I participated in a “Roundtable on Digital Experimental Cinema” for @octobermagazineofficial with Flo Jacobs. As I think about Flo’s death, I share here some of her brilliant and illuminating observations:
On experiencing a film installation:
“Flo Jacobs: I think the work has to be seen from beginning to end. You can’t just stroll in, visit it, and stroll out. You can say the same thing about a painting. You wouldn’t want somebody to cut a detail out of a painting at the Met and hang that up, would you?”
On digital editing:
“Flo Jacobs: Don’t you think the change really occurred when cheaper editing soft- ware like Final Cut Pro became readily available? Before that, there was Avid, but Avid was expensive. Then Final Cut Pro changed everything….problem with digital video is preservation. What’s going to happen in ten years?”
On live film performances:
“Flo Jacobs: But you can’t record it at all; it’s impossible. Every time we rehearse, it’s different, no matter what you do.”
We were joined by Ken Jacobs, @marklacalle , Luis Recoder, Federico Windhausen and Malcolm Turvey.
We all miss you Flo – painter, live film performer, mom, comrade to Ken, observer, deeply active member of the NYC experimental film community, dear friend, mom to Nisi Jacobs and @azazeljacobs.
Please join me at @metrograph for a screening & conversation with artist Paul Chan and author @sadierebeccast in celebration of Sadie’s translation of Chris Marker’s book Le Depays @thefilmdesk .
Chris Market Shorts SATURDAY JUNE 1, 2024 at 2:30pm @metrograph | 7 Ludlow Street, New York City
In San Francisco in the mid-1980s, I saw Chris Marker’s “Sans Soleil”. I witnessed his mode of daring, wandering filmmaking with a camera. Alone, he traveled to Japan, Sweden and West Africa where he pondered revolution, shopping, family, and the gaze in a sweeping but intimate film essay that shook the thinking of more filmmakers than any film I know. Marker’s essay film blended an intense empathy with a global picaresque. Simultaneously playful and engaged, the film presented me with the possibility of merging my interests in cultural theory, politics, history and poetry — all aspects of my life I did not yet know how to bring together – into one artistic expression. In graduate school at that time, I wrote an analysis of the film and then boldly, perhaps naively, sent it to Marker. In a last minute note, I also asked him if he would like an assistant in his editing studio.
Several months later, his letter from Paris arrived with a slew of cat drawings along the margins. In response to my semiotic interpretation of his movie, he explained that his friend (and my hero) Roland Barthes would not have interpreted his film the way that I had. Marker suggested that we continue this conversation in person, in San Francisco. Not long afterward, I found myself driving Chris from his hotel in Berkeley, California to Cafe Trieste, one of the most famous cafes in North Beach. There we slowly sipped our coffees in the last relic of 1960s hippy culture, talking about his films, his travels, and my dream to be filmmaker. As the afternoon came to a close, I politely pulled out my camera and asked him if I could take his picture. “No, no, I never allow that.” And then he turned and walked away, leaving me glum, embarrassed and convinced that my new friendship with Marker was now over.
May 17, 2025 My very first graduate seminar at the San Francisco Art Institute was taught be the ever-fascinating LARRY GOTTHEIM. We all had so much to talk about that the three hour class turned into six hours, every week, meaning I had to find a bus home at midnight. It was worth it! Never before had I experienced such an exquisite conversation around cinema and the metaphysical. I was enthralled.
Now all these years later, I have the unbelievable opportunity to talk to Larry about his life and art at @themuseumofmodernart as part of his May retrospective The Red Thread: Larry Gottheim’s Films.
MoMA / Larry Gottheim Short Films Fri, May 23, 7:00 p.m. Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd Followed by a conversation with Larry Gottheim and Lynne Sachs
“This career-spanning survey celebrates the work of avant-garde filmmaker Larry Gottheim, from his first film, ALA (1969), to his latest, A Private Room (2024). Renowned for his 1970 film Fog Line, Gottheim has continued to challenge notions of what it is to truly see and be present when viewing moving images; his work encourages deep meditation.”
This evening offers NYC audiences the chance to see four new Gottheim gems, recently completed short films that engage with found footage in such inventive and exhilarating ways.
Gunvor Nelson was a profound presence in my life – a teacher first and then for decades a dear friend. A few years ago, I traveled with @marklacalle to her home in Kristinehamn, Sweden to spend time with her as I was making my short film “Carolee, Barbara and Gunvor”. Today I say goodbye.
Gunvor’s films made you think about everything from the taste of a shiny green apple to the mortal coil. I would sit with her for hours and hours at the San Francisco Art Institute, knowing I was learning from a brilliant, committed artist. From using a light meter to working with the lab on the timing lights of a release print, Gunvor relished every aspect of her art, including the technology. Here I share some of Gunvorʼs famous editing treatise:
“Before you shoot film, it is helpful to think through what style of editing would be most appropriate so that you will not leave out necessary liaisons, steps and transitions.”
Transitions were extremely important to Gunvor. She was always thinking about how to enter the front door of an image and how and when to get out. A shot was like an airport and the arrival and departure times of every single plane were critical, otherwise there might be too much chaos on the tarmac!
“Surprising solutions can be had with the most ʻdeficientʼ of material if you let it speak to you, if you learn what really is in the film …. sharp jumps in the editing can be, at the right places, most exhilarating.”
One of the most lasting suggestions Gunvor made to me was that a filmmaker should always return to their outtakes just before they complete a film. According to Gunvor, these “mistakes” that were initially disregarded become extremely useful punctuation that assists us in finding ways to complete a visual thought.
Her movies made me think about being a woman in the most visceral ways. “Schmeerguntz” captured the raw, messy ecstasy of being a mother. “My Name is Oona” celebrated the fierce passion of her own daughter @oonanelson , inspiring me in turn to shoot 16mm footage with my daughters @thelifeandtimesofmaya and @noaaboa
“Study … negative space.”
I am reminded of her often – in dreams and in my consciousness as an artist.
May 5, 2025
On May 14, I will be back in San Francisco with my partner Mark Street @marklacalle for @canyoncinema ‘s “A Salon with Millennium Film Journal ” at @artiststelevisionaccess . For me, it will be a time to remember my former San Francisco Art Institute @sfai_legacy teacher and dear friend Gunvor Nelson. I wrote a remembrances of Gunvor and Narcisa Hirsch @filmoteca_narcisa_hirsch for the most recent issue of Millennium Film Journal @millennium_film_journal (excerpted here).
Dedication: A Salon with Millennium Film Journal Wednesday, May 14, 2025 7:30pm (doors 7pm) Artists’ Television Access 992 Valencia Street San Francisco
I really look forward to seeing work by Gunvor and Steve Reinke @spreinke , @evagiolo , Vincent Grenier and Kevin Jerome Everson @trilobite . MFJ Editor Nicholas Gamso @gamzoid and Canyon Cinema’s ED @brett_kashmere will both be there. Together, we hope to create a celebration of artists in our community – those who have left and those who are with us.
“Gunvor Nelson was a profound presence in my life – a teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute first and then for decades a dear friend. Her films made you think about everything from the taste of a shiny green apple to the mortal coil. Whether using a light meter or working with the laboratory on the timing lights for a new film, Gunvor relished every aspect of her art, including the technology. I would sit with her for hours in front of a 16mm editing machine, knowing that I was learning from a brilliant, committed artist with the most lucid, precise advice.
Gunvor’s movies also made me think about being a woman in the most visceral ways. Here film “Schmeerguntz” (1965) captured the raw, messy ecstasy of being a mother, and her film “My Name is Oona” (1969) celebrated the fierce passion of her daughter Oona Nelson, inspiring me to shoot 16mm footage that spins, dances and, soars with my daughters Maya and Noa.”
Link to event and remembrances in bio. Gratitude to @oonanelson for your vision and love and to @stiftelsen.filmform for supporting Gunvor Nelson’s legacy.
Yesterday I presented the stunning documentary PORTRAIT OF JASON (1966) by Shirley Clarke at the @paristheaternyc as part @theacademy Museum Branch Selects. I invited Jack Waters @jaceogram – visual artist, film maker, writer, media artist, choreographer, performer and active member of the @filmcoop (which Clarke helped to found in the early 1960s) to join me to discuss his role as Jason in Stephen Winter’s “Jason and Shirley.”
Here Jack celebrates the preservation work on the film by Milestone Films drawing attention to the lack of visibility Clarke received during the heyday of the NEW AMERICAN CINEMA. He also explores how the film expresses the early ethos of queer liberation. Jack points to the brilliance of Clarke’s work but also asks if indeed Jason ever finds HIS voice in the film.
In 1995, my friend and fellow filmmaker Marlon Riggs – director of one of my favorite movies “Tongues Untied” – said in his film “Black Is…Black Ain’t”:
“How long, Jason, how long have they sung about the freedom and the righteousness and the beauty of the black man and ignored you. How long?”
I was very moved by this interview by @_marimerino in SARA Y ROSA: FILM CRITICISM & IBERO AMERICAN CINEMAS @sarayrosacine with film programmer @cintiagil9 . It is not often that we have access to the thinking of those people who curate for cinemas and festivals. Usually in the press, the emphasis is on the actors, the films, and the directors. Thanks to the rigorous thinking of film curators, this very special celebration becomes a lived experience that we share with others in a very particular configuration.
“This is why programming work is not only a selection work, but a work of constructing contexts, critical contexts, discursive contexts, contexts of connection between films. I have to look for these contexts myself, so how do I connect?”
As Gil makes so very clear, the bigger, fancier, more commercial space is not always ideal.
“So I think we have to recognize the different scales at which films can operate, can function, can live, and put money, strategy and thought into these different scales. It is like ecology: a forest does not only live with very big trees, it also needs smaller ones. Everything works in an ecological system.”
She also asks us to take a new look at the map of cinema, to de-emphasize the focus on affirmation from Europe as the center and to work harder to register our relationships to other languages and regions.
“We have to imagine a world where there are many centers. Latin American cinema also has the power to define centers.”
In Latin America, she explains, there is far more emphasis on film criticism, deep thinking around meaning, representations and invention.
“I think it’s beautiful how, for example, cinephilia in Latin America doesn’t just involve watching films, but also reading about films, something that is in decline in Europe.”
CRAIG BALDWIN, my dear friend, the genius found footage filmmaker, legendary impresario, creator and host of Other Cinema in San Francisco’s Mission District, film archivist, teacher, distributor and booster of all things at the margins of culture, is currently experiencing serious health challenges in his life!!
Since August 2024, Craig has been battling throat cancer. For the last four months, he has been in and out of hospitals and skilled nursing facilities being treated for the cancer and the challenging secondary effects from the radiation and chemotherapy. Needless to say, this has been physically devastating and Craig’s road to recovery is going to be long and slow. Before he can return home to his studio/archive and cinema, there will need to be therapies which will facilitate him being able to eat and walk again. This has been a huge financial blow for Craig.
We are sure that many of you recognize Craig as an exemplary citizen of the underground, experimental film and art community. For over 40 years, his generosity and selfless support for the margins of Cinema have guided and inspired our community. Many of you have personally experienced the “Baldwin Film Phenomenon” —from having seen his brilliant films, attended his mind-bending lectures on found cinema, taken classes or been mentored by him. Others have purchased archival film from him, spending hours in his underground studio winding through miles of 16mm film for your own projects. Perhaps you, like 1000s of others, have attended programs from his weekly film series or listened to him hold forth about art and cinema in a late night bar. We all know what a force of nature Craig is and how important it is that we return the support so he can recover his health and resume his work as an artist and his service to the community.
We’ve been working with philosopher and friend Silvia Federici on the organizing of her paper archive for the last four years. A few days ago, my collaborator @lisolesk and I found the original manuscript for Silvia’s book CALIBAN AND THE WITCH: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation (2004), where she argues that the witch hunts served to “restructure family relations and the role of women in order to satisfy society’s needs during the rise of capitalism.”
We were all jumping for joy, it was truly so exciting! Pictured here Silvia is standing in her office with a selection of crocheted doilies that were part of her mother’s craft-making practice.
Here are a few excerpts from the text I just could not resist sharing. I love these shout outs to other feminist explorers.
“In recent times the Feminist Movement has lifted the witch hunt from the historical limbo where it has resided (like all unsolved mysteries) and assigned to it a proper place in the history of women in modern Europe and America. In this process @barbara_ehrenreich._ , Deidre English, and Mary Daly have shown how the witch hunt served to expropriate women from their medical practices, forced them under the patriarchical control of the nuclear family, destroyed a holistic conception of nature which until the renaissance had set limits to the exploitation of the environment and the female body.”
We have already started to deliver Silvia’s papers to the Feminist Theory Archive at the @pembrokecenter_brown at @brownu, but there is much more to come!
Gratitude to Silvia Federici for writing the foreword to our (w @lisolesk ) forthcoming @punctum_books book Hand Book: A Manual on Performance, Process and the Labor of Laundry.
Making a movie with four women from @laylasgotyou in Syracuse, New York, was one of the best filmmaking experiences of my life. I could not be more grateful to journalist Kymani Hughes for writing this insightful, beautifully researched @dailyorange article on our THIS SIDE OF SALINA @eversonmuseum installation showcased by @lightworkorg@urban_video_project . The film features the words and performances of @jarheadixon , Angela Stroman, Jviona Baker @jvtoflyy01 and Vernahia Davis @realtorveee . You can see it on a 60′ by 30′ wall of the museum’s I.M. Pei building thru Dec. 21.
“Through personal stories and powerful imagery, Sachs’ work highlights the complex challenges women face in the post-Roe era, while emphasizing the importance of community support and care.”
“The film is a key component of the larger Communities of Care: Documenting Reproductive Justice in a Post-Roe Country initiative launched by The Abortion Clinic Film Collective, feminist filmmakers ( Kelly Gallagher @kellyspurpleriot , Raymond Rea @affected_by_light , Đoan Hoàng @ohsaigon Kristy Guevara-Flanagan @vaquerafilms@lynnesachs1 ) who address the health and rights of women, particularly those in marginalized communities.”
Production manager Minnie McMillan highlighted the severe challenges faced by Black women in healthcare, especially the high maternal mortality rates for Black women.
Her PhD research uncovers systemic inequities, from unconscious biases to environmental factors that elevate health risks during pregnancy.
“Healthcare providers may not always listen to Black women or take their symptoms seriously, leading to delayed or incorrect diagnoses,” McMillan said.
“If this film encourages viewers to listen to the women around them in really attentive and tender ways, I feel happy,” Sachs said. “The issues around reproductive justice are not simply legal ones; they have to do with respect both in the public arena and at home.”
I am soaring. Since March, I’ve been collaborating with four absolutely brilliant and creative women from the women’s empowerment group @laylasgotyou — J’Viona Baker, Ja’Rhea Dixon @jarheadixon, Angela Stroman and Vernahia Davis @realtorveee — to make the public art installation THIS SIDE OF SALINA for the 30′ x 60′ wall at the @eversonmuseum in Syracuse. It’s up now for the world to see!
Last night we shared our film with the community. You can experience it here, see all the great outfits and smiles.
Everson Museum of Art 401 Harrison Street, Syracuse October 10 – December 21, 2024 – Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays – dusk to 11 pm.
Here is what THIS SIDE OF SALINA is all about…..”Four Black women from Syracuse, New York, reflect on sexuality, youthful regret, emotional vulnerability, raising a daughter, and working in reproductive health services. In a series of their own choreographed vignettes, each woman thoughtfully engages with the neighborhoods she’s known all of her life.”
“Urban Video Project (UVP), is an outdoor architectural projection on an I.M. Pei building dedicated to the public presentation of film, video and moving image arts. UVP is one of few projects in the United States dedicated to ongoing public projections adding to Central New York’s legacy as one of the birthplaces of video art using cutting-edge technology.”
How fascinating it was to engage with the jaw-dropping investigations of American culture @inaarcher brings to her artistic practice at @microscope_gallery . Archer’s absolutely riveting aesthetic analysis comes through her paintings, collages, film projections and video installations in the gallery’s current “Ina Archer: To Deceive the Eye” exhibition running through July 27. It’s a lesson in the insidiously dangerous proposition of American identity through pop tropes and children’s toys, especially on the level of race and gender. But Archer doesn’t lecture, not at all! Instead she teases her viewers into coming to our own revelations, as in this trompe l’oeil of somatic trickery where can-can dancers of one race transform into another, presenting joy and deception in one entertaining kick after another. Equally troubling and astonishing are Archer’s delicate watercolors of topsy-turvy, black/white dolls that transform as one girl’s skirt opens to reveal another girl, one lost, one found, never the same in a single manual embrace. Plan to spend some time in this small space in Chelsea. There’s so much to discover.
