Dear friends, please join us for the screening and discussion “Material and accessibility in the experimental,” which will take place on May 17 at 5:00 PM at Varpet. (Tumanyan Street 2nd Lane, 9)
Instead of choosing films on the history of printmaking or zines, we chose to focus on finding filmmaking practices that mirror the activity of working with available and physical material/form. Material is a broad term that can refer both to the physical object, and also to the already-existent creative work. All the directors and their works in this screening challenge what it takes to make a film.
Stan Brakhage works on the physical material itself, even scratching letters on celluloid. Chantal Akerman creates experimental work with radical repetitive motions and stillness, most of her early work captured on excess celluloid. Marlon Riggs repurposes mixed media material/form as personal hybrid film essays. The films of these directors may help other artists see how the lack of excess/access can create radical forms of art.
Program:
Stan Brakhage:
Cat’s Cradle (1959, 6 min, silent)
Window Water Baby Moving (1959, 12 min, silent)
Mothlight (1963, 3 min, Silent)
Eye Myth (1967, 9 sec, Silent)
The Wold-Shadow (1972, 2 min, silent)
The Garden of Earthly Delights (1981, 2 min, silent)
Chantal Akerman:
Blow Up My Town (1968, 13 min, French with English subtitles)
The Beloved Child, or I Play at Being a Married Woman (1971, 32 min, French with English subtitles)
The Room (1972, 11 min, silent)
Marlon Riggs:
Tongues Untied (1989, 55 min, English with subtitles)