New York is often depicted on screen as a place bristling with money, energy, and excitment. That is there to some extend, but there is another side to New York as well, and the four works that comprise this program offer such an alternative view. One that focuses on ordinary daily activities, which like the strata of society engaged in them, remains largely grey and transparent – buying and selling at an indoor market; eating or relaxing at lunch counters; riding underground trains, the hustle and bustle of New York City street life; the energy of light and color caressing the urban landscape; moments of repose and quite delight. Deceptively casual and somewhat reminiscent of early cinema “Actualities”, these works are nevertheless also tempered by a responsiveness to the pleasures of vision and reflection. The footage was originally recorded on 16mm in the early 1970s, but not edited and shaped into these four independent, yet interrelated pieces until 2004.
Biography
film director
Ernie Gehr
Ernie Gehr (Milwaukee,
Usa, 1943), began making
films in the 8mm format in the 1960s and has established himself as one
of the
true masters of New American Cinema. His films have screened
internationally,
including retrospectives at the MOMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou
in Paris
and at the San Francisco Cinematheque. He has also taught cinema at the
American Film Insitute, the University of California and the School of
the Art
of Chicago.
FILMOGRAFIA
Morning (1968), Wait
(1968), Reverberation
(1969), Transparency (1969), History
(1970), Field (Short
Version) (1970), Field (1970), Serene
Velocity (1970), Three
(1970), Still (1969-71), Eureka
(1974), Shift (1972-74),
Behind the Scenes (1975), Table (1976),
Untitled (1977), Hotel
(1979), Mirage (1981), Part
One (1981), Signal-Germany on
the Air (1982-85), Listen (1986-91), Rear
Window (1986-91), This
Side of Paradise (1991), Side/Walk/Shuttle (l991),
For Daniel (1996),
Cotton Candy (2002), Carte da Visite -
Der V'03-Trailer (2003),
Essex