Oporto

Money, 21/01/2012

2012-01-27T04:27:00.000-08:00

Oporto apresenta #27

2012-01-18T09:30:00.001-08:00

"Money"

by Henry Hills

16mm film, color, sound (optical), 15', 1985

The mechanical specificities of film made it by far the most adequate medium to reveal cities’ inner rhythms. In the early 20th century, a film genre coined City Symphony vividly captured on celluloid the core of cities like Berlin, Paris, Odessa and Oporto. Pioneer filmmakers such as Ruttman, Sauvage, Vertov and Oliveira were able to translate and synthesize the urban struggle towards modernity, while channeling it towards a highly subjective mechanical ballet.

The film "Money", composed by the synesthetic genius Henry Hills, might be the last of the City Symphonies. The film is a concrete collage, a masterpiece that unveils New York City’s ultra fast inner currents, fueled by the lack of money and the creativity of its inhabitants. From the remainings of a city destroyed by financial crisis, Henry Hills builds up the ultimate mechanical view of his town.

“Rapid movements for the listening eye.”

Alexandre Estrela

Saturday, January 21, 2012, 11 pm

Bleu Shut, 18/11/2011

2011-12-19T06:08:00.000-08:00

Oporto apresenta #26

2011-11-14T14:51:00.001-08:00

"Bleu Shut"

by Robert Nelson

16mm film, color, sound, 33', 1970

Robert Nelson is a celebrated film-maker that turned down the glories of the avant-garde for the joys of backyard projectionism. His films are ironic constructions, open questions made for the pleasures of gathering. “Bleu Shut” fits right in the so-called tradition of participatory-film. The film is an experiment built around a guessing game, where the act of “seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees”. *

*title of book by Robert Irwin

“On the cognitive mechanisms of boat-naming and its effect on the uncertainties of the real.”

Alexandre Estrela

Friday, November 18, 2011, 10.30 pm

Phæton, 21/10/2011

2011-10-25T05:13:00.001-07:00

Oporto apresenta #25

2011-10-17T16:51:00.001-07:00

"Phæton"

by David Wharry

16mm film, b&w,sound, 7' 25, 1978

When a screen gets in contact with David Wharry`s films, it becomes a photosensitive membrane that, like an "Optogram" (an image imprinted on the retina), registers the surrounding action. The screen works, then, as a memory mechanism, a record of Wharry's actions, unveiling the inner-senses of his humorous cinematic charades.
It was in the late seventies that the author created "General Picture", a series of episodes built from the rubble of “noir” and mystery films. This body of work is a bright and mysterious plot on the foundations of the moving image. “Phæton” is one of the few episodes of "General Picture" which can be viewed independently. In this short film, Wharry makes us focus on the space between the retina and the eyelid to reveal the origin of the image and the birth of the otherness.

"Behind and beyond the eyelid"
Alexandre Estrela

Friday, October 21, 2011, 10.30 pm

with the presence of the author

Aleph, 22/06/2011

2011-07-12T04:52:00.000-07:00

Oporto apresenta #24

2011-06-17T03:35:00.000-07:00

"Aleph"

by Wallace Berman

16mm film, color,silent, loop, 1956-1966

Jorge Luis Borges describes the Aleph as a converging point of infinitude and simultaneous space, that he saw materialized on the 19th step of a staircase in an old building. In his description he mentions that this strange phenomenon can appear in other specific places.

Oporto is fortunate to have the perfect conditions to host once again an Aleph. It is a hidden staircase camouflaged by a fake desk, once used by the sailors to flee from PIDE (Portuguese fascist police). The present Aleph is a film by the visual artist and self-publication wizard, Wallace Berman; a poetic concentration of images portraying the artist's time, life, influences and work. Structured on the Kabbalah, "Aleph" is simultaneously a meditation on everyday life and a cryptic beat trip into infinite time and space.

" The narcotic to the flower"

Tosh Berman

Wednesday, June 22, 2011, 10.30 pm

You don't bring me flowers, 08/04/2011

2011-04-12T04:30:00.000-07:00

Oporto apresenta #23

2011-04-03T16:09:00.000-07:00

"You don't bring me flowers"
by Michael Robinson
16mm film, color, with optical sound, 8', 2005

Since the beginning of this millennium, Michael Robinson has been making film and video as trigger-objects for basic emotions. His work is a compilation of complex riddles, trails leading to ambiguous regions, places meant for the hard task of feeling. His narratives are deeply sensorial, warranting themselves difficult to translate into words.
Oporto is now presenting the film "You don't bring me flowers", a sublime diving experience into a succession of nostalgic images, centerfold pages from vintage National Geographic magazines.

"on deep image reading and other simmetry laws"

Alexandre Estrela

Friday, April 8, 2011, 10.30 pm

Dog Track, 16/01/2011

2011-01-23T11:42:00.001-08:00

Oporto apresenta #22

2011-01-10T06:42:00.001-08:00

"Dog Track"
by Phill Niblock
16mm film transfered to video, color, sound,8.5', 1969

If there is still someone with a nonconformist and experimental spirit in New York, that person is Phill Niblock. Since the sixties that the artist explores the power of sound and images to generate new frontiers and limits of perception.   Despite being a reference in the field of music, it was the film that led him to take the first steps in time-based-arts. Phill Niblock began by making structural experiments, short dance and sound films in collaboration with artists as diverse as Yvonne Rainer, Sun Ra and Max Neuhaus. After this period, Niblock starts to investigate the film medium itself by focusing on the inflow of movement in its various expressions. Working with a wide range of simple images, travel and ethnographic captures, landscapes or just abstract compositions, Niblock overlaps successive layers of sound, creating an open field, impervious to any definition.
Oporto presents "Dog Track ", a film that juxtaposes an inhuman sound, devoid of emotion, coming from a psychoanalytic interview, to images and landscapes of non-verbal beauty. "Dog Track" roughly exposes us, to an hypnotic report, a sad and monochordic chant produced by an impossible relationship.    
"The saddest song on earth"   Alexandre Estrela

Sunday, January 16, 2011, 10.30 pm

Whispering Pines, 07/12/2010

2011-01-04T14:32:00.000-08:00

Oporto apresenta #21

2010-12-03T14:02:00.000-08:00

"Whispering Pines"

by Shana Moulton
Video, color, sound,20', 2006-2008

For the last few years Shana Moulton has been creating a persona, named Cynthia, halfway between the mute Monsieur Hulot, from Jacques Tati's film "Play Time", and the hypochondriac Carol White, the suburban homemaker from Todd Haynes' "Safe". In Tatis' film, Hulot clumsily drifts in a modern world surrounded by modern incomprehensible stuff. Cynthia is also surrounded by a puzzling set of postmodern home kitsch and TV-Shop paraphernalia, to which she connects emotionally barely knowing their use. As Carol, Cynthia seeks, for a safe place, an escape for a healing dimension, a transcendental gateway that she finds hidden it in each object.

Oporto is now presenting from the series "Whispering Pines" some key chapters of Cynthia's domestic "walkabout".

"Notes on the untenable lightness of things"
Alexandre Estrela

Tuesday, December 07, 2010, 11 pm

Daylight Moon, 16/07/2010

2010-07-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

Oporto apresenta #20

2010-07-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

"Daylight Moon"
by Lewis Klahr
16mm film, color, sound (Optical), 14 ', 2003

Lewis Klahr is the long waited follower of Max Ernst and Joseph Cornell´s surrealist legacy. His films are unique cinematic-collages, uncanny streams of scenarios where subjects and things try (and fail) to fall into an order.
Daylight Moon is an elliptical narrative, a detective story told in images and shadows from old Americana comics and ads. The film reveals a subtle unconscious quest for the unnamed pleasure or crime.

"a melancholic longing for an irrecoverable past" Alexandre Estrela

Friday, July 16, 2010, 11 pm

Clearchannel Mountain Range Frontier Expansion Tracking Shot So Far, Oporto 22/05/2010

2010-07-22T07:05:00.000-07:00

Oporto apresenta #19

2010-05-12T02:44:00.000-07:00

"Clearchannel Mountain Range Frontier Expansion Tracking Shot So Far"
by Jessie Stead
Digital video , color, sound, 17' 44''

Jessie Stead is a multi-purpose artist and motion-picture maker currently based in New York. Using a variety of inexpensive means she produces assorted interdisciplinary media works that often combine image, music and text with a meandering conceptual focus. Her approach to motion-picture is as a kind of “adhesive” used to synthesize unlikely collaborations of seemingly disparate subject matter, formal strategies, technological experiments and other people.
This video from the "clearchannel" series samples assorted mountain themed landscape illustrations used to sell bottled water and consolidates them into a single topography. A cinematic "tracking shot" is forged with digital effects to parody an exploration experience. This motion-picture does not have a finished dimension or duration, it is more an everlasting frontier, to be continuously expanded; an open-ended expedition of the landscapes available in the contemporary graphics of water consumption. The soundtrack is made with AM radio static recordings. (Stead)

"A thunder of spring over distant mountains"
Alexandre Estrela

Saturday, May 22, 2010, 11 pm

What is the sound of one hand clapping?, Oporto 06/02/2010

2010-02-09T02:10:00.000-08:00

Oporto apresenta #18

2010-02-04T03:32:00.000-08:00

"What is the sound of one hand clapping?" by Liliane Lijn
Eastman 16 mm film, color, sound, 14', 1973
Camera : Roger Coward and Pip Benveniste; Editing : Liliane Lijn; Sound: Rolf Gehlhaar

Liliane Lijn could be considered as a "kinetic wizard" for her persistent research on the fluid matters of time and space.
The film "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" is a natural follow up for her kinetic experiments done during the sixties. The piece is based on the phonetic resemblance between the words "Koan" and "Cone" and could be seen as a "conic mantra". Several early sculptures, preliminary studies for her monumental work "The white Koan", were portrayed spinning. The rotating movement liberates inner resonances that were captured by the camera as ontological matter.

“A timely experiment on perpetual vision”
Alexandre Estrela

Saturday, February 6, 2010, 11 pm

Unedited Material From The Star, Oporto 19/12/2009

2009-12-22T04:04:00.000-08:00

Oporto apresenta #17

2009-12-15T13:07:00.000-08:00

"Unedited Material From The Star" by John Latham
16 mm, color, sound (optical), 12', 1960

John Latham (1921 - 2006) is definitely a pillar for the british contemporary arts. Starting as a painter and sculptor in the late forties, he soon moved these mediums to conceptual fields and social practices. In the fifties Latham developed an holistic system where art emerges as a visual language, the most accurate meaning to approach time and matter. This new time-based theory, termed "Flat Time" becomes a unifying philosophical structure capable of ordering the Universe and human behavior.
"Unedited Material From The Star" is an animated documentary of the production of another piece, "Film Star". The film presents debris of literature agglomerated over a grav-
ity field, the canvas. The result is a flickering book-wreckage site shaped as a bright nonlinear star

"Unwritten echoes from a neighboring star"
Alexandre Estrela

Saturday, December 19, 2009, 11 pm

Saugus Series, Oporto 16/10/2009

2009-10-23T08:32:00.000-07:00

Oporto apresenta #16

2009-10-15T02:26:00.000-07:00

"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

Fog Pumas, Oporto 16/07/2009

2009-07-21T00:46:00.000-07:00

Oporto apresenta #15

2009-07-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

"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 

Living, Oporto 15/05/2009

2009-05-22T13:25:00.001-07:00

Oporto apresenta #14

2009-05-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

"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

Friday, May 15, 2009, 10.30pm

Diwan, Oporto 07/03/2009

2009-03-11T16:45:00.000-07:00

Oporto apresenta #13

2009-03-05T07:50:00.000-08:00

"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

Krypton is Doomed, Oporto 28/02/2009

2009-03-02T01:32:00.000-08:00

Oporto apresenta #12

2009-02-26T03:00:00.000-08:00

"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

Matemática, Oporto 20/12/2008

2008-12-21T14:41:00.000-08:00

Oporto apresenta # 11

2008-12-16T16:51:00.000-08:00

"Matemática" by Vasco lucena (1913, 2001)
VHS, colour, 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

Sliced Light, Oporto 07/11/2008

2008-11-11T06:21:00.000-08:00

Oporto apresenta #10

2008-11-03T14:16:00.001-08:00

"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

Kodachrome Revisited, Oporto 04/10/2008

2008-10-14T08:29:00.001-07:00

Oporto apresenta #9

2008-09-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

"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

Natur, Oporto 28/06/2008

2008-07-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

Oporto apresenta #8

2008-06-23T05:51:00.000-07:00

"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

Sonic Outlaws, Oporto 24/05/2008

2008-05-30T16:46:00.001-07:00

Oporto apresenta #7

2008-05-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

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

Island Song, Oporto 09/04/2008

2008-04-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

Oporto apresenta #6

2008-04-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

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

The Black Tower, Oporto 01/03/2008

2008-03-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

Oporto apresenta #5

2008-02-27T11:02:00.001-08:00

"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

3 Gläser, Oporto 07/12/2007

2007-12-08T14:00:00.000-08:00

Oporto apresenta #4

2007-12-05T03:55:00.000-08:00

"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

ARROW CATCHER, Oporto 29/09/2007

2007-10-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

Oporto apresenta #3

2007-10-06T06:50:00.002-07:00

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

BURN, Oporto 27/07/2007

2007-08-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

Oporto apresenta #2

2007-07-23T05:31:00.000-07:00

"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

The fountains of NY, Oporto 27/04/2007

2007-07-23T04:54:00.000-07:00

Oporto apresenta #1

2007-04-11T17:20:00.001-07:00

"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