NATIONAL VIDEO EVENT SET AT FILM INSTITUTE

Video productions from more than 18 countries will be showcased at the sixth annual National Video Festival Dec. 4-7 at the American Film Institute, 2021 N. Western Ave. The festival’s program of premiere screenings, retrospectives, video installations, panel discussions and award presentations will be reprised in Washington, New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Paris and Turin.

Marcel Odenbach, Juan Downey, Woody Vasulka, Dan Reeves, Doug Hall and Brenda Miller are among the artists whose videos will be premiered at the festival. Television projects from Britain’s BBC and Channel Four, France’s INA, Italy’s RAI-3, Japan’s NHK and West Germany’s ZDF will accompany the screenings.

In addition to these videos, the festival will focus on three programs. The first, “The Sound of Video,” will feature tapes that expand sound in videos, music jukeboxes from the last four decades, and a six-hour documentary produced by John Archer for the BBC titled “The History of Rock Video.”

The second program, “Cultural Identities and Regional Styles,” will explore international video styles and includes a tribute to the Canadian Broadcasting System and screenings of recent German videos and local productions funded through the National Endowment for the Arts. “Video Channels: Television Alternative,” the third program in the series, consists of a retrospective of Orson Welles’ television work, a showcase of high-definition television and premieres of non-traditional British television programs by John Lloyd, Alex Graham, Alan Fountain and Tariq Ali. A panel discussion with the producers will follow the screenings. The packaging of independent videos will also be discussed by a panel of experts in this program.

Winning entries in a student video competition will be screened at the festival.

Information: (213) 856-7787.