Welcome to a day at Ögonblicksteatern dedicated to analogue film formats.
Well into the 2010s, going to the cinema meant watching light projected through physical film, 24 frames per second. The transition to digital technology rapidly transformed the landscape, affecting cinemas, distributors, audiences and, not least, film workers.
It has been barely 15 years since most cinemas in Sweden replaced their 35mm projectors, becoming part of the digital culture that is now an everyday reality. Yet an analogue culture has continued to thrive, not only through prestige projects by big names such as Tarantino and Gerwig, but also through ambitious works by artists and filmmakers closer to home.
What draws filmmakers and artists to 70mm, 35mm, 16mm and Super 8 today? How do we preserve analogue film and make it accessible to audiences? And how can archival footage inspire new interpretations and works? Is there anything today’s digital film industry can learn from analogue filmmaking and the conditions under which it is made?
Throughout the day, there will be discussions with invited guests, film screenings, experimental live projection and encounters with films from archives and collections. We’ll look both to the past and at what is happening with analogue formats today, with Västerbotten as one of our starting points.
The event is open to everyone and admission is free. Come along and meet like-minded film enthusiasts! Refreshments will be available to purchase on site.
13:00 Doors open
13:30 Panel discussion with Edith Marie Pasquier (artist and Associate Professor at the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts), Kim Ekberg (filmmaker and screenwriter, whose latest film is Doggerland), and Andreas Bertman (curator and producer at Filmform). The discussion will be moderated by Stefan Ramstedt, film archive researcher and museologist at Umeå University. The discussion will be held in English.
15:00 Performance by Raphael Vargas, exploring the space between film, sound and memory. 16mm archival footage meets original Super 8 material in a real-time projection, where analogue film strips, the pulsing rhythm of light and the grain of the image become part of the artistic expression. Electronic music follows, drives and sometimes disrupts the images, together creating a stream of fragments: landscapes, movements and moments lifted from their original contexts.
15:30 Break
15:45 The projectors roll, presenting gems from the Popular Movements Archive and Lost and Found from Västerbotten’s forgotten collections.
In collaboration with Folkrörelsearkivet, Filmform and Västerbottens analoga filmsällskap.
