No. 27 - 7,8,9 Three films by Hollis Frampton

2 Kerr St, Fitzroy

Thursday the 26th April, 7.30pm for an 8pm start

$20 membership for 3 consecutive months

Hollis Frampton - 'Palindrome' (1969)

These films are mainly related by the period in which they were made. Hollis Frampton (1936-1984) was recognised by New York critic P. Adams Sitney in his famous 1969 essay 'Structural Film'. In many ways these films demonstrate his investigation of the essential qualities of the medium, and its relationship to language. 
16 mm prints courtesy of the NFSA. 

States (1967)
This film attempts to essentialise matter in its relation to the 16mm film medium, structurally the films is edited as a palindrome - it runs the same forwards as backwards. 

Artificial Light (1968)
A film Frampton made with a group of New York artists 'talking, drinking wine, laughing, smoking, informally'. Running the same footage through a series of manipulations which oscillate between the film's content and its formal properties, the repetitions approach what Sitney called 'the logic of the paradox'. As another more recent review of the film relates on its imdb listing: 'why on earth would he film the same thing over and over again?.. it's obvious Frampton had no idea what he was doing. If he did, this could be his revenge on the bullies from his school'. 

Palindrome (1969)
One of the most perfect films ever made (according to Stan Brakhage). Frampton's interests in the tone row and serial composition are employed against film ends from the cutting room floor of the dye-transfer lab in downtown Manhattan where Frampton had worked for 10 years.