BETWEEN TWO CINEMAS

an essay film linking newly restored and remastered works

 

Between Two Cinemas

 

"4K scans of Lipman's poetic, exploratory short films open up new conversations about how artists look after their work, whilst casting a fresh eye on the broad terrain of alternative film in this highly unusual, immersive and discursive, personally inflected hybrid of curated-programme and essay-film."
- William Fowler, curator, BFI National Archive

"Lipman is one of the leading figures in American independent film culture today, and this absorbing hybrid is a fascinating insight to his evolving views on film art "
- Ed Lawrenson, Three To See at London Film Festival

"Lipman proposes a space "between two cinemas", at a crossroads of eras, politics and aesthetics... and as an entry point to the riskiest cinema. It is a space where everything intersects: the present and the past, affinities and difference; spanning a system of production that is both questioned and acknowledged."
- Monica Delgado, Desistfilm

"It is astounding how effortlessly Between Two Cinemas connects the personal with questions of perception and seeing. For Lipman, philosophical examination and first-class entertainment do not contradict each other. "
- Dokuarts Festival, Berlin

"Between Two Cinemas is an arresting exploration of cinematic discord and resonance, proffering a complex dialectical analysis that unfolds as an ephemeral yet enduring cinematic palimpsest, redefining a lexicon of perception and conceptual understanding." - Steve Rickinson, Modern Times

 

Between Two Cinemas is something beyond category: at once an original essay film unveiling previously unseen archival material on Stan Brakhage and Andrei Tarkovsky, and an anthology of short films featuring new collaborations with visionary experimentalist Bruce Baillie, Jeanne Dielman cinematographer Babette Mangolte, Bela Tarr composer Mihaly Vig and synthesizer pioneer Patrick Gleeson.

It's also a new spin on the artist’s talk, documenting filmmaker/archivist Ross Lipman's winding path between classic international cinema and the American avant-garde. In this riveting but completely unclassifiable work, he looks back at a life in the cinema and an elusive divide at the heart of it.

Between Two Cinemas is an enthralling exploration of discord and resonance between two divergent cultures, and the worlds from which they emerge.

Between Two Cinemas premiered at the London International
Film Festival in October 2018.

 

LFF

 

Run time: 84 minutes.

 

Including the following short films:

 

THE INTERVIEW narrative. 35mm, b&w/color. 31 minutes. San Francisco / Los Angeles, 2004/2017. With Julie Queen, Lisa Black. Cinematography by Babette Mangolte. Official selection, Oberhausen International Film Festival Touring Program, Sammlung Goetz collection Munich.

Two women meet at a crossroads...

 

RHYTHM 06 experimental narrative. 35mm, color/so. 9 minutes. London / Los Angeles 1994/2008. with performer Carolyn Roy, music by Michael Whitmore. Winner, Director's Choice, Black Maria Film Festival.

Filmed in bitter winter in England's bleak post-Thatcher years, using only natural light, Rhythm 06 is a Pre-Raphaelite portrait of the visionary state as arising from nervous breakdown. Perhaps something occurs, but what?

 

DR. BISH REMEDIES documentary portrait. HD, 10 min. Camano Island / Los Angeles, 2012/2017. featuring Bruce Baillie.

an informal visit with legendary filmmaker Bruce Baillie at his home on Camano Island in Washington State

Dr. Bish Remedies is part of a series of works called Personal Ethnographies

 

CASA LOMA experimental. DV, 6 min. Toronto / Los Angeles, 2010/2016. cinematography and editing by Ross Lipman / score by Patrick Gleeson.

"The oneirically definitive house must retain its shadows." -- Gaston Bachelard


see review excerpts and comments here

 

Special Thanks to: Sammlung Goetz (Munich), Fandor.