On February 20, 2019 I had the opportunity to attend a screen at the Ludlow House organized by the Filmmaker’s Coop. The screening was an accompaniment to the fall 2018 issue of Framework, a film and media journal highlighting artists pursuing new cultural and political perspectives in their art. Four experimental filmmakers, all of whom are in some way associated with the coop, had been asked by Framework to participate in their issue by creating a visual essay based off of their work. At the screening, each artist showed a portion of the work from which they drew to create their visual essay. The resulting screen was four very different artists, displaying four very different pieces of experimental film.
The first artist presented was Michelle Handleman. Michelle is a filmmaker who uses video and live performance in her work. The piece screened on this particular evening was a snippet from an installation currently on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art called Hustlers & Empires. Hustlers & Empires is a three-channel video installation which intertwines the lives of three “hustlers” from various time periods. The piece included dialogue and musical numbers, all written by Michelle and her cast. The format she chose to show at the screening included video from inside the gallery, so we were able to see the actual installation, as well as clips from the video itself.
The second artist was Bette Gordon, showing the first 15 minutes of her feature film Variety, originally released in 1984. Variety is the story of a young woman living in New York City who takes a job selling tickets at an X-rated movie theater in Times Square after she is unable to find any other job. Desperate for employment, this sweet, innocent, Midwest transplant soon finds herself completely enthralled by the movies inside. I am not exactly sure what about this film qualifies it as “experimental,” but it was included in this screening of experimental works.
The third artist (and my personal favorite) was Rob Roth. Rob screened footage of a performance called Soundstage which was done in 2018. The performance included a live performance on-stage partnered with pre-recorded video footage. Rob, though he had not originally planned on actually being in the piece, performed live, while a pre-recorded actor, Rebecca Hall, was projected on screens around the stage. It was extremely impressive because Rob (on-stage) was interacting with Rebecca (in the pre-recorded video) as though they were acting with one another.
The final piece was by MM Serra. This piece, titled Enduring Ornament, was a found footage film made up of about 4 discarded 16mm peep show films from the 1940s which MM acquired after the closing of an adult bookstore in Times Square. She altered the film through optical printing and alternative processing. The result is often a very obscured image with amazing texture and movement.
I enjoyed this event very much. It was interesting to see some of the various ways artists are creating experimental work. Each piece was unique from all the others, so it was cool to see them back-to-back. This event really opened my eyes to the unlimited possibilities of experimental filmmaking.