Einstein’s Gravity Playlist explores the ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves. Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916. A century later, scientists detected these waves using precise laser devices here on Earth. Join Lucia, a PhD student in physics, on an exploration of how gravitational waves are formed, how they move through the universe, and how scientists like her work to hear them. This is a flat version of the fulldome show available for planetariums. To request the fulldome version for screening at your planetarium email theo.lipfert@gmail.com . This show in its fulldome version is offered free of charge.

Mallard's Rest is a short poetic film with multi-channel sound that uses Magritte's juxtaposition of everyday objects and unfamiliar places to explore the differences between what we hear, what we see, and what we know. The piece can be performed live as a work of "Live Cinema."

"A Vision" was Thomas Mann's first published work. In this short piece themes and strategies that will emerge in Mann's later work are evident: the analytical description of “feeling states,” the scientific approach to documenting the irrational, and the objective, yet literary depiction of distorted perception. In my film version of Mann's work I have tried to honor the visual quality of Mann's writing. Though my film is set in the 1920s, the emotional truths he describes -- of remembering love, and dealing with loss -- resonate today.

2010 / 6:00 / color / Live Audio with Video / USA

Video and Sound by Theo Lipfert

Beneath the Surface is a video piece with four-channel sound that is performed live. The footage was shot with my (favorite) Flip Camera and underwater housing in Captiva, Florida. My kids and I tied some fishing line to the housing then threw it way out into the surf. The footage was recorded as my camera washed ashore. Not only the images, but also the sound of the water smacking into the plastic housing and dripping over the case were interesting to me.
I also recorded my son’s friend Michaela as she narrated what happened in some of her dreams. This audio was also cut up into sentence fragments (45 of them) that are combined randomly to (sometimes) make sense. I used the Kyma sound computer to create the structure for the piece. A script loads audio clips from a folder and plays them in random order. While the video played, I can control the volume, amount of reverb, and spatial position of the sound in the room, all in real time.
The audio of spoken words and the water sounds (plus me and my kids screaming as we got pummeled by waves!) is different every time it is played thanks to the “random” script. Here is one version (in two channels, not four) that gives an idea of what it looks and sounds like.

Oct 2010 2nd Annual Kyma International Sound Symposium, Vienna
Jan 2011 SEAMUS, Miami

2011 / 27min / color / HD / USA

‘From The Mekong to Montana’ traces one effect of the Vietnam War on an American woman. Diane Steffan married her college sweetheart in 1970. More than ten years later her husband suddenly developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his service during the war. Their life together crashed into the chaos of violence and alcoholism, which eventually claimed his life. Fifteen years after her husband’s death, Diane visits Vietnam to see for herself the country that changed her life.

Nov 2011 KUSM Montana PBS
Jan 2012 KUSM Montana PBS
May 2012 KUSM Montana PBS
May 2012 Park City Film Music Festival

“Invasion of the Giant Tortoises” explores the controversial introduction of a non-native species to the African island of Mauritius. Once home to the dodo, Mauritius was teeming with giant tortoises until the arrival of man. The introduction of predators and habitat loss doomed these majestic creatures to extinction. Now biologists have embarked on a radical plan: to replace the extinct Mauritian tortoise with a close relative: the giant tortoise from Aldabra, a deserted atoll near the Seychelles. How will the island's eco-system respond? And how do the results of this experiment change how we thing about biodiversity?

Solving for X documents the work of Dr. Patrick Ball, leader of the Benetech Human Rights Data Analysis Group. Ball and his team travel the world helping human rights supporters apply sophisticated computer analysis to human rights events. Three examples of this quantitative approach are explored in the film: in Kosovo, Guatemala, and Liberia. In each case, Ball and his team use complex tools to answer a simple question: who did what to whom?

Oct 2012 Portland Humanist Film Festival (Jury Prize Winner)
April 2012 Public Lecture, University of Mauritius
Aug 2009 University Film Video Association National Conference, New Orleans (Rough Cut)

2011 / 11min / color / live video, audio / USA

Dir: Theo Lipfert Starring: Kent Davis

“Galileo, One Night Only” is a visual and aural montage constructed from the (fictional) experiences of Montana actor Kent Davis, appearing as himself, as he prepares a performance exploring the life of Galileo Galilei, the father of modern science. Davis works a “day job” as a professional medical guinea pig. He enrolls as a human subject to test medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and therapies. During the preparation for his role as Galileo, Davis tests a wearable camera designed to help Alzheimer’s patients remember the events and interactions of their daily lives. To gauge the device’s efficacy, Davis has been administered a drug that induces a temporary memory loss. As he travels through different physical environments, Davis reflects on the sacrifices and compromises he has made to pursue his art, and unwittingly creates a contemporary analog to the experiences of the Sixteenth-century astronomer.

Sept 2011Kyma International Sound Symposium, Porto Portugal

"Natural Order" is a work of live cinema that explores manifestations of supernatural or divine forces in everyday lives. Sightings of religious iconography in mundane objects such as grilled cheese sandwiches, tree bark, and a receipt from Wal-Mart are randomly overlapped with other found footage. This includes the sermons of a religious zealot who chastises viewers for their transgressions against his God, a "researcher" who helps parents prevent their children from becoming gay, and historical images of missionary work in India. From the juxtaposition of these unlikely combinations an argument emerges: that grounding a set of purportedly shared morals and values in a "natural" order is more a "supernatural" matter: an issue more of faith than of nature.

2008 / 6:30 / Color / Super16, HD

Masada Remixed combines music, movement, fact and fiction to explore the emotional state of a population under siege. Based on the foundational story of Jewish zealots who held the Roman army at bay, Masada Remixed tells a contemporary tale of isolation, resistance, and suicide. Filmed in collaboration with Palestinian students in Montana and the Middle East.

April 2010 Kansas City Filmmakers’ Jubilee
Jan 2010 Victoria Film Festival, BC
Nov 2009 Filmstock 11, Luton, UK

2009 / 27:00 / Color / DV, Super16 / USA

Dir: Theo Lipfert

Interviews with survivors, experts, and advocates mixed with footage from wartime newsreels and propaganda films tell the story of the Korean Comfort Women who survived sexual slavery during World War II and continue to fight for an official apology from the Japanese government. Now in their 80s and 90s, the surviving “Comfort Women” recount their personal experiences and articulate their demands for compensation and acknowledgment. “Forced into ‘Comfort,’ Fighting for Apology” traces the origin of the comfort women system from the invasion of China to the end of the war. Set to a haunting score, the film portrays the anger of the surviving women and their advocates against a Japanese government waiting for the women to die.

April 2009 KUSM Montana Public Television (Broadcast Premiere)
April 2009 Crossroads Film Festival, Jackson MS
March 2009 Cinequest Film Festival, San Jose, CA
Feb 2009 Macon Film Festival, Macon, Georgia
Sept 2008 Bozeman Rotary Club Sunrise meeting
Aug 2008 University Film and Video Association Annual conference
April 2008 Ilse-Mari Lee faculty concert
March 2008 Faculty Colloquium, Department of Media & Theatre Arts, MSU

2006 / 10:00 / color / Super16 / USA

A woman, imprisoned by the present, escapes her confinement through movement and dance, only to be confronted by her past. Based on an experimental opera by Garrett Fisher, Moon in the Bucket uses music and motion to narrate a story of memory, confinement, and liberation. Shot on location in Montana, the film also uses archival Japanese footage as ‘flashbacks’ and glimpses into the history of our prisoner. Moon in the Bucket features choreography by A.C. Petersen and a solo performance by dancer Yoko Murao. The original score was written by the Seattle-based composer Garrett Fisher, and performed by the Fisher Ensemble.

Nov. 2006 Dance Flicks, North Carlton, Australia
Oct. 2006 Universidad Michoacana, Morelia, Mexico
Oct. 2006 Portland International Short Short Film Fest, OR
Sept. 2006 Boulder Asian Film Festival, CO
Sept. 2006 One Reel Film Festival, Seattle, WA
July 2006 Da Vinci Film & Video Festival, Corvallis, OR (2nd place: Best Use of Music)
June 2006 Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, Boulder MOCA, CO
June 2006 Fear No Film festival, Salt Lake City, UT
June 2006 Winnipeg International Film Festival

2007 / 9:00 / Color / Super16 / USA

A romantic ‘feel good’ experimental short, ‘Certain Green’ tells the story of an older woman’s lifelong quest for the perfect color green. On the advice of a psychic, our heroine searches from Florida to the Rocky Mountains, and along the way, learns that sometimes a certain green is found where you least expect it.

Notes on the film
I was reading a few anthologies of micro-fiction and non-fiction when I came across “Rhapsody in Green” by Marjorie Sandor. I loved this story because it was all about color, and how our lives are a search for something perfect that may not exist.
I started bringing my Super16 camera to Captiva, Florida during spring break. I started shooting everything I could find that looked like it should be green, but was not. Shadows of leaves on the ground, plants at sunrise and sunset that have turned inky black. One Spring we were on Captiva just after a hurricane had trashed the island. The shot of the garbage truck driving past the small restaurant (actually a little store) was shot that Spring. (The store was closed in order to repair all the hurricane damage). The shots of Johanna in front of the bulletin board are actually composites — I shot the store in Florida and Johanna in a studio at Montana State University in front of a blue screen.

April 2008 President’s Fine Arts Series, Montana State University
April 2008 Santa Cruz International Film Festival, CA
April 2008 Da Vinci Days Film Festival, Corvallis, OR
March 2008 SXSW (South by Southwest film festival) Austin, TX
Feb. 2008 Dam Short Film Festival, Boulder City, Nevada
Jan. 2008 Park City Film Music Festival, Park City, UT (Winner, Gold Medal, for Score, Short Film; Director’s Choice Award)

2004 / 6:40 / Color / DV / USA
Dir: Theo Lipfert; Music by Stefan Hakenberg

Taubman Sucks is the story of Hank Mishkoff, a web designer from Plano Texas, who created a website celebrating the construction of a new mall in his neighborhood. One day he received a letter from a lawfirm representing the mall’s owner, claiming that he was violating their client’s trademark.
When they filed a lawsuit against him, Hank registered a series of internet domain names ending with “sucks.com.” He used these sites to document the case, and the treatment he was receiving.
Hank fought the lawsuits all the way to the Appeals Court. After several setbacks, he was ultimately victorious. His case is now the precedent establishing rights for people who use the web to protest, complain, or gripe.
This richly visual documentary tells Hank’s “David vs. Goliath” story using an entertaining and humorous style. This is a story where the little guy finally does come out on top!

Nov. 2006 Cucalorus 12, Wilmington, DE
May 2006 Cinema Slam, Ann Arbor, MI
Nov. 2005 Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, Spokane, WA
Nov. 2005 Missoula Art Museum, MT
Oct. 2005 Austin Film Festival, TX
Oct, 2005 Mill Valley Film Festival, CA
Oct. 2005 Best of the Best Film Festival, Eugene, OR
Sept. 2005 Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Sept. 2005 DC Shorts Fest, Washington, D.C.
July 2005 Bear Tooth Theater, Anchorage, AK
July 2005 Portland Art Museum, OR
June 2005 Butte Silver Bow Arts Foundation, Butte, MT
May 2005 Filmstock, Luton, UK
May 2005 Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA
May 2005 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
May 2005 Portland Community College, OR
April 2005 Nashville Film Festival, TN
April 2005 PDX Film Festival, Portland, OR
April 2005 Blue Mountain Community College, Pendleton, OR
April 2005 Oregon Institute of Technology, Klamath Falls, OR
April 2005 Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR
April 2005 Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR
April 2005 Idaho State University, ID
April 2005 Detroit Film Center, MI
March 2005 Ann Arbor Film Fest, MI
March 2005 Cinequest, San Jose, CA
March 2005 NOVAC, New Orleans, LA
Feb. 2005 Big Muddy Film Festival, Carbondale, IL
Feb. 2005 Dam Short Film Festival, Boulder City, NV
Dec. 2004 DV Film Fest (Los Angeles)
Nov. 2004 Northwest Film and Video Festival, Portland, OR (Audience choice award)
Sept. 2004 Bumbershoot One Reel Film Fest, Seattle, WA
Sept. 2006 WEDU, Tampa, FL (broadcast)
July 2005 WSIU, Carbondale, IL (broadcast)
May 2005 KCTS, Seattle, WA (broadcast)
Nov. 2004 KCTS, Seattle, WA (broadcast)

2003 / 19:00 / Color & B/W / DV, Archival Film Footage
Directed by Theo Lipfert; Music by Stefan Hakenberg

The Displacement Map is an experimental documentary in which an Ohio shopkeeper’s daily activities trigger memories of a little-known historical event: the forced relocation during World War II of Aleut-Americans from the Aleutian and Pribiloff islands to camps thousands of miles away. This event is a metaphor for how we come to understand events which happen to people far away in time or place. Using contemporary and archival materials, the film suggests that it is through relating historical events to our daily lives that we can begin to comprehend them. The Displacement Map uses music and visual clues rather than words to tell an almost universal story of war, displacement, and relocation.

May, 2004 Filmstock, Luton, UK
May, 2004 Forest Film Festival, Portland, OR
April, 2004 Pusan Asian Shorts Festival, Pusan, Korea
March, 2004 Myhelan Indie Film Festival, Chester, NJ
October 2003 Cinema Paradise, Honolulu, HI (Jury Award: Best Experimental Film, Audience Award: Best Experimental Film)
Sept. 2003 Temecula Film and Music Festival, CA
May 2003 Tribeca Film Festival, New York, NY
April 2003 Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee (Jury award: 2nd Place, Documentary Short)
Aug. 2002 CrossSound 2002 , Juneau, AK (Live Performance)
Aug. 2002 CrossSound 2002, Ketchikan, AK (Live Performance)
Aug. 2002 CrossSound 2002, Sitka, AK (Live Performance)
May 2003 Second Saturday Series, Chicago, IL (Live Performance)
Jan 2004 Berlin Academy of Art: “America in Berlin 2004” Germany (Live Performance)