Ship at Storm 22 Whose Frame? 23 Cinephilia As S&M
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4 whose cinema 6 Ethics of Appropriation 9 Whose Mother Are You? 10 Between Marketplace and Community 12 How Fred Ott Sneezed on Copyright Legislation 14 Copying in the Visual Arts FILMS 16 Vorbehaltsfilme 18 Whose Multinational Cinema Is It? 20 Ship at Storm 22 Whose Frame? 23 Cinephilia as s&m 26 Brand New-U 26 A Crackup at the Race Riots 27 The Dying of the Light 27 Francofonia 28 Helmut Berger, Actor 28 Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film … 29 Right Now, Wrong Then ESSAYS 29 The Thaw 30 Bigger than the shining 30 face value vanaf 4 februari in de filmtheaters 31 video essayists WHOSE CINEMA Copyright and other rights determine which films are available. Not only for journalists, but also for film lovers in general. Where is the Library of Alexandria for cinema? Did it collapse before it was even built? ask Jan Pieter Ekker and Dana Linssen, curators of the 2016 Critics’ Choice WHOSE CINEMA. Xavier Dolan, really, I mean... early January he got “whose film”Mommy really was, and he did have a from other festivals; the programme is made up of You think that the digital revolution would make up a film and make your own story, even if it’s about Copyright and other rights determine which film himself in the news on social media again, this time point. It’s just a question that isn’t so easy to answer. the four elements of films, critics, video essays and it easier than ever to get hold of material for those that film? Does an artwork have its own integrity? images are available. Not only for journalists, but because Netflix was supposedly offering his film Our gut feeling says that Dolan, as maker of the film, this cahier with additional texts and contemplations essays, but nothing could be further from the truth. Is the critic bound by ethics? Do you not destroy also for film lovers in general. Most films disappear Mommy in the wrong aspect ratio. Extra unfortunate has the final say about what happens to his film. But and this all will be a meeting place for questions and In a traditional review, you can describe a film shot a work of art if you deconstruct it for analysis? Or when the distribution rights have lapsed, then most because Mommy actually did something very special someone who has bought the exploitation rights of observations relevant to filmmakers, critics and film or a scene unhindered and at any length in words, does this manner of “material thinking”, as video films disappear from the public domain. Where is with the frame format: most of the film it is square, the film will probably think differently about that. So lovers. but when using visual material increasingly you are essayist Catherine Grant calls it, but which could the Library of Alexandria for cinema? Did it collapse and at a crucial moment, it slides open as a cinema who does a film belong to? To the makers? Or to the limited by copyright questions and regulations. Fear maybe better be referred to as “re-mediated think- before it was even built? curtain. So you don’t want people to tinker with it copyright holders who think that the one who pays It’s possible to think up more answers to the of piracy results in new films hardly being available ing”, bring you closer to the meanings of a film? How in order to ensure the screen gets filled on the TV or decides? question WHOSE CINEMA than the two given at all for critical and analytical purposes. The South large exactly is that grey area between copyright and In our quest for the answer to the question WHOSE other screen formats. above. It’s a question that – with a tip of the hat to Korean director Hong Sang-soo was generous enough other intellectual rights and the artistic and intel- CINEMA we found an amalgam of answers. WHOSE CINEMA is also the umbrella theme of André Bazin’s Qu’est-ce que le cinéma? – emerges to give Kevin B. Lee an editable file of his film Right lectual freedom of the video essayist to appropriate It turned out to be a storm in a teacup. “A minor the second edition of the Critics’ Choice that we directly from (The Return of the) Critics’ Choice of Now, Wrong Then so that Lee could make the video images and thoughts? While the mainstream film world worries about technical hitch,” according to the video-on-demand have compiled. It is a question that arose out of last last year, in which we introduced to a larger festival essay with which he introduces the film in this year’s pirates and sharing data, thanks to digitalisation all company. Before the Internet could explode with year’s selection and practice of appropriating images audience the video essay as a new form of film Critics’ Choice. But the producers of Raiders!: The We shouldn’t forget that the so-called collage film kinds of creative forms of remix and fan culture are indignation, it was solved. Yet Netflix wasn’t doing for video essays and the practical, legal and ethical criticism. Video essays are a relatively new form of Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made on the other or found-footage film has a long tradition in film blossoming and audio-visual film criticism is getting anything unusual. For years, most films on television problems we encountered. So, just like last year, film criticism in which critics do not only analyse a hand freely admitted they felt rather “uncomfortable” history. Even though the Belgian collective Leo a foothold in the academic world. In the films we were offered using the pan-and-scan method. A it’s again a programme with films and video essays, film with words, but also with images. Video essays about the idea of sending a full copy of their film via Gabin does take a step further, with their “filming” selected and the critics we invited to introduce our classic example of the misunderstandings that can introductions and debates after the screenings. are not only a way to counter the much lamented WeTransfer. And then we’re talking about people of Harmony Korine’s collage novel Crackup at the film selection with a video essay, we found many yield: in the cinema, the shark in Jaws could be seen Unlike last year, the programme has been composed crisis – the demise of authority and a professional who themselves put together a complete remake of Race Riots that consists entirely of web films. The answers, some complex and some conflicting. For us seconds earlier than in the pan-and-scan version. much more in consultation with the people doing the basis for printed film criticism – but by showing Raiders of the Lost Ark by Steven Spielberg. visual artist Paula Albuquerque graduated in January the question WHOSE CINEMA is essential to a vital Gone was the suspense. introductions. It was a question of making the right then on a large screen in a cinema, we brought film on the use of webcams as a new cinematographic and free exchange of thoughts, ideas and dreams match between theme, film and introducer. So no criticism back to where it once started: in the cinema And if you have managed to acquire the visual mate- medium and made an apt video essay with Crackup: that keeps every film culture alive. Dolan asked in an open letter to the streaming giant critics and their favourite films, no missed chances auditorium, among the audience. rial, other questions emerge. Is it acceptable? To cut Live Streaming US. 4 5 Ethics of Appropriation Cinephilia of the Internet age has produced its own form of active and productive appropriation, in the form of the video essay: a genre that combines the history of compilation films, of found footage films and of the essay film, argues Thomas Elsaesser. Appropriation is a varied concept, and it can carry and of the essay film: all genres that try to make films back to an act of production, but as we shall see, when logued and classified according to theme, location, al and political revolution. Yet, what’s miraculous It’s not surprising, therefore, that avant-garde very different meanings. For instance, turning our reflect on their own conditions of possibility, and that it comes to appropriation, reception can become pro- date and setting. But under pressure to find fresh about Marker’s work is that his cine-essays never fell filmmakers and other trained artists have been focus from the film-maker to the film-viewer, appro- enrich our experience of cinema by creating forms of ductive (as in the video essay), and production can be a and previously unused images, television has begun victim to a dependency on the persuasive argu- cautious about using the Internet as their exhibition priation can be a more vivid term for reception and para-cinema, post-cinema and meta-cinema. form of reception (as in found footage films) – and both to aggressively plunder national and regional film ar- ment.” […]. platform and distribution channel, preferring to spectatorship in general, especially if we think of the come together in the concept of digital cinema generally chives, as well as private collections, including home align themselves with museums, galleries and art active and interactive role we now tend to assign to In the cases of cinephilia – as a gesture of love, and as as post-production. […] movies, to feed its seemingly insatiable appetite for Found Footage between Obsolescence spaces in general, still considered to be the guardians the spectator – as viewer, as user, as player – in light an act of acquiring expertise – appropriation implicitly visual material that makes history “come alive”.