Full of fire: Encounter of the North American and the East-Central European experimental motion pictures 

May 28, 2015

Curators and moderators: Dorottya Szalai (artinCINEMA), Péter Lichter (Prizma)

The aim of the screening is to build a kind of bridge between Western and Eastern contemporary avant-garde film discourse. From the avant-garde films produced in North America in recent years, we highlight several exciting works and place them in dialogue with Central–Eastern European films that employ similar formal languages and themes.

The landscape of contemporary avant-garde film is almost overwhelmingly complex, therefore any narrow selection inevitably reflects the curators’ personal taste.

The current face of North American experimental film is shaped by several traditions that began in the 1960s. These include the lyrical abstraction associated with Stan Brakhage and Bruce Baillie, the structuralism initiated by the Canadian Michael Snow, and the found-footage tradition using discovered materials, exemplified by Bruce Conner. The North American works in this selection were made by young contemporary filmmakers who draw on these classical roots.

Until the 1990s, the avant-garde traditions of the countries of the Central–Eastern European region developed quite differently from one another, both in terms of institutional background and dominant formal language. In Hungary and Poland, avant-garde film—covering a wide spectrum of canonical experimental approaches—largely evolved within a single defining institution (the Balázs Béla Studio and the Workshop of Film Form, respectively). In the member states of the former Yugoslavia, amateur filmmakers—often focusing on conceptual films and documented performances—organized themselves into film clubs (kino klub). In Romania, media artists experimented with many different forms of moving images (film, video art, hypermedia) within two larger groups (Kinema Ikon and Sigma). In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, however, no long-lasting formation specializing in experimental film emerged.

In the 21st century, the character of experimental film in the Central–Eastern European region is shaped both by the continuation of the region’s distinctive avant-garde traditions and by the influence of Western trends. The Central–Eastern European works included in this selection mainly reflect the latter tendency: “Eastern reactions to Western trends.”

Venue: Hátsó Kapu (1074 Budapest, Dohány u. 13.)

Program

Dalibor Barić: The Horror of Dracula (2010) 3’20 – Croatia
A psychedelic, atmospheric found-footage collage film. A reinterpretation of a Hammer classic.

Katarzyna Płazińska: Chapri (2014) 6’24 – Poland
An impressionistic “portrait film” about the process of papermaking.

Kryštof Pešek: The Return / Návrat (2006) 6’26 – Czech Republic
A hardline structuralist film, a re-editing of Andrey Zvyagintsev’s 2003 work.

Mihai Grecu & Thibault Gleize: Glucose (2012) 7’18 – Romania
Spatial distortions and overlaps – a humorous short film about optical illusions.

Milan Balog: 1.35. (2003) 8′ – Slovakia
Moving light (reproduced) images about the limits and possibilities of communication.

Péter Klausz: Hanna (2013) 7’40 – Hungary
A found-footage abstraction about the dynamics of remembering and forgetting.

Stephen Broomer: Spirits in Seasons (2013) 12’17 – USA
A mystical, ghostly lyrical film about a pet cemetery, with beautiful autumn colors.

Scott Fitzpatrick: Places with Meaning (2013) 2’50 – USA
What happens if you make an animated film using an inkjet printer?

Rhayne Vermette: Full of Fire (2014) 2’14 – Canada
A distressed found-footage film with blues overtones.

Tomonari Nishikawa: 45 7 Broadway (2013) 5’ – USA
A city film shimmering with psychedelic colors, realized entirely through analog, long-forgotten laboratory techniques.

Jeremy Moss: The Blue Record (2014) 16’37 – USA
A lyrical essay film about decay, shot on 16mm analog film stock. Moss recorded the film in old Philadelphia prisons.

Bryan Boyce: Walt Disney’s Taxi Driver (2014) 4’31 – USA
Martin Scorsese’s classic in a new light.