FLESH & FLUIDS
21:00 Fri 17 Jan 2020
Through the work of four artist-filmmakers, we take a long and unflinching look at the human body.
Told from the perspective of the flesh itself, this programme strips away euphemistic aesthetics and metaphor to focus on the corporeal and biological - beginning with Gunvor Nelson’s portrait of a home birth and culminating with Stan Brakhage’s shocking yet humane study of an autopsy (‘one of the most direct confrontations with death ever recorded on film’ - Jonathan Rosenbaum). Also featuring the late great Carolee Schneeman. 80’
Fuses, Steifheit 1-3 / 7 and The Act of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes are silent and will be presented from 35mm and 16mm prints.
This programme contains unsimulated sex, real birth and autopsy footage.
ICA
SW1Y 5AH
Access
Please find all access information here, or drop a line to Helen MacKenzie at access@shortfilms.org.uk for more information or special requests.
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KIRSA NICHOLINA
Gunvor Nelson 16 mins (SE, 1969)
Kirsa Nicholina records the birth of a child at home by the Lamaze method. At the moment of birth, the mother reaches down and grasps the hand of the emerging child and guides it out of her body and into her arms. -
FUSES
Carolee Schneeman 23 mins (US, 1967)
"The notorious masterpiece... a silent celebration in colour of heterosexual love making. The film unifies erotic energies within a domestic environment through cutting, superimposition and layering of abstract impressions scratched into the celluloid itself" -
STEIFHEIT 1-3 / 7
Albert Sackl 9 mins (AT, 2018)
Every ten years, the filmmaker Albert Sackl sits naked in a black space in front of his camera, which he lets run on time lapse for around four hours until all 4,000 frames of a standard 16mm roll of film have been shot. The basic idea (and not so simple challenge) comprises maintaining an erection for hours through the energy of friction, which (spoiler alert!) is not always possible. -
THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONES OWN EYES
Stan Brakhage 32 mins (US, 1971)
The film, whose title is based on the literal translation of the term autopsy, documents the highly graphic autopsy procedures used by forensic pathologists, such as the removal of organs and the embalming process.