About the Event
Arts in the Humanities Lecture Series
Seth Mitter, Canyon Cinema
Bruce Baillie program
Talk back with Seth Mitter and Ed Hugetz
Friday, Feb 28, 6:30pm with reception post talk back
Starting in the late 1950s Bruce Baillie created a vagabond, romantic, first-person filmmaking style that continues to enchant and influence new generations drawn to the artistic possibilities of the 16mm film medium. As a founding figure in San Francisco Bay Area and west coast independent filmmaking communities, Bruce Baillie understood from the beginning that “making films and showing films must go hand in hand.” From 1961 backyard screenings of films by Baillie and friends emerged two essential institutions of American independent filmmaking: San Francisco Cinematheque and the Canyon Cinema film distribution cooperative. Through the 60s and 70s the itinerant Baillie travelled and lived around the country, including a memorable stint in Houston as an influential visiting instructor at Rice University. This program of 16mm films in Canyon Cinema’s collection highlights rarities and recent preservations from Baillie’s lengthy career.
About Seth Mitter, Canyon Cinema Collection Manager:
Seth Mitter joined Canyon Cinema in 2015, he has trained both as an audiovisual archivist and filmmaker. Seth holds an MLS specializing in Archives and Records Management from Indiana University. While at I.U. he worked with a collection of more than 80,000 16mm films as an archives assistant for the IU Libraries Moving Image Archive. Seth also served as projectionist for the International Federation of Film Archives-member Indiana University Cinema.Seth’s introduction to American avant-garde and independent cinema began while studying 16mm production with the filmmaking faculty at The New School in New York, where he earned a BA concentrating in cultural studies and media.He went on to work several years with The Film-Makers’ Cooperative and as an itinerant projectionist in micro-cinema and gallery film exhibition in NYC. Seth has been involved in curating and presenting screenings of small-gauge and experimental films for over 10 years.A member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists and a regular participant in Home Movie Day amateur film preservation events, Seth’s interests include preservation of the work of non-theatrical and artist filmmakers and points of intersection between filmmaking and archival practice.
All anniversary events are free and open to the public, to view the complete schedule visit: https://vada.rice.edu/50th-anniversary
__________________________________
Parking available in West Lot 4, $5 charge, credit card required.
Directions to Rice Cinema, Rice Media Center:
Entrance #8 via University Blvd & Stockton Drive
For specific directions from any location Google map ‘Rice Cinema’.
Nearby visitor lots:
West Lot 4 - $5 (*for this event)
Moody Visitor Lot (previously Hess Lot) - $12
West Lot 2 - $12
Greenbriar Lot - $3
For parking information: parking.rice.edu
Shuttle service: transportation.rice.edu
Campus maps: maps.rice.edu
