without years

Programme Notes for Without Years
Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions
2017.02.12    ~    2017.02.15    ~    2017.02.23

The selected films in this programme convey a distinct impression in the craft of artist filmmakers working in their chosen medium.

The picture on the left of RAILINGS shows the original 16mm film strip. With rhythmic moving images in mind, the filmmaker filmed railings while walking alongside them. The filmed image is then ‘rephotographed’ onto the soundtrack side of the film strip; thus we are ‘hearing’ the images. The musical beats and pitches are entirely produced by the printed images running past our eyes at 24 frames per second.

RED MILL brings together colour hues on screen and is a treat to watch. It is made by a determined artist who is inspired by Mondriaan’s windmill paintings. Having access to a film lab she was able to carry out practical research into film printing techniques which allowed her to develop this film.

GIRLS and FOUNTAIN are two separate super-8 films. They are just a couple of reels out of hundreds that the artist has filmed. These are mostly in-camera edited vignettes and always delightful to experience. Her decisive confidence with the camera; i.e., when to pull the camera trigger, what to include in the frame, where to follow, brings us intimately close to the filmmaker’s thought processes.

FILTER BEDS is like a gentle but highly curious eye that finds pleasure in looking. Shifting focus from background to foreground and vice versa.

TRAVELING FIELDS was shot frame by frame on a moving track with a super-16mm camera mounted upside-down. The chosen expansive landscapes are filmed in time-lapse which further transports the scene with a sense of uncomfortable urgency, disconcertingly romantic.

The content source of END ROLLS #2 is digitally scanned from the 16mm film of an earlier work, End Rolls. End Rolls #2 is a visual play with the grainy colours of celluloid in filmic time and screen space. The sound is analogically extracted from the light of the film using photo-resistors.

VICE VERSA feels like a rampage on the screen. Indulging our eyes with colour fields through shifting shapes that play tricks on our perceptions and amplified by aural manipulations.

With the filmmaker’s mastery in optical film printing, STRETTO captivates the viewer with an intensity towards the individuals in the still photographs. The filmmaker’s sensibility lures us to the strangers and marries it with the luxurious tension of its soundtrack.