"Requiem For A Friend"

NEAR FEATURE AND FEATURE-LENGTH WORKS
Note: Underlined titles are links to pix, reviews &/or synopsis

*REQUIEM FOR A FRIEND (44:00; 1991) text by Rainer Maria Rilke; video docudrama
*ARCHAIC COMMUNITY (85:00; 1991/92); paratheatrical rituals; documentary video
*THE ORACLE (70:00; 1993) integrating Neruda's "Book of Questions"; feature videofilm
PUSS PUSS CAFE (50:00; 1994) Seattle women performers; documentary video
*DRIVETIME (80:00; 1995) produced w/Rob Brezsny; edited w/J. Comerford; feature videofilm
*CRUX (85:00; 1999) scripted w/participants; paratheatrical DV document
*TRAGOS (117:00; 2001); produced w/Sylvi Alli; edited w/Chris Odell; DV feature

REASON Magazine on Antero Alli and "TRAGOS"
Story/review by Jesse Walker, Associate Editor; Aug/Sept. 2001

"Cold Force"

SHORTER WORKS

*SKIN OF BIRCH (5:00; 1992) text by Pablo Neruda; videopoem
BOMBS & PRAYERS (6:00; 1993/96) text by Rob Brezsny; videopoem
D.U.I. (8:00; 1993); experimental video. BLACK SEA (4:00; 1993); videopoem
*COLD FORCE (6:00; 1994); experimental video. THE WORD, WEIRD (6:00; 1994); video lecture
IMAGINARY TIMES & PLACES (22:00; 1994) text by HD, Rob Brezsny; videopoem trilogy
*INERTIA (COUPLE NEXT DOOR) (22:00; 1994) scripted by the actors; experimental video
SOME PASS THIS WAY (8:00; 1995) text by Sean Blosl; experimental video
WITCH BURNING (4:00; 1998) text by Sylvia Plath; videopoem (see image below)
*LILY IN LIMBO (28:00; 1999) produced & edited w/Sylvi Alli; text by H.D.; experimental videofilm
MR. AA, ANTI-PHILOSOPHER (4:00; 1999) text by Tristan Tzara; videopoem
*FAIRY (4:00; 2000) text by Arthur Rimbaud; videopoem
*ROADKILL (27:00; 2001) edited w/Andrew Damon; text improvised; experimental DV narrative

"Fears"
*FEARS (8:00; 2001) a new videopoem w. text by Rainer Maria Rilke
featuring JOHN MICHAEL DOYLE. October 17th Premiere (click red link below)

*incorporating music &/or soundtrack by SYLVI ALLI
(DV = digital video; "videofilms" combine various video and film formats)

S.F. Bay Area Screenings
upcoming showcases and exhibitions

FUTURE SCREENINGS E-MAIL LIST
Click the above and write "Vertical List" in subject line

Cinema as Asocial Ritual
"Why I Do What I Do"

My video and film work is made for exhibition only (big screen projection); for
several reasons. I believe in the asocial ritual of cinema; a group of strangers
gathered in a large, cavernous space to watch visions, seeing through a window
into another time, another place; to undergo a psychic journey together while
remaining very much alone. And in this solitude, perception shifts and turns,
this way and that, sometimes altered and once in a blue moon, transformed.

Certain films can change your life. Filmmakers that have changed mine:
ANDREI TARKOVSKY, WERNER HERZOG, CASAVETTES, FELLINI,
ALEXANDRO JODOROWSKY, WIM WENDERS, and DAVID LYNCH.

Aesthetically, I develop my work (visually, linguistically, musically) to be
seen and heard on the big screen with big audio speakers; that's the way
they're meant to be experienced. I have no real ambition to see my work
replicated for small screen viewing via video, DVD or worse yet, internet
streaming; picture millions of viewers, home alone, transfixed to computer
and TV monitors: a corruption of the ritual of cinema as I know it, a rite also
demanding that people get out of the house. With few exceptions, (CRUX and
DRIVETIME) the only way to see my movies are at small arthouse venues along
the pacific coast: Seattle (911 Media Arts), Portland (NW Film Forum, Clinton
Street Theater, Hollywood Theater), Berkeley (Fine Arts Cinema, PFA) and
San Francisco (CELLspace, Venue 9 & others); so far, I've avoided L.A.

My bottomline is making the movie I have to make and sharing the product
of that vision with those who are there when it happens. And when this
does happen, it remains for me the joy and the dread of discovering what
was actually produced, how others see it and to what extent I am truly
reaching someone -- if only one person, sometimes; a big part of "why I
do what I do". Money, when it's around, is nice; it affords new gear and
greases the publicity machines. As for fame...a useful illusion at best;
at worst, a plague upon the soul.

ANTERO ALLI

More Than You'll Ever Need To Know About Me...

The FILM THREAT Interview
Antero talks with Phil Hall; November 1999

NOMAD VIDEOFILM FESTIVAL
Annual West Coast Touring Fest (since 1992)

ParaTheatrical ReSearch
(writer/director; since 1977)

BIO

E-MAIL
voicemail: (510) 464-4640
PO Box 7518 Berkeley CA 94707