PABLO DE OCAMPO
SCREENING AND WORKSHOP ON LIGHT READING (LIS RHODES, 1979, 16MM, 20')
COURTESY OF LIS RHODES & LUX, LONDON
SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 2014
Lis Rhodes, Light Reading, 1979, 16 mm, 20 min, courtesy of Lis Rhodes and LUX, London.
"'Light Reading' is the possibility of a new direction in film, not to be co-opted by an overriding definition."
Peter Gidal, Materialist Film, 1989.
"The film begins in darkness as a woman's voice is heard over a black screen. The voice is questioning, searching. She will act. But how? Act against what? The bloodstained bed suggests a crime... Could it be his blood? Could it be her blood ? The voice searches for clues... The clues suggest it is language that has trapped her, meanings that have excluded her and a past constructed to control her. 'Light Reading' ends with no single solution. But there is a beginning. Of that she is positive. She will not be looked at but listened to..."
Felicity Sparrow, Her Image Fades as Her Voice Rises, quoted in Charlotte Brunsden, Films for Women, Ed., publ. British Film Institute, 1986.
"Lis Rhodes uses often mysterious, dangerous and highly personal images."
Amy Taubin, Village Voice, New York, 1978.
"Rhodes manipulation of, and dexterity with, cinematic techniques is a constant throughout her work. Light Reading is, as Michael OPray states, a technical and aesthetic tour de force of rapid fire editing, myriad techniques, and a compelling text which both manipulates and questions language. The constant themes of repression and the price of rebellion are all anchored around the hypnotic elliptical voice..."
Gill Henderson, A Directory of British Film & Video Artists, 1996
Selected Screenings
'Lis Rhodes - Dissonance and Disturbance’ - Exhibition ICA London, 2012 ;
'In person', Lis Rhodes, Film Museum, Vienna, 2009 ;
'Essentials : Expression : The Secret Masterpieces of Cinema', Tate Modern, 2008 ;
‘Art and The Feminst Revolution', Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2007 ; Anthology Cinema, New York, 1978
Lis Rhodes, Light Reading, Dialogue List
Pablo de Ocampo is a film curator living in Toronto, where he is artistic director of the Images Festival, one of the largest platforms for the exhibition of artist made film and video in North America. In 2013 he was the Programmer for the 59th Robert Flaherty FIlm Seminar. He has curated screenings, exhibitions, and performances at Gallery TPW (Toronto), TBA Festival (Portland), Kino Arsenal (Berlin), Conversations at the Edge (Chicago), Aurora Picture Show (Houston), the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (Toronto), Experimenta (Bangalore) and EXiS (Seoul). Prior to his position at the Images Festival, de Ocampo lived in Portland, Oregon, where he co-founded the collectively run screening series, Cinema Project.
For recommended readings by Pablo de Ocampo, please consult the Research Station.
PABLO DE OCAMPO BIOGRAPHY
Lis Rhodes (born 1942, London) is a major figure in the history of artists’ filmmaking in Britain and was a leading member of the influential London Filmmakers’ Co-op. She currently lives and works in London, where a survey exhibition of her career, Lis Rhodes: Dissonance and Disturbance, was held at theICA from January to March 2012. Her films are distributed by LUX.
More details : http://www.luxonline.org.uk/artists/lis_rhodes/
LIS RHODES' BIOGRAPHY