[Frameworks] What are the 3 Essential Films that you would show Artists on their first foray into the Moving Image Realm ?

[Rob Gawthrop]

Although your question is for a specific purpose, the implications open up a broader and deeper debate than choosing three films.  Having been in higher education for a long time and shown many works to different groups of students (fine art in particular), certain works have come to the fore:

 The Seashell and the Clergyman – Germaine Dulac France 1927.  This opens up the whole problem of interpretation as well as the cultural contexts of surrealism, feminism, censorship and in respect of authorship; Dulac being the first feminist film theorist and proponent of a ‘pure cinema’ and Artaud’s theories of theatre of cruelty.


 Sailboat – Joyce Wieland  Canada 1967.  Positions the viewer in relation to the camera – of three-dimensional space (including sound), flatness and time.


 RayDay Film – Jeff Keen England 1967  Connects the ‘underground’ with pop art, collage, performance, abstraction, destruction, noise and expanded cinema.


 Discussion around the works is central and if it is one screening, then films such as Wavelength  or Zorns Lemma (or Nostalgia) may be too long. The above films connect well with other art works and other experimental films that can be referred to.  The idea of a ‘canon’ or a hagiographical ‘history’ is problematic. The contexts of these films – social, political, cultural – cannot be separated from their form/content.  There are many others that could be substituted but I seem to return to these three.




Rob.

On 27 Mar 2015, at 17:43, Donal OCeilleachair <donaloc42 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Frameworkers:
> 
> I am working on a new film project with the Ealaíontóirí Mhuscraí 
> (that's Irish for the Muskerry Region Artists Group) 
> 
> Part of the project will involve film / video making workshops where I will show
> them works from experimental film, creative documentary and artists' moving image works
> as a point of reference and inspiration for their own initial explorations
> into the realm of the moving image
> 
> I am compiling a short-list of 'Essential' works to show them during these workshops 
> and I would appreciate responses to the question:
> 'What are the 3 Essential Films that you would show Artists 
> on their first foray into the Moving Image Realm ?'
> 
> I look forward to hearing any suggestions
> 
> Le míle buíochas (with many thanks)
> -- 
> Dónal Ó'Céilleachair
> www.anupictures.com
> 
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