Faculty Achievements
2008
 Stacy Steers shows with Terry Gilliam in the show Max Ernst Surrealismus in Germany.
Professor Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz was one of the recipients of the 2008 Marinus G. Smith Teacher Recognition Award given by the CU Parents Association (CUPA).
Professor Boord receives $41k University of Colorado/IGP Seed Grant for project “A Cinema Renga: Alterative approaches for creating digital intermediates”. The project will develop “low cost” high-resolution capture and output techniques that will allow artists to explore the creative potential of hybrid moving-image technologies. Principal investigator Boord will collaborate with Professors Solomon and Valdovino to create a new cinema work.
Assistant Professor Jeanne Liotta recent film, Observando el Cielo, was named one of 2007 top ten films by Ed Halter in his article The Year in Experimental Cinema (Village Voice ). Halter wrote: “Observando el Cielo — A 16mm time-lapse cinematography of starry heavens captured over several years, Liotta's film (enhanced by Peggy Ahwesh's recordings of magnetic fields) works as a pitch-perfect 17 minutes of sublime contemplation—a reminder that the super-slow movements of the night sky provide cinema's most primal form.” Chrissie Iles writing for ARTFORUM also named Observando el Cielo — as on of the top films for 2007.
 Observando el Cielo received the prestigious Tiger Award at the 2008 37th International Film Festival in Rotterdam. The jury wrote that Observando el cielo won for ‘its quest narrative of seeing, unafraid of beauty’.
CU Film Studies Professor Phil Solomon was awarded the Juror's Prize (First Prize) at the Black Maria Film and Video Festival for the (unprecedented) sixth time in his career for his digital video "REHEARSALS FOR RETIREMENT." This video is currently touring the U.S. with the Black Maria traveling show, and recently showed at Naropa University to a packed auditorium of Naropa and CU students and faculty.
2007
CU Film Studies Professor Phil Solomon recent digital video series IN MEMORIAM, MARK LAPORE was named on several top ten films of 2007, including the Village Voice critic Ed Halter who wrote:
In Memoriam Mark LaPore
[Phil Solomon]
One of the contemporary masters of expressive 16mm optical printing, Solomon's trilogy of videos in honor of his late friend, filmmaker Mark LaPore, bear an unexpected provenance: They're created entirely within the crime-spree video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Unlike so much geek-generated machinima, however, the In Memoriam videos conjure subtle, powerful visions, transforming gangland SoCal into a desolate, cursed land of overcast skies, shadowy figures, and ominous symbols. Appropriately mournful yet mysteriously evocative, they're a fitting tribute to LaPore's own penetrating and haunting powers.
IN MEMORIAM was also cited by the following websites in their top ten films of 2007:
The Academic Hack (Michael Sicinski)
Gay City News (Steve Erickson)
The Wexner Center Media Arts (Chris Stults)
Video Arcadia
Festival News
30Th Starz Denver Film Festival Announces Filmmaker Phil Solomon As Recipient Of The 2007 Stan Brakhage Vision Award
Denver, CO – The 30th Starz Denver Film Festival announced that Professor Phil Solomon would be the recipient of the 2007 Stan Brakhage Vision Award. This award recognizes the achievement of filmmakers who exemplify the creative and artistic achievements of the late Stan Brakhage. Established in 2003, the Stan Brakhage Vision Award is annually presented to film artists who exemplify and celebrate Brakhage’s great courage and boldness, his uncompromising
integrity and vision.
Rocky Mountain Twilight reveals an intense faith in first-person cinema
October 18, 2007 -- One of the most respected American cities for experimental film and video is Boulder, Colorado. Fueled by the vision and dedication of Stan Brakhage, the giant of avant-garde cinema who taught generations of film students at the University of Colorado, the Boulder scene has thrived for several decades. Weekend salons and the legendary program “First Person Cinema” (founded by Brakhage and Bruce Conner and run since the late 1960s by Don Yannacito) are regular forums for the exhibition and discussion of experimental film, not only for students but also for Boulder residents and visitors to the city. Widely respected educators and visiting artists at CU-Boulder have trained and influenced many talented students over the years.
This program celebrates a cross-section of recent film and video work produced within the Boulder community. Brakhage is represented by important short films from his late career. Among current faculty at CU-Boulder, the series includes: Phil Solomon, one of the most innovative experimental filmmakers working today; Dan Boord and Luis Valdovino, critically-revered and influential video artists investigating cultural narratives; and Stacey Steers, one of today’s most respected hand animators. Also included are some of the best of recent CU students: Andrew Busti, Victor Jendras, Thomas Helman, Casey Koehler, Mary Beth Reed, and Robert Schaller. Amidst the disparate styles of these media artists, ROCKY MOUNTAIN TWILIGHT reveals an intense faith in first-person cinema as a medium for metaphoric and poetic expression.
—Paul Roth, Curator of Photography and Media Arts, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington
The Rocky Mountain Twilight program will also be screening at Anthology Film Archives in New York in March 2007, the Pacific Film Archives and CalArts in the fall of 2007, along with other possible venues in Europe, South America, and more.
AVANT-GARDE FILMMAKER RECIEVES CREATIVITY IN MOTION AWARD
Filmmaker and professor of film studies Philip S. Solomon has been named the 2007 Thatcher Hoffman Smith Creativity in Motion recipient. Solomon will receive a piece of sculpture and a check for $40,000 to use at his discretion, based on his entry titled “American Falls.” The presentation will take place at a ceremony to be held Wednesday, Sept. 5, on the University of Oklahoma Norman campus.
“American Falls” is a six-channel, surround-sound digital video installation to be projected on the walls of the rotunda at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Solomon, who is known for his experimentation with film emulsion, calls it “a Sistine Chapel for the American Dream” and plans to open the exhibit in early fall of 2009.
Among the many influences of the installation are Frederick Church’s painting “Niagara Falls,” from the Corcoran’s collection; Diego Rivera’s Works Progress Administration Arts Project murals; various war memorials in the Washington, D.C., area; and an episode of “Star Trek” titled “The City on the Edge of Forever;” in which images are “history as a river of time.”
“My project is ultimately one of great hope, stemming from a lifelong love for this American experiment of ours that seemed so vivid to me during my (television-infused) childhood; but it is also necessitated by my deepest concern for its present and future directions,” Solomon writes in his proposal.
Ernesto Acevedo-Munoz wins Eaton Award
June 1, 2007 -- Professor Ernesto Acevedo-Munoz is the winner of one of the 2007 Leslie & Woody Eaton Awards for Excellence in Research, given by the CU Center for the Humanities and the Arts, for his book Bunuel and Mexico: The Crisis of National Cinema (University of California Press, 2003). Professor Acevedo-Munoz's new book, Pedro Almodovar, has just been published in London by the British Film Institute. |
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Stacy Steers' Phantom Canyon shows at Sundance, wins at Black Maria
March 14, 2007 -- Stacy Steers animated film Phantom Canyon screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. It also won a Jury's Choice award at the Black Maria Film Festival for 2007.
Stacy Steers' Phantom Canyon shown at MoMA
April 2, 2006 -- Stacy Steers new animated film Phantom Canyon premiered in New York City on April 1 and 2, 2006 as part of the New Directors New Films Festival at the Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art.
CU Film Studies Professor Phil Solomon was recently honored with a "PRIDE IN OUR FACULTY: ARTS" banner, which has been placed along the walk by the pond from Old Main to The Hill.
The banner text reads: "Filmmaker, Guggenheim Fellow, "...stunningly beautiful films..." (from NY Times review).
 
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