Date: 23 October 2011 | Season: London Film Festival 2011 | Tags: London Film Festival
INTIMATE VISION: FILMS BY CHICK STRAND
Sunday 23 October 2011, at 2pm
London BFI Southbank NFT3
As one of the instigators of Canyon Cinema, Chick Strand (1931-2009) was at the heart of 1960s West Coast avant-garde. Her film work, comprising of found footage and personally photographed material, has been rarely seen in the UK and is presented now in newly preserved prints. Strand’s camera is almost continually in motion, catching details in kinetic close-up to convey celebrations of intimacy and the joys of living.
Chick Strand, Cartoon le Mousse, USA, 1979, 15 min
In her collage films, Strand uses the magic of editing to conjure surreal humour from the connections between disparate fragments.
Chick Strand, Mosori Monika, USA, 1970, 20 min
The impact of American missionaries on the Warao Indians in Venezuela is considered from the viewpoints of women from each side.
Chick Strand, Angel Blue Sweet Wings, USA, 1966, 3 min
A multi-layered cine-poem apropos life and vision.
Chick Strand, Loose Ends, USA, 1979, 25 min
Found footage is used to convey the effect of information overload, finding wit and pathos in the complicated synthesis of personal experience and media assault.
Chick Strand, Artificial Paradise, USA, 1986, 13 min
‘The anthropologist’s most human desire: the ultimate contact with the informant. The denial of intellectualism and the acceptance of the romantic heart, and a soul without innocence.’ (CS)
Chick Strand, Kristallnacht, USA, 1979, 7 min
‘Dedicated to the memory of Anne Frank, and the tenacity of the human spirit.’ (CS)
Also Screening: Thursday 27 October 2011, at 9pm, NFT3
PROGRAMME NOTES
INTIMATE VISION: FILMS BY CHICK STRAND
Sunday 23 October 2011, at 2pm
London BFI Southbank NFT3
For most of her filmmaking career, the integrity of Chick Strand’s vision lay aslant of prevailing fashions, so that only belatedly did the full significance of her radically pioneering work in ethnographic, documentary, feminist, and compilation filmmaking – and above all, in the innovation of a unique film language created across these modes – become clear. Though feminism and other currents of her times are woven through her films and though her powerful teaching presence sustained the ideals of underground film in several film schools in Los Angeles, hers was essentially a school of one. (David James, The Most Typical Avant-Garde)
CARTOON LE MOUSSE
Chick Strand, USA, 1979, 16mm, b/w, sound, 15 min
Chick Strand is a prolific and prodigiously gifted film artist who seems to break new ground with each new work. Her recent ‘found footage’ works, such as Cartoon le Mousse, are extraordinarily beautiful, moving, visionary pieces that push this genre into previously unexplored territory. If poetry is the art of making evocative connections between otherwise dissimilar phenomena, then Chick Strand is a great poet, for these films transcend their material to create a surreal and sublime universe beyond reason. (Gene Youngblood)
MOSORI MONIKA
Chick Strand, USA, 1970, 16mm, colour, sound, 20 min
An expressive documentary about women in the Third World. This is an ethnographic film about two cultures that have encountered one another. The Spanish Franciscan Missionaries went to Venezuela in 1945 to ‘civilize’ the Warao Indians, who live in the swamps on the Orinoco River Delta. Before the missionaries came, the Waraos lived in relative isolation and were little affected by the outside world. The relationship between the Indians and the missionaries is simple on the surface, but it is manifested in a complex change of techniques, values and lifestyle which have indelibly altered the Warao vision of life. The acculturation is presented from two viewpoints. A nun tells how the Indians lived when the missionaries arrived and what the nuns have done to ‘improve’ conditions, both spiritually and materially. An old Warao Indian woman tells what she feels has been the important experiences in her life. The two viewpoints are structured in counterpoint so that the deeper aspects of the juxtaposition of the modern culture over the old becomes apparent through the revelations of the two women. (Chick Strand)
ANGEL BLUE SWEET WINGS
Chick Strand, USA, 1966, 16mm, colour, sound, 3 min
An experimental film poem in celebration of life and visions. Techniques include live action, animation, montage and found images. (Chick Strand)
LOOSE ENDS
Chick Strand, USA, 1979, 16mm, b/w, sound, 25 min
Loose Ends is a collage film about the process of internalizing the information that bombards us through a combination of personal experience and media in all forms. Speeding through our senses in ever-increasing numbers and complicated mixtures of fantasy, dream and reality from both outside and in, these fragmented images of life, sometimes shared by all, sometimes isolated and obscure, but with common threads, lead us to a state of psychological entropy tending toward a uniform inertness … an insensitive uninvolvement in the human condition and our own humanity. (Chick Strand)
ARTIFICIAL PARADISE
Chick Strand, USA, 1986, 16mm, colour, sound, 13 min
Aztec romance and the dream of love. The anthropologist’s most human desire – the ultimate contact with the informant. The denial of intellectualism and the acceptance of the romantic heart, and a soul without innocence. (Chick Strand)
KRISTALLNACHT
Chick Strand, USA, 1979, 16mm, b/w, sound, 7 min
Dedicated to the memory of Anne Frank, and the tenacity of the human spirit. (Chick Strand)
Loose Ends was preserved by Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley. All other films preserved by Pacific Film Archive and Academy Film Archive, Los Angeles, with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
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