Diana Mavroleon's Retrospective Programme
Film / 2003
Press release
Diana Mavroleon's Retrospective Programme
13th February 2003
Washing Clothes. Oliver Tringham.
S/8. 10min. 1980
Made on a Southwest Arts course. Chris Rodrigues, the Film Officer, gave a camera and a few rolls of film after showing some movies and calling the course 'Inventing the Everyday.
We borrowed a car and hurtled around the countryside. O.T
3 Mirrors. Diana Mavroleon.
16m. 23min. B/W. 1982-86. GLA. & ACB.
An exploration into the unconscious. A woman uses mirrors as in-gates to her past and future. The effect irrevocably alters her present state
The story was a product of automatic writing that I was experimenting with at the time. Unfortunately, the section Mirror 2 never materialized, probably because it was to be shot in colour and a part of it in 3D. Out came the chess game, the kinetic and meta-mechanic sculptures and the falling through space into a graphic thought chamber. In came Berlin and the collapsing wall. The satisfying quality in these ideas is the sheer absence of limits. At the time, I thought that anything the mind could see/could be seen in the mind, was possible to create on film, and I think that is what I love most about the film medium; there being no limitation to 'the idea. Optical printing, although a somewhat trying technical exercise, nevertheless contains something of the 'organic' about the process. A 'poet's licence' could be applied to virtually all elements of this project, my first venture into film, that and a generous effort of many friends and several victims. I would like to dedicate this film to my late Father who fell asleep whilst watching it. D.M.
Yasmin's Paintings. Clio David.
VHS. 1995. 8min.
Created from the paintings of Yasmin David by her daughter, a documentary filmmaker, from in-(video) camera dissolves and focus pulling.
Yasmin has lived on a farm in Devon for over 40 years. She also spent several years living in Sicily with her husband and 3 children during the early seventies. The drama contained in her paintings is at one time operatic whilst at another a lullaby. Evocative of the light and colour of the landscapes amongst which Yasmin has lived, this work is a synthesis of painting, film, poetry and music. An alchemical relationship could also be traced between Mother, Daughter and Grandfather, Yasmin being the first born of the writer and poet, Laurie Lee. The images seem to carry the viewer off on a strange journey into the Underworld. On return, a cathartic experience has taken place, and we step back from the imaginary into the real. The place between is perhaps in dream. It is also about nature, how we perceive it, and are part
of it. Imbued with both inner and outer strengths the work echoes a very human cry. D.M.
The Wagner Video. Anita.
H/8. 1988. 10min.
The music is actually Verdi, but at the time we thought it was Wagner, hence the title. Over a period of three years Schneider Reinhold, Meg Katzorke and I worked as the trio 'Anita'. They lived in Berlin and I in London. We spent time together, travelling and creating in our own uniquely obsessive way producing S/8, video, music and graphics. Our performances were usually private (eg. in lifts, bathrooms, goat sheds) or to small groups of friends, the exception being the 'Mummy' performance commissioned by the Akademie de Kunst in Berlin. This sort of union only comes once in a lifetime. In retrospect, they were some of the happiest safest and creatively satisfying times of my life. I think that Meg
and Schneider will probably feel the same..... but maybe they won't. D.M.
INTERVAL of 20 minutes
Crono Photo Loop. Tim Cole
During the Interval an extract from the 35m. film 'Mining for Muybridge' will be screened as a video-loop.
Unfortunately, Tim Cole is unable to attend the screening as at present he is incredibly pre-occupied in his animation cell at film school finishing off his graduation film and my dear, is just far too busy to come. Just follow the sun, son!
The Pavement. Diana Mavroleon.
35m. Slides - Christine Parry. Triple screen. 15min. 1989. 16m. GLA.
Four women assist each other in opening up new processes of signification by dynamically recreating their environments in which real resolutions of conflict are made.
We worked as an all women cast & crew. The idea for the film came out of a short story written on a train to Edinburgh as an apology to the Fringe Film Festival for not contributing an essay on experimental film for the magazine. Two years later, Christine Parry (stills photographer) and I constructed a b/w. stills-image storyboard from a set of drawings I had made relating to the earlier story. We filmed in a November light that produced a wonderful, almost documentary like image of great depth of colour and crisp outline. Inspired by the writing of Jean Rhys and Anna Akhmatova, and the photography of Parry and Man Ray, this is film-poetry with a sound-image montage embracing a timeless theme. It was also my first attempt at using a 16m camera.
Vicious. Nigel Lindley.
A combination of Video U-Matic SP. & keyed S/8. 3min. 1990.
Life's delusion seeps through the dialogue and motion of two men locking antlers in a shared belief of rock star status.
Sad, somewhat absurd, but nevertheless - true. D.M.
Field of Women. Diana Mavroleon.
16m. 15min. 1990. ACB. funded.
Shot originally on S/8. Optical printed onto 16m.
Francoise Sauze, Jean Findlay and I met on a 2 day S/8 course at the LFMC. We were asked to form into small groups and Francoise and Jean somehow ended up with me. With several rolls of S/8 and a camera, we were sent off to make a film, any sort of film. My initial idea was to co-write a story about 2 women who were friends but in secret wanted to murder each other. However, the plot grew too complicated for the allotted time and the next day I went down with summer flu, so we decided to head for Hampstead Heath and just shoot away, then return indoors to use the cinema space later. We had no fixed concept as such; however I had been thinking a lot about the historical representation of the female form in art, especially painting, and ways in which I might organize a project based on 're-representation' and
'female authorship'. Jean disappeared soon after the footage came back from the lab. (!) Francoise and I received an ACB. grant to optical print up to 16m. Whilst working on the rough cut I heard a girl playing Bach on a descant recorder as I was travelling down the long escalator at Tottenham Court Rd. tube. I invited her (Katharine Blick) to C.A. to view the footage and to bring any mates along who might be interested. The following day brought the vocal trio 'Miranda Sex Garden' After the first screening a friend, Vivienne Dick said, "It's too bloody long!" and I agreed, so we took out a further 6 minutes.
I believe that the more one gives whilst making a film, the wider one’s arms are stretched, the more surprises and gifts fall into them. The sound-image montage is a continuity of my earlier work. D.M.
I would like express thanks to those, especially from Cinema Action and the London Film Makers Coop, and especially for the above filmic period of my life, who gave me so much support and friendship. It is a wonderful thing to be able to look back through the mind’s eye and see the faces of so many whom I laughed with and grew to trust and love. I would also like to thank my partner, Thom Alder for help in organizing this Retro. the NFS. and the King Alfred School.
On this happy occasion, I would like Rene Schell, the actor from '3 Mirrors' to be remembered. I feel fortunate to have worked with him, if only for one project and have often wondered which way he would have gone had that whirlwind have not come and lifted him away. Sadly, he did not live to see the finished film.
D.M.