Attractions of the Moving Image w/ Tom Gunning

Let’s face it: films come before writing – and hopefully after.

This program of films to accompany the launch of my book ​The Attractions of the Moving Image​​​,​​ edited by Daniel Morgan​,​ samples some of the films I write about there and perhaps justify the writing. So, please enjoy the screening, whether you read the book or not. I have often quoted a comment Tony Conrad once made to me, that what films did was take you somewhere. This program, then, begins with a number of films of such transport, showing how the early twentieth century caused machines of movement and the camera’s ability to capture motion to collide, transforming our sense of time, and merging physicality with virtuality.

If the narrative thrust of several of these early films depended on developing a sense of urgency and danger, the avant-garde films that follow declare that movement takes place both in our perception and our physical kinaesthesia. Space is transformed in Gehr’s ​Untitled 1977​, while the logic of narrative is derailed in Jacobs’ ​The Doctor’s Dream​ as the film’s shots moved from its middle, alternatively towards its opening and closing. ​Monogram​ is a collaboration between a text by myself which was generated by watching William Castle’s 1947 film When Strangers Marry​ aka ​Betrayed​​​—​​​released by Monogram studios—​with images by my friend Lewis Klahr​,​ inspired by both the film and my text.

Two titans of the post​-war American avant-garde​,​ Kenneth Anger and Stan Brakhage​,​ end the program​,​ with films capturing the pure transport of ​ecstasy​​, whether forbidden sexual desire, the abstraction of nature unwinding in the beam of light, or the birth of colors from the deep reaches of night invoked by the great German Romantic, Novalis.

​​Sweet cinematic dreams, my friends.​​​

Tom Gunning

Professor Emeritus in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago

Titles to be screened:

How It Feels to Be Run Over (Cecil Hepworth, UK, 1900, 1 minute, 35mm)
Conway Castle – Panoramic View of Conway on the L. & N.W. Railway (Unknown, UK, 1898, 2 minutes, DCP)
The Lonedale Operator (D.W. Griffith, USA, 1911, 17 minutes, 16mm)
Untitled 1977 (Ernie Gehr, USA, 1977, 5 minutes, 16mm)
The Doctor’s Dream (Ken Jacobs, USA, 1978, 23 minutes, 16mm)
Monogram (Lewis Klahr, USA, 2019, 9 minutes, digital)
Fireworks (Kenneth Anger, USA, 1947, 15 minutes, 16mm)
Mothlight (Stan Brakhage, USA, 1963, 3 minutes, 16mm)
First Hymn to the Night – Novalis (Stan Brakhage, USA, 1994, 3 minutes, 16mm)

All films curated and presented by Tom Gunning, in celebration of the publication of his new book, The Attractions of the Moving Image: Essays on History, Theory, and the Avant-Garde. Books will be sold and signed outside of the screening room from 6:30pm-7:00pm. Reception to follow the screening and conversation.