Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

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WmS
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#576 Post by WmS » Mon May 18, 2020 11:49 am

Kate MacGarry gallery has put four short films by the marvelous John Smith on Vimeo for this week:

https://vimeo.com/showcase/7136030

The only one from his 3-DVD set is the classic Gargantuan. Two are recent work, one brand new.

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swo17
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#577 Post by swo17 » Mon May 18, 2020 11:53 am

Awesome, thanks for sharing! I've got a copy of Home Suite I've been meaning to watch, and these will make nice appetizers for it

WmS
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#578 Post by WmS » Mon May 18, 2020 3:35 pm

The new's one for the covid pile, and despite its unnecessary coda with a blonde manchild potentate, the first half made me laugh.

But "A State of Grace" is just splendid, and a really fine example of his work. Takes a banal image set and takes it somewhere quite unexpected, just brilliant writing and imagery with limited means.

I need to sit down for Home Suite. The longest of his works I've seen is The Black Tower, which is great, but more ominous than the rest.

And these are not available on his vimeo in full, so act now &c &c.

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swo17
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#579 Post by swo17 » Tue May 19, 2020 12:39 am

Steve Hates Fish is so great, a vision of the world if ruled by autocorrect--do yourself a favor and give it 5 minutes of your time

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jsteffe
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#580 Post by jsteffe » Tue May 19, 2020 10:58 am

swo17 wrote:
Tue May 19, 2020 12:39 am
Steve Hates Fish is so great, a vision of the world if ruled by autocorrect--do yourself a favor and give it 5 minutes of your time
I loved that! A film that uses digital production techniques in a fun and truly eye-opening way.

WmS
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#581 Post by WmS » Tue May 19, 2020 11:42 am

So great!

"castrate fried"

"for korea lovers"

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#582 Post by WmS » Wed Dec 09, 2020 3:02 pm

Media City Film Festival has unveiled a fairly astonishing project to put short (and some feature-length) experimental films online on a rolling basis:

https://mediacityfilmfestival.com/thousandsuns-cinema/

They have 25 filmmakers' work up until Dec. 23, at which point they'll start cycling through the others in the list of 168(!) different artists. There are old masters and new faces, with lots of hard-to-find treasures, such as:

Ephraim Asili, Fluid Frontiers
Ana Vaz, A Idade da Pedra and two other shorts
Christopher Harris, Halimufack and Reckless Eyeballing and 28.IV.81 (Bedouin Spark) and two others
Joyce Wieland, Solidarity and Rat Life and Diet in North America
Michael Snow, WVLNT and Puccini Conservato
Ben Rivers, Things (and two very short shorts)
Sylvia Schedelbauer, Sea of Vapours
Daichi Saito, Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis

There are quite a few young Canadian filmmakers, with Alexandre LaRose's Brouillard-Passage #14 a gorgeous standout. The most fascinating film is mathematician Keewatin Dewdney's remarkable The Maltese Cross Movement, much loved in its day, now quite obscure. (hat tip to Michael Sicinski's patreon, where he just reviewed it.)

Many of the works are in full HD, most all with fine transfers. Some of these I've seen elsewhere-- Sky Hopinka is particularly generous with his Vimeo channel-- but I think most are not available in full elsewhere. I had given up trying to see work by Christopher Harris, for instance.

I love this project. Outside NY/LA/Chicago/SF, if you don't live near a university film center or an experimental-friendly film fest, the nonprofit model of distributors like Canyon/VDB/etc makes these extremely hard to see. They have 168 filmmakers total on the page, so look for Dani Restack, Peter Hutton, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Bruce McClure, Mary Helena Clark, Abigail Child, Warren Sonbert, and Alvin Lucier(!) in the future.

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senseabove
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#583 Post by senseabove » Wed Dec 09, 2020 3:31 pm

That is a great lineup lineup—thanks so much for sharing it! Brouillard is indeed one to highlight.

While we're on the topic, SFCinematheque has been doing pretty interesting rotations of online programs, so they're a "venue" to keep an eye on these days.

It's been fascinating to see the proliferation of online venues for experimental film during quarantine, but yes, it's also furthered my frustration with the fetishization of film-on-film in the avant-garde/experimental world, even as much as I'm lucky enough to be able to participate in that fetishization in my normal film-going. I can appreciate the impulse that born-on-film media should preferentially be seen on film in a large, dark, quiet room with no pause button and no phones, and would agree that when possible, it should be strongly preferred, but if even Dorsky has come around to digitization for the sake of museum loops, I think it's time for the purists' wishes to be reconsidered.

FWIW, Canyon is doing a Digitization Campaign fundraiser at the moment and if you donate $500 you can nominate a film for consideration, but even if I did have $500 money to spare and limited myself to only those films I know have recently-created 16mm elements in good condition, it'd still be a choice-paralysis situation.

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Red Screamer
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#584 Post by Red Screamer » Wed Dec 09, 2020 4:58 pm

Yeah, that Media City lineup is a real treat, thanks for the heads up.
WmS wrote:
Wed Dec 09, 2020 3:02 pm
I had given up trying to see work by Christopher Harris, for instance.
The shorts included that I've seen are all worth checking out, but I particularly recommend Reckless Eyeballing which is a hypnotic masterpiece. Seeing it in a full theatre at True/False earlier this year was an amazing experience.

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dekadetia
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#585 Post by dekadetia » Mon Jan 18, 2021 12:18 pm

Michael Snow's Wavelength unexpectedly emerged in 1080p on backchannels this weekend, if anyone is curious.
Last edited by dekadetia on Sat Jan 30, 2021 3:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#586 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Jan 29, 2021 9:02 pm

dekadetia wrote:
Mon Jan 18, 2021 12:18 pm
Michael.Snow's Wavelength unexpectedly emerged in 1080p on backchannels this weekend, if anyone is curious.
Can't wait to see Hollis Frampton die in HD!

I came here to rave about Tony Conrad's The Flicker, which I've just watched and can immediately hyperbolically declare to be one of the greatest films I've ever seen following a spiritual experience that's practically indescribable. All I know are these things:

-There was a precise moment when I fell into its spell. I wonder if it'll be the same instant the next time I watch it - but I don't want to track it with time. I find myself increasingly curious if my processing is occurring from specific triggers in the way Conrad is manipulating the image, or if it'll be different each viewing dependent on my personal development (I'll be a different person then), or the act of watching content inherently drawing attention to new details, or any countless number of enigmatic variables spliced together to create a whole new experience.

-The film is not merely hypnotic. I felt the same feelings as narrative films: there were moments of increasing anxiety and transfixed investment, with rollercoaster highs of catharsis such as in narratively manipulative films, yet also de-escalations that allowed me to examine my relationship to the content from a cognitive rather than physiological or entranced space, like a late Godard film or philosophical drama. And these soothing moments didn't only come at the obvious times (like toward the end), they came suddenly without any obvious shift in the image- Again, was I imagining this and having the same experience as the person sitting next to me (well, the person sitting next to me ran into the other room two minutes in because it was too overwhelming for her)? Was this intentional on Conrad's part? To what extent is this my and my experience alone and what is universal? I could subscribe all the feelings I had during this <30 minute period to nearly every genre of cinema and some outside of them. Some cannot be described.

-If 2001: A Space Odyssey had this film as Dave's visualization of cosmic phantasmagoria in the last act, it would deserve to be called the greatest film of all time. Come to think of it, why wasn't Conrad sought for those visuals?

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#587 Post by teddyleevin » Sat Jan 30, 2021 2:03 am

dekadetia wrote:
Mon Jan 18, 2021 12:18 pm
Michael.Snow's Wavelength unexpectedly emerged in 1080p on backchannels this weekend, if anyone is curious.
Which backchannels? I'm struggling to find it and have been waiting for an opportunity to see this in HD.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#588 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Mar 23, 2021 6:59 pm

Does anybody knows of any articles or books on Tony Conrad's The Flicker, specifically how he went about creating the film? I see some links on wikipedia but wanted to gauge the forum's experience before diving into the depths of the internet

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Fierias
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#589 Post by Fierias » Tue Mar 23, 2021 7:08 pm

There's a chapter devoted to The Flicker in Scott Richmond's very good book Cinema's Bodily Illusions: Flying, Floating, and Hallucinating.

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#590 Post by zedz » Tue Mar 23, 2021 7:19 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 6:59 pm
Does anybody knows of any articles or books on Tony Conrad's The Flicker, specifically how he went about creating the film? I see some links on wikipedia but wanted to gauge the forum's experience before diving into the depths of the internet
I presume the booklet that comes with the Re:Voir DVD has information, so I'll check that, but I assume it's the same method as Peter Kubelka used for Arnulf Rainer: laboriously splicing together stretches / frames of black and clear leader.

Speaking of Arnulf Rainer, i see somebody has created a digital version of the film based on Kubelka's original "score" (here). It's a bit like hearing somebody play the Raindrop Prelude on a Yamaha organ: no substitute for the original, but better than not hearing it at all. Most of the terror and awe is missing from the digital version.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#591 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:00 pm

Thanks zedz, I'll be curious to what the booklet says (I've been waiting for another Re:Voir sale since I didn't bite on the last one roughly a year ago now, though my wishlist is bank-breaking at this point)

I just watched Arnulf Rainer, and while I became a bit frustrated at how the abrupt cuts (intentionally) disrupted me from involving myself in a rhythm like The Flicker did, the soundtrack + those edits elicited a source of multistimulatory anxiety like few experimental films have. What I love about The Flicker is that I think it too accomplishes this feat along with serenity and everything in between, but it's nice to know how long six minutes of coping with relentlessly unpredictable stressors feels. I mean that as a compliment.

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swo17
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#592 Post by swo17 » Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:05 pm

Re:voir very rarely has sales

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#593 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:16 pm

Yeah, I've figured as much

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swo17
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#594 Post by swo17 » Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:21 pm

Like, the covid one is the only one I can think of in the last decade

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#595 Post by zedz » Tue Mar 23, 2021 10:15 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:00 pm
Thanks zedz, I'll be curious to what the booklet says (I've been waiting for another Re:Voir sale since I didn't bite on the last one roughly a year ago now, though my wishlist is bank-breaking at this point)

I just watched Arnulf Rainer, and while I became a bit frustrated at how the abrupt cuts (intentionally) disrupted me from involving myself in a rhythm like The Flicker did, the soundtrack + those edits elicited a source of multistimulatory anxiety like few experimental films have. What I love about The Flicker is that I think it too accomplishes this feat along with serenity and everything in between, but it's nice to know how long six minutes of coping with relentlessly unpredictable stressors feels. I mean that as a compliment.
On a big screen, loud, in a darkened cinema, Arnulf Rainer felt (to me) absolutely overwhelming and inhuman, like you're being shouted at in an alien language that you can't quite figure out. On film, the rhythm is complicated by the addition of the natural flicker of projected film (which Kubelka saw as an integral component of the work), and in a cinema it's not just a flickering screen, but your entire environment which is being lit up and darkened from moment to moment. (Edit: and yeah - six minutes? - are you kidding me?)

The Flicker Film (though I've only seen it on DVD) seems to have quite a different vibe in terms of its rhythms, but I imagine it has that same all-encompassing nature in projection.

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#596 Post by zedz » Tue Mar 23, 2021 10:18 pm

swo17 wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:21 pm
Like, the covid one is the only one I can think of in the last decade
They do occasionally have package deals, but it usually entails buying everything by a certain filmmaker, or all their releases from a given period.

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#597 Post by kubelkind » Wed Mar 24, 2021 7:50 am

therewillbeblus wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 6:59 pm
Does anybody knows of any articles or books on Tony Conrad's The Flicker, specifically how he went about creating the film? I see some links on wikipedia but wanted to gauge the forum's experience before diving into the depths of the internet
Conrad talked about this a lot in interviews. Its a long time since I've read them and I'd have to dig the books out to get the exact references, but there are interviews in the Film Culture Reader book and in a volume of Scott MacDonald's Critical Cinema books where he talks in depth about the origins of the film and the precise methodology. If I recall, the origins of the film are in Conrad's interest in mathematics, and in various "flicker sessions" done with Jack Smith and his usual cast, where they would pose actors and blast them with flicker from projectors running without film. If I'm not mistaken, they used to do this for fun when they couldn't afford to buy film stock to make an actual movie.
I think there is also material on the flicker in John Geiger's "Chapel Of Extreme Experience" and "Beyond the Dream Syndicate" by Brandon Joseph. Both great reads too.

Oh regarding sales at Re:Voir, they seem to happen in the actual physical shop all the time, but I realise thats not very helpful to anyone at present!

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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#598 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Apr 25, 2021 1:58 am

I haven't always been a fan of Mekas' short films but As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty is one of the greatest, most profound and moving experiences -cinematic or otherwise- I’ve ever had. I didn’t have much time to part from my overwhelming feelings to think during this film, but when I did, all that came was a recognition that those few blissful shots in The Tree of Life- where Malick captured astounding spiritual connections on Earth fleeting through an otherwise intrusive narrative exposition- comprised this entire movie's collective essence in distinct moments of elusive serenity. Is this the most beautiful celebration of life ever put to film, including every shade of emotional watercolor down to its yin of pathos consumed within the compendious sublime? If not, please direct me to that movie.

Five hours isn’t nearly long enough for what this film has to offer, but no amount of time would be, and its inherent need to have limitations on length speaks as much to the tragic elements of life that our greatest gift has a ceiling. Our film stock runs out, like time and memories, and all that’s left is the experiences in between. At one point Mekas says nothing is important and indeed he is right when he means nothing is objectively significant. But his turnaround to identify these objectively 'unimportant' things as what life is, and consequently express love and gratitude, as well sadness and confusion, into an infinitely holy awe for all of his opportunities for participation in this world- to catch brief glimpses of beauty- as of the utmost importance, is what this film, and life, is all about.

Mekas says he is not a “film-maker” but a “filmer.” I like that idea, that we are not people who ‘make’ experiences, but people who experience them. As Mekas says, these moments of supreme beauty come naturally when he least expects them. How sweet it is to be able to humbly accept the privilege to engage with the world on its terms.

[Does anybody know if there are any options available to buy this on DVD? I know the Re:Voir is OOP and don't see it kicking around third-party sites]

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zedz
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#599 Post by zedz » Sun Apr 25, 2021 7:23 pm

It’s in the Major Works box set, which is very highly recommended and still available direct from Re:Voir. Their site says they’re down to their last copies, however.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Avant-Garde, Experimental & Non-narrative Films

#600 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Apr 25, 2021 7:31 pm

zedz wrote:
Sun Apr 25, 2021 7:23 pm
It’s in the Major Works box set, which is very highly recommended and still available direct from Re:Voir. Their site says they’re down to their last copies, however.
It says the same thing as the individual film on their page ("ONLY A FEW COPIES LEFT! SOON OUT OF PRINT!") but then when you try to add to cart, it says "this product is no longer in stock" - do you see something different?

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