[Frameworks] EXPERIMENTAL film festivals???

[Mike]

As someone who works with Dallas videofest, I do want to respond to this, not necessarily to argue for inclusion in one or another person's list of "good experimental festivals", but to say that I do think the fest provides a very important regional opportunity to see works made by artists working outside market driven contexts. I don't know your relationship with the festival, Bernie, though I understand you're in the region, but I think the selection process does meet much of your criteria that does not pertain directly to film projection.

It's certainly true that videofest's primary focus isn't work made with an experimental aesthetic approach, but that is certainly a significant part of a wider focus that attempts to give exposure to artists and individuals working with new and developing moving image technologies (trying not to open a can of worms here as to what constitutes "new and developing", but as an aside, there are some exciting ways in which we're trying to engage the community in celluloid based practice, including a super 8 race and hand-processing workshops...)

To reference another recent thread, I also think the fest does a pretty good job at accommodating individual artists in that it allows online submissions and projects videos in a way that maintains quality while utilizing technology that is widely available and accessible (speaking specifically of the h.264 codec that was mentioned).

If nothing else, I hope that more people working in experimental/avant-garde modes will consider submitting in the future. If there are issues people have with how the fest runs or experiences that have been had, whether positive or negative, I'd be curious to hear them, as would Bart I'm sure (sorry if I'm making more work for you Bart),  offlist. 

Mike Morris, 
Dallas, Texas 

Sent from my iPhone


Message: 4
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:05:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bernard Roddy <roddybp at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] EXPERIMENTAL film festivals???
To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
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I propose the following:

1. Formal constraints: The references of work shown are not primarily to 
narrative cinema or broadcast television but to the result of artist's working 
processes.
2. Programming constraints: The diversity of work screened demonstrates a 
commitment to risk and experiment in programming.
3. Format constraint: There's a clear commitment ot film projection.
4. Theoretical constraint: There's a familiarity with a history of artists' work 
in film that is motivated by theoretical concerns (and thus bears an affinity 
with some of video's history).
5. Compromise acknowledgement: The conditions of projection of work is itself 
acknowledged to be, in many cases, a compromise, a necessity for promoting work 
that, as often as not, was not intended for theatrical projection of the kind it 
is receiving.

That would begin my answer.

Bernie
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