Parallel Spaces
Parallel Spaces: Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Bitchin Bajas with Jerome Hiler
Headlands and the San Francisco Film Society present a special program of improvised music by Will Oldham, aka Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (AIR ’08), and Chicago-based Bitchin Bajas (Drag City), to be performed live alongside the projection of experimental films created by artist Jerome Hiler. Joining Oldham and the Bajas is Bay Area-based Cornelius Boots, known as both a virtuosic clarinetist, and a burgeoning master of the shakuhachi flute of Zen Buddhism. Screenings of Hiler’s 16mm films, recognized for their mastery of visual composition, is an all too rare thing, and Hiler and Oldham have selected three that will be shown: Words of Mercury (2011), Marginalia (2015), and Bagatelle II (2016). Each film displays a different approach to the poetics of moving imagery and the deceptively simple, yet powerful, practice of viewing light passing through celluloid.
Tickets go on sale Friday, February 24 at 10AM.
Access the ticketing box office here
Presented in partnership with the San Francisco Film Society’s 60th Annual International Film Festival, and held at The Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114.
This event is part of our off-site program series while our campus is currently closed to the public for construction on The Commons. We’re thrilled to co-present and collaborate with several Bay Area cultural organizations and partners; see all off-site events here.
About Will Oldham:
An actor and playwright turned country-rooted musician, Will Oldham, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, spent the 1990s staking out a distinctive turf in the world of independent rock. Commonly referred to as a marketing person’s nightmare, Oldham, intending for his music to stand on its own merits, has recorded under a variety of names, among them the Palace Brothers, Palace Songs, Palace Music, Palace, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and others. His recorded music includes the country-influenced album There Is No-One What Will Take Care of You (1993), the acoustic album Days In the Wake (1994), and Get on Jolly (2000), based on the writing of Hindu poet Rabindranath Tagore.
About Jerome Hiler:
Beginning his creative life as a painter, Jerome Hiler became enthralled with the visual and poetic possibilities of 16mm experimental film in part through encounters with the films of Marie Menken, Gregory Markopoulos, and Stan Brakhage. For most of his life, Hiler only screened his work among his circle of friends; however, from 1995 on, his work has been seen more publicly. He has shown his films at London’s LUX film series, the San Francisco International Film Festival, many seasons at the New York Film Festival, the London Film Festival, and was selected by the Whitney Museum of American Art to participate in the 2012 Biennial for a week of screenings. In 2011 Hiler wrote, co-directed, and co-photographed a documentary, MUSIC MAKES A CITY, which was nationally televised twice on PBS and won London’s Gramophone Magazine award of “Best DVD of 2012.”
About Bitchin Bajas:
Since their first appearance in 2010, Bitchin Bajas’ approach has been simple—unfold tones via synth and keyboard, allowing micro-frequencies to press against each other in a way that pleases the ear, the mind, and the soul. From record to record, their process is redefined by confronting the technologies of formative and outmoded machines, which slides the Bajas’ sound into different quadrants of the ambient /post-organic /electronic /and drone universe each time around. A multitude of influences swarm amoebically in their sounds, from the mud of ancient Afro-groove to 20th-century classical austerity, from the clatter of freedom jazz to the 4/4 of kraut, disco, and fusions beyond. Bitchin Bajas includes Cooper Crain of CAVE, Dan Quinlivan, and Rob Frye.
About Cornelius Boots:
Award-winning composer Cornelius Boots is in full-blooded collaboration with the deceptively simple, yet devilishly difficult shakuhachi flute of Zen Buddhism. He is also a specialist in Taimu, its baritone brother. The result is a rich and inspired collision of classic rock, blues, heavy metal, and Zen Buddhist nature hymns from monasteries. Boots is known for his pioneering work with the world’s only bass clarinet quartet, Edmund Welles. Studying shakuhachi since 2001, in 2013 he achieved shihan (master) rank in the dynamic Zen lineage of Watazumido from Michael Chikuzen Gould. Boots received the name Shinzen (深禅 = depth Zen). A graduate of Jacob’s School of Music (B.M. Clarinet Performance, B.S. Audio Recording and M.M. Jazz Studies), Boots has performed and lectured internationally, released over a dozen albums and published scores and instructional materials.