McCabe Brings MidPoint and Lite Brite Together

Six years ago Dan McCabe founded the Lite Brite Test, a music and film festival that featured some of the best up-and-coming artist’s both locally and internationally, and everywhere in between. I don’t want to take too much away from the article that the Cincinnati Enquirer released yesterday, so you can check out the full article right here. I wanted to take a closer look at what exactly will be going down when MidPoint and Lite Brite come together for the first time at the Contemporary Arts Center this weekend.

The event officially kicks off on Thursday at 8 pm, with Brett Ingram’s Rocaterrania. The film explores the secret world of scientific illustrator and visionary artist, Renaldo Kuhler. To find out more about this film click here. 

Next up is a twenty-minute piece from Don Hertzfeldt, entitled Everything Will Be OK. It’s a series of dark and troubling events that force a man named Bill to reckon with the meaning of his life – or lack there of. Read all about right here. The film will be shown again, as the closer on Saturday night.

At 9:45 pm, Jonathan Hodgson presents Forest Murmurs, an animated exploration into the dark side and sinister past of the mind of artist Epping Forest. Check it out here.

Any Girl Talk fans out there? If so, you won’t want to miss Brett Gaylor and Greg Gillis’ (he’s the one known as Girl Talk) RiP: A Remix Manifesto. The two serve as your digital tour guides in a probing investigation into how culture builds upon culture in the information age. Girl Talk won’t actually be performing but his mash-ups serve as the soundtrack. Learn more about it here.

The first of two films you’ll see from Thorsten Fleisch, called Wound Footage, happens at 11:30 pm. The film focuses on the physical decay of a filmstrip through his interpenetration of the photographic image. Check it out here. The film is also showing on Saturday night at 11:20 pm.

The last film of the night is the first of two from local filmmaker and musician Kendall Bruns at 11:45 pm. Questionable Taste takes a closer look at two nutritional entrepreneurs and their unusual approach to solving world hunger. Find more on Kendall Bruns here.

Friday begins with Hitoshi Matsumoto’s Big Man Japan at 8 pm. In this he looks to create a world where not only monsters are real, but the man sent to battle them has terrible domestic problems who is surrounded by a populace who would rather see him quit. Get more information right here.

When 10 pm rolls around, you’ll get the Best of the 2008 Ottawa International Animation Festival. Films from Ian Lagarde (Signal Film), Joris Clerte & Anne Morin (C’est toujours la meme histoire), Mike Maryniuk & Matt Rankin (Cattle Call), Kara Nasdor-Jones (I Slept with the Cookie Monster), Bruce Bickford (The Comic that Frenches Your Mind), Andy & Carolyn London (A Letter to Colleen), David Seitz & Mike Wray (The Mixy Tapes), Bolos Quentes Design (Spong Ice), Run Wrake (The Control Master) and Dennis Tupicoff (Chainsaw).

At 11:15 pm, you’ll get the first of many from Felix Dufour-Laperriere. Variations Sur Marilou is an impressionistic portrait of a love affair, set to the music of Serge Gainsbourg. Learn more right here. The second showing of this film follows the Best of Rotterdam on Saturday night.

The second film from Thorsten Fleisch is entitled Energie!

Then it’s back to Felix Dufour-Laperriere, with Rosa Rosa (also showing on Saturday night), while the night caps off with the second film from Kendall Bruns, entitled Robot Love From Another World.

Saturday starts off at 8 pm with a winner at both the Boston International and Woods Hole film festivals: Taylor Toole’s Mow Crew. Read about it here.

The Best of the 2009 Rotterdam International Film Festival rolls in at 9:45 pm, featuring films from Kasumi Hiraoka (Red-Light District), Duncan Campbell (Bernadette), Reynold Reynolds (Six Apartments) and Sebastian Diaz Morales (Oracle).