Professional Motion Picture Production and Distribution NEWS

(New York, NY) Filmmaker Pam Kray produced a documentary film screening �Essentially a Gambling People� with exhibition.

Essentially a Gambling People is a short�at 23 minutes�video essay about gambling, its history in the United States, and the gambler in contemporary American society. Horseracing, casino gambling and Texas Hold �Em poker are highlighted in the movie, as the very old human games of fate and fortune meet the modern notion of �the gambling type.�

Beginning with two questions, �Why do people gamble? Is the history of America the history of gambling?� the movie proceeds through vintage archival footage, clips and live video to explore gamblers, casino employees, the gambling industry and amateur as well as professional poker players, with a nod to the portrayal of each of these in Hollywood movies, books and music.

Along with the video, an exhibition of artifact and gambling affect took place. The exhibition and screening was presented at the Downtown Community Center in New York, NY.

Essentially a Gambling People is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

About the Filmmaker:

Pam Kray is a film/video/multimedia artist and writer. Her finished works are technically diverse explorations of her life, via her own or others� bodies, landscapes, and pursuits of happiness. She has exhibited in the United States and throughout Europe through solo screenings and festival participation and has collaborated with film and video makers, audio composers, painters, sculptors, and dancers in Washington, DC, San Francisco and New York. Her oeuvre includes short and feature narrative, experimental, documentary and installation works. In 2002, Pam completed an hour-long documentary, Mushroom Seekers, that has screened in the U.S. and in Europe. In 2003, Pam began collaborating with choreographer Catherine Hourihan on The Art of Falling, a dance piece with video projections. The piece has been performed in various incarnations, including as a stand-alone video installation (Motomanhattan/The Art of Falling) in 2004 in the Czech Republic, and which screened in 2005 at the Reel Venus Festival and in 2007 at the Howl! Festival in New York. In 2007, The Art of Falling ran as a performance-installation for two weeks in downtown New York City at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council�s (LMCC) 15 Nassau Gallery as part of its Swing Space Program. In 2006, Pam completed and exhibited Virtually Certain, a 3-channel experimental documentary video installation. This piece has been exhibited in New York at 15 Nassau Gallery and at the Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery of the University of Nevada, Reno. In addition to her own film and video projects, Ms. Kray has curated screenings, events and performance series. She co-founded I AM EYE independent film forum in Washington, DC, that ran from 1982 through 1991. In 2003, she curated a series of six international film/video programs that was presented in the Czech Republic at CESTA (Cultural Exchange Station at Tabor) and at FCCA (Center for Contemporary Art) in Prague, and in the United States at Anthology Film Archives in New York City. Alternating between screenings and installations in the last few years, she directed the design and installation of the group multimedia exhibition, CHANNELS: Emerging Media Publics, in 2006. She created video and designed projection for the play, The Euthanasist, produced at P.S. 122 in 2008. In 2009, Pam is the summer artist-in-residence at 11BC Garden in Manhattan.



Resources:
Pam Kray (Filmmaker): www.pamkray.com