San Francisco Cinematheque Program Notes (1995)

San Francisco Cinematheque feminist contexts in the early seventies and is still widely seen. Wiley and Nelson made several other films together, and Wiley went on to do a series of short 8mm films best described as filmic prose poems, using domestic familiars (red cabbage, coffee grounds) as materials. When Wiley was asked why she turned to film, she talks of new creative frontiers, and reflects..."! find my interest in films peculiar because I'm not interested in machines, and there are an awful lot of machines involved in making films...But it was such a new medium. The possibilities that hadn't been explored were tremendous." (Independent Journal, 8-3-79). Wiley continues to work with film in these projects with Gunvor Nelson as well as experimenting with video, music and writing. Gunvor Nelson was trained as a painter, receiving a BA from Humboldt and an MFA. from Mills College. Coming from painting she brings a refined sensibility of color, an amazing sense of form, an exposing of texture, and the possibilities of the medium. Working frequently with an animation stand. Nelson paints directly on to moving or still images, allowing the viewer to watch the frenetic paintbrush and the creation of the image. Her films often experiment with light and dark, playing a sort of hide and seek with the viewer or with the dimensions of possibility. The title Frame Line (1983) evokes ideas of the frame, the space within the frame, the flatness of the screen, the image that comes out to the viewer (Russian perspective) or the image beyond the frame (Bazin's frame as window to the worid). Red Shift (\9S3), Time Being{\99l) and many others are fascinated with the body, flesh and blood (whether material or familial), age, youth, decay and beauty. For Nelson, the attraction to the medium of fil was "a combination of the visual—within that the use of color and black and white— with the timing, the dance, the motion, plus whatever else there is—the story, sound. It's so multi-media it's almost too overwhelming." (Independent Journal 8-3-79) DOROTHY WILEY FiLMOGRAPHY Schmeerguntz (1965), With Nelson; 15 Mm.;Fog Pumas (1967), With Nelson; 25 Min.; Five Artists Billbobbillbillbob{\91\), With Nelson; 70 Min.; Cabbage (1972); 9 Min.; Letters (1912); 11 Min.; The Weenie Worm Or The Fat Innkeeper{\912)\ 11 Min.; Zane Forbidden (1972); 10 Min.; M55 Jesus Fries On Grill (1973); 12 Min.; The Birth OfSeth Andrew Kinmont (1977); 27 Min.; Before Need (1979), With Nelson; 75 Min.; Before Need Redressed {1994), With Nelson; 75 Min. GUNVOR NELSON FiLMOGRAPHY Schmeerguntz (1965), With Wiley; 15 Min.; Fo^ Pumas (1967), With Wiley; 25 Min.; My Name Is Oona(l969); 10 Min.; Kirsa Nicholina{\910)\ 16 Min.; Five Artists Billbobbillbillbob (1971), With Wiley; 70 Min.; Muir Beach (1970); 5 Min.; One <& The Same (1973), With Freude; 4 Min.; Take Oft[\972)\ 10 Min. • Moons Pool (1973); 15 Min.; Trollstenen (1976); 125 Min.; Before Need (1979), With Wiley; 75 Min.; Frame Line (1983); 22 Min.\ Red Shift (19^3); 50 Min.; Light Years (19^); 28 Min.; Light Years Expanding (1987); 25 Min.; Field Study #2 (1988); 8 Min.; Natural Features (1990); 28 Min.; Time Being (1991); 8 Min.; Kristina's Harbor And Old Digs (1992); Part I, 50 Min.- Part li, 20 M\n.\Before Need Redressed (1994), With Wiley; 75 Min. •program notes by E. Golembiewski« 44