Critical Mass

Friday, November 13, 8 pm
Revisiting Hollis Frampton
Frampton and Friends
A & B in Ontario (with Joyce Wieland) (1984, 17 minutes, 16mm), Manual of Arms (1966, 17 minutes, 16mm), Artificial Light (1969, 25 minutes, 16mm), Snowblind (1968, 6 minutes, 16mm), Surface Tension (1968, 10 minutes, 16mm)
Hollis Frampton (1936-1984) is a key figure in the history of American avant-garde cinema, yet his reputation has increasingly rested on only a small handful of his films (Lemon, Zorns Lemma, (nostalgia), Poetic Justice). Few people have seen (or have had the opportunity to see) much of his work in recent years—instead having to rely on distant memories or descriptions in books or catalogs. Times are catching up with Frampton, however. A new collection of Frampton’s own writings from MIT Press has recently been published. This increase in scholarly activity has been matched by archival efforts starting with the preservation of his great seven-film series Hapax Legomena. Twenty-five years after his death in 1984, the time is ripe for a local re-evaluation of Frampton’s rich and influential film legacy. Six Chicago-area film organizations have joined forces to present a near-complete retrospective of Frampton’s films over the fall and winter, concluding in a symposium on his work at the University of Chicago. Introduced by School of the Art Institute Professor Bruce Jenkins.