Screening Room (1972-1981): A Tribute to Robert Gardner

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In association with the festival Cinema du Reel, the film department of the Centre Pompidou pays a tribute to Robert Gardner from March 19th to March 28th. Anthropologist and filmmaker, founder of the Film Study Center at Harvard University, Robert Gardner is the author of a singular oeuvre, dedicated to distant societies – from the Dani's tribe of New Guinea (Dead Birds, 1964) to the Ika Indians of Colombia (Ika Hands, 1988) or the Hamar in Ethiopia (River of Sand, 1973) - as well as portraits of contemporary artists (such as Mark Tobey and Sean Scully). Started with Dead Birds, a poetic ethnography of a warrior society, the work of Gardner attempts a progressive disappearance of the verbal language and marks a rejection of any kind of interpretation. A configuration that he achieved sumptuously in his film Forest of Bliss (1986), an experimental and sensory visual essay on the funeral rites of the city of Varanasi in India. 

On this journey towards a more sensitive than didactic cinema, the Screening Room, a TV program produced by Gardner between 1972 and 1981, offers a new reading key. Weekly broadcasted after midnight, the Screening Room, as Gardner explained with humor during a discussion with the New York based filmmaker Peter Hutton, wants to be "the answer to the Boston insomniacs." Beyond the line of humor, Gardner opens a new space dedicated to independent cinema in the American media landscape. He received Robert Breer and Les Blank, Derek Lamb and Emile de Antonio, Hollis Frampton and Richard Leacock, Jonas Mekas and Yvonne Rainer, Alan Lomax and Michael Snow, and even Jean Rouch. Taking advantage of broadcasting, when it’s possible, the works in their integrities, Gardner shows in 1973 Water Baby Moving Windows (1959) by Brakhage, and Les Maîtres Fous (1954) by Rouch in 1981. However that Gardner has been working directly with some these filmmakers - like Robert Fulton and Hilary Harris – or that he simply admired their works, the Screening Room draws an intimate geography of his cinephily and founded an invaluable archive for an invisible cinema.

The Screening Room's episodes are presented in the Museum's FORUM, Free admission, from March 19th to March 29th.

March 19th : Emile De Antonio – John Whitney Sr. – Derek Lamb – Standish Lawder et Stanley Cavell

March 20th : Jan Lenica – Stan Brakhage – Les Blank – Hilary Harris

March 21st : Richard P. Rogers – Robert Fulton – Bruce Baillie – Ed Emschwiller

March 22nd : John et Faith Hubley – Alan Lomax – Hollis Frampton – Ricky Leacock

March 23th : Robert Breer – Caroline Leaf et Mary Beams – Suzan Pitt – Derek Lamb

March 25th : Jonas Mekas – Robert Fulton – George Griffin – James Broughton

March 26th : Peter Hutton – Jean Rouch – Stan Brakhage – Yvonne Rainer

March 27th : Hollis Frampton – Standish Lawder et Stanley Cavell – Hilary Harris –  Michael Snow

March 28th : Les Blank – Jonas Mekas – Ricky Leacock – Jean Rouch 

Thanks to : Adele Pressman, Frank Aveni (Documentary Educational Resources), Alice Leroy.

Venue: 

Centre Pompidou - Paris, Francia

Dates: 

Repeats every day until Sat Mar 28 2015 except Mon Mar 23 2015.
Thursday, March 19, 2015 - 19:00 to Friday, March 20, 2015 - 18:55
Friday, March 20, 2015 - 19:00 to Saturday, March 21, 2015 - 18:55
Saturday, March 21, 2015 - 19:00 to Sunday, March 22, 2015 - 18:55
Sunday, March 22, 2015 - 19:00 to Monday, March 23, 2015 - 18:55
Monday, March 23, 2015 - 19:00 to Tuesday, March 24, 2015 - 18:55
Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 19:00 to Thursday, March 26, 2015 - 18:55
Thursday, March 26, 2015 - 19:00 to Friday, March 27, 2015 - 18:55
Friday, March 27, 2015 - 19:00 to Saturday, March 28, 2015 - 18:55
Saturday, March 28, 2015 - 19:00 to Sunday, March 29, 2015 - 18:55

Category: 

Dates: 

Thursday, March 19, 2015 - 19:00 to Friday, March 20, 2015 - 18:55
Friday, March 20, 2015 - 19:00 to Saturday, March 21, 2015 - 18:55
Saturday, March 21, 2015 - 19:00 to Sunday, March 22, 2015 - 18:55
Sunday, March 22, 2015 - 19:00 to Monday, March 23, 2015 - 18:55
Monday, March 23, 2015 - 19:00 to Tuesday, March 24, 2015 - 18:55
Wednesday, March 25, 2015 - 19:00 to Thursday, March 26, 2015 - 18:55
Thursday, March 26, 2015 - 19:00 to Friday, March 27, 2015 - 18:55
Friday, March 27, 2015 - 19:00 to Saturday, March 28, 2015 - 18:55
Saturday, March 28, 2015 - 19:00 to Sunday, March 29, 2015 - 18:55

Venue: 

  • Place Georges-Pompidou
    75004   Paris
    Francia
    48° 51' 38.2464" N, 2° 21' 8.0388" E