Afterimage Presents
February 9, 2023
"Nothing that was politically and aesthetically revolutionary in the sphere of moving images was foreign to Afterimage – one of those precious magazines through which the great wind of history blows." (Nicole Brenez)
The British film magazine Afterimage (1970–87) was founded more than 50 years ago, in a very different time – one of new directions in international cinema and its accompanying manifestos. Over thirteen irregularly published issues, each dedicated to a particular topic or filmmaker, one constant was the journal's partisan position devoted to the avant-garde, to a radical cinema both aesthetically and politically. Early issues promoted the New American Cinema of Snow, Sharits and Frampton but argued for a second avant-garde exemplified by the Godard of the Dziga Vertov Group and Straub-Huillet. Crucial too at the magazine's founding were the examples set by the then new Latin American filmmakers celebrated in Espinosa's declaration "For an Imperfect Cinema" and interviews with Solanas and Glauber Rocha. (Thus, the choice here to screen the latter's Black God, White Devil.)
These programs celebrate the publication of The Afterimage Reader (The Visible Press, 2022), a rich selection of critical essays, filmmaker interviews and manifestos. The book reflects the journal's shifting perspective as it went on to celebrate the more narrative cinema of Yvonne Rainer and Raúl Ruiz, British independent film, animations by Jan Švankmajer, and the "troublesome case" of Derek Jarman. (Simon Field, Mark Webber)
The programs will be introduced by Simon Field, editor of Afterimage, and Mark Webber, editor of The Afterimage Reader. Copies of the book are on sale at the Filmmuseum.
"Nothing that was politically and aesthetically revolutionary in the sphere of moving images was foreign to Afterimage – one of those precious magazines through which the great wind of history blows." (Nicole Brenez)
The British film magazine Afterimage (1970–87) was founded more than 50 years ago, in a very different time – one of new directions in international cinema and its accompanying manifestos. Over thirteen irregularly published issues, each dedicated to a particular topic or filmmaker, one constant was the journal's partisan position devoted to the avant-garde, to a radical cinema both aesthetically and politically. Early issues promoted the New American Cinema of Snow, Sharits and Frampton but argued for a second avant-garde exemplified by the Godard of the Dziga Vertov Group and Straub-Huillet. Crucial too at the magazine's founding were the examples set by the then new Latin American filmmakers celebrated in Espinosa's declaration "For an Imperfect Cinema" and interviews with Solanas and Glauber Rocha. (Thus, the choice here to screen the latter's Black God, White Devil.)
These programs celebrate the publication of The Afterimage Reader (The Visible Press, 2022), a rich selection of critical essays, filmmaker interviews and manifestos. The book reflects the journal's shifting perspective as it went on to celebrate the more narrative cinema of Yvonne Rainer and Raúl Ruiz, British independent film, animations by Jan Švankmajer, and the "troublesome case" of Derek Jarman. (Simon Field, Mark Webber)
The programs will be introduced by Simon Field, editor of Afterimage, and Mark Webber, editor of The Afterimage Reader. Copies of the book are on sale at the Filmmuseum.
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