Frames of Reverence
Sunday 6th October
LOCATION: Devonport Guildhall
11:45 - 13:00 | 64min plus Q&A
International short films
The choice to point a camera at a subject is an act of radical attention and devotion, but in each frame something is excluded, left out, abandoned. These films gesture to the art of filmmaking, from love letters to seminal auteurs, through to structuralist experiments and DIY processes. Through experiments in content and form, we come to understand how filmmaking can be an act of love, play or even violence.
Films by:
Caroline Johnson | Eduardo Gutierrez Carrera | Laura Kraning | Thomas Renoldner | Simon Payne | Kirk Tougas | Diane Nerwen
The Frame
Caroline Johnson | 3min
How do you depict the undepictable? The frame: a container. a boundary. a moment. Is it a unit of time, of space, or of both? The existence of a frame necessarily implies something within, and consequently something outside. The Frame is an exploration of spatial and temporal boundaries through the lens of paintings of the late Renaissance, when artists wrestled with how to portray that which, by definition, cannot be portrayed. Shot on 16mm on the Oxberry Animation stand.
Devotion (Devoción)
Eduardo Gutierrez Carrera | 9min
This work stems from the desire to find the reality of the images themselves through the camera; in the images I recognize myself revealing the subjectivity of vision.
The image as such and not the image that represents a world, an attempt to avoid falling into the temptation of the
concept (Dorsky, 2003).
Interwoven Intervals
Laura Kraning | 6min
Pattern drafts are the graphical score for weaving - grids of light and dark representing the over and under of weft threads between the warps. In this material hybrid of film and textile, the graphic repetition of grids, lines, and squares assert a structural form that is fragile and vulnerable to erasure.
STAMPFER DREAMS
Thomas Renoldner | 11min
STAMPFER DREAMS is a homage to the scientist Simon von Stampfer, who presented his invention of the Stroboscopic Discs in Vienna in 1833. These discs show all kinds of animated loops from abstract to figurative and from (literally) experimental to documentary, and in this way forsee the variety of genres in animated film. All characters and animated sequences in STAMPFER DREAMS are taken from / based on these “optical magic discs”. The film starts in the alpine region of Simon's childhood and vaguely follows his biography. Three 'dreams' depict his imagination of the further evolution mankind might make, with a watermill as the starting point for an industrial revolution that will ultimately lead to our present.
Greyscale
Simon Payne | 3min
The rolling stripes that this piece begins with suggest a sense of depth from the outset, and evoke a seascape. As the stripes begin to separate out, increasingly complex waveforms accrue. The image plane is not just a surface phenomenon: we are drawn to see through it.
ONE SHOT
Kirk Tougas | 7min
Eight billion humans view and perceive a projection. Is it a portal? a mirror? both? What does it mean ? Eight billion interpretations – each considers theirs closest to the truth. Thus, the politics of perception. A short shot of found-footage, early 60s, a single “take”. Continuing the theme of Antonioni’s “Blow Up”, its questions and deceptions, this journey into filmic medium, its shifting narratives of expression and perception.
Domestic weights and measures
Paul Tarragó | 19min
An almost diary, featuring cats and bats, a hearse and horses, and much animation. Backdropped by: a community arts project, the ‘our planet in motion’ orrery kit, and a new take on timelapse. All elements locally sourced. Experimentally friendly and audience curious.
Reversal
Diane Nerwen | 7min
REVERSAL combines images and sounds from movies released or broadcast in 1973, the year the Supreme Court decided Roe v Wade. In the strange new reality ushered in by the Dobbs decision, the slogan "We won't go back" is recalled with bitter irony. This collage piece evokes the spectre of regression and repression that has followed the Court's decision.
