Experimental film isn't for everyone. Most requires tremendous patience and an open mind, asking you to interact mentally instead of just sitting back to enjoy passively. That said, the eight-part "Liquid Light" series -- part of this year's Virginia Film Festival -- offers a plethora of engaging and inspiring, yet often difficult, film shorts.
Ralph McKay's program of experimental shorts is part of just one of the eight installations of Liquid Light. McKay, a Festival guest, is part of Sixpack Film North America, a nonprofit organization devoted to the distribution of avant-garde film, particularly for events like this year's festival. A connoisseur of experimental film, McKay has put together a varied, interesting program of shorts.
Unless he has revised it, McKay's program will start with "Elegy," a 2001 16 mm film from Jenny Gage and Tom Betterton. "Elegy" consists of a long shot from under water of a young woman swimming around with a woman's monologue dubbed over it. The image is beautifully composed and completely disorienting; although the swimmer is seen surfacing for air and kicking the water's surface, the border between liquid and air is never clear, and viewers have no idea at what angle they are seeing this young woman.
During the eight-minute run time of the film, nothing really "happens," as far as action goes. But the film's length causes viewers to experience a hyperawareness of what they are seeing and hearing, forcing them to actively think and make connections between the visual and the monologue.
Perhaps the dubbed words express the swimmer's thoughts as she escapes the world above by submerging herself in water. Perhaps the voiceover is completely disconnected from the swimmer. In any case, the feeling one gets during "Elegy" is a peaceful claustrophobia. And what one makes of it will depend largely upon each individual viewer -- the 'correct' interpretation is up for grabs.
Filmmaker Hyoe Yamamoto's "A Wisdom Day" is a delightful snapshot of a young woman and her younger companion, possibly her brother. It's a sunny day at the beach, and nothing much out of the ordinary happens, but its dark undertones save it from becoming oversimple and two-dimensional. Because it actually has an overt narrative, this short is probably the least difficult of those in McKay's program.
Next up is "Angel Beach," an experiment in motion from filmmaker Scott Stark. The film is a montage of appropriated stereoscopic photographs from the '60s, most of which are pictures of women in two-pieces.
Without a soundtrack, the film creates its own rhythm -- the photographs are brought to life, shaken back and forth by Stark's technique. I'm not sure exactly how he does it, but he manages to make each body undulate, as an image and its near replicate are sequentially projected over and over again.
Although this method is at first absolutely fascinating, it quickly gets repetitive. (Warning: This movie should be avoided by epileptics.)
To be shown along with McKay's program are selections made by Richard Herskowitz, artistic director of the festival. One of Herskowitz's picks is "Bautismo," a haunting black-and-white film by Casey Koehler.
The short is frustrating in that it moves in and out of illumination, from dark shadows to blinding light, so that the figures on screen move as if in a strobe light.
Paired with a thunderous soundtrack, "Bautismo" perhaps takes place during an intense storm, the infrequent brightness seemingly caused by lightning flashes.
Images of a young girl trying to escape some sort of a room and a woman surfacing from water, gasping for air, make for a very spooky atmosphere, as though the viewer is witnessing the desperation of trapped phantoms. Or something. In any case, "Bautismo" is worth seeing, if just for the lighting tricks.
Many of the Liquid Light films will try viewers' patience, but it's not apropos of nothing. By scrutinizing and trying to understand and interpret these challenging films, viewers will discover, again and again, new aspects of cinema, not only in how it can be manipulated by filmmakers, but also in how it can be experienced.
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