I think Thirteen Summers will be a beautiful project. It's paradoxical because the powerful narrative stands just outside the door of an experimental installation and live musical performance with no words. It is there but it is not there.
Timothy Treadwell spent 13 Summers living in the Alaska wilderness and filmed it. He was passionate about the largest of his co-inhabitants which are hunted for sport, ursus arctos horribilis, the grizzly bear. He believed they should be protected and respected as are whales, dolphins and elephants. He pushed his edge in interacting with the animals as an equal. In the end it didn't work out. But in a way it did. His footage was made into a movie by the noted director, Werner Herzog. That film is Grizzly Man.
Grizzly People maintain Treadwell's archive of video and stills. They have provided Portland's Cinema Project material for multiple screens to accompany an original soundtrack performed live. Thirteen Summers is the result.
A presentation by the Cinema Project and the Creative Music Guild. Thirteen Summers is the opening at 7PM Friday of a night of improvised music and accompaniments that continues with a different program Saturday evening - the Portland Improvisation Summit. Both evenings involve movement improvisation too. At Bamboo Grove Studio 134 SE Taylor (enter on 2nd on the loading dock) Film opens a performance Friday that goes late. See the Improvisation Summit website for full details. 7PM $15 (both nights $20)
