20 February 3pm The Gate, 87 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JZ
Serpentine Cinema presents a screening and Q&A with independent filmmaker and director Sally Potter. Sally Potter is exceptional among her peers in having directed successful commercial features whilst continually experimenting with the medium of cinema. From the late 60s to early 70s she worked with the London filmmakers Co-Op and made several experimental films exploring cinematic time and space for single and dual projection. This screening will present a selection of these early films JERK and PLAY as well as COMBINES that referred to her training as a dancer and choreographer. The screening will also include Potter’s 1979 short film THRILLER and an excerpt and discussion around her recent feature RAGE.
JERK, 1969, 2 min.
A structuralist film that utlises fast cuts and edits, JERK is shot one frame at a time, overlaying three faces in quick succession, which are followed by a short sequence of minimalist gestures. Potter’s shorts are particularly focused on the construction of gender and the framing of the human body; interests that persists throughout her work.
PLAY, 1970, 5 min.
One of Potter’s early experiments with multi-projection, PLAY uses a double-screen format to ‘play’ with cinematic space using children playing on a street to run in and out of each frame.
COMBINES, 1972, 15 min.
As part of her experiments into expanded cinema, Potter often combined live performances of music and dance with film projection as well as using dancers as the subject of her experimental shorts. Potter trained as a dancer during the 70s and toured as a dancer, choreographer, musician and performance artist with Alston’s Strider dance company, the Limited Dance Company (co-founded with Jacky Lansley) as well as with performance artist Rose English and with fellow musicians in the Feminist Improvisation Group (FIG)
THRILLER, 1979, 45 min.
Her low-budget 16mm short THRILLER, which reverses Mimi’s tragic death in Puccini’s opera La Bohème, achieved international cult status as a feminist critique of the romantic drama. The deconstruction of the heroine’s role through Mimi’s investigation into her own death and the re-telling the story from her standpoint was accomplished with wit and a lightness of touch.
RAGE, Trailer, 2009, 3 min.
Potter’s most recent film, RAGE is shaped around fourteen direct-address interviews into a cell phone and continues her groundbreaking forays into experimental narrative and new technologies.
Sally Potter directed her first feature, THE GOLD DIGGERS, starring Julie Christie, in 1983. After making a number of short films and documentaries, she wrote and directed the Oscar-nominated ORLANDO, starring Tilda Swinton, which won more than 25 international awards. This was followed by THE TANGO LESSON (1996), which was nominated for a BAFTA, and THE MAN WHO CRIED (2000), starring Christina Ricci, Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett and John Turturro. In 2004 Potter made YES, starring Joan Allen, Simon Abkarian, and Sam Neill. Potter then directed CARMEN for English National Opera in 2007. Potter’s latest film, RAGE (2009), starring Judi Dench, Jude Law and Steve Buscemi was the first ever film to premiere on mobile phones and was nominated for a Webby Award for Best Drama in 2010.
Sally Potter has had full career retrospectives of her film and video work at the BFI Southbank, London in 2009, and Filmoteca, Madrid, and MoMA, New York, in 2010.
Potter has a blog and message board at sallypotter.com
An accompanying exhibition of Sally Potter’s photographs will be presented at John Jones Project Space from 24 February to 7 April 2011: www.johnjones.co.uk
Serpentine Cinema: CINACT is a series of monthly artists’ film screenings and events at The Gate Cinema in Notting Hill. CINACT takes its name from American artist Henry Flynt’s 2007 cinema manifesto. In association with sketch and Picturehouse Cinemas
www.picturehouses.co.uk
In association with sketch and Picturehouse Cinemas
