Film Screenings / Programs / Retrospectives
THE FILMS OF WILLIAM RABAN
June 7 – June 11
FILMMAKER IN PERSON!
Anthology welcomes UK filmmaker William Raban for a comprehensive survey of his work over the past 50 years, encompassing everything from his early structuralist and multi-screen films to his more recent politically engaged meditations on matters social, economic, and ecological, and showcasing in particular his extraordinary feature-length film 72-82 (2014), which shines a spotlight on a particularly fertile and fascinating period of London’s cultural scene.
Beginning his creative life as a painter and artist, Raban began producing short films in the 1970s, most of them reflecting the structuralist approach that was then becoming a dominant mode within avant-garde cinema, as well as exploring the possibilities of multiple-projector installations and other forms of expanded cinema. These frankly experimental works, as well as Raban’s role in managing the London Film-Makers’ Coop, established him as a key member of the UK avant-garde film scene. Over the years, however, Raban’s work has changed course – the trajectory of his filmmaking practice has been quite unusual among his peers in moving from unmistakably experimental techniques to a distinctly different and arguably more widely accessible mode. Raban’s later works demonstrate an explicit concern with English society, politics, and urban development that stand in striking contrast to the political disengagement of so much of structuralist cinema. Raban’s films of the 1990s and 2000s are consistently preoccupied by the transformations that have befallen English society over the past quarter century, and on the way they have manifested themselves in London’s skyline.
Functioning as a kind of bridge between the different chapters of Raban’s career, 72-82 chronicles the first decade of the groundbreaking London arts organization Acme, which played a crucial role in London’s art world in the 1970s. 72-82 is a portrait of an extraordinary era (and of a group of artists who, by all appearances, deserve to be much better known on this side of the Atlantic), made by a filmmaker with a profound understanding of his subject matter.
Special thanks to London College of Communication (LCC), where Raban is Professor of Film.
PROGRAM 1:
RIVER YAR 1971-72, 36 min, 2-screen 16mm. Co-directed with Chris Welsby.
“We found our location – a view from an upstairs window in a water mill on the Isle of Wight. From this position a camera recorded one frame every minute (day and night) for two separate three-week periods.” –William Raban
ANGLES OF INCIDENCE 1973, 8.5 min, 2-screen 16mm, silent
“This film is the starting point of a continuous investigation into ways of presenting cubist space in terms of the flat surface of the film screen.” –William Raban
AUTUMN SCENES 1978, 20 min, 16mm, silent
“The film is in three parts, each one exploring the fragmentary experience of perception by resorting to various forms of temporal and spatial dislocation.” –William Raban
Total running time: ca. 70 min.
Fri, June 7 at 6:45.
PROGRAM 2:
SURFACE TENSION 1974-76, 13 min, 2-screen 16mm
This experiment determines what happens when a negative is superimposed upon its own positive image.
DIAGONAL 1973, 6 min, 3-screen 16mm
“DIAGONAL is a film for three projectors, though the diagonally arranged projector beams need not be contained within a single flat screen area.” –William Raban, PERSPECTIVES ON BRITISH AVANT-GARDE FILM
TIME STEPPING 1974, 19 min, 16mm
“The film image is a row of boarded-up town houses pending demolition. Two cameras film in alternation this derelict facade from two changing viewpoints.” –William Raban
VIEW 1970, 4 min, 16mm
One of Raban’s earliest films, VIEW was filmed over one whole day in winter using a static camera. The film alternates between recording in time-lapse and the regular speed of 24fps.
COLOURS OF THIS TIME 1972, 4 min, 16mm, silent
“COLOURS OF THIS TIME records all the imperceptible shifts in color temperature in summer daylight, from first light until sunset.” –William Raban
BROADWALK 1972, 12 min, 16mm
“Originally, this was a four-minute time-lapse film which was shot continuously over a twenty-four hour period. The time-lapse original was then expanded by various processes of re-filming to reveal the frame-by-frame structure of the original.” –William Raban
Total running time: ca. 65 min.
Fri, June 7 at 9:00.
PROGRAM 3:
THAMES FILM
1986, 66 min, 16mm
“Raban’s reflective, ambivalent approach to cinematic Modernism reaches its apogee in THAMES FILM. Narrated by John Hurt, it is the closest Raban comes to a conventional documentary, incorporating archive film from 1921-1951, panoramic photographs taken in 1937, Pieter Brueghel’s painting ‘The Triumph of Death,’ and T.S. Eliot reading ‘Four Quartets.’ Raban centers a study of the sites of modernity, and the meanings that time has inscribed into them, on the Thames, juxtaposing shots of the river in 1986 with readings from Thomas Pennant’s ‘Journey from London to Dover’ (1787, close to the emblematic date of ‘modernity,’ 1789).” –Gareth Buckell
Sat, June 8 at 4:15.
PROGRAM 4:
SUNDIAL 1992, 1.5 min, digital
With an astute formal eye, Raban plots fragmented views of Canary Wharf Tower, suspiciously surveilling it, as it surveils those who live within its shadow.
A13 1994, 12 min, digital
The dawn traffic on the A13 moves slowly into London. The dark superstructure of the Canary Wharf complex looms over the western horizon; the pulsing strobe of its air navigation lights makes it look like a ship adrift on the ocean.
ISLAND RACE 1996, 29 min, 16mm
ISLAND RACE contrasts everyday events with actions of right wing extremists, counter anti-racist demonstrations, the funeral of a gangland leader, and the jingoistic street parties celebrating Victory in Europe Day.
ABOUT NOW MMX 2010, 27.5 min, 35mm
Shot from the top of the iconic Balfron Tower in East London, and filmed mostly in time-lapse with the camera tracking across this aerial field of view, this film creates a cinematic map that exposes the neural networks of the postmodern metropolis.
Total running time: ca. 75 min.
Sat, June 8 at 6:15.
PROGRAM 5:
BREATH 1974, 15 min, 16mm
“BREATH is a performance within a pastoral landscape. Here, three cameras converge on a tape recorder, each shot lasting the duration of a single breath.” –Mark Webber
FIRESTATION 2000, 28 min, 16mm
This film documents the transformation of a derelict fire station into studio and living spaces for artists. The opening of the restored building is celebrated in performances and installations by its new occupants.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE 2004, 4 min, 35mm
A rapid time-lapse journey from the London Houses of Parliament to the English Channel near the port of Dover is offset by David Cunningham’s musical score composed from fragments of Margaret Thatcher’s Belgrano speech.
CONTINENTAL DRIFT 2005, 15 min, 35mm
A land and sea-scape film drawn from rich sources of imagery: the constantly changing mood of the sea to the distinctly different shorelines of Kent and the Pas de Calais – twenty-one miles of water that define both the “island race” and English hostility towards a wider integration within Europe.
Total running time: ca. 65 min.
Sat, June 8 at 8:30.
PROGRAM 6:
72-82
2014, 60 min, DCP
Using archival film, printed matter, letters, and recent oral testimony, Raban reconstructs the first ten years of the London arts organization, Acme. As an Acme house tenant, an exhibiting artist at Acme gallery, and a documenter of events, Raban tells the story of an intensely creative scene in which he played a significant part.
“Thanks to an image track composed entirely of archival material (moving image footage as well as photographs, audio recordings, exhibition posters, brochures, and more), with not a shred of banal, contemporary connective tissue, 72-82 is more of an historical collage than a Ken Burns-like illustrated lecture. And, as signaled by the film’s subtitle, ‘Fallibility of Memory?,’ Raban subtly reconfigures the documentary format to emphasize the process by which history is not revealed but rather constructed, even by direct participants.” –Jared Rapfogel, CINEASTE MAGAZINE
Sun, June 9 at 5:30 and Tues, June 11 at 7:30.
PROGRAM 7:
THE HOUSELESS SHADOW 2011, 19 min, digital
Commissioned by the Museum of London, this film explores the continuities between London’s nocturnal life as it is now and as it was observed 150 years ago.
TIME AND THE WAVE 2013, 15 min, digital
This film exposes the condition of Britain in the crisis of late capitalism by focusing on key London events in 2012 and 2013: the opening of Westfield Shopping Centre at Stratford, the Saint Paul’s Occupy movement, the Queen’s Jubilee Thames pageant, and the funeral of Margaret Thatcher.
AVAILABLE LIGHT 2016, 9 min, digital
The complexity of the screen experience belies the apparent simplicity of the time-lapse compression of a reading of an 858-page classic text into just a 9-minute duration.
LONDON REPUBLIC 2016, 2 min, digital
Made two months in advance of the referendum to decide whether the UK should remain within or leave the European Union, LONDON REPUBLIC is a satirical fairytale – a political provocation that invites the audience to guess the outcome of the referendum to decide London’s fate.
LAKAKIGAR (working title) 2019, 25 min, digital
In 1783 the Laki volcanic eruption, and the resulting haze that covered vast swathes of the northern hemisphere, caused widespread crop failures and consequent starvation across Europe, parts of America, North Africa, and India. Raban’s new film connects this ecological theme with the current political crisis in Europe and America.
Total running time: ca. 75 min.
Sun, June 9 at 7:30.
