Wavelength + Back and Forth
CTBAPlease note: This was screened in Nov 2014
This double bill by the great experimental filmmaker Michael Snow is a must see for anyone interested in avant-garde film. As a filmmaker and musician of the 1960s Snow's approach to filmmaking echoes the structural playfulness that Glass presents in his music.
Snow's 1967 film Wavelength, a seemingly continuous zoom of a New York City loft shot over a week, features almost no action but experiments with the relationship between vision and sound. Snow himself states that his intent for the film was "a summation of my nervous system, religious inklings and aesthetic ideas" and over the years it has caused riots, mass walkouts, and fury (in addition to high praise and masterpiece status). We wonder what will happen today?
Followed by Back and Forth, a 49 minute film of a camera in constant motion, back and forth then up and down at various speeds in a single room. At times mind bending and unnerving in its pace, Snow's film is a masterclass in pushing the formal boundaries of film.
These two extraordinary and influential works give a compelling insight into a fascinating moment of experimentation and innovation that grew out of the cultural ferment of New York City in the early 1960s.
Ticket prices: £8.00 full / £6.50 concessions
Curated by Fern Dunn, a UWE MA Curation student on placement at Watershed.