--Cynthia Penter Videography
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9 minutes, 2018
A collaboration with Hope Schultz, a dancer from SAFMOD and Lisa Miralia, a local and extraordinary sound artist working with electronic sources. This piece was initially created to be shown projected as a large video backdrop with the dancer performing live onstage with her own image and the musician improvising a powerful and formulated response to the combination of images and the dance. It was shot in a green screen studio. I recorded the images of the dancer as still photographs from which I constructed an animated version of the dance. This allowed me to translate the movement into an other-earthly movement akin to those portrayed in Butoh, somewhat like the live reanimations of Jan Svankmajer. I have intentionally combined images of varying tempos to create feelings of opposition and harmony . In editing I layered the dance with images of our planet, both in its beauty and plight. I have sought to use my art to express my feelings about the Earth, our fragile planet, driven by its powerful nature, at war with our own destructive tendencies. I have experimented using motion pictures to express my own visions of what is happening in our modern world pointing towards the destruction of life and our need to pay heed.
2014. Made initially for the Maria Neil three person exhibition, Flower Power. I put out a call for people to show up on Coventry Rd. one Saturday to film a recreation of hippie days, summer of love in the Cleveland area. Many came. The resulting footage was manipulated with filters. The video showed concurrently in the gallery's window for the duration of the exhibition. 2015 This video played to a live music soundtrack performed by Richie Kindler on sitar and Cliff Snyder on flute during the Standing Rock International Shorts Festival.
2013. A memorial video to commemorate the life of Frank Green, performance artist and friend. Shown first at the Beachland Ballroom Celebration of the Life of Frank Green.
2012. Six video vignettes arranged in a linear fashion along the theme of water and its importance, power, and presence in our lives. Women=Source. Compiled from six works produced since 2009. ...vimeo water cycle
2012. The CMSD All City Musical. Produced by Cynthia Penter while she was Photo/Video Director on the DAE staff of Cleveland's All City Arts Program. ... Footloose promo on You Tube
2012. Produced entry music video for MzDrummer, Cleveland, Ohio for the national contest, Hit Like a Girl. ...youtube Hit Like a Girl
2012. A multi camera recording of student and professional dancers. ...vimeo My Homecoming (pt.6 L'Avation) . ...vimeo My Soul Cries Out (pt.3 L'Avation)
2011. Filmed at and first shown during 48 Hours of Making Art, Lake Erie College. ...vimeo Gale Force
2011 through 2012. While Director of the C.M.S.D. All-City Arts Photo and Video Ensemble and Visiting Artist at the Cleveland School of Art, I produced, recorded, and edited many video products for these linked institutions, including promos, school musicals (The Lorax, No Room for Ordinary, etc), various performances of the other arts ensembles, the summer P.A.S.S. Institute for teachers, Arts Friday productions, performance at Rock Your World, and more. I also guided students in various video and photo events and productions, as I taught these media over two years.
2011. The CMSD All City Musical. Produced by Cynthia Penter while she was Photo/Video Director on the DAE staff of Cleveland's All City Arts Program. Shown at Rock Your World with STEAM.
2010. A film created for on stage use with Antaeus Dance Theatre....vimeo Cleave Verge Film only
...vimeo Cleave Verge Onstage with Film
2010. A collaboration with musician, Brad Bolton commissioned for the Standing Rock International Short Film & Video Festival. Performed live. ...vimeo Winter Play
2008. A dance video shot in multiple locations with Laurel VanMetre, based on the Jeff Beck song of the same name. It is a meditation on death. This video was then screened with a live performance of the same music by Root Doctor, at both Owl Hill, an end of summer festival, and at the following year Standing Rock International Shorts Festival. ...vimeo Walk Me Out
6 min. 2008 Three short animations made with still images, green screen technique, Photoshop, Imageready, Final Cut Pro and motion tools, Flash, etc. Included in the loopable DVD are Fairy Berry Farm, Kwan Yin Fishing and The Journey, with music Morning Song, by Ravi Shankar. Choreography and dance by Laurel VanMetre. ...vimeo Kwan Yin Fishing
2008. The Cleveland Treatment Center provides activities and guidance programs for youth at risk.; Made while I taught a series of workshops to students attending this treatment program.
2008. An hour long opera about the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings. This was presented and videotaped at Case Western University.
15 min., 2006 Filmed in high definition during 48 Hours of Making Art at Lake Erie College. The piece is simply what it says, a walk on the beach. My hope was to recreate the experience two dancing girls had going towards a lighthouse, to embellish the experience with a simple narrative, and to craft it simply using only sequencing, cuts, and dissolves so as to let the images speak for themselves. Shot in High Definition video.
2005 A series of video works following a two-week shoot documenting a unique program that employed area youth to make art and to design a performance in collaboration with area artists. Included is an hour-long video of the performance for local broadcast, as well as a highlight video of the two-week process and documentation of visiting lecturers. Sponsored by Forest City with YAGC.
12 min., 2004 The VAT environment commissioned me to produce a video to showcase our area, which includes Painting, Film, Video and Photography, and Sculpture. What I created was a visual experience of processes and product and people set to an East Indian techno beat.
2002 through 2004 A series of approx. 25 short videos (5 to 10 minutes each) commissioned by ICARE and Young Audiences of Greater Cleveland to highlight various arts programs, artists, or recipients of the Annual Arts Educators Awards 2002. Each video includes numerous interviews, scanned artwork, music, text, footage of events, arts performances, and demonstrations of art process and student involvement.
8 min., 2003 A video collaboration with Mike Hovansich and Pointless Orchestra that was played with live music at a weekend-long multimedia performance called The Birth Project in April 2003 at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Kent. Dance by Christina Anderson. ...vimeo Hybrids: In a Time of War
30 min., 2001 The culmination of a year-long experience with a group of inner-city Option School students at the Cleveland Learning Center. This video is a documentary about what makes this school special and how it allowed its students to get back on the right path. Shooting and interviews by the students, themselves. Training and editing by C. Penter and T. Laufer.
8.5 min., 2000 A digitally produced video about the process of creation. Music by The Horseflies and dance by Christina Anderson. Processed at the Experimental TV Center in Owego, New York. Edited during 48 Hours of Making Art at Lake Erie College.
30 min., 2000 A souvenir portrait of a friend, a tribute to her life. In 1988 Diane died of AIDS. This is not the entire story. With love. Excerpts from my films, Doreeya Luna / Pira Luna (1982) and Images of Women (1985), as well as the dance number from On the Town and the lament from Madame Butterfly. Original music by Julie Akerlund. Additional images by Diane and Amy Burt. Poems by Diane performed by Alice Cone and Major Ragain.
5 min., 1997 A reaffirmation dance while dealing with a precancerous condition. Digital and electronic manipulation of images. Produced at the Experimental TV Center.
6 min., 1997 Digitally processed and edited music video piece made for my nephew, Josh Nelson, who composed the music. Produced at the Experimental TV Center.
14 min., 1997 An experimental instructional video on the subject of magic and spell casting. Interviews and dramatization. Includes footage made digitally.
A three-part dance video produced at the Experimental TV Center:
11 min., 1996 Based on a 14th century French manuscript and a medieval dance. With choreography by Kathleen Davis Pierce and danced by the Fairmount Spanish Dancers, a company of ten women. This piece explores the rage to live against the inevitability of death. Digital and electronic manipulation.
11 min., 1995 Based on choreography by Lynette Welnicki Morrow, music by Yo Yo Ma, and the Buddhist Heart Sutra, this is an experimental dance piece about living in the balance between life's oppositions. Many special effects of image manipulation have been combined into a choreographed collage (among them keyed mattes, colorization, SEG effects, double exposures, frame buffs, time manipulations, sequencers, Amiga toaster, C.G., and more). A visual display of techniques with heart and rhythm.
6 min., 1996 Based on a passage from Gibran's The Prophet, this video dance poem expresses the joys and fears connected with birth. Choreographed and danced by Lynette W. Morrow in her ninth month of pregnancy, it is a subtle and beautiful expression of affirmation.
1 min., 1990? My first foray into digital video. A small experiment, pre larger formats, to introduce me as a media artist. Made after my trip to Greece 1986. ...youtube Magical Me Movie
58 min., in progress Music and interviews of 82-year-old virtuoso Hungarian born violinist, Ernie King (aka Kiraly Erno), of Middlefield, O. Commissioned as part of a joint OAC/OHC traditional arts project. This project is being completed in a digital format thanks to KSU SML.
in progress A music video of a local progressive jazz/blues band closing down the club where they have been house band for the last 26 years. SEG and color and key manipulations.
29 min., 1990 Various female musicians recorded between 1987 and 1990. What bound these women for me thematically was their strength, beauty and conviction. Performances by Valerie Depriest, Hazel Dickens, Maura O'Connell, and the Rude Girls.
20 min., 1989
15 min., 1989
28 min., 1989
Three performance pieces presented by Frank Green, a former New York performance artist now residing in Cleveland. The piece about Jane Bowles examines the mental condition of an artist as her physical condition deteriorates. ...vimeo 5 Letters for Jane Bowles
2 programs, 58 min. each, 1989 Two concerts are presented in a multi-camera production. Concert #1 features the Mellow Harps (a steel drum band), the Rude Girls (feminist songs with a blend of sarcasm), John McCutcheon (hammer dulcimer virtuoso), and the Horseflies (a Neo Wave Bluegrass band from Ithaca, N.Y.). Concert #2 showcases the dancing ensemble Rhythm-in-Shoes, Vassar Clements with the Ed Foley Trio, and Hazel Dickens, one of America's finest coal miner's daughters.
58 min., 1988 Dennis Brutus, South African poet, addresses the reality of apartheid. Music by Halim El Dabh.
15 min., 1988 An ambient mixture of visuals and sounds of the farms, animals, buggies and daily endeavors of those who lead "simple lives."
58 min., 1988 A multi-camera production of highlights of the 1988 Cuyahoga Valley Festival (presented by the National Park Service). This year's show features performances by Bogan and Armstrong, the Appalachian Travelers, Kapelye (a Klezmer band), African drummers, the Anatolian Trio, and the Sterling Trio (with Jerry Douglas and Maura O'Connell.)
58.5 min., 1988 University of Akron. A half-hour concert of liberation songs by folk singer Valerie Depriest followed by workshops and a panel discussion of the 1988 Central American Solidarity Association.
28 min., 1988 Highlights of a local event to keep alive cultural traditions, sponsored by the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association.
58 min., 1987 Highlights of the 1987 Cuyahoga Valley Festival featuring performances by local and national acts including country star Johnny Gimble, Howard Armstrong (alias Louie Bluie), and dancers, instrument makers, craftsmen, and more. ...vimeo Dance section, Fiddlin' Around
58 min., 1987 Lecture by Mike Simmons of the National AFSC office on the historic voting patterns of blacks in this country and how they can affect the outcome of elections.
30 min., 1987 A documentary of a seminar at the University of Akron debating the effectiveness and ethics of the death penalty, with special emphasis on the recent Supreme Court decision regarding the racial bias of U.S. court sentencing. With commentary by Robert Domer, author and former inmate on death row.
58 min., 1985 Beginning with a grave-side interview of one happy widow, the crew enters the unlocked and sometimes uninhabited abodes of seven friends to reveal their secrets and in the final segment opens their own closet doors!
Other video work has included:
video camera operator on "The Scarlet Letters," a performance piece at Cleveland Public Theater by Frank Green; projects with students in film program at KSU; camera operator on taping of the 1988 KSU Folk Festival; volunteer worker at the 1988 Ohio Valley National Federation of Local Cable Programmers (NFLCP) Conference; PSAs for various organizations including those done in official capacity as videographer for Cuyahoga Valley Festival; edited tapes made for NEA and OAC applications submitted on behalf of the National Park System; audition tapes for various bands; other taping for local community organizations; four-year involvement with the Warner Cable Access Program(Akron/Wadsworth); crew member for local video productions; and other short, ambient video pieces.