FILMS THAT RISE TO THE SURFACE (OF CLARIFIED BUTTER)
programmed and introduced by filmmakers Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder

Derailing their perforated strip, ribbon or celluloid, the individual filmmakers in this program scratch, chisel, burn, rub, paint, and skid across their plastic surface.

Oona’s Veil (2000), 8 minutes, Brian Frye What The Water Said (1998), 10 minutes, David Gatten Tablecloth (2001), 4 minutes, Sandra Gibson Radio Active Spider (2002), 6.5 minutes, Devon Damonte Color of Love (1994),10 minutes, Peggy Ahwesh Cinder (2001), 3.5 minutes, Luis Recoder Flight (1997), 5 minutes, Greta Snider Winterwheat (1989), 8 minutes, Mark Street Skate (2001), 6 minutes, Cade Bursell The Sound Of His Face (1988), 5 minutes, Scott Stark Concerto Remix (2001), 4 minutes, Lori Surfer & Teresa Taylor Didre Novo (1983), 2.5 minutes, Steven Woloshen Eye Music (1997), 2.5 minutes, Joel Schlemowitz Minnesota Landscape (2000), 10 minutes, Steve Polta

 

FEAR OF BLUSHING (2001) by Jennifer Reeves, 5min.

Fear of Blushing, a hand-painted film bursts forth with irrepressible color, corrosion and a menacing soundscape. The film’s curious sound/image free-association evokes anxiety, conflict, pleasure and shame. Fragmented visions and voices erupt out of the ominous abstraction and lead you to wonder what frightful thing is buried here. How terrible to look inward and how embarrasing to be revealed by the blush that rises to give us away. The film is beautiful and creepy and doesn’t have to be clear about any of this absurdity. A film best appreciated in the immediate, you cannot ponder at this rapid succession of images at 24fps. (Jennifer Reeves)

RADIO ACTIVE SPIDER (2002) by Devon Damonte, 8.5min.

A spider's fate has given a starring but brief role to play in the drama we call life. An abstract hypnotic marvel of dots, color and rhythm. The film is made entirely by hand without cameras, using direct animation techniques on 16mm film leader. Images are made by heat iron transfer of ink from printed plastic Spiderman tablecloth, direct tape collage of same material and textured scratch on black leader. (Ann Arbor Film Festival)

SKATE (2001) by Cade Bursell, 5min.

The film’s images were produced through a process of painting liquid emulsion on sand papered, clear film leader, contact printing and then hand processing. Skate through scratches and over the peeling skin of film, in this handmade contemplation of a childhood winter. (Cade Bursell)

CINDER (2001) by Luis Recoder, 3.5min

Hand-processed image and sound. The uneven chemical development of this 100 ft. roll provides the rhythmic register. Previously called “Silver Recovery”. (LR)

FLIGHT (1997) by Greta Snider, 5min.

Greta Snider, perhaps best known for her raw, punk-inspired documentations of her life and the odd friends inhabiting it, took some of her late father's old photographic negatives and a few other of his objects into a darkroom and contact printed them onto raw 16mm black and white film stock. Not knowing what the result would be, and working in pitch darkness and total solitude, Snider has created her most surprisingly personal and poetic work to date. The result is a rythmic and loving paean to the human desire to fly and to reach beyond the sky to heaven itself. (Scott Stark in Filmthreat, “Ten best Experimental Films/Videos of 1997”)

SOUNDINGS (2001) by Sandra Gibson, 5.5min.

Soundings evokes a place where consciousness and unconsciousness meet; an operation obsessed with the depths and dreams of the medium itself. (SG)

WHAT THE WATER SAID, NOS. 1-3 (1997-98) by David Gatten, 16min.

These films are the result of a series of camera-less collaborations between the filmmaker, the Atlantic Ocean and its underwater inhabitants.  For three days in January and three days in October of 1997, and again, for a day, in August of 1998,  lengths of unexposed, undeveloped film were soaked in a crab trap on a South Carolina beach. Both the sound and image in WHAT THE WATER SAID are the result of the ensuing oceanic inscriptions written directly into the emulsion of the film as it was buffeted by the salt water, sand and rocks; as it was chewed and eaten by the crabs, fish and underwater creatures. (David Gatten)

DIDRE NOVO (1983) by Steven Woloshen, 2.5min.

An essay in depth and movement. Juju African sacred music provides the trip through the graphic jungle. (Steven Woloshen)

THE SOUND OF HIS FACE (1988) by Scott Stark, 5min.

A "filmed biography" of Kirk Douglas -- literally. Pages of a book -- the lines of text, and the tiny dots comprising the half-tone photographs -- create odd musical notes, which are edited into a pounding rhythm. This film examines the molecular fabric of Hollywood superficiality. (Scott Stark)

WINTERWHEAT (1989) by Mark Street, 8min.

Made by bleaching, scratching and painting directly on the emulsion of an educational film about the farming cycle. The manipulations of the film's surface created hypnotic visuals while also suggesting an apocalyptic narrative. (Mark Street)

MINNESOTA LANDSCAPE (2000) by Steve Polta, 10min.

The granular structure of the film’s emulsion is pushed to the surface in what Steve Polta poetically describes as: “The grain of landscape, landscape through the grain.” This landscape “sieve” is achieved by rephotographing Ektachrome super-8 film.

CONCERTO REMIX (2001-2002) by Lori Surfer and Teresa Taylor, 8min.

Lettraset transfers and different paints are combined to create lively, noisy animation and artful change. Hand-painted film leader is dipped in colour and stamped bleached and/ or covered in border paper tapes or inks. Concerto Remix has bits of bright and sometimes different sounds; blending w/ the strange flashes of curious imagery (Lori Surfer)

COLOR OF LOVE (1994) by Peggy Ahwesh, 10min.

Starting with a hopelessly inept porno film from the '70s which had deteriorated with age and poor storage conditions--the decay and mold have a sensual interest on their own-- Ahwesh produced a beautiful and powerful film, both erotic and disarming. “Not for the faint hearted” (Peggy Ahwesh - A note of warning on film can.)

EYE MUSIC (1997) by Joel Schlemowitz, 2.5min.

A hand-cranked film of a wind-up record player, hand-colored to simulate the unheard music. (Joel Schlemowitz)

OONA’S VEIL (2000) by Brian Frye, 9min.

The original film was a positive. I struck a dupe negative, which I buried in some very contaminated soil for a couple of weeks, then left on the fire escape through rain and sun for about a year. I struck another positive from that. My “processing” made all this stuff appear over the image of her [Oona O’Neill, Eugene O’Neill’s daughter and Charlie Chaplin’s wife-to-be], which is kind of like a veil. (Brian Frye, “A Cinema of Possibilities: Interview with Brian Frye” in Millennium Film Journal, No. 37, Fall 2001)