STAN BRAKHAGE
CRACK GLASS EULOGY
USA, 1992, sound, colour, 6 mins
Music by Rick Corrigan.

A nostalgic envisionment of city living - the potential shards of memory seen as if always on the verge of cutting the mind to pieces ... "Nostalgia is the most dangerous thought process" - poet Charles Olson, mid '60s.

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HOLLIS FRAMPTON
(nostalgia) *NEW PRINT*
USA, 1971, sound, B&W, 36 mins, 16mm

As its name suggests, (nostalgia) is autobiographical. Its maker, Hollis Frampton, is recognised as one of the leading figures of the New American Cinema, a contemporary of Michael Snow, Paul Sharits and George Landow. This film, made in 1971 and itself part of a larger work called Hapax Legomena relates to a period between 1958 and 1966- before Frampton was known as a film-maker and was working mainly in still photography. Twelve photographs are presented as 'documents' of that period. A number are of friends in the New York art world, others are images that were of aesthetic interest. The tone throughout is dry and ironic. Each photograph is presented to the camera and a voice, speaking in the first person, describes the content of the image, the personal circumstances that surround it and the memories it evokes. After a minute or so when the commentary has ceased, each photograph gradually curls up and burns, transformed into black ash by the hotplate on which each in turn is placed. The structure of the film is complicated by the fact that the commentary for each image is 'out of synch': each commentary fits the photograph to follow not the one before our eyes. The spectator himself is thus caught up in the process of memory and prediction that are the subject of the film.

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JOHN LATHAM
ERTH
UK, 1971, sound, colour, 25 mins, 16mm

A journey from outer space to the centre of the world, in which consciousness itself is revealed as a form sedimented history. With distant views of the approaching Earth punctuated by black and silence, light years are compressed into a cosmic imaginary.

Made with funding from the National Coal Board.

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JOOST REKVELD
#11, MAREY<->MOIRÉ
Netherlands, 1999, sound, colour, 23 mins, 35mm Cinemascope

#11, Marey <-> Moiré is an abstract composition of light and sound in which the mechanics and optics of cinema are not the means but the end. Images are generated using long stroboscopic exposures, resulting in a neo primitive kind of op-art. A tribute to the scientists who laid the foundations for the film medium.

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JOHN SMITH
B & B
UK, 2005, 10 mins, video

Made in the UK, November 25th 2005.

The perception of an Anglo-American hotel room is coloured by new revelations about 'The War on Terror' and 'The Special Relationship' that exists between Britain and the USA. B &B is the fourth video in the "Hotel Diaries" series, a collection of late night recordings made in foreign hotel rooms which relate personal experiences to contemporary world events.

Other works in the "Hotel Diaries" series currently include "Frozen War" (Ireland, October 8th 2001),"Museum Piece" (Germany, October 14th 2004) and "Throwing Stones" (Switzerland, November 13th 2004). The works can be shown individually or as a chronological group.

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VICKY SMITH
STACKING
UK, 2006, sound, colour, 7 mins, 16mm

Direct liquid animation is stacked into multiple human forms. The body struggles to adapt, but the restless paint is unstable and eventually the image congeals into a muddy meltdown.

The body is a means of exploring tensions between individual and collective consciousness. Psychological states are expressed through the physical distortion of the body which mutates, exceeds its limits and is dispersed through space.

I perform my voice and make audible the sounds of the body in the physical process of painting, filming and struggling with the material.

The atmosphere of material dirt and decay is emphasised by heightened use of film ‘noise’, while ‘found’ sound extends the language of multiplicity and inseparability between individual and environment.

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MICHAEL SNOW
SSHTOORRTY
Canada, 2005, 20 mins, DVD

SSHTOORRTY is the image of a staged event which has been divided into 2 halves each superimposed (sound and picture) one on top of the other. The title is the word SHORT superimposed on the word STORY. It's a "painting" about a painting in which Before and After become a Transparent Now. Arrival and Departure are unified.

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