The Chicago video duo Animal Charm (a.k.a. Jim Fetterly and Rich Bott) and Portland abstract filmmaker Matt McCormick are touring with a collection of ultra-manic moving-image surprises. The Charmers from Chi-town are reknowned for their unnerving found-footage pieces like Slow Gin Soul Stallion and Ashley. Using queasy juxtapositions, grating repetition, and some of the cheesiest soundtracks around, their videoworks are like bad dreams you just can't shake. McCormick combines film manipulation, loops, and found footage for similar effect, creating off-kilter textures and rhythms. Stain, his most rambunctious film to date, is about the soul-draining experience of cultural claustrophobia. Caustic overlays of renovated television imagery and cut-up voice-overs rally together inside this provocative film. Both Animal Charm and Matt McCormick will present several as-yet-undisclosed new works being readied for the tour. Join us for an evening of enchantment gone sour.-Steve Seid