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Experimental Film Critical Reflection

Experimental Film Critical Reflection

For my Experimental Film module, I wanted to create an artistic experimental piece based on the struggles that transgender people face with gender dysphoria. I was honoured to be able to use some of local artist Matt McCullough’s photography in this piece.

My aims were:

To create a piece of film that utilised techniques used in abstract painting.

To create a piece of film that was visually and audibly an unpleasant experience for the viewer, as not to romanticise or misrepresent the feelings associated with gender dysphoria.

To experiment with lighting and disregard the filmmaking conventions in favour of artistic expression.

I found working on this piece to be enjoyable, although difficult, trying to transfer different techniques from painting to filmmaking. It was a challenge to think of ways to do this, however, it was a challenge that I welcomed. I have always seen experimental film and abstract art as being in the same category, so I was pleased to be able to showcase this in my work. It was something I never thought about before, transferring these techniques from one art medium to another, however, at the time it just made sense.

I feel as though I achieved what I had set out in regards to some of the techniques I wanted to recreate. I managed to use LED lighting in order to create a blocked-out colourful effect, like I saw in some of Lee Krasner’s work. It was difficult, trying to select what kind of light to use. My method was to use some LED lights I purchased from amazon, and use paper and cardboard around them in order to block off the light in different shapes. At first, I tried taping the light to the bottom of a cardboard box, and taping the flaps of the box in the shape that I wanted the light to project in, however, the gap between the bottom of the box and the exit of the box was too much, and the lighting was not as strong and concentrated as I would have liked it to be. After that, I started taping different pieces of cardboard around the light itself, and this worked like a charm. I feel as though I definitely achieved my vision with the lighting I wanted. I was proud of how obvious the shapes showed up on camera, a line of bright light with the rest of the subject obscured in dark.

I also wanted to make a social statement with my piece, which I feel like I did. It was very emotionally challenging to try and create a film piece that mirrored my emotions when in a bad state. I feel like I did, however, I don’t feel like my message transferred as well as I would have liked for it to have. I don’t feel like cisgender people would understand what my film was about if it was not explained to them, which is maybe what I should have known all along, that the individual experience is not going to transfer with the same meaning to everyone who views it. However, it was also very freeing to be able to make an experimental film piece based on my emotional state.

I wanted to create a sensory experience which was uncomfortable for the viewer, in order to mirror how bad the feelings of gender dysphoria can be for transgender and nonbinary people, and I feel like I did that. I definitely feel like the editing jumps around a lot, creating a dizzying and uncomfortable effect, and the layering of sounds on top of sounds is a great way to make viewers feel disoriented.

I used my study on Len Lye’s “A Colour Box'' to develop a technique with painting on my camera lens, which I then used in the film. I very much enjoyed that, I felt like it added a more organic and experimental feel to my piece.

With all these successes, I also felt as though I struggled a lot, too.

This piece was incredibly difficult for me to create because of the challenges I faced. I saw a lot of my experiments fall through. Everything I was doing was new, so I had no way to determine whether or not they would work. I had planned to use some footage shown on a TV screen, however, this fell through pretty early in the filmmaking process. I also had a lot of difficulties accessing equipment, I wanted to use a range of cameras, and use different styles, qualities and settings combined together to make it feel more like a collage, like Lee Krasner’s work. I was unable to accomplish that, and could only use footage from two different cameras.

Overall, I feel like this project was definitely a learning experience. This was one of the first projects where I allowed myself to let go of the Hollywood film conventions, and I would like to do that more often. If I had it all to do over, I would try to get better equipment to create a more seamless piece, as I felt my piece had a somewhat amateur feeling. While I wanted my film to look organic and somewhat un-coordinated, like the works of Barbara Hammer, I feel like there were better ways to achieve this.

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This is the final film. 

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The Bathroom

My concept for my experimental film will focus on the bathroom. As my piece will be detailing the struggles associated with Gender Dysphoria, I wanted my piece to be centred on that room, as that is where I feel my Gender Dysphoria affects me most. 

When forced to look at my body in a mirror, or acknowledge it’s existence either by bathing, showering, dressing, etc. I am forced to acknowledge all those insecurities and all the things that I deem wrong with myself, all the things that make me “feminine”, and it is like my own personal hell. 

Many transgender and non-binary identifying people will detail this experience, often struggling with personal hygiene simply based on the fact that the bathroom goes from being a normal everyday room for cisgender people to an inescapable prison for transgender people. 

In order to achieve this effect, I wanted to film in my bathroom, and make sure that I used different shots from a range of different angles to show not only that the bathroom was the only location used, but also how small it was, I wanted the film to have a claustrophobic and uncomfortable feeling. I also wanted to use different shots from different angles and mix them all together, completely ignoring the 180 degree rule in favour of creating a dizzying and uncomfortable effect. 

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Barbara Hammer: Queer Cinema Pioneer

I was very interested to see the works of Barbara Hammer, because as an LGBTQIA+ young person, it is often hard to find representation in media, especially queer representation that shows the queer experience through such a raw, honest lens. 

Barbara Jean Hammer was an American director, producer and writer who created films that dealt with feminism and queer relationships. She created over 80 moving image works through her life and received many awards for them. 

(Barbara Hammer outside her home studio in Oakland, California. Source, NY TIMES)

For this segment in particular, I will be writing about Hammer’s 1992 Experimental Documentary piece, “Nitrate Kisses”. The piece discusses queer issues with four different couples, all representing different parts of the LGBTQIA+ community. For me, this documentary was shockingly different to what I had expected to see, as instead of having face-to-face interviews with these couples, the sound reel of them discussing their experience as queer people with footage of them partaking in sexual intercourse. I believe that this is an incredible representation of how queer relationships are often fetishised by those outside of the community, with LGBTQIA+ representation in media often being seen as inappropriate or too perverse for general audiences. 

(Nitrate Kisses poster by Barbara Hammer, source: FilmAffinity)

Hammer’s experimental methods have been a huge inspiration to me since I first viewed her work, with her storytelling methods including shots of articles and pictures, something which I also wanted to do with my Experimental Film piece. 

It was also an inspiration of mine to create a film with such raw-looking footage, not caring about how what’s shown on screen may effect the viewer, but how it lends itself to the social message you want to pass. While “Nitrate Kisses” (1992) deals with the idea of the queer experience, my own film will detail my experiences with gender dysphoria and how horrific it is. 

(Taken from Barbara Hammer’s Nitrate Kisses (1992) )

Hammer’s unapologetic use of footage of queer couples partaking in sexual intercourse may have shocked many viewers and may have offended others, this has been a great inspiration to me as my aim is to create a film with questionable footage which will intentionally make the viewer as uncomfortable as I feel. 

Hammer also makes great use of handheld camera and POV shots, something which I wanted to include in my own experimental piece to give it a more raw, personal touch. I feel like often this is necessary when it comes to expressing your feelings around delicate topics such as LGBTQIA+ issues, so I will be doing the same. 

(Taken from Barbara Hammer’s Nitrate Kisses (1992) )

Although released in 1992, where colour film was readily available to directors, Hammer chose to shoot this film on black and white 16mm film. I will be taking a similar approach to my own experimental film piece, and playing with the quality while also adding different filters, I hope to shoot some parts in black and white. 

(Taken form Barbara Hammer’s ‘Nitrate Kisses’ (1992) )

In my opinion, Hammer's work is an absolutely gorgeous piece using many different elements of Experimental Film to create the perfect representation of a loving, honest LGBTQIA+ relationship.

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Using some of Matt McCullough’s photography, I took this footage as an attempt at recreating the atmosphere the way I would intend to with my Experimental Film Project.

I applied a vintage filter on PicsArt and colour graded using Final Cut Pro in order to achieve a vintage look, the way I would be doing in my project. I am very happy with the results of this test.

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Point of View

I have decided that I will be making the majority of this film through Point of View. I think since Gender Dysphoria is such a personal issue, that perhaps the best way to highlight such a delicate thing is through the lens of the character. 

This just makes sense to me as our characters will be suffering through the feelings, and it feels only right to contribute to the uncomfortable experience I am hoping to create for the viewer by putting them in the shoes of the character who is going through these things.

I feel like I’ve finally put together the pieces for what I am hoping to achieve with my film, as beforehand I was sure of my ideas and concepts, but I was clueless about the content I wanted to include.

With the Covid-19 restrictions and my budget, I also feel like filming POV with limited people is a safer option for me. 

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PRINTED PHOTO FILM PRACTICE VIDEO 

Working with artist Matt McCullough, I have decided to include a section in my Experimental Film which is based off of his photography. We collaborated on this, and he has given me access to some of his original photography. The goal of this exercise was to test how well I could replicate the imagery and mood set in his photos after the scene, and how I could use that to relate my film piece to his art.

For this scene, we choose to use blood in the sink as imagery. I wanted to do this because I plan to have a lot of gore imagery in my Experimental Piece. This is the results of that test.

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David Kim Whittaker: Gender Dysphoria

As local artist Matt McCullough and I had discussed, I will be doing my Experimental Film project on feelings of Gender Dysphoria. While researching Gender Dysphoria in the media, I came across the work of nonbinary painter David Kim Whittaker.

According to Whittaker’s page on Opera Gallery 

“David Kim Whittaker is a British painter born in 1964 in Cornwall, where he still resides.A self-taught artist, most of Whittaker's paintings are based on an interpretation of the human head and its metaphysical core. Whittaker's portraits are ambiguous, with the aim to represent the universal alongside the personal. 

The works often juggle dual states of inner and outer calm and conflict – offering a glimpse of strength and fragility, the conscious and the subconscious, the masculine and the feminine. These universal states of conflict, clearly identifiable in Whittaker's works, are arguably reinforced by Whittaker's gender dysphoria and the personal struggle with a condition that he/she has learned to live with through the endeavour of expressing something bigger than oneself through painting.

David Kim Whittaker has been exhibited worldwide notably at the prestigious Fondazione Mudima in Milan in 2017 and was the recipient of the Towry Award (First Prize) at the 2011 National Open Art Competition.”

(David Kim Whittaker, Image Courtesy of the Artist)

Something I found really interesting about Whittaker’s art was the different way in which they expressed their feelings of Gender Dysphoria, it was in an almost completely different direction to how I would go about expressing my own. As a transgender person, the different ways in which trans people choose to express their feelings and experiences with Gender Dysphoria is highly interesting to me. 

Often times, transgender and nonbinary people will have their feelings and situations categorised or lumped together, and I feel that the different ways in which we feel when discussing issues related to our identities is proof that not every trans person experiences things in the same way. Whittaker’s work, for me, was a great reminder of that.

(David Kim Whittaker, Voices, Paris, 2019. Source: Opera Gallery)

Whittaker often paints with bright colours, depicting serene scenes where one’s face should be, and this is the part that I am able to relate to. Gender Dysphoria can often be a lonely, alienating experience. Viewing Whittaker’s work, I truly felt some loneliness represented within them.

I can’t say many of Whittaker’s techniques would be useful to translate onto film as my project will call for a totally different approach. Whittaker expresses their feelings about Gender Dysphoria in a lonely almost ethereal way, whereas my own personal feelings are a lot less about the beautiful and more to do with suffering.

I feel as though it was necessary to mention David Kim Whittaker within my work as not many artists have the exposure to represent transgender issues on such a scale, even if I will not be using any techniques, they deserve a mention in my inspiration moving forward. 

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More Pieces from my Lighting Test

All my original photography. 

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Further Ideas: Experimental Film Project

After abstract painter Matt McCullough agreed to work with me on my ideas for my Experimental Film Project, we had a meeting to discuss my further ideas for this project.

Firstly, that he would be providing me with his artwork to include in my film, this would include both his paintings and his photography, but I would be doing all the film work on my own. 

We decided that since we are both transgender, it would be cool to work on a film project that detailed the feelings associated with gender dysphoria, as we often see these feelings downplayed or misrepresented in media.

I wanted to do my project on a social issue, so I was really pleased to find something I wanted to do it on, finally. Matt’s artwork is mostly based on body dysmorphia and mental illness represented through images of body horror, something which has greatly peaked my interest.

In media, gender dysphoria is often downplayed to feelings of sadness, but I wanted to dig deeper with my film, create a visually and audibly unpleasant experience to represent the never ending struggle of feeling like your body is a prison cell, a place you don’t belong, something that does not represent who you are. 

Some of the Experimental Methods that I wanted to apply to my film were:

 Shooting out-of-focus.

I wanted to shoot out-of-focus to highlight the ever-growing confusion and overwhelming feelings of gender dysphoria. Leaving the viewer to feel confused and overwhelmed is the goal here. It will also lend a dream-like feeling to the film, which is something I want to make part of my project as on the days when my dysphoria is at its worst, reality can blend together into nothingness, as I can only focus on my worsening mental state. 

Painting on Camera or Film

I feel like obscuring or interrupting certain parts of the scene by painting on the lens or on the film will lend to that uncomfortable, overwhelming feeling that I am hoping to achieve. With this, I was hoping to represent how one look at your reflection, even a simple glance, or a passing comment from someone can interrupt and ruin your entire day and also your perception of yourself for that day. The first time I tried this, it didn’t work as well as I’d planned, but I'm going to try it again.

Layering Film

I wanted to add more to that uncomfortable, confused feeling by layering different scenes on top of each other and changing the opacity of each layer, so that the viewer can understand the overwhelming, overlapping thoughts and how they run into each other. I would also like to layer different sounds atop each other until it is almost painful to listen to.

Filming Of Objects

I wanted to convey some messages of this project through filming different objects. For example, I want one scene conveyed through filming multiple polaroid pictures that have been left out, and another through filming an old television which will be playing my own footage, almost to show an out-of-body experience. One counsellor once told me that envisioning my PTSD flashbacks as if they were playing on a TV screen would help me step away from them and ground myself in reality. This technique stuck with me, and I want to use it in my projects to represent part of my mental journey. Toying with this idea, I thought it would be a good idea to include some of Matt McCullough’s photography and artwork here in order to heighten that uncomfortable experience. Almost like a motif.

Lighting

I want to make use of my lighting to add pops of colour to my film, I want to switch colours constantly, to leave my viewers feeling confused and overwhelmed. I also want to make use of my lighting or lack thereof to obscure pieces of the film or subjects in the footage. I would also like to make use of harsh lighting in places to create a feeling of being scrutinised or judged.

Filters

I wanted to use this Experimental Film task as an opportunity to use filters on my film. I love adding filters in editing to add an extra depth to the film, change the colours and appearance to set my film apart from others, so I wanted to do the same here. I think it will lend to the overall feel and look of the finished product.

Repetition

I want to add some repetition, both visually and audibly, for this task. I want to use repetition in my film to highlight the repetition of dysphoria, and how it can be such a daily struggle as it repeats itself in my everyday life. Personally, having sounds repeat on loop can mess with my sensory issues, and leave me feeling uncomfortable, so I wanted to recreate this feeling for my viewers. I want this to be a piece that really conveys the true mental struggle of being a trans person. I don’t want this to be an easy thing to watch.

Distortion & Quality Change

At times, I hope to distort the film and the audio using filters and quality changes. I am hoping that this will shock and confuse the viewer, further aiding me in confusing and overwhelming them. I want this to represent the varying severity in feeling dysphoric depending on the day. I also want to mess with the volume and bass of the sound at times, to take viewers by surprise.

Non-diegetic sound

In some scenes, I am hoping to use non-diegetic sound taken from other places, but sounds that definitely do not fit the scene, or sounds that the viewer would not expect. I am hoping this will help me create a more overwhelming and unpleasant viewing experience and aid me in conveying how dysphoria can hit even in times when it is inappropriate, and show how I am constantly battling between my mental issues and focusing on the reality of life.

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Painting on Camera Lens (A Test)

Inspired by how Len Lye painted on film for his film “A Colour Box” (1935), I was hoping to try a more modern version of the technique by panting directly onto my camera lens. 

This was merely a test, with the hopes of achieving only some vague shapes over the top of my photos/footage that would obscure my subject just a little, so that the viewer would avert their gaze. 

I chose to do this on my own Canon camera with both white and black acrylic paint. 

There wasn't much to this test, I simply chose to put some dots, lines and abstract shapes across the lens and take photos as I normally would.

Here are the results. 

(original photography by me)

As you can see, the black shapes worked out better than the white. I didn't dislike the outcome, but it didn't turn out as great as I had expected it to. The shapes were definitely not as contrasting and as pronounced as I would have liked them to be, leaving more of a shadowy outline than a contrasting harsh shape which would have obscured my figure the way I wanted.

I will try this technique again before I create my experimental film project, however, with a more opaque paint or perhaps with fake blood to create a strange red streak effect.

[danmorellifilm]

A Study on Matt McCullough

Today, I am writing about a local artist who’s work inspired me greatly on my journey with creating my Experimental Film Project. 

His name is Matt McCullough, and he is a 21 year old student from Dundalk, Ireland. (You can check his paint work out here, or check out his illustration work here.)

His work deals with a lot of personal mental health issues and centres around the idea of discomfort in your own body - something which I can greatly relate to. 

(Matt McCullough, Untitled, Oil Paint on Wood. Source: teatimeteeth on Instagram)

(Taken from Matt McCullough’s sketchbook. Source: teatimeteeth on Instagram)

The thing that drew me into his artwork is the use of a dark colour palette. His colours include dark blacks and browns, deep greys and blood reds, something which gives his work a raw, natural feel. However, it also reminded me of horror movies, something which is appropriate as he likes to paint body horror. 

He focuses a lot on specific parts of the body rather than the body as a whole, almost as if he is separating certain aspects from a complete human. This idea is not only a great idea for body horror, but also reminds me of gore or slasher type films where victims are often dissected, which to me, makes the blood red appropriate.

Of his own work, he says “I aim to deconstruct the human form and sew it back together again to reflect the human condition” 

Source: speaking with the artist.  

I think this describes his work perfectly, as each form we see is an abstract representation of the human form, yet expresses so much raw vulnerability and emotion.

I think his art can sometimes be uncomfortable to look at, something which makes the viewer unsure where to start looking and when to pull away. His shifted focus and layering technique is something I would love to learn how to recreate on film, and I am inspired to try experimenting with different techniques to achieve this goal. 

(Matt McCullough’s studio space, source: sent to me by artist.)

(Matt McCullough, Untitled Figure, Oil on Canvas, source: teatimeteeth on Instagram.)

Matt McCullough’s work is most interesting to me as it applies a lot of the same techniques I was hoping to apply to my film work - repetition, shifted perspectives, darker colours, and pieces of the picture which have been covered up or removed completely. 

(Collage piece by Matt McCullough. Source: sent to me by artist.)

His collage work really gets into that repetition I mentioned before, where similar shapes and patterns are layered over and over again, while he draws or sticks photos of the same body part atop it.

In contrast with that, some of his paint work makes more use of the negative space around the figure than it does overwhelming repetition. I would like to include a mixture of both of these things in my film work whenever I create my Experimental Film project.

(Impasto work by Matt McCullough, source: sent to me by artist)

As the works above show, Matt McCullough will often layer paint on top of more paint to create a very thick textured look. When speaking with him, he told me that this technique is called Impasto. I feel like this technique would be interesting to recreate on film as through editing I could layer several different pieces of film, all with different levels of opacity, to create an overwhelming layered look. 

I also feel like this technique lends to the experience of looking at McCullough’s artwork as a whole, as the viewer can see the texture even when viewing the work from afar, almost making it a sensory experience. I would like to do something similar with my Experimental Film project, and create an experience that is not only visually uncomfortable, but also disrupts the senses of the viewer through an audible experience. 

(Matt McCullough, Untitled Figure, source: sent to me by artist.)

In my opinion, the colour choices are one of the most striking things about Matt McCullough’s work, no matter the case, he always seems to use a similar colour palette, which almost ties every piece of his work together as a story.

As I have always related Experimental Film to Abstract Painting, his work was extremely inspiring for me, and I reached out to him with the hopes that he may want to collaborate with me on a film project. Luckily, he seemed to be on board with the idea. 

As we are both transgender, Matt has agreed to work with me on a project for my Experimental Film project detailing experiences with gender dysphoria. Normally, Matt focuses on other body issues in his work, so it will be a new experience for both of us. 

I was so thrilled by this as his art has been a huge inspiration for me gathering my ideas for what type of film project I wanted to create. I can’t wait to see what we can come up with together.

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Here are some of my test shots from my lighting tests I had done inspired by Lee Krasner’s work. These tests were just so I could see how the light showed up on film. 

I enjoy how they turned out, and I will be using this technique in my Experimental Film Project. 

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Lighting Tests (Inspired by Lee Krasner’s Work)

For this experiment, I wanted to see if I could use lighting techniques and filters to recreate a similar “blocking out” method to that seen in collages made by artist Lee Krasner. 

I originally covered Lee Krasner in another post, writing about her collages and how they have inspired me. You can check out that post here if you like. 

I was inspired by the bold lines and colours that Krasner uses in her work, the stark contrasts between colours, the very visible lines, I believe that this style could be translated very well into film. 

Desert Moon, 1955 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) © The Pollock Krasner Foundation, 2018. Digital Image Museum Associates LACMA Art Resource)

Krasner’s use of negative space and abstract shapes really inspired me to try this method, I am aware that this idea may come across as a little odd, but I really wanted to push myself to try new things with my Experimental Film piece.

I decided to try different lighting techniques in order to achieve this. My plan was to use a set of brightly coloured LED lights in a chiaroscuro method on one side of my subject in order to create a harsh line between colourful light and blackness. 

Palingenesis, 1971 (The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, courtesy of Kasmin Gallery, New York)

At first, I had tried a similar strategy with a deer skull as my subject. However, I didn’t achieve the results I wanted. The LED light wasn't strong enough to create the effect I was looking for, and I couldn’t direct the light in the way that I wanted. 

I am fully aware of the risks that came with trying such an abstract technique in film, but I remained hopeful that my ideas would translate well onto the screen.

For this test, I am using a different set of lights, a human subject and a different setup. As well as coloured lights, I plan to use warm white light in order to show half of my subject. 

My main focus of this task was to try to replicate the way that Krasner blocks off colour using large columns and shapes of black in her collages. I replicated this by using light. 

(Original photography by me, light source using LEDs and paper to block off excess light, 2022)

I tried to block out any excess light using sheets of paper, then I focused all the coloured light into one spot, hoping that it stood out against the harsh black shadows. 

I was hoping to make a good use of the negative space around my subject so that they would remain the focus of the piece while I still replicated Krasner’s use of negative space.

I chose red because it seems to be a popular colour throughout her work and it was intense enough that it would stand out against the shadows. 

(Original photography by me, light source using LEDs and paper to block off excess light, 2022)

Here, I was hoping to direct the lighting in strips, the way that Krasner lays strips of colour over her work. I don't think it translated quite as well as the first image, but I have definitely learned a lot from this experience. 

Overall, I feel as though I gained a lot of knowledge on what I was trying to achieve, and I will definitely be making use of these skills in my own Experimental Film project. 

[danmorellifilm]

‘Funeral Parade of Roses’ (1969) by Toshio Matsumoto

Today I will be writing about an Experimental piece created by Japanese film director and video artist, Toshio Matsumoto. One of his most well-known works, “Funeral Parade of Roses” is a drama art piece loosely based on Sophocles’ tragedy play “Oedipus Rex”. 

(Toshio Matsumoto, source unknown.)

The film is set in the underground queer community Tokyo in the 1960s, and is said to be one of the most famous pieces of the Japanese New Wave film movement. Perhaps not as famous as the French New Wave movement, but definitely just as wonderful. 

“Funeral Parade of Roses” is an incredible piece of Experimental Queer Cinema, a brave look at such taboo topics for the time. This film is deeply political and deals with many queer topics such as transgender identities, hidden affairs, queer culture and the darker side of this lifestyle. 

Matsumoto’s piece meshes together many different filmmaking styles, from arthouse to documentary filmmaking, creating a sense of uneasy realism that makes us question the film’s events. 

(Cover for “Funeral Parade of Roses” (1969) Source: Google Images)

As a queer person myself, I knew I had to watch this film as soon as I had read about it in my research for class. For starters, I would like to say that the use of black and white footage rather than coloured footage is extremely hard-hitting, it adds a certain contrast to the film that it would be hard to achieve with coloured footage. I also love that there is a contrast between this harsh black and white footage and the colourful lives of the characters in the film. 

The first thing we see is a sex scene, something which would have been extremely uncommon at the time of the film's release in 1969, let alone to see a queer sex scene. Honestly, even by today’s standards for queer representation in media, to see this shocked me. I feel as though that was the goal, and it was achieved. 

I was thinking about what I would like to include in my own experimental piece, and to be honest, I feel like I would like to add some shocking images, too, to keep the viewer entertained and as a method for spreading a message. While I might not go the route that Matsumoto has gone with a sex scene, I have been toying with the idea of using gore or what looks like gore to highlight certain important aspects within my experimental piece. However, after seeing how effective this was at gripping viewers during “Funeral Parade of Roses”, I was inspired and will definitely be doing this. 

(Screencap from “Funeral Parade of Roses” (1969) )

Matsumoto made sure that the characters were realistic, and one thing I was shocked to see in such an old film was that the people on screen were not only portrayed in a caricature of queerness, but through the interviews, they were also shown as people outside of their identities, which was really lovely and comforting to see as a queer person. 

I have to say that rather than following one particular story or another, Matsumoto guides us through the world of “Funeral Parade of Roses” through raw emotion, feelings and moods. I am absolutely in awe of the ways in which a scene changes or jumps from one to another based on Matsumoto’s incredible storytelling methods. I have seen this film many times put into the box of being a “weird” film, but to me, this film is a work of art.

I have also seen many people arguing that the aspect of including the nod to the Oedipus Rex through a queer lens is lending to the idea that queer people are all taboo and mad, however, I feel as though this storyline was necessary, some example of the violence and darkness faced by those in the queer community is necessary. As a young queer person, you hear thousands of horror stories relating to the queer community, so I feel as though the inclusion of this theme was a necessary one.

(Source: “Toshio Matsumoto, Early Works”)

I wanted to include a social message in my experimental film piece, so upon watching “Funeral Parade of Roses” I think I have decided that this message will relate to my queer identity in one way or another. Watching this film hit me so hard that it just reminded me of the lack of raw queer representation in media. This often spreads to misinformation or the downplayed versions or misrepresentations of struggles and identities. 

I am so very glad I took the time to read and study this piece, as it has inspired me so greatly to work on a film that revolves around my identity, one that deals with the raw, real issues in a jarring way. 

I have also been inspired to perhaps include a black and white filter in my work.I think this was a great choice for contrast, and I may try it out myself. 

[danmorellifilm]

A Study on Lydia García Millán

As I searched hard, I found not much was known about filmmaker Lydia García Millán, but I needed to include her as one of my inspirations for her fantastic experimental short piece, “Color” released in 1955. 

According to letterboxd.com, “Color” was “...Perhaps the first experimental color film made in Uruguay...” 

We know that Lydia García Millán was still a teenager at the time of this film’s creation, which makes it all the more impressive, in my opinion, that a young woman had such talent at such a young age and yet received little to no recognition for it. 

“Millán had a number of vérité shorts under her belt by this point, but none in such gorgeous color...” - letterboxd.com on Lydia García Millán. 

Similar to Len Lye’s “A Colour Box”, García Millán’s piece consists of many different colours and patterns organised while a musical score plays atop them. At first, we see splotches of coloured paint as it is dripped downward into what appears to be some sort of liquid which helps it to move along with the musical score. As the pace of the music picks up, the pace of the paint does too.  Further into the piece, we can see swirls and different patterns as opposed to just the splotches, once again, timed with the music, picking up the pace. The paint moves on the water, creating more and more intricate and eye catching patterns.

One of the things I like most about this piece is that the colours are so bright and striking, something which surprised me for how old the film was. I also want to include bright striking colours in my own Experimental Film piece, so once I seen this, I was inspired to try something similar.  I previously had the idea to drip paint directly onto my camera lens, however, after watching this piece, I thought I might experiment with a similar method to what García Millán has done for her piece, by dripping paint into a tray of water and seeing how the colours mix. I could use this as another scene in my film, perhaps, should the experiments results turn out well. 

I have included a link here to view Lydia García Millán’s fantastic work. 

[danmorellifilm]

Maya Deren’s “Meshes of the Afternoon”

For my Experimental Film Project, one avant-garde film that inspired me heavily was Maya Deren’s “Meshes of the Afternoon”. 

Born in modern-day Ukraine (formerly Russia), Maya Deren was an experimental filmmaker active during the 1940s and 1950s. Deren’s work was extremely important through the avant-garde movements at this time, and to her, film was an art medium. Deren believed that the function of film was to “create an experience”, and I believe she achieved that goal, especially with her first and most popular piece, “Meshes of the Afternoon” (1943).

I had initially watched this piece as a younger person in secondary school and was mesmerised by Deren’s unconventional use of filmmaking techniques. Back then, I was just being taught about the 180 rule, keeping subjects in focus and more, so to watch someone completely disregard the rules and still create a wonderful film was amazing. 

“Meshes of the Afternoon” is an experimental short film starring Deren and her husband, Alexander Hammid. It centres around the strange dreams of a young woman (played by Deren herself) as she sleeps in a chair in her room, the woman then repeatedly chases a hooded figure through her dream attempting to catch him. With each time she fails to do so, the woman must re-live the dream, entering her house from the beginning. The hooded figure plays tricks on her, even going as far as to hide a knife under her pillow. The woman experiences different versions of herself at different parts of the dream, then confronting another version of her sleeping self with a knife. The unnamed woman is then awoken by a male (played by Alexander Hammid). This man leads her to the bedroom, at which point she realises that it was not a dream at all, but actually a reality. After realising the similarities between the man and the hooded figure from her “dreams”, the woman attempts to hurt the man, but fails once more. This time, once the man sees her, she is dead. 

Deren explained that the film does not represent any real events witnessed by others, but “...is concerned with the interior experiences of an individual...” “...it reproduces the way in which the subconscious of an individual will develop, interpret and elaborate an apparently simple and casual incident into a critical, emotional experience...” (Maya Deren: Experimental Films (2002) New York: Mystic Fire Video)

One of the things I enjoyed most about this piece was the repetition of motifs and images seen throughout. For my own experimental film piece, I wanted to create a film using audio and visual repetition, so Deren’s “Meshes of the Afternoon” has become an extreme inspiration for me. The replayed images of the woman entering the house, chasing the hooded man, etc. are all examples of repetition that I would like to draw inspiration from for my own piece. 

“Meshes of the Afternoon” has me thinking about adding motifs into my own piece. I could use the motifs in order to get my message or story across clearer without having to add any dialogue. I feel like the motifs of the keys, knives and the hooded figure reappearing every so often are clear ways that Deren explains her story. 

Another thing I enjoyed was the shots that were taken off centre, when the camera wasn’t directly focusing on the subject, but instead obscuring them in a certain way. Deren often does this with the woman's face. I would also like to do this with my piece, as it strays far from the typical conventions of Hollywood filmmaking. 

Overall, I feel like Maya Deren’s “Meshes of the Afternoon” (1943) is an amazing experimental piece that everyone should watch, if they have the chance.