Various / 80min / 16mm
A selection of outstanding 20th century experimental shorts, culled from the secret vaults of The Sprocket Society. Rare 16mm film prints of pioneering animation, abstraction, visual music and collage by such masters as Oskar Fischinger, Len Lye, Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker, Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart, Jim Davis, Douglass Crockwell, Arthur Lipsett and others.
In the 1600s, a network of proto-scientists and "natural philosophers" (and a few occultists) came together as The Invisible College -- an "institution without walls" with no fixed home or declared identity, dedicated simply to furthering knowledge through experimental investigation. Together, they helped lay the groundwork for modern science.
In the 20th century, another "Invisible College" coalesced: a very loose web of artists and creative scientists (and a few occultists), working alone yet inevitably influenced by each other, who dedicated themselves to advancing movies through experimental investigation. Together, they discovered entirely new forms of visual expression, and laid the groundwork for modern cinema.
This program pays tribute to some of these latter-day alchemists, with a non-denominational selection of rare 16mm film prints curated by Spencer Sundell, offering a snapshot of breakthroughs that transformed movies, and thus how we see the world.
September 11th, 2018
Grand Illusion Cinema
7:00 pm
