related info
For more information please contact:

21c Museum Foundation and the
Louisville Film Society's Monthly Film Series:
Shorts by Apparatus Productions

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008, 7pm  
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008, 9pm  
Atrium Gallery
The event is free and open to the public

Total running time: 92 minutes.
All films will be screened on 16mm prints.

Apparatus Productions

The now defunct, non-profit Apparatus Productions was co-founded by Todd Haynes, Barry Ellsworth and Christine Vachon. Set-up to channel grants to emerging film-makers who were not well served by the traditional funding sources, Apparatus Shorts dealt with gay themes, women's issues, and African-American life. As Haynes comments, "we wanted to preserve the form of short film-making & make it something really exciting that wasn't just a stepping stone for feature film-making." Under Apparatus, several films which directly question narrative & cinematic convention were completed.

The Apparatus Productions players went on to have strong careers in independent cinema. Christine Vachon is one of the most influential producers in independent cinema, producing such controversial classics as Larry Clark's Kids, and Todd Haynes' Poison and Velvet Goldmine, Boys Don't Cry and Todd Solondz's Happiness. Suzan-Lori Parks is a Ft. Knox born army child who grew up in Germany. Her writing credits include the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Topdog/Underdog (recently shown at Actor’s Theatre), Girl 6 (directed by Spike Lee) and Denzel Washington's current hit The Great Debaters.

Todd Haynes is the most famous of the Apparatus directors. He first came to light with the infamous barbie animated Karen Carpenter Story. He went on to direct the controversial film Poison, the glam rock odyssey Velvet Goldmine, Academy Award-nominated films Far From Heaven and most recently I'm Not There, the surreal bio-pic of Bob Dylan.

The following films will be screened:

  • He Was Once by Mary Hestand (16 min)
  • Anemone Me by Suzan-Lori Parks and Bruce Hainley (35 min)
  • Cause and Effect by Susan Delson (11 min)
  • Dottie Gets Spanked by Todd Haynes (30 min)

21c is proud to partner with the Louisville Film Society in the continuing Monthly Film Series. LFS is a publicly supported non-profit organization; support comes from memberships, event admission, advertisement, contributions, donated materials, and services.