Film Love: THE BIG SCREEN: Classic Psychedelia, Animation, & Avant-Garde

Film Love presents THE BIG SCREEN: Historic Psychedelia, Animation, and Avant-Garde Films in Large Format. Projected on the big screen at The Plaza Theatre. Curated and hosted by Andy Ditzler and Gregory Zinman. Film Love – Atlanta’s long-running showcase for great but rarely seen historic films – returns to the Plaza starting May 29! Cinema’s avant-garde traditionally excels in the “small-gauge” format: 8-millimeter and 16-millimeter film, video camcorders, and phone cameras. But sometimes cinema’s visual pioneers found themselves working in larger formats: 35- and 70-millimeter, even IMAX. Curated by scholar of handmade cinema Gregory Zinman and Film Love founder Andy Ditzler (collaborating here for the first time), this screening is an extremely rare opportunity to see these large-format visions presented on the Plaza’s big screen. This program is unique to The Plaza Theatre and will be presented only once. The program includes projections of 35mm prints and vintage film works specially digitized for this screening. Whether painting by hand directly onto the filmstrip, realizing early computerized visions, or appropriating big-budget films for subversive purposes, these filmmakers took full advantage of commercial cinema’s large scale to make possible previously unimagined sights. The selections are not limited to art films: included as well are a fascinating experiment in scientific microphotography from 1909 and a series of truly psychedelic TV commercials from the 1970s. The program includes: - Stan Brakhage’s astonishing hand-painted film The Dante Quartet (in a very rare projection of a 35mm print) – an explosion of color and movement - The animation genius of Canada’s Norman McLaren is on spectacular display in 1971’s Synchromy; its proto-techno soundtrack was designed and printed directly onto the filmstrip by the artist, who then constructed a precisely coordinated image track as a visual accompaniment - A unique, jaw-droppingly psychedelic selection of 1970s television commercials produced by the firm Robert Abel and Associates, specially digitized for this program - Jean Comandon’s groundbreaking 1909 scientific film of bacteria cells in motion - Martin Arnold’s wild deconstruction of a clip from To Kill a Mockingbird, re-edited frame by frame, revealing the previously unnoticed visual connections lurking in classical Hollywood movies - Mirror, by Matthias Müller and Christoph Girardet – a tour de force of lighting and atmosphere, presented as a dual-screen CinemaScope projection, and an exquisite visual homage to Antonioni Plus work by pioneer avant-gardist Mary Ellen Bute, cutout collage master Lawrence Jordan, Larry Cuba’s early computerized visions, and Brakhage’s earth-illuminating Garden of Earthly Delights SELECTIONS The Dante Quartet (Stan Brakhage, 1987) 6 min projected in 35mm Spirochaeta Pallida (Agent de la Syphilis) (Jean Comandon, 1909) 4 min Synchromy No. 2 (Mary Ellen Bute, 1936) 6 min Our Lady of the Sphere (Lawrence Jordan, 1969) 10 min projected in 35mm Calculated Movements (Larry Cuba, 1985) 6.5 min Robert Abel Promo Reel (Robert Abel and Associates, 1970s) 8 min Passage a l'Acte (Martin Arnold, 1989) 12 min Mirror (Matthias Müller and Christoph Girardet, 2003) 8 min projected in 35mm Synchromy (Norman McLaren, 1971) 8 min Garden of Earthly Delights (Stan Brakhage, 1981) 3 min projected in 35mm THE BIG SCREEN is a Film Love event. The Film Love series provides access to great but rarely seen films, especially important works unavailable on consumer video. Programs are curated and introduced by Andy Ditzler, and feature lively discussion. Through public screenings and events, Film Love preserves the communal viewing experience, provides space for the discussion of film as art, and explores diverse forms of moving image projection and viewing. Facebook group: Film Love AtlantaExperimental, Avant-GardePT2HNot Rated2025-05-29
Stan Brakhage
Jean Comandon
Mary Ellen Bute
Lawrence Jordan
Larry Cuba
Robert Abel and Associates
Martin Arnold
Norman McLaren
Matthias Müller and Christoph Girardet
Film Love
Film Love: THE BIG SCREEN: Classic Psychedelia, Animation, & Avant-Garde"Film Love: THE BIG SCREEN: Classic Psychedelia, Animation, & Avant-Garde"

Showtimes

May 29, 7:30 pm

Plaza Theatre