Music for the Eyes 

I am happily happy to be invited at Vila Do Conde to present some of my films for the first time here, as well as a Carte Blanche of films that inspire me and have been accompanying me along the road of life and filmmaking in New York City. 

The films I chose to program are for the most part films I discovered at Jonas Mekas’ magical cinema in NYC, The Anthology Film Archives. These films have inspired me to make my own, and led me to meet very dear friends that would accompany the creative years of my underground life in NYC. 

These films inspire the pure joy of making, with a sense of craft and intense desires, mixing mediums, pushing all boundaries and loving the artifice; these films breathe poetry, and much beauty and laughter.  They also give a sense of total freedom as much in the process of the making as in the subjects themselves.  In many of them, the actors/characters/performers/friends/non actors are playing in the pure sense of a playground, with costumes and makeup. With low budget, sometimes none, the films are camp and campy, loose and screwy, loony and straight… with an incredible orchestration of music and sounds, choreography of images, with rhythmic, musical editing…music for the eyes. 

Jonas Mekas rolls over and over on the ground in pure joy while Pola Chapelle captures with magic a 3-minute wonder film.  JJ Murphy makes our head spin upside down like a magician with his dazzling “Science Fiction“. Jack Smith makes us laugh and cry playing the cadaverous matron Rose Courtyard (inspired by Rose Kennedy). Ross McLaren’s painterly tableaux vivants” float in magic and sex “without Glasses”. Bruce Conner documents with great delicacy and jazz his dear friend, the painter Jay DeFeo's, painting while her 2,300 pound painting “The Rose” is being taken away, while the great Tony Conrad eats his pets in his mouth!

I am also always excited to show the wonders of Martha Colburn’s animation paintings, a pure Martha punk energy and humor that always makes you want to create. Very touched also to share for the first time the work of two wonderful artist friends I met in NYC, Christine Rebet and Séverine Hubard. Christine paints and animates image by image, thousands of incredible paintings to give life to her imaginary bizarre world of a twisted western that sings and double splits with wonders, while Séverine must have met Tati in another life while she walks away with her walking house… a dream in action.  And a wonderful short film by the great actress Elina Löwensohn, with a special “Epieur” eye, that will make you see beyond the screen. 

I cannot end a program without the films of the hilarious twins, The Kuchar Brothers --George and Mike – who taught me to use my first camera, a bolex, and with whom I made my first film portrait.   Their films are pure joy and creation, pure camp and cries. They have some of the most beautiful shots of their colorful version of Hollywood Cinema! They are so rock n’ roll!

There are other surprises and jewels to discover in this program and I hope the audience will leave the theaters with a strong desire to create and with a smile pinned to their faces for the years to come!

Marie Losier