The Extravagant Shadows (David Gatten, 2012)

10 inspiring, surprising or fun cine-moments of 2012 (in no particular order):

Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson
Audition, Karen Yasinsky 
A Luther Price Beastiary, selected films and slides at the NYFF 
American Falls, 3 projector HD surround sound installation at The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, NY (Sept-November, 2012), Phil Solomon
The Extravagant Shadows, David Gatten 
Holy Motors, Leos Carax
Chick Strand memorial screening at the Ann Arbor Film Festival
New Shores, a selection of films by Jerome Hiler at the NYFF

Seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (1989) with preeminent film scholar David Bordwell during the Madison Film Festival in Wisconsin. This Raiders is a VHS amateur remake, shot for shot, using the original film's screenplay and score. It starred and was filmed, directed and produced over a seven-year period by three teenagers from Mississippi (Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, and Jayson Lamb), who were in attendance. David was counting shots with his famous clicker, while the audience had a rollicking, nostalgic (for the movie and VHS) good time. A very postmodern experience.

Peter Kubelka at the NYFF (in 3 parts):

A reunion with my former teacher Peter Kubelka, including:

a.  His attending my screening of EMPIRE (against my warnings: "you'll hate this - it's ultra-digital!") and his surprising me later at the filmmaker's dinner by exclaiming to me: "You were wrong! I liked your film!"

b. Fragments of Kubelka, a 4 hour documentary on Peter Kubelka by Martina Kudlácek.

c. Monument Film, double projection performance and mounted installation.

Phil Solomon (U.S.A.) is a filmmaker and teacher in the University of Colorado. In the 1990s he made several movies with Stan Brakhage (Elementary Phrases, Concrescence). He has recently presented American Falls and Empire.