Light Industry: Seven Films by Renate Sami

By on

Rating: 

No votes yet

Introduced by Robert Beavers

I met Renate Sami when the filmmaker Ute Aurand invited me to show films at FilmSamstag in Berlin in the late 1990s, but it was only later that I experienced the calm directness of her own film and video work, and became acquainted with the emotion at its source. When I moved to Berlin, I learned more: how she came to film and what directions her filmmaking took. I noted the place that language has in her filmmaking and sensed a certain cultural background and historical moment that align her to a political vision, as well as something older and deeper that places her on the side of honesty and simplicity; call it the northern European tradition of Reform distilled into meditations on the Present. It is not by chance that we hear an excerpt from Bach in addition to Shostakovitch on one of her soundtracks, or that she begins her film Tagebuch 1975-85 with a quote from Godard.

This program shows the variety of her filmmaking while emphasizing the more intimate shorter work rather than the longer films. Whether Sami used a cameraman with an Arri, or whether she filmed herself with a Bolex, Super-8, or digital camera shows how the choice of equipment, with its possibilities and limitations, is central to the form that she develops. Being open and alert to these possibilities so as to create a clear outline for each film is her strength; the humanity and mystery of the results are her art.
- RB

Programme:

  • The Protection Foil, Renate Sami, 1983, 16mm, 8 mins
  • When You See a Rose, Renate Sami, 1995, 16mm, 5 mins
  • Film Diary 1975-85, Renate Sami, 2005, digital projection of Super-8, 38 mins
  • Venice December 2011, Renate Sami, 2011, digital projection, 4 mins
  • Cairo April 2013, Renate Sami, 2013, digital projection, 3 mins
  • Japan March 2014, Renate Sami, 2014, digital projection, 4 mins
  • A Year, Renate Sami, 2011, digital projection, 12 mins

Followed by a conversation with Beavers and Sami.

Tickets - $8, available at door.

Please note: seating is limited. First-come, first-served. Box office opens at 7pm.

Venue: 

Light Industry - New York, United States

Dates: 

Tuesday, September 11, 2018 - 19:30

Category: 

Dates: 

Tuesday, September 11, 2018 - 19:30

Venue: 

  • 361 Stagg Street
    Suite 407
    11222   New York, New York
    United States
    40° 42' 38.6316" N, 73° 56' 3.8652" W