Friday, October 23, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Oporto apresenta #16
"Saugus Series" by Pat O'Neill
16 mm, color, sound, 18', 1974
Saw: Chris Casady; Key: Morton Subotnick; Blue Paint: 7-K Color Co; Mix: Don Worthen
There is no parallel to Pat O'Neill's sui generis approah to film. With him the medium fully atteigned the realm of fine arts.
O'Neill is a master of the combinatory work, a collage expert and an elegant frame composer. His films are uncanny essays, breaking down technical boundaries and viewers assumptions. In Saugus Series the artist aligned seven short films, united by a common soundtrack. "Each film is an evolving "still life," made up of meticulously assembled but spatially contradictory elements "
"a capricious cognitive conundrum"
Alexandre Estrela
Friday, October 16, 2009, 11pm
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Oporto apresenta #15
"Fog Pumas" by Gunvor Nelson
in collaboration with Dorothy Wiley
16 mm, colour, stereo sound, 25', 1967
Gunvor Nelson is one of those acclaimed avantgarde-film-makers who, in the sixties, settled in the Bay Area. Since then she has been doing highly personal pieces revealing a strong poetic and feminine awareness. Her camera and montage talent releases the unseen musical quality trapped in things.
In "Fog Pumas" beauty arouses unexpectedly from a surreal context. In Gunvor's words the film is "a surreal fantasy populated by an imaginative assortment of human beings, creatures, places and events.
"an entropic requiem"
Alexandre Estrela
Thursday, July 16, 2009, 11 pm
Friday, May 22, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Oporto apresenta #14
"Living" by Franz Zwartjes
16 mm, colour, stereo sound, 15 min, 1971
Franz Zwartjes is the father of experimental film in the Netherlands and one of the first visual artists to use film as primary media. Zwartjes is a true DIYer, a film master whose awkward thoughts influenced a whole generation of artists and film makers. With his peculiar camera-editing techniques, artful use of wide angle lenses (a 5.7) and singular camera movements his films are perplexing essays on human behavior.
In "Living" a couple scans an empty apartment planning for an uncanny use.
"Home theater blues"
Alexandre Estrela
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Oporto apresenta #13
"Diwan" by Werner Nekes
16 mm, color, 85 min,1973. Sound: Anthony Moore
A film anthology in five installments: 1. sun-a-mul (16 min) 2. alternatim (15 min) 3. kantilene (17 min) 4. moto (16 min) 5. hynningen (21 min).
We can not think of someone as central to the history of experimental film as Werner Nekes. This restless researcher is one of the last heroes of the moving image, a scholar that seeks for the immaterial truth laying between images and frames. In his quest, Nekes uses all sorts of procedures and techniques, from structuralist to narrative, trying to break the granted laws and realities of life and art.
The film that Oporto is now presenting, DIWAN, is a paradigmatic example. DIWAN is a five part mysterious odyssey into the realm of existence.
"A momentary trap of vision."
Alexandre Estrela
Saturday, March 7, 2009, 10.30pm
Monday, March 2, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Oporto apresenta #12
"Krypton is Doomed" by Ken Jacobs
Film-performance recorded on DV-CAM, color, Ntsc, sound, 34 min, 2005
Ken Jacobs is a seminal figure in the tradition of experimental film-making, with 50 years of intense work delving into the mechanisms of the moving image. For Ken Jacobs, the film and video apparatus mimic the human visual system. By manipulating and deconstructing the cinematic illusion and narrative, Ken Jacobs reaches the outer limits and gaps of perception.
"Krypton is doomed" is an apocalyptic drama centered on the story of the unfortunate kryptonites, who could not escape the massive destruction of their planet .
"blasting storm on Planet Retina"
Alexandre Estrela
Saturday Feb 28, 2009, 11pm
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Oporto apresenta # 11
"Matemática" by Vasco lucena (1913, 2001)
VHS, clolour, 42', n/d
" I saw what does not exist in the cosmic world that surrounds a star"
Vasco Lucena
For uncountable years Vasco Lucena passionately taught Art History in high-school . At age 69 he started to build these incredible kinetic light machines. Until his death he mastered in solitude these machines, recording the resulting light shows with a VHS video-camera. These resonant light experiences were followed by Lucena´s insightful comments that would direct the viewer into a more poetic vision or instruct him on the structure of what was being seen.
The videos that we are honored to present here in Oporto are part of a vast body of work called Matematica. The first video is a true auroric experience accompanied by an electronic sound made by his friend and poet, engineer Artur Brites. The second video, "Disco G parado" is a precise and dynamic exercise on optical effects.
"bright thoughts in curved air"
Alexandre Estrela
Saturday, Dec 20, 2008, 11 pm
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Oporto apresenta #10
"Sliced Light" by Joel Singer
16mm transfered to DVD, bw, 15 min, 1976
Joel Singer is a New York / Bali based artist that for years collaborated with the experimental film legend James Broughton. His films are elegant poetic portraits of a mythological nature.
In Sliced Light Joel Singer, through an exquisite camera technique, unleashes an aural light trapped between the frames of an impressionist landscape.
"a vibrant light essay"
Alexandre Estrela
Friday, Nov 7, 2008, 10.30 pm
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Oporto apresenta #9
"Kodachrome revisited" by Jon Behrens
180 rolls of slide filmtransfered to DVD, color, 1987
Jon Behrens is a prolific self-taught filmmaker with the vision of Andy Warhol and the skills of Stan Brakhage. His work covers all styles and genres of experimental film from punk rock documentaries to found footage and abstract film.
For 'Kodachrome Revisited', Behrens spliced together 180 uncut rolls of 35 mm slide film and inserted them into a 35-mm film projector. The result is a frantic and chaotic succession of rotated images impossible to read and sustain. This entropic flicker-film suggests a sense of suspended disaster, an effect enhanced by a soundtrack provided by The Throbbing Gristle.
"Ever-vivid"
Alexandre Estrela
Sat, Oct 4, 2008 . 10.30 pm
Monday, July 7, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Oporto apresenta #8
"Natur" by R. Stevie Moore
vhs transfered to dvd, ntsc, color, 2hrs, 1988
Oporto presents a video by the legendary genius of Home Recording, R. Stevie Moore.
From 1988 to 1991, R. Stevie Moore, the prolific musician and "Criminally underexposed" artist , practically abandoned musical recording and began to explore the world of video. Countless hours of creativity were captured on a different kind of tape.
Made on 1988 "Natur" is one of those brilliant videos where RSM ads an ambient soundtrack to a compilation of Nature footage.
"The extreme home safari"
Alexandre Estrela
Sat. June 28th 2008, 10.30 pm
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Oporto apresenta #7
Sonic Outlaws by Craig Baldwin
16mm transfer to DVD NTSC,87min, 1995
Craig Baldwin (1952) is an American experimental filmmaker. He uses found footage and images from the mass media to undermine and transform the traditional documentary.
In 1991, Negativland sampled an audiotape of Casey Kasem mixed with samples from a U2 song. In a highly publicized case, U2's label, Island Records, charged Negativland with copyright and trademark infringement for appropriating the letter U and the number 2, even though U2 had in turn borrowed its name from the Central Intelligence Agency spy plane. Sonic Outlaws, is a fragmented, gleefully anarchic documentary approach to the Negativland / U2 incident, expanding upon the ideas behind Negativland's guerilla recording tactics.
"Here is your chance for an obnoxious and appropriate response to corporate music greed."
Sat. May 24th 2008, 10.30 pm
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Oporto apresenta #6
ISLAND SONG by Charlemagne Palestine
Umatic tranfered to dvd, 00:16:02, 1976
Charlemagne Palestine is a composer and performer, one of the last eccentric American shamans. In his hands the instruments of video and sound become animistic performers.
In Island Song Charlemagne drives a motorcycle around Saint Pierre island with a portapack video system strapped to himself. Singing and shouting, the artits harmonizes with the engine, while desperately trying to find a way out.
"The ultimate escape video."
Alexandre Estrela
Wed. April 9th 2008, 10.30 pm
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Oporto apresenta #5
"The Black Tower" by John Smith
1987, 24',color , 16mm transfered to DVD
John Smith is an accomplished experimental filmmaker,
his pieces are gems of British witty thought.
“The black tower” is a brilliant narrative of an enigmatic tower
that follows the narrator everywhere he goes.
"An unique voyage into haunted architecture"
Alexandre Estrela
Saturday, March 1st 10.30pm
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Oporto apresenta #4
"3 Gläser" by Lutz Mommartz
1968, 9',bw, 16mm transfered to DVD
This intriguing and unique short film shows a
speechless encounter of 3 men and their strange
experiences on sound and reverb selfsufficiency. Lutz
Mommartz is doing experimental film since the 60´s
,his brilliant work covers all genres of film, from
abstract to fiction and documentary .
"Mind blowing"
Alexandre Estrela
Friday. December 7, 22.30
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Oporto apresenta #3
Arrow Catcher by Peter Wiehl
1978, 16mm transfered to dvcam, 11'
Peter Wiehl is a New York based artist that during the 70's and beginning of the 80's did really interesting experimental films mostly related to performance.
"Arrow Catcher" was filmed with the help of a high speed military camera. It shows the artist aiming arrows to a complex Plexiglas structure. This device captures and suspends the arrows as in an abstract composition.
"A triumph of authenticity."
Alexandre Estrela
Sat. 29th September 10.30pm
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Oporto apresenta #2
"Burn" by Patrick Jolley and Reynold Reynolds
2002 - 16mm transfered to DVD
Patrick Jolley (Irland) and Reynold Reynolds (USA) colaborate since 1998 in the creation of short dense and dramatic films. "Burn" shows a series of domestic environments being consumed by the fire while the actors, also on fire, act as if nothing happened.
"Still burning after all these years."
Alexandre Estrela
Friday 27th July 22h30
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Oporto apresenta #1
"The Fountains of New York" by Daragh Reeves
Hi8 transfered to dvd, 19 min, 2004-2005
Daragh Reeves is a prolific artist and brilliant script-writer. His work has been exhibit at de Appel, w139, Stedelijk Museum.
The Fountains of New York is a compilation of video sketches developed as a student/tourist between 1996 and 2004.
"A Gracious and Humane Tale... One can only Marvel." Alexandre Estrela
Friday 27 th April 2007
