Binghamton University’s cinema department started its semester-long “Visiting Film and Video Artists Series” Tuesday with a free screening of films by independent filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky in Lecture Hall 6.
Tuesday’s screening, the first of three that will take place this semester, was followed by a question-and-answer discussion with Dorsky.
Dorsky screened a selection of four short experimental films that he called his “Quartet.” Between the films he talked to the audience about his past experiences and his evolution as an artist.
“I began to have the idea around 19 or 20 to make a movie that was outside itself,” Dorsky said. “Whether it was a space shield or reference to some external space where in each moment it can move outside of its own needs. How could you do that without it collapsing on itself?”
The Visiting Artist Series is organized by the cinema department and strives to expose students to different perspectives on film by inviting artists of experimental cinema, according to Brian Wall, undergraduate director of the cinema department at BU.
Dorsky discussed the experimental nature of his films and how they break the conventions of both narrative and commercial cinema during this presentation.
“Like poetry, [experimental] film breaks the conceptual veil and in a certain sense allows film the freedom to be itself,” Dorsky said. “Most films are on the leash of the necessity of the maker. These are like taking the dog off the leash and letting it run and have a good time.”
Will said the department booked the filmmakers who will participate in the series a year in advance. He said the department picked the filmmakers based on the diversity of the artists’ work.
“When we put together programs, we like to have a variety of established and newer voices and give a different sense of diverse artists,” Wall said.
The cinema department has organized a Visiting Film and Video Artists Series every semester for more than 12 years, bringing several major artists in the world of experimental cinema to BU, including Ken Jacobs and Miranda July. The cinema department was founded by Jacobs, a renowned experimental filmmaker, in 1969, and has been made up of notable filmmakers and film scholars throughout the years, such Nicholas Ray, director of “Rebel Without a Cause.”
The department puts on a film screening series that features primarily foreign and artistic films twice a week, as well as a showcase of art films and videos made by BU students at the end of every semester. The department also organizes the Student Experimental Film Festival at Binghamton, a burgeoning student-run avant garde film festival that welcomes work from undergraduate and graduate students from across the country.
Keelin Elkind, a senior double-majoring in English and cinema, attended Tuesday’s screening and called it a unique experience.
“It’s a really awesome experience and you get to see filmmakers that are active,” Elkind said. “It’s a rare treat. They get to talk about their methods and what you’re watching. It’s not something you get to see at the movies.”
Simel Morris, a junior majoring in cinema, said he also enjoyed the program.
“It’s great that they’re showing students how quality film is being made,” Morris said.
The next three Visiting Film and Video Artist presentations will feature Dani Leventhal, Vincent Grenier and Ben Russel on Oct. 18, Nov. 8 and Nov. 15, respectively.