June Brides (1987, 10:00, 16mm) | Cathy Cook & Claudia Looze
“A wacky and uproarious depiction of dominant institutions is offered in June Brides. . . . A pair of bride filmmakers have wild adventures while careening through the expected wedding activities. The film plays with sets, performances, animation and video to produce a celebration of the silly human dimensions of nuptial occasions, while relentlessly putting aside the official bridal magazine script of events. June Brides holds out the hope of the female transformation or appropriation of the dominant culture.”
—Chuck Kleinhaus, Northwestern University, Dialogue: An Art Journal
SCREENINGS & AWARDS (selected)
Whitney Museum at Equitable, “Dirt & Domesticity,” NY, NY
ATA Gallery, San Francisco, CA
EXPERI Film Festival, Bonn Germany
26th Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, MI
Black Maria Film Festival, West Orange, NJ (Honorable Mention)
Bucks Co. Film Festival & Tour
Experimental Film Festival, Uppsala, Sweden
Baltimore Film Forum, “Keep Your Shorts ON”, Baltimore, MD
Women in the Director’s Chair Festival, Chicago, IL
13th Michigan Womyn’s Film/Video Festival, Walhalla, MI
Cinema Femmes Int’l Women’s Festival, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
San Francisco Art Institute Film Festival, SF, CA
Tel-Aviv Film Festival, Israel
Film In The Cities Production Grant (for June Brides)
PRESS:
2003 Alfrieda Abbe, “What We Didn’t Learn in Health Class. An interview with Cathy Cook.” Angles; Women Working in Film & Video, Vol. 4., # 2 & 3.
1988Chuck Kleinhans, “Looking Askance.” Dialogue: An Art Journal, May/June
1987 Mark Kolter, “June Brides.” Wisconsin Woman magazine, July.
1985 Debra Bremmer, “Moving Pictures.” Milwaukee Magazine.
CREDITS
Directors & Brides: Cathy Cook and Claudia Looze
Music By: Aqua Velveeta & The Ghostly Trio
Bust UP (1989, 7:00, 16mm, B&W)
Tea time will never be the same! This tickling thriller about an afternoon tea features Holly Brown, who spontaneously transforms into several female personas that startle and entertain her surprised guest. Brown’s characters are obsessed with formalities of etiquette, pedigree and hospitality while spoofing sex roles and stereotypes.
“There’s energy galore in Cathy Cook’s successful Bust Up, in which a nervous visitor for tea is subjected to the hair-raising whims of a volatile drag queen (Holly Brown.) One powerful moment should at no cost be divulged.”
–Warren Sonbert, Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco, June, 1990.
“A brief but pungent film…. … starring impersonator Holly Brown. It is a shrewdly shot, sharply cut spoof of sex roles and stereotypes, drawing on the mannerisms of a middle-aged Bette Davis to convey long-suppressed feelings of rage and aggression.”
–James Auer, Milwaukee Journal, Art Critic, August, 1989.
SCREENINGS & AWARDS (selected)
USA Channel, “Night Flight,” 1991
SBS -TV Australia, “Eat Carpet,” 1993
London Gay/Lesbian Film Fest., Ntln. Film Theatre, UK, (16 City Tour)
29th Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, MI
PS1 Contemporary Art Center, “Dive-In Movies”,Queens, NY 2000
Madison Art Center, ‘Wisconsin Triennial’, Madison, WI
Chicago Lesbian & Gay Int’l Film Festival, Chicago, IL
Walkers Point Art Center, Milwaukee, WI
P.S. 122, “Milly’s Orchid Show,” New York, NY
Honorable Mention- EXPO Film Festival, The New School, NY, NY, 1989
La Cage Club, Milwaukee, WI
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
PRESS:
1990 The Milwaukee Journal, “Madison’s Wisconsin Triennial...” (Bust-Up)
1989Jerome Schultz, “Bust-Up.” Art Muscle.
1989 Moe Meyer, “The Holly Brown Show.” The New Art Examiner. (Bust-Up)
CREDITS
Direction & Editing: Cathy Cook
Starring: Holly Brown
Assistant to Director: Jamie Patten
Sync-Camera: Jamie Patten & Julian Marynczak
Additional Camera & Effects: Cathy Cook
Music by: John Lees
Mother Nature (1996, 5min, 16mm) | Live-action / found footage / performance
A comical outlook on who TRULY makes the world go around.
SCREENINGS & AWARDS (selected)
PS.1 Contemporary Art Center, “Dive-In Movies”, Queens, NY
4th Prize- Smoky Mtn./Nantahala Media Festival, Nashville, TN
Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
The Thaw Film Festival, Iowa City, IA, 1998
2nd Annual Outdoor Film Festival, Milwaukee, WI,1997
Momenta Art Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Pratt Art Institute, Brooklyn, NY
PRESS:
1999 Rob Taube, “The Art of the Laugh”, RE: Zone of Risibility. The Brooklyn Skyline. (Bust-Up and Mother Nature)
1999 Brooklyn Daily News, “Artists Show Humorous Sides”, RE: Zone of Risibility.
Also: Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Carrol Gardens COURIER.
CREDITS
Performance & Director: Cathy Cook
Camera & Crew: Jamie Patten, Martin Hallinger & Cook
Voice Overs: John Kishline & Jane Kramer
Audio Recording: Paul Dickinson
Shot on Location near Manawa, WI.