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Underground Cinema Surfaces
Filmink speaks to Jack Sargeant, the curator behind the 2010 Biennale Film Program, about the eclectic range of films on offer
"Events like these are essential," Jack Sargeant says about the film program, ‘Magickal Songs, Mythical Histories and Fictitious Truths,' which he is curating as part of the Biennale of Sydney, the country's largest contemporary visual arts event. "Anything that gets people seeing new or different forms of cinema is important. That said I don't think different forms of cinema should be considered as hard to watch or difficult. People shouldn't be scared of the unfamiliar, and I don't think people should feel put off by words like ‘experimental'."
For twelve weeks over May and August, audiences in Sydney can attend a weekly screening of local and international films which reflect on spirituality and indigenous people, the power of art and its place in traditional culture and contemporary politics.
Sargeant, who has authored a number of books on film (including 2009's Naked Lens: Beat Cinema and 2007's Deathtripping: The Extreme Underground), was drawn to curating this program after learning many of the biennale themes this year were centred around the artist Harry Smith. Best known as a filmmaker and musicologist, Smith's experimental work put him at the centre of mid-twentieth century American avant-garde. "I love his films and I also know about his role in preserving folk music which was essential and utterly crucial work," Sargeant says. "He was a fascinating figure, a genuine polymath. It seemed like a natural thing to want to become involved with anything that used his work as a starting point."
The program will kick off with a screening of Harry Smith's work including Early Abstractions, Mirror Animations and Heaven and Earth Magic. Sargeant describes these poetic and visionary films as "pretty universal in appeal. There's a real joy in watching them."
What else is on the program? "Nick Zedd's film is pretty notorious," Sargeant says talking about War is Menstrual Envy, an underground classic revelling in post-punk psychedelic mayhem. "That screening should be fun, no doubt some people will be shocked." Of a different nature, there's Kenta McGrath's Three Hams in A Can - a part music documentary and part meditation on the nature of friendship - which follows three travelling musicians. "I love the calmness and meditative quality of this film," Sargeant muses. For audiences more politically minded, he suggests No More Smoke Signals (pictured) which "deals with questions of history and empowerment of indigenous people."
Does Sargeant have a favourite among this eclectic range of films? "Perhaps the most exciting work, which - the last time I watched it - moved me almost to tears, is the film In The Realms of the Unreal," Sargeant says. "It focuses on the life and the visionary art of Henry Darger, an outsider or Art Brut artist who had no real family or friends and spent his life creating a vast body of work that is an almost religious mythical epic about the struggle of innocence against evil; work that was only discovered at the end of his life."
If this collection of films sounds a little too eccentric or experimental for the average movie-goer, Sargeant provides a particularly persuasive argument as to why people should come along. "People should take risks and expose themselves to something unfamiliar," he offers. "There will always be opportunities to see multiplex movies. Avatar isn't going anywhere. It will still be on next week, but it's far harder to see this stuff, so come and see something different."
The Biennale Film Program takes place every Sunday at 3pm from May 16 to August 1 at Artspace, The Gunnery Building in Woolloomooloo. For the full program and more information, go here.
