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Since 1995, the Viennale has invited renowned directors to create short, one-minute films as personal contributions to the festival. Ranging from home movies to political essays, musical sketches to abstract studies, these “little films” form a unique anthology of cinematic moments. 20 Little Films collects a selection of these works, premiering together for the Viennale’s 50th anniversary at the Locarno Film Festival.
2022. USA. Directed by Ernie Gehr. Digital. 8 min.
"Serene Velocity (1970) created a stunning percussive head-on motion by systemically shifting the focal length of a stationary zoom lens as it stared down the center of an empty institutional hallway – thus playing off the contradiction generated by the frames’ heightened flatness and the compositions’ severely overdetermined perspective. Without ever moving the camera, Gehr turned the fluorescent geometry of this literal Shock Corridor (in the then – new State University of N.Y at Binghamton) into a sort of piston-powered mandala. If Giotto had made action films it would be this." – J. Hoberman
Ernie working his magic.
“We are confronted with everyday images in a romantic way. If you are patient, you eventually see a deli sign that says ‘Carroll Gardens,’ a bike, a stroller. These images are initially obscured, but through repetition become recognizable, until Ernie intuitively knows when to cut once you understand what you are looking at. You are rewarded after every cut.” -Larry Gottheim
"Completed shortly after Morning, Wait is a vivid depiction of the cinematic process of recording images on film. From frame to frame……. this work offers a sense of film emulsion coming to life, and responding to the forces of light. In addition shifting camera positions, panning, tilting, using the zoom, framing and focusing are all part of the work. A sculpturing of a space from frame to frame on a surface where there is no space. The title, Wait .... is asking the viewer to forgo our conditioned focus on the photographic image as a representation of a life situation, and instead, focus on the visual kinetic here and now. Physical therapy for the eyes, and delight for the senses." – Ernie Gehr
An ode to digital interlace, which is to video what intervals between frames are to film…
"Untitled begins with a flat, out-of-focus, reddish-pink screen on which blurry white patterns quickly appear and disappear. After awhile a space seems to emerge behind the screen. The swiftly changing patterns generate an experience of soft floating motion, through a field of snowflakes that whirl about in the wind. There is simultaneous serenity and agitation in the portrayed motions. The background appears soft, almost quivering at first, as if alive, and the reddish color suggests warmth and contrast with the snow. As the film progresses the snowflakes get smaller and better focused, yielding a kind of distance perspective and the background acquires more and more substantiality. At some point and often quite suddenly, the trans-like floating experience is broken by the discovery of what lies ahead: a red brick wall! The entire meaning of the earlier experience undergoes a sudden shift as this prototype of the impenetrable obstacle becomes apparent."– Robert Becklen
"The other Gehr installation, Modern Navigation, is a two-screen piece that shows people looking at fish in an aquarium. It is dark and mysterious, and seemed to me to be a witty and even slightly ironic comment on museum-going and art viewing in museums, which interpretation Gehr confirms was part of his intent. It's a good idea to see it from different positions, including from different upper-level locations at the top of the ramp." - Fred Camper
“The eyes may be attracted to look left and right – and please let them – but the center is also intriguing and not separable from the rest. Among other things, a side view is transformed into a frontal view, but of course, that is not all.” - Ernie Gehr