Time and Place : the films of Ernie Gehr

Hors champ presents

Time and Place : the films of Ernie Gehr

— 30 October-1^st November 2008, Cinémathèque québécoise —

In collaboration with the Cinémathèque québécoise, the Web Journal Hors champ (www.horschamp.qc.ca) will be presenting a cycle of films by New York experimental filmmaker Ernie Gehr : a rare occasion to discover the work of a true pioneer of the American Avant-Garde, from October 30 through November 1. Ernie Gehr will be in Montreal to present the three evenings of screenings (9 16mm gems) and a « Master Class » (in English) on the relationship between experimental cinema and early cinema.

Ernie Gehr and André Habib (organizer of the event and co-editor of Hors champ) will be also available for interviews.

The Films of Ernie Gehr (finally in Montreal)

Ernie Gehr is, alongside Stan Brakhage, Michael Snow and Peter Kubelka, one of the pillars of experimental cinema. His films, and more recently his video and installation works, reveal a fascination for urban landscapes, sites of memory (Passage, Signal-Germany on the Air), perspective and the limits of perception (Serene Velocity), as well as optic toys (Cotton Candy), the origins of cinema (Eureka) or simply the tracing of light on film (Wait, Mirage). The conceptual rigor and the visual power of his films seem to operate a reduction of cinema to its fundamental elements, as if starting anew, each time, and rediscovering the destabilizing shock of the origins of cinema as well as its radical transformation of the visible. His films, that we could wrongly consider "minimalist", are on the contrary the site of profound interior experiences. Made up of light, space, duration, movement, Ernie Gehr's films also bare a documentary trace, always at the precise intersection of a specific time and place, whether it be a street in New York in 1971 (Shift), of San Francisco at the turn of the XXth Century (Eureka) or in the early 90's (Side/Walk/Shuttle), or of Berlin in 1989, right before the fall of the Wall (This Side of Paradise).

Although it is quoted in all the anthologies of avant-garde cinema, has been regularly written about by the most important scholars (Sitney, Gunning, Skoller, Michelsson, etc.) and praised by critics and film historians, the films of Ernie Gehr are proverbially hard to see. Hors champ has tried to modestly remedy this situation, by presenting, for the first time in Montreal, some essential "moments" of his vast filmography. Ernie Gehr will be in Montreal to present to programs and take part in a "Master Class".

Hors champ (www.horschamp.qc.ca) receives the support of the Canada Arts Council and the Montreal Arts Council. This specific programme was made possible thanks to a contribution by the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema of Concordia University, as well as the Département d'Histoire de l'art et d'études cinématographiques of the Université de Montréal.

CINÉMATHÈQUE QUÉBÉCOISE
335 boul. De Maisonneuve Est
Montréal (Québec) Canada H2X 1K1
T. 514 842.9768 poste 255 |Téléc. 514 842.5313
www.cinematheque.qc.ca


Les films d'Ernie Gehr (enfin présentés à Montréal)

Ernie Gehr est, avec Stan Brakhage, Michael Snow et Peter Kubelka, l'un des piliers du cinéma expérimental. Ses films, et plus récemment ses vidéos et ses installations, révèlent une fascination pour les paysages urbains, les lieux de mémoire (Passage, Signal-Germany on the Air), la perspective et les limites de la perception (Serene Velocity), tout autant que pour les jouets optiques (Cotton Candy), les origines du cinéma (Eureka) ou tout simplement les tracés de la lumière sur la pellicule (Wait, Mirage). La rigueur conceptuelle et la force plastique de ses oeuvres opèrent une réduction du cinéma à ses éléments fondamentaux, repartant à zéro pour retrouver le choc déstabilisant des origines du cinéma et sa radicale puissance de transformation du visible. Ces films, que l'on qualifierait à tort de « minimalistes », sont le lieu au contraire d'une expérience intérieure foisonnante. Faits de lumière, d'espace, de durée, de mouvement, les films de Gehr portent aussi une trame documentaire, en se situant à l'intersection précise d'un temps et d'un lieu, qu'il s'agisse d'une rue de New York en 1971 (Shift), de San Francisco au tournant du XXe siècle (Eureka) ou en 1991 (Side/Walk/Shuttle), de Berlin en 1989, à la veille de la chute du Mur (This Side of Paradise).

Malgré qu'elle soit citée dans toutes les anthologies sur le cinéma d'avant-garde, louangée par les critiques et les historiens, l'oeuvre de Gehr est proverbialement peu visible. C'est à ce déficit qu'Hors champ a tenté de remédier, en présentant quelques jalons essentiels de sa filmographie. Ernie Gehr présentera les trois séances, et offrira également une classe de maître.

La revue Hors champ (www.horschamp.qc.ca ) reçoit le soutien du Conseil des arts du Canada et du Conseil des arts de Montréal. Le programme consacré à Ernie Gehr a été rendu possible grâce à une contribution du Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema de l'Université Concordia, ainsi que du Département d'Histoire de l'art et d'études cinématographiques de l'Université de Montréal.

CINÉMATHÈQUE QUÉBÉCOISE
335 boul. De Maisonneuve Est
Montréal (Québec) Canada H2X 1K1
T. 514 842.9768 poste 255 |Téléc. 514 842.5313
www.cinematheque.qc.ca

SCREAMING CITY > Pleasure Dome

Sunday, October 19, 2008, 6pm / 7.30pm / 9pm
La Sala Rossa
4848, boul. St-Laurent, Montréal
$5 per program or $10 for the evening

Screaming City: West Berlin 1980s / Une ville gueule: les années 1980 à Berlin-Ouest

Curated by Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and Florian Wüst (in person)




A project initiated by Pleasure Dome, Toronto, in collaboration with Articule and Double Negative Collective in Montreal

Between the end of the 1970s and the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, a vast number of films were produced in and about West Berlin, dealing with the ambivalent realities of the enclosed city. Highly subsidized by the Federal Republic of Germany as a "shop window of the Free West", West Berlin had become an island, an inverted fortress for all those who saught to experience themselves without economical pressures, and to express themselves by all means. It wasn't about devoting oneself to the World Revolution anymore, but to implement alternative life styles and ways of housing, giving rise to social resistance, strident underground cultures and sexual border-crossing. Pessimism and apocalyptic moods, not least driven by the enhanced arms race and nuclear threats of the period, mixed with extravagance, punk and queerness.

Where images lived a special life inmidst the deadlock of socialist and capitalist ideologies that nowhere else materialized as spectacular as in the divided city of Berlin, an idiosyncratic crossover of music, performance, art and super-8 movement developed. For many young filmmakers, super-8 facilitated the production of low cost and truly independent films. The technical limitations of the medium embodied a strong means of spontaneity and purposeful dilettantism, while super-8 was easy to distribute and show in underground cinemas, clubs and cafes. Even institutions like the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin (dffb) fostered a spirit of radical subjectivity and experimentation among students.

The extraordinary activity of the various groups and individuals working with film and video in West Berlin in the 1980s was subject to an extensive retrospective in October 2006 at Kino Arsenal, Berlin, entitled Who says concrete doesn't burn, have you tried? The series comprised all kinds of film genres, from experimental films and video art to documentary and fiction, and covered a multiplicity of issues. For Screaming City: West Berlin 1980s, the curators of the series, Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and Florian Wüst, selected two short film programs and a feature-length music film that cast light on this unique, yet partly forgotten historical period and urban site of German film production.

With generous support of Goethe-Institute Toronto.

(All films without dialogue or with English subtitles)


Program 1: Under Siege

a-b-city, Brigitte Buehler, Dieter Hormel, Super-8 on video, 1985, 8'

Böse zu sein ist auch ein Beweis von Gefühl, Cynthia Beatt, 16mm, 1983, 25'

60cm über dem Erdboden, Andrea Hillen, Super-8 on video, 1984, 6'

Geld, Brigitte Bühler, Dieter Hormel, Super-8 on video, 1983, 4'

Tattoo Suite, Rolf S. Wolkenstein, 16mm on video, 1984, 23'

Darum oder was erwartest Du?, Jürgen Baldiga, Super-8 on video, 1981, 7'


Program 2: Night Souls

Normalzustand, Yana Yo, Super-8 on video, 1981, 3'

Bad Blood for the Vampyr, Lysanne Thibodeau, 16mm, 1984, 22'

Ohne Liebe gibt es keinen Tod, Ingrid Maye, Volker Rendschmidt, Super-8 on video, 1980, 5'

Persona Non Grata, Christoph Doering, Super-8 on video, 1981, 16'

Kreuzberger Frauen, Klaus Beyer, Super-8 on video, 1983, 3'

Die Botschaft (Totentanz 8), Michael Brynntrup, 16mm, 1989, 10'

Naturkatastrophenkonzert, Die Tödliche Doris, Video, 1983, 3'


Program 3: OKAY OKAY. Der moderne Tanz

OKAY OKAY. Der moderne Tanz, Christoph Dreher, Heiner Mühlenbrock, 16mm, 1980, 90'

Double Negative at Pop Montreal- one night only!

Ctrllab hosts
Pop Montreal/Film Pop presents,

IF IT IS SO
TO BE SO IN
GO IN TO IT
AS IT IS SO
IT IS IN US
IS IT AS IF
IT IS OF ME

A one-night-only immersive film-loop installation. A room full of constantly moving projectors, looping 16mm mechanical-light-play in all directions. Perpetual repetition, or: the waking dream. A collaborative cinematic environment presented by the members of Montreal's Double Negative Collective.

with new works from
Lucia Fezzuoglio
Amber Goodwyn
Matt Law
Karl Lemieux
Eduardo Menz
Micheal Rollo
Daichi Saito
Ithamar Silver
Malena Szlam

This event is FREE
Friday October 3rd 2008, 7 - 11pm
Ctrllab
3634 St. Laurent Blvd(north of Prince Arthur)
www.ctrllab.com

Double Negative Collective Screenings

The Double Negative Collective will have a very busy fall in 2008. We are proud to announce the following screenings in September:

EXiS 2008 Experimental Film and Video Festival, Seoul KOREA (September 04 - 10)

www.ex-is.org

The screening will take place at Space Cell and features the following films:

ALL THAT RISES by Daïchi Saïto
PARALLAX by Christopher Becks
PAPER NAUTILUS by Amber Goodwyn
FRACAS by Eduardo Menz
UNTITLED by Lucia Fezzuoglio
LAS MUJERES DE PINOCHET (PINOCHET’S WOMEN) by Eduardo Menz
THE NERVOUS LOOPS by Julien Idrac
MOTION OF LIGHT (MOUVEMENT DE LUMIÈRE) by Karl Lemieux
LOLA by Mike Rollo
THOUGH SHE NEVER SPOKE, THIS IS WHERE HER VOICE WOULD HAVE BEEN by
Lindsay McIntyre
ARTIFACTS by Steven Ladouceur
THE GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS (EL JARDIN DE SENDEROS QUE SE BIFURCAN)
by Malena Szlam
WESTERN SUNBURN by Karl Lemieux
GHOSTS AND GRAVEL ROADS by Mike Rollo

The collective will also screen work at the Antimatter Film Festival in Victoria CANADA in a special program entitled "Images in Back of the Head" on September 20th.

From the Antimatter Film Festival:
Dedicated to the exhibition and nurturing of film and video as art, Antimatter has grown into the premier showcase of experimental cinema in the west. Encompassing screenings, installations, performances and media hybrids, Antimatter provides a noncompetitive festival setting in Victoria, British Columbia, free from commercial and industry agendas.

To view the program click HERE

SAMI VAN INGEN: THREE 35MM FILM WORKS

The Sequent Of Hanna Ave (2006)

SAMI VAN INGEN: THREE 35MM FILM WORKS

AUGUST 7 (Thu.) 9:00 p.m.

Cinéma Parallèle (Ex-Centris)
3536, boul. St-Laurent, Montreal

Ticket $7.50

Info: 514-847-2206 (box-office)
www.ex-centris.com

PROGRAM
The Sequent of Hanna Ave.
(5 min., 35mm, Cinemascope, Dolby Digital sound, 2006)
Deep Six
(7 min., 35mm, Cinemascope, Dolby Digital sound, 2007)
Fokus
(40 min., 35mm, 1/1.85, Dolby Digital sound, 2004)

Artist in attendance

“The Sequent of Hanna Ave. is the result of my enquiries into the phenomena of the movement-illusionism in the film form. By combining found footage, hand- processing and hi-end digital technology, I propose to elevate a few mundane gestures to a new perceptible wholeness, and give some small fingers and a c-cassette tape all th attention, grace and drama they somehow deserve. Deep Six has three starting points: a little narrative re-edited from a Hollywood B-film (The Rage, 1998), an attempt to use the colour photocopy as a cinematic aesthetic and to explore the frame line as a dynamic visual element. The 512 original frames that Fokus is made from are from my grandmothers 1950´s home movie. By deconstructing and re-constructing these scenes, my aim was to enhance meanings that are already present in the original material, but easily escape the spectator's attention.” (Sami van Ingen)

BIOGRAPHY
For more than two decedes, Sami van Ingen (b. 1964) has made experimental films and installations based on the moving image. One of the main characteristics of his work is an examination of the cinematic apparatus itself and the boundaries within it. His works have been screened in many national and international festivals and venues over the years. Collaborators include filmmakers Philip Hoffman and Bruce Baillie, as well as composer Petri Kuljuntausta.

ARTHUR LIPSETT: ABOUT TIME

21-87 (1964)

Fluxes (1968)

THE DOUBLE NEGATIVE COLLECTIVE
PRESENTS
ARTHUR LIPSETT: ABOUT TIME, A FILM RETROSPECTIVE
CURATED BY BRETT KASHMERE

Double Negative Collective:
Arthur Lipsett: About Time, A Film Retrospective
June 4th, 5th, 6th, 12th
Cinémathèque québécoise
335, boul. De Maisonneuve Est, Metro Berri-Uqam
Price - Adult 7$ Student (13-30) 6$

The Double Negative Collective, in collaboration with the Cinémathèque québécoise, is pleased to invite curator Brett Kashmere to present a film retrospective from Canadian filmmaker Arthur Lipsett. The exhibition takes place at the Cinémathèque québécoise June 4th, 5th and 6th. Eric Gaucher’s documentary on Arthur Lipsett screens on June 12th at 7pm.

Propelled to international attention through an Oscar nomination at the age of 25, the legendary National Film Board artist Arthur Lipsett remains an anomaly within avant-garde film histories. Uneasily oscillating between a personal, artisanal tradition and the NFB’s institutional mandate “to interpret Canada for Canadians,” he was a popular experimental filmmaker whose eccentric, satirical collage films were renowned around the world. Lipsett’s films were admired by diverse film patriarchs such as Stanley Kubrick, Stan Brakhage, and George Lucas. The exhibition Arthur Lipsett: About Time presents an overdue retrospective of Lipsett’s concise but influential career, re-assembling his dazzling collage work alongside correlative Canadian media artists from the past half-century. - Brett Kashmere

About Brett Kashmere:
Brett Kashmere is a filmmaker, curator, and Visiting Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies at Oberlin College in Ohio, USA. Kashmere has organized programs for the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Strasbourg, Light Cone, Cinematheque Quebecoise, Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology, Cinema Project, Vtape, and Cinematheque Ontario.

For more information:
www.brettkashmere.com/arthur_lipsett.html
www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/04/lipsett.html
www.cinematheque.qc.ca

Double Negative Collective Screening

Poster Design: Marie-Hélène Houpert

(still)
Pan of the Landscape - Chris Becks

DOUBLE NEGATIVE COLLECTIVE SCREEN OWN WORK AT EX-CENTRIS

The Double Negative Collective, a dedicated group of Montréal-based filmmakers and curators of cinema, plan to screen an evening of new, original work Thursday, March 20th at 9:30pm at Cinéma Parallel (Ex-Centris, 3536 St. Laurent). After curating several successful avant-garde film and video programs and exhibiting an exciting group installation show at CTRL LAB (June 2007), the Double Negative Collective have returned to the black box this time with a program of their own experimental film and video, for the first time in three years. Collective members whose work will be included are Christopher Becks, Lucia Fezzuoglio, Amber Goodwyn, Steven Ladouceur, Karl Lemieux, Lindsay McIntyre, Eduardo Menz, Mike Rollo, Daichi Saito and Malena Szlam.

The past couple of years have been an exciting time indeed for the Double Negative Collective. In January they screened Jack Chambers’ Hart Of London to a sold out room at The Cinémathèque québécoise and hosted the Canadian part of TIE (The International Cinema Exposition) in November 2007. Other recent programs of note include screenings of work by Vincent Grenier (Québec), Nicky Hamlyn (London, UK), Guy Sherwin (London, UK) and the ETNA Collective (France).

Double Negative Collective – An Evening of Experimental Film and Video
Thursday, March 20th at 9:30PM
Ex-Centris (Cinéma Parallel)
3536 Boul. St. Laurent
Montreal, QC

For reference purposes:
www.ex-centris.com
doublenegatif@gmail.com

Le Collectif Double Négatif, un groupe basé à Montréal, dédié à la création et la présentation de cinéma, planifie une soirée de projection de nouvelles oeuvres originales le jeudi 20 mars à 21:30 au Cinéma Parallèle (Ex-Centris, 3536 boul. Saint-Laurent). Après avoir présenté plusieurs programmes de films et de vidéos d’avant-garde et avoir exposé une excitante installation de groupe au CTRL LAB (juin 2007), le Collectif Double Négatif est de retour à la boîte noire, cette fois avec un programme de leurs propres films et vidéos expérimentaux pour la première fois en trois ans. Les membres du collectif pour qui le travail sera présenté sont, Christopher Becks, Lucia Fezzuoglio, Amber Goodwyn, Steven Ladouceur, Karl Lemieux, Lindsay McIntyre, Eduardo Menz, Mike Rollo, Daichi Saito et Malena Szlam.

En effet, les deux dernières années ont été un temps excitant pour le Collectif Double Négatif. En janvier le collectif a présenté Hart Of London de Jack Chambers pour une salle comble à la Cinémathèque Québécoise et il a été l’hôte du volet canadien de TIE (The International Cinema Exposition) en novembre 2007. Parmi d’autres programmations récentes, il y a eu notamment la projection d’oeuvres de Vincent Grenier (Québec), de Nicky Hamlyn (Londres, G-B), de Guy Sherwin Londres, G-B) et celle du collectif ETNA (France).

Collectif Double Négatif - Une soirée de films et de vidéos expérimentaux
Le jeudi 20 Mars à 21:30
Ex-Centris (Cinéma Parallèle)
3536 boul. Saint-Laurent
Montréal, QC

À titre de référence:
www.ex-centris.com
doublenegatif@gmail.com

The Hart of London

Wednesday, January 16 2008

630pm
Cinémathèque Québécoise (335, boul. De Maisonneuve Est, Métro Berri-UQAM)

The Hart of London [Can., 1970, 79 min]
Director: Jack Chambers

"The Hart of London is a sprawling, ambitious film that combines newsreel footage of disasters, urban and nature imagery, and footage evoking the cycles of life and death. It is on of those rare films that succeed precisely because of its sprawl; raw and open-ended almost to the point of anticipating the postmodern rejection of "master narratives," it cannot be reduced to a simple summary, and changes on you from one viewing to the next." (Fred Camper)

INTRODUCTION BY FILMMAKER RICHARD KERR

ABOUT JACK CHAMBERS -

"Jack Chambers is one of Canada's most famous and greatest living painters. Why then have his films been as neglected as they have been? I feel that it is because his films do not arise as an adjunct to his painting (as is true in the case of most other painter film-makers) but that, rather, Jack Chambers has realized the almost opposed aesthetics of paint and film and has created a body of moving pictures so crucially unique as to fright paint buffery: thus his films have inherited a social position kin to that of the films of Joseph Cornell in this country. The fact is that four films of Jack Chambers have changed the whole history of film, despite their neglect, in a way that isn't possible within the field of painting. There are no 'masters' of film in any significant sense whatsoever. There are only 'makers' of film in the original, or at least medieval, sense of the word. Jack Chambers is a true 'maker' of films. He needs no stance, or standing, for he dances attendance upon the coming-into-being of something recognizably new: (and as all is new, always, one must question the veracity of all works, whatever medium, which beseem everything but that truth)." -- Stan Brakhage