Screen/Society presents:
“Material Desire and Experimental Film”
(Curated by Kim Knowles)
Four very special evenings of short experimental films at Duke University’s Rubenstein Arts Center, Film Theater, during the Spring 2018 semester:
(All screenings free and open to the public. Reserved seats required for 1st program.)
Material engagement has always been at the forefront of experimental film practice, from Man Ray’s rayograms to Stan Brakhage’s hand-painted works. Interrogating the celluloid surface opened up new forms of representation that departed from conventional figurative imagery and allowed a more sensuous visual experience to emerge. As Brakhage stated, ‘Imagine an eye unruled by manmade laws of perspective.’ In our contemporary digitally-dominated world, the physical material of photochemical film takes on a renewed significance, enjoying a renaissance of sorts now that it is freed almost entirely from its association with commercial filmmaking. This specially-curated series of film programs provides an insight into how material desire manifests in the working methods of a range of contemporary filmmakers and provides historical parallels to contextualise current techniques.
About the Curator: Kim Knowles is an academic and curator based in Bristol, UK. She teaches film studies at Aberystwyth University and has programmed the ‘Black Box’ experimental strand of the Edinburgh International Film Festival since 2008. She will be present to introduce the screening on February 28.
Cinematic Arts
