The preservation of small, experimental and avant garde films is as urgent as the restoration of commercial cinema classics. These eight personal and imaginative works showcase the creative ways that artists can change the way we see the world around us.

Special guests include filmmakers Frank and Caroline Mouris, Jeanne Liotta, Bill Morrison, and Lisa Crafts; and archivists/preservationists Pamela Vizner (BB Optics), Heather Linville (Academy Film Archive), Andrew Lampert (Anthology Film Archive), and John Klacsmann (Anthology Film Archive); and violinist Todd Reynolds.

From the 1980s until his death in 2005, American filmmaker Mark LaPore turned his intense gaze towards documenting life across several continents, as well as virtual worlds.  Whether training his Super 8 camera on Sudanese life early in his career or documenting the faces and gestures of laborers during his travels in India and Sri Lanka, LaPore cemented a position not only as a master of the visual essay, but also as one of cinema’s keenest chroniclers of the wanderer’s impulse.  Renowned for his penetrating style, LaPore’s films achieve a rare blend of sensuousness and severity, mixing subtle observation with stark juxtapositions.

There is a number of filmmakers worldwide who have the distinction of making themselves the emulsion which they then use to shoot. From October 27 to November 2, L'Abominable has invited a few of them to spend a week together in La Courneuve for the "Maddox Seminar", a time together for exchange and experimentation, sharing and transmission.

On this occasion, we propose a session with films by Will Rifer from Mire in Nantes, Robert Schaller from the Handmade Film Institute in Colorado, Lindsay McIntyre from Montréal, Kevin Rice from Process Reversal (Colorado & NY), Esther Urlus from Filmwerkplaats in Rotterdam and a 30-minute 16mm live performance by Alex MacKenzie.