Programme 5: The Films of Gunvor Nelson
Time and place
Description
Gunvor Nelson is the world’s best-known Swedish experimental film maker. Born in 1931, she matured as an artist during the decades she spent in northern California, first in the Friends of Canyon Cinema group, and later as a teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute, where she worked from 1970 to 1992. Her early significant films such as Schmeerguntz (1965), Fog Pumas (1967), My Name is Oona (1969) were notable for their complex use of montage, found footage, repetition and loop structures. They were followed by works using multi-layered animation techniques, montage and various strategies for applying paint to the surface of the film, as well as a series of more recent works shot on video, some of which have been presented as gallery installations. The two films in this programme, Kirsa Nicholina (1969), and the rarely screened Five Artists: BillBobBillBillBob (1971), made in collaboration with Dorothy Wiley, were both shot in the area with a local group of friends, artists and family members. These films are fascinating and invigorating documents of their time.
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