American Artifact

Filmmaker and TV producer Merle Becker will release her new documentary American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art this month. Chronicling the history and the rise of the art form, this film includes interviews with artists including, Mouse, Victor Moscoso, Tara McPherson, Frank Kozik, and with other collectors and musicians. Becker, the founder of the independent film company Freakfilms, Inc. will premiere her new work in California, but it's being shown all over the country and will come out on DVD in August. For more info see: www.americanartifactmovie.com/

Rock Art

Loads of exhibits this summer are documenting the extraordinary influence of the American rock poster. Here's info on some of them:
The Denver Art Museum hosts an exhibit "Psychedelic Experience: Rock Posters from the San Francisco Bay Area, 1966-71" with 300 posters by artists who were inspired "by the sensory overload of the dance hall environment."

The annual Rock Art By the Bay event, sponsored by the Rock Poster Society, happens this year on Saturday June 20th at Fort Mason in San Francisco. A large line up of artists is scheduled to appear including Stanley Mouse. They'll be signing, discussing, and selling their work. See www.fortmason.org/features/2008/06/feature08.shtml

Rock the Streets. The Rise of American Rock Poster Art: Ron Donovan and Chuck Sperry of The Firehouse Kustom Rockart Company will be exhibited through August 4th at Ogilvy (111 Sutter St. in San Francisco.)

Fillmore again

Earlier (see our blog entry of Sept. 24th,2008), we noted that the documentary Fillmore: The Last Days was soon to come out on DVD. Rhino has just released it and it has immediately gotten a nice write up by Mike Hale in the NY Times, see "Bill Graham, Unleashed" May 29th.