Janet Wondra | Filmography

			film and video art by janet wondra School of Liberal Studies Roosevelt University 430 S. Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL 60605 (312) 341-3710 jwondra@roosevelt.edu
			A p o t h e o s i s Written and directed by Janet Wondra Edited by Janet Wondra Performances by Sigrid King and Michael Dennison Camera by Jeff Walker Musical score by Jeff Walker Experimental narrative video Medium: Super-8 film, edited to video on Media 100 Running time: 8 min 30 sec Completed 1998
			S y n o p s i s Set in the early 1930s, "Apotheosis" is a story of unrequited love and human spontaneous combustion. Shot in Super-8 film and capitalizing on the strengths of cheap consumer equipment, it both pays homage to and plays ironically with the conventions of silent film. Featuring a cast of non-professionals, "Apotheosis" boasts more Ph.D.s per capita than any other experimental short. "Apotheosis" was partially funded by a grant from The Art Matters Foundation, New York.
			E x h i b i t i o nH i s t o r y 2000 Seattle Underground Film Festival, Seattle, WA fx28 Film Festival, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA Darklight Digital Film Festival, Dublin, Ireland "Outside(r) Hollywood," First Annual Graduate Student Film Conference and Short Film Festival, University of Washington, Seattle European Media Art Festival, Osnabrück, Germany University of Washington Film Colloquium, Seattle, WA Arizona International Film Festival, Tucson, AZ Big Muddy Film Festival, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 1999 Virginia Film Festival, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA MediaOne Community TV, Atlanta, GA Mill Valley Film Festival, Mill Valley, CA River Run International Film Festival, Brevard College, Brevard, NC Colossal Film Crawl, Columbia, SC (Best Sound award) Louisiana Video Shorts Festival, New Orleans, LA (First Place award) "Best of the Atlanta Film and Video Festival," Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA Atlanta Film and Video Festival, Atlanta, GA Video Illuminations, 12-city Boston-area cable series, MA 1998 FringeFest, Austin, TX "Southern Stories," Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL Georgia Museum of Art, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 3rd Annual Sacramento Festival of Cinema, Sundance Showcase, Sacramento, CA
			U n c o o lO r b i t Written and directed by Janet Wondra and Jeff Walker Performances by Josh Russell and Laura Rosenthal Musical score written and performed by Wayne Wilson Camera by Janet Wondra and Jeff Walker Editing by Janet Wondra and Jeff Walker Narrative video Running time 51 min 0 sec Completed 1993
			S y n o p s i s "Uncool Orbit" is a science fiction video about Louisiana politics. The story is this: Josh, an amateur photographer who lives in Baton Rouge and works in telephone sales, is mentally assaulted by extraterrestrials. During the assaults, political, economic, and racial problems disappear and are replaced by bland, unthreatening visions. Sometimes the assaults cause him to talk backwards or develop unnatural appetites. Eventually, he is contacted by Myra, who acquires a shielding device for Josh which will protect him from alien transmissions. Together they fight the extraterrestrials, with startling results. In their video, Wondra and Walker created a sympathetic yet critical portrait of their adopted home, Louisiana. Visual evidence of Louisiana's ailing economy coupled with the story's theme of alien invasion and abduction provide insight into some tendencies of the state's dominant culture: distrust of outsiders and people of color, the use of fundamentalist Christianity as a shield against change, and dismay at the ongoing flight of Louisiana's best people, white and black, to other states. "Uncool Orbit" was funded by a 1991 Equipment Access Grant from New Orleans Video Access Center.
			E x h i b i t i o nH i s t o r y 1996 "The UFO Project," Mobius, Boston, MA (one-month continuous screening) Visiting Artists Series, Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC Artists' Television Access, San Francisco, CA 1995 Caffery Studios, Baton Rouge, LA (three screenings) Broadway Arts Building, Asheville, NC 1994 New Orleans Community Access Television, New Orleans, LA (eight screenings) Visiting Artists Series, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA 1993 Baton Rouge Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA (two-month continuous screening as part of a sculpture/video installation by Wondra and Walker) New Orleans Film and Video Festival, New Orleans, LA School of Music, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA The Yaddo Center, Saratogo Springs, NY The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, Rabun Gap, GA
			W h a ti ti s Directed by Janet Wondra and Jeff Walker Text written and narrated by Janet Wondra Camera by Janet Wondra and Jeff Walker Editing by Janet Wondra and Jeff Walker Video poem (experimental) Running time 5 min 17 sec Completed 1991
			S y n o p s i s "What it is," a non-narrative video poem, uses otherworldly logic to explore the seductive pull of sleep on waking life. Technological imagery—the works of a drawbridge, a wind farm in Altamont Pass, California—forms a visual counterpoint to verbal imagery of running water, human and animal bodies, and landscapes. This is the first video collaboration between poet Janet Wondra and artist Jeff Walker.
			E x h i b i t i o nH i s t o r y 1998 FringeFest, Austin, TX 1996 Artists' Television Access, San Francisco, CA 1994 Visiting Artists Series, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA 1993 Baton Rouge Gallery, Baton Rouge, LA The Yaddo Center, Saratogo Springs, NY The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, Rabun Gap, GA Guild Complex Poetry Video Festival, Chicago, IL (selected for inclusion in "Deep Fringe," best of the festival compilation reel) 20th Athens International Film and Video Festival, Athens, OH Texas Independent Film/Video Producers Showcase, North Texas Public Broadcasting, Dallas, TX 1992 Louisianalysis, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY New Orleans Film & Video Festival, New Orleans, LA Arts Festival of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA Bumbershoot: The Seattle Arts Festival, Seattle, WA Axlegrease public television series, Buffalo Media Resources, Buffalo, NY North Carolina International Film and Video Festival, Fayetteville, NC (Third Place experimental award) International Women's Film and Video Festival, Austin, TX 1991 18th Annual Mill Valley Film Festival/VideoFest, Mill Valley, CA 10th Annual September Competition, Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA Blue Mountain Center for the Arts, Blue Mountain Lake, NY