ALIVE FROM OFF CENTER: SHORT VIDEO ARTWORKS {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
One in this series of arts programs featuring the work of leading avant-garde artists in video, music, dance, theater, and film. Highlights of the series premiere include a video piece by John Sanborn and Kit Fitzgerald entitled "Ear to the Ground," which features an improvised performance by percussionist David Van Thieghem in which he uses objects on the street -- mailboxes, signs, doors, pipes, and sidewalks -- as percussion instruments; a short film, "The Discreet Charm of the Diplomacy" by Academy Award-winner Zbigniew Rybczynski, which depicts an odd White House cocktail reception for Soviet ambassador at which animals and people mingle; "Ringside" by Michael Schwartz, a dance piece performed by Elizabeth Streb in which she moves on a circular platform shown at different angles; "Sharkey's Day," a music video by Laurie Anderson set in an outer space landscape; William Wegman's "Singing Stomach," in which the camera focuses on a man's upper torso, which appears to be a singing face; and Wegman attempting to teach his dog Man Ray to spell. The final segment, produced by Channel 4, England, features the Butoh Japanese male dance group "Sankai Juku" in a performance entitled "At Battersea Power Station," in which the five dancers perform at the unusual, cavernous-looking London site.
(Series title varies; as above, 1985-1991; as "Alive TV," 1992 onward.)
Cataloging of this program was made possible by Blake Byrne.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: July 1, 1985
- RUNNING TIME: 0:28:24
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T91:0115
- GENRE: Dance; Video art
- SUBJECT HEADING: Avant-garde films; Dance; Dance, Japanese; Percussion instruments; Performance art; Video art
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1985-1996
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Melinda Ward … Executive Producer
- Tom Adair … Producer
- Art Silverman … Writer
- Gerald Richman … Production (Misc.), Executive in Charge
- David Byrne … Composer, Music (Misc. Credits), Original theme music composed and produced by
- John Sanborn … Animation, Series Video Animation
- Mary Perillo … Animation, Series Video Animation
- Susan Stamberg … Host
- Sankai Juku … Dance Company, "At Battersea Power Station"
- William Wegman … "The Best of William Wegman"
- "Ear to the Ground":
- John Sanborn … Producer, Director
- Kit Fitzgerald … Producer, Director
- Van Thieghem, David … Conceived by, Instrumentalist, Percussionist
- "The Discreet Charm of the Diplomacy":
- Zbigniew Rybczynski … Realization
- Alan Kleinburg … Producer
- "Ringside":
- Michael Schwartz … Director, Video concept by
- Elizabeth Streb … Choreographer
- "Sharkey's Day":
- Laurie Anderson … Producer, Director
- Perry Hoberman … Art Director