Hole in the Head, the new feature from Dean Kavanagh, is a wonderfully labile rendition of cinematic obsession as a simultaneously profound, absurd, deracinating, and visceral experience.
The Uses of Myth | Spectral Grounds: Black Experimental Film
“Not all featured works are formally experimental, but presented as experimental ontologically: the landing page of the website bears a curatorial statement that calls this practice “part of an endless repertoire and arsenal of Black survival.””
Neocolonial Grip: Ousmane Sembène’s ‘Tauw’ (1970) + Djibril Diop Mambéty’s ‘Le Franc’ (1994)
Currency takes even more of a centre stage in some of their lesser-known shorts steeped in acute political commentary: Le Franc (1994) and Tauw (1970) respectively, which delve deeper into many of the context-specific issues of cash—and lack thereof—in Francophone Africa, exposing the incomplete nature of the decolonial project.
Cinema is an Open String: Two Early Shorts by Isiah Medina
“Looking at Medina’s earliest work, specifically Semi-auto colours and Time is a sun (2012) reveals much of his ambitious form and preoccupations already set in motion.”
Prismatic Ground 2022: Select Films of Love and Memory
“Both editions of Prismatic Ground have done well in being an inviting festival space for submitting filmmakers, and in turn this allows for the wide array of programming that necessitates the “wave” format. Online and cinematic presentation together means that while enjoyment of this festival will continue worldwide, presentations on projected film prints will become its newest element, intertwining the global availability of the internet and the togetherness of film screenings for those able to attend.”
“What a Way to Run a Railroad”—Nothing is Real, not even Cinema, in Tulapop Saenjaroen’s ‘Squish!’
Over the last decade, filmmaker and video artist Tulapop Saenjaroen has been stretching cinema and the short form. Exploring some of the fundamental quandaries of experience: work, play and freedom with a sharp and puckish sense of their history within this long century of moving images.
Nothingtoseeness
Looking back at December’s ‘NothingtoSeeness’ film program at Akademie der Künste in Berlin, including an excerpt from Gregory J. Markopoulos’ ‘Eniaios’
Exposed Plywood: Lin Tuan-chiu’s ‘The Husband’s Secret’ (1960)
“When Le-hun sobs in the artificial rain, back pressed to a plywood facade, the plainness of the wood’s grain brings the audience closer to the material rather than adding distance: the production and the resulting film seem one in the same, part of an enthusiastic defiance of mass-market cinema in favor of local storytelling.”
‘Autumn Rush for Kurt Kren and Winter and Spring and Summer’ (2003) dir. Anna Thew
A short appreciation of Anna Thew’s bifurcated film of the seasons, ‘Autumn Rush for Kurt Kren and Winter and Spring and Summer’
“A Pirate of Sounds” — An interview with Félix Blume
The works of sound artist and nonfiction filmmaker Félix Blume deal with the interpretative possibilities of aural narratives. From installation sound-pieces built around Thailand’s shoreline, to album releases focusing on Haiti’s funerary traditions, his artistic output always serves as an extension of a wider multimedia project built around sonic tradition.