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The Edinburgh International Film Festival is one of few that devote an entire sidebar to experimental film and video. Its “Black Box” section is one of many bequests left to Edinburgh by Shane Danielson, the outgoing artistic director. The antipodean director’s muscular, and occasionally incendiary, style has made the last five years of Edinburgh almost as exciting for its gossip as its programming. The programming has, nevertheless, been nothing less than fascinating. “Black Box” sets out to bridge the gap between cinema’s sleek professionalism and the formal chaos of the video/art world. |
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Edinburgh Film Festival – Mitchell Miller
The Edinburgh International Film Festival is one of few that devote an entire sidebar to experimental film and video. Its “Black Box” section is one of many bequests left to Edinburgh by Shane Danielson, the outgoing artistic director. The antipodean director’s muscular, and occasionally incendiary, style has made the last five years of Edinburgh almost as exciting for its gossip as its programming.
The programming has, nevertheless, been nothing less than fascinating. “Black Box” sets out to bridge the gap between cinema’s sleek professionalism and the formal chaos of the video/art world. To this purpose, it has presented Jem Cohen’s Chain, Mathew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle, Patrick Jolley’s Sugar and it has installed Sam Taylor-Woods performance art/video combo, Strings. If its screenings have occasionally suffered from the mismatch between works originally intended for the spatial freedom of the gallery and the relative regimentation of the movie theatre, audiences have warmed to “Black Box’s” adventurous spirit.
This year sees the return of three big names of art cinema; Douglas Gordon, Mathew Barney and Bill Morrison. Eagerly anticipated is Gordon’s Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, which is certain to be a highlight not just of the sidebar, but of the entire festival. Focused on the celebrated—and mysterious—French footballer, the artist has set 80 minutes of footage from a football match to the music of fellow Glaswegians, the band Mogwai.
Mathew Barney lines up alongside Marina Abramovic, Marco Brambilia, Richard Prince, Sam Taylor-Wood, Gaspar Noe and Larry Clark in the “Destricted” sequence of films, which stops off at Edinburgh on the way to its appearance at the Tate Modern in London. Five of the “Destricted” films will be featured in this year’s festival (Abramovic’s and Princes films will not appear), each taking up Picasso’s aphorism that “Sex and art are the same thing” by exploring the topics of sex and pornography. Produced by filmmakers Neville Wakefield, Mel Agace and Andrew Hale, the selection combines cinematic collage, documentary and narrative in what promises to be a provocative selection.
Bill Morrison is a contributing filmmaker for All This Will Outlast Us, an anthology programme focusing on the ephemeral nature of civilisation and its hidden horrors. Consistent with his previous themes, The Highwater Trilogy contemplates erosion, decay and disaster through corrupted footage of windswept piers, icebergs and flooded cities. The trilogy even sees the filmmaker reunite with Michael Gordon, composer for the award winning Decasia.
Chicago artist Jim Finn’s spoof documentary-cum-musical-cum-animation-cum-satire, Interkosmos, revisits the Soviet era, namely a mythical East German space programme set to colonise Saturn. Starring the artist himself, the film mimics the aesthetics of the Soviet Union and—bizarrely—MGM musicals. Appropriately enough, the film will be screened with Mika Taanila’s Futuro—A New Stance for Tomorrow, a documentary on Matti Suuronen’s plastic housing—just one of many interesting juxtapositions promised for EIFF’s 60th year.
