How to Enjoy Experimental Film

A special episode to coincide with the start of the 50th Anniversary celebrations of the Paris Films Co-op CinéDoc. A series of special screenings are taking place in Paris from the 20th to the 30th of November and the programme will appear online shortly after. This episode features music from Parazite Système Sonore: Spot Phelizon & Joëlle Colombeau Filmmaker Dominique Willoughby is the current president of the Paris Films Co-op. In this episode, Dominique traces the journey of the Co-op from its inception in 1974, thanks to two key filmmakers: Claudine Eizykman and Guy Fihman. Heavily influenced by the thinking of philosopher Jean-François Lyotard, their films brought a radical new approach to film in France at the time, with a great emphasis on the experiential aspects of film. The filmmakers included in the celebratory screenings are: Adolpho Arrietta Edouard Beux Yaa Bôé Robert Cahen Jenny E. Davidson Claudine Eizykman Guy Fihman Catherine Le Gallou  Barbara Glowczewska (Also sometimes credited as Glowczewski) Jacques Monory Georges Rey Hans Richter Pierre Rovere Jean-Pierre Valladeau  Unglee Due to time constraints, we have been unable to discuss everyone's films in this episode, so please accept our apologies for any names and films we have missed in the discussion! Please visit cinedoc.org for more info.

Inter-disciplinary artist Sapphire Goss joins the show to discuss her varied work, involving art objects, installation work, still photography and our particular focus here: film and video work. In a hybrid practice, bringing together celluloid film, digital video and pre-cinema artefacts, (particularly stereoscopic photography) these are haunting works in the truest sense: the screen is haunted by otherworldly decayed and decaying images and the viewer is haunted in turn by the works’ mesmerising presence. To learn more about Sapphire's work Visit: sapphiregoss.com

Vivian Ostrovsky is a truly international filmmaker (as well as curator). Born in New York to a Belarusian father and Ukrainian mother, Vivian has been somewhat nomadic all of her life, regularly finding herself in Rio, Paris, New York and Tel Aviv. “Home”, she writes “is wherever I feel at home – and that might be in a hotel or on a plane or on my way to an unknown destination with a camera and recorder in my bag”. Her works freely combine footage she has shot herself with an array of found footage, featuring both heartfelt affection and laugh-out-loud humour. Starting as an exclusively Super-8 based filmmaker, she now favours her mobile phone as the primary instrument for her work. Here we discuss her filmmaking practice ranging from her first experiments to her current work-in-progress (a film about the poet Elizabeth Bishop) as well as some of Vivian's own favourite films. Information about her films as well as excerpts can be found at http://vivianostrovsky.com Two DVDs featuring her films are available from Re:Voir https://re-voir.com/shop/en/frederique-devaux-michel-armager-cineperimentaux/78-rousset-rey-ostrovsky-chodorov-cineperimentaux-1-4-.html and https://re-voir.com/shop/en/vivian-ostrovsky/1026-vivian-ostrovsky-plunge.html The latter of which is also available to stream from Re:Voir's video on demand page.

A continuation of our discussion of the films of Louise Bourque. In this episode, we take a closer look at a handful of Louise's films (including her latest film "Bye Bye Now"), focusing in particular on the images of houses that recur regularly in her filmography. Additionally, we discuss some of the formal concerns informing her work, including both the physical interventions with the film strip itself and the methods by which the results are presented to the viewer. Here are a few links to her films that are viewable online: From Light Cone Fissures ⁠https://lightcone.org/en/film-3475-fissures⁠ Going Back Home ⁠https://lightcone.org/en/film-3512-going-back-home⁠ From Massachussetts Cultural Council Self Portrait Post Mortem ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr4-LaUy1tk⁠ From Vidéographe Bye Bye Now – Trailer ⁠https://vimeo.com/808805153⁠ A video essay on her work by Stephen Broomer can be found here: https://vimeo.com/533753926 Broomer and Clint Enns co-edited the book Imprints: The Films of Louise Bourque which can be purchased on Amazon as well as Lightcone and various other sources. This book is quoted from throughout these episodes. This interview was facilitated through the help of Dave Beaumler. With sincerest thanks for his help.

Louise Bourque is one of the most distinguished film artists currently working in Canada. She was born in Edmundston New Brunswick and has been making films since the late 1980s. Her body of work, by her own admission, is not vast, but it reveals a filmmaker of incredible focus  and determination when it comes to producing the work she desires. Hers are not films that always give themselves over to analysis very easily. Instead, they are instantly gripping, compelling the audience’s full attention from start to finish, often using intense visual and auditory means to bring the viewer to a point of cathartic release, upon which we reflect afterwards. Here are a few links to her films that are viewable online: From Light Cone Fissures https://lightcone.org/en/film-3475-fissures Going Back Home https://lightcone.org/en/film-3512-going-back-home From Massachussetts Cultural Council Self Portrait Post Mortem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr4-LaUy1tk From Vidéographe Bye Bye Now – Trailer https://vimeo.com/808805153 A video essay on her work by Stephen Broomer can be found here: https://vimeo.com/533753926 Broomer and Clint Enns co-edited the book Imprints: The Films of Louise Bourque which can be purchased on Amazon as well as Lightcone and various other sources. This book is quoted from throughout these episodes. This interview was facilitated through the help of Dave Beaumler. With sincerest thanks for his help.

Helga Fanderl returns to discuss her work, focusing on some specific films that can now be seen on a new DVD from Re:Voir, as well as conversations about how she programmes her work. We discuss both how she assembles programmes of her short films as well as the long process of selecting the films for inclusion on this disc. In addition, Helga shares a number of stories giving background for several of her films in this in depth and occasionally emotional discussion about the making of Helga’s films. https://re-voir.com/shop/en/helga-fanderl/1564-helga-fanderl-constellations.html Her book Constellations (De: Konstellationen) is available in multi-lingual editions from Re:Voir as well as Amazon.

Born in Ingolstadt in Germany, Helga Fanderl studied German, Italian and French languages and literature in Munich, Paris and Frankfurt, with an interest in becoming a poet herself. However, quite by chance, she was introduced to super-8 filmmaking via a friend and would soon find herself in the classes of Peter Kubelka. Since then, Helga has carved a unique career as a film artist, discovering an intensely visual engagement with the world around her. Consistently working with the Super 8 medium, she produces films by in-camera editing, meaning that most of her films are the length of a single reel of film (3-4 minutes) and has now produced over a thousand of these stunning miniature works. In this episode, Helga discusses her discovery of film as an artistic medium, her first realisations that she could make a "visual poem" and the various fascinations that prompt her to make a film. At the time of recording, Re:Voir in Paris were about to release a DVD featuring 50 of her films which can now be purchased here: https://re-voir.com/shop/en/helga-fanderl/1564-helga-fanderl-constellations.html Her book Constellations (De: Konstellationen) is available in multi-lingual editions from Re:Voir as well as Amazon.

UK based film and video maker Ruth Novaczek has developed a distinctive style of montage, in which she freely combines material she photographs herself with an array of found footage from near innumerable sources. The style, which she describes as "Bricolage" has come to characterise much of her mature work. Photographing material on super-8, lo-res video, camera phones etc. and editing on free software, particularly iMovie, Ruth's work emphasises the accessibility of media tools to an ever increasing number of people, while acknowledging our existence in a multimedia society. Her methods are combined with regular themes: explorations of feminist perspectives on culture and history, references to lesbian romantic relationships, a diasporic, (rootless) cosmopolitan sense of self, and a strong thread of international Jewish heritage. Described by Chris Kraus and Denah Johnston as "The Patti Smith of Film", these are works that interpret and reinterpret media fragments to deepen (and question) our understanding of the cultural artefacts that surround us. For more about Ruth and her films, visit: https://www.ruthnovaczek.com/home View a selection of her films here: https://vimeo.com/ruthnovaczek For DVDs of Ruth's films visit: https://shop.bfi.org.uk/radio-dvd.html or https://luxmovingimage.square.site/product/ruth-novaczeck-the-new-world/48?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=true

Filmmakers Peter Tscherkassky and Eve Heller return to the show to discuss their most recent films: Train Again and Singing In Oblivion respectively. These are two truly masterful films, capable of thrilling and moving in equal measure. Whether in Peter's visceral exploration of locomotive and cinema history Train Again or Eve's searching investigation of personal and cultural heritage in Singing in Oblivion, these are both captivating works that deploy found footage to strikingly different effect. Eve’s films are frequently programmed worldwide, but you can find information about her work and film links on request from Sixpack film:https://www.sixpackfilm.com/en/catalogue/filmmaker/4196/Peter’s films are available on 3 DVDs from Sixpack, as well as being included on Noel Lawrence’s curated Experiments in Terror collections (produced by Craig Baldwin’s Other Cinema company) and on a recent blu-ray produced by Found Footage Magazine. Many of his films are also available to download from Sixpack. Visit his site here:http://www.tscherkassky.at This episode was facilitated by filmmaker and fan of the show Dave Beaumler. Sincerest gratitude for his help.

In a first for this show, two filmmakers join appear together in conversation. Partners Eve Heller and Peter Tscherkassky join the show to discuss their practices. Together they produced the book Film Unframed: A History of Austrian Avant-Garde Cinema, but their practices, whilst both deploying found footage are very distinct. Eve Heller's films include found footage and photographed footage, produced exclusively on celluloid film and marked by particular engagement with the ideas of time, duration and memory. Peter Tscherkassky has achieved worldwide renown for his films, which are frequently highly kinetic, visceral experiences, prompting the viewer to become aware of film as a fundamentally 3 dimensional medium. Also often working with found footage, Peter often deploys a method of contact printing (placing frames onto unexposed film and exposing the sections he wishes to reproduce by exposing them to a light source eg. a laser pointer). Eve's films are frequently programmed worldwide, but you can find information about her work and film links on request from Sixpack film: https://www.sixpackfilm.com/en/catalogue/filmmaker/4196/ Peter's films are available on 3 DVDs from Sixpack, as well as being included on Noel Lawrence's curated Experiments in Terror collections (produced by Craig Baldwin's Other Cinema company) and on a recent blu-ray produced by Found Footage Magazine. Many of his films are also available to download from Sixpack. Visit his site here: http://www.tscherkassky.at This episode was facilitated by filmmaker and fan of the show Dave Beaumler. Sincerest gratitude for his help.