The department will continue its "Magnificent Media" series of screenings, lectures and discussions on film and video art in April with new and unusual offerings from some of the best independent filmmakers in the U.S.

All events are free and open to the public and will take place in the Screening Room in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus.

Ever heard of "X-Film Chicago"? It's a group of young film enthusiasts dedicated to showing experimental films, principally by artists in and around Chicago. An intriguing selection of short films from the group's last two seasons of screenings will be shown here on April 1 at 7:30 p.m., co-sponsored by the Department of Media Study and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. Look for such titles as "DJUNE/IDEXA" and "Joe Was Not So Happy."

On April 5, a one-day interdisciplinary conference beginning at 8:45 a.m. will examine the relationships between poetry and moving images (see box below). The conference is sponsored by the UB Departments of Media Study and English; UB Conferences in the Disciplines, and the Nickel City Poetry/Video Association. For more conference information call Tony Conrad at 885-3868 or Mac Hammond at 882-1642.

And what about "bawdy, lurid" filmmaker George Kuchar? Having repeatedly smacked Hollywood affectation to the floor and ground it into the linoleum with his heel, Kuchar will lecture here on Monday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m., co-sponsored by the Department of Media Study and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center.

And on April 17 at 7:30 p.m., it's real life, not just "reel life," when UB presents excerpts from award-winning filmmaker Anne Robertson's exceptional 40-hour opus, "Five Year Diary," a filmed "collection" of ordinary and extraordinary life events, as opposed to a picture of a life molded by theatrical and cinematic artifice.

"Five Year Diary" is on the program with two of Robertson's short films, "Apologies," which explores the phenomenon of guilt, and "Suicide," a work that arose out of a three-year experience in which an internal voice urged Robertson to end her life.

The cherry on top of the month's series of events is an April 26 program at 7:30 p.m. titled "Experimental Videos by Queers of Color from Mix '96," the acclaimed lesbian and gay experimental film festival.

The show will feature hot new perspectives by hot, new gay filmmakers who happen to not be Caucasians. The event is co-sponsored by the UB Department of Media Study and Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Alliance of UB.

For more information on the April events, call 645-6902.