2008-2009 Series: Moving Images, Moving Art
In its second season, the Townsend Center’s film & video series, Depth of Field, turns its lens on the traditional roots of the humanities by using film’s status as the ‘seventh art’ to explore its six predecessors. Each film in the Moving Images, Moving Art series focuses on various aspects of dance, music, architecture, painting, literature and sculpture as they appear in uncommon places and unexpected ways. From eccentric authors to sculptors of the ephemeral, Depth of Field spotlights modern day practitioners of these ancient arts in their modern-day manifestations.
All events are free and open to the public.
Spring Program
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 Gonzo: The Life and Work of
Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (2007)
Directed by Alex Gibney
Monday, February 2, 2009
7:00 pm | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Halll
After taking both big government and big business thoroughly to task in Taxi to the Darkside and Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room, it is perhaps fitting that Academy Award-winning documentary director Alex Gibney has now turned his attention to chronicling the life of the iconic Hunter S. Thompson. As court jester of the American counterculture, Thompson himself was often a David in the midst of the Goliaths he covered. As befits its larger-than-life subject, Gibney’s portrait weaves together nearly every tool available to the medium, including found footage of Thompson himself; interviews with everyone from George McGovern to Pat Buchanan; and re-enactments of the author’s bizarre tactics to get the story at any cost.
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 Certain Doubts of
William Kentridge (2007)
Directed by Alex Gabassi
Monday, March 9, 2009
7:00 pm | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall
In conjunction with the Townsend Center’s 2008-2009 Avenali Lecture by South African artist William Kentridge, Depth of Field will feature two short documentaries on the artist and his work. Though he considers charcoal drawing to be his primary medium, Kentridge has extended the range of these drawings into a series of short animated films that blur the distinctions between animation, drawing, and documentation. Included in the screening will be Alex Gabassi’s 2007 biography of the artist, Certain Doubts of William Kentridge (which was filmed on the eve of Kentridge’s major installation, Screensaver), and Kentridge’s interview with Dan Cameron, which focuses specifically on Kentridge’s animated short Automatic Writing.
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 Andy Goldsworthy:
Rivers and Tides (2004)
Directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer
Monday, April 6, 2009
7:00 pm | Geballe Room, 220 Stephens Hall
As a medium, sculpture gravitates toward materials like steel and stone, which are capable of withstanding the test of time and the elements. Not so with Andy Goldsworthy, whose works are formed from found materials in the natural settings where he creates them. Often disintegrating even before he can finish them, Goldsworthy’s pieces seek to mimic the geometric patterns and metamorphic rhythms of the materials and places they are drawn from. Director Thomas Riedelsheimer patiently and engagingly films Goldsworthy at work, producing a meditative, gripping film that itself mimics the time and space of these natural creations and locations. Rivers and Tides consequently provides an invaluable record of this ephemeral work and a glimpse into the worldview of this reclusive, soft-spoken artist.
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