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Reverence ONE – The Films of Owen Land (Formerly Known as George Landow)

Combined programme | IFFR 2005

REVERENCETHE FILMS OF OWEN LAND (formerly known as GEORGE LANDOW)Owen Land, formerly known as George Landow, was one of the most original and celebrated American filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s. The works he made during this period fused an intellectual sense of reason with the irreverent wit that distances them from the supposedly ‘boring’ world of avant-garde cinema.His early materialist works anticipated Structural Film, the definition of which provoked his rejection of film theory and convention. Having first explored the physical qualities of the celluloid strip itself in FILM IN WHICH THERE APPEAR _ and BARDO FOLLIES, his attention turned to the spectator in a series of ‘literal’ films that question the illusionary nature of cinema through the use of word play and optical ambiguity. His two most complex films are WIDE ANGLE SAXON, in which a man has a spiritual revelation during an avant-garde screening at the Walker Art Center, and ON THE MARRIAGE BROKER JOKE, whose disparate cast of characters include two pandas discussing, and making, an avant-garde film about the marketing of Japanese salted plums. Both are models of the unconscious process, with loose narratives that bring together a variety elements through visual and verbal humour. Land constructs ‘facades’ of reality, often directly addressing the viewer using the language of television, advertising or educational films, and by featuring characters that are often the antithesis of those we might expect to see, such as podgy middle aged men and religious fanatics. He sometimes parodies experimental film itself, by mimicking his contemporaries and mocking the solemn approach of theorists and scholars. Films like REMEDIAL READING COMPREHENSION propose an alternative logic for a medium that has become over theorised and manipulated. Later works, beginning with THANK YOU JESUS FOR THE ETERNAL PRESENT and A FILM OF THEIR 1973 SPRING TOUR, draw upon the filmmaker’s experiences with Christianity, but are far from evangelistic. His films contain numerous cross-references to the art and culture of our time, giving them a relevance and vitality beyond the hermetic avant-garde. Owen Land has exposed the material of cinema and deconstructed its process and effect, while covering the ‘big topics’ of religion, psychoanalysis, commerce and pandas making avant-garde movies. This comprehensive retrospective presents brand new prints of the films, and is accompanied by the book “Two Films by Owen Land”, which will be available at the festival screenings. (Mark Webber)REVERENCE: THE FILMS OF OWEN LAND (FORMERLY KNOWN AS GEORGE LANDOW) is a LUX project, produced in association with Österreichisches Filmmuseum, Vienna and curated by Mark Webber. The films of Owen Land have been preserved by Österreichisches Filmmuseum, Vienna, in co-operation with Anthology Film Archives, New York, Haghefilm, Amsterdam, and Listo-Film, Vienna.www.lux.org.uk/owenlandOwen Land quote”My films are not intended as entertainment or easy viewing. They do not attempt to engage the spectator on an emotional level. Therefore audience reactions are unpredictable, especially during DIPLOTERATOLOGY OR BARDO FOLLIES. A showing for the wrong type of audience could be commercially disastrous, though not necessarily without benefit.” (Owen Land (formerly known as George Landow), Film-Makers Lecture Bureau Catalogue No. 1, 1969)Reverence: The Films of Owen Land (formerly known as George Landow): Programme One

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