L’Obsession Technique is curated by MaLo Sutra Fish mostly from the catalogues of Light Cone and Collectif Jeune Cinéma, two major landmarks of the Paris experimental scene. It is the extended version of a program shown at Emerson College, centered either around personal technical obsessions and the work of film collectives (core subjects of MaLo’s practice). Showcasing filmmakers from L’Etna and L’Abominable, with a special tribute to Australia’s NanoLab, the common thread is technical play as an illustration of memory.
MaLo is a member of L’Etna who often collaborates with Boston’s AgX Film Collective.
SATURDAY, MARCH 1 – 7:30 PM
THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE
Dir. MaLo Sutra Fish, 2020
France, 8 min
8mm to digital
Shot in Super 8 Ektachrome and using the codes of experimental cinema, this short evokes the four stages a person undergoes when having a tonic-clonic seizure, one of the most violent experiences the body can inflict upon itself.
THE FOLLOWING IMAGES NEVER HAPPENED
Dir. Noé Grenier, 2022
France, 7 min
Digital
This found-footage short is based on the 35mm trailer for Jan de Bont’s 1996 action film TWISTER. It imagines a fictional collective hallucination at a Canadian drive-in screening of the film on May 22, 1996 that was cancelled due to a tornado alert. The urban legend goes that patrons actually watched the film until the real-life storm interrupted the fictional one. The director recreates in a subjective, fragmentary way the memory of images never projected and never seen, yet eerily familiar.
DECADENTIA
Dir. Guillaume Anglard, 2024
France, 10 min
8mm to digital
Like an archive, DECADENTIA surveys the remains of an unknown civilization in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
CROSSING
Dir. Richard Tuohy, 2016
Australia, 11 min
16mm
Across the sea, across the street. Cross-processed images of fraught neighbours Korea and Japan in a pointillist sea of grain.
SELF-PORTRAIT WITH BAG
Dir. Dianna Barrie, 2020-21
Australia, 6 min
16mm
A cameraless portrait of the artist. Super 8 cartridges were placed in a black cotton bag, and the film was advanced via a hand crank. The tiny gaps in the fabric create innumerable pinholes through which Barrie is glimpsed.
MUE(S)
Dir. Frédérique Menant, 2015
France, 11 min
16mm
I’ve crossed the solstices.
In the shadows, a breath.
Under the skin, a passage.
Molting is an unspeakable experience.
When the molt detaches, it opens up a tiny space, from self to self, where the image trembles.
TERMINUS FOR YOU
Nicolas Rey, 1996
France, 10 min
16mm
The strange journey of passengers in the Paris metro. A moving walkway takes them from one platform to another, from one line to another, and from one destination to the next. What do we actually see?
AESTHETIC MEMORY
Dir. Isao Yamada, 1988
Japan, 8 min
8mm to digital
Part of his practice to this day, Isao Yamada is usually found walking around with a Super 8 camera. This is part of his series Instant Daily Film Sketches.
When walking with Yamada, I sense his toughness as a walker, and he has a unique attentiveness to every object, so when Yamada finds something interesting or beautiful, he stops and looks at it endlessly. But he also switches his attention quickly… This unique tempo, a mixture of concentration and openness to reality, and his distinctive behaviour that seems to seek a world which is quite different from the immediate reality, is intriguing… You could say that it’s all about a journey, but this collection of works might particularly put you in the mood for ‘Yes, it actually is.’—Higashi Yoichi