Opening Night in Chinatown
Kicks Off LA Freewaves’ TV or NOT TV
8^th Celebration of Experimental Media Arts
Friday, November 1, 2002

Los Angeles, CA - On Friday, November 1^st media arts organization LA Freewaves officially kicks off their festival TV or NOT TV with a film and video screening at Cal Arts, a month-long Latin American exhibit at Iturralde Gallery on La Brea and a full evening of events in Chinatown.  Opening night in Chinatown features multiple gallery openings in and around Chung King Road, multi-media art at internet cafes, public address system infiltrations, and large scale street projections.  Once they've filled their minds, participants can head over to The Grand Star to shake their booties at the infamous club Firecracker.  Diverse TV or NOT TV festival programming then continues for another 29 days throughout the month of November.

Chinatown Opening Night Quick-Facts:

• Friday November 1, 2002, 7:00pm – 11:00pm (unless otherwise noted below)
• 60 artists’ videos, CD-ROMs and web sites
• Taking place at a dozen Chinatown venues and numerous outdoor walls on Chung King Road & Central Plaza

• Chinatown is located in downtown Los Angeles North of both W. Cesar Chavez Avenue (aka Sunset Blvd.), and the 101 Freeway.  The main North/South streets are Hill Street and Broadway (www.chinatownla.com).  Look for the crosswalk at the North End of Hill Street or Broadway to find the heart of the TV or NOT TV activities.

Chinatown Event Program Details:

§         Outdoor Projections of Numerous Artists’ Works

      Works by Matilda Aslizadeh, William Basinski, Howie Cherman, Humberto Duque, Denise Marika, Daniel Martinico & Jesse Arnold, Angel Nevarez and Erika Suderburg

      -         On various outdoor walls in Chinatown

§         Video Installations
Work by Ed Pelissier
-   flight 943.5, 943½ Chung King Road, 90012

  §           Video Loop
            Work by Carrie Lincourt 
                  -    In window of Chong Hing Jewelers, 956 N. Hill, 90012

§         “AudioVisuals: A Remix of Music & Karaoke Videos” (87 min)

“AudioVisuals” celebrates the magic created by the entertaining to the profound union of music and visual images.  It may materialize in the form of a karaoke sing-along, a rhythmic chant for social change, or as a cacophony of guitar licks, joyfully blaring an escape from monotony. Selected by Reggie Coleman and Lelalois Beard

Works by Michael Dee, Jim Finn, Art Jones, Silvia Gruner, Juan Carlos Alom, Anna Biller, Brian E.F. Oakes, Moira Tierney, Brad Vanderburg, Martins Virbulis and Liu Wei
-      On wall outside of Firecracker at Grand Star Restaurant, 943 N. Broadway, 90012 (626-454-7447)

  §         “Bad Blood” (65 min)

Blood is a powerful metaphor for identity.  It is also a powerful metaphor for understanding the problem of identity.  “Bad Blood” includes representations of mixed blood identity and its relation to urban violence and stigmatized sexualities, ethnicity to racism and to AIDS. Selected by José Munoz

Works by Paul Forrer, Erika Suderburg, Richard Fong
      and Stuart Gaffney
       -         At a gallery TBA on Chung King Road

§         “Involuntary Narratives” (58 min)

Whether it is the artist's compulsion or the audience's, in their varying ways, each piece has an element that pushes it without choice toward a narrative. A city comes to life and goes to sleep; a dress bellows out of control; eels enter a private space; and a couple fights, breaks up, and fights. Come see what happens next. Selected by Laura Purdy

Works by Humberto Duque, Laura Martin, Patty Chang, Gabriel Jennings, Raul Cordero and Richard Billingham
-         Via Cafe on Central Plaza 

• c-level Memefest  6:00pm -Midnight

"All Your Meme are Belong to Us!" The world's first Internet memefest will collect and reflect on the wondrous world of Internet memes with six hours of short screenings and lectures by internet meme experts, artists and fans.

Organized by Eddo Stern, with Andy Baio, Jason Brown, David Casell, Deborah Forster, Jeff Herman and others.  More info is available at www.c-level.cc/memefest.
-      c-level, 963 N. Hill St., 90012 (behind Full House Rest. off Chung King Rd., (213-617-0978) 

§         “Mom, Dad, I Have Something to Tell You” (52 min)

      Growing up is a real pain, a time of hard realities and abandoned dreams, but it's also a time of thrilling discoveries, juicy secrets and the last flings of total abandon. This program rides a roller-coaster of happily twisted kids discovering their own bodies, their emotions and their parents' secrets, from the painful to the cute, playful and joyous. Selected by Allan deSouza

Works by Bryan Boyce, Jeremy Drummond, Allison Foust, Dan Taulapapa McMullin, Roger Beebe, David Sukup, Broderick Fox, Jennet Thomas and Gustavo Artigas
-         ArtsCorpsLA, 936 Mei Ling Way, 90012  (213-617-3877) 

§         “The Wounded City: Urban Violence and the Cityscape” (60 min)

Representations of violence are central to the media's narration of urban landscapes. This program includes videos that respond to that act of violence and other, less extreme, incidents of urban upheaval. “The Wounded City” is a showcase of responses to everyday urban life. Selected by José Munoz

Works by Yoshua Okun, Sherry Millner and Ernest Larsen, Andreas Troeger, Mark Street, Raul Cordero, Jeff Spohn, Zohar Kfir, Art Jones, Peter Campus and Humberto Duque
-         4-F gallery on Chung King Road 

• “Plastico” (Non-Surgical Plastic Surgery Clinic)

Certified aesthetically enhancing special performance, fully reversible acts, corporal augmentation and patented no cost clinical.

Performance by Micol Hebron, Elizabeth Tobias and Elizabeth Tremonte

Video installation by Micol Hebron

-      Acuña-Hansen Gallery, 427 Bernard Street, 90012 (323-441-1624) 

§         Skip Arnold Video Works

-      Happy Lion Gallery, 963 Chung King Road, 90012
(213- 625-1360) 

§         “Speaker's Corner”

Rediscovering the public address system in Chinatown.  Using recorded artist statements accompanied with music and sound, we will sing out a potentially communal platform of discourse and criticism.

Work by Christina Ulke and Harc Herbst
         -       Over sound system, Chung King Road

     §         DJs, Music, Dancing 10:00pm –2:00am
             ($5.00 before 11:00pm, $10:00 after)
                  -        Firecracker at Grand Star, 943 N. Broadway,
                     90012 (626-454-7447)

 Other Events During Kick-Off Weekend: 

• “The Secret Films of Girls” (85 min)

“The Secret Films of Girls” investigates the formal and imaginative connections between the cinematic medium and the most private journeys and dreams of women. Selected by Eve Oishi

Works by Kerstin Cmelka, Laurel Almerinda, Karen Vanderborght, Janie Geiser, Laura Martin, Vut Thu Ha and Jennifer Reeves
-         Bijou Theater, Cal Arts, Nov. 1^st, 4:00pm, 24700 McBean   Parkway, Valencia, 91355 (661-255-1050)

• Latin American Exhibit

Info is available at    www.freewaves.org/festival_2002/events/latin_american.html

-      Iturralde Gallery, Nov. 1^st - 30^th, 116 S. La Brea Avenue, 90036 (323-937-4267)

• If the Arts Were on TV, How Would They Look/Sound?  Do?

Panel Discussion - Saturday, Nov. 2^nd, 1:00pm – 3:00pm
      -     LA Central Public Library, 630 W. 5^th Street (at Flower), 90071 (213-228-7000)

• Can Equal TV Representation Be Demanded As A Next Civil Right?

Panel Discussion – Saturday, Nov. 2^nd, 3:00pm – 5:00pm
     -     LA Central Public Library, 630 W. 5^th Street (at Flower),     90071 (213-228-7000)

See TV or NOT TV program booklet (35,000 strewn around LA) and also the festival web site at www.freewaves.org for additional schedule information including screening times, program descriptions, and participating artists.

LA Freewaves is Southern California's preeminent advocate for independent, experimental, noncommercial and under-represented media.  TV or NOT TV, LA Freewaves' 8^TH Celebration of Experimental Media Arts, runs throughout Los Angeles during the entire month of November 2002.

For more information, bios on invited speakers or to interview festival founder and executive director Anne Bray please contact Lynn Hasty at Green Galactic 323-466-5141 or lynn@greengalactic.com.