In the second part of the cycle, Georgy Zhzhenov talks about himself and about his life in prisons and the zones in which he had to sit. The geography of the sorrowful path is extensive: Leningrad (Kresty prison), Vladivostok, Magadan - from his hometown to the Far East, where the first years of hard labor of Georgy Stepanovich took place.
An experimental digital video exploring the illusions of cinematic movement and depth as corollaries of Zeno's paradox: There is no motion because that which is moved must arrive at the middle of its course before it arrives at the end.
"In Seeking Grace an elegant older woman (Gina) walks calmly with a flower pot on her head, her physical balance and confidence a metaphor for the grace I seek in my own life. Indeed, this footage was shot because Gina told me I had terrible posture and demonstrated for me her ability to walk straight while balancing a heavy object, something the nuns had forced her to do in school. In Seeking Grace, the idea of grace encompasses but also goes beyond the notion of the body, referring to a deeper ongoing metaphysical quest." - Sara Angelucci
A girl smashes a car with a sledge hammer.
“Office Window is a view from my cubicle on the sixth floor of Thirteen/WNET’s old address at 450 West 33rd Street in the early 2000s, overlooking the current site of Hudson Yards. The music is from an acetate that I bought at a now-closed thrift shop on 10th Avenue and 46th Street. While not exactly nostalgic, the video is a tribute to my old workplace and the transience of things” (David Reisman). (Screened 2/17/22 at MoMA as part of Millennium Film Workshop: “Nighttime” NYC event).
The most striking thing about observing Niagara Falls is that they don’t seem to be falling at all. Being so vast they give the impression of doing just the opposite. This idea comes to mind and the body to feel elevated and rotated with its force. Like as ‘look’ is to ‘leap’, naming this portrait of Niagara’s water-ous site, “Fl.oz” is descriptive by way of a metaphoric matrix of bubbly spit volleyed from the tip of the tongue to contribute to all the world’s great oceans in a barrel-suited outfit of onomatopoeic humor, is an attempt to allude to all that is other than looking that has to do with apprehension.
And the sun also rises! The filmed autobiography of the Viennese electrician Walter Stoschek who taped his life from 1968 to 1986. Always revering to an imaginary audience, he records every important as well as every not so important incident of his life with a S8 camera.
10 minutes of black film.
For over 20 years, a quiet abandoned movie theatre has lain dormant, until three strangers force themselves in from the cold.
Mutzenbecher films his immediate surroundings - his daughter in a flower dress, a glass of water, window bars, a plastic horse, and himself repeatedly walking out onto the balcony to smoke and - also sitting on the windowsill, also smoking. Carefully framed double exposures and corrections to the framing are exploratory movements - "Which view?" "Which image?" The repetition of sequences at different speeds broadens the scope of this search into the media: "How to show?"
Kurtal – Snake Spirit tells the story of Spider, a sprightly 80 year old Aboriginal elder who travels from Fitzroy Crossing into the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia to visit a jila - a sacred waterhole. Spider is one of the main custodians responsible for the practices that take place there. For the first time, he is taking his family and community elders back to his birthplace, where he will communicate with their ancestors through Kurtal, the Snake Spirit in an ancient ritual. This unique documentary examines the ongoing change faced by a remote Aboriginal community and their determination to maintain their close links to birthplace and country. It shows the passing on of traditional knowledge from father to son and grandson, and the vital and sustained connection to ancestry and customs. It is a celebration of strong tradition and culture thriving through the spirit and willingness of the next generation.
8mm film by Shigeta Uchimura.
2003
This homage to Ernie Gehr's famous film, working with movement and spatial illusions through the use of quick edits, becomes a physical experiment of its own, with the length of shots determined by the intensity of the sense of motion.
"Through a narrative in which action remains relatively static and intrigue is expressed abstractly through the composer John Davis' classical music and jazz sound track, the women's mundane tasks mirror each other, creating a structural parity between the two channels of the installation. Each channel not only reflects the other but also correlates to it: one woman's exit signals the other's entrance, thus making each image dependent upon the other. While the women's homes, dress, and technological access reveal a century's worth of creature-comfort advances, the two scenes emphasize the continuities of their moments over what might be the expected narrative of racial progress in the hundred years following the end of slavery." -Thomas J. Lax
