Tone Glow Presents “Hitching a Ride With the Devil: Michael Wallin’s Queer Journeys”
@ Elastic Arts
3429 W Diversey Ave, #208, Chicago, IL 60647
Opening Monday, June 29th, from 7PM - 9PM
Tone Glow is excited to announce “Hitching a Ride with the Devil,” a showcase of four works on 16mm by filmmaker Michael Wallin (1948-2016). A longtime Bay Area resident and key figure in Canyon Cinema’s history, Wallin’s mentor and primary inspiration was Bruce Baillie. One of Wallin’s early films in this screening, TALL GRASS (1980), exhibits that influence through its home-movie charm and nostalgic remembrances of Mendocino, California. Beyond Baillie, Wallin was invigorated by the films of Kenneth Anger and Andy Warhol, interested in creating art that could “challenge and provide access for anyone to enter and find themselves.” The second film in this program, ALONG THE WAY (1983), is part of his “topological triptych,” concerning itself with the “essential quality of ‘place,’ which is always an amalgam of the visual and emotional.”
Wallin became a psychotherapist later in life with a particular interest in the psychosexual. While he didn’t see his work as a therapist and filmmaker as particularly intertwined, he acknowledged that both jobs required adopting the position of an observer. In 1975, he released his landmark gay film THE PLACE BETWEEN OUR BODIES, shown last year in Tone Glow’s queer films program. With this event, two more of his directly gay films arrive in DECODINGS (1988) and BLACK SHEEP BOY (1995), both recently preserved by Canyon Cinema through the National Film Preservation Foundation’s Avant-Garde Masters Grant program and The Film Foundation. DECODINGS is Wallin’s sole found-footage film, presenting a search for one’s identity, while BLACK SHEEP BOY finds Wallin in his 40s, depicting his most mature exploration of gay sexuality and desire.
The title of this program comes from a 1993 interview with the Bay Area Reporter. In it, Wallin explains the ideas underpinning BLACK SHEEP BOY: “For me, the horror of AIDS is that it can destroy or explode the notion of physical beauty in a way that’s so awful. And that’s part of the subtext—an important part. I see the film as very sex positive, gay positive, and it sort of traffics in the notions of what’s beautiful, what’s our composite sexual fantasy, what are those elements. In that sense it fights [AIDS], but it doesn’t ignore it.” In a statement about his work, Wallin has said, “I am interested in exploring my sexuality as a gay man, but I am not a gay filmmaker. I am an artist and a human being!”
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Tags: Chicago, Elastic Arts, Hitching a Ride With the Devil, Logan Square, Michael Wallin, Tone Glow
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