Part 1: Framing and Composition,
Noon-2 p.m., Admission Free

The first half of the workshop will consist of an informal lecture an
discussion where attendees will consider the design elements of framing and composition for film and video. The goal of the workshop is to investigate ways of composing information within the frame to enhance formal composition. Bonder will show slides and discuss basic design guidelines and tips for framing in order to further integrate the form and content of the participants' film work.

Part 2: Working with the Landscape,
2:30-5 p.m., Admission $25

The second half of the workshop is a field trip around Richmond where the group will look to the local environment and landscape for inspiration as well as metaphor. Please bring some ideas of places that you would like to visit for the workshop: (e.g. industrial areas, disappearing landmarks, places that you are drawn to for inexplicable reasons). Participants are encouraged to do some Super 8 filming as well as brainstorm ideas for future projects.
NOTE: Registration for this workshop is limited to 20 - first come first served. Bring your own Super 8 camera if you have one (and if you have more than one, bring extras). RMIC has a limited number of Super 8 cameras for those who don't have their own cameras. Fee is $25, which includes a roll of Super 8 film + processing. Films will be screened at an upcoming Flicker.

Virginia Film Office Reception
6-7:30 p.m., Plant Zero Art Center, Free Admission (Cash Bar)

The public is cordially invited to meet this year's special guests: filmmakers Nathaniel Dorsky, Diane Bonder, the Pere Ubu band, director David Durston and actress Lynn Lowry while enjoying complimentary hors d'oeuvres courtesy of the Virginia Film Office.

The Devotional Cinema of Nathaniel Dorsky
8 p.m., Plant Zero Art Center, Admission $5

Silence in cinema is undoubtedly an acquired taste, but the freedom it unveils has many rich rewards. The major part of my work is both silent and paced to be projected at 18 fps. To project my silent speed films at 24 fps or sound speed is to strip them of their ability to open the heart and speak properly to their audience. Not only is the specific use of time violated, but the flickering threshold of cinema's illusion, a major player in these works, is obscured.

It is the direct connection of light and audience that interests me. The screen continually shifts its dimensionality from being an image-window, to a floating energy field, to simply light on the wall. Silence allows these articulations, which are both poetic and sculptural at the same time, to be revealed and appreciated.
                                   –Nathaniel Dorsky

"The Visitation" (2002, 16mm color/silent, 18 min.) Part 1 of a set of two devotional songs. Dorsky writes, "The Visitation" is a gradual unfolding, an arrival so to speak. I felt the necessity to describe an occurrence, not one specifically of time and place, but one of revelation in one's own psyche. The place of articulation is not so much in the realm of images as information, but in the response of the heart to the poignancy of the cuts."

"Threnody" (2004, 16mm color/silent, 25 min.) Part 2 of a set of two devotional songs, the first being "The Visitation." It is an offering to a friend who died.

"Love's Refrain" (2000/2001, 16mm color/silent 22 1/2 min.)
A delicately tactile film, "Love's Refrain" rests moment to moment on its own surface. It is a coda in twilight, a soft-spoken conclusion to a set of four cinematic songs.

Dorsky will introduce the films and read selections from his book Devotional Cinema, which pays homage to the films of Rossellini, Ozu, Antonioni, and Bresson, and celebrates cinema as a form of religion, a "metaphor . . . for our being." Copies will be on sale immediately following the screening.