Notes on the Circus
Jonas Mekas, 1972, 12mins, USA, 16mm, colour, sound

Ringling Bros., filmed in 1966, in three sessions (three ringed circus), colours, motions and memories of a circus. Edited in camera (an exercise in instantaneous structuring). Sound by Jim Kweski's jug band (can be watched also silently). Dedicated to Kenneth Anger who provided the Ektachrome film stock, in one of my many dry periods.
— Jonas Mekas

Reverberating Furnace
Christopher Musgrave, 2003, 4mins, USA, MiniDV, colour, sound

In Reverberating Furnace image and sound are delivered as a singular, dense experience. Electricity is shaped into audio wave forms of harmonic oscillation and noise, which also drive the video emissions of hue, tone and rhythm.The videos were generated during two separate stays at the Experimental Television Center using the Dave Jones Control Voltage Oscillator and colorizer along with the Paik's Scan Modulator.

http://chris.musgrave.org

Here
Fred Worden, 2005, 12mins, USA, MiniDV, colour, sound

Here is a place, an optical location brought into being through conjuring to accommodate a clandestine rendezvous between Sir Laurence Olivier and Georges Méliès. Méliès appears to get the upper hand, confirming that magic will always trump mere performance. Early cinema audiences, we are told, were mesmerized by the cinematic apparitions and impossible cavortings realized by the sly Méliès. Those first paying customers had, apparently, no need for plots, movie stars, or sharp ideas. Direct conjuring was more than enough. Could that work here?
— Fred Worden

Valentin De Las Sierras
Bruce Baillie, 1967, 10mins, USA, 16mm, colour, sound

Song of revolutionary hero, Valentin, sung by Jose Santollo Nasido en Santa Cruz de la Soledad; Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico.

Hypersensitive
Jim Brouwer, Paul Emery, Joe Gilmore, Alex Peverett, 2001, 5mins, UK, MiniDV, colour, silent

Hypersensitive is a series of video portraits in which the subjects were asked to look into the camera. The resulting footage was then manipulated in such a way that tiny imperceptible facial movements are revealed through a process of rapid frame repetition.

Towers Open Fire
Anthony Balch & William S. Burroughs, 1963, 16mins, USA, 16mm, bw, sound

Anthony Balch collaborated on a number of film experiments with William Burroughs, the writer famous for his cut-up method of composing texts. Towers Open Fire is an assault on linear narrative and good taste, and brings together readings by Burroughs, unrelated film sequences, and the pervasive image of Brion Gysin's prototype Dreamachine - inducer of hallucinations and mental stimulation.

Play
Sally Potter, 1971, 7mins, UK, 16mm double screen, b/w and colour, silent

Sally Potter films six children - three pairs of twins - playing in the street. She records the scene from an upper window, using two cameras simultaneously. Play reflects Potter's lifelong interest in choreography, and, particularly in this early work, the exploration of cinematic space.

Arabesque
John Whitney, 1975, 8mins, USA, 16mm, colour, sound

For some Arabesque is considered "the seminal computer film" Set to the music of Manoochelher Sadeghi, the film is an example of the artist perfecting his art. The whirling, exotic flow of the music is in perfect synthesis with the quasi-psychedelic blooming of colored forms. John Whitney had balanced science with aesthetics, and defined the computer as a legitimate medium for art.

The Hyrcynium Wood
Ben Rivers, 2005 , 3mins, UK, 16mm on Min DV, b/w, sound

The title is from an out of date Thesaurus and means ‘mystery’ which is exactly what this film remains to me.
— Ben Rivers

Top of page