BETWEEN TWO CINEMAS
an essay film linking newly restored and remastered works
"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 "
"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."
For the past thirty years filmmaker/archivist Ross Lipman has cut a 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 indescribable divide at the heart of it.
Part biography, part clip essay, part abstract painting, Between Two Cinemas integrates 4K restorations of his old films inside a new documentary/essay linking them. It uncovers previously unseen archival material on Stan Brakhage and Andrei Tarkovsky, and adds new collaborations with artists including visionary experimentalist Bruce Baillie, Jeanne Dielman cinematographer Babette Mangolte, Bela Tarr composer Mihaly Vig and synthesizer pioneer Patrick Gleeson.
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
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, 10 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
Special Thanks to: Sammlung Goetz (Munich), Fandor.
Film Festival in October 2018.
