THE SEQUENT OF HANNA AVE. (Sami Van Ingen, Finland, 2006, 35mm)
Description: The Sequent Of Hanna Ave. is the result of my reworkings of some experimental film practices and my enqueries in to the phenomena of the movement-illusionism in the film form. By combining found footage, hand processing and hi-end digital technology, I elevate a few mundane gestures to a new perceptible wholeness, and give some fat fingers and a c-cassette tape all the attention, grace and drama they deserve.
BLOCKING (Pablo Marin, Argentina, 2005, 35mm)
Description: A film by P. Marín. Made strictly by opposing AMIA’s “Disaster Recovery for Films in Flooded Areas” this film was kept under water until its emulsion started to melt, then removed, tightened up and finally dried directly by the sun. The result is what you see, a film trailer, reborn from its very same ashes, in which the few small portions of “images” that remain are overcome by the freed, colorful chemicals. Blocking is, thus, an homage to all the footage lost by the unpredictable dangers of nature and, at the same time, a true song to the beauty in destruction. ? P. Marín
TIE Review: "Blocking brings together two of the Avant-garde’s favorite preoccupations: found footage film, and physical manipulation of the medium itself. The found footage in Blocking, comes from a theatrical trailer for a large budget feature film. Subtitles contextualize the footage as originating in a non-Spanish-speaking country. To achieve its wonderful optical quality, Marin soaked the film in water long enough for it to start breaking down. The effect is visually sublime. The image in the film is almost totally obliterated, freeing the dyes to wash over the celluloid. The effect bears a remarkable resemblance to the painting technique developed by Max Ernst known as Frottage, in its web-like formations. Inexplicably, the subtitling of the film somehow escapes total erosion. Spanish phrases flicker in and out of the ominous oozing color formations, adding elements of human structure to the nebulous articulations of form and color."
-Noah Manos, TIE
"Stunning, important, exciting, lovely." – Christopher May, TIE
"Wonderful, very radical experimental cinema. It is beautiful to see the pigments in freedom and then a flash, a glimpse of the image where they come from." – Claudio Caldini, Filmmaker.
GUIDING FICTIONS (Mark Street, USA, 2002, 35mm)
Biography: I like to work the surface of film to create rich visuals which I shape in a very intuitive, personal way. Since I started making films in 1983 I've always gone back to painting, bleaching and marking frames one by one; I'm exhilarated by this tactile relationship with film material.
ARIADANE (Barbara Meter, Netherlands, 2004, 35mm)
TIE Review: "Barbara Meter frames her revised version of the classical tale of the Cretan goddess Ariadne with easily accessible landscape images that brim with beauty. What lies between, is a maze created within a densely woven fabric of images that engage and amend the proto-Homeric classic.
"In Greek mythology Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete. Legend states, Minos zealously carried out an attack on Athens and lost. The consequence for Minos was that he had to build the labyrinth house the Minotaur, and send a host of his best mortals and demigods to be sacrificed as penance for his transgression. Ariadne was one of the damned, but her quick wit saved her from death at the beast's hand. The method that she used to get out of the labyrinth was that she loosened a thread from her garmentry and fixed it to the wall. The unraveled thread allowed her to know where she had been within the confounding space of the labyrinth.
"The technique used in Ariadne's escape was quickly adopted by the philosophical community, who dubbed it Ariadne's Thread. In Logic, Ariadne's Thread is a mode of problem solving where all possible outcomes are considered before an action is made. An algorithem is an mathematical application of the same concept.
"All of this is useful information in considering the structure and imagery of Meter's work. In the film, the hauntingly beautiful landscapes that act as the prologue drop the viewer into the world of the labyrinth. This dark and dubious world is defined by blurred images that initially are totally incomprehensible. Slowly shapes flickeringly emerge from the black abyss, but they are so hazy that one can only guess at what they might be. Rich warm colors start slipping across the screen. Finally, Meter provides a discernible image, a thread in motion. We follow the thread as it slips in and out of focus. At last, we are lead to the source of the thread, an antiquate loom busy at work. A faceless, genderless person operates the loom unceasingly for the remainder of the time in the labyrinth. Can we assume it is revered beauty Ariadne? A humanized Minotaur, perhaps? Finally we emerge from the darkness to a series of ecstatic landscapes that beckon our return to the known world.
"In Meter's Ariadne, the original narrative is turned literally upside-down, where instead of the thread helping us make our way out of the maze, it leads us directly into the heart of it. Furthermore, we encounter no beast within the shadowy space. What we find is the a creative act at full throttle, illuminated by the orange glow of firelight. To bring the whole subversion full circle, Meter weaves the tread back into some unseen textile.
"A variety of different reading can be constructed around the revision that Meter presents, but several things are clear. In Meter's Ariadne, the creative act is paramount, and it is realized within the dim bowels of the unknown. Meter seems to negate the philosophical application of Ariande's Thread; she isn't concerned with systematically, scientifically, or mathematically probing the infinite possibilities of the outer world. Her method of grappling with the great expanse seems to be forged in innermost recesses of the labyrinth, a place that she makes safe and warm. A feminist interpretation might involve the possibility that Ariadne vanquished the Minotaur, converting the domain of death and violence to one of produce and creation. Plato's Allegory of the Cave also seems close at hand in the dancing shadows of this beautifully crafted film." -Noah Manos, TIE
JANE'S WINDOW (Chris Kennedy, Canada, 2005, 35mm)
Biography: Chris Kennedy is a filmmaker, curator and writer based between Toronto and San Francisco. His films, which are often shot on Super 8 or Regular 8mm, have been shown in Switzerland, Finland, Canada, the US and the UK. He programmed film, video and live performance for the Images Festival from 2003-2006 and served on the screening collective for Pleasure Dome from 2000-2006. He is currently pursuing his MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute.
RESTE-LA ! (Frederic Tachou, France, 2006, 35mm)
Description: One night, I had a dream about my father. I saw a familiar house. The unity of the architecture of the home had come apart, creating an unusual comglomeration of rooms, windows, and spaces. The film shows these ´†spaces inside me†ª, haunted by the presence of the person who had just died.
TIE Review: "Tachou’s vision starts off with a relatively lengthy passage of subtly split screened black and white interiors. Glimpses of shadowy walls, austere tables, lightly blowing curtains, and windows. Simple, yet purposeful geometric compositions alert one’s attention to a world of corners, passages, entries, and exits. In a way, the split screen undoes the conventional architecture, letting us see insides and outsides at the same time as well as points of view that one might not easily encounter in the day’s routine, let alone simultaneously. On the other hand, there is a distinct lack of drama going on. There’s no “hook” as it were. Intriguing would be too dynamic a word for the feel of the first few minutes, and meditative would be entirely too goal-oriented a description of the trajectory. The complete passivity with which Reste-la!’s airy grace surrounds these simple images is almost nihilistic in its disregard for tangible purpose. The respacialization of this home appears to be wholly aesthetic. A profound feeling that nothing is actually missing negates any sense of mystery hinted at by all these empty rooms. The structure begins to feel less like a home and more like a static piece of pure architecture, providing nothing to explore but absolute space. In some sense, this presentation idealizes the imagery, making it both eerily beautiful but frustratingly ungraspable.
"For better or worse, this unnamable tension eventually eases. A solitary chair appears in the middle of a country road. A single figure emerges. For a moment, the character’s presence creates a bit of suspense: Will he sit on the chair? Will he disappear into a netherworld of existentialist crisis? He does sit on the chair, and the film subsequently opens up to include loving shots of graveyards, centuries-old churches, and pastoral hills. Another figure emerges, a boy. And while connections are made in the back of one’s mind, the film delays in answering a mystery, which didn’t even feel like a mystery at first. Soon however, a growing feeling of real melancholia, of dread takes over and the relatively brief shot of a headstone answers our fears.
"The carefully composed split screens return, as does a bit of scratchy acoustic guitar audio from time to time before the film floats off into an all-white nirvana of shifting shapes and sublime nothingness. As Reste-la! was based on a dream, it necessarily operates on its own internal logic and though it’s essentially a warm film, it takes pains to gradually and subtly reveal its painful truths."
- JT Rogstad, TIE
76-108 (Victor Hoffman, Germany, 2005, 35mm)
Description: "76 – 108" – the musical denotation of "Andante". A vaguely determined measure that does not refer to a theme, but strives towards an open window of interpretation. A cinematic "zone", in which something is urging to become a tale. Two elusive figures are awestruck by their fragile desire to reach each other, just as the viewer, in his hopes, isn't able to dive into the projection screen. An orphaned introverted space rejects itself. Breathing suffocates the gaze!