Country: USA
Year: 2006
Duration: 15'
“Turin is a city of rising and falling empires. Industries, fashion and construction leave track marks and cause a daily commotion in the relative calm. A city known in part for its shroud, a negative transfer of one of history’s most worshipped figures, was itself shrouded for months. Black veils hid buildings overtaxed with hasty restorations and racing in countdown with near time lapse renovations. Preparing to preen in the shortlived moment of televised overexposure. In Gehr’s piece more modest figures appear, walking to work, emerging from the shadows of the arcades, digitally immortalized without even blinking. But they quiver. These pedestrians are unwitting acrobats of the highest order as the daily grind is telegraphed into a new construction.” (M. McElhatten) “Before the Olympics is composed out of sounds and images recorded in Torino in November 2005, while the city was undergoing renovations for the then upcoming Winter Olympics. Fun to compose. Hope you enjoy it.” (E. Gehr)
Biography
film director
Ernie Gehr
Ernie Gehr (Milwaukee, Usa, 1943) began making films in Super8 in the 1960s and has established himself as one of the true masters of New American Cinema. His films have been 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 (1991), For Daniel (1996), Cotton Candy (2002), Carte da Visite - Der V’ 03- Trailer (2003), Essex Street Market (2004), Noon Time Activities (2004), Workers Leaving the Factory (After Lumière) (2004), Greene Street (2004), The Collector (2004), Before the Olympics (2006)