While we use the KinoTek programming stream to investigate emergent uses of media technologies, it is equally devoted to celebrating the aesthetic and expressive potential of such works. Pocket Cinema sits perfectly between these two objectives. The program features short works made by and for mobile devices, such as cell phones, and also includes media that incorporate wireless signals into their production or exhibition. Many of the titles in Pocket Cinema have been culled from commissioning and curatorial agencies, including four short pieces from Shorts in Motion, commissioned by BravoFact! in Canada: Go Limp (), I'm Sorry by Mark McKinney (“Kids in the Hall”) and Don McKellar’s Phone Call from Imaginary Girlfriend: Istanbul and Ankara. A series of shorts chosen from Microcinema International’s Mobile Exposure collection highlights the differences between cell phones and typical video cameras as production tools. We also present a selection from Pocket Shorts UK, which commissions works that are specifically intended for viewing on cell phone screens. Three locally produced works made especially for Pocket Cinema round out the program: Katherin McInnis’s Spookespeak and Suprematist Kapital by Yin-Ju Chen and James T. Hong take a directly resistive stance towards cell phone culture and Organum Playtest offers a demonstration of a new version of the game, which uses voice via cell phone for its operation. Finally, the noted industrial design team of Ben Hooker and Shona Kitchen will speak provocatively about the direction and potential of mobile screen culture, as a prelude to the unveiling of their commissioned works at the upcoming International Symposium of Electronic Art, taking place later this year.
San Francisco International Film Festival
39 Mesa Street, Suite 110
The Presidio
San Francisco, California
94129
USA
The San Francisco Film Society embraces the art, technology and innovation of the world’s most imaginative storytellers who use the moving image to celebrate humanity while educating, entertaining and enriching the audiences of the world.
