Listen with your eyes is an ongoing series of screenings for children of all ages and their grown-up companions. It’s a space where curious minds and open hearts can come together to drift through the worlds of experimental cinema. This screening is organised in collaboration with Light Cone, the Paris-based non-profit distributor of experimental cinema. All the films in the programme are drawn from its collection of more than 7,500 films.

Presented on 16mm and 35mm, the films in this programme span seven decades, from Len Lye’s hand-painted and stencilled imagery in Colour Flight (1938) to Jodie Mack’s stroboscopic exploration of the history of weaving patterns in Persian Pickles (2012). Moving across a rich array of techniques – painting, animation, flicker and more – the programme also traverses vastly different worlds: from the magical realm imagined by Anita Thacher in Loose Corner (1986) to the cosmogonic journey of J.A. Sistiaga’s Impressions en haute atmosphère (1989), with uncanny encounters with the animal world along the way, in films by R. Breer, G. Rey and J. Smith.

Ticket holders are welcome to join us early for a free 16mm direct animation activity between 10am and 11am.

Please note that this is a relaxed screening, open to children of all ages.

Programme:

Colour Flight
Len Lye I 1938 I 16mm I colour I sound I 4 min 

This film is a riot of colour and a showcase for Lye’s hand-painted and stencilled imagery.

Abstronic
Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth I 1952 I Digital I colour I  sound I 6 min

“Beautiful Lissajous, curves can be put through a choreography that inspires – and startles – the imagination.” – Mary Ellen Bute

A Man and His Dog Out For Air
Robert Breer I 1957 I 16mm I b&w I sound I 3 min

“I can describe [the film] as a stew: something recognizable comes to the surface and disappears immediately.” – Robert Breer

Gargantuan
John Smith I 1992 I 16mm I coloir I sound I 1 min

“A wonderful and witty example of what it can be to have a pillowtalk with a small amphibian.” – Elaine Paterson

Loose Corner
Anitha Thacher I 1986 I 16mm I color I sound I 10 min

In the film we accompany a man and a woman, a child and a dog, as well as objects, to an impossible place: a corner (…) The surprises in the corner… surprise and satisfy us too.

La vache qui rumine
George Rey I 1969 / 16mm I b&w I silent I 3 min

First she cows, then she cows. Standing shot of a laughing cow which plays with the filmmaker and so with the audience.

Persian Pickles
Jodie Mack I 2012 I 16mm I color I sound I 2 min

A swimming study of paisley patterns traces this decorative motif from its origins in Persian weavings to appearances Irish quilting and American Counterculture.

Bread
Deborah Phillips I 1994 I 16mm I colour I sound I  3 min

Loosely based on Lewis Caroll’s Through the looking glass, Bread is a series of metamorphoses.

Impressions en haute atmosphère
José Antonio Sistiaga I 1989 I 35mm I colour I sound I 7 min

“The colors don’t appear randomly but elaborate a logic of dynamics, continual movement of energy-matter.” – Claira Janes

Listen with your eyes is organised by Open City Documentary Festival and co-programmed by Hyun Jin Cho and Oliver Wright.

With thanks to Emmanuel Lefrant and Eleni Gioti (Light Cone).