Re: The Word is Out - Film and Video in Royal Rumble

From: Jason Halprin (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Mar 02 2006 - 20:49:33 PST


--- "jarrod whaley." <email suppressed> wrote:

> The point has been made on this list numerous times that those of us
> "out in the sticks" have almost no chance in hell of ever seeing a
> Brakhage film projected the proper way, short of coughing up hundreds
> or
> even thousands of dollars to rent a print of our own (and buy a
> projector and maintain it etc.), or go to one of three large cities
> where such things are possible in this country.

Only 3 cities where such things are possible? I can think of at least
five or six people on this list and some off it that tirelessly work to
show film in "the sticks" as you put it. Sure, there's better and more
opportunities to view film on film in NY, SF, LA, and Chicago, but that
by no means prevents individuals, organizations, and institutions in
other places from putting in the effort and money to rent, borrow, or
buy prints. And not just of Brakhage work. The library in Traverse
City, MI showed a program of experimental work COMPLETELY on celluloid
this past fall.

I'll never argue that celluloid is a *smart choice when viewed from a
pure economic perspective, but why do people make art in the first
place? The best definition for art that I've ever heard is:

Art is any creative endeavor that exists regardless of an economic
outlet.

Some members of this list do get uppity when it comes to thoughts of
filmic work transfered to video, and they have the right and the
responsibility. Beauty needs to be valued. Purity needs to be
exhalted. Wishes need to be respected. Communication needs to be
intentional. Convention needs to be challenged. And arguments need to
be heated.

You also have the right to disagree, Jarrod, and I hope you continue
to. Taking this discussion mixed with the annoncement that k40 is for
all intents and purposes gone makes me work even harder to define what
I love about shooting and showing on film...and why I have different
reasons for shooting and showing video....

-Jason Halprin
emerged from a town of 500 (or so, it wasn't incorporated), now Chicago

P.S. A quick search on a P2P file service yielded work of Kubelka and
Stan's Text of Light as avi files. Something tells me I don't want to
see them.

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