Typeface Film - Screening Soon in a State Near You!

10th September, 2010

Director Justine Nagan investigates how the value and purpose of older analog media have changed as our society has transitioned to a digital age in Typeface, Kartemquin Films' (Hoop Dreams, Terra Incognita, At the Death House Door) latest documentary on art in society.

In rural America, a lone employee waits in a cavernous old museum for visitors to come. A few individuals straggle in every few days and then, come Friday, the museum fills with life. Machines hum, presses print, artists buzz about. The place comes alive as printmaking workshops led by, and filled with, some of the nation's top design talent descend on the sleepy enclave.

In a time when people can carry computers in their pockets and watch TV while walking down the street, Typeface dares to explore the twilight of an analog craft that is freshly inspiring artists in a digital age. The Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, WI personifies cultural preservation, rural re-birth and the lineage of American graphic design. At Hamilton, international artisans meet retired craftsmen and together navigate the convergence of modern design and traditional technique. But the Museum's days are numbered. What is the responsibility of artists and historians to preserve a dying craft? How can rural towns survive in a shifting industrial marketplace where big-box retailers are king?

Founded in 1966, Chicago-based Kartemquin Films is a home for independent filmmakers developing documentary to examine and critique society through the stories of real people. Kartemquin's catalogue contains 36 social-issue documentary films, including Hoop Dreams, which won every major critics prize and journalism award in 1995 and has been named on over 150 "ten best" lists. With a record number of films released in the past two years, Kartemquin is poised to continue this legacy for years to come.

The film will be screening in South Australia on Tuesday September 21, then in Western Australia as part of the AGM events on Wednesday 22 September; AGM attendees get in free! The film is also a feature event during Icograda Design Week Brisbane, with not one, but two screenings on Tuesday October 12.

Check out the events page now for more information. Keep an eye out for more dates to be posted soon!