16mm Film Screening:
Deeply Absorbed in Silent Conversation (Schweigend ins Gespräch vertieft)  (Ute Aurand, 1981, 8 min, Germany, Color)
        and
To Be Here (Ute Aurand, 2013, 38 min, Germany, Color)

-- Introduced by Sylvia Herbold (AMI)!

A central figure in the Berlin’s vibrant experimental film scene, Ute Aurand (b. 1957) has only recently received wide recognition outside of her native Germany for her at turns playful and poignant films that creatively engage the tradition of diary film best defined by Jonas Mekas. Aurand's films derive much of their unique and often exuberant energy from their remarkable editing and structure, a kind of precision frame-by-frame montage, at times rapid-fire, that evokes the specific rhythm and personality of the people and places described by her camera. An important showcase of Aurand's singular approach to image and montage is her ongoing series of portrait films of friends, family and acquaintances. Aurand’s first film, Deeply Absorbed in Silent Conversation (1981), presents an introspective portrait of the artist in Berlin, and marks the beginning of her evolving visual style. To Be Here (2013) is an ambitious, free-wheeling exploration of North America, drawing on footage and experiences from New England with the all female Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts to New York, and the Hopi reservation in Arizona.

Sponsor: The Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI).

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