You had me at mammoth ivory. “Genesis 2.0” is just one of the films being screened at the Fourth Art and Design Film Festival running from April 5 through April 14 at venues around the state. This film runs this Sunday at 1:15pm at the Columbus Theatre. (More on this topic at the Smithsonian Channel.)
The film observes the harsh and dangerous life of so-called mammoth hunters on the remote New Siberian Islands in the far north of Siberia. The archaic landscape in which these people are looking for the tusks of extinct mammoths looks like primordial earth. There is a kind of gold rush fever in the air, because the prices for this white gold have never been so high. But the thawing permafrost unveils more than just precious ivory. Sometimes the hunters find an almost completely preserved mammoth carcass with fur, liquid blood and muscle tissue on which arctic foxes gnaw.
Such finds are magnets for high-tech Russian and South Korean clone researchers in search of mammoth cells with the greatest possible degree of intact DNA.
Attention Jimi Hendrix fans! If you have not seen “Electric Church” then you have seen none of this footage (it aired on Showtime). Taken at the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival (never heard of it till this movie) the film lay undeveloped in a barn for 30 years. In addition to being a fun-packed concert film, there are interviews with the unbelievably tolerant townspeople — naked hippies everywhere — that will charm the pants off of you. From Guitar World:
In addition to footage of Jimi performing “Hey Joe,” “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” “Purple Haze” and many more classics at what was dubbed the “Southern Woodstock,” Electric Church features interviews with former Hendrix band mates Billy Cox and the late Mitch Mitchell, as well as producer Eddie Kramer, Paul McCartney, Kirk Hammett and Leslie West, among others.
‘Electric Church’ plays Friday, April 5, at 9:30pm, at the Columbus. Trailer here.
The first weekend of the film festival will be held in Providence at the Columbus Theatre. For the second weekend, head down to Newport and Jamestown. Complete ADFF schedule here.
In Providence only: Three-film pass for $25 to save on ticketing fees. Or go for an all-access pass for $75 that enables you to see every film in the festival.
$10, Columbus Theatre, 270 Broadway, (directions)