TUESDAY DEC 1, 7PM and 9PM
FAVA Exhibition Suite
Admission by donation
Presented by Theatre of the New Heart
Frenkel Defects
Curated by Process Reversal
Colorado-based nonprofit organization, Process Reversal, presents the third installment of its unique traveling film series — Frenkel Defect: Two programs of contemporary films originating in artist-run film labs, presented in their intended 16mm format. Kevin Rice of Process Reversal will be in attendance to present the films.
This traveling exhibition aims to explore what it means to work in – and exhibit on – photochemical film today by examining works by artists operating specifically in this practice. Often, this involves getting their hands dirty at every stage of the process: from optical effects to photo processing, editing and contact printing, optical sound recording, and even the creation of the photosensitive emulsion itself.
PROGRAM I : 7 PM
Konrad & Kurfurst | Esther Urlus (252 feet, 1.33:1, Optical Sound, Netherlands)
“A fictional re-enactment of a 5 minutes happening that took place during the Olympic games in Berlin 1936. Made on home brew emulsion and color toned with the helping hand of technical publications from early cinema and photographic experiments. The home brew emulsion as fragile metaphor for the heroism of Konrad and his horse Kurfurst. Falling from his horse he became a national hero but overtaken by history, an anti-hero.”
WAKE | Eric Stewart (288 feet, 1.33:1, MOS, USA)
“Wake is a dirge in celluloid. It is a celebration of my father’s life, a meditation on his body and a visual record of mourning. When my father died, there was never a chance to see his body after life had left it. This film was made by placing his ashes directly on 35mm film in a dark room and moving the film a frame at a time. What we see in this process of photograming is not the object in the photographic sense, but instead a representation of the space surrounding an object. The photogram is a shadow charting the distance between things.”
In the Traveler’s Heart | DISTRUKTUR (720 feet, 1.33:1, Optical Sound, Lithuania/Germany/Brazil)
“The winter reigns as the Traveler crosses by feet an ancient landscape.
In this place there’s also another presence, someone who’s very similar to the Traveler. Does the Traveler realise this figure that cohabits the same space as him? Is the other a guardian angel or a devil?”
Aula Magna | Andrés Denegri (360 feet, 1.33:1, Optical Sound, Argentina)
“A structural farewell poem made for a beloved place. The images were shot frame by frame over the course of a year, in order to portray the author’s home main room through the variation of the light coming from a window. The sound, by Pablo Denegri, was made mixing and processing, on real time, direct recordings made in the same space.”
Split Film 100110 |
PROGRAM II : 9 PM
Schleusenroth | Volga (504 feet, 1.33:1, Wild Sound, Germany/Lebanon)
No Description Provided
Flow | Lichun Tseng (612 feet, 1.33:1, Optical Sound, Netherlands)
“Change is a process, is the starting point equal to the end point? What if everything is in a flow, what meaning of value of life can be derived from the interconnectedness of all things? Reflecting the subtle relationships between the flow of changing, awareness of being and observation of breathing through abstract and rhythmic moving images. Integrating and developing a poetic state of contemplative and meditative process and flow in between void and solid; moving and still; expanding and gathering; strength and softness.”
Fractions | Guillaume Mazloum (1620 feet, 1.33:1, Optical Sound, France)
“Fractions is a seven part film. Seven sequences, each with a pattern and a reference to a text of a political nature, to create a space for reflection on the scope and responsibility of these images. Between self-portrait and testimony, each fraction is an autonomous thinking, remaining yet necessary to the overall restitution of a personal research on film practice, in correlation with the emancipatory thinking. The images then become a pretext for this reflection, freed from their narrative and documentary nature, the site of a more intimate experience. This work draws the accomplishment of several years of reading, strewed with fleeting moments of reality captured instinctively with my camera, all reworked and remodeled with traditional cinema tools.”
Notes on Film Length: There are 40 frames per foot of 16mm film. Sound speed (standard) projection is carried out at a rate of 24 frames per second, with silent speed projection being 18 frames per second. Thus, for every foot of film projected, there is (theoretically) 1.66 seconds and 2.22 seconds of projection for sound speed and silent speed respectively. Accordingly, 36 feet @ 24 frames per second = 1 minute of running time.
Notes on Sound Format: ‘Optical Sound’ indicates that the print has had a waveform pattern printed in the soundtrack side of the image, which is than read and amplified by the projector during projection. Such prints are referred to as ‘married prints.’ ‘Wild Sound’ indicates a print without a married soundtrack, and instead must have an accompanying audio playback system independent of the projector. Finally, MOS indicates a film that is silent, but projected at sound speed (24 fps) where as ‘Silent’ indicates a print that is both silent and projected at silent speed (18 fps).
In a time of discontinued film stocks, disenfranchised cinemas and abandoned film laboratories, the prospect of filmmaking can appear intimidating…as well as exciting — for while the film industry collapses all around us, we are being left with a unique opportunity; a chance to reinvent the medium in an image that was neither intended nor desired by it’s capitalist exploiters; one that explores new ways of seeing, new ways of hearing, and new ways of speaking about film.
Process Reversal is the response of the community seeking to explore that opportunity.
About Kevin Rice
Originating from Denver, Colorado, Kevin Rice is a ‘film archivist’ whose practice focuses on the study of photochemical theories, the development of lab resources for filmmakers, and the documentation of various darkroom odysseys on motion picture film. He has taught and screened work at film communities all around the world, including no.w.here (London), l’abominable (Paris), Klubvizija (Zagreb), Laborberlin (Berlin), Crater Lab (Barcelona), Black Hole Cinema (Oakland), Echo Park Film Center (Los Angeles), LIFT (Toronto), IRIS (Vancouver) and many more. In 2012, he helped co-found Process Reversal .
