VIVA 8 FESTIVAL 
LONDON FILM-MAKERS CO-OP (LFMC)

Austrian Super 8:
Curated by: Eva Ursprung
kunstverein W.A.S

Movies are the mass catharsis of culture and evidently the most influential. 8mm, the endangered species, the antithesis to the formulaic mainstream, is a permanent enigma, yet unspoiled by commercial ventures. The personal cinema of 8mm is without intervention, it is perhaps the closest metaphor for freedom in film and the democratic medium for the right of expression. Super 8, perhaps the last new format for film, stands at the crossroads of the post modern era, the contemporarty of space travel and computer technology and the direct decendent of Edison`s Kinetoscope (LFMC).
 
 

Program:

Lisl Ponger - Semiotic Ghosts; 1991, 18 min.
A kind of interim report: Her peaceful, hovering travel and daily life pictures, assembled associatively instead of narratively, develop here into a reflection on photography itself, to an examination of unknown alphabets: Geometric forms develop out of the world`s chaos (Alexander Horwath, 1990).
Semiotic ghosts is a game with time, symbols and their significance, and the change of light and darkness. A succession of associative, mostly static pictures showing motives such as a passing pleasure boat hung with strings of lights, an artist throwing knives, fish circling in spirals and, repeatedly, people at work. The link between the pictures develops from geometric forms such as a square, a circle or a triangle. The accompanying music is provided by an Egyptian string orchestra composed entirely of blind girls. However it is not music as it is understood in the usual sense; only the tuning of the instruments is heard and only towards the end do a few bars of Mozart become recognisable ( Bernhard Praschl).
 

Elmar Gubisch - Looking back into the Future from the Light of the Past; 1994, 4 min.
A production thought in a cross-section. Changed point of view of a producer/consumer. The dynamic of action can be optional, but is determined by the time before and the technology of that time. The clear standard film only can reflect itself in the projection, but not in the content. The aspect of being objectless should become tense. The work on such projects won`t create a new medial reality. But the attempt to explore things, which in contrast to the new worlds are still in leading strings, is obvious. The attempt to look behind the curtain.
 

Christa Biedermann - Sparprogramm (Program of Saving Money); 1994, 6 min.
An ironic film made in Berlin from a performance by Christa Biedermann. What`s it all about? An existentialistic reflection from the point of view of a woman artist. To the actual topic. What means saving? A press review. A milkmaid`s calculation and some advices for survival.
 

Claus Schöner - Leda & die Möwe (Leda and the Seagull); 1968, 6 min.
To manifest the reciprocal action between ARTIST-VIEWER-OPERATOR, this film is conceived as a "Crack-Movie", i.e. it should crack after every sequence to become freshly adhesive-taped to learn NEW VIEWING by FEELING.
To guarantee a smooth progress of this show anyway, this film has been preadhesive-taped
(i.e. perfect) and copied on video.
 

Susanna Heilmayr - Possible Documentations; 1987, 4 min.
Part 1: Fancy Fruits & Lousy Girls
Part 2: Buying Colors, Baking Bread
A colourful journey through Nepal. The taste of fresh fruit. The smell of the unknown.
 

Norbert Gmeindl, Gabriela Schmidt, Angela Scheirl - Gefährliche Frauen (Dangerous Women); 1981, 4 min.
They are men-eaters.
 

Fritz-Philipp Urschitz, Barbara Mohr, Bernd Winter, Andreas Kohlfürst- Lilie (Symbol of innocence and death); b&w, 1994, 4 min.
Two men meet each other, one is tired of life, the other is hungry for a new experience. After a discussion about life and the art of shaving our two heroes decide to make a contract. One becomes a murderer and the other his unknown victim.
 

Eva Ursprung, Andreas Wildbein - Was Werbung (What Commercial); 1979, 2 min.
Makes you feel like the world is yours - it«s almost magic!
 
 

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