"'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

Lis Rhodes, Light Reading, 1979, 16 mm, 20 min, courtesy of Lis Rhodes and LUX, London.