For Immediate Release

AVANT-GARDE EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA FROM THE 1920s AND 30s

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KINO ON VIDEO RELEASES CLASSIC EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS IN AN UNPRECEDENTED 2 DVD COLLECTION

OVER 6 HOURS OF AVANT-GARDE CINEMA!
Films by Orson Welles, Sergei Eisenstein, Jean Epstein, Marcel Duchamp, Paul Strand, Man Ray ...

Kino on Video is proud to release for the first time in one collection two dozen of the most influential short films ever made, all culled from the �Golden Age� or first wave of avant-garde cinema in the 1920s and 30s. Transferred from the rare 35 and 16mm prints of the Raymond Rohauer archive, this two DVD set is a virtual catalogue of famous images from artists who quite literally expanded the vocabulary of the moving image, including Orson Welles, Sergei Eisenstein, Jean Epstein, and Man Ray. An indisputable must-have for cinephiles, this incredible collection contains over six hours of film and comes at the low SRP of $29.95. The pre-book date is July 5th, 2005 with a street date of August 2nd.

By the early 1920s, filmmakers like Griffith and DeMille had forged a fully realized system of cinematic storytelling under the exigencies of linear space and time and transparently rational exposition. For many artists, the strictures of such filmmaking foreclosed possibilities within a medium just beginning to evolve, and a whole generation of visual innovators around the globe set to the task of �making it new.� As the incredible range of styles and subjects contained in Kino's AVANT-GARDE anthology makes evident, the boundaries of film language proved to be only as limited as the artist's imagination.

In films like Painlevé's LE VAMPIRE, Dulac's LA COQUILLE ET LE CLERGYMAN, or Man Ray's MYSTERES DU CH�TEAU DU D�, innovation meant mapping out the darkest corners of dream and memory. Kirsanov's MENILMONTANT or Florey and Vorkapich's LIFE AND DEATH OF 9413 A HOLLYWOOD EXTRA are exemplars of how traditional storytelling could utilize disorienting editing and composition. Artists emigrating from other media such as Marcel Duchamp, Paul Strand and Man Ray (all showcased in this collection) often dispensed with logic, storytelling and even actors to create hypnotic films which explored the purely graphic or rhythmic properties of the medium.

We even see the concept of a conventionalized �avant-garde film� sent up in EVEN --- AS YOU AND I, a delightful spoof from the team of Barlow, Hay and Robbins. From the very first film by Orson Welles (THE HEARTS OF AGE) to the rarely seen Eisenstein short ROMANCE SENTIMENTALE, these 24 films have continued to influence how we compose the moving image. The European art cinema of the 1960s and 70s, the rapid-fire cutting of MTV and commercials, and many of today's underground artists are all direct heirs of the films contained in Kino's AVANT-GARDE collection.

ABOUT THE COLLECTION: In the latter half of the 20th Century, Raymond Rohauer was one of the nation's foremost proponents of experimental cinema. Programming diverse films at the Coronet Theater in Los Angeles, and making the films in his personal archive available for commercial distribution, he helped preserve and promote avant-garde cinema, a tradition Kino On Video proudly continues with this home video sampling of Rohauer's celluloid treasures.

Films Include: Anemic Cinema (Marcel Duchamp, 1926); Autumn Fire (Herman G. Weinberg, 1931); Ballet Mécanique (Ferdinand Leger, 1924); La Coquille and et le Clergyman (Germaine Dulac, 1926); Emak-Bakia (Man Ray, 1926); L'étoile de Mer (Man Ray, 1928); Even - As You and I (Roger Barlow, Harry Hay and LeRoy Robbins, 1937); La Glace a Trois Faces (Jean Epstein, 1927); H2O (Ralph Steiner, 1928); The Hearts of Age (Orson Welles, 1934); The Life and Death of 9413, A Hollywood Extra (Slavko Vorkapich and Robert Florey, 1928); Lot in Sodom (James Sibley Watson and Melville Webber); Manhatta (Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler, 1921); Ménilmontant (Dimitri Kirsanoff, 1926); Les Mystères du Château du Dé (Man Ray, 1929); Regen (Joris Ivens, 1929); Le Retour à la Raison (Man Ray, 1923); Rhythmus 21 (Hans Richter, 1921); Romance Senimentale (Sergei Eisenstein, 1930); Symphonie Diagonale (Viking Eggeling, 1924); Le Tempestaire (Jean Epstein, 1947); �berfall (Ernö Metzner, 1928); Le Vampire (Jean Painlevé, 1939); Ghosts Before Breakfast (Hans Richter, 1928).

Special Features:

• Film notes by film critic/historian Elliot Stein
• Optional English subtitles (on selected films)
• Dual-layer RSDL edition for optimal image quality
• Newly composed scores by Sue Harshe, Larry Marotta, Paul Mercer and Donald Sosin.

Avant-garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and 30s
France * U.S. * Germany * Netherlands
Sound and Silent, Optional English Subtitles Where Applicable
Various Directors
Approximately 360 minutes.
UPC 7 38329 04022 2

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