This year's “Alternative Requirements” film and video program focuses on student works of an experimental or non-narrative nature, featuring a selection of recently completed (1993-1994) films and videos by Bay Area students. The wide range of subject matter and formal styles evident in these works attests to the advanced artistic ability of their makers. Ranging from formal, meditative films which investigate the materiality of film itself (Wilderness, travelogue and Untitled) and non-linear narratives (Fruits and rising), to lyrical essay films (Escondido, :Sauria, Y and More Than a Paycheck), and a rethinking of the documentary form (Mother Load), the sheer multiplicity of discursive strategies is impressive. These are works that resist categorization, defining themselves in terms of what they are not, and rejecting the formal hegemony of the standardized narrative in order to address more explicitly the nature of personal experience and the process of image-making.-Brian Frye
The program, curated by Luis Recorder, Jenny Dai, and Brian Frye as part of an internship program offered by the UC Berkeley Film Studies program and Pacific Film Archive, features work from San Francisco State University, San Francisco Art Institute, California College of Arts and Crafts, and UC Berkeley.