settima

shortfilm

Escrime [Fencing] (Étienne-Jules Marey, 1890)

Jan

4

revolvers

Escrime (1890)
Escrime (1890)

Footage of Marey at work. Note the mobility of his invention. (via).

A revolver to commemorate Samuel Colt's sale of 1 000 revolvers to butcher Captain Samuel Walker in 1847.

“Art and science encounter each other when they seek exactitude.”

– Étienne-Jules Marey

However, where there is bloodshed, there can be art. Scientist Étienne-Jules Marey studied movement, and further adapted an existing revolver-style camera gun invented by astronomer Jules Janssen in 1874. The revolution in Marey's invention was not in the least in its mobility. Unlike Muybridge, whose locomotion experiments required a huge, cumbersome setup, Marey could strap on his “gun”, and shoot moving footage while following his target around. His chronophotograph Escrime can be considered Marey's first successfully captured moving footage.

À propos de Nice – point de vue documenté [À propos de Nice] (Boris Kaufman + Jean Vigo, 1930)

Jan

1

New Year's Day

À propos de Nice - point de vue documenté (1930)

Exuberant prostitutes, Jean Vigo (5th from the left), and people who appear to be men in drag, dance on a landing with confetti all around them. In the moving footage they can be seen high-kicking with increased vulgarity, the camera posed below them. DP: Boris Kaufman.

Confetti for New Year's Day.

“In this film, by showing certain basic aspects of a city, a way of life is put on trial… the last gasps of a society so lost in its escapism that it sickens you and makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution.”

– Jean Vigo in his manifesto Vers un cinéma social

X2000 (François Ozon, 1998)

Jan

1

2000

X2000 (1998)

A young, naked man holding a drink observes two men asleep in a sleeping bag on the floor. On the wall behind them the text “2000” spelled out with tinsel garlands. DP: Pierre Stoeber.

Cali: de película (Luis Ospina, 1973)

Dec

26

Feria de Cali

Cali: de película (1973)

A child hands a man in indigenous garb a small liquor bottle during the cabalgata, the parade of horseback riders. The man's horse is painted to resemble a zebra. DP: Carlos Mayolo.

A parade for Feria de Cali, Columbia.

St. Louis Blues (Dudley Murphy, 1929)

Dec

20

Walter “Wolfman” Washington's birthday

St. Louis Blues (1929)

Bessie “the Empress of Blues” Smith, singing her blues away. DP: Walter Strenge .

Featuring rhythm and blues, funk or blues, for Walter “Wolfman” Washington's birthday (1943)

“I hate to see the evening' sun go down I hate to see the evening' sun go down It makes me think I'm on my last go 'round

Feeling' tomorrow like I feel today Feeling' tomorrow like I feel today I'll pack my grip and make my getaway”

Saint Louis woman with her diamond rings Pulls that man around by her apron strings Wasn't for powder and the store-bought hair The man I love wouldn't go nowhere, nowhere

I got them Saint Louis Blues; just as blue as I can be He's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me”

– Bessie Smith, St. Louis Blues (W. C. Handy)

行者 [Jingang Jing / Walker] (Tsai Ming-liang, 2012)

Dec

8

बोधि

行者 (2012)

The monk (Kang-sheng Lee) walking Hong Kong. DP: Tsai Ming-liang.

A Buddhist theme for Bodhi Day.

“The reason why I wanted to do something like the Walker series is rooted in my obsession with the idea of Xuanzang, and the characteristics of the times he lived. There was no car, no train, no airplane, and no cell phone. He just walked.”

– Tsai Ming-liang, via

Sioux Ghost Dance (William K.L. Dickson + William Heise 1894)

Dec

1

Hornbill Festival

Sioux Ghost Dance (1894)

A Sioux troupe – these particular people were part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show – perform a Ghost Dance in #ThomasEdison's Black Maria studio in New Jersey. DP: William Heise.

Indigenous dance for Hornbill Festival, Nagaland.

Report (Bruce Conner, 1967)

Nov

23

1963

Report  (1967)

Television footage of JFK's state funeral with the caption “November 23, 1963”, superimposed over it.

The End (Christopher Maclaine, 1953)

Nov

13

ice cream

The End (1953)

A man suggestively licks an ice cream cone. DP: Jordan Belson.