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