On January 8, 1923, the new 16mm film format was first demonstrated to the public in Rochester, New York. Half the width of the classic 35mm filmstrip, this smaller, cheaper and handier tool played an essential and liberating role in the development of independent or experimental filmmaking, and hugely encouraged the circulation of films in a field outside the theatrical cinema circuit.
Along with the start of a new film season, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of our beloved and most-used format by turning the film projector on the audience for once in a unique 16mm performance in dialogue with improvised, electronic live music!
Belgian piano player Jonas Cambien and Norwegian bass player Adrian Myhr have been playing together for years. As a duo they released the album Simiskina on the Portuguese label Clean Feed in 2018 to critical acclaim. Whereas this release is entirely acoustic with prepared piano and double bass, Cambien and Myhr now mostly play their music on synthesizers and electric bass, and teamed up with the French experimental filmmaker and visual artist Xavier Quérel, known from the audiovisual noise collective La Cellule d’Intervention Metamkine.
Quérel is included as a sort of third musician, working with images instead of sound. Standing on stage between the musicians, with a 16mm film projector facing the audience, Quérel uses hands-on methods that allow him to improvise with the spontanity of a musician, creating cinematic visuals that are a 100% analogue, without computers or digital beamers involved, in an intimate dialogue with the music.
Adrian Myhr: electric bass and effects
Jonas Cambien: analog synthesizers
Xavier Quérel: 16mm film projector and light
Teaser!
