★

★ screens for free at UT’s Downtown Gallery. Times listed below.

Finally, a film starring … stars. Ingeniously conceived and meticulously assembled by Austrian structural filmmaker Johann Lurf, ★ (pronounced “Starfilm”) is an elegant and encyclopedic guide through cinema’s eternal infatuation with the night sky. Culling clips from all 124 years (and counting) of moving image history, Lurf (who had two shorts in last year’s Stereo Visions program at Big Ears) uses a matter-of-fact montage strategy that chronologically shows all of the shots he and his team of researchers could find, telling an endlessly generative story of the evolution of film formats, aesthetics, humanity itself – all by the most minimalist and meditative means.

Heavenly bodies are spliced into and over themselves, one shot indiscriminately jumpcutting into the next, letting the asteroids, planetoids, and myriad constellations immortalized in films by Fritz Lang, Maya Deren, Steven Spielberg, and hundreds of other filmmakers do all the talking. And do be sure to see this cut of the film while you can; Lurf has promised to continue adding on to ★ year by year, letting the piece grow ever-longer as more and more films containing shots of stars are made and released.

We will be presenting the world premiere of Lurf’s latest cut.

Screening Times

Thursday, March 7, 2019
11:00-12:45
12:45-2:30
2:30-4:15
4:15-6:00

Friday, March 15, 2019
11:00-12:45
12:45-2:30
2:30-4:15
4:15-6:00

Wednesday, March 20, 2019
11:00-12:45
12:45-2:30
2:30-4:15
4:15-6:00

Saturday, March 23, 2019
10:00-11:45
11:45-1:30
1:30-3:15
3:15-5:00