Light Cone Presents the Third Edition of "Scratch Collection" Film Festival
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“SCRATCH COLLECTION 2023” PROMOTIONAL IMAGE. SOURCE: LIGHT CONE.
Beginning on October 3rd of this year, Light Cone presented the third edition of their film festival Scratch Collection, “a journey through [their] catalogue of 6,500 films whose goal is to draw up a great world atlas of experimental cinema and reaffirm Light Cone as an evolving and thriving collection.”
The festival plays at the Luminor Theatre in Hôtel de Ville, City Hall, in Paris, France, and was organized by guest programmer Mika Taanila, a filmmaker and artist from Helsinki whose work spans experimental cinema, documentary film, and video art. Taanila has curated 2023’s Scratch Collection around music, with his program conceived as “a mixtape in six movements.”
GME has a long-standing relationship with Light Cone. While working as a film curator at the Museum of Modern Art, Jon Gartenberg sat in on screenings when Light Cone was being formed in 1982 in Yann Beauvais and Miles McKane’s apartment. Later, Gartenberg acquired films of Beauvais’ — including 1980’s TEMPS DEMETRE — for MoMA’s permanent collection. (Beauvais’ 1998 film DES RIVES played in the third program of this year’s Scratch Collection, on October 24th). GME’s relationship with the company continues to this day, as we are currently working with Emmanuel Lefrant, the director of Light Cone, to distribute the international touring program of films by Warren Sonbert.
These two works by Yann Beauvais are part of GME’s collection of artwork related to experimental filmmakers’ cinematic creations:
GME distributes work by a number of filmmakers who are being shown in this year’s edition of Scratch Collection. In the first program, which played on October 3rd, Stan Brakhage’s LOUD VISUAL NOISES (1986) was featured, alongside Gustav Deutsch’s TRADITION IST DIE WEITERGABE DES FEUERS UND NICHT DIE ANBETUNG DER ASCHE (1999). GME distributes, to the North American university market, Brakhage’s 1958 film ANTICIPATION OF THE NIGHT as a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack, as well as a DSL. GME also distributes three films by Deutsch in the collection NOT HOME: PICTURING THE FOREIGN FILMS 1990—2015, as well as Deutsch’s FILM IST. (1—12) (1998) both on DVD or as a DVD/DSL bundle.
Another Brakhage film, 2002’s SONG OF THE MUSHROOM, played in Light Cone’s second program on October 17th, alongside Rose Lowder’s SOURCES (2012). GME distributes five films by Lowder in the DVD collection BOUQUET D’IMAGES, which is also available as a DSL. The third program, which played on October 24th, featured Abigail Child’s 1982 film MUTINY. GME distributes seven films by Child in the DVD collection IS THIS WHAT YOU WERE BORN FOR?.
In the fourth program, which played on November 7th, Germaine Dulac’s DISQUE 957 (1928), Walther Ruttmann’s IN DER NACHT (1931), Mary Ellen Bute and Ted Nemeth’s NEW SENSATIONS IN SOUND BY RCA VICTOR (1956), and Michael Snow’s PUCCINI CONSERVATO (2008) were screened. GME distributes Dulac’s THE SEASHELL AND THE CLERYGMAN (1927); Ruttmann’s BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A GREAT CITY (1927) and MELODY OF THE WORLD (1929); Bute and Nemeth’s TARANTELLA (1940) and ABSTRONIC (1952), as well as Bute’s solo efforts, 1937’s PARABOLA and 1939’s SPOOK SPORT; and Snow’s RAMEAU’S NEPHEW (1970—74).
The final program in Scratch Collection plays on Tuesday, November 21st, 2023, at the Théâtre Berthelot in Montreuil, in partnership with Les Instants Chavirés.