As film processing labs worldwide shutter their doors and halt their activities, rumors abound of the end of celluloid filmmaking. Undaunted by apocalyptic visions of an all-digital media dystopia, Australian filmmaker Richard Tuohy—a prominent figure in the burgeoning international network of DIY-inspired “artist-run film labs”—is an infectiously optimistic master of the hand-made film. Using elaborately creative experimentation with laboratory processes and film mechanics, Tuohy’s works abound with such techniques as time-lapse photography, single-frame filmmaking, multiple exposure photography, extensive printing techniques, alternative chemical processes, direct cameraless filmmaking and more. This screening presents an exciting and inspiring array of these dazzling works, including the optical/audible rayogram work Flyscreen; the hand-colorized Korean streetscape Seoul Electric; Ginza Strip, a positive/negative/color/black-and-white “chromoflex” film; the flickering, strobing two-projector work Dot Matrix; the three-projector piece Horizontals and more. (Steve Polta/Richard Tuohy)
