HEAVY HANDS: NEW FILMS PROCESSED AT MONO NO AWARE
Colorado College – Colorado Springs, CO – November 20-24th 2013
Fordham University – Manhattan, NY – March 4th, 2014
HEAVY HANDS : HEAVY HANDS : NEW FILMS PROCESSED AT MONO NO AWARE
The films in this program were all processed by the filmmakers themselves at the MONO NO AWARE facility, and represent a variety of approaches to utilizing the industry standard 100-foot roll of 16mm film as a self-contained, autonomous work of art.
Presented by MONO NO AWARE @ TIE : Alternative Measures Colorado College, CO & Fordham University, NY
Program Details:
Summer Dream by Steve Cossman
[2013, 3 min., 16mm, 24 fps, silent, USA]
It is summer. A group of friends have gathered in order to celebrate a birthday. There is no cake or candles. As the evening progresses, they collectively decide to feast on the woman of the hour. This is my dream.
Manhattan Beach by David Beard
[2013, 2 min., 16mm, 24 fps, silent, USA]
Sun and surf downtown
Correspondances IV by David Beard & Christy Shigekawa
[2013, 2 min., 16mm, 24 fps, silent, USA]
An “exquisite corpse” film featuring light reflected and emitted in marvelous “duo tone”
Captive Suns by Antonia Kuo
[2013, 3 min., 16mm, 24 fps, silent, USA]
Captive Suns is a 16mm project comprised of found footage of the cosmos, manipulated in the darkroom through hand-processing, tinting, toning, and bleaching. The film embodies a fluctuating pulse of energy mirrored in the primordial vastness of space, an attempt to give materiality to the intangible and create a direct experience with what is beyond our reach.
39,82880, -76,0121 by Katherine Bauer
[2012, 3 min., 16mm, 24 fps, silent, USA]
The filming of Agnes Lux’s spiral through her graphite and postcard pieces, out of her East Village studio window and then back into the blocks that are both building and destroying themselves within the cityscape.
Carpe Noctem by Kenneth Zoran Curwood
[2013, 3 min., 16mm, 24 fps, silent, USA]
Caligula and his sister attempt to free themselves from the bondage of their societal roles through lucid dreaming.
Antiquity by Rachelle Rahme
[2013, 3 min., 16mm, 24 fps, silent, USA]
Fireworks by Allison Sommers
[2013, 3 min., 16mm, 24 fps, silent, USA]
After several months producing black and white photograms in my home darkroom, experimenting with long exposures, submerging the photo-sensitive paper in water with added materials, I have developed a process resulting in images akin to fireworks or cluster bombs in a night sky. These prints are records of materials dissolving in water and floating above the surface of the paper while the exposure is in progress. In Fireworks, this process is reconfigured for use with 16mm film. I am employing a similar process of submerging the photo-sensitive material (the unexposed film) in water with dissolving materials, then exposing to light, and processing as usual. The resulting film is (now) a durational record of the chemical and material changes affecting the film, and visually reads as something like a light display on a dark night.
Door #2 by Sarah Halpern
[2013, 3 min., 16mm, 24 fps, silent, USA]
I am very conflicted about making 16mm films in 2013. It’s difficult to proceed in time with a format that is increasingly considered antiquated. This film is about timeliness and novelty.
Water Treatment by Sean Hanley
[2013, 3 min., 16mm, 24 fps, silent, USA]
One hundred feet of the Gowanus Canal by canoe, New York’s most notorious waterway.
Doubt by Josh Lewis*
[2013, 6 min., 16mm, 12 fps, silent, USA]
If one begins from the premise that film emulsion is simply a material that responds to light and chemistry, a widening, primeval chasm of possible outcomes begins to open up. Doubt is the result of many 100’ foot sessions executed quickly under a red light using a variety of chemicals applied directly to black and white film stock. Imbued within is a desire for a mastery that can never be fully attained, a panic that is ever present, and an attempt at accepting the condition of forever sliding along a continuum of belief and doubt.
* (still image at the top of page)