Lives of Performers. (EUA) Yvonne Rainer, 1972 In her first feature film, dancer, choreographer, performer, filmmaker and writer Yvonne Rainer gives us a stark and revealing examination of romantic alliances. Lives of Performers examines the dilemma of a man who can't choose between two women and makes them both suffer. The change from dance to film, Rainer later explained, had allowed her to explore the emotional realm in greater depth. Rainer’s work reconfigures the performance/ spectator relation, interrupting the emotional connections between performers and the public, and creating a distancing effect that separates the work from the spectators. In Rainer’s own words: “The splitting of identities, the optical degeneration of the images, the character whose visibility for the other remains unexplained, acting with an inadequate voice or synchronisation, printed attributions of quoted monologues, etc. All these tricks come and go in narratively planned scenes. I am learning to play closer and closer to the rules… in order to better break them… to better break them”.
Full Unemployment Cinema. (UK / Reino Unido) A cine-forum project on work and the struggles against it. Initiated in 2007, this project not only explores the resistance to work and the link between capital and waged labour, but also reframes film-viewing as a space for debate where our working conditions can be critically examined.
illegal cinema. , A project developed by the Walking Theory platform (TkH) in Belgrade. In this project, “illegal” means instigating non-specialists to develop an alternative form of knowledge and discourse production centred on the less well-known, more experimental and critical varieties of film. Whoever is interested may suggest films for screening, and must speak about them, open up a discussion, or invite guests. This procedure seeks to erase the boundaries between editors/curators and audience, initiating a long-term process of self-education aimed at creating a critical cultural community.
