It was a busy weekend for ArtBeat. The San Francisco Film Festival kicked off its 50th Anniversary Friday night at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. The PFA is part of The Berkeley Art Museum [BAM], which is in turn part of UC Berkeley.
I caught the 3rd film, Rani Singh’s unbelievable documentary Old, Weird America: Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. The film is the story of Smith’s incredible cultural contribution of the Anthology of American Folk Music, a collection of previously recorded music by the likes of Blind Lemon Jefferson, the Cater Family, the Memphis Jug Band, etc. The film conflates old footage with interviews and is intercut with contemporary concert footage from 3 concerts held to commemorate Smith’s accomplishment.
Harry Smith [1923-1991] was an artist whose activities and interests put him at the center of the mid twentieth-century American avant-garde. Although best known as a filmmaker and musicologist, he frequently described himself as a painter, and his varied projects called on his skills as an anthropologist, linguist, and translator. In 1952 Folkways issued Smith's multi-volume Anthology of American Folk Music. The Anthology was comprised entirely of recordings issued between 1927 (the year electronic recording made accurate reproduction possible) and 1932, the period between the realization by the major record companies of distinct regional markets and the Depression's stifling of folk music sales. Released in three volumes of two discs each, the 84 tracks of the anthology are recognized as having been a seminal inspiration for the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960 (the 1997 reissue by the Smithsonian was embraced with critical acclaim and two Grammy awards).
Still from one of Harry's films.
Smith spent his last years 1988-1991) as "shaman in residence" at Naropa Institute, where he offered a series of lectures, worked on sound projects, and continued collecting and researching. In 1991 he received a Chairman's Merit Award at the Grammy Awards ceremony for his contribution to American Folk Music. Upon receiving the award, he proclaimed, "I'm glad to say my dreams came true. I saw America changed by music." Harry Everett Smith died at the Chelsea Hotel on November 27, 1991.
PFA's Susan Oxtoby addressing the party in the scupture garden at BAM.
Saturday, I caught the debut of the new Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht film All In This Tea, which documents the odyssey of Marin County tea buyer and world-class tea connoisseur, David Lee Hoffman. Hoffman travels the back roads of China searching for premium, artisanal organic tea farms, which are quickly being pushed out by large factory production facilities. The entire tea growing and processing process is beautifully detailed with typical Blank humor. The cool thing about festivals is that the filmmakers are normally present at the screenings and in addition to introducing the films, generally take questions afterward. In the case of the Blank film, there was a super cool garden party reception after the film that featured Tea-tinis and a tea service officiated by Hoffman himself.
Both films dealt with the notion that what we are seeing are but the remnants of dying breeds: Pre commercial folk music and authentic tea growing societies. Dig it before it’s gone!
Editor Walter Murch [Appocalypse Now, the English patient, etc.] and Rena Rosenwasser.
BAM's Meigan Riddle
Also, Saturday night was the benefit art auction for artist Kim Maria Anahata at Varnish Fine Art. Work from over 40 participating artists was on hand for silent bidding. The event was put together by artists’ agent Jennifer Vaughn of Jen Vaughn Art and is the second of 3 benefits to be held for Kim. The first was in Brooklyn, and the next will be at La luz de Jesus Gallery in LA on May 18. The auction raised nearly $14,000.000! Varnish is a cool social gallery run by Kerri Stephens and Jennifer Rogers. Varnish features a wine bar with draught beer and sake as well and is open for happy hour Tuesdays thru Fridays, 11 am-11 pm.
