Into the Mothlight Podcast

In 2021 Andrew was the recipient of the Margaret Tait Award, this is Scotland’s most prestigious moving image prize for artists, and inspired by the pioneering Orcadian filmmaker and poet Margaret Tait. The film that Andrew made from the award was On Clogger Lane, and this is the focus of this Episode of Into the Mothlight Podcast. Links and images on our website at www.intothemothlight.com Would you like to buy is a coffee? Show your support at www.buymeacoffee.com/mothlightpod

With Steve Polta, Artistic Director of San Francisco Cinematheque and co-founder and current curator of Cinematheque’s annual Crossroads film festival. We chat about his journey into experimental film, the alternative film and video scene in San Francisco in the 1990's, his approach to curating Crossroads and the significance of artist-run film labs. Images and links on the website at www.intothemothlight.com

This time, an interview with artist filmmaker Julia Parks. Julia’s practice encompasses film, animation and photography, often using series of photographs and projected 16mm film. Through this medium, she explores the different relationships between landscape, place and people, often focusing on the west-coast of Cumbria. ​ Julia is currently living in Hawick as part of a 6-month residency with Alchemy Film & Arts as part of their The Teviot, the Flag and the Rich, Rich Soil programme. In our chat we discuss Julia’s love for exploring the geography, industry and history of a place through the people who live there. We talk about her time at St. Martins College and hours spent in the darkroom. We also talk about her 2021 film ‘Seaweed’ and how she came to be interviewed about hand processing film in seaweed on the television programme ‘Countryfile’ - which - as the name suggests, is all about the British Countryside.

In our first face to face interview in a long time, we talk to New York based filmmaker Mark Street. In his artist statement Mark says, “My work ranges from abstract hand-manipulated pieces to work that involves found footage, to feature length improvised narratives. Each film attempts to investigate new terrain, and avoids being confined by a specific look or mood.” The idea of not being confined was a recurring theme in our chat, we also discuss working with found footage, his adventures using Super 8mm film, and of course, Stan Brakhage who you will hear from at the top of this episode. Information, images and links on our website here. https://www.intothemothlight.com/home/ep33-mark-street Show your support for our podcast on Patreon here. www.patreon.com/themothlightpodcast

Since the 1980s, Lynne Sachs has created cinematic works that defy genre through the use of hybrid forms and collaboration, incorporating elements of the essay film, collage, performance, documentary and poetry. Her films explore the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences. Her latest feature ‘Film about a Father Who’ is being screened on the Criterion Channel along with seven other short films. We chat about 'Film About a Father Who', her approach to experimental documentary making and living and working in San Francisco in 80's. Information, images and links on our website here. https://www.intothemothlight.com/home/ep32-lynne-sachs Show your support for our podcast on Patreon here. https://www.patreon.com/themothlightpodcast

This time on Into the Mothlight Podcast an in-depth interview with the London based artist filmmaker Sarah Pucill. Her films have been shown in galleries and won awards at Festivals internationally. The majority of her films take place within the confinements of domestic space, where the grounded reality of the house itself becomes a portal to a complex and multi layered psychical realm. In her explorations of the animate and inanimate, her work probes a journey between mirror and surface, in which questions of representation are negotiated. Click on our website for more information, links and images. https://www.intothemothlight.com/home/ep31-sarah-pucill Thank you to our patrons at The Film and Video Poetry Society for their ongoing support.

Our guest on this episode is the American filmmaker Nathanial Dorsky, a prolific and poetic filmmaker who has been making short experimental films since the mid 1960’s. His book Devotional Cinema is essential reading for anyone interested in the transformative nature of film. We discuss shooting the light on a plant, his approach to open form editing and why he only shows work at 18 fps. We also talk about his relationship with Stan Brakhage, who of course, we named this podcast after. Thank you to Graeme Hogg (aka Hogge)for recording his own 16mm projector running at 18 fps for this episode. This episode of Into the Mothlight is sponsored by The Film and Video Poetry Society

We are delighted that The Film and Video Poetry Society, host to the annual Film and Video Poetry Symposium, has become the principle financial sponsor to Into The Mothlight Podcast. As we exceeds ten thousand listens, and prepare to release our 30th episode, we look back at the last three years, and hear from Jesse Russell Brooks, Managing Director of The Film and Video Poetry Society.

The Artists’ Moving Image Festival (AMIF) was established in 2012 to provide a platform for the discussion and presentation of artists’ moving image, showcasing forms of production and research alongside screenings and discursive events. This year the festival has been co-programmed by artists and writers Tako Taal and Adam Benmakhlouf and includes a series of screenings and events scheduled to follow the lunar calendar across the rest of 2021. The event is hosted by Lux Scotland in partnership with the international art-space Tramway in Glasgow. In this episode we hear from Lux Scotland Director Kitty Anderson on the artists' moving image scene in Scotland and how Lux have supported artist over the last year. Tako and Adam share their experience and approach to programming the festival and reflect on one of the works they have selected.

LUX is an international arts agency that supports and promotes artists’ moving image practices and the ideas that surround them. Founded in 2002 the organisation builds on a long lineage of predecessors including The London Film-Makers’ Co-operative, London Video Arts and The Lux Centre. Benjamin Cook is the founder director of LUX and LUX Scotland. He has been professionally involved in the independent film and visual art sector in the UK for the past 25 years as a curator, archivist, producer, writer and lecturer. In this episode of Into the Mothlight we’ll be looking at the role of Lux and how they support artists working in the moving image. In my chat with Benjamin Cook we touch on the history of the organisation, the collection of works they look after and the importance of being able to

Kim Knowles has been writing and teaching about experimental film for over 15 years and currently lectures in Alternative and Experimental Film at Aberystwyth University in Wales. She curates the Black Box strand of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. A programme described as “Daring, challenging, uncompromising and thought-provoking” with short and feature-length experimental and artists’ films from around the world. In EP.27 we discuss her journey into experimental film and the screening when she fell in love with the experience of watching 16mm film projected in a cinema. We talk about her militant defence of photochemical film, materialist film, her experience attending The Independent Imaging Retreat (Film Farm) in Canada and lecturing in Alternative and Experimental Film at Aberystwyth University in Wales. Goto www.intothemothlight.com for images and links to key artists, works and texts discussed in the interview.

MM Serra is an experimental filmmaker, curator, author, educator and the Executive Director of Film-Makers' Cooperative, the world's oldest and largest archive of independent media. She has produced, directed, and edited more than fourteen works. Her own work, as well as her curated programs, have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York; The Centre Georges Pompidou and the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris; the London Film Festival, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival and the Dresden Film Fest in Germany. There are links and images on our website at www.intothemothlight.com There is no doubt that I have mid-pronounced some of the names of the artists mentioned in the piece written by Jonas Mekas, apologies in advance for this…..

Transit Arts have been organising the exhibition of artists moving image since 2015, through public screening programmes and experimental publishing. It is run by the Glasgow based curator and writer Marcus Jack, who is also currently researching histories of artists’ moving image in Scotland. His first exhibition of artists moving image came from the back of a transit van and a series of popup screenings across Glasgow. He has curated numerous screenings since then in Scotland and the North of England, he is also on the submissions panel of the Glasgow Short Film Festival. His written work includes an essay entitled Seizing The Mean of Projection where Marcus considers thirty years of artists’ moving image exhibition in Glasgow. The latest project from Transit Arts is DOWSER which Marcus describes as “a series of newly commissioned essays, interview transcripts and archival materials which makes available, for the first time, a collated set of resources from which we might begin to plot a history of artists’ moving image in Scotland.” Links, images and more at our website. https://www.intothemothlight.com/home/ep25-transit-arts

The filmmaker Mark Jenkin is best known for the film Bait from 2019, which earned him a BAFTA. However as you will hear in this episode of Into the Mothlight Podcast, the journey that led to him creating this outstanding film is a long and interesting one. You’ll find links, information and images, plus a list of some of the people and films mentioned in the interview, on our website at www.intothemothlight.com

This time we are in discussion with independent artist, filmmaker and researcher Karel Doing. Karel is a prolific filmmaker, his films, performances and installations have been shown widely. In recent years his work has revolved around experimenting with a new organic process he calls Phytography - a technique that uses the internal chemistry of plants for the creation of images on photographic emulsion. You will find links and images on our website: https://www.intothemothlight.com

Artist filmmakers Mark Lyken (films, video installations and sound works) and Emma Dove (film, installation and photography) live and work together in rural Dumfriesshire, Scotland. Together they combine their experience as individual artists to produce immersive films and moving image installations. See our website for images and links to some of the films featured in the interview. https://www.intothemothlight.com/home/ep22-mark-lyken-emma-dove In the interview we discuss the work they made during residencies on The Black Isle and The Cromarty Firth where they explore the relationships between nature, industry and rural life. Mirror Lands (2014) and The Terrestrial Sea (2015) have both been screened internationally, with Mirror Lands winning the Award for Creativity at Document.Art International Film Festival in Bucharest. “..a deeply moving, absorbing and haunting film and sound study.” - The Quietus “Genuinely breathtaking” - Aesthetica Magazine “A surrealistic meditation on the way that different environments encroach on each other" - Financial Times ​Their latest collaboration 1300 shots (2020) is A single-take portrait film that returns two ex-patrons of Dundee cinema 'The Steps' to their favourite seats, 20 years after the cinema was decommissioned. A still camera observes those ex-patrons - the artist LAW and the musician VEX - watching one last film. We talk about this new work and the companion piece LAW, VEX & THE STEPS (2020) - a short film that profiles those two characters and Dundee’s forgotten arthouse cinema.

Demelza Kooij is an artist, filmmaker, and lecturer. Her work is presented at film festivals, museums, art exhibitions, and conferences. Her latest film 'Wolves From Above' won the Jury Prize at the 57th Ann Arbor Film Festival. She has previously taught at Edinburgh College of Art and worked at the Scottish Documentary Institute. I talked to Demelza about a few of her films, including her latest work Wolves from Above. We discussed her approach to presenting the work as a single channel installation at Alchemy Film and Arts, projected on the ceiling and viewed from the ground. You can find images, links and more on our website at www.intothemothlight.com

San Francisco filmmaker and visual artist Emma Penaz Eisner on her love for the work of Jan Švankmajer, the importance of meeting with like minded people, her passion for sharing and discussing her work and how she represents dream scapes and dream logic through animation.

This time we have been in London to talk to members of the Exploding Cinema, a volunteer collective of filmmakers and film lovers who run an open access film show where anyone can show any film under 20 minutes.

Los Angeles based artist and filmmaker Madison Brookshire on helping us re-engage with "lived time", experiments in matching the flickering light of a projector to the frequencies of a harmonium, and the thinking behind his long form, self-performing works. Images and links on our website at https://www.intothemothlight.com