Re: INSECT FILMS

From: Chen Sheinberg (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Jul 30 2008 - 03:54:51 PDT


thank you,
it sounds realy amazing.
chen sheinberg
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Stoffel Debuysere
  To: email suppressed
  Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 12:27 PM
  Subject: Re: INSECT FILMS

  I like 'While Darwin Sleeps' (Paul Bush).

  More than three thousand insects appear in this film each for a single frame. As the colours glow and change across their bodies and wings it seems that the genetic programme of millions of years is taking place in a few minutes. It is a rampant creation that seems to defy the explanations of evolutionists and fundamentalists. It is like a mescalin vision dreamt by Charles Darwin.

  The film is inspired by the insect collection of Walter Linsenmaier in the natural history museum of Luzern. As each insect follows the other, frame by frame, they appear to unfurl their antennae, scuttle along, flap their wings as if trying to escape the pinions which attach them forever in their display cases. Just for a moment the eye is tricked into believing that these dead creatures still live . . .

  http://www.paulbushfilms.com/films/whiledarwinsleeps.htm
  distribution via VDB and Lux

  cheers

  Stoffel

  Op 30-jul-08, om 12:09 heeft Chen Sheinberg het volgende geschreven:

    Hello,
    does anybody know about experimental films involving insects except "Mothlight" by Brakhage?
    thanks
    chen

    ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Polta" <email suppressed>
    To: <email suppressed>
    Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 8:15 PM
    Subject: Re: perfect films

      One things that I would add to this qualification is that, besides being a found film/video object presented in unaltered form (as found), to me, a "perfect film," as defined (more or less) by Jacobs, is that it (the film) is selected/found by the artist and presented somehow as his or her own work--not in a deceptive way but, with the act of selection and presentation being the artistic gesture, but with a commentary made, perhaps not primarily, on the artists' own work (and yes, this favors artists with established bodies of work). I.e. Jacobs' PERFECT FILM, *seems* like a Jacobs film; WORKS AND DAYS elaborates Frampton's work (the film is actually "signed" by him I believe. Liotta's MOST BEAUTIFUL SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS series too. I would not consider, for example, any of the "Found Film Festival" Wendy's burger flipping type stuff to be "perfect films," strictly speaking. Taking this definition, to state counter to Andrew lampert, the list of "perfect
      films" (strictly speaking) becomes very short, although the use of large parts of unaltered material in works is not.

      Worth mentioning in the discussion is the alleged mis-delivery of the Jesus-on-a-donkey film incorporated into SCORPIO RISING.

      Steve Polta

      --- On Tue, 7/29/08, Scott Stark <email suppressed> wrote:

        From: Scott Stark <email suppressed>
        Subject: Re: perfect films
        To: email suppressed
        Date: Tuesday, July 29, 2008, 8:39 AM
        At 07:51 PM 07/28/2008 -0400, Tom B Whiteside wrote:
>This has been a good thread. My vote for the most
        perfect perfect film
>goes to the eponymous, "Perfect Film" by Ken
        Jacobs. It is truly amazing -
>not only for the story of its existence (cool enough),
        but what it is on
>screen. Unsettling, profound, real.

        One thing that's particularly fascinating about that
        film is that, as I
        understand it, it was a reel of outtakes, spliced together
        by some editor
        as a convenience without any particular structure in mind.
        So what we're
        seeing becomes an inadvertent record of what was not shown,
        which in many
        ways reveals more than the public version probably did. I
        think that's part
        of the irony of Ken's title.

        I remember Jeanne Liotta showing a Hollis Frampton
        ready-made in San
        Francisco a few years ago, with a man and woman tending to
        a small produce
        garden. It was beautiful, simple, and has stuck in my mind
        since then.
        Don't recall the title though.

        Some long-time frameworkers may remember a discussion I
        started back in the
        mid-90s (yes, frameworks is going on 13 years old!) about a
        group of
        amateur films by a guy named Fred McLeod who made a
        charming little 16mm
        opus about his golf swing. The Orgone Cinema folks were
        showing it as an
        art film. There was an interesting discussion about
        artistic intentionality
        and transplanting things from their original context. The
        discussion's no
        longer in the archive but digest versions of all archives
        are available on
        request from the site (http://www.hi-beam.net/fw/).

        Scott

        __________________________________________________________________
        For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
        <email suppressed>.

      __________________________________________________________________
      For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.

    __________________________________________________________________
    For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.

  Stoffel Debuysere
  email suppressed
  www.diagonalthoughts.com

  __________________________________________________________________ For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.

__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.