Early Show: Films by Guy Maddin and Chelsea Spear
Zeitgeist Gallery and Illustrated Occasional
present
A MONTH OF SUNDAYS
Films by Guy Maddin and Chelsea Spear
Curated by Chelsea Spear
October Sundays: 10/5, 10/12, 10/19 at 7pm and 10/24 at midnight
(Cambridge, MA) Zeitgeist Gallery, in conjunction with Illustrated
Occasional, presents “A Month of Sundays,” films by Guy Maddin and Chelsea
Spear; curated by Chelsea Spear. October 5, 12, 19, and 26 at 7 pm. Donation
is $7 and the gallery is wheelchair accessible. At the Zeitgeist Gallery,
1353 Cambridge St., Inman Sq., Cambridge. For information log onto
www.zeitgeist-gallery.org or call 617-876-6060.
After the success of her first screening night at the Zeitgeist Gallery,
filmmaker Chelsea Spear is returning with a month-long residency. “A Month
of Sundays” will feature the world premiere of her short film “The Hidden,”
as well as a rare screening of Guy Maddin’s first feature film “Tales from
the Gimli Hospital.”
“Tales from the Gimli Hospital” (1989) by Guy Maddin, whose recent film
“Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary ” enjoyed a successful run at the
Brattle Theatre, tells the bizarre story of friendship and rivalry
between two patients in a Manitoba (Canada) hospital during a smallpox
epidemic. In the years since its release, the film’s German
expressionist-inspired visuals and bizarre characters have earned it
comparisons to David Lynch’s “Eraserhead”.
Chelsea Spear has been working on “The Hidden” – a 16mm ten-minute silent
film – for over a year. She has opted to premier this film by showing it in
conjunction with work by Guy Maddin, a filmmaker she holds in high regard.
Akin to Maddin’s fascination with mythology and striking silent film
imagery, Spear’s near-silent “The Hidden” gives a woman’s perspective on the
Calypso/Ulysses story in “The Odyssey.” In the years after World War II, a
lonely Red Cross nurse (played by Nora Jane Williams) is forced to
relinquish her love for a war-hero patient (played by Peter Moore).
