Screening presented by Elio Della Noce & discussion moderated by Vincent Deville

"Two seemingly disparate trajectories intersected at the end of the 1960s: the expansion of the modes of production and exhibition of moving images (with the apparition of Expanded Cinema) and the reduction of the natural world (rampant extractivism leading to a depletion of the living world, soil degradation, extinction of wild species…). This collision of mediatic and environmental destinies provoked contradictory emotions in experimental filmmakers. Feeling a loss of connection with nature, they imbued their filmic techniques and apparatuses with a greater ecological conscience. Expand the means of cinema or expand nature?

While our era is marked by the magnitude of the effects of human actions on the rest of the living world (the Anthropocene), filmmakers take up ecological practices that aim to decenter the privilege claimed by the human species. Experimental cinema is seen as one of the ways to open up to the plurality of life, to conceive of the world as an interconnected network, to update the links between human and non-human agents. The very methods of filmmaking can become the terrain of ecological political action: artisanal alternatives to productivism, forming eco-conscious and activist collectives, exploring processes such as phytography and eco-processing.

At this Scratch screening dedicated to the ecologies of experimental cinema, our guest of honor is the British filmmaker Chris Welsby, a pioneer of creating film apparatuses inspired by environmental science, together with Rose Lowder, Karel Doing and Emmanuel Lefrant. Their films, along with those of seven other filmmakers, weave a web of our experience of the living world. They each seek in their own way to highlight the diverse ecological forces, like an alternative history of cinema written from nature's point of view." — Elio Della Noce et Lucas Murari

This program is presented on the occasion of the publication of Expanded Nature : Ecologies du cinéma expérimental, edited by Elio Della Noce and Lucas Murari and published by Light Cone Editions.

This collective publication brings together contributions from Scott MacDonald, Jean-Michel Durafour, Kim Knowles, Janine Marchessault & Philip Hoffman, Karel Doing, Chris Dymond, Alice Leroy, Rose Lowder, Chris Welsby, Yaniv Touati, Bidhan Jacobs, Teresa Castro, Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, Elizabeth Povinelli, Gérard Leblanc, Vincent Deville, Frédéric Brayard, Jacques Perconte, Lukas Brasiskis and Charlie Hewison.

Its publication has been made possible by a grant from the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP).

The screening will be followed by a cordial reception in the Salon at the Luminor cinema, where the book will be available for purchase.

Programme:

• Seven Days (Chris Welsby, 1974, 16mm, color, sound, 20' 00)
• Cailloux, Rocher, Algues (David Dudouit, 2009, 16mm, b&w, silent, 5' 40)
• In The Shadow Of Marcus Mountain (Robert Schaller, 2011, 16mm, b&w, silent, 5' 30)
• Voiliers Et Coquelicots (Rose Lowder, 2001, 16mm, color, silent, 2' 00)
• Buffalo Lifts (Christina Battle, 2004, 16mm, color, silent, 3' 00)
• Parties Visible Et Invisible D'un Ensemble Sous Tension (Emmanuel Lefrant, 2009, 16mm, color, sound, 7' 00)
• ATHYRIUM FILIX FEMINA (Kelly Egan, 2016, DCP, color, sound, 4' 19)
• Phytography (Karel Doing, 2020, 16mm, color, sound, 8' 09)
• Or, Aor, Budapest (Jacques Perconte, 2018, DCP, color, sound, 3' 44)
• Discoveries On The Forest Floor (Charlotte Pryce, 2006, 16mm, color, silent, 4' 00)
• Itzcóatl (Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, 2016, DCP, color, sound, 5' 02)
• Stream Line (Chris Welsby, 1976, 16mm, color, sound, 8' 00)