Dear colleagues, There’s a special program on animals in experimental film at the AAFF. Perhaps it might of interest to those living in Ann Arbor or nearby. The show’s at the State Theatre on Saturday 7PM - pls see below for details. Best, Kornelia
An Animal is Not a Metaphor Curated by Kornelia Boczkowska Since the early days of avant-garde cinema, some iconic experimental films, including Private Life of a Cat (Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, 1947), Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, 1963), Berlin Horse (Malcolm Le Grice, 1970), and Jamal (Ibrahim Shaddad, 1981), have abundantly featured animals, usually presented not as mere props or companions, but as central characters both closely interlinked with and independent of humans. In response to the animal crisis and the current developments of the Anthropocene, this program will demonstrate how artist-made films bring in the animal viewpoint so that animals become not just a subject or a metaphor, but a real object of the film, and provide clues to reexamining and transforming species co-existence. Berlin Horse Malcolm Le Grice UK | 1970 | 7 | 16mm Two sequences: one, a horse being exercised in the village of Berlin near Hamburg in Germany; the other, an early Edison newsreel of horses being led from a burning stable. Both were visually transformed and colored on the printer at the London Film Makers Cooperative. The sound is an original track by Brian Eno. Jamal [A Camel] Ibrahim Shaddad Sudan | 1981 | 13 | 16mm A report from the life of a camel, most of which plays out in a dreary, small room—a sesame mill. Cat Dance Scott Stark USA | 1991 | 6 | digital Two cats become visual elements as they are playfully dragged through fields of pattern and color, followed by a manic section of breathless vocalizing by the filmmaker. Horsey Frédéric Moffet Canada | 2018 | 9 | digital file “Horses are lucky, they’re stuck with the war same as us, but nobody expects them to be in favor of it, to pretend to believe in it.” An allegory recycling images from the past, still relevant to the present moment. Pattaki Everlane Moraes Cuba | 2019 | 21 | digital file In the dense night, when the moon lifts the tide, beings are trapped in the daily life of water scarcity. They are hypnotized by the powers of Yemaya, the goddess of the sea. It Matters What Francisca Duran Chile / Canada | 2019 | 9 | digital file Absences and translations motivate this experimental animation in an exploration of the methods and materials of reproduction and inscription. The inquiry is set within a framework of practical and critical human relationships with other-than-human species elucidated by the theorist Donna Haraway. Stitching the Future with Clues Allison Leigh Holt NY / CA | 2021 | 14 | digital file A neurodivergent-futurist manifesto, commissioned by the Ford Foundation Gallery for the exhibition Indisposable: Structures of Support After the ADA. Existing both as a single-channel film and as an immersive live performance, it asks viewers to consider feedback systems as theoretical frameworks, using animated diagrams, audio/video feedback processes, and expanded cinema techniques. Turkey Vultures Toney Merritt USA | 2020 | 1 | digital file Turkey vultures in flight this morning, 4/25/2020, over Toney Merritt’s home in Northern California. More info: https://prod3.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=852331~316d2c96-7be3-4c1b-82b1-d1a7143bdb35&; <https://prod3.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=852331~316d2c96-7be3-4c1b-82b1-d1a7143bdb35&;> Supported by the National Science Centre, Poland, under the project "An animal is not a metaphor: Animals and human-animal relations in American experimental ecocinema" (grant no. UMO-2023/49/B/HS2/00653) -- Kornelia Boczkowska, Ph.D. Assistant Professor American Studies Research Unit Faculty of English | Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kornelia_Boczkowska https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0875-9209
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