A thematic project by Derek Brunen (October-November 2011)

Critiquing the regime of narrative cinema, artists working with film and video have been dissecting narrative structure since the late-sixties. Forty years after the height of structuralist filmmaking, we still find ourselves surrounded by moving image artworks that continue to experiment with Brechtian reflexivity, perpetually revealing their process of production. In our current post-conceptual climate do we still need to be continually reminded that we are watching a construction?

This project will assume a hands-on approach, while aiming to provide a compressed overview of theoretical and practical concerns related to the production of film and video. Culminating in a 48-hour production period, participating students will work intensively together to script, direct, shoot and edit their own films, with an emphasis on finding creative solutions to limitations. A week of film screenings, readings, discussions and technical workshops will prepare students in the week preceding this production period, and a public screening of the finished films will wrap up the project.

With the recent release of films such as The Arbor and Self Made by artists Clio Barnard and Gillian Wearing respectively, we are witnessing a growing interest in the complex role of dramatic or narrative structure in artistic production. Over the course of the project, we will examine basic narrative structure as well as structuralist film strategies. We will also look at a range of artists and filmmakers exploring dramatic structure while also employing degrees of reflexivity.

Clio Barnard’s The Arbor (production still)