Magic for Beginners
2010 | 00:21:00 | United States | English | Color | Stereo | 4:3 | DV video
Collection: Single Titles
Tags: Found Footage, Image Processing, Media Analysis, Television, Youth/Childhood
Magic for Beginners examines the mythologies found in fan culture, from longing to obsession to psychic connections. The need for such connections (whether real or imaginary) as well as the need for an emotional release that only fantasy can deliver is explored.
"Out of the blue, I bought my first television. I kept the TV on all the time."
— Andy Warhol
"Jesse McLean’s 20-minute video Magic for Beginners is an intermittently gripping, psychedelic montage revolving around childhood obsessions with Leonardo DiCaprio and the video game Tron."
— Ken Johnson, "Magic for Beginners", New York Times, August 11th, 2011
Prizes + Awards
1st Prize, Three Rivers Film Festival, Pittsburgh, Shorts Competition, 2010
Overkill Award, presented annually to a film or video artist whose work approaches extremes of incorrigibility, Images Film Festival, Toronto, 2011
Transmediale Festival, 2011
Premiere
Venice Film FestivalVenice
2010
Exhibitions + Festivals
Anthology Film Archives, Show & Tell, New York, NY, 2013
SAW Media Art Center, Red/White/Blue: New American Fringe Film and Video - 'Emotional Rescue: The Videos of Jesse McLean,' July 14, 2012
Antimatter Film Festival, 2011
Chicago Underground Film Festival, 2011
Dallas Videofest, 2011
Images Festival of Independent Film and Video, 2011
Venice Film Festival, 2010
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