Images & Views of Alternative Cinema 2010

Experimentation in cinematic language, social and existential thinking and critical approach towards established images and forms of expression meet every summer in the “alternative” space of Theatro Ena during the event: “Images & Views of Alternative Cinema”.

This festival invites the audience to experience a different and very often unknown aspect of audiovisual creation, which exceeds the standard patterns and trite perspectives.

The festival is organized by the Cultural Services of Ministry of Education and Culture in cooperation with “Theatro Ena,” Brave New Culture and other partners.

The festival’s program is characterized by multiple forms and the fact that the viewer has the unique opportunity to watch films from countries and eras far apart, but with one common denominator: experimentation and exploration of the boundaries of cinema. The filmmakers presented through this festival’s program, these pioneers, these dissenters of the mainstream narrative filmmaking, with their rich vocabulary and themes, develop their own view of the world and human circumstances, thus offering to the people of contemporary societies the antibodies against spiritual leveling.

The rapidly evolving festival, Images & Views of Alternative Cinema started seven years ago with films by the founders of cinema (Lumière, Méliès, Griffith, Porter), continued with the most important representatives from the Russian pioneers and the European avant-garde, European impressionism, surrealism and expressionism without overlooking more radical types of cinema, like the American underground cinema, the Lettrism movement, the British “Free Cinema” documentary movement, the feminist documentar of Kim Longinotto, the German pioneers, the surrealist Man Ray, the tribute to the great Japanese filmmaker Kenji Mizoguchi and others. In the last edition of the festival in June 2008, there was a tribute to the Armenian director Artavazd Peleshian who attended as our honorary guest. Peleshian is described as perhaps the last great innovator in the editing technique and his films are characterized by their idiosyncratic syntax and dense style of elliptic, abstract poetic writing.

The festival “Images & Views of Alternative Cinema” has become an institution and it is particularly popular among the cinephile audience, which year after year supports this important event. An artistic event, which provides the opportunity to benefit from the art of cinema.

This year the festival is composed of the following programs:

Agnes Varda: The Big Shorts of the "Rive Gauche"
Carved by the beauty of her honest depictions and through her gifted storytelling, playful mien, peculiar humor and her unyielding curiosity, Agnes Varda has attained a unique place in both, the French and international cinematographic chassis. Varda, one of the main representatives of the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague), was born in Brussels, 1928 to a Greek father and a French mother. She was raised in France where her family had fled to during World War II. She began her career as a photographer, before undertaking the direction of documentaries but also fiction films, and cinematographic attempts of different length. Also, she did not hesitate to enter the world of visual arts with a series of installations. By 26 she had directed the film La Pointe Courte, one of the precursors of the Nouvelle Vague, and by the age of 30 she was jokingly referred to as “the grandmother of the French New Wave”. Five years before the “explosion” of the Nouvelle Vague, Varda’s unique narrative technique and her use of amateur cast and outdoor shooting composed this overall unprecedented experience in cinema, which led to her adulation from the French Intelligentsia and became a point of reference in French Cinema history.
The festival will present a series of short documentaries, some of which have gained important international awards.

Stavros Tornes: The Art of the Unattainable
The festival will show four of the most important films of this significant Greek auteur. The cinema of Stavros Torne is a unique phenomenon, in terms of his style and aesthetic completeness, but also in terms of the preconditions set to produce his films. With considerably limited means and without ever feeling the need to comport with the standards of “correct” cinematography, Stavros Tornes carved an abnormally creative path, from which an inner emanating force and an undeterminable chemistry can transform the plain, raw reality into true luminescence and to transmute stones into diamonds with a seemingly effortless manner. He is not only a true poet, but also an unconventional creator with incurable curiosity. He articulates the worlds of thought and dream by resorting to what is perceived as being raw and valueless, and through his treatment of “senseless” images he generates meaning by transforming them into something surreal, surpassable and visionary. This small segment of our festival is an ideal way to familiarize, or reacquaint, the Cypriot audience with the works of one of the greatest Greek directors from the poetic cinema.

Tribute to films from the Fluxus movement
The festival will also feature a series of experimental short films from artists that belong or have been affected by the visual movement Fluxus. This international movement evolved during the sixties and was the resulting amalgam of several forms of arts, from visual to music and literature. The movement emerged in Germany when Lithuanian artist Georges Maciunas, in September 1962, organized a concert of contemporary music under the general title of Fluxus International Festspiele Neuester Musik. Through out the sixties and seventies the Fluxus’ artists produced a plethora of innovative works and hosted public events (Fluxus Events) whose unconventional character became the subject of negative criticism. Goal of this unorthodox movement was to abolish the boundaries of hermetically discrete forms of art, deconstruct the meaning of what constitutes a work of art, to finally unite it with life. It emerged from Marcel Duchamp’s own work and his use of found objects, new realism, performances and happenings. It is also influenced by the experimental music of John Cage and Dada’s ferociousness. It’s revolutionary dimension can be discerned best in music: In John Cage’s legendary composition 4’33” where the impossibility of absolute silence is explored and in the conviction that any sound is in fact a musical one; even the sound of a tearing paper or the sound produced by moving around a table. Some artists of the Fluxus movement are Nam June Paik, George Brecht, Allen Bukof, Wolf Vostell and Yoko Ono.

Derek Jarman: Three Heretical Masterpieces
Derek Jarman (1924-1993) has been one of the most important directors-creators of the 20th century. Painter, scenographer, writer, activist for gay rights but also, as he preferred to be referred as, an inspired gardener who is identified as an ingenious director whose films are known for their controversial topics. He began as a painter who would later enter the world of cinema through his collaboration with Ken Russell as a scenographer for his film Devils. His emergence along with the bad boy of British cinema has been formative to his decision to not follow the road to Hollywood and mainstream production. His directing was influenced by the expression of the American underground. His art revolves around the exploration of the subterranean relationships within the triptych of sexuality – criminality –art. Jarman was an idiosyncratic artist – cinematographer who managed to translate into cinematic language the creative teachings derived from his painting and scenography experience. He always worked in independent productions and has been one of the most innovative representatives of the new English cinema. He held a certain kind of privilege; one that comes to birth when artists confront the dark side of reality and then, after their catharsis, follows their release from the conventional and the cliché.

Directing the Beat, "Howls on the Screen"
The festival will also offer a unique and original tribute to the Beat Generation through some screenings of films that related to the significant artistic movement. This mainly literary movement took place in U.S.A. during the 50’s and 60’s. Even though in reality it was made up of a small-numbered group its influence in American literature and the underground cinema was quite significant. More precisely, it is believed that the beat literature had a substantial influence on the following hippy and punk movements. Leading figures of the beat generation are considered to be Jack Kerouac with his book “On the Road”, Alain Ginsburg with “Howl”, William S. Burroughs with “Naked Lunch”; three writers who inverted the laws of American literature by avoiding its logical mechanisms for the extremities of simplicity and spontaneity. Intellectuals but also multi-technicians as they were, the beat generation experimented by pushing their minds to their limits, mingling with the underground and shocking the puritanical society of their era with their lifestyle, their writing and their interviews. Due to this connection between the movement and literature, in the film screenings there will be audio samples of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsburg, reading accordingly, their aforementioned books.

Just like every year, the programs will be framed by short lectures of specialists in each topic. Also, visual artists Costantinos and Demetris Taliotis have been invited to alter the screening space with their visual installations.

Screenings Programme

All films will be screened with Greek and English subtitles.

.
MONDAY 31.05.2010

Opening Film
Damo Suzuki: Improvisations for a Voice, a Poem and a Portion of Fried Okras
Dir: Antonis Boskoitis
Greece
2008 / 18’

In Honor and in Memory of Antreas Pagoulatos
Director Present

Agnès Varda
The Big Shorts of the "Rive Gauche"

Ô Saisons, ô Châteaux…
1957 / 21’

Plaisir d’Amour en Iran (Pleasure of Love in Iran)
1976 / 6’

Du Côté de la Côte (Coasting Along the Coast)
1958 / 26’

Introduction by Christiana Galanopoulou, Art historian and Artistic director of MIRfestival.

Stavros Tornes
The Art of the Unattainable

Coatti
1977 / 76’

Introduction by Stavros Kaplanides, Director.

.
TUESDAY 01.06.2010

Fluxus
Fluxus, or a Hammering With a Non-existent Hammer on a Non-existent Painting of Yoko Ono

Zen for Film
Dir: Nam June Paik
South Korea
1962 / 8’

Invocation of Canyons and Boulders (for Stan Brakhage)
Dir: Dick Higgins
U.K.
1966 / 20”

End After 9
Dir: George Maciunas
Lithuania, USA
1931 / 1’

Disappearing Music for Face
Dir: Chieko Shiomi
Japan
1966 /12’

Blink
Dir: John Cavanaugh
USA
1966 / 3’

Introduction by Antrea Konstantinou, Art historian.

Stavros Tornes
The Art of the Unattainable

Addio Anatolia
1976 / 36’

Karkalou
1984 / 83’

Introduction by Stavros Kaplanides, Director.

.
WEDNESDAY 02.06.2010

Agnès Varda
The Big Shorts of the "Rive Gauche"

Introduction by Christiana Galanopoulou, Art historian and Artistic director of MIRfestival.

Stavros Tornes
The Art of the Unattainable

A Heron for Germany
1987 / 90’

Introduction by Stavros Kaplanides, Director.

.
THURSDAY 03.06.2010

Derek Jarman
Three Heretical Masterpieces or Anti-Conformity through the Art of Totality

Wittgenstein
1993 / 85’

Introduction by Dr Gabriel Koureas, Art historian and Rowland Wymer, Professor.

Beat Films
Directing the Beat, "Howls on the Screen"

The Delirious Beats

Sound Recording
Jack Kerouac Reading from "On the Road"
10’

Pull My Daisy
Dir: Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie
USA
1959 / 28’

Hallelujah The Hills
Dir: Adolfos Mekas
USA
1965 / 82’

Introduction by Christopher Zimmermann, programme curator and Costas Reousis, poet.

.
FRIDAY 04.06.2010

Beat Films
Directing the Beat, "Howls on the Screen"

Spontaneity, Movement, Flux

Sound Recording
Allen Ginsburg Reading
Howl
19’

Desistfilm
Dir: Stan Brakhage
1954 / 7’

No. 11: Mirror Animations
Dir: Harry E. Smith
1957 / 4’

Wheeeeels No. 1
Dir: Stan Vanderbeek
1958 / 5’

Bridges-Go-Round
Dir: Shirley Clarke
1958 / 7’

Anticipation of the Night
Dir: Stan Brakhage
1958 / 40’

Introduction by Christopher Zimmermann, programme curator and Costas Reousis, poet.

Derek Jarman
Three Heretical Masterpieces or Anti-Conformity through the Art of Totality

Last of England
1987 / 91’

Introduction by Dr Gabriel Koureas, Art historian and Rowland Wymer, Professor.

.
SATURDAY 05.06.2010

Beat Films
Directing the Beat, "Howls on the Screen"

Phenomenology of the Cut-up

Sound Recording
William S. Burroughs’ Tape ‘cut-up’
17’

Antony Balch, William Burroughs, Brion Gysin (1950s – 1960s)
William Buys a Parrot (2’)
Towers Open Fire (10’)
The Cut-ups (18’)
Bill and Tony (5’)

Introduction by Christopher Zimmermann, programme curator and Costas Reousis, poet.

Fluxus
Fluxus, or a Hammering With a Non-existent Hammer on a Non-existent Painting of Yoko Ono

9 Minutes
Dir: James Riddle
USA
1966 / 10’

10 Feet
Dir: George Maciunas
USA
1966 / 23”

Eye Blink
Dir: Yoko Ono
Japan
1966 / 33”

Entrance to Exit
Dir: George Brecht
USA
1965 / 7’

Trace #22
Dir: Robert Watts
USA
1965 / 3’

Trace #23
Dir: Robert Watts
USA
1965 / 3’

Trace #24
Dir: Robert Watts
USA
1965 / 4’

One
Dir: Yoko Ono
Japan
1966 / 5’

Four
Dir: Yoko Ono
Japan
1967 / 6’

Five O’ Clock in the Morning
Dir: Pieter Vanderbeck
USA
1966 / 5’

Smoking
Dir: Joe Jones
USA, Germany
1966 / 5’

Opus 74
Dir: Erik Andersen
Denmark
1966 / 1.5’

Artype
Dir: George Maciunas
USA
1966 / 2’

Baby Footage
Dir: Alison Knowles
USA
1966 / 30”

Shout
Dir: Jeff Perkins
USA
1966 / 2’

Sun in Your Head (Television Décollage)
Dir: Wolf Vostell
Germany
1963 / 7’

Readymade
Dir: Albert Fine
USA
1966 / 2’

The Evil Faerie
Dir: George Landow
USA
1966 / 28”

Sears Catalogue 1-3
Dir: Paul Sharits
USA
1965 / 28”

Dots 1 & 2
Dir: Paul Sharits
USA
1965 / 35”

Wrist Trick
Σκην. / Dir: Paul Sharits
ΗΠΑ / USA
1965 / 28”

Word Movie
Dir: Paul Sharits
USA
1966 / 4’

Dance
Dir: Albert Fine
ΗΠΑ / USA
1963 / 2.30’

Police Car
Dir: John Cale
U.K.
1966 / 1.25’

Flux Film #36
Dir: Peter Kennedy & Mike Parr
USA
1970 / 2.40’

Flux Film #37
Dir: Peter Kennedy & Mike Parr
USA
1970 / 1.30’

Je ne Vois Rien, je ’Entends Rien, je ne Dis Rien
Dir: Benjamin Vautier
Italy
1966 / 7.33’

La Traversée du Port de Nice à la Nage
Dir: Benjamin Vautier
Italy
1963 / 3.20’

Faire un Effort
Dir: Benjamin Vautier
Italy
1969 / 2.20’

Regardez-moi, Cela Suffit
Dir: Benjamin Vautier
Italy
1962 / 6.50’

Introduction by Dr Gabriel Koureas, Art historian.

.
SUNDAY 06.06.2010

Derek Jarman
Three Heretical Masterpieces or Anti-Conformity through the Art of Totality

The Angelic Conversation
1985 / 81’

Introduction by Dr Gabriel Koureas, Art historian and Rowland Wymer, Professor.