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LUX is pleased to present a digital restoration of the feature-length film Argument (1978) by Anthony McCall and Andrew Tyndall. The film is being re-released, along with a new edition of the book which originally accompanied it (available through the LUX shop). See below for details.
TOURING VENUES AND DATES
Launch: 2 February 2006, The Whitechapel Gallery,
London (UK) www.whitechapel.org
31 March - 9 April 2006, 4th Magis Spring School, Udine www.damsweb.it/udineconference
4 April 2006, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow (UK) www.cca-glasgow.com
24 April 2006, Ocularis, New York (USA)
www.ocularis.net
8 June 2006, Argos, Brussels www.argosarts.org
5 October 2006, Chicago Filmmakers, USA www.chicagofilmmakers.org
21 June 2007, Critical Positions, Brighton www.criticalpositions.org
24 January 2007, Rotterdam Film Festival, Netherlands www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com
6 February 2007, University of Wisconsin, USA www4.uwm.edu
11 March 2007, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA www.whitney.org
ARGUMENT
(Anthony McCall & Andrew Tyndall, US, 1978, video, 84 mins)
"The twin principles of modernism and marketing: seeing fresh promise in familiar things"
Anthony McCall and Andrew Tyndall's legendary and provocative essay film Argument, first screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1978, has been almost unseen for the last twenty years. LUX has now made a new High Definition restoration of the film, and its trenchant analysis of media ideology seems more pertinent than ever.
Three male voices dissect one edition of The New York Times through a series of locked-off shots, revealing the prejudice and latent content of news and advertisements, reading images as texts and presenting text as an image. Fashion photographs are used as a starting point for a political investigation of news, advertising, and images of masculinity - while at the same time, the filmmakers reflect on their own position and the possibility of radical film practice. Influenced by both the American and European avant-gardes, notably Godard and Hollis Frampton, Argument is stylistically beautiful and relentless in its enquiry.
All of the original screenings of Argument included a discussion and the film was part of a wider project which included a book of writing and images from the film, which LUX is republishing to coincide with the re-release of the film.
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ANTHONY MCCALL & ANDREW TYNDALL
Anthony McCall began making performances and films in the UK in 1971, moving to New York in 1973. He has exhibited worldwide in museums and galleries, and is internationally famous for his 'solid light' films such as Line Describing a Cone (also distributed by LUX).
Andrew Tyndall is now a well-know US media commentator, whose website The Tyndall Report (www.tyndallreport.com) provides in-depth monitoring of television news.
TOURING – INFORMATION FOR VENUES
Argument, originally a 16mm film, is now available in a new digitally-restored version as either Beta SP, DVCAM or DVD. The rental is £100 for UK venues, £150 for international venues (excluding VAT and shipping).
The accompanying book is available to venues at wholesale rates.
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THE ARGUMENT BOOK
“Typesetting is political: this has rarely been registered as acutely
as in Anthony McCall and Andrew Tyndall’s Argument project. The decision
here to reproduce the Argument book as a complete facsimile of the 1979 edition
is partly a recognition that fonts are as historical as fashions (another of
Argument’s preoccupations). Fashion and film, as McCall and Tyndall suggest,
both make images to be read – both are hieroglyphic. But written language
is itself also an image. This makes the ethos, and pathos, of Argument’s
fonts one of many underexplored connections between McCall and Tyndall’s
project and the conceptual art of contemporaneous New York.”
– from the introduction to the new edition by Mike Sperlinger & Ian
White
Alongside the restored version of the film, LUX is pleased to be republishing the book by Anthony McCall and Andrew Tyndall which was originally published alongside it.
As well as being a sustained investigation into the semiotics of newspapers and magazines, the Argument project turned the spotlight on the issues around making and screening 'political' films. These ideas, which are present in the film, are developed further in the book, which includes three important essays by McCall and Tyndall: ‘Sixteen Working Statements’, ‘Artist as Businessman’ and ‘Against the Numbers Theory’. The book also features images from the film, as well as responses and reviews of the original screenings by Jane Weinstock, David Himelfarb and Claire Pajaczkowska.
The new edition includes a complete facsimile of the third edition from 1979, along with a new introduction, an account of the original screenings of the film and additional images. It costs £5 (which includes postage and packing) and can be purchased directly from LUX – see the shop page of the website.
