Thursday 10.29.09 – The Earth is Young – Michael Gitlin with Jim Supanick

CONTENTS:
1. About this Thursday
2. About "The Earth is Young"
3. About Michael Gitlin
4. About Jim Supanick
5. Useful links

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1. About this Thursday

What: Screening and Discussion
When: Thursday 10.29.09
Where: 16Beaver Street, 4th Floor
When: 7:00 pm
Who: Free and open to all

We are excited to host a screening and discussion around Michael Gitlin's most recent video "The Earth is Young." It follows many conversations we have had about documentary, politics, communication, and science, but differs in subject and approach. Across a great ideological difference, there is a kinship between the amateur research depicted in his project and many of the cultural practices we support and valorize, also often outside the mainstream. There is a question then of recognizing the energy and investments of others while contesting or disputing their conclusions, as well as a much broader question of how facts and understanding are presently constituted for a large number of people in the United States.

Following the film, Jim Supanick will lead a discussion with Michael and the rest of us about this and other questions.

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2. About "The Earth is Young"

The Earth Is Young (2009, 58 min., digital video)

The Earth Is Young takes as its starting point a series of interviews conducted with Young Earth Creationists, who find evidence of a six-day, six-thousand-year old creation in their reading of the fossil and geological record. The film frames these encounters with depictions of the slow and patient work of young paleontologists, and the strange, shimmering life in a drop of pond water, both of which point toward a world far older and more complex, if no less fantastic.

Bordering on a kind of science-fiction film, The Earth Is Young is an essay about the nature of science, and about the tools, both physical and ideological, with which one builds a model of the world.

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3. About Michael Gitlin

Michael Gitlin's work has been screened at numerous venues, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Full Frame Documentary Festival, the New York Video Festival at Lincoln Center and the 1997 Whitney Biennial. His film, The Birdpeople, is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He is the recipient of a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship. His work has also been supported by the Jerome Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Gitlin received an M.F.A. from Bard College. He teaches at Hunter College in New York City.
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4. About Jim Supanick

Jim Supanick is a videomaker and writer born in Cleveland, OH and currently based in Brooklyn, NY. His work has been exhibited in museums, galleries, and festivals, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Dia Art Foundation, Thomas Erben Gallery, L.A. Freewaves, and PDX Festival, and has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Experimental Television Center, and the Puffin Foundation. His essays on film, video, and contemporary art have appeared in exhibition catalogs and publications such as Film Comment, Millennium Film Journal, The Wire, Film International, Cineaste, and The Brooklyn Rail. Jim’s writing has received support from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Program. He currently teaches at City College, The New School, and Brooklyn College.

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5. Useful links

http://michaelgitlin.com/
http://supanickblog.blogspot.com/