Ellen Lake

Country Road, 2012, 1 min., 16 mm film + digital video, color, sound

Who doesn’t like a road trip? This minute long short combines a 16 mm home movie shot in 1939 with a series of magical roads for a short journey.

Country Road is part of the series, Film at 11

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Crossing, 2012, 1 min., 16 mm film + digital video, color, sound

Crossing, 2012, film still

Crossing, 2012, film still

Crossing is a short video exploring the evolution of technology and the fluid nature of time and space. Commissioned and presented by 2012 Zero1 Biennial with support from the James Irvine Foundation for the Urban Screen, Crossing combines vintage home movies from 1939 with site-specific footage in San Jose, CA, specifically two figures crossing time and space. Music by the Evie Ladin Band. Crossing is part of the series, Film at 11.

Seaworthy, 2010, 3 min., HD Video, color, sound

Based on observations of everyday life – this short collaboration (created with Chris Green) is an eclectic mix of cargo ships, tug boats, and sailboats shot on the Oakland Estuary, with a bluegrass soundtrack by Evie Ladin, and a body floating by – mixing fantasy and documentary, love and loss, while exploring the urban landscape.

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Call and Response, 2009, 3 min., 16mm film + cell phone video, color, sound

Downtown, 2009, 1:02 min., 16mm film + cell phone video, color, sound

Scenes from a Bay Area bar and restaurant are juxtaposed with a holiday egg nog party in Chicago 70 years ago. The outfits, drink of choice, and technology may have changed, but the gestures are timeless.

Let's Not Keep Score, 2009, 0:44, 16mm film + cell phone video, color, sound

Combining black and white 16 mm film from 1941 and cell phone video, Betty and Josh hit tennis balls back and forth across the screen and across time.

I Look Forward to it, 2009, 0:35 min., 16mm film + cell phone video, color, sound

A conversation between two people sharing the screen, yet situated seven decades apart. Rotary phone to mobile phone, this brief exchange comments on the passing of time and the evolution of technology.

Call + Response combines 16 mm vintage home movies with cell phone video today. Over half of all films made before 1950 have deteriorated, been discarded or destroyed. Thinking about the rapid evolution in technology, how often something is lost to make way for something new, this project juxtaposes the past and present to investigate ideas about personal diary, collective memory, nostalgia, preservation, and the place where private and public experiences converge. With the ever-widening range of technological media available today, this project mixes old and new media to explore ideas about time, place, technology, and history.

Special thanks to the Sarah Jacobson Film Grant for funding and Betty and Johnny Patterson for the 16mm film

Bound, 5 1/2 minutes, digital video, color, sound

Bound is an experimental documentary that celebrates Graciela Carrillo’s unique story and explores ideas about homelessness, vulnerability, and visibility/invisibility. Graciela, a founding member of Las Mujeres Muralistas, shares her experiences from her time painting murals to life on the street, the struggle between wanting an audience and taking refuge in anonymity, between feeling like somebody and nobody.

Special thanks to:
Graciela Carrillo
Chris Campbell for sound design
City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program
Open Meadows Foundation
Bay Area Video Coalition

I was never glamorous, I was just around, 2006/2012, 1 min., 16 mm film + cell phone video, black and white, color, sound

A short meditation on balance, preservation, time and technology. This diptych connects cell phone images from 2006 of my grandmother with a cane to 16 mm films of her former youthful self skating with friends in the 1930s.

Striptease, 2009, 1 min., 16 mm film + cell phone video, b/w + color, sound

Combining a charming striptease from 1942, discovered among my grandmother’s home movies, with cell phone shots of a contemporary clothing store, these fluid images comment on movement, memory, and technology.

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Ann’s Hoard, 2003, 7 min, digital video, color, sound

Confessions of a hoarder. Ann considers herself more of a hoarder than a collector. She has vases, covered glass dishes (butter dishes, candy dishes, cake platters), hats, wigs, loads and loads of jewelry and clothes, most bought from eBay. She stashes her collections in the attic, the garage, under beds, and in closets.

French Fries, 2003/2009, 3 minutes, super 8 & digital video, color, sound

LA filmmaker, Rebecca Baron, only has two collections: A compass collection and a French Fry collection.  This video is a close-up look at Rebecca french fries, individual fries gathered while on a filmshoot in 1998-1999, sealed in ziploc bags, and now in various states of decay.

Still from Ian’s Collections, 2000, 6 min. hi-8, color, sound

Ian Golder collects sand, macaroni and cheese boxes, straws, and M&M icons.

Still from Ian’s Collections, 2000, 6 min. hi-8, color, sound

Ian Golder collects sand, macaroni and cheese boxes, straws, and M&M icons.

Trina’s Collections, 2003, 7 min, digital video, color, sound

Trina Robbins, the writer/creator of Go Girl! Comics is an eclectic collector.  Her collections mostly have to do with pop culture and with women.  She has girl action figures, bathtub figurines, saints and tikis,  popeware, queensware, and more.

Norm and Brian’s Collections, 2003/2012, 5 min, digital video, color, sound

Norman Francis and Brian Hauptli have been together for 26 years and have amassed an impressive array of collections during that time.  Highlights include tin toys, mickey mouse, lunch boxes, odd and curious money, animals (alive and stuffed) and primitive art.1 min. excerpt here.

A series of shorts exploring the impulse to collect, the complexity of obsession, the place where these two 
issues intersect, and their relationship to art making. Collection of short documentaries, 2000 – present, 2-6 minutes each, digital video, color, sound.

Project Description

In our consumer-oriented, mobile, and rootless society, we are supposed to believe we are what we own.  With few ties to the past, collecting becomes one way of building a history.  It helps us define who we are and helps us to fit into our world.  Collecting then is about individuality and belonging.  What else might collecting be about?  What are the impulses that drive collectors?  Is it about comfort and security?  Is it about power and status?  Is it about capture and possession?  Is it about creating a sense of identity?  Is it about systems and classification?  How has the Internet extended the realm of what collecting can be?  When does the mania of collecting undo the ordering of an archive?  Where do obsession and collecting meet?  These questions and thoughts drive this body of work.

Rubber Band Ball, 2002, 2 1/2 minutes, super 8 & digital video, color, sound

San Francisco legends, Samir and Nabil Kishek worked for over two years from their storefront in the Mission District, the Pride Superette, on their quest to build the world’s largest rubber band ball. How big was their rubber band ball?