From Italy to the South Pole, Russia to Australia, the 59 Seconds Festival has traveled the globe with the goal of presenting their unique film festival 59 times. Last Friday, USM became stop number 51.
The one-time-only project, a traveling film festival that changes each time it’s shown based on audience reviews, will have traveled to 59 locations around the world by its end in 2009. The stretch just completed went from Portland, Ore. to Gorham, Maine.
Project 59 started in 2005 with the curation of Irina Danilova and the direction of Hiran Levvy, both of whom stood in front of USM art students and professors on Friday.
Levvy wore a white jersey with the “59” in red and gold on both arms and across his chest and back. Danilova, who filmed the audience as they entered, wore a black T-shirt with the number printed all over it.
They invited the USM audience to become part of their project by rating each film with a grade sheet found on their seats.
The show is a compilation of entries received by Project 59 from artists from around the world.
At each showing, viewers rate the entire festival and learn that they can become part of the project by submitting a 59 second video that deals with the number 59 in some way.
After each show, data collected leads to expelling the lowest-rated films from the lineup.
New entries replace them.
“This is an art experience that isn’t only viewed, it can be contributed to,” said Danilova, who had three of her own films on display for rating. “A collection of 59 select videos, 59 seconds each by 59 international artists, shown 59 times around the globe is the ultimate goal of the 59 Seconds Festival.”
“And after our lackeys get through processing your data,” said Levvy, “you can view online which films you chose to keep and which you chose to lose.”
The festival uses the short videos playfully and intelligently, producing an incredibly wide range of video works in a short period of time with a comprehensive connection –“mini documentary, political satire, metaphorical, narrative, experimental, edgy, controversial, including a unique collection of videos that integrate number 59.”
The format allows for the quick processing of information. In three minutes you could see a woman stripping in rewind, a cat eating 59 pellets from a dish, and a satirical piece about Saddam Hussein.
By the end of the 59 minutes, students had laughed at an Italian man filming his attempt to call an escort service and ask what he could get for 59 pesos. They cringed at the story of creation being shown by a cracked egg rolling all over a naked woman’s body. They watched in awe as a man smoking opium drew the number 59 in aluminum foil and giggled as they got a 59 second lesson in Russian.
The 59 Seconds Festival maximizes audience response and participation, providing a contemporary exchange of ideas and information by connecting artists from around the world into one project.
To see how USM responded to the show, see what films they chose at www.project59.org/59seconds