MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART SAN DIEGO PRESENTS
6th ANNUAL ALT.PICTURESHOWS FILM FESTIVAL AT ITS
LA JOLLA LOCATION ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 2008

San Diego, CA-- On Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 7 pm, San Diego's premier short-film showcase, alt.pictureshows, returns to the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego's La Jolla location (700 Prospect Street). The sixth annual alt.pictureshows features a fresh selection of smart, provocative short films guaranteed to delight, engage, and challenge moviegoers. The one-night-only event is free to MCASD Members and $5 general admission.
 
Part happening, part film installation, the always surprising alt.pictureshows will transform MCASD's Sherwood Auditorium, portions of the gallery spaces, and the oceanview Miles Terrace into a wonderfully diverse, cinematic funhouse where Museum-goers are free to dip in and out of rooms at will to sample everything from quirky comedies to thoughtful documentaries. Each room in alt.pictureshows offers an offbeat cross-section of short films linked either by a common theme, sensibility, or both in what promises to be a marvelous evening of micro-cinema where "physical channel surfing" is encouraged.
 
The diversity of short films will be looped throughout the galleries allowing MCASD visitors to traverse the Museum, soaking up the light-hearted, dark and disturbing, and all points in between with a range of cinematic visions created by progressive-minded film artists. The event's founder, filmmaker, and MCASD's Film Curator, Neil Kendricks, spent the past year gathering the films, and states that this year's line-up offers a range of themes from rites of passage to comedic takes on relationships and experimental music videos to a room devoted to David Lynch's first short films.
 
A co-production with MCASD and Kendricks' Muse Chasers, alt.pictureshows will screen more than 20 short films, including several shorts that have been featured at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Please be advised that many of the program's short films have adult content and have not been rated.
 
Although the range of work is deliberately eclectic, the intent behind MCASD and the Muse Chasers' sixth annual presentation of alt.pictureshows is to introduce the public to innovative artists making exciting, artistically daring, and original short films with something to say. What also binds the work of this band of cinematic outsiders is their resilient and often irreverent indie spirit and eagerness to tackle unusual choices of content by any creative means necessary.
 
ALT.PICTURESHOWS 2008 (Breakdown of Rooms and Film Titles)
 
Lynch Mob (Sherwood Auditorium):
David Lynch, "Six Men Getting Sick" (1967)
David Lynch, "The Alphabet" (1968)
David Lynch, "The Grandmother" (1970)
 
Rites of Passage (Axline Court):
Ari Gold, "Helicopter" (2000)
Rob Meyer, "Aquarium" (2007)
Josh Miller, "Without Missing a Beat, She Asks, 'Waffles for Breakfast?'" (2007)
Chris Nelson, "Cara" (2007)
Malik Hassan Sayeed, "She Walks Calmly Disappearing into the Darkness" (2007)
 
Mini Docs R' Us (Video Gallery):
Nathan Gulick, "Mission Hills Bikes" (2008)
Ken Wardrop, "Farewell Packets of Ten" (2007)
Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vegas, "La Corona" (2007)
 
Tainted Love - The Video Remix (Coast Room):
Ken Wardrop, "Scoring" (2007)
David Michôd, "Crossbow" (2007)
Mads Matthiesen, "Dennis" (2007)
Justin Nowell, "Sick Sex" (2008)
Nash Edgerton, "Spider" (2007)
Spencer Susser, "I Love Sarah Jane" (2008)
 
The Wailing Wall, Vol. 3 (Miles Terrace):
Debora Warner, "Night Swimmer: Mad" (2006)
Debora Warner, "Bike Messenger: Happy" (2006)
Debora Warner, "Distance Runner: Sad" (2006)
Ari Gold, "Culture" (1999)
Phillip Van, "Come Wander with Me" (2008)
Laurent Briet, "Rope a Dope" (2008)
Jim Cavolt & Neil Kendricks, "Untitled Video Project" (2008)
 
Hi-res images and press kits available for select films; please contact ccaraska@mcasd.org or 858 454 3541 x119.
 
For more information on MCASD Film Series, call 858 454 3541 or visit www.mcasd.org.
 
MCASD's Film Program is made possible by grant support from The James Irvine Foundation, the Oliver R. Porter Memorial Fund, Colonel Frank C. Wood Memorial Fund, Charles B. Cram Fund, and the David Huot West and Antoinette Huot West Endowment Fund of The San Diego Foundation; and contributors to MCASD's Annual Fund Campaign.