Spring Film Series: Geometric Hallucinations

Thursday, May 10, at 8pm

Ranging in length from 2 to 20 minutes, and containing work from the early 1920’s up through today, these films eschew narrative structure and often depart from literal representation altogether in favor of exploring new ways of pure visual expression. As featured filmmaker John Whitney puts it, these films often attempt “to bypass the intellect and appeal to the emotions directly,” much like music or poetry.

But despite the lyrical and often psychedelic nature of these works, it’s difficult not to be awestruck by the amazing creativity and ingenuity at work here, as each of these filmmakers not only explore new means of representation but also new technical means of creativity as well.

All films will be shown in their originial 16mm format, and admission to this event is free. Click below to read more about the specific films:

We’ll start with Spirals and Wax Experiments by Bridge fan-favorite Oskar Fischinger, whose groundbreaking work with stop-motion animation in Wiemar-era Germany would pave the way for his later post-war masterpieces in the US (including uncredited work on Disney’s Fantasia);

Six short films by New Zealand-born artist Len Lye, including Colour Box, the first hand-painted film ever screened for a live audience, as well as several of his later films made in the US, including Colour Cry, Particles in Space, Tal Farlow, Rhythm, and Free Radicals; all of which involve working without a camera and marking on the film surface directly with a range of dyes, stencils, stamps, and air-brushing techniques;

Tablecloth, a single-channel work by Sandra Gibson, who was last seen in Charlottesville along with Luis Recoder back in February, when the two of them put on an incredible live-projection-performance at Vinegar Hill at an event sponsored by the Virginia Film Society; the film shown tonight was made by ironing a plastic tablecloth directly onto clear film leader;

OffOn by Scott Bartlett, which contains some of the first examples of video footage transferred to film, and which blurs the boundaries between recognizable representation and purely abstract imagery;

..and finally, a pair of films by the brothers John and James Whitney, whose astonishing work with early computer animation beginning in the 1960’s produced a series of pscychedelic masterpieces which are not only mind-boggling in complexity and technical achievement, but which are also breathtakingly sublime. We’ll watch Arabesque and Lapis, as well as Experiments in Motion Graphics, a short documentary by John Whitney himself, which not only documents and explains the brilliant filmmaker process he pioneered, but which also serves as a unique source of inspiration for any artist who struggles to create works of personal expression using complex technical means.