Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

[Adam]

I'd question whether we really needed the excessively long interview with a fan so ardent that he'd tattooed frames of Arnulf Rainer around his arm (we even get to see the actual tattooing after the point has been made by showing us the end result), and other parts could probably be tightened up too, but as an introduction to the breadth and totality of Kubelka's work (naturally, it concludes with a lengthy lecture on cooking, one of his favourite subjects), it's very highly recommended indeed.

I wonder if that's a friend of mine here in LA, who has that Arnulf Rainer tattoo on his arm.

The alternative - that there's more than one of these guys out there - is too frightening to contemplate.

I verified; it's him. He hasn't seen the film yet, but is going to catch it at NYFF.

[Matt]

If anyone has the means of getting to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis before January 6, I recommend it. They've got a very cool exhibit of 6 films by 6 filmmakers, the highlight of which is a massive triple projection of Bruce Conner's Three Screen Ray. It ran in a similar setting a couple of years ago at SFMOMA (here's a clip of what it's like).

Only a couple of the films in the exhibit are running from actual film (one of which is a print of Brakhage's Mothlight), the others have been transferred to video, but that's understandable since they're running constantly. But they've given two whole huge darkened galleries over to these films. It's probably the most respectful gallery showing of experimental film I've ever seen.

[MichaelB]

My Peter Kubelka interview has just been published in the latest Sight & Sound.

I also understand that the entire 45-minute interview may make an appearance on their website in due course - which I'm very pleased about, as I had to cut about 75% in order to squeeze it into my allotted word count.

[htshell]

Yesterday was Kubelka Day at NYFF. The documentary was well-done (just like his schnitzel) and the Monument Film screening/lecture/performance/exhibition was really impressive. Saw some other great stuff at Views From the Avant-Garde by Paul Clipson, Camille Henrot, Luther Price, Ferdinand Khittl, Nicolas Rey, and John Smith. (And some stuff that I thought was awful, but that's how it goes.)

[kidc85]

My Peter Kubelka interview has just been published in the latest Sight & Sound.

Did you go to see the retrospective at the ICA last night? Great to get the chance to see his films but I have never - not even in a multiplex - been with a more restless crowd. You would think grown adults could sit still for an hour!

[MichaelB]

Sadly not - I live 90 minutes outside London and had multiple deadlines all this week.

But I'm going to Monument Film on Saturday 21st.

[swo17]

Pardon my ignorance, but what's keeping Bruce Conner's films from coming out on DVD?

[htshell]

Conner was yet another believer in medium-specificity and the Conner Trust are not interested in releasing his films on home video (even the ones that he made on video, rather than film).

[MichaelB]

Yesterday was Kubelka Day at NYFF. The documentary was well-done (just like his schnitzel) and the Monument Film screening/lecture/performance/exhibition was really impressive. Saw some other great stuff at Views From the Avant-Garde by Paul Clipson, Camille Henrot, Luther Price, Ferdinand Khittl, Nicolas Rey, and John Smith. (And some stuff that I thought was awful, but that's how it goes.)

Sadly, yesterday's London performance was a bit of a calamity - only one of the two projectors worked, which meant that Kubelka had to scrap the second half of the performance (since that involved showing Arnulf Rainer and Antiphon side by side and then superimposed). He did a pretty good salvage job on the talk, and we did at least get to see the two films separately (and the three-panel gallery installation outside, which was fascinating), but whether or not I can make the promised repeat performance at some unspecified date in January remains to be seen.

But on the way out I bumped into Sight & Sound's online editor, who told me that the recording my Skype interview with Kubelka had also run into technical problems (which is why it didn't appear last week as planned) - but he's now got a couple of extra months to resolve them. So hopefully it'll turn up before too long, and I'll link to it from here when it does.

[razumovsky]

I thought Kubelka responded with tremendous good grace to the technical problems - in fact, he seemed to take some delight in the fact that the failure to present his Monument underscored his thesis about 2012 being the darkest year for film. Of course, this doesn't exactly cast the BFI on the side of the angels. Really hope they manage to sort this out for January.

[MichaelB]

Of course, this doesn't exactly cast the BFI on the side of the angels.

Since they weren't the BFI's own projectors, I wouldn't be quite so quick to point the finger.

[htshell]

Who was on projection duties? I assume it was an outside/boutique projection outfit?

Kubelka was very thankful for the projectionists at NYFF (Robert Film Service/RFS from Montreal) and stressed that film is a medium that needs actual people to run it, unlike a digital projector that could be turned on and off by a robot.

[warren oates]

Conner was yet another believer in medium-specificity and the Conner Trust are not interested in releasing his films on home video (even the ones that he made on video, rather than film).

I'm old enough to remember my college library having some kind of Conner collection on tape or laserdisc. Was that a bootleg? Seriously, of all the filmmakers who disdain video for philosophical/aesthetic reasons, this must be one of the silliest cases, as just about every film I've seen of his was made up of found footage that was already of varying quality. And most of them were not so much sublime as ridiculous. Really, B.C., must we screen your found footage funnies on film only? Sure it isn't more of a clearance and copyright because of collage issue?

[Gregory]

I don't think you can attribute that to Conner himself, because when he was still living he authorized several video/DVD releases for sale to the public, for library collections, for gallery presentation, etc. in addition to having the works available on celluloid. He obviously often used archival and found footage but also filmed quite a lot himself, so I think you're somewhat off-base with that as well. I don't see the relevance of that anyway. If an art book were published with images riddled with jpeg artifacts and blurriness, would this not matter if they were images of collages incorporating images of varying quality rather than paintings or drawings? Would it only matter if the works were "sublime," whatever you mean by that?
I've enjoyed lots of BC's work on VHS and DVD, but I don't feel any kind of entitlement to own it on those formats.

[warren oates]

I don't think you can attribute that to Conner himself, because when he was still living he authorized several video/DVD releases for sale to the public, for library collections, for gallery presentation, etc. in addition to having the works available on celluloid. He worked quite a bit with archival and found footage but also filmed quite a lot himself, so I think you're somewhat off-base with that as well. I don't see the relevance of that anyway. If an art book were published with images riddled with jpeg artifacts and blurriness, would this not matter if they were images of collages incorporating images of varying quality rather than paintings or drawings? Would it only matter if the works were "sublime," whatever you mean by that?
I've enjoyed lots of BC's work on VHS and DVD, but I don't feel any kind of entitlement to own it on those formats.

No entitlement here either. Just the sense that whatever's being protected by his estate has little to do with the integrity of the work itself and more to do with an outmoded notion of how the legacy of his film work would best be served. And by "sublime" I mean, you know, visually inspiring some sense of majesty or awe -- especially one that would be in some way integrally related to the texture of motion picture film itself. Something like the beauty in Brakhage's work, which had a much better case for eschewing video as long as it did. The half dozen films I've seen by Conner seem to have no such aspirations, as their beauty is more about intellectual connections and juxtapositions. The visual interest in the shots of that bridge collapsing in A Movie, for example, has next to nothing to do with the quality of the camerawork or the resulting print. It's a shame too, because these films are quite easy to like and would probably find some kind of crossover audience if they were widely available on DVD or Blu-ray. They are fun and funny and I'm certainly not denigrating the films or holding them as somehow lesser works because of it.

[Gropius]

Of course, this doesn't exactly cast the BFI on the side of the angels.

Since they weren't the BFI's own projectors, I wouldn't be quite so quick to point the finger.

As another slightly disappointed audience member, I was left wondering why there weren't any back-up projectors on-site, and why external hire should be necessary, given the BFI's resources.

[MichaelB]

The external hire was necessary because Kubelka insisted on having the projectors inside the auditorium as a crucial part of the presentation.

I've never been inside the NFT1 projection booth, but I suspect its own projectors would have been unsuitable (even assuming it has two 35mm machines in there at all: not necessarily a given) because of the need to physically shift them during the presentation, to achieve the side-by-side and superimposed versions of Arnulf Rainer and Antiphon.

In my experience, permanent projector installations tend to be locked in place, and that kind of adjustment would be a major adjustment job of an order that's certainly not practical during a live event even once, let alone twice.

[Alan Smithee]

New Jonas Mekas Box Set http://www.jonasmekasfilms.com/dvd/

[AlexHansen]

If anybody happens to find themselves in the Boise ID area on April 6th (looking your way SLC peeps), I'm hosting a screening of Brakhage's Garden of Earthly Delights and The Cat of the Worm's Green Realm, Lowder's Champ Provencal, Kren's Asyl, Kubelka's Arnulf Rainer, and last but not least Michael Robinson's Circle in the Sand. The exact time and location are yet to be determined, but it'll be evening and presumably in one of the ballrooms at the Student Union Building.

[htshell]

Looks like a good program. Are these all 16mm? I've yet to see any Rose Lowder projected and I really want to.

[AlexHansen]

Everything's 16 but the Robinson, which will be via Blu; would've gone with a print if it'd been available. Garden and Arnulf could have been 35 but I decided to make life a bit easier on my friend who's handling projectionist duties (getting the 35mm projector from his house to the screening site requires a bit too much coordination and manual labor).

The Lowder was actually a last minute brainstorm. I had hoped to show B&W Trypps #2 (or #1 for that matter) and Glimpse of the Garden but they weren't available, and as I was looking for replacements Lowder jumped to mind and should make an excellent warm-up for the Kren.

[zedz]

Sounds like a great programme. I'd love to see Asyl in the flesh, and Arnulf Rainer is a must for anybody who's considering participating in the 1960s list.

[razumovsky]

For the record, Peter Kubelka was able to stage his Monument Film at the BFI this evening, having had to partially abort the event at last year's London Film Festival because of technical difficulties. It was a triumph, too, with at least as large an audience as there was back in October. Wonderful of Kubelka to make the return trip, and of the BFI to facilitate it. With the BFI also currently hosting a revival Point Blank in 35mm print - scratches and all - perhaps 2013 is slightly less a dark year for analogue film than 2012.

[htshell]

Film still exists. If people want it to stay, they need to support it.

On that note, I'm starting a new monthly 16mm avant garde screening series in Philadelphia called Black Circle Cinema. Here is the first event on Wednesday April 24:

Wednesday, April 24 at 8:00PM
BLACK CIRCLE CINEMA 001
ROBERT SMITHSON + NANCY HOLT: EARTHWORKS
Aux Performance Space / Vox Populi Gallery
319 North 11th Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Tickets: $7-10 sliding scale

In recognition of Earth Day, Black Circle Cinema is pleased to present two important films by two pioneers of land/environmental art. These two depictions of major works of earth art are just as stunning today as when they were first created. Smithson and Holt both deal with time and space on a grand scale and these films are a testament to their enduring vision.

This exhibition comes on the heels of JG, a new 35mm film project by Tacita Dean on view at the Arcadia University Art Gallery through Sunday, April 21. JG examines the connection between JG Ballard’s short story “The Voices of Time” and Spiral Jetty.

Spiral Jetty (dir. Robert Smithson, 1970, US, 16mm, 30’)
This film, made by the artist Robert Smithson, is a poetic and process minded film depicting a "portrait" of his renowned earthwork Spiral Jetty as it juts into the shallows off the shore of Utah's Great Salt Lake. A voice-over by Smithson reveals the evolution of Spiral Jetty. Sequences filmed in a natural history museum are integrated into the film featuring prehistoric relics that illustrate themes central to Smithson's work. A one minute section is filmed by Nancy Holt for inclusion in the film as Smithson wanted Holt to shoot the "earth's history." This idea came from a quote Smithson found: "the earth's history seems at times like a story recorded in a book each page of which is torn into small pieces. Many of the pages and some of the pieces of each page are missing". Smithson and Holt drove to the Great Notch Quarry in New Jersey, where he found a facing about 20 feet high. He climbed to the top and through handfuls of ripped pages from books and magazines over the edge of the facing as Holt filmed it.

Sun Tunnels (dir. Nancy Holt, 1978, US, 16mm, 27’)
Takes a close look at the many different processes involved in making art in the American landscape, away from urban centers and outside the usual art-world confines of museums and galleries. More specifically, it is a personal record of the making the filmmaker's art-work Sun Tunnels in the remote northwest Utah desert. Being aligned with the sunsets and sunrises during the summer and winter solstices, the sculpture indicates the daily and yearly cycle of the sun. The sunlight, which changes slowly within the tunnels during the day, is speeded up, making available an experience of the work which is filmic in nature.

Black Circle Cinema is a monthly screening of 16mm avant garde films. This is Black Circle Cinema #001.
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[htshell]

MUBI has 24 short films from the 2013 Images Festival lineup streaming for free through April 20th.
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