Above: Stills from the documentary Taiga by Ulrike Ottinger

Above: Still from Apocalypto Now by Jonathan Horowitz

Light Industry presents a series of films and lectures ranging from an eight-hour documentary by Ulrike Ottinger which follows reindeer nomads as they migrate across Mongolia (Taiga), to a screening of a mock-50s disaster movie that artist Jonathan Horowitz made entirely from found documentary and TV footage (Apocalypto Now), to a lecture by film critic Ed Halter on a small film company whose inspiring low-budget documentaries explore “Sasquatch, the Loch Ness Monster, the Bermuda Triangle, life after death, UFOs” and the possibility that “extraterrestrial travelers came to earth in prehistoric times to teach technology to our ancestors and create civilization.”

220 36th Street, 5th Floor / Brooklyn, New York 11232
$7 at door

See below for show times:

Taiga
Ulrike Ottinger, 16mm, 1991/2, 501 mins
Presented by Ginger Brooks Takahashi
Saturday, September 12, 2009 at 1:00pm

“Taiga is Ulrike Ottinger’s eight-hour documentary film on life in Northern Mongolia, a journey to the yak and reindeer nomads. For this presentation at Light Industry, we will watch the film in its entirety. Food will be served, but please also bring things to share. Attempts and interpretations of the region’s cuisine are encouraged–yak butter and various ferments? English translations of the transcript will be provided to the audience to read along.

Next year, I will travel to the Mongolian wild steppe with an entourage of women tracing the tracks of Ottinger’s journey in Johanna D’Arc of Monglia. This screening will be an introduction to the trip.” – GBT

Stations:
The Oul Pass with holy Obo relic – Guards of the Darkhad Valley
The valley of the Darkhad Nomads
Nomads along the Altrag River
The shamaness Baldshir lives alone in the Höjen Valley
With the Yura – the wedding
With the Yura – the white food
The Jura’s neighbors – The singer and smith Dawadschi
Sacred tree
Suren Hor narrates the fairty tale of the naked boy in the hole in the ground
The hunter and boot maker Ölziibajar
The Öwtschuunii-Naadam-Festival of the sheep breast bone
Wrestlers and Singers of Praise
The nomads prepare to move to their winter camp
On the way to Tsagaan Nor (white sea)
The hunter Tscholoo
Tsagaan Nor City
Hero of work
Tree cutter Sanji
Örgöl reliquary
How the old bears hunted
On the Shishgid on the way to the reindeer nomads of the taiga
Large Tsaatan meeting on the Tingis
A Christian delegation has arrived
Departure for the autumn camp, 5-days-trip away
Trip to the southern taiga
The shamaness Bajar and her family
Back with the Jura – preparations for the winter camp
The Jura’s move to winter camp in Ulaan Uul
The Jura’s neighbors in Ulaan Uul
Flour and tea seals have arrived at the store
The dignitaries of Ulaan Uul host a farewell party
Nomads on the Oul Pass
First school day in Hadhal
From Hadhal to Hanch, two forgotten trading centers
Chöwsgöl Nor – Lake of Clear Water
Ulaanbaatar – marriage palace
Amusement park – epic singers

Ginger Brooks Takahashi (b. 1977) lives in Brooklyn, NY, maintaining a social, project-based practice. She is co-founder of LTTR, a queer and feminist art journal, and projet MOBILIVRE BOOKMOBILE project, a traveling exhibit of artist books and zines. She received her BA from Oberlin College, attended the Whitney Independent Study Program, and is a resident artist at Smack Mellon, 2008-9. Her work has shown in the following exhibitions recently: Shared Women at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 2007; Exile of the Imaginary at the Generali Foundation, Vienna, 2007; and Locally Localized Gravity at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, 2007. She has presented public projects at the Serpentine Gallery, London, 2008; documenta 12, Kassel, 2007; Art Metropole, Toronto, 2007; and with Ridykeulous at The Kitchen, NY, 2007.

Jonathan Horowitz
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 7:30pm

In an evening exploring the subject of documentary genres, from cinéma vérité to reality TV, Jonathan Horowitz screens his new video, Apocalypto Now (2009), along with an early, rarely seen video, Making Pharaoh’s Red Flag Video (1988). The videos will be presented within the context of a prerecorded “live” introduction/monologue. The artist will be present to answer questions afterward.

“The work of the American artist Jonathan Horowitz (*1966) employs the technique of montage much like a music DJ samples bits and pieces of songs. Scenes from classic movies are combined with obscure bits of media detritus to make critical connections between disparate narratives. At the same time, Horowitz presents singular and incisive new narratives, which powerfully reflect on important issues of the day.

Apocalypto Now is made entirely from found documentary and narrative movie and TV footage. Its primary structure is taken from a documentary on the history of the Hollywood disaster movie. Footage from documentaries on climate change and scenes from movies reenacting the 9/11 World Trade Center attack are intercut. Connections are drawn between disaster as entertainment, real life catastrophe, and the apocalyptic beliefs of religious fundamentalists.

The central figure connecting these strands is the actor/director Mel Gibson. In interview footage, Gibson talks about his personal struggles with addiction, which led him to a renewal of his Catholic faith and to making the movie The Passion of the Christ. As with other players in Apocalypto Now, (self)destructive impulses are channeled through religion and art, to a variety of often disturbing ends. Gibson, however, is not always successful in containing these impulses, as his public relations catastrophes attest.”
– Exhibition brochure, Museum Ludwig

In Search of Sunn
a lecture by Ed Halter
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 7:30pm

In the 1970s, the financial decline of Hollywood and the increased popularity of pseudoscience and parapsychology led to the unlikely rise of tiny Utah-based independent distributor Sunn Classic Pictures, who released a film adaptation of Erich von Däniken’s best-selling book Chariots of the Gods? in 1974. Purporting to explain how extraterrestrial travelers came to earth in prehistoric times to teach technology to our ancestors and create civilization, Chariots grossed nearly $26 million, spawning a series of scrappy Sunn titles exploring Sasquatch, the Loch Ness Monster, the Bermuda Triangle, life after death, UFOs, and the search for Noah’s Ark, along with two more documentaries on “ancient astronauts.” Sunn’s success inspired other outfits to distribute cheaply-made movies and TV shows about such topics as Nostradamus, psychic phenomena, end-times theology and catastrophe theorist Emmanuel Velikovsky. Critic and curator Ed Halter presents an illustrated lecture and clip show on the curious success of Sunn and its numerous imitators, revisiting a markedly different era of film distribution, and analyzing the longstanding appeal of fringe metaphysics in the information age.

The event concludes by screening a former elementary school library 16mm print of In Search of Ancient Astronauts, a television re-edit of Chariots of the Gods? narrated by Rod Serling.
Tickets for all events – $7, available at door.

Hi-res stills available upon request.

Since launching in March 2008, Light Industry has brought you over 60 shows at our space in Sunset Park, not to mention a five-day marathon of free events at X-initiative in June 2009. We’ve presented works by hundreds of artists during this time through our regular series of screenings, lectures, discussions and live performances.

Aided by our band of tireless interns as well as the generous in-kind support of Industry City, so far we’ve been able to produce more than a year of weekly programs funded largely by ticket sales.

Last month we launched our first fundraising campaign for the Summer of 2009, aiming to raise $10,000 by the end of August. Additional resources will allow us to reach our goals of expanding our modest operating budget, supporting more travel for out-of-town guests, and increasing our fees for artists and curators.

We proudly run Light Industry on a lean, no-nonsense budget, so this means that donations of any size can make a considerable impact. All contributions are tax-deductible, and any individual who donates $100 or more will receive a very special perk: free admission to all Light Industry shows for a year!

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