What: 4th ANNUAL OZARTS CONFERENCE – Turn your passions into a living.
When: APRIL 2, 2011
Where: Trustee Science Center
Drury University, Springfield, MO 65802
Cost: $30

FEATURED IN 2011:
· Learn the business side of visual arts, theatre, film and music.
· Juried art and performance art show on Friday, April 1.
· Opportunity to network with other professionals.
· One on one sessions with professionals in your field.

“This will be the fourth annual SEA OzArts Conference in Springfield, Missouri. We are so proud to be a part of this Coleman Foundation initiative, enabling us to bring the opportunity to learn from and network with seasoned professionals in the arts to our area’s budding entrepreneurs,” said Dr. Kelley Still, executive director of the Edward Jones Center for Entrepreneurship at Drury University.

Speakers include professional visual, literary and performing artists as well as arts administrators. The morning begins with a welcome and arts funding update from State Representative Sara Lampe and moves on to breakout sessions with professionals from all of the arts disciplines, sharing their strategies for success in their fields. The conference concludes with lunch and a keynote presentation by internationally recognized artist, Gary Bowling. Bowling’s work is held in the private collections of some of the most prestigious organizations in the Midwest and as far away as Hong Kong. One-on-one sessions with various professionals will be available for those seeking further advice.

All visual artist participants are encouraged to submit a piece to the juried art show which will take place in conjunction with the conference. The juried art show will be held on Friday, April 1 in Drury’s Pool Art Center. Additionally, participants who are writers, singers and actors are invited to read or perform as a part of the show. Contact Sara Cochran at scochran@drury.edu for information about participating on Friday night.

Members of the community are invited to register for a $30 fee. Registration is open at www.drury.edu/ejc/sea. For more information contact Tammy Rogers, tammy@drury.edu, (417) 873-6357.

Sophie Parker and Chris Beckman viewing Sundance Short Film Competition announcement

Included in that exclusive list of films is oops, a short film by local filmmaker and Drury graduate (2010), Chris Beckman. Competing in the U.S. DOCUMENTARY SHORTS competition, the film is described as
oops (Director: Chris Beckman) – A metaphorical elucidation exploring the Internet’s infinite repository of ‘throwaway’ social documentation.

The competition includes Animals Distract Me, by Director and Screenwriter Isabella Rossellini among others.

You first heard about Chris and his film when he won in the Experimental category of the Vimeo National competition. The film also screened at the London Anti-Design Festival in September and came to the attention of the Sundance competition committee who reached out to Chris and requested that he enter the film in their competition. Today’s announcement is the culmination of that effort.

The next step is raising funds to help Chris and his girlfriend (dare I say muse as well, as they have been together for four years and is his primary producer) Sophie Parker attend the Festival screening. The photo of Sophie and Chris above was shot today as we discussed the film and their plans at Big Momma’s Coffee, as they read the official announcement that had just been posted. If you would like to help them represent the Springfield film community, a fund has been established by the Drury Alumni and Development Office to help Chris to Utah. It is called the Chris Beckman Sundance Fund. To contribute to the fund, which will be used to help Chris travel to Sundance and participate in the screening,

Send a check made out to Drury University, noting that it is for the Chris Beckman Sundance Fund. Mail it to

Alumni and Development Office, attn. D. Course
Drury University
900 N. Benton Ave
Springfield, MO 65802

Your donation will be tax-deductible and the Drury Alumni office will issue you a letter indicating your contribution.

Chris, like artists throughout history, keeps digital notebooks of ideas. As Sophie described, he has many hard drives full of material he has collected through the years and the film is the culmination of his fascination with Youtube from its inception. As described in the Sundance synopsis above, Youtube offers a wide range of material and once he developed the concept of video associated with dropping a videocamera, it was approximately 10 days of work to come up with the original video. When the Vimeo competition was announced, a second edit with some additional material culminated in the video you can see below.

If you like what you see, a remarkable film for it’s seamless blend of disparate environments bound only by their common situation, then consider contributing to the fund that will allow Chris the opportunity to share his vision with the Sundance audience.

You can also become a fan of his next project Thin Air, a Missouri State Electronic Arts senior thesis film written and directed by by his friend and regular collaborator Max Rosen. With sound design and original music composition by Sam Gibson and David Bae. And assistant direction and special effects by Garrett Layman, Chris will be the Editor on the film.

oops from Chris Beckman on Vimeo.

Chris Beckman
oops, 2009
digital video art
concept by Billy Rennekamp

Somewhere between a home-video mixtape and a postmodern travelogue, “oops”—a ten-minute art video composed entirely of appropriated YouTube videos, seamlessly stitched together via a motif of camera drops—serves both as transportative adventure and metaphorical elucidation of YouTube itself (i.e. endless related videos), exemplifying the Internet’s infinite repository of “throwaway” social documentation. From suburbia to subterranea, the radically shuffling environs induce a vertiginous yet aesthetically contextual thread—a transcendent, reincarnating POV; our omnipresent Camera—by which, the nature of the ultra-verité videos, eschewing any filmic grounding, plunges the viewer into a relationship of fleeting immediacy w/ its many videographers: a self-portrait at arms length, the digital blur of an obscuring thumb, a disembodied narrating voice. This abstractly voyeuristic portrayal of an ever-filming generation (who won’t let the transcendence of being in A Moment inhibit their document-everything impulse) presages a future where every instant of our existence, from the mundane to the sublime, is preserved and catalogued for all to see.

Other examples of Chris’ work can be found on his Vimeo page including a new Director’s Cut of his 2008 SATO48 award winner “GOODBYE EARTH” and last year’s The Maiden Voyage of August Juncture’s Incredible Time Machine that won Matt Stout the Screenwriting Award (say hi to Matt next time you visit the Moxie)

The Self Employment in the Arts (SEA) OzArts conference is a one day educational resource helping aspiring artists gain the knowledge and skills to establish and maintain a career as an independent artist.

Where: Drury University, Springfield, Missouri: Trustee Science Center
When: March 13, 2010 9:30AM – 4PM
Who: This conference is for anyone who wants to improve skills related to self employment in the arts
Cost: $50 per person. (Scholarships are provided for all Drury Students by Student Advocates for the Arts.)

What to expect:
Inspiring & resourceful artist led conference sessions
One-on-one sessions with established artists
Training on how to organize and run your business
Register for the SEA OzArts Conference Online

Registration deadline is March 10, 2010

For the second year in a row Drury will be hosting the Self Employment in the Arts (SEA) OzArts conference, one of only six held across the country. The Conference is an educational resource for gaining entrepreneurial knowledge and skills to allow the artist to establish themselves with a career in the arts.

“In tough economic times, people who are practicing one of the art disciplines need to practice smart,” said Kay Osborne, special instructor of arts administration and coordinator of the SEA OzArts Conference.

There are sessions for everyone from musicians to actors to accountants, according to Osborne.

For additional information, contact:
Kay Osborne, SEA OzArts Conference Manager
417.873.6359
kosborne@drury.edu
www.drury.edu/ejc/sea

The event is to present the 2006 award winning feature-documentary “Encounter Point” on March 27 at 7 p.m in Lay Hall. The film involves the true stories of Palestinians and Israelis who work towards peaceful resolve in response to their own experiences within the conflict.

The Standard presents background on the film and the organization.

Drury University will be hosting the world premiere of Patrick Mureithi’s documentary “Icyizere (Hope): Healing and Rebuilding Communities in Post-Genocidal Rwanda” on Thursday, March 6 in Clara Thompson Hall at 6 p.m.

On March 16, a little more than a week after the film will debut on Drury’s campus, Mureithi will show his film to thousands of Rwandans at the Rwanda Film Festival. The festival will host seven screenings of the film, with 6,000 to 10,000 people at each screening. That’s a total of 42-70,000 people in Rwanda who will see the message of Mureithi’s film.

“Hopefully it’ll touch the hearts of those who see it,” Mureithi. said “And really inspire them to consider attending similar workshops and to consider forgiveness.”

The film is being shown on Drury’s campus in collaboration with the 2007-2008 Convocation theme of Hope and Action.

The film is a documentary about the process of reconciliation after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The screening is part of Drury University’s Day of Hope and Action. Drury Hope and Action

Patrick is Board member of the Missouri Film Alliance of Springfield.