Critical Mass: The Legacy of Hollis Frampton

Film Studies Center (University of Chicago) – Saturday and Sunday, beginning 10am each day (9:30am Continental Breakfast)
The citywide, multi-venue celebration of Hollis Frampton wraps up this weekend with three days of inquiry and exploration. Legendary filmmaker and Frampton collaborator Michael Snow kicks it off Friday night with a sold-out reading of Frampton’s performative A LECTURE. There's still a slim chance you can get in if someone doesn't show up, and it's worth taking the risk. Often Frampton's films attempt to utilize the cinematic form to analyze its own psychosomatic processes, and while successful, they can be rather cloistered. By contrast, with A LECTURE he crafted a performance between narrator and projectionist that, although germane to an academic discussion of how one interacts with the silver screen, is more-so a tale of the people and tools that mesh and fight before we get to sit back and enjoy Bogie and Bacall. Self-consciously deconstructing the social act of going to the movies sounds boring, but Frampton's intelligence and humor make it fun. As the performance begins a voice asks: “Please turn out the lights. If we're going to talk about movies, we might as well do it in the dark.” It's interesting that he's says “we,” because for the next sixty minutes or so “we” will sit passively while “he” uses the essence of cinema to engulf us. We are one with the world on the screen. The voice emanating from the speakers of the auditorium was always intended to vary, and the choice of Snow for Friday should be an inspired one. On Saturday and Sunday all are welcome when some of the top scholars, historians, and makers of experimental cinema hold court (along with a healthy dose of upcoming ones) with a series of panels looking at Frampton's work and legacy. Participants include historian and author Scott MacDonald, filmmaker and preservationist Bill Brand, filmmaker and musician Tony Conrad, historian and author P. Adams Sitney, film and video maker Keith Sanborn, Canadian filmmaker and author Bruce Elder, SAIC’s Bruce Jenkins, and the U of C’s Tom Gunning, who organized the conference. JH - Cine-File.info