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Fast Forward Film Series
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Animations of Jay Bolotin |
Sunday, March 16, 2014 at 3 pm |
Animator Jay Bolotin will be present for a question and answer session following the screening. Please note seating is limited to 25 chairs |
Program |
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The Jackleg Testament Part 1: Jack & Eve, 2007 (12 minutes) | |
A woodcut motion picture from Act III: The Play Within the Play | |
Based on a series of woodcuts, The Jackleg Testament Part I: Jack & Eve is an animated, operatic film–the first known woodcut motion picture–that reinterprets the story of Adam and Eve as a dark, provocative tale in which Eve is lured from the Garden of Eden by a Jack-in-the-Box. Bolotin’s complex, ambiguous work references German Expressionism, American folk art, prints from the Northern Renaissance, and medieval religious imagery. |
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Kharmen, 2013 (22 minutes) | |
A motion picture constructed from graphite drawings | |
Mr. Sousaphone Man, a former vaudeville actor turned wilderness guide, returns home in hopes of relaxing with his favorite aria from Georges Bizet's Carmen. The characters he passes on his way home, and his own character, alas, pervade the aria and force him back into the unknown. Bizet's Carmen is set in Seville around the year 1830. The opera deals with the love and jealousy of Don José, who is lured away from his duty as a soldier and his beloved Micaëla by the gypsy factory-girl Carmen, whom he allows to escape from custody. He is later induced to join the smugglers with whom Carmen is associated, but is driven wild by jealousy. This comes to a head when Carmen makes clear her preference for the bull-fighter Escamillo. The last act, outside the bullring in Seville, brings Escamillo to the arena, accompanied by Carmen, there stabbed to death by Don José, who has been awaiting her arrival. |
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About the artist, Jay Bolotin |
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As a youth in rural Fayette County, Kentucky, Jay Bolotin made sculpture from fallen trees and experienced the work of artists like Henry Moore through illustrated magazines. Wanting to “make things that expressed what was otherwise without expression,” he studied art, first at the Rhode Island School of Design, and then as an apprentice to the late sculptor Robert Lamb. In the early 1970s, he pursued his interest in music, working as a songwriter with Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, and Dan Fogelberg. |
With sponsorship from the Northampton Arts Council |
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This program is supported in part by a grant from the Northampton Arts Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. |
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Contents Historic Northampton.