28.11.18
Das Ist Kunst screening
Spectacle Theatre
124 S. 3rd St
Brooklyn, NY 11249
United States
Dim and dusty short works by deranging visual artists hailing from Brookyln, Berlin, Mexico City, Oakland, and Los Angeles; all in the game of deviously manipulating precious 16mm film. With brand new releases featuring slick & savvy in-camera 16mm Bolex tricks, nail-polish splotched emulsion, decaying film chemical experiments from six-feet under, and more, all returning to the spinning spool to haunt your digitally drained eyelids.
Curated by Julie Orlick
Filmmakers: Julie Orlick, Johnny Welch, Amalia Irons, Annalisa Quagilata, Arc, Alex Faoro, Fernando Velez.
Screened Discharge Working II (2018).
27.11.18
Sonic Intangible (2016) review by Grant Phipps for Tone Madison
The Mills Folly Microcinema series returns for its second showcase of short films since its inaugural screening this summer at ALL. “Film-Makers’ Cooperative: New Work 2018” focuses exclusively on the New York-based, artist-run distributor of the exemplary avant-garde. Curated by FMC members Mary Billyou, Carolina Mandia, and Courtney Muller, this 77-minute program boasts 11 shorts of varying lengths that have all premiered in recent years.
Maybe the most intellectually stimulating here, Johnny Welch’s Sonic Intangible (2016), is a vital commentary on artistic perception and creation, which also doubles as a musical travelogue through the musical underground of London, Berlin, and Paris. Collectively, its three sections form a cohesive essay with accompanying voiceover, beginning with Max Leonard Hitchings, who characterizes the transportive power of the medium through his noisy industrial rock stage moniker Amnertia. The middle section heads to Berlin for Zoé Zanias (of Keluar)’s postulating on rhythm. The rapid-fire drum machine beats of her darkwave synthpop act’s profiled song, “Rivers,” conjure Portishead’s “Machine Gun.” Parisian musique concrète noisemaker Andy Bolus of Evil Moisture concludes this 16-minute short with further abstract ruminations on identity and intention.
25.10.18
Introduction by Klaus W. Eisenlohr for Directors Lounge
Johnny Welch, filmmaker and photographer from Sydney, Australia lives in Berlin for more than 3 years and is an active member of Labor Berlin. Since coming to Berlin, his work has become more strongly connected with the aesthetic of analog film, with the possibilities of optical printing. Even if edited and projected digitally, analog compositing seems to allow him to create a richer image of high density and depth.
Based on black and white techniques (mostly), the films seem to explore sheer blackness, instead of a black and white aesthetic. Strongly connected with punk music, dark wave and electronic noise, the filmmaker achieves a stunning quality of deep black color with his films. Experimental techniques of emulsion lifts and cracks, combined with black ink, sometimes with an additional tint of red or toning with blue, are combined with dark images of male and female characters. The driving rhythm of the sound track enhances the impression of blackness. Another connection is Aleister Crowley, a controversial figure, and a British occultist from the beginning of the 20th century who inspired a number of important artists and filmmakers like Kenneth Anger and even Fernando Pessoa. Welch’s film Aurum (super8 / digital) from 2018 is a contribution to Crowley’s Liber 777, a book related to occult or cabalistic games with numbers. For Johnny Welch, the occupation and meditation with occult theory may be a search for liberating ideas, or it may even be used as a release from the haunting personal messages once ago sent by peers. (Discharge Working I and II, 2017/18).
For the viewer, the work has an attracting, maybe haunting quality, tinted with a stunning black color. The black sun (in Aurum) for example is an amazing symbol without the need of occult references, and it is a beautiful image interwoven with blackness of painted film material that may stay in the mind of the viewer as a striking image on its own account. The artist will be present and available for Q&A after the screening.
Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr
6.10.18
Exploding Cinema screening
The Cinema Museum
2 Dugard Way
SE11 4TH London
United Kingdom
Exploding Cinema is back at the Cinema Museum showing a programme of independent shorts submitted from all over the world. Drama, Documentary, Animation, Experimental, weird and wonderful share the main screen, while the rest of the walls (and the ceiling) play host to the Exploding Cinema’s legendary eclectic psychedelic visuals projection show.
Screened Discharge Working I (2017).
16.9.18
Varia Vision: LaborBerlin Film Collective Film to the people
Roter Salon / Volksbühne
Rosa-Luzemburg-Platz,
10178 Berlin
Deutschland
(translated from German)
LaborBerlin presents a selection of recent films and performances by individual artists working in a collective context. These works testify to the value of individual freedom achieved through cooperation, solidarity and mutual support.
LaborBerlin eV sees itself as a non-commercial, independent film collective that is open to anyone who is interested in self-organized initiatives and especially in analog film practice, with an experimental approach and Do It Yourself character. In addition, LaborBerlin serves as a platform for the exchange and support of ideas and experiences related to cinematic work.
Each new member gets an introduction to the use of the laboratory equipment. The goal is that each member can work independently in the laboratory. Furthermore, LaborBerlin independently or in cooperation with other collectives or institutions organises screenings and regularly organises workshops in which different aspects of analog film production are taught.
Curated by Giulio Bursi
Filmmakers: Johnny Welch, Björn Speidel, Sophie Watzlawick, Bernd Lützeler, Laurence Favre, Luisa Greenfield, Natalia Fentisova, Katrin Eissing & Melina Pafundi, Anja Dornieden & Juan David Gonzalez Monroy.
Screened Discharge Working II (2018).