The Cure obviously

Happy ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME day! Let's stay here forever 💙

Haven't watched SINK OR SWIM in...a long while. Planning to show it to my students tomorrow. Good idea? Anyone taught it recently?

I wrote briefly about this year’s Light Matter experimental film program

I’m not sick with stress/anxiety during the fest for the first time in three years. It’s been nice to watch the films and the programs and to feel really proud of something.

On that note here are ten films screening at the fest this weekend that I recommend:

OH MY GOD LET ME MOVE BACK TO NEW YORK CITY

Light Matter is this week in Alfred with more screenings later this month in Buenos Aires. If anyone wants to do last minute ("real time"?) coverage, lmk. Would love for more of this work to be on the radar of more people...

If anyone in the timeline thinks experimental film means more than the World Series, have I ever got a film festival for you! www.lightmatterfilmfestival.com

Dodgers are fascists. Baseball sucks.

RIP Peter Watkins. :( I’m looking forward to teaching an entire course of La Commune (Paris, 1871) next semester.

Light Matter 2025 Letterboxd list. Spent the morning updating tmdb, etc. All titles are included. Very proud of the festival this year. letterboxd.com/jpjameshanse... #LightMatter2025 #experimentalfilm #videoart #mediaart #digitalart

Light Matter 2025 programs are here! 76 films. 12 World, 16 US, 9 South American, and 5 Argentina premieres. An international partnership dedicated to experimental film, video, and media art. Nov 7-9 in Alfred NY. Nov 22-23 in Buenos Aires. www.lightmatterfilmfestival.com

Light Matter 2025 programs are here! 76 films. 12 World, 16 US, 9 South American, and 5 Argentina premieres. An international partnership dedicated to experimental film, video, and media art. Nov 7-9 in Alfred NY. Nov 22-23 in Buenos Aires. www.lightmatterfilmfestival.com

Impossible to measure the impact Ken Jacobs has had not just on experimental film, but 20th and 21st art writ large. An actual legend. RIP.

Happy October—here’s a list of 100 avant-garde horror films I recommend, and links to watch the large majority of them.

Pauline, all day.

Light Matter submission deadline extended to next Friday August 22. Because 1200+ submissions for ~60 spots wasn't difficult enough.

In response to the NYT lists, I called for contributors to submit 15 titles for Best Experimental Cinema of the 21st Century. 109 ballots, 940 films, and 550 artists later, these are the results. Huge thanks to @filmmakermagazine.com.web.brid.gy for stepping up to publish. tinyurl.com/484u9f2z

Deadline is today. No extensions!

If you are submitting a list for my Best Experimental Cinema of the 21st Century poll, you now have until 11:59 on Sunday August 3. If you'd like to participate by submitting an unranked list of 15 titles, let me know. I've received 65 votes and would still love to have more.

💔

the Trump administration in a nutshell - abandoning consent decrees on police departments in favor of consent decrees on universities edition.cnn.com/2025/01/22/p...

RIP Émilie Dequenne. I taught ROSETTA for several years and was floored by her performance every time. Legendary.

Mourning the loss of Linda Williams. It’s hard to think of another scholar whose work helped define such a diverse range of subfields. For me, her 1981 essay “Film Body: An Implantation of Perversions” was a beacon showing how fundamental feminist analysis could be for early cinema. RIP

Nice to see a Luther Price program at Ann Arbor. I wonder how many folks will make it through FANCY…

Vote PJ Harvey!

Um…

Counting my blessings 🤩

This might be a doozy

Dish to pass at a Super Bowl party? Okay, I will spend 24 hours making chili.

Making chili again. Finally found a use for my 100% cacao from Peru. Low and slow. Should I just keep cooking all night??? (I’ve made chili about four times in my life. First time where I just LOTS of time to keep going…) #snowstorm

Finished BILLIARDS. Of course Böll didn’t like NOT RECONCILED. The novel absorbs character’s interiority across an historical scale; meanwhile, NR (via S/H) keeps the viewer as an outside witness - the characters are figures (images?) who can only be seen/heard from a distance. Unless dynamite.

First time reading Heinrich Böll this year to dig into Straub/Huillet course. Students who read “Bonn Diary” were floored by MACHORKA MUFF. I’m now reading BILLIARDS to prep for NOT RECONCILED, and boy oh boy am I eager to watch the film again. Love the book. Fragmented af. Go S/H, go!

“And the sheroes” Poor guy

Oh my god. They’re actually going We Are the World. This is truly a moment.

“Will Smith apologia tour was forgotten quickly tonight as Erivo shines at The Grammys…more at 11!”

Interesting to read Vittorini’s CONVERSATIONS IN SICILY alongside Straub/Huillet’s film. Shocker: the film is an authentic adaptation that ignores 65% of the novel. The novel made me love what S/H do, and the film helped me appreciate the novel. That’s how this should work.

Why are posts about my Straub Huillet class mildly blowing up on Twitter? Unexpected.

Has anyone read or engaged texts that Straub / Huillet adapted? I’m trying to read sources alongside screenings in my S/H class. Feel like this is kind of a wild thing to do? I think going “deep in the weeds” a few times a year with SOMETHING is good for my brain ? #Gemini

RIP Gunvor Nelson.

Oh damn, RIP Richard Foreman, avant-garde legend. I saw him explain SIDE/WALK/SHUTTLE to Ernie Gehr during a Q&A once, chiding anyone who couldn't make sense of what the film was saying. Recent production of SYMPHONY OF RATS was a 2024 highlight. RIP!

I hope the James Hansen I am confused for here knows I exist because this is not the first time we've been connected. I hope somewhere he's like "Ugh, no, I don't curate an experimental film festival, I'm the one who worked at NASA for 40 years, sorry."

I did not program this film, unfortunately, but I hope someone else finds it and does. My Alfred audience(s) apparently thought there were enough perplexing choices this year as it is/was. I dunno. Uniqueness ranks pretty high when you watch 1000 films in 90 days.

Now that this is public news: very sad to hear Tomonari Nishikawa has been diagnosed with Stage IV cancer and is struggling. His wife Miki and his Binghamton colleagues have set up a fundraiser to help with immediate expenses. Help out if you can. www.gofundme.com/f/help-suppo...

Mandy Eugeniou has a wonderful project working further on this project / history with “online spheres” and digital storytelling in mind. (Showed LM 2022). Worth a look! www.theblacktower.co.uk

Bsky is where I can be my self so experimental film and sports. I know none of my followers care about sports. But. Passion is passion. No idea what Bengals are doing tonight. ZT decides he needs to be aggressive to not lose his job, but he’s aggressive for the sake of it. Idiotic coaching.

I wrote about two programs in Light Matter. inreviewonline.com/2024/11/05/l...