New artists’ works for cinema commissioned by LUX and SPACEX

6 new artists’ films to show before feature films in intervene into the cinema going experience. The films premiered at Frieze Art Fair (21-24 October 2005) and, from early 2006 are touring cinemas across the UK.

The films are being toured to UK cinemas through the Independent Cinema Office.

For all other distribution enquiries including exhibition of individual works and international screenings and exhibitions please contact LUX

A Movie is a South West Screen and Film London project in collaboration with LUX, SPACEX and the Independent Cinema Office. The project is funded by Arts Council England national touring fund and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

The Films

Half Hitching Post

Half Hitching Post
Yang Fudong
2005, 6 mins
Format: BetaSP/ DVD
An Sai, Shanbei,
An isolated village on the Loess Plateau, Northern China.
Two young outsiders are moving in,
While two young locals are struggling to escape.
Comes into view a donkey loaded with luggage,
Comes also into view a young couple,
He carries her on a bike...

The March of the Big White Barbarians
Mark Leckey with Jack Too Jack
2005, 5 mins
Format Beta SP/DVD
London 's Public Sculptures are articulated by concrete poetry of Maurice Lemaitre in a free translation by Leckey's Jack Too Jack.

Man and Mask

Man and Mask
Daria Martin
2005, 5 mins
Format: 35mm
This short film reflects on the present state of cinema as celluloid. Resisting the advances of digitised media, Man and Mask celebrates, in a playful way, the medium of film itself: its material magic. This new film continues Daria Martin's investigations into the aspirations and limitations of modern ideals. By drawing a parallel between celluloid film and masks made with 'primitive' means, the film draws attention to two mediums on the edge of becoming outmoded, yet with undeniable and enduring appeal. Man and Mask asks questions, in an entertaining way, about film's qualities: its physicality, its trickery, its paradoxical opacity and transparency. The work oscillates between artifice and acting, using masks in a literal sense – 'masking' and unmasking, layering and stripping away.

L'Education Sentimentale

L'Education sentimentale
Jimmy Robert
2005, 5 mins
Format: 35mm
"Bas Jan Ader disappeared at sea over 30 years ago. My new film acts as an intervention on his filmed performances. In five minutes I attempt to locate myself within his vocabulary, re-enacting gestures that I identify with, whether these gestures come from record covers, such as David Bowie's 'Heroes' or 'The Idiot' by Iggy Pop or appropriations and transformations of B J Ader's own work. My intention is to underline his importance as an influential figure in my work." JR

7am

7am
Imogen Stidworthy
2005, 5 mins
Format: Beta SP/DVD (surround sound)
Partly shot in the Beijing in the Temple of Heaven Park, Stidworthy's film focuses on the early morning exercises of individuals among the trees, which are spread irregularly across a huge grassy area. The slow motion of these movements is juxtaposed with hand-held video footage shot in Shanghai of hip-hop competitors as they sit, chat, pose and try out their gymnastic dance moves. The Beijing movements range from Tai-Chi stillness to fast sweeps of the limbs, vigorous slapping of the body, banging of the back against a tree trunk, and pacing in geometric patterns and circles. Every movement is sustained for at least five minutes and up to two hours, their accumulated rhythms gradually building up into a visual complexity and a musical/percussive soundscape.

Optical Sound

Optical Sound
Mika Taanila
2005, 5 mins
Format: 35mm cinemascope
Taanila's film is based on the live performance of the Symphony for 12 Dot Matrix Printers by the Canadian artist duo [The User]. The film intercuts close-ups of the mechanical parts of the printers performing the piece, taken from surveillance cameras placed inside the machines, with images of the ASCII files' score being played, which has been photocopied straight onto clear film without the use of a camera. These live images are contrasted with time-lapse footage of large modern office blocks shot from the streets, at dawn and dusk, in Helsinki.