Film Screenings / Programs / Series
3 X HOLLY FISHER: OUT OF THE BLUE + DEAFENING SILENCE + SOFTSHOE FOR BARTOK [ONLINE]
June 16 – July 6
Extended! Streaming for free through July 6!
In November 2019, Anthology presented the most comprehensive retrospective to date devoted to the work of Holly Fisher, whose films range freely between the realms of documentary, essay film, personal meditations, and intricate juxtapositions of imagery and text. As a kind of sequel to the earlier retrospective, we’ll be focusing on Fisher’s work again this summer and fall, beginning with an online presentation pairing two brand-new films, OUT OF THE BLUE and SOFTSHOE FOR BARTOK, with an earlier film that has gained new relevance in the context of current events, DEAFENING SILENCE.
OUT OF THE BLUE is a typically thought-provoking and contemplative work constructed from seemingly disparate elements: imagery recorded from the window of a plane during her trans-Atlantic travels, diary-like footage, found imagery and sound, and onscreen texts. The result is a highly personal, open-ended meditation on the passage of time, historical trauma, and liminal physical and emotional spaces that embodies Fisher’s radically multilayered approach: she juxtaposes multiple layers of visual and aural materials not only to create a rich visual experience, but to bring into play a dizzying and cross-pollinating array of ideas. The soundtrack features composer Lois V Vierk’s long-form piece, “Words Fail Me,” a work inspired by Vierk’s experience as an eyewitness to the fall of the World Trade Center, twenty years ago.
DEAFENING SILENCE partakes of some of the same techniques to explore – firsthand as well as through the lens of the media – the sociopolitical situation in Myanmar/Burma in the early 2000s, and the oppression of the ethnic Karen population. The film features appearances from some of the same figures – such as Maung Zarni – who have been prominent commentators and witnesses during the more recent upheaval in Burma.
As a special bonus we’ll also present the brand-new short film, SOFTSHOE FOR BARTOK, a digital reimagining of Fisher’s 16mm film “s o f t s h o e” (1987).
In September we plan to host Holly Fisher in person for theatrical screenings of OUT OF THE BLUE, as well as her 2019 film, A QUESTION OF SUNLIGHT, which was made in response to the events of 9/11. Both films feature music by Lois V Vierk. Stay tuned for more info!
OUT OF THE BLUE, DEAFENING SILENCE and SOFTSHOE FOR BARTOK are available to stream for free on Anthology’s Vimeo page from June 16-July 6; you can access the films by clicking the titles below, or by visiting this Vimeo Showcase.
Holly Fisher
OUT OF THE BLUE
2021, 90 min, digital. Music by Lois V Vierk.
“I find this a major work of [Fisher’s], and evidence indeed that ‘everything is cinema.’ At least in the right hands! The drifting between the abstract and the concrete, the word and the image, music and silence, the grand events/tragedies of history and the quotidian, the sense that traveling brings of being ‘in between.’” –John Gianvito
Holly Fisher
DEAFENING SILENCE
2012, 120 min, digital
“DEAFENING SILENCE is a fusion of beauty and terror, observation and anger, roving visuals and intimate stories that are funny, contemplative, or horrific – a subjective, layered depiction of Burma under brutal military dictatorship. My first trip was legal, shooting video as a fake tour guide doing research. The next was on foot, under-cover with ethnic Karen guerrillas, to film internal exiles surviving in a free-fire jungle war zone. Colonial archival imagery and clips from YouTube are woven within this tapestry of fragments, often in ironic counterpoint, and always to pierce the chokehold of censorship. This is a living history of a country arrested in time, a hybrid documentary focusing on ethnic genocide but with constant poetic resonance and a rich multiplicity of references to history and popular culture.” –Hank Heifetz & Holly Fisher
“DEAFENING SILENCE is a fascinating amalgam of print and image, facts and daily life. I can’t tell you enough how filled with admiration I am at your gumption to take on such a project and artistry in carrying it off.” –Yvonne Rainer
Holly Fisher
SOFTSHOE FOR BARTOK
1987/2021, 22 min, 16mm-to-digital
“SOFTSHOE FOR BARTOK is next in my on-going play/experimenting with film structure – relative to memory, time, perception, and in this case, travel. This project is a film/video re-imaging of my 16mm film s o f t s h o e from 1987, made via optical printer from Super-8mm film imagery shot ten years earlier on an east-west trip across Europe. Using home-movies as the original source, this work is a cross/weave, or perhaps more a chance-encounter, with images from rural Romania, traces from the contemporary art exhibit documenta 6, Kassel, Germany, and a ride on the iconic escalator of the Centre Pompidou, Paris. Three decades later and with the advent of multi-track video, I revisited this film, using it now as template – for the lush, layered, and intentionally subversive collage of still and motion that is SOFTSHOE FOR BARTOK.” –Holly Fisher
