Category Archives: cinema
When Clouds Clear
When Clouds Clear (2008, 15.3MB, 2:26)
Directed by Anne Slick and Danielle Bernstein,
When Clouds Clear is a remarkably intimate portrait
of a tiny Ecuadorian village’s struggle against
mining companies that seek to take over (and destroy)
the land they have long cultivated as their home.
Shot on a lovely mix of Super 8, 16mm, and video
to show the complexities of different viewpoints, the
film is one of the most beautiful I have had the
privilege of viewing this year.
“Assembled Cinema” – G.H. Hovagimyan
Assembled Cinema (2006, 28.9MB, 5:19 min.)
“You walk into a room and a film/video is projected on a wall.
The scenes played are not in any particular order yet they make sense.
What occurs is that a computer is picking sequences in a random order
and playing them. Your mind and your imagination fill in the story.”
From – G.H. Hovagimyan.
DVblog will eat itself
mouth study (2005, 7.8MB, 3:40 min)
Using footage from the ‘cutting edge cinema‘ thing
we posted here before Lewis LaCook,
created an utterly exuberant & assured piece of appropriation
video with 186,000 ideas per second.
My Name Is Oona – Gunvor Nelson
Gunvor Nelson – My Name Is Oona (1969, 26.9MB, 9:12)
Historic piece from the Swedish filmmaker about her daughter.
Typical of Gunvor’s work, this film addresses themes about
nature, childhood, and maintains an ethereal quality.
Excellent early piece from a uniquely talented woman.
Erik Bunger – the Allens
Erik Bunger – the Allens (2004, 23.3MB, 3:19)
Absolutely clever piece by Swedish artist Erik Bunger,
drawn from his experience moving from Sweden to
Germany, where many films on TV are dubbed. As
language can be so central to a character, Bunger
started thinking about people like Woody Allen, who
always play the same character but also one so
connected to his whiny, nervous New York accent.
For this installation piece, a computer program
continuously changed the dubbing of Allen between
his various vocal incarnations. Totally delightful.
Nicolas Provost – Bataille
Bataille (clip) (2003, 1MB, 32 sec.)
“In Bataille, fragments from the Akira Kurosawa’s film Rashomon
are subject to a mirror effect. A scene in which two samurai fight
each other becomes a cosmic field of monsters where horror and
pain evoke beauty and joy.”
from Nicolas Provost.
Steve Bishop – Behold a Pale Horse
Behold a Pale Horse (2007, 6MB, 2:26 min)
I love this piece, originally posted to the currently very lively & interesting
Rhizome front page, quite extravagantly, almost unreasonably.
Reader: Well! -what is it then?
Me: er..well it’s.. a very lo-fi mash up of film studio idents
Reader: and?
Me: ..well..um..that’s it.
Reader: Harrumph! (gets on bike to go)
but you would be so, so wrong, to go that way, dear reader.
I burbled something on Rhizome in a comment on this about the
transfiguration of the banal & it is precisely there
that it seems to me the magic lies. Bishop makes us examine
every pixel as if ( & of course he makes it so) it mattered.
In a kind of strange way the film is rendered archetypally
‘painterly’.
There’s more, though. In the way he estranges & hence makes us look
anew at the imagery of the idents, he recovers some of the mythic force
that was being tapped into by their makers before familiarity rendered
those images banal.
Tremendous work!
Jillian Mcdonald – Screen Kiss
Screen Kiss (clip) (2005, 3.1MB, 1:00 min.)
Jillian is trying to make Billy Bob Thornton jealous, inserting
herself into existing film clips and getting kisses from Daniel Day Lewis,
Vincent Gallo, Johnny Depp, and Billy Bob
Creation Myth by Robert Todd
Robert Todd – Creation Myth (2007, 39.3MB, 5:46)
Robert Todd is a master of 16mm. With an enormous
catalog behind him and no sign of his work ceasing in
the near future, Todd is slowly migrating his work onto
his personal website.
What a treat for us.
This piece, Creation Myth, is one of several I will repost
here over time, to show respect for these subtle, moving
visions.
Todd says: “Love of sky, love of earth and air, with
water helping us along form the backdrop to this
reflection of life-essence and its evolution.”
And, full disclosure: Rob has previously been my
professor, and I personally consider him one of
the kindest, most knowledgeable and professional
working artists under whom I have had the privilege
of studying. I wish I had been better able to absorb
his teachings at the time. He is truly a Bolex genius.