Deep 1 (35mm)

Philip Hoffman

15 min

Filmed over 2 years (2020-2022), at home and away, Deep 1 is a diaristic meditation, flower/plant processed and decayed with hyacinth and lichen extract. Winged and four legged animals, both wild and domestic, traverse the frame marked by a hand-made practice. Filmed in Mount Forest, Ontario and Dawson City, Yukon. —Philip Hoffman

Black Rectangle (16mm)

Rhayne Vermette

2 min

“Time has not been kind to Kasimir Malevich’s painting, Black Square. In 1915 when the work was first displayed the surface of the square was pristine and pure; now the black paint has cracked revealing the white ground like mortar in crazy paving.”

This film documents a tedious process of dismantling and reassembling 16 mm found footage. The film collage imitates functions of a curtain, while the recorded optical track describes the flm’s subsequent destruction during its first projection. —Rhayne Vermette

*Print courtesy of the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection at the Walker Art Center w/ special thanks to Patricia Ledesma Villon.

Domus (16mm)

Rhayne Vermette

16 min

"The block of marble is the most beautiful of all statues" - Carlo Mollino

This is the story of the godlike architect, Carlo Mollino, animated within the desk space of failed architect, Rhayne Vermette. Made, with love on 16mm, 35 and Super 8, this classic tale of Pygmalion investigates intersections between cinema and architecture. For E. Ackerman, A. Jarnow, and T. Ito. —Rhayne Vermette

*Print courtesy of the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection at the Walker Art Center w/ special thanks to Patricia Ledesma Villon.

A Shifting Pattern (16mm)

Isaac Sherman

6 min

Across the first minute of Isaac Sherman’s A Shifting Pattern, brief filmic phrases—close views of flowers and buds, each between 1 and 5 frames—appear at irregular intervals, generally in the range of every two seconds, as the soundtrack hums with outdoor ambience. A single, quick synth tone signals a turn: the montage accelerates, drawing the Markopoulos-style opening into outright flicker (Sherman continues to make precise use of black frames, creating a dense composition of afterimages, layered and fugal), as saxophone and flute join the synthesizer and field recordings in a similarly accumulative arc that moves from sparse 3-note phrases into a full arrangement which sounds like the record Laurie Spiegel never released on Mego. The botanical world is among the more common subjects for the flicker film, but when matched with the witty sense of fleeting pleasure imbued by the soundtrack, Sherman’s sumptuous and extravagant floral still lives—with their deft handling of light and shadow, of contrasts in color and scale—feel appropriately fresh. —Phil Coldiron

*Please note*
- This film contains some strobing images.

Measuring 500 Feet (16mm)

Abigail He

14 min

Dimensions: 500 ft. x 5/8 in. x 1/128 in. (15240 x 1.6 x .02 cm) overall: 547 ft. x 5/8 in. x 1/128 in. (16672.6 x 1.6 x .02 cm) —Abigail He

Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke (16mm)

Tomonari Nishikawa

6min

Fireworks were shot at a summer festival in Japan with a Super 16 format camera in order to obtain images on the optical soundtrack area on the filmstrip. The position of the photocell to read the visual information on the optical soundtrack area in a 16mm film projector is 26 frames in advance of the position of the gate to project the image. Each footage from 2 rolls of 16mm film were cut into shots of 26 frames each, and the shots were alternated from one roll to another, which would further separate the sound and visual, while producing a distinct rhythm throughout the film. —Tomonari Nishikawa

After moving away, with 2019’s 'Amusement Ride', from the processed and layered frames that marked the first decade and a half of his career, Tomonari Nishikawa continues his elaboration of a new cinema of attractions in 'Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke.' In typically reflexive fashion, he adapts the editing of A and B rolls into a sort of two-chord jam, alternating between a pair of fireworks displays, allowing images of embers and aftermath to spill onto the optical soundtrack, which becomes an out-of-sync field of pops and crackles. The title, it turns out, is quite literal: the search for a novel way to document a familiar experience modulates into a subtle essay on repetition and recognition. —Phil Coldiron

Tricks Are For Kiddo (16mm)

Rhayne Vermette

3 min

In 2010, Winnipeg director, Guy Maddin exclaims “it’s impossible to collage a film!”
—Rhayne Vermette

*Print courtesy of the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection at the Walker Art Center w/ special thanks to Patricia Ledesma Villon.

Glitter For Girls

Federica Foglia

4 min

Glitter for Girls is a handmade tattoo film that utilizes a camera-less direct-on-film animation approach to collage multiple layers of water tattoos (commonly used by children.) —Federica Foglia