Tenacity

29 March 2025
63rd Ann Arbor Film Festival

The graininess of film is often seen as an unwanted byproduct of analog photographic material. A grainy image is an imperfect image, sharper is better. In parallel, our technology driven culture is haunted by an unrelenting push for perfection, constantly replacing the old for the new in ever faster cycles. In contrast to this logic it is remarkable how in experimental film grain and noise take on special meanings. Instead of being unwanted such imperfections function as a source of creativity and expression. More broadly speaking, many experimental filmmakers are well attuned to disaster and destruction and able to turn wreckage into something meaningful. This program brings together 8 films that spin the wheel and question our understanding of the old and the new, permanence and perfection, grain and image.

Dervish Machine by Bradley Eros & Jeanne Liotta, 1992
09:22, 16mm, color, optical sound, USA
Handcrafted meditations on being and movement, inspired by Gysin's Dream Machine, Sufi mysticism and pre-cinema. The knowledge of the fragility of existence reflects the perseverance of the material. The film itself becomes the place where impermanence is experienced and the moving image revealed.

Premonition by Dominic Angerame, 1989
10:49, 16mm, black and white, optical sound, USA 
In Dominic Angerame's film, Premonition, we are confronted with a subtle despair and ominous ambiguity suspended in the clarity of a cool early morning. The film hides its meaning, which appears and disappears like the tide.

Rumpelstilzchen by Jürgen Reble, 1995
14:45, 16mm, color, optical sound, Germany
Imbued with a darker German romanticism filtered through post-industrial detritus, Rumpelstilzchen is in the time-honoured folkloric tradition of writing over; contemporary in its retelling, retaining traces of its earlier form. The spinning wheel sequences become a recurring motif in Reble’s reworking, a visual analogy to the reels on a film projector.

Remains to be Seen by Phil Solomon, 1989
17:12, 16mm, optical sound, USA
The filmmaker as an inverse archeologist, throwing “Schmutz” on cultural artifacts to defamiliarize the imagery, creating works that walk a fine line between abstraction and figuration, unfolding an interior emotional vocabulary seamlessly married to meticulously constellated worlds of sound.

Last Lost by Eve Heller, 1996
13:30, 16mm, black & white, optical sound, USA
A film gleaned via the optical printer from a home market movie made in the late 1930's about a chimpanzee's high adventures in an amusement park at Coney Island. Central weight is given to the chimp's inscrutable gaze, indicating psycho-emotional territories informed by peculiar details that haunt the original.

Jours en Fleurs by Louise Bourque, 2003
04:59, 35mm, color, optical sound, Canada
Jours en Fleurs is a reclamation of flower-power in which images of trees in springtime bloom are subjected to the floriferous ravages of menarcheal substance in a gestation of decay. The shedding of the unfertilized womb depredates the fertilized blossoms and substitutes its own dark beauty.

Small Things Moving in Unison by Vicky Smith, 2018
05:21, 16mm, black & white, optical sound, UK 
Thousands of tiny perforations are made directly into 16mm black leader. These repetitive physical actions generate marks that describe relational fields. The tiny holes spring to life and become entangled, like quantum particles that emerge from a vacuum.

Phytography by Karel Doing, 2018
08:09, 16mm, color, optical sound, UK
Phytography dives into the rich and varied world of plant chemistry. This collection of organic objets trouvés demonstrates how nature generates multiple creative solutions, each one structured intricately.