To outsiders, Los Angeles avant-garde cinema has traditionally been obscured, neglected and elided, left out of the sweeping histories of American experimental film that find centers in New York and San Francisco, leaving the rich and varied output of LA makers behind. To LA denizens, though, it may be clear that this flawed history needs revision. Thanks to Filmforum, the UCLA Film and Television Archive and other venues, as well as scholars such as David E. James, who has avidly researched a broad range of LA films and artists, the city's filmmaking history continually finds more nuance.
The ongoing revision continues this week as archivist Mark Toscano joins LA filmmakers Thom Andersen and Morgan Fisher on Wednesday night (May 27) to present newly restored prints of films made by the artists, and returns again on Friday night (May 29) with even more local experimental filmmaking, featuring artists Pat O'Neill, David Wilson, Grahame Weinbren, Fred Worden and Roberta Friedman. The restoration of all 17 of the films that will screen took place at the Academy Film Archive, which has focused attention on restoring the work of local artists for the last five years. "As more films have come to the Academy, and more have been preserved or restored, a fascinating portrait of the Los Angeles avant-garde scene has begun to emerge," claims the blurb for the show. "Accordingly, the title of this special two-night screening series has a double meaning."
The incredibly eclectic programs challenge easy assertions regarding a particular LA style, generational perspective or immanent "LA-ness." But maybe there's something specific in that eclecticism: the artists grouped here were not followers, and the films represent a persistent drive - sometimes dogged, sometimes simply curious - to figure out something through cinema. Morgan Fisher systematically questions the very essence of filmmaking with wry wit and a deep respect for cinema's abilities, for example. That project continues in Friday night's screening with Gary Beydler's wonderful Pasadena Freeway Stills from 1974, which explores the still/moving image matrix at the heart of cinema. In the film, two hands hold up a series of still Polaroid images of the Pasadena freeway. Shown in sequence, the stills gradually begin to move, offering both a historical glimpse of the freeway in the past as well as a tribute to the magic of analog filmmaking. While histories are always made within often invisible constraints and toward certain objectives, making a "restoration" of LA's history questionable, the films in these two programs are without question treasures and the screenings offer a rare opportunity to connect with the artists who made them.
image: still from Pasadena Freeway StillsPresented by Filmforum and the UCLA Film and Television Archive
Restoring the Los Angeles Avant-Garde
Thom Andersen & Morgan Fisher
Wednesday, May 27, 7:30 p.m.
Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum
Free Admission
Things Are Always Going Wrong: New Restorations of Los Angeles Experimental Films
Friday, May 29, 7:30 p.m.
Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum
Free Admission
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