The Illiac Passion

THE ILLIAC PASSION
Saturday 23 May 2015, at 8:15pm
Zurich Videoex Festival

Throughout his life, Markopoulos remained closely connected to his heritage and made many works that connected with ancient Greek culture. The Illiac Passion, one of his most highly acclaimed films, is a visionary interpretation of ‘Prometheus Bound’ starring mythical beings from the 1960s underground. The cast includes Jack Smith, Taylor Mead, Beverly Grant, Gregory Battcock and Gerard Malanga, and Andy Warhol appears as Poseidon riding an exercise bike. The extraordinary soundtrack of this re-imagining of the classical realm features a fractured reading (by the filmmaker) of Henry Thoreau’s translation of the Aeschylus text and excerpts from Bartók’s Cantata Profana. Writing about this erotic odyssey, Markopoulos asserted that, “the players become but the molecules of the nude protagonist, gyrating and struggling, all in love, bound and unbound, from situation to situation in the vast sea of emotion.”

Gregory J. Markopoulos, The Illiac Passion, 1964-67, USA, 16mm, colour, sound, 91 min 

Gregory J. Markopoulos: Early Films of the 40s & 50s

GREGORY J. MARKOPOULOS: EARLY FILMS OF THE 40s & 50s
Sunday 24 May 2015, at 6:30pm
Zurich Videoex Festival

Having made 8mm films as a child, Markopoulos sought to advance his knowledge of filmmaking by enrolling at the USC Film School, where he attended lectures by Joseph von Sternberg and observed productions of Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock and Alexander Korda. His first 16mm film, Psyche, was made in Los Angeles at this time, concurrent with the first films by Curtis Harrington and Kenneth Anger. Abandoning his studies after only three semesters, he returned to his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, and completed some half dozen films. These early works often explore themes of sexual awakening and the anxiety of coming to terms with homosexuality in an age of repression. In the mid-1950s, the filmmaker embarked on the ill-fated feature Serenity in Greece before re-emerging with Twice a Man (1963), the work that secured Markopoulos’ position as one of independent cinema’s leading figures.

Gregory J. Markopoulos, Psyche, 1947, 24 min
Gregory J. Markopoulos, Christmas-USA-1949, 1950, 13 min
Gregory J. Markopoulos, Eldora, 1953, 11 min
Gregory J. Markopoulos & Robert C. Freeman, Swain, 1950, 20 min

Gregory J. Markopoulos

GREGORY J. MARKOPOULOS
Sunday 25 October 2015, at 3:45pm
Lisbon Doclisboa at Culturgest

Figura ímpar na história do cinema, Markopoulos abandonou os Estados Unidos, depois de ter sido uma das figuras cimeiras do New American Cinema, vindo, inclusivamente, a retirar os seus filmes de circulação. Na última década da sua vida, dedicou-se a rever e a reeditar os seus filmes desde finais dos anos 1940, num projecto de 80 horas, Eniaios (palavra grega, significan- do “carácter único” e “unidade”), ciclo que, enquanto tal, e como um ritual, se destina a ser visto cada quatro anos, num sítio único, Temenos.

Gregory J. Markopoulos, Gilbert and George (ENIAIOS III – Reel 1), 1975/1989-91, 12 min
Markopoulos retratou artistas como Moravia, Nureyev ou De Chirico. Este retrato da dupla Gilbert & George é marcado pela ausência da imagem interrompida por fragmentos dos corpos destas duas esculturas vivas, e pela ausência de movimento.

Gregory J. Markopoulos, Genius (ENIAIOS – Reels 2, 3, 4), 1970/1989-91, 80 min
Um retrato triplo, inspirado na lenda de Fausto, do artista britânico David Hockney, do pintor surrealista argentino Leonor Fini e do comerciante de arte Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. Com uma estrutura calculada, Genius constitui a secção central de Eniaios III.

Projecção precedida da apresentação do livro Film as Film: The Collected Writings of Gregory J. Markopoulos, organizado por Mark Webber, com um prefácio de P. Adams Sitney e publicado por The Visible Press (2014).

Little Stabs at Happiness

LITTLE STABS AT HAPPINESS
Friday 15 January 2016, at 8pm
London Short Film Festival at the ICA Theatre

A revival of Little Stabs at Happiness, the legendary music and film club presented by Mark Webber at the ICA from 1997 to 2000. Early evening experimental films and contemporary music will be followed by a rare screening of The Savage Eye, all shown on 16mm film, just the way it should be. When the credits roll, the volume rises, as original Little Stabs DJs and special guests spin disco anthems, new wave big beats and smash hits of yesteryear.

8pm: Quiet Music & Underground Movies
Thom Andersen, Olivia’s Place, 1966, 16mm, 6 min
Lewis Klahr, Pony Glass, 1998, 16mm, 15 min
Laida Lertxundi, My Tears Are Dry, 2009, 16mm, 4 min

9.30pm: Feature Film
Ben Maddow, Sydney Meyers & Joseph Strick, The Savage Eye, 1960, 68 min
A single woman tours the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, searching for hope but seeing only despair.

11pm: Music & Dancing
Real songs with a beat you can dance to. 

Peter Gidal: Close Up

PETER GIDAL: CLOSE UP
Wednesday 16 March 2016, at 7pm
Newcastle AV Festival at Northern Carter

This rare screening of Peter Gidal’s ‘feature length’ film Close Up (1983) anticipates the publication of Flare Out: Aesthetics 1966–2016, a collection of essays by one of film’s great polemicists. Gidal was a central figure during the formative years of the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative, whose 50th anniversary is being celebrated throughout 2016, and made some its most radical works. His cinema is anti-narrative, against representation and fiercely materialist. In Close Up, Gidal’s political, ultra-leftist practice is augmented by the disembodied voices of Nicaraguan revolutionaries heard of the soundtrack.

Peter Gidal, Close Up, 1983, 70 min

The programme will be introduced by Mark Webber.

Shoot Shoot Shoot

SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT
Sunday 10 April 2016, at 3pm
St. Ives Porthmeor Studios

An afternoon of screenings celebrating the first decade of the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative (1966–76), the predecessor of LUX. The LFMC was founded in October 1966 as a non-commercial distributor of avant-garde cinema. In contrast to similar groups that emerged around the world, it grew to incorporate a distribution service, cinema space and film laboratory. Within this unique facility, filmmakers were able to control every aspect of the creative process. Many explored the material aspects of celluloid, whilst others experimented with multiple projection and performance-based ‘expanded cinema’. Despite the physical hardship of its survival, this artist-led organisation asserted the significance of British work internationally, and anticipated today’s vibrant culture of artists’ moving image. The early history of the LFMC will be documented in a display of films and ephemera in the Archive Gallery at Tate Britain (25 April to 17 July 2016), and a book will be published by LUX this autumn.

3pm
Guy Sherwin, At The Academy, 1974, 5 min
Marilyn Halford, Footsteps, 1974, 6 min
Peter Gidal, Key, 1968, 10 min
Annabel Nicolson, Slides, 1970, 12 min (18fps)
Malcolm Le Grice, Berlin Horse, 1970, 8 min
Lis Rhodes, Dresden Dynamo, 1974, 5 min
Chris Garratt, Romantic Italy, 1975, 8 min
John Smith, Associations, 1975, 7 min

5pm
William Raban & Chris Welsby, River Yar, 1971–72, 35 min (double screen projection)

Curated and presented by Mark Webber. 

Peter Gidal: Flare Out – London Book Launch

PETER GIDAL: FLARE OUT — SCREENING AND BOOK LAUNCH
Thursday 14 April 2016, at 7pm
London Tate Britain

A screening of four films by Peter Gidal to celebrate the publication of Flare Out: Aesthetics 1966–2016, a collection of his essays on film, art and aesthetics. Gidal was a central figure during the formative years of the London Film-Makers’ Co-op and made some its most radical works. His cinema is anti-narrative, against representation and fiercely materialist, and his writings are similarly polemical and unique. This programme of films from the 1960s to the present includes his most recent work, and will be introduced by Mark Webber and Peter Gidal.

Peter Gidal, Assumption, 1997, 1 min
Peter Gidal, Key, 1968-69, 10 min
Peter Gidal, Kopenhagen/1930, 1977, 40 min
Peter Gidal, not far at all, 2013, 15 min

“He draws out singularities. He allows the camera only a fenced in area, piecemeal. He lets the gaze hold on objects and constantly repeats … this permits the possibilities of the discrepancies between one’s own seeing and seeing with the camera to become distinct, and this in turn allows for a completely different experience of the surroundings.” (Birgit Hein)

Flare Out: Aesthetics 1966–2016, edited by Mark Webber and Peter Gidal, is published by The Visible Press.

Shoot Shoot Shoot: The London Film-Makers’ Co-operative 1966-76 (Exhibition)

SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT: THE LONDON FILM-MAKERS’ CO-OPERATIVE 1966-76
25 April—17 July 2016
London Tate Britain Archive Gallery

This display traces the first decade of the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative through a selection of documents, ephemera and films from the period. The LFMC was founded in October 1966 as a non-commercial distributor of avant-garde cinema. In contrast to similar groups that emerged around the world, it grew to incorporate a distribution service, cinema space and film laboratory. Within this unique facility, filmmakers were able to control every aspect of the creative process. Many explored the material aspects of celluloid, whilst others experimented with multiple projection and performance-based ‘expanded cinema’. Despite the physical hardship of its survival, this artist-led organisation asserted the significance of British work internationally, and contributed towards today’s vibrant culture of artists’ moving image.

Curated by Mark Webber. Presented by LUX in association with the British Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection. With thanks to Inga Fraser, David Curtis, Steven Ball, Alejandro Fernandez Moreno, Peter Gidal, William Cobbing and the Cobbing Family Archive.

Peter Gidal: Close Up at Close-Up

PETER GIDAL: CLOSE UP
Friday 20 May 2016, at 7:30pm
London Close-Up Film Centre

Peter Gidal and Mark Webber will introduce a screening of Gidal’s ‘feature length’ film Close Up (1983) to coincide with the publication of Flare Out: Aesthetics 1966–2016, a collection of essays by one of film’s great polemicists. Gidal was a central figure during the formative years of the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative and made some its most radical works. His cinema is anti-narrative, against representation, and fiercely materialist.

“Close Up is crystal hard, intransigent, and film in extremis. In short, one of the best ‘political’ films made in this country.” —Michael O’Pray, Monthly Film Bulletin

In Close Up, Peter Gidal’s political, ultra-leftist practice is augmented by the disembodied voices of two Nicaraguan revolutionaries heard of the soundtrack. These voices punctuate a film whose representation of a room, an inhabited space, is one in which the viewer must consciously search for recognition, for meaning-making. The image-content is muted and abstract, but fascinating, with moments of (no-doubt) inadvertent beauty.

Presented in association with LUX.

Peter Gidal: Flare Out – Paris Book Launch

PETER GIDAL: FLARE OUT — SCREENING AND BOOK LAUNCH
Wednesday 25 May 2016, at 7pm
Paris Centre Pompidou

For five decades, Peter Gidal has sought to problematise the film-viewing process by creating works that resist recognition and identification. His practice posits film as a durational experience and negates analysis on psychological grounds. This programme, featuring the seminal film Clouds (1969) and later works Flare Out (1992), Volcano (2002) and not far at all (2013), surveys his radical and unique approach.

Peter Gidal, Clouds, 1969, 10 min
Peter Gidal, Flare Out, 1992, 20 min
Peter Gidal, Volcano, 2002, 30 min
Peter Gidal, not far at all, 2013, 15 min

Gidal has been based in the UK since the late 1960s, and was a central figure during the formative years of the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative. He is a noted writer and polemicist, whose “Theory and Definition of Structural/Materialist Film” is a key text of avant-garde cinema. The screening celebrates the publication of Flare Out: Aesthetics 1966–2016, a collection of Gidal’s essays on film, art and aesthetics, and will be introduced by the filmmaker and editor/publisher Mark Webber.

“Mental activation toward material analysis is the process that is relevant, whether or not actual structure is ‘revealed’.” —Peter Gidal, 1969