EXPRMNTL

Oct 8, 2016

1h 5m

★ 0.0

Overview

Knokke, Belgium. A small mundane coastal town, home to the beau-monde. To compete with Venice and Cannes, the posh casino hosts the second ‘World Festival of Film and the Arts’ in 1949, organised in part by the Royal Cinematheque of Belgium. To celebrate cinema’s 50 year existence, they put together a side program showcasing the medium in all its shapes and forms: surrealist film, absolute film, dadaist films, abstract film,… The side program would soon become a festival in its own right: ‘EXPRMNTL’, dedicated to experimental cinema, and would become a mythical gathering of the avant-garde…

Genres

Documentary

EXPRMNTL Trailers

Cast

himself

Jonas Mekas

herself

Agnès Varda

Himself

Harun Farocki

Herself

Birgit Hein

Himself

Jean-Jacques Lebel

Himself

Boris Lehman

Himself

Eric de Kuyper

Himself

Roland Lethem

Himself

Werner Nekes

Himself

Godfried-Willem Raes

Himself

Michael Snow

Himself

Robert Stéphane

This film describes a psychological state "kin to moonstruck, its images emblems (not quite symbols) of suspension-of-self within consciousness and then that feeling of falling away from conscious thought. The film can only be said to describe or be emblematic of this state because I cannot imagine symbolizing or otherwise representing an equivalent of thoughtlessness itself. Thus the actors in the film, Jane Brakhage, Tom and Gloria Bartek, Williams Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Olovsky and Phillip Whalen are figments of this 'Thought-Fallen Process', as are their images in the film to find themselves being photographed."

6.9

The Five Obstructions

Nov 7, 2003

In 1967, experimental filmmaker Jorgen Leth created a striking short film, The Perfect Human, starring a man and women sitting in a box while a narrator poses questions about their relationship and humanity. Years later, Danish director Lars von Trier made a deal with Leth to remake his film five times, each under a different set of circumstances and with von Trier's strictly prescribed rules. As Leth completes each challenge, von Trier creates increasingly further elaborate stipulations.

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0.0

Adrift

Jan 1, 2004

"Adrift" is shot on the arctic island of Spitzbergen and in Norway. It combines time-lapse photography with stop-motion animation of the landscape. Through camera-angles and framing the film gradually dislocates the viewer from a stable base where one loses the sense of scale and grounding.

0.0

Transitions

May 2, 1986

A look at the various modes of transportation made for the Expo '86 World Fair in Vancouver, Canada.

0.0

To Teach a Bird to Fly

Jan 28, 2020

This experimental nature documentary by Minna Rainio and Mark Roberts depicts climate change and the wave of extinction from the point of view of our near future. Actually, it depicts the age we live in now, or rather its fateful consequences.

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4.8

Photodiary

Jul 26, 1986

"The majority of my 8-mm works were made for the three-minute "Personal Focus" film special put on in Fukuoka. This film is an animation of photographs I had taken on a regular basis as a sort of diary, and was made to have a rough feel to it." - Takashi Ito

6.0

Chinese Viola

May 31, 1975

The rare short film presents a curious dialogue between filmmaker Julio Bressane and actor Grande Otelo, where, in a mixture of decorated and improvised text, we discover a little manifesto to the Brazilian experimental cinema. Also called "Belair's last film," Chinese Viola reveals the first partnership between photographer Walter Carvalho and Bressane.

0.0

Age 12: Love with a Little L

Jul 12, 1991

This film is depicts early lesbian sexuality, using reenacted scenes from the experience of a 12-year old girl as the platform for a meditation on forbidden desire, transgression, and Lacanian psychoanalytic concepts of identity formation. Raw adolescent memories counterpoint staged scenes, exploring mechanisms of power and submission.

5.0

Swinging Light

Mar 21, 2025

An experience of a camera swinging in different gestures facing the optical distortion of the Sun. The last appearance of the smudge.

8.0

Xenoi

Oct 11, 2016

The Greek island of Syros is visited by a series of unexpected guests. Immutable forms, outside of time, aloof observants to human conditions.

6.2

Panta Rhei

Mar 8, 1952

In 1952, Haanstra made Panta Rhei , another view of Holland through the eyes of a painter and filmmaker. Its poetic images of water, skies and clouds reflect Haanstra's own moods.

0.0

Tree Limbs

Apr 18, 2025

A homogeneous structure of wind and light across tree branches in the South region of Isère

0.0

Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant-Garde

Apr 9, 1997

Man Ray, the master of experimental and fashion photography was also a painter, a filmmaker, a poet, an essayist, a philosopher, and a leader of American modernism. Known for documenting the cultural elite living in France, Man Ray spent much of his time fighting the formal constraints of the visual arts. Ray’s life and art were always provocative, engaging, and challenging.