A traveling screening series of contemporary experimental 16mm films
Schleusenroth | Volga (504 feet, 1.33:1, Wild Sound, Germany/Lebanon)
“Looking at river locks.”
Flow | Lichun Tseng (612 feet, 1.33:1, Optical Sound, Netherlands)
“Change is a process, is the starting point equal to the end point? What if everything is in a flow, what meaning of value of life can be derived from the interconnectedness of all things? Reflecting the subtle relationships between the flow of changing, awareness of being and observation of breathing through abstract and rhythmic moving images. Integrating and developing a poetic state of contemplative and meditative process and flow in between void and solid; moving and still; expanding and gathering; strength and softness.”
Fractions | Guillaume Mazloum (1620 feet, 1.33:1, Optical Sound, France)
“Fractions is a seven part film. Seven sequences, each with a pattern and a reference to a text of a political nature, to create a space for reflection on the scope and responsibility of these images. Between self-portrait and testimony, each fraction is an autonomous thinking, remaining yet necessary to the overall restitution of a personal research on film practice, in correlation with the emancipatory thinking. The images then become a pretext for this reflection, freed from their narrative and documentary nature, the site of a more intimate experience. This work draws the accomplishment of several years of reading, strewed with fleeting moments of reality captured instinctively with my camera, all reworked and remodeled with traditional cinema tools.”
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Overview
Colorado-based nonprofit organization, Process Reversal, presents the third installment of its unique traveling film series — Frenkel Defects.
This recurring series aims to explore what it means to work in — and exhibit on — photochemical film today by examining works from artists operating specifically in this practice. Often, this involves getting their hands dirty at every stage of the process: from optical effects to photo-processing, editing and contact printing, optical sound recording, and even the creation of the photosensitive emulsion itself… As a result (and as suggested by the series’ title), creative aberrations make their way into the standard photochemical process, giving birth to a new, textural aesthetic that plays out on the surface of the film strip. More than ever before, film reminds us of its physicality, giving a new sense to Andrei Tarkovsky’s idea of “sculpting in time.”
For this year’s edition, two 70-minute programs of rare and diverse works, nearly all of which originate outside North America, will be presented in their intended 16mm format. Almost all of these films were produced with the help of “artist-run film labs” — collectively-run organizations dedicated to facilitating artists’ working in photochemical film — including LaborBerlin (Berlin), L’Abominable (Paris) and Filmwerkplaats (Rotterdam). While these and other organizations have been active in Europe for almost two decades, the trend is just beginning to emerge in North America, with experimental laboratories springing up in Boston, Oakland, Denver, New York, Vancouver, Montreal and elsewhere. Process Reversal, having secured abundant donations of lab equipment, hopes to continue assisting in the growth of these spaces by providing communities with the critical tools, knowledge and resources necessary to ensure the viability of the medium for all.
Additionally, in support of the tour, Process Reversal member Kevin Rice will facilitate workshops on “Emulsion Making & Coating for Motion Picture Film” at select locations. Special thanks to ”Cultural Services of the French Embassy”
