Against the tide
| Jon Savage remembers Derek Jarman.
Category: {film}
Film
1st Ballardian Festival of Home Movies
Via Ballardian:
In 1984 J.G. Ballard called for a ‘Festival of Home Movies’ and 24 years on we’re happy to oblige: announcing our latest competition, to promote JGB’s forthcoming autobiography, Miracles of Life. Presented by ballardian.com and HarperCollins UK, the competition will utilise ‘modern electronics’ as specified above, of an especial type that Ballard with his prodigious clairvoyant powers came close to envisaging: the mobile phone (or cell phone, for our North American cousins).
The requirement is that you shoot a one-minute film on a Ballardian theme using your mobile phone’s video camera only, no post-production allowed. That’s too much for my Motorola (above) which has never proved itself able to record more than a few seconds of continuous video for reasons unknown. The competition prize is a copy of Miracles of Life along with the forthcoming HarperCollins reissues of Ballard’s Millennium People, The Drought, The Crystal World, The Drowned World and The Unlimited Dream Company.
The constraints for this are pretty tough if all the editing has to be done in camera. I anticipate a lot of entries showing static shots of motorway traffic, windswept concrete vistas or imitations of CCTV. Anyone wishing for some offbeat inspiration can go and watch the One Minute Movies made by The Residents to accompany their Commercial Album in 1980.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• JG Ballard book covers
John Whitney’s Catalog
YouTube keeps turning up the abstract cinema goods with this great seven-minute John Whitney showreel from 1961. And recent additions include a better copy of Whitney’s Arabesque as well as Permutations from 1966.
Update: Two masterpieces by John Whitney’s brother, James, Yantra and Lapis, are now on YouTube at last!
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The abstract cinema archive
Exploiting Sound, Exploring Silence
Exploiting Sound, Exploring Silence
| Sound design for the Coen Brothers.
Shadow of the House
After writing about Abelardo Morell’s remarkable camera obscura photographs last month, filmmaker Allie Humenuk left a comment about her documentary which explores Morell’s work and working methods.
Shadow of the House is about looking closely. Filmed over seven years, it is an intimate portrait of photographer Abelardo Morell, revealing the mystery and method of his artistic process. The narrative skips across time and space from his early childhood escape from Castro’s regime to his status as a world-renowned photographer. The film explores his daily working life as an artist and his eventual return to Cuba after 40 years of living in exile. Shadow of the House uncovers the deep layers of a man who is pushed to confront his past and his familial allegiances as it explores his unique artistic vision.
The film website has a lot more information, including details of North American screenings, and a trailer.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Abelardo Morell’s camera obscura
• Abelardo Morell