BD 34 How You Live Your Story: Selected Works by Kevin Jerome Everson

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criterionsnob
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BD 34 How You Live Your Story: Selected Works by Kevin Jerome Everson

#1 Post by criterionsnob » Sun Aug 23, 2020 4:27 pm

Coming in October: How You Live Your Story: Selected works by Kevin Jerome Everson (US, 2005-2020)
One of America’s most prolific and unpredictable artist/filmmakers, Kevin Jerome Everson has produced a remarkable body of work. In just 15 years he has made upward of 150 short films and features as well as continuing to produce works in the fields of painting, sculpture, and photography.

Combining scripted, documentary, re-enacted and experimental elements, his films reflect the experiences of working-class African Americans through an impressionistic lens that draws on photography, found footage, commercials, home movies, news reports and Hollywood cinema to present unique and deeply humane depictions of everyday lives.

This curated selection of features and short films has been specially chosen by the filmmaker himself. It represents the first comprehensive collection to be released anywhere in the world on home video of works by one of America's most radical and innovate film artists.

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swo17
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Re: BD ?? How You Live Your Story

#2 Post by swo17 » Sun Aug 23, 2020 4:45 pm

Well this is very enticing, which is more than I can say for most of the possibilities brought up in that New Yorker Criterion hitjob

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soundchaser
Leave Her to Beaver
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Re: BD ?? How You Live Your Story

#3 Post by soundchaser » Sun Aug 23, 2020 4:50 pm

You mean you don’t want to see Moonlight or The Complete Tyler Perry given another release?

But yes, joking aside, this sounds cool — and I assume it’ll be similar to that Marc Isaacs set Second Run also released. Seems like 150 shorts, even heavily curated, would merit two discs. Has anyone here seen any of these and want to offer any thoughts on what to expect?

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Red Screamer
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Re: BD ?? How You Live Your Story

#4 Post by Red Screamer » Sun Aug 23, 2020 8:06 pm

This is huge. Everson is a great filmmaker and seeing one or two of his (often pretty low-key) shorts at festival screenings doesn't do justice to the ongoing tapestry his films create as a whole.

WmS
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Re: BD ?? How You Live Your Story

#5 Post by WmS » Sun Aug 23, 2020 8:29 pm

This is awesome, awesome news. I first saw one of his works, a luminous and oblique b&w short, at the Ann Arbor Film Festival a few years ago and it has stayed with me when most of the rest of what I saw has evaporated. He's done nine features and 150 shorts, most of which I haven't seen, but I can say his films are both formalist and observational, focused mainly on Black working lives in the American Rust Belt and South. A lot of his shorts are very, very short, two or three minutes.

He trained in fine art-- sculpture, I think-- and is very into film as material and working in series. Here's a link to his main producer's page, with links to a dozen interviews and lists of his works with short descriptions of each one:

http://www.picturepalacepictures.com/Ke ... erson.html

Video Data Bank in Chicago has already put out two institutional-priced DVD box sets of his work. I saw the first one through my library, and it's criminal how poor the transfers are for what they charge. This new Second Run set will be like Arrow rescuing the Dekalog from the curdled hands of Facets.

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What A Disgrace
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Re: BD ?? How You Live Your Story

#6 Post by What A Disgrace » Sun Aug 23, 2020 10:58 pm

Never heard of him, but another boxed set from Second Run is a wonderful prospect, and it sounds like it'll be bigger than the Isaacs set. Super stoked.

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soundchaser
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Re: BD ?? How You Live Your Story

#7 Post by soundchaser » Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:02 pm

WmS wrote:
Sun Aug 23, 2020 8:29 pm
He trained in fine art-- sculpture, I think-- and is very into film as material and working in series.
Ok, consider me sold. Films about film as material are basically like crack for me.
This new Second Run set will be like Arrow rescuing the Dekalog from the curdled hands of Facets.
And consider me double sold.

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soundchaser
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Re: BD ?? How You Live Your Story

#8 Post by soundchaser » Mon Sep 21, 2020 2:46 pm

Second Run's webstore has this up for sale, along with a full list of the films included:

Disc 1:
Spicebush (2005)
The Island of St. Matthews (2011)
Tonsler Park (2017)

Shorts:
Fe26 (2014)
Sound That (2014)
Ears, Nose and Throat (2016)

Disc 2
Erie (2010)

Shorts:
Old Cat (2009)
Company Line (2009)
BZV (2009)
Ten Five in the Grass (2012)
Grand Finale (2015)
Three Quarters (2015)
Eason (2016)
IFO (2017)
Rams 23 Blue Bears 21 (2017)
Polly One (2018)
Round Seven (2018)
Union (2019)
Sanfield, (2020)
Brown Thrasher (2020)

Also confirms that it's BD 034

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The Elegant Dandy Fop
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Re: BD 34 How You Live Your Story: Selected Works by Kevin Jerome Everson

#9 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Mon Sep 21, 2020 3:39 pm

Kevin Jerome Everson is not only an incredible, warm filmmaker, but also an incredibly nice person. I've had the pleasure of meeting him once and found him to be incredibly polite and smart. I have a postcard with a hand written special thanks on it in my office. He's quite prolific and his work can often be seen experimental short festivals featuring his work, so it's incredibly exciting to see his work get a collection. I sort of always hoped for more similar type collections from Criterion following their Hollis Frampton set, but I'm sure the market for it is quite small.

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lzx
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Re: BD 34 How You Live Your Story: Selected Works by Kevin Jerome Everson

#10 Post by lzx » Mon Sep 21, 2020 9:06 pm

Seems they have posted the information prematurely, as the page has been removed from the website. This is a much smaller selection than I was expecting, given he had 150 to choose from, but a really exciting one nevertheless.

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Bikey
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:09 am

Re: BD 34 How You Live Your Story: Selected Works by Kevin Jerome Everson

#11 Post by Bikey » Thu Sep 24, 2020 2:29 pm

lzx wrote:
Mon Sep 21, 2020 9:06 pm
Seems they have posted the information prematurely, as the page has been removed from the website. This is a much smaller selection than I was expecting, given he had 150 to choose from, but a really exciting one nevertheless.
The page is back up now at our website, and it's also now available for pre-order at our webshop.
Thanks for your patience, lzx, as we needed to make an amend.


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Bikey
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Re: BD 34 How You Live Your Story: Selected Works by Kevin Jerome Everson

#13 Post by Bikey » Wed Oct 07, 2020 7:06 am

Available to pre-order now at:
Amazon UK
HMV UK
Arrow Store
Our webstore



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tenia
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Re: BD 34 How You Live Your Story: Selected Works by Kevin Jerome Everson

#16 Post by tenia » Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:10 am

I can't say I liked all the subjects discussed in this selection but overall, it felt like the perfect things to watch in the present situation. I especially liked the short movies (rather than the feature lengths) but all felt captivating at some level.


One technical quip though : many of those movies have been shot in 16mm and it shows, they're very grainy but also very filmic (which is good - some like Company Line and Ten Five in the Grass look like they were digitized earlier and are much thicker and digital looking, but many look quite nice), and the compression of some of those movies just isn't where it should to properly render this. Some movies like IFO and Three Quarters have transparent encodes which beautifully restitute their filmic origins, but Tonsler Park, Ears Nose and Throat or Union for instance are blocky as hell. Part of the issue might come from not having been able to spread the material on 3 discs rather than 2 (which I can understand budget-wise) but part of it also seems to come from the refinement of the encodes themselves (ie how they've been setup outside of the bitrate) but also from the encode strategy. Spicebush for instance was shot on MiniDV and didn't need to take the place it's taking, while a couple of shorts have silent soundtracks encoded as LPCM 2.0 2304 kbps (which is a tad overkill for silent soundtracks) !

Many features (short and long) are OK, but it's a shame some of the most filmic ones suffer from this last step stumble. Hopefully, Silversun will have a tougher customer specs to achieve next times !

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swo17
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Re: BD 34 How You Live Your Story: Selected Works by Kevin Jerome Everson

#17 Post by swo17 » Fri Mar 05, 2021 9:58 am

Tonsler Park is an interesting and timely inclusion on this release--a scathing exposé on that nefarious element that greases the slimy gears of the U.S. electoral system: the average American citizen!

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Bikey
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Re: BD 34 How You Live Your Story: Selected Works by Kevin Jerome Everson

#18 Post by Bikey » Fri May 21, 2021 11:14 am

Just £13.57 now at Amazon UK for a limited time
Bargain!

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Bikey
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Re: BD 34 How You Live Your Story: Selected Works by Kevin Jerome Everson

#19 Post by Bikey » Sat Jun 19, 2021 10:13 am

"Everson selected the films for this two-disc set, and it is a perfect introduction to this major American film artist...
HOW YOU LIVE YOUR STORY is a magnificent compilation that will undoubtedly be among this year’s most significant Blu-ray releases. If you’re already familiar with Everson’s work, this set certainly includes some key films you’ve missed. And if completely unfamiliar with the films of Kevin Jerome Everson, you should order this Blu-ray set immediately."

HOW YOU LIVE YOUR STORY reviewed by Michael Sicinski at Cineaste.com

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