickstead was drafted to serve in the U.S. military in Vietnam. He was stationed at the Aberdeen (Md.) Proving Ground as a scientist for two years, where he worked on armor and battle tanks. "It was the think tank for the Army — they would give us a problem and want a solution in 30 days," he said. Following military service, Wickstead founded his company, fist in Maryland then in Glen Rock. "There were lots of design firms, but they couldn't make products or get them into the marketplace," Wickstead said. Back to Jersey: "I camped all over the United States to determine the best place to locate my company and came here in 1979," he said. At home: Wickstead lives in Mendham with his wife, Jean. He enjoys fly fishing, hiking and, as a car enthusiast, he still does all the mechanical work on his two "old" Ferraris.
*****************************
Program Notes for San Francisco Cinematheque's AN INVENTION WITHOUT A FUTURE -
PIXELVISION: ELECTRONIC FOLK ART. (comprehensive history of PXL THIS and Pixelvision)
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:VT1Pm-oc9goJ:www.sfcinematheque.org/ee/images/uploads/PN2_10PXL.PDF+%22san+francisco+cinematheque%22+pxl&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESii8N3c8YRRSdwGAdMDLt-VKxQRzG6MQ09Mj0i2zVNcte74oKqNp8XdA54dGE5LuWvVYUo96Z5hbhzIb_qYhhkkroluQYFeIiCSzSl6-Wp4wcbyC7fDzlR3Wr60Hi_x_HME_Zit&sig=AHIEtbTh3oEPNjWhZHgpiIsAm0RS4PQrMQ
Andrea Nina McCarthy's 2005 MIT thesis "Toying With Obsolescence: Pixelvision Filmmakers & The Fisher Price PXL 2000 Camera" is essential reading.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pwHJLt5QPRkJ:cms.mit.edu/research/theses/AndreaMcCarty2005.pdf+pxl+2000+mit&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Pixelvision enables filmmakers to tap into that child-like innocence all artists seek in the creative process. What could be easier than starting with a kids toy. John Lane's 2001 book Timeless Simplicity articulates wabi-sabi, "the perfect antidote to the pervasively slick style of homogenized efficency." Pixelvisionaries evoke the spirit of Wabi-sabi: "This elusive philosphy is about sufficiency and restraint. It is about simplicity, the minor and hidden, the modest and humble, the imperfect and the evanescent. It is about treading lightly on the planet. An added dimension is its implicit message urging us to forget the seductions of success - wealth, status, power and luxury."
"As for the PXL 2000 camera, because it’s a child’s toy there’s a certain naiveté which is inherent in the productions. Yet due to its technology, the PXL 2000 camera produces these edgy, gritty, “rough as a night in jail” images. I find the juxtaposition of these two attributes very interesting and useful in many of the politically oriented pieces I’ve produced.   From a technical perspective, I would say my primary contribution to the field is that I created a filmmaking style using the PXL 2000 which I call Machinima Vérité. Machinima Vérité combines Machinima (creating movies from 3D PC game engines) with Cinéma Vérité techniques to create a sense of realism. So basically I produce and render the movie from a game engine on a PC, display the video on a high resolution LCD, and recapture the video on the LCD using a PXL 2000 camera. My videos “CATACLYSM” and “bursting in air” are a couple of examples of this technique.   I really appreciate all of the effort Gerry Fialka puts in with the PXL THIS festival. If it weren’t for Gerry, interest in the PXL 2000 would have died out many years ago." - L. M. Sabo
*************************
PXL THIS 21 - Entry deadline Oct 22, 2011 - simply send a dvd to Gerry Fialka 2427 1/2 Glyndon Ave, Venice, CA 90291, 310-306-7330, pfsuzy@aol.com NO entry fee.

PXL THIS Director Gerry Fialka is available for Pixelvision & Media Ecology workshops. http://www.laughtears.com/workshops.html  "Fialka's workshops are in depth communication of something extremely elusive - the history of the unimaginable - and his lively interpretation renders it useful." - William Farley, Award-winning filmmaker

michaelkoshkin@gmail.com is making a documentary about Pixelvision.
Best Of PXL THIS (13-19) screened at Dallas Video Festival Sept 25, 2010 at 6pm http://www.videofest.org/
PXL THIS 19 screened http://www.laughtears.com/PXL-THIS-19.htmlthe Sat, Oct 23 at 8:30pm at Other Cinema, 992 Valencia St (& 21st), San Fran CA 94110, 415-648-0654, admission $6 http://www.othercinema.com/
Gerry Fialka & Jon Rappoport on Progressive Radio Network 11-15-10 http://garynull.squarespace.com/the-jon-rappoport-show/
and Gerry on Music For Nimrods at midpoint in 3 hr show  http://www.mediafire.com/?daa6kzkpdodm013

PXL THIS 10 (2000)

PXL THIS TEN - Celebrating its 10th year!
The tenth annual festival featuring videos made with the PXL-2000 toy camera premiered on Saturday, November 18 at 7:00 and 9:00pm (two different shows) at Midnight Special Bookstore, 1318 Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA 90401. 310-393-2923, http://www.msbooks.com. Free Admission. This unique festival featured videos made with a plastic video camcorder (manufactured 1987 -1989) that records sound and images directly onto audiocassettes. The November 18th premiere showcased record 4 hours plus of works by 27 pixelators from across the United States!

EVENT CALENDAR
November 18, 2000 - PXL THIS 10 - complete version (Midnight Special)
February 16, 2000 - PXL THIS 10 - 90-minute "Best Of" versions (Vidiots)

SUBMISSIONS
COTG is now accepting entries for PXL THIS ELEVEN scheduled for 2001. For more information, please send SASE: PXL 2427 1/2 Glyndon Ave., Venice, CA 90291, 310-306-7330. Thanks to everyone who helps.

PXL THIS TEN highlights (click on links for streaming video):

Ten year-old Brady Smith utilizes the toy camera meant for his age group to create canine choreography in Dancing Dog. It's a floppy-eared fandango rendering self-reflexive hilarity.

What happens when a lonely guy finds himself instantly desirable through his computer screen? Jeff Shepherd's Cyber Spaced takes us deep into the heart of one such guy, and the computer woman he meets.

Alfred Shoots Adolf is photographer Alfred Benjamin's story of what happened to him at the age of 18 in Germany (1934) when he looked at the enemy staring back at him through his camera lens.

Songman Mark Hecht bellows a maniac love song with passion in Thinking of You.

Osteological orator Rich Ferguson renews the schizophrenic skeletal structure of his own human condition in Bones.

Post Military Era is Phil Chamberlin's astute explaination of global demilitarization, which JFK advocated as General and Complete Disarmament.

Kahlil Sabbagh vocalizes melody with muscle in Camel Jockey.


COMPLETE LIST - 7:00pm show
King Kukluele Squared - Denny Moynahan, 5 minutes
File - Josh McLeod, 12 minutes
Dancing Dog - Brady Smith, 5 minutes
Bones - Rich Ferguson, 3 minutes
Alfred Shoots Adolf - Gerry Fialka, 7 minutes
Ghost Story - Joe Frese, 4 minutes
Georgesstach.com - Michael Possert, 5 minutes
Push Butt - Eli Elliott, 9 minutes
Scape - Doug Ing, 1 minute
Giggles - Farrah Rocker, 6 minutes
Donkeys, Pigs & Greens - Betsy Kalin, 6 minutes
Book of Dreams: A Trip Thru Kerouac's Lowell - Lee Randalo, 7 minutes
Blast From The Past - Paul Bacca, 10 minutes
House of Psychotic Redheads - Pet Rigot, 29 minutes

COMPLETE LIST - 9:00pm show
Closets Crushes Confusion and Sex - Irwin Swirnoff, 22 minutes
Cyber Spaced - Jeffrey SHepherd, 5 minutes
Par Avion - James Balsam, 7 minutes
Post Military Era (PME) - Phil Chamberlin, 12 minutes
Trip For Fireworks - D.J. Beard, 4 minutes
Mistake - Rich Ferguson, 2 minutes
Leonard and the Mountain - Chris Metzler & Jeff Springer, 12 minutes
Born To Hold You In My Arms - Dave Edison, 4 minutes
Pudding Didn't Do It - Farrah Rocker, 4 minute
Camel Jockey - Kahlil Sabbagh, 3 minutes
Crock - Mark Hejnar, 1 minute
Ode To A PEnis - Kate Perotti, 1 minute
Sacred Cow - Mark Hejnar, 1 minute
Trooper Authority - Mark Hejnar, 1 minute
Maggot's Cowboy Song - Mark Hejnar, 1 minute
Thinking of You - March Hecht, 4 minutes
Death Roach 2000 - Paul Bacca, 5 minutes
D.I.(Y.): No Place To Rock - Jeff Jobson, 30 minutes


THE HISTORY OF PXL THIS

PXL THIS is the name of a festival that features videos produced using the PXL 2000, a toy camera. This unique plastic video camcorder records sound and images directly onto audiocassettes. The PXL 2000 was available from 1987 to 1989 from the toy company, Fisher-Price. James Wickstead Design Associates, inventors of the technology, plan to have a new and improved version back in the stores soon. The picture is comprised of 2,000 "pixels" as opposed to the 150,000 pixels seen on the average TV screen, which makes for a very grainy but appealing quality. Filmmaker Spike Stewart is enthralled with this black and white dot matrix picture (Pixelvision) and says, "There's sort of a nouveau-Gothic image you'd see in a movie from the twenties or thirties, which you don't see anymore." Another amazing feature is its "in-focus" capability form zero to infinity. Designed to be the "lightest, least expensive (under $100) and easiest to use camcorder on the market," it empowered independent artists while the 10 to 16-year-old targeted consumers probably rejected it. Check out- http://elvis.rowan.edu/~cassidy/pixel/ for more about the PXL 2000
Check out http://jesgrew.org/wake for the Marshall McLuhan/Finnegans Wake Reading Club, moderated by Jerry Fialka
Click Pixel Pix Picks on othercinema.com for a review of PXL This 10 by Peggy Nelson

PXL THIS organizer Gerry Fialka says, "PXL is the essential utensil of creation. The really creative artist does a lot with nothing. PXL THIS is based on the statements, 'It is literally possible to do more with less' -Buckminster Fuller and 'Film will only become art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper' -Jean Cocteau. It's a real pencil and paper mentality. Express yourself, and don't be afraid to break some rules. Like Cocteau said, "What one should do with the young is to give them a portable camera and forbid them to observe any rules except those they invent for themselves as they go along. Let them write without being afraid of making mistakes.' But PXL THIS is for all ages." Dave Edison, who created the music video MAINTENANCE specifically for submission to PXL THIS THREE, says, "Artists can always create, but chances to exhibit our work are often hard to find. As a videomaker and PXL 2000 owner, I regard the PXL THIS festival as a unique, exciting and irresistible opportunity. "Poet Laurent Fels proclaims, "PXL THIS is a genius idea. I always love art expressing itself with cheap means because its low price enables you to be totally free to express yourself without being threatened by producers whose high costs 'oblige' you to make something commercial." Writer Erika Suderberg called the PXL 2000 " a magic toy that restores a certain human vitality to the overpowering technology of video" in the magazine INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY, winter 1991. In PREMIERE magazine April 1993, J. Hoberman wrote, "The ultimate example of cinematic pencil and paper is surely the Fisher-Price Pixelvision video camera...the ultimate in people's video.

"Clap Off They Glass Productions was started by Gerry Fialka in 1991 to support independent video-makers by sponsoring the annual PXL THIS festival, which is the oldest of its kind in the world. There are two public screenings in Los Angeles per festival; the premiere being in November, the second in February. PXL THIS TEN will screen in November 2000 and in February 2001. The two hour plus program features entries from across North America spanning many genres including documentary, poetry, experimental, drama, comedy and music. PXL THIS plays to packed houses every year.

Entry Rules: The rules for entry are the same every year. Submissions must be shot with the PXL 2000 camera, but not exclusively and entered on VHS videotape at SP (2 hour) speed. Do not send originals; no returns. All categories accepted, Deadline for entry is always Sept 22. Please include a synopsis and THREE 33-cent stamps with each entry. For more information, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope or call: Gerry Fialka 2427 1/2 Glyndon Ave, Venice, CA 90291, #310-306-7330. The Santa Monica video store, Vidiots #310-392-8508 exclusively rents various PXL THIS compilations.

Mary Beth Crain wrote in the LA WEEKLY, "The power of PXL is somehow indisputable. The medium becomes a means of alchemically altering the most mundane realities. Blurred, off-kilter black-and-white images transcend mere out-of-focus mediocrity to become captivatingly surreal. Body parts (eyes and mouths are favorites with beginning PXL artists) acquire personalities of their own. Virtually every selection on the PXL THIS program evidences an undeniable charm and talent." Jean Cocteu said, "It is vital that the camera become a pen and that everyone should be able to express themselves through this visual medium."

PXL THIS 11 (2001)

PXL THIS 11
Check the schedule below for the PXL THIS ELEVEN tour. The 12th annual festival featuring videos made with the PXL-2000 toy camera will premiere on November 9, 2002 at 7:00 and 9:00pm (two different shows) at Midnight Special Bookstore (1318 Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA 90401. 310-393-2923, http://www.msbooks.com). Free Admission.

The Santa Monica video store, Vidiots (302 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA, 310-392-8508) exclusively rents various PXL THIS compilations.This unique festival features videos made with a plastic video camcorder (manufactured 1987 -1989) that records sound and images directly onto audiocassettes.

PXL THIS ELEVEN
Vidiots (Los Angeles, 310-392-8508), 2/22/2002 and Other Cinema.com (San Francisco) 4/20/2002 - Films marked below with an (*) are part of the tour:

FINAL EXIT - Joe Gibbons, 5 min
* RITT HENN'S GOIN' BACK - Dave Edison, 5min
* DODGE ALLEY - Duncan MacLeod, 15min
* HOMO SAPIEN - Bryan Konefsky, 3min
* RESERVATIONS - Ann Randolph, 4m
* SPOT - Doug Ing, 8min
* WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE BUBBLE BURST? - Michael Possert, 3min
CHINA DOLL - Eugene Gonzales, 3min
* ATTENTION - Gerry Fialka, 3min
* FAULT - Gerald Slota & Stephen Roman, 5min
* GLINK - Sean Eno, 8min
* KI KU - Denny Moynahan, 5min
* WRITTEN SPOKEN SUNG - Michael O'Reilly, 11min
PIXYLIGHTING - Paul Bacca, 5m
JEFF - Mark Heunar, 4min
MAGICAL CAT - Joanne Wallace, 11min


9:00pm
* THE PREPLAY OF BOB & WALTER - Gerry Fialka, 11min
* YOUR ARE THE EIFFEL TOWER OF MY LOVE, BABY - Betsy Kalin, 5min
* CLOSE COPIES - Ellen Lake, 3min
* ZAP YER ASS - Eli Elliott, 9min
FAUSTUS - Rose Hansen, 2min excerpt of 20min
PHILOSOPHER'S UNION MEMBER'S MOUTHPIECE - Litninov, 6min
YOU TALK, I BUY - ERic Saks, 9min
* BEING BEEFHEART - Richard Van Tank, 6min
STARTLED INTO LIFE, LIKE FIRE - Elric Kane, 8min
THE FUNERAL SOUNG - Malcom Dalglish, 4min
BIRD CAGE WEDDING CAKE - Carolyn Coolie & Rachel Mayeri, 15min
* AIDS YET - Mark Hejnar, 1min
ON A SUMMER'S DAY - Mark Hejnar, 2min
THE LONELY - Bruno Derlin & Mark DOyle, 19min

COTG is always accepting entries for future PXL THIS festivals (see Submissions below). MUCHO THANKS to everyone who helps.

EVENT CALENDAR
November 9, 2002 - PXL THIS 12 (Midnight Special)

SUBMISSIONS
COTG is now accepting entries for PXL THIS. For more information, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope or call Gerry Fialka, 2427 1/2 Glyndon Ave, Venice, CA 90291, #310-306-7330. The rules for entry are the same every year. Submissions must be shot with the PXL 2000 camera (but not exclusively), and entered on VHS videotape at SP (2 hour) speed. Do not send originals; no returns. All categories accepted, Deadline for entry is always Sept 22. Mail to: PXL, 2427 1/2 Glyndon Ave., Venice, CA 90291, 310-306-7330. Please include a synopsis and THREE 34-cent stamps with each entry.

Hey! you can send email now...just use c1964@pacbell.net. Continue to feel free to write or call.

ARCHIVE OF PREVIOUS PXL THIS EVENTS

PXL THIS 10



RELATED LINKS

http://elvis.rowan.edu/~cassidy/pixel/ for more about the PXL 2000

http://jesgrew.org/wake for the Marshall McLuhan/Finnegans Wake Reading Club, moderated by Gerry Fialka

Pixel Pix Picks article on othercinema.com - a review of PXL This 10 by Peggy Nelson

go.to/pxlmods - the only place on the planet where you can get your Fisher Price PXL 2000 camera modified for video and audio out for a premium price, guaranteed!



THE HISTORY OF PXL THIS

PXL THIS is the name of a festival that features videos produced using the PXL 2000, a toy camera. This unique plastic video camcorder records sound and images directly onto audiocassettes. The PXL 2000 was available from 1987 to 1989 from the toy company, Fisher-Price. James Wickstead Design Associates, inventors of the technology, plan to have a new and improved version back in the stores soon. The picture is comprised of 2,000 "pixels" as opposed to the 150,000 pixels seen on the average TV screen, which makes for a very grainy but appealing quality. Filmmaker Spike Stewart is enthralled with this black and white dot matrix picture (Pixelvision) and says, "There's sort of a nouveau-Gothic image you'd see in a movie from the twenties or thirties, which you don't see anymore." Another amazing feature is its "in-focus" capability form zero to infinity. Designed to be the "lightest, least expensive (under $100) and easiest to use camcorder on the market," it empowered independent artists while the 10 to 16-year-old targeted consumers probably rejected it. PXL THIS organizer Gerry Fialka says, "PXL is the essential utensil of creation. The really creative artist does a lot with nothing. PXL THIS is based on the statements, 'It is literally possible to do more with less' -Buckminster Fuller and 'Film will only become art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper' -Jean Cocteau. It's a real pencil and paper mentality. Express yourself, and don't be afraid to break some rules. Like Cocteau said, "What one should do with the young is to give them a portable camera and forbid them to observe any rules except those they invent for themselves as they go along. Let them write without being afraid of making mistakes.' But PXL THIS is for all ages." Dave Edison, who created the music video MAINTENANCE specifically for submission to PXL THIS THREE, says, "Artists can always create, but chances to exhibit our work are often hard to find. As a videomaker and PXL 2000 owner, I regard the PXL THIS festival as a unique, exciting and irresistible opportunity. "Poet Laurent Fels proclaims, "PXL THIS is a genius idea. I always love art expressing itself with cheap means because its low price enables you to be totally free to express yourself without being threatened by producers whose high costs 'oblige' you to make something commercial." Writer Erika Suderberg called the PXL 2000 " a magic toy that restores a certain human vitality to the overpowering technology of video" in the magazine INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY, winter 1991. In PREMIERE magazine April 1993, J. Hoberman wrote, "The ultimate example of cinematic pencil and paper is surely the Fisher-Price Pixelvision video camera...the ultimate in people's video.

Clap Off They Glass Productions was started by Gerry Fialka in 1991 to support independent video-makers by sponsoring the annual PXL THIS festival, which is the oldest of its kind in the world. There are two public screenings in Los Angeles per festival; the premiere being in November, the second in February. PXL THIS TEN will screen in November 2000 and in February 2001. The two hour plus program features entries from across North America spanning many genres including documentary, poetry, experimental, drama, comedy and music. PXL THIS plays to packed houses every year.

Mary Beth Crain wrote in the LA WEEKLY, "The power of PXL is somehow indisputable. The medium becomes a means of alchemically altering the most mundane realities. Blurred, off-kilter black-and-white images transcend mere out-of-focus mediocrity to become captivatingly surreal. Body parts (eyes and mouths are favorites with beginning PXL artists) acquire personalities of their own. Virtually every selection on the PXL THIS program evidences an undeniable charm and talent." Jean Cocteu said, "It is vital that the camera become a pen and that everyone should be able to express themselves through this visual medium."

PXL THIS 12 (2002)

PXL THIS TWELVE, the twelfth annual festival featuring videos made with the PXL-2000 toy camera, will premiere on Saturday, November 9, 2002 at 7:00 and 9:00 pm (two different shows) at Midnight Special Bookstore, 1318 Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA 90401, 310.393.2923.
Free Admission. The PXL THIS website is www.indiespace.com/pxlthis

PXL THIS TWELVE screened SAT. APRIL 26, 2003, at 8PM at Other Cinema, 992 Valencia St. San Fran, www.othercinema.com

PXL THIS TWELVE, the twelfth annual festival featuring videos made with the PXL-2000 toy camera, premiered on February 2, 2003 at 8:00 pm at VIDIOTS, 302 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica CA Free Admission. 310-392-8508 (all shorts listed below will be shown except #18, 26, 27) The PXL THIS website is www.indiespace.com/pxlthis

PXL THIS TWELVE highlights include:Eli Elliott's eye-opening PXLMATION is the first ever Pixelvision animation. Ellen Lake's RUBBER BAND BALL documents San Francisco's Kishek brothers' quest to build the world's largest rubber band ball. Clark Nickolai's REMGLA PREPUTCHNA unveils a recently-discovered "lost" instructional film from Eastern Europe. John Snyder's LOCALS is a tribute to the everchanging face of Venice, California. Inspired alternatively by the writings of Pope Gregory and Seventeen Magazine, Dwight Swanson's LUST examines the joys and dangers of immorality. NOT UNACCOMPANIED BY A CHILD finds avant-garde pacifist Phil Chamberlin dealing with a concerned Mother (Lisa Robins & her daughter Renata) and playground rules. Michael Possert's HOLLYWOOD OPERATION is an outrageous TV commercial spoof for a kid's board game. Eliot Fons & Tedi Tate's INTEGRATRON explores Palm Desert's big wooden dome, originally constructed as a cell-regenerator, time machine and! spaceship beacon. Denny Moynahan goes live in QUEEN KUKULELE. Blueswoman Victoria Gibson wails GOSPEL IN THE BLUES. Eugene Gonzales gets LOST IN A DREAM walking his dog. Stacy Craft’s DOWN THERE is about growing up to be the bad girl everyone scorns. Steve and Ross Craig’s ART HACKS BABBLE toys with the "art question" as it alternates between realism and abstraction, organized structure and chaos. Gerry Fialka’s WHAT HAVEN’T YOU NOTICED LATELY? hoicks the "open past" while double delving into Giordano Bruno’s theory that everything in nature is realized through interaction with its opposite and Marshall McLuhan’s percept that "objects are unobservable, only relationships among objects are observable" simultaneously probing the option of "see-say" in moving pictures. "Do you hear what I’m seeing?" Future Bible Heros bring the music out of the dark in Duncan Macleod’s HOPELESS. Bryan Konefsky’s ALBUQUERQUE DIARY documents an uninvited street performer upstaging the other acts! in the annual Route 66 Santa Claus parade. Doug Ing’s DIP overflows in a surreal dream involving a tub and a telephone. Robin Carter’s SONG OF THE AURORA is an expose on the sun-earth connection via the magnetospheric sounds and images of the Northern Lights. Anthony Temple’s EXITING THE TATE considers Goeffrey Sonnabend’s theory by sampling images created within the realm of memory and reorganizes them into a stronger semblance based on repetition, obscuring, and juxtaposition. Elric Kane magically merges John Zorn music and abstract video feedback in COMBINATIONS. ELI ON ERNIE is Eli Elliott’s irreverent take on Ernie Kovaks’ television skit "The Nairobi Trio." Joanne Wallace’s autobiographical DAIRY addresses the boundaries of fiction and actuality. Jesse Seay’s DROWNED explores the desires of what the audience wants to see and lessons on looking foolish. David Teague’s BIRD SONGS IN YOUR GARDEN surveys the sounds of Ornithology. Jenette Isaacson & Bryan Konefsky con! template textures in WHAT WILL I DO. Peggy Ahwesh & Margie Strosser’s STRANGE WEATHER deals with a quartet of crack addicts in Miami, just sitting around, while outside the biggest hurricane of the century is about to hit. The mystery of "how real is it" becomes the focus of this "insider perspective" or privileged access into fringe culture.

Film programmers and curators - please be aware that 3 different PXL THIS programs (90 to 120 minutes each) are available for rent by contacting Gerry Fialka, phone 310-306-7330 for details and be sure to leave your phone, fax and mailing address if you get his phone machine. These 3 programs are BEST OF PXL THIS (the first 10 years), PXL THIS TEN and PXL THIS ELEVEN. They have screened successfully in San Fran-OtherCinema.com, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, New York-rbmc.net, Vancouver-blindinglight.com, Irvine,CA, Austin,TX, Albq., NM, Seattle, Eugene and Portland,OR. These are truly dynamic shows of low-tech video folk art that can draw big crowds.

Clap Off They Glass presents PXL THIS TWELVE

7:00pm

1- QUEEN KUKULELE - Denny Moynahan, 5 minutes
2- HOLLYWOOD OPERATION - Michael Possert, 1m
3- NOT UNACCOMPANIED BY A CHILD - Phil Chamberlin, 5m
4- SONG OF THE AURORA - Robin Carter, 5m
5- DOWN THERE - Stacy Craft, 1m
6- RUBBER BAND BALL - Ellen Lake, 3m
7- ART HACKS BABBLE - Steve & Ross Craig, 9m
8- WHAT HAVEN’T YOU NOTICED LATELY? - Gerry Fialka, 5m
9- HOPELESS - Duncan Macleod, 3m
10- PXLMATION - Fialka & Elliott, 1m
11- LOCALS - John Snyder, 5m
12- GOSPEL IN THE BLUES - Victoria Gibson, 2m
13- ALBUERQUE DIARY: 12-23-01 - Bryan Konefsky, 4m
14- DIP - Doug Ing, 3m
15- LOST IN A DREAM - Eugene Gonzales, 5m
16- BIRD SONGS IN YOUR GARDEN - David Teague, 4m
17- WHAT WILL I DO - Konefsky & Jenette Isaacson, 4m
18- DAIRY- Joanne Wallace, 15m

9:00pm

19- EXITING THE TATE - Anthony Remple, 7m
20 - LUST - Dwight Swanson, 7m
21- INTEGRATRON - Tedi Tate & Eliot Fons, 5m
22- COMBINATIONS - Elric Kane, 4m
23- ELI ON ERNIE - Eli Elliott, 5m
24- DROWNED - Jesse Seay, 12m
25- REMGLA PREPUTCHNA - Clark Nikolai, 2m
26- SLICE OF CAKE - Paul Bacca, 5m
27- STRANGE WEATHER - Peggy Ahwesh & Margie Strosser, 50m

COTG is always accepting entries for future PXL THIS festivals. For info send SASE: PXL 2427 ½ Glyndon Av, Venice CA 90291, 310-306-7330. MUCHO thanks to everyone who helps. Vidiots (310-392-8508) rents various PXL THIS compilations and will screen PXL THIS TWELVE on Feb 21, 2003. PXL THIS web page - indiespace.com/pxlthis

PXL THIS TWELVE highlights include:

In Betsy Kalin's ANTHEM, women celebrate an empowering feminist classic.
Eli Elliott's eye-opening PXLMATION is the first ever Pixelvision animation.
Ellen Lake's RUBBER BAND BALL documents San Francisco's Kishek brothers' quest to build the world's largest rubber band ball.
Clark Nickolai's REMGLA PREPUTCHNA unveils a recently-discovered "lost" instructional film from Eastern Europe.
John Snyder's LOCALS is a tribute to the everchanging face of Venice, California.
Inspired alternatively by the writings of Pope Gregory and Seventeen Magazine, Dwight Swanson's LUST examines the joys and dangers of immorality.
NOT UNACCOMPANIED BY A CHILD finds avant-garde pacifist Phil Chamberlin dealing with a concerned Mother (Lisa Robins & her daughter Renata) and playground rules.
Michael Possert's HOLLYWOOD OPERATION is an outrageous TV commercial spoof for a kid's board game.
Eliot Fons & Tedi Tate's INTEGRATRON explores Palm Desert's big wooden dome, originally constructed as a cell-regenerator, time machine and spaceship beacon.
Also another gem from Denny Moynahan, the Ernie Kovacs of Pixelvision and much more.

Established in 1991, Clap Off They Glass Production supports independent video-making by sponsoring the annual PXL THIS Festival, which is the oldest of its kind in the world. With no corporate sponsors, no color brochures, no big shot movie director board members, no ticketmaster access, PXL THIS has been featured on PBS, IFC and NPR. RES magazine praised PXL THIS as "a welcome highlight in the Los Angeles media scene celebrating the rich lexicon available in a tool which might initially seem rather limiting."

PXL THIS spans many genres: documentary, poetry, drama, art, music, political activism, cinema povera, comedy and the avant-garde. The unique Fisher-Price toy camcorder PXL 2000, which records sound and image directly onto audio cassettes, continues to empower artists. This failed toy was only made in the US from 1987 to 1989. The magical PXL 2000 restores a certain humanity to the overpowering technology of video. "PXL is the ultimate people's video."
- J. Hoberman, Premiere Magazine.

"All the PXL THIS videos reflect festival organizer Gerry Fialka's commitment to the freedom produced by making art without financial constraints."
- Holly Willis, LA Reader.

"In past years, PXL THIS gave us some fascinating work...definitely an out-there experience. In the last few years, PXL videos have made it to such hallowed domains as the Whitney Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Sundance, and the London Film Festival, where they have been admired for their characteristic spontaneity, highly personal perspective, visual uninhibitedness and raw, grainy truths."
- Mary Beth Crain, LA Weekly.

"PXL THIS is worthy of praise...spellbinding. The shifting bricks of light and dark that form the Fisher-Price PXL 2000's picture lend themselves well to personal essays, creating an invigorating mesh of ambiguity and intimacy in every frame."
- Paul Malcolm, LA Weekly.

"Gerry Fialka's PXL THIS festival snaps, crackles and pops off the screen with the funky, user-friendly energy of real first-person cinema. Goofy, gorgeous, and altogether groovy, his provocative program of pieces produced with the Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy video camera is not only downright entertaining, but more, its blipping and buzzing black 'n' white picture-bits coalesce into a veritable inspiration to all those who cherish the playful, spontaneous gestures and low-cost of electronic folk art."
-Filmmaker/curator Craig Baldwin.




Mary Beth Crain wrote in the LA WEEKLY, "The power of PXL is somehow indisputable. The medium becomes a means of alchemically altering the most mundane realities. Blurred, off-kilter black-and-white images transcend mere out-of-focus mediocrity to become captivatingly surreal. Body parts (eyes and mouths are favorites with beginning PXL artists) acquire personalities of their own. Virtually every selection on the PXL THIS program evidences an undeniable charm and talent." Jean Cocteu said, "It is vital that the camera become a pen and that everyone should be able to express themselves through this visual medium."

PXL THIS 13 (2003)

PXL THIS 13 screened:

11-15-03 Midnight Special Bookstore, Santa Monica CA
2-20-04 Vidiots, Santa Monica, CA
4-24-04 Other Cinema, San Fran, CA
5-27-04 Echo Park Film Center, CA
7-24-04 Maestri Gallery, Bakersfield, CA
9-8-04 Subterranean Cinema, Jacksonville, FL members.aol.com/bunchastuf/souvenir.html Steve Rose's SOUVENIR (PXL THIS 13) website

Read praise from the press in THE BLACKBOARD article on the articles page.

The PXL THIS 13 DVD is available from Gerry Fialka, phone:310-306-7330 or pfsuzy@aol.com

"PXL This 13" DVD reviewed by Mike Langlie on liarsociety.com Feb, 2005

In 1987, Fisher Price released the PXL2000 Pixelvision camera, a toy that captured 5 minutes of grainy, low-res, black-and-white video and audio to a side of a normal tape cassette. A little too over-priced and under-sophisticated for its intended market, the toy was quickly killed. Not surprisingly, it became a much sought-after tool by experimental video artists and a steady cult of followers ever since. The PXL This film festival is now in its 14th year of presenting works made with the device by a wide demographic of amateurs and professionals. The films from the 13th year are collected on DVD, and as expected, it's a mixed bag. I'm a big fan of the quirky and obscure, but even I found a few of the titles unwatchable. But there are some short pieces here that even the most jaded and impatient viewer will find delightful.

My favorites include 8-year-old Juniper Woodbury's stream-of-consciousness visual essay About Flowers, Denny Moynahan's
moebius strip of a performance piece Kukulele Cubed, Stephen Rose's dreamy trip inside a snow-globe Souvenir, and festival coordinator Gerry Fialka's inventive DaDa mini-manifesto Double-Duty Interrobang.

The strengths and limitations of the PXL2000 are explored in some imaginative ways as the creators attempt to find their unique voices. John Humphrey's Pee Wee Goes to Prison makes entertaining use of dolls and miniatures as cast and set in a story that's hysterical but a little too long for the format. Tedi Tate and Eliot Fons' Horse contrasts ghostly long-range Muybridge-style footage with startling super-close-ups of equine facial features. It's an inspiring bunch, at least in that it's obvious how much fun these folks have making art on the cheap. Now to get my own Pixelvision running again...

PXL THS 13, Midnight Special Bookstore, Nov 15,2003
7:00pm
1-KUKULELE CUBED - Denny Moynahan, 3 minutes
2-THE STEPFATHER - Joe Gibbons, 8m
3- 30TH ST - Jason Bickford, 2m
4- ABOUT FLOWERS - Juniper Woodbury, 4m
5- WORDS - Walter Liggett, 1m
6- HORSE - Tedi Tate & Eliot Fons, 5m
7- DOUBLE-DUTY INTERROBANG - Gerry Fialka, 10m
8- POETRY WORKSHOP - Walter Liggett, 2m
9- MARKER - Juniper Woodbury, 2m
10- SPECIAL REPORT - Michael Possert, 2m
11- MOVING VIOLATION - Jason Britski, 6m
12- PATIENT - Doug Ing, 9m
13- DOWNTOWN ODYSSEY - Joe Golling, 4m
14- VICTIM! The AMY FISHER Story - Dwight Swanson, 7m
15- STAND UP - Martin Smith, 4m
16- ASSCROFT - Eli Elliott, 6m
17- THE GLUM WALTZ - Elric Kane, 22m

9:00pm
18- BURNT POPCORN - Eli Elliott, 20m
19- SOUVENIR - Stephen Rose, 5m
20- PEE WEE GOES TO PRISON - John Humphrey, 11m
21- PXL MANIFESTO - Ross Craig, 5m
22- FAMILIAR - Stacy Craft, 8m
23- NEO-CON HYBRIDS - Steve Craig, 4m
24- HIPPIES USE SIDE DOOR - Dahvi Bolog, 6m

THE SIMPLICITY OF FACELESSNESS - Kyzer McKinn,
OUTSIDE THE LAW - Luci Westphal-Solary, 3m
27- ROOMATEY AGAIN: The Strange Case of the Gay Pirate Penguin - Nicholas Zeltzer, 9m
28- MEAT THE JOHNSONS - Chuck Perry, 6m
29- LAWN STATUES - Joe Frese, 19m

Clap Off They Glass is always acceptimg entries for future PXL THIS festivals. For info send SASE: PXL 2427 ½ Glyndon Av, Venice, CA,90291, 310-306-7330. Much thanks to everyone who helps.

Vidiots(310-392-8508) rents PXL THIS compilations & will screen PXL THIS 13 on Feb 20, 2004.

Contact: Gerry Fialka 310-306-7330

PXL THIS 13, the annual festival featuring videos made with the PXL 2000 toy camera, will premiere on Saturday, NOV. 15 2003 at 7pm and 9pm (two different shows) at Midnight Special Bookstore, 1450 2nd St. in Santa Monica, CA. 310-393-2923. Free Admission.

PXL THIS 13 highlights include:

Past PXL THIS favorite Joe Gibbons tries to quash Barbie's romance with young beau Ken in THE STEPFATHER.
Eli Elliott's ASSCROFT highlights the absurdities of the US Attorney General.
Eight-year-old Juniper Woodbury offers a detailed lesson ABOUT FLOWERS, and the poignant MARKER. Berkeley poet Walter Liggett gets energized in POETRY WORKSHOP.
John Humphrey's PEE WEE GOES TO PRISON explodes the myth of American justice through the window of Pee Wee's Playhouse.
Michael Possert's SPECIAL REPORT is an urgent take on the state of the world, from the not-so-distant future. Tedi Tate & Eliot Fons' HORSE utilizes Pixelvision's unique close-up capabilities to survey ghostly and mythological equine details.
Dahvi Bolog's HIPPIES USE SIDE DOOR takes military recruiting to the top level.
Joe Golling's DOWNTOWN ODYSSEY documents a young man's reaction to urban chaos.
Dwight Swanson's VICTIM chronicles the philosophical quest of Amy Fisher and her journey from malls to madness.
Jason Britski's MOVING VIOLATION examines the textures, rhythm and beauty that resides hidden within a community.
Robert Dobbs reswindles Menippean memory with new punctuation, the DOUBLE-DUTY INTERROBANG.
Eli Elliott's BURNT POPCORN mixes mainstream culture with avant-garde mediums.
A cop chases down four outlaws trying to escape to Mexico in Luci Wesphal-Solary's music video OUTSIDE THE LAW.
Chuck Perry's MEAT THE JOHNSONS is the funny story of suburban zombie and his wife.
Ross Craig's PXL MANIFESTO is a spoof on dogma filmmaking. Steve Craig's NEO-CON HYBRIDS concerns alien abductions.
Steve Rose's SOUVENIR reveals a darkly mysterious world which exists within a souvenir snow globe. & Stacy Craft's FAMILIAR explores the amorphous and dependency ridden space that is created by chronic illness.
Nicholas Zeltzer's ROOMMATEY AGAIN: THE STRANGE CASE OF THE GAY PIRATE PENGUIN is a Joycean tale of a stuffed animal. & Joe Frese's LAWN STATUES is a surrealistic dark comedy about an ex-con whose life takes an unexpected turn.

Also works by Pixelators Kyzer Mckinn, Martin Smith, Elric Kane. Jason Bickford, Doug Ing and the Ernie Kovacs of Pixelvision, Denny Moynahan.

25- THE SIMPLICITY OF FACELESSNESS - Kyzer McKinn, 4m
26- OUTSIDE THE LAW - Luci Westphal-Solary, 3m
27- ROOMATEY AGAIN: The Strange Case of the Gay Pirate Penguin - Nicholas Zeltzer, 9m
28- MEAT THE JOHNSONS - Chuck Perry, 6m
29- LAWN STATUES - Joe Frese, 19m

Clap Off They Glass is always acceptimg entries for future PXL THIS festivals. For info send SASE: PXL 2427 ½ Glyndon Av, Venice, CA,90291, 310-306-7330. Much thanks to everyone who helps. Vidiots(310-392-8508) rents PXL THIS compilations & will screen PXL THIS 13on Feb 20, 2004. Visit: www.indiespace.com/pxlthis
Contact: Gerry Fialka 310-306-7330

PXL THIS 13, the annual festival featuring videos made with the PXL 2000 toy camera, will premiere on Saturday, NOV. 15 2003 at 7pm and 9pm (two different shows) at Midnight Special Bookstore, 1450 2nd St. in Santa Monica, CA. 310-393-2923. Free Admission. Visit:www.indiespace.com/pxlthis

PXL THIS 13 highlights include: Past PXL THIS favorite Joe Gibbons tries to quash Barbie’s romance with young beau Ken in THE STEPFATHER. Eli Elliott’s ASSCROFT highlights the absurdities of the US Attorney General. Eight-year-old Juniper Woodbury offers a detailed lesson ABOUT FLOWERS, and the poignant MARKER. Berkeley poet Walter Liggett gets energized in POETRY WORKSHOP. John Humphrey’s PEE WEE GOES TO PRISON explodes the myth of American justice through the window of Pee Wee’s Playhouse. Michael Possert’s SPECIAL REPORT is an urgent take on the state of the world, from the not-so-distant future. Tedi Tate & Eliot Fons’ HORSE utilizes Pixelvision’s unique close-up capabilities to survey ghostly and mythological equine details. Dahvi Bolog’s HIPPIES USE SIDE DOOR takes military recruiting to the top level. Joe Golling’s DOWNTOWN ODYSSEY documents a young man’s reaction to urban chaos. Dwight Swanson’s VICTIM chronicles the philosophical quest of Amy Fisher and her journey from malls to madness. Jason Britski’s MOVING VIOLATION examines the textures, rhythm and beauty that resides hidden within a community. Robert Dobbs reswindles Menippean memory with new punctuation, the DOUBLE-DUTY INTERROBANG. Eli Elliott’s BURNT POPCORN mixes mainstream culture with avant-garde mediums. A cop chases down four outlaws trying to escape to Mexico in Luci Wesphal-Solary’s music video OUTSIDE THE LAW. Chuck Perry’s MEAT THE JOHNSONS is the funny story of suburban zombie and his wife. Ross Craig's PXL MANIFESTO is a spoof on dogma filmmaking. Steve Craig's NEO-CON HYBRIDS concerns alien abductions. Steve Rose's SOUVENIR reveals a darkly mysterious world which exists within a souvenir snow globe. Stacy Craft’s FAMILIAR explores the amorphous and dependency ridden space that is created by chronic illness. Nicholas Zeltzer’s ROOMMATEY AGAIN: THE STRANGE CASE OF THE GAY PIRATE PENGUIN is a Joycean tale of a stuffed animal. Joe Frese’s LAWN STATUES is a surrealistic dark comedy about an ex-con whose life takes an unexpected turn. Also works by Pixelators Kyzer Mckinn, Martin Smith, Elric Kane. Jason Bickford, Doug Ing and the Ernie Kovac’s of Pixelvision, Denny Moynahan.

The PXL-2000 toy camera, made in the late 80's by Fisher-Price, records sound and image directly onto audio cassettes. This failed toy continues to empower artists. RES magazine praised PXL THIS as a welcome highlight in the Los Angeles media scene celebrating the rich lexicon available in a tool which might seem rather limiting.

Film Threat's Chris Gore declares PXL THIS as one of the top ten video festivals.

All the PXL THIS videos reflect festival organizer Gerry Fialka's commitment to the freedom produced by making art without financial constraints.
-Holly Willis.

PXL THIS videos are admired for their characteristic spontaneity, highly personal perspective, visual uninhibitedness and raw, grainy truths.
-LA Weekly.

Gerry Fialka's PXL THIS festival snaps, crackles and pops off the screen with the funky, user-friendly energy of real first-person cinema. Goofy, gorgeous, and altogether groovy, his provocative program of pieces produced with the Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy video camera is not only downright entertaining, but more, its blipping and buzzing black and white picture-bits coalesce into a veritable inspiration to all those who cherish the playful, spontaneous gestures and low-cost of electronic folk art.
-Craig Baldwin

The PXL-2000 toy camera, made in the late 80's by Fisher-Price, records sound and image directly onto audio cassettes. This failed toy continues to empower artists. RES magazine praised PXL THIS as “a welcome highlight in the Los Angeles media scene celebrating the rich lexicon available in a tool which might seem rather limiting.” Film Threat’s Chris Gore declares PXL THIS as one of the top ten video festivals. “All the PXL THIS videos reflect festival organizer Gerry Fialka’s commitment to the freedom produced by making art without financial constraints.”-Holly Willis. “PXL THIS videos are admired for their characteristic spontaneity, highly personal perspective, visual uninhibitedness and raw, grainy truths.”-LA Weekly. “Gerry Fialka’s PXL THIS festival snaps, crackles and pops off the screen with the funky, user-friendly energy of real first-person cinema. Goofy, gorgeous, and altogether groovy, his provocative program of pieces produced with the Fisher-Price PXL 2000 toy video camera is not only downright entertaining, but more, its blipping and buzzing black’n’white picture-bits coalesce into a veritable inspiration to all those who cherish the playful, spontaneous gestures and low-cost of electronic folk art.” -Craig Baldwin


Mary Beth Crain wrote in the LA WEEKLY, "The power of PXL is somehow indisputable. The medium becomes a means of alchemically altering the most mundane realities. Blurred, off-kilter black-and-white images transcend mere out-of-focus mediocrity to become captivatingly surreal. Body parts (eyes and mouths are favorites with beginning PXL artists) acquire personalities of their own. Virtually every selection on the PXL THIS program evidences an undeniable charm and talent." Jean Cocteu said, "It is vital that the camera become a pen and that everyone should be able to express themselves through this visual medium."

PXL THIS 14 (2004)

PXL THIS 14 premiered Nov 20, 2004, 7 DUDLEY CINEMA, Venice CA
7:00pm
1- FISH, FRUITS & NUTS - Denny Moynahan, 6 minutes
2- MY MAGIC EIGHTBALL - Juniper Woodbury, 4m
3- PXL PINATA - Michael Possert, 5m
4- STRINGWORK - Ellen Lake, 3m
5- RUG RAT - Lisa Marr, 6m
6- OUTER RINGS - Gerry Fialka, 7m
7- WALTER MURCH BLINKS & SAVES US -Elric Kane & Adam Gould, 4m
8- FLY GIRL - Kelly Jones, 4m
9- BOBBY'S FRIENDS - Tim Finchum, 3m
10- SHE WAS - C. Gallo, 2m *
11- MJ DONG - Eli Elliott, 3m
12- FISH - Joe Frese, 5m
13- BORN IN LOVE - Alfred Johnson, 4m
14- GIRL YAWNING - Elric Kane, 6m
15- WONDER - Paolo Davanzo, 6m
16- SERRF - Kelly Jones, 7m
17- TV - Doug Ing, 5m
18- GIOSPOT - Giovanni Natale, 2m
19- RAW - Carlo Biela, 9m
20- STUFFED WITH LEAVES - Jamie Cohen, 3m
21- NOSFERATU - Tim Finchum, 7m *
22- BABBLEFESTO - Ross Craig, 4m

9:00pm
23- ZERO - Eli Elliott, 15m
24- BABBLEFESTO TWO - Steve Craig, 4m
25- NIGHT - Elric Kane, 8m *
26- INFORMATION RETRIEVAL - Paul Bacca, 3m
27- COAL MINER'S GRANDDAUGHTER - Cecilia Dougherty, 80m *

Those followed with * will be shown in future screenings if time permits.

PXL THIS 14 also screened at OtherCinema.com in San Fran on April 23, 2005 at 8:30pm

A PXL segment aired on G4TV.com

Read about Pixelvision in the new article in MIT's TECHNOLOGY REVIEW http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/11/wo_jenkins110904.asp

PXL THIS 14 screened on THURSDAY, May 26, 2005 at 8:00pm at EchoParkFilm Center.org

Gerry Fialka spoke on Pixelvision at the Comparative Media Studies colloquium at MIT, Room 2-105, on Thursday, March 3, 2005 . PXL THIS 13 screened on March 3 at 7:30pm in room 2-105 on MIT campus. More about Comparative Media Studies at MIT: http://web.mit.edu/cms/

7 DUDLEY CINEMA screened the world premiere of PXL THIS 14, the 14th annual toy video festival, on Saturday, November 20, 2004 - two different shows: 7:00pm and 9:00pm at SPONTO GALLERY, 7 Dudley Ave, Venice, CA, 310-306-7330, free admission, Visit: www.indiespace.com/pxlthis and www.81x.com/7dudley/cinema
The responsive full house responded with cinematic enlightenment.

PXL THIS 14 highlights include:
Last year's favorite Juniper Woodbury, now nine-years-old, returns with the delightful MY MAGIC EIGHTBALL. Super songwriter Alfred Johnson sings about the triumphs of being BORN IN LOVE. Jamie Cohen's STUFFED WITH LEAVES uncovers our politicians' doings. Ellen Lake's STRINGWORK documents Graciela Carrillo's beautiful embroidery. King Kukulele takes Pixelvision interactivity to dynamic dimensions in FISH, FRUITS & NUTS. Giovanni Natale remembers his boyhood heroes in GIOSPOT. A six-year-old with her bat opens a very special PXL PINATA by Michael Possert. Eli Elliott's side-splitting funny MJ DONG celebrates fellow motorists' vanity and sense of character. Kelly Jones gives us a tour of her garbage plant Terminal Island workplace in SERRF, and portrays a hip talk show host in FLY GIRL. Poet/politician Robert Dobbs explores what human sensorium is extended by the PXL 2000 camera in OUTER RINGS. Carlo Biela's political documentary RAW looks at peace, Bush & the media during the largest international day of protests in history, Feb 15, 2003. Lisa Marr's RUG RAT unveils the greed ridden acquisition of American Indian textiles. Paolo Davanzo's WONDER honors his relationship with a faithful traveling companion. Joe Frese's poignant FISH dives into underwater thoughts. Doug Ing's TV reveals its services and disservices. Tim Finchum evocatively takes advantage of Pixelvision unique close-up capability in BOBBY'S FRIEND. Elric Kane's WALTER MURCH BLINKS & SAVES US discusses the philosophies of film editing. Kane's GIRL YAWNING recalls Bresson's "ejaculatory force of the eye" viewing live web cam sites. Paul Bacca yelps provocative INFORMATION RETRIEVAL. Ross Craig contributes the hilarious self-reflexive minimalist masterpiece BABBLEFESTO. Steve Craig's BABBLEFESTO #2 combines automated customer service messages and structuralist cinema. Eli Elliott's ZERO deeply probes a farcical appointment with his self-exploring comic self. Cecilia Dougherty's epic melodrama, COAL MINER'S GRANDDAUGHTER is an experimental narrative conceptually based on the idea of documenting family life.
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In the LA WEEKLY, Feb 18, 2005, film editor Ron Stringer praised PXL THIS 14:
"In this reprise of the latest selection of short subjects (27 in all) from the eccentric and somewhat inbred coterie of filmmakers dedicated to making art with their Fisher-Price PXL-2000 toy cameras, at least
two of the films seem especially suited to that perversely low-res medium. In Lisa Marr's RUGRAT, a meditation on William Randolph Hearst's passionate, if short-lived, interest in Navajo weaving as the signature motif for his retreat at San Simeon, the fragmentation inflicted by the PXL process on the geometric patterning of the Indian blankets serves nicely as a metaphor for the fickle newspaper mogul's wandering field of attention. Then, in Elric Kane's NIGHT, as lovers at the end of an affair struggle to decide which of their personal reminiscences shall be canonical, their efforts are reflected in the difficulty we may have buying into the degraded PXL images as an adequate reflection of reality. Also noteworthy: the Craig brothers' BABBLEFESTO ONE and TWO, both of which pack one hell of a kick into their four-minute length, and Juniper Woodbury's MY MAGIC EIGHTBALL, an investigative documentary in which the PXL-2000 camera finds its way back into the hands of the consumers for which it was originally intended."

Established in 1991, Clap Off They Glass Productions supports independent video-making by sponsoring the annual PXL THIS Festival, which is the oldest of its kind in the world. Even with no corporate sponsors, no color brochures, no big shot movie director board members, no ticketmaster access, PXL THIS has been featured on PBS, IFC and NPR. RES magazine praised PXL THIS as "a welcome highlight in the Los Angeles media scene celebrating the rich lexicon available in a tool which might initially seem rather limiting." PXL THIS spans many genres: documentary, poetry, drama, art, music, political activism, cinema povera, comedy and the avant-garde. The unique Fisher-Price toy camcorder PXL 2000, which records sound and image directly onto audio cassettes, continues to empower artists. This failed toy was only made in the US from 1987 to 1989. The magical PXL 2000 restores a certain humanity to the overpowering technology of video. "PXL is the ultimate people's video." - J. Hoberman, Premiere Magazine.

"All the PXL THIS videos reflect festival organizer Gerry Fialka's commitment to the freedom produced by making art without financial constraints." - Holly Willis, LA Reader.

"In past years, PXL THIS gave us some fascinating work...definitely an out-there experience. In the last few years, PXL videos have made it to such hallowed domains as the Whitney Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Sundance, and the London Film Festival, where they have been admired for their characteristic spontaneity, highly personal perspective, visual uninhibitedness and raw, grainy truths." - Mary Beth Crain, LA Weekly.

"PXL THIS is worthy of praise...spellbinding. The shifting bricks of light and dark that form the Fisher-Price PXL 2000's picture lend themselves well to personal essays, creating an invigorating mesh of ambiguity and intimacy in every frame." - Paul Malcolm, LA Weekly.

Film programmers and curators - please be aware that many different PXL THIS programs (90 to 120 minutes each) are available for rent by contacting Gerry Fialka, phone 310-306-7330 or pfsuzy@aol.com
Programs include BEST OF PXL THIS (the first 10 years), PXL THIS TEN, PXL THIS ELEVEN and PXL THIS 13 (on DVD, read praise from The LA TIMES and SF WEEKLY in the Blackboard interview with Fialka on the Articles page). In the past, they have screened successfully in San Fran-OtherCinema.com, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Echo Park Film Center, New York-rbmc.net, Vancouver-blindinglight.com, Irvine,CA, Austin,TX, Albq., NM, Jacksonville, FL, Seattle, Eugene and Portland,OR. These are truly dynamic shows of low-tech video folk art that can draw big crowds

The new DVD entitled THE ART OF PIXELVISION is currently available from www.precious-realm.com

NEW! - link to articles about Pixelvision

PXL THIS was declared one of the ten BEST VIDEO FILM FESTIVALS by CHRIS GORE in his book "The Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide."

Gerry Fialka offers various workshops on Pixelvision and more. Click here for information...

We are now accepting entries for PXL THIS Festivals! See below...

SUBMISSIONS
COTG is now accepting entries for PXL THIS. For more information, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope or call Gerry Fialka, 2427 1/2 Glyndon Ave, Venice, CA 90291, #310-306-7330. The rules for entry are the same every year. Submissions must be shot with the PXL 2000 camera (but not exclusively), and entered on VHS videotape at SP (2 hour) speed. Do not send originals; no returns. All categories accepted, Deadline for entry is always Sept 22. Mail to: PXL, 2427 1/2 Glyndon Ave., Venice, CA 90291, 310-306-7330. Please include a synopsis and THREE first-class postage stamps with each entry.

Hey! you can send email now...just use elienation@hotmail.com, Continue to feel free to write or call.