East Tennessean

Issue date: 9/25/08 Section: The Scene

Singer-songwriter Tom Waits(Frank) is featured in the film, as well as a young Ellen Barkin as the character of Laurette. [Click to enlarge]

Last Friday night, about 10 art students gathered for the Student Painting and Drawing Association's first ever "Art House Film Night." The event is being planned monthly with the intention of showing films that emphasize cinematography, the relationship between art and film, and other little subjective, gray areas that could be considered artistic.
All films are recommended by students, though Mira Gerard, the SPDA advisor, supervises the event as technical support. For that particular night, "Down By Law," a 1986 film by Jim Jarmusch featuring Tom Waits, was viewed.
The large, dark painting studio became an intimate setting with students gathered around the projector screen munching on homemade cookies and French fries.
When asked about film recommendations, some students seemed confused about what films would be applicable, seemingly on account of varying perspectives regarding what classifies as "art" or "artistic."
With the exception of films placed in a category specified in Blockbuster or on the Netflix Web site, often our encounters with contemporary film do not link art and film together. It then becomes part of a larger question of whether or not a film can be art, and under what considerations.
If a person were to look at a list of the films I have rented in the past year, they would probably think that I was an "art fag" with a 6-year-old child, which must account for all of the Disney animated films.
So if I were put on the spot about the definition of what films apply as art or art-related, I'm not sure I could answer either.
Other students were not quite so self-conscious or annoyingly philosophical.
Kyle Blauw, an art student who attended the event, summed it up quite simply, though pointedly. "The SPDA films are chosen for, at least to some degree, their formalistic qualities," he said. "These are examples of what the students feel are well-made films."
It's an entirely subjective response, then, to every film that is shown, yet that may be the only acceptable answer at this time.

Continued...

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