ON
(experimental) FILM
Here's
a list of films-not-to-be-missed at this year's Festival of Festivals, Toronto
September 7- 17: BLACK CAT WHITE
CAT...by David Rimmer, BRAND by Mike Hoolboom, ELEGY by Gary Popovich,
14 WIRES by Domenic Menegon, FRAGMENTS by Paula
Fairfield, JACKASS JOHNNY by Alex Busby and David Coole,
READING BETWEEN THE LINES by Martha Davis, RIVER by Philip Hoffman, SPEAKING
PARTS by Atom Egoyan, TENDING TOWARDS THE HORIZONTAL
by Barbara Sternberg, THE TOP OF HIS HEAD by Peter Mettler,
THE WIDTH OF A ROOM by David Tuff, YOU TAKE CARE NOW by Ann Marie Fleming. All
these are to be found in the Perspectives Canada programming. In a special
festival programme, Surfacing: CanadianWomen's
Retrospective selected by Kay Armatage, the
experimental shorts run as follows: NOTES IN ORIGIN by Ellie Epp, SIFTED EVIDENCE and THE CENTRAL CHARACTER by Patricia Gruben, OUR MARILYN by Brenda Longfellow, LAS ARADAS by
Janis Lundman, TRANSITIONS by Barbara Sternberg,
WATERSARK and RAT LIFE AND DIET IN NORTH AMERICA by Joyce Wieland.
Keep it up F of F!!
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FILM
AND VIDEO FROM THE HEART OF THE HEART OF THE REGION, an exhibition that has
been researched, curated and brought into being by Calgarians Leila Sujir and Vern
Hume and which includes experimental, documentary and dramatic works (72 works
in all) will be presented at the Glenbow Museum
Theatre on four consecutive weekends, September16 - October 8. This exhibition
(screenings plus panel discussions) explores the relationship between place and
the development of film and video in
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Philip
Hoffman is heading West this fall -late October, early November_ screening his
own films plus packages of experimental films he has selected from Canadian
Filmmakers' Distribution Centre. The films chosen under headings such as
"autobiography", "kaleidescope ",
"re/viewing the apparatus" will show quite a wide variety of
filmmakers—Al Razutis, Isabelle Rousset,
Carl Brown, Lisa Miles, Stan Brakhage, Mike Hoolboom and more, as Philip's approach is pluralist. He feels it's time not to
narrow definitions, but to open up. So far, confirmed venues are FAVA,
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A
new group has emerged in
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Speaking
of more... what was much in evidence this past spring at the International
Experimental Film Congress was lots and lots of film work. Most of what has
been written thus far on the Congress has concentrated on the event itself, or
rather, on what the Congress wasn't. What has been overlooked in the various critiques
of the organization, choices and omissions has been any discussion of the films
themselves. So, I want to mention, in the first place, simply the overwhelming
number of filmmakers who did attend the Congress with films in hand . The Open Screen event was unable, in the 25 hours
scheduled, to handle all the work(which by no means
exhausts the field of experimental filmmakers - some notables were notably
absent besides the many yet unknowns but deserving who couldn't or wouldn't
attend). Many very strong films were shown, many,too, I noticed, with decidedly political subject
matter or social commentary. From amongst those I saw, I single out a few
here: Valerie Tereszko's
HUMAN ON MY FAITHLESS ARM concerning the"authority
of language"- how language influences people like landscape" via the
struggles of a deaf woman; Oliver Hockenhull's
DETERMINATIONS, moments in one's life now, a journey in living now, how to live
now knowing all we know is all around
us; Barbara Hammer's new film ENDAGERED as in film is an endangered species
amongst other things; HALF SISTER by Abraham Ravett
which used some interview footage with a woman who had been in a concentration
camp and footage identified in the film as taken by the Nazi machine- for me,
this film got at living memory, memory in the present tense; LIVED IN QUOTES by
Laurie Dunphy which not only told of the denial of
native language to Africans because of white people's inabilities to pronounce
certain sounds, but, in the course of the film, due to the witholding
of the completion and attendant satisfaction in completion of a song begun over
and over and allowed to get so far and then cut off, makes the audience desire
the African person to be able to speak in her own tongue! Also, in the open
screen, I was happy to have seen IMAGINARY I &II by Moira Sweeney, films I
felt very akin too in their use of Super 8 texture and in the feeling through
the motion of camera and cut. These are but a very few of the 73 films
scheduled in the open screen - not to mention the alternate screenings
filmmakers arranged for themselves with the kind assistance of Martin Heath!
So, as I say, there was a lot of work- a lot of life in the ol'
genre!!!
Two
films in the curated programmes
also particularly impressed me and gave me hope. Amongst Steve Anker's beautifully programmed selections was a film by
Mike Wallin, DECODINGS and in the West German Programme of Alf Bold, a film by Stefan Sachs, PARAMOUNT
which gave me hope in that both these films by men seemed to not only question
men's position and power in society as one can do still from a relatively safe
footing but to unsettle them, to move into an area of unknowing. From such an
unsteady position, it seems to me, movement can occur, change, learning. Women
can't change society alone. And although Rose Lowder's
program, despite some stunning films, appeared quite homogenous in its
narrowing of focus, I must say that her own unedited, just out of the camera as
they were shot rolls, proved what a master (there must be a better word) she is
at the single frame technique. The audience reaction was, I think, unanimous
that the footage was finished perfectly as it was, though Rose seemed intent on
making editing decisions herself.
The
other thing that I feel did happen at the Congress was a realization that took
time to form as the participants, despite complaints and disappointments,
continued to listen, watch, talk, take part in a week of being together as
experimental film people. There were connections made or re-established, networks
made for screenings, plans for the next events - one in Europe so that there
will be more British and European presence, another in San Francisco which will
have greater participation by the 'younger generation' ,
and generally the realization and feeling established itself amongst us that
experimental film is being made and there is an interest in it; that there is
an us .
As
much as I hate it end with an omission myself, I will add one to those critics have
already noted in assessing the Congress; namely, the absence of those
filmmakers and theoreticians who chose not to attend because of the perceived
shortcomings of the event- wouldn't it
be far better to engage in dialogue with the formers of and those included in
"the canon," than to keep apart from them?
This
article originally appeared in Cinema