WeeGee

Weegee was the pseudonym of Arthur Fellig, a photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography.

Georges Perec

Georges Perec was a French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist and essayist. He was a member of the Oulipo group.

Lev Kopelev

Lev Zalmanovich Kopelev was a Soviet author and a dissident.

Edward Jean Steichen was an American photographer, painter, and art gallery and museum curator. He was the most frequently featured photographer in Alfred Stieglitz' groundbreaking magazine Camera Work during its run from 1903 to 1917.

Sculptor Ernst Barlach

Winter of the Beard

In the fall of 2005, two filmmakers invited six men across America to join them in an experiment. They would stop shaving for six months. No trimming allowed. Each was provided a video camera and weekly interview questions to document his own experience. The resulting 600 hours of intimate footage revealed a group of men traversing the same rite of passage from disparate vantage points. Throughout the process, the men told stories from their pasts, shared likes and dislikes, and confessed personal fears and aspirations. They laughed and cried, hid and came alive behind their beards. The tireless taping captured bad days and good ones, and it is in this framework that the individual stories stand out and the beards fade into the background. From a son dealing with his father's descent into Alzheimer's, to financial and marital struggles, to the birth of a child, THE WINTER OF THE BEARD reveals the trials and tribulations of what it means to drastically alter one's appearance and otherwise go on living life.

China

Mariner

Sea Beard

Hero

Russian Street Vendor

Ahmad

Olentzero, the Basque Santa

Olentzero, the Basque Santa

Hayden Carruth

Hayden Carruth (August 3, 1921 – September 29, 2008) was an American poet and literary critic. He taught at Syracuse University.

Carruth wrote more than 30 books of poetry, four books of literary criticism, essays, a novel and two poetry anthologies. 

His later titles include the 2001 collection of poems Doctor Jazz and a 70-minute audio CD of him reading selections from Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey and Collected Shorter Poems. 

Noted for the breadth of his linguistic and formal resources, influenced by jazz and the blues, Carruth's poems are informed by his political radicalism and sense of cultural responsibility.

John Robert Boone

Followers and fans of John Robert Boone refer to the prolific marijuana grower as the "Godfather of Grass" and the "King of Pot"; authorities who have been searching for the Kentucky farmer to no avail say it's "like trying to catch a ghost."

Federal officials have been tracking the fugitive with two pot-related priors since they found 2,400 marijuana plants on his farm two years ago, but residents and farmers southeast of Louisville who sympathize with the Santa Claus look-a-like are making Boone's capture extremely difficult.

The Barefoot Farmer, Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee

Egg Man

The Three Hillbillies

Photo Credit: Eric Harvey Brown

Tramps, Hobo's and Lovable Drop Outs (5)

Tramps, Hobo's and Lovable Drop Outs (4)

Tramps, Hobo's and Lovable Drop Outs (3)

Tramps, Hobo's and Lovable Drop Outs (2)

Tramps, Hobo's and Lovable Drop Outs (1)

Rocaterrania

Rocaterrania is a feature length documentary exploring the secret world of scientific illustrator and visionary artist Renaldo Kuhler.  This screening is presented by Phantasmaphile.

In the last four decades, seventy-six-year-old Renaldo Kuhler has created hundreds of plates for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, illustrating diverse flora and fauna for obscure scientific journals and reference books. Before the making of this documentary, no one knew that Kuhler is also a prolific visionary artist – and the creator of an entire imaginary world called Rocaterrania.

Rocaterrania is a tiny nation of eastern European immigrants who purchased a tract of land along the Canadian border – just north of the Adirondack Mountains in New York – after growing restless with America’s notions of “democracy.”  Over the next six decades, Rocaterrania saw two revolutions and the rise and fall of a succession of czars, dictators, and presidents among a cast of characters vaguely resembling Russian historical figures. But, as the film reveals, each change in government reflects a deeper meaning for Renaldo, an outsider who struggled to escape an emotionally abusive family and searched for freedom within a real nation threatened by forces of conformity.

Rocaterrania unveils Kuhler’s astounding body of work to the world and reveals the powerful story of his life in the process.  Among other themes, the film is about the insidious nature of conformity, the courage to be one’s true self, and the redemptive power of artistic creation.  Featuring an eclectic original score by Merge Records recording artists Shark Quest.

A Very Dedicated Beardo

How dedicated to beard wearing can one be?

Brian Wilson

Brian Patrick Wilson (born March 16, 1982) is an American professional baseball relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball. Statistically, Wilson has become one of baseball's best closers, and is known for his repertoire that consists of a four-seam fastball, cutter, slider and a two-seam sinking fastball. 

More recently, Wilson has drawn media attention, as well as legions of fans, for his thick, dyed-black beard and subversive humor.