Jesse McLean

Magic for Beginners will screen in the Video Programme Satellite Stories as part of the 2012 Transmediale in Berlin, Germany in late January/early Feb. Very excited! A little about Satellite Stories:

The video programme Satellite Stories, curated by Marcel Schwierin, raises the question of the compatibility between human beings and the products they create. Whether we look to politics, the financial markets, architecture, traffic, fashion or – in particular – to the mass media: we create an environment that is intended to satisfy our needs, but one that also consistently makes demands upon us that we cannot achieve. The products seem to develop a life of their own, and are no longer adapted to suit human needs; instead, we are forced to adapt to them in order to avoid becoming incompatible ourselves.

Right up my alley! More about the program and other artists included can be found here

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Magic for Beginners will screen in Stuttgart, Germany as part of the Stuttgarter Filmwinter Festival for Expanded Media.

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Magic for Beginners will screen at the Antimatter Film Festival in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The festival runs from Oct. 14-22. Program information to follow.

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Magic for Beginners will play at the Dallas VideoFest, running from Sept. 21-25. Would love to be in attendance, so many great films and wonderful filmmakers will be! Screening in the program “You’ve Got to Look Into the Light” with Latham Zearfoss, Monica Panzarino, Jennifer Reeder and Lori Felker! Holy Smokes!

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Magic for Beginners will play in  Fits and Spells, curated by Michael Robinson, a screening of wonderful work. The screening is Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 7:15. More info here.

Examining and evoking altered states of consciousness to enthralling, humorous and haunting ends, these five short films explore the cinematic possibilities of the manipulated mind. A portrait of one woman’s LSD trip becomes a mesmerizing riddle of perspective and landscape in Ben Russell’s Trypps #7 (Badlands) (2010,10 mins), while a home beauty routine gives way to a desert vision quest in Shana Moulton’s Sand Saga (2008, 11 mins). In Peggy Ahwesh’sThe Ape of Nature (2010, 23 mins), an ensemble of hypnotized actors channel a cacophonous recalling of the past, inspired by Werner Herzog’s Heart of Glass. The program also includes Laida Lertxundi’s Cry When It Happens (2010, 13 mins), a mystical expedition across the urban and wild expanses of southern California, and Jesse McLean’s Magic For Beginners (2010, 20 mins), an essayistic look at the inherent hysteria, melancholy and release of obsessive fandom.

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Very excited about this exhibition at PPOW! Amazing group of artists, can’t wait to see the show. Will be in attendance at the opening, come on out New Yorkers!

Upcoming Exhibition Magic For Beginners Bas Jan Ader, Olaf Breuning Jennifer Cohen, Scott Hug Kevin Lips, Niall McClelland, Jesse McLean, Kristie Muller Rbt. Sps., Brent Stewart Curated by Jamie Sterns and Joseph Whitt July 28 – August 26, 2011 Opening Reception: Thursday, July 28, 6-8pm

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Magic for Beginners will play as part of the shorts program “A Carrot is as Close as a Rabbit gets to a Diamond” at the 2011 Chicago Underground Film Festival. It plays Sunday, June 5 at 1:00pm and again Thursday, June 9 at 6:00pm at the Gene Siskel Film Center. The programming looks terrific this year, I’m really looking forward to checking out lots of great work.

Schedule is here.

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Magic for Beginners or should I say Magia dla początkujących will screen in Warsaw, Poland as part of the Planete Doc Film Festival. Wish I could be there.

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I’m excited that Magic for Beginners will screen as part of the 2011 Rooftop Films Summer Series. Movies seen outside = exhilaration!

More details to come but for now I know the video will screen as part of the “Trapped in the Machine” short film program, films in which “Nothing is at it seems, in a world of dreams, trust, deception, and resurrection” and it will most likely be on August 5.

I will be in attendance, see you in Brooklyn!

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I’ve just learned that Magic for Beginners won the Overkill Award at the Images Festival in Toronto. What an honor!

This overkill award was established by the Images Festival in 2000 to
honour former Executive Director Deirdre Logue, (1996 through 1999
festivals) and is presented annually to a film, video or installation
artist whose work approaches extremes of incorrigibility through form
and/or content and challenges our notions of edgy, experimental
practice.

Some nice blogging about the festival and Magic for Beginners

http://www.eyeweekly.com/film/feature/article/113452

http://www.nowtoronto.com/movies/story.cfm?content=179924

http://www.blogto.com/film/2011/03/5_films_to_watch_at_the_images_festival/

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