The Dear Colour, the Dread Colour (2005)

WHO: Dianna Barrie made this.

WHAT: I haven't seen this, but here's the filmmaker's description:

Tree ferns filmed and then re-filmed on black and white film are inter-cut to produce a collage of green tinted positive images and green toned negative images. As the ferns’ leaves are pale in dark surroundings, the tinted positive yields green leaves in a black background, and the toned negative green leaves in a white background. Excerpts from Schubert’s Schoene Muellerin lament and laud the colour green by turns.

WHERE/WHEN: Tonight on a program screening at Black Hole Cinematheque at 8:30.

WHY: As I've spent this year documenting in my own way, the decline of film as an exhibition technology is real and, with sanction from a unified industry, seemingly unstoppable. But the film medium will outlive us all in one way or another; we've had a hundred and twenty years to determine how hardy it can be when properly (if sometimes accidentally) stored. How many new photochemical films will continue to be made is less certain with labs and producers of stock shutting down left and right, but the worst case scenario may be that certain artists with knowledge of the physical processes used to create and develop motion picture stocks will find ways to do it by themselves or in collectives.

One such collective is Melbourne, Australia's Artist Film Workshop, of which Barrie and Richard Tuohy have been two driving forces. Both filmmakers are touring the United States, showing their films and sharing their knowledge of hand-made filmmaking and processing with audiences in Colorado, Oregon, etc. Tonight it's Northern California's turn, and the venue is a former church-turned-cinematheque in Oakland which I've been remiss in not mentioning on this blog before today. I've been hesitant in part because I was only aware of its screenings through its Facebook presence, but have recently learned the venue has been running a blog with event details all of this time. Do take the time to see what kinds of events they've been running over the past two years, and you'll get a sense of what kind of a Black Hole you'll be pulled into if you decide to venture to this increasingly important Frisco Bay screening spot.

HOW: 16mm program