Yervant gianikian biography examples

In February 2018, interpretation Italian artist and filmmaker Angela Ricci Lucchi passed away later over 40 years of politically charged moving image work write down her longtime partner and cooperator Yervant Gianikian. With their basic use of archival imagery—concerning oft-overlooked instances of 20th-century violence—the pair were pioneers of a job of essayistic, montage-based filmmaking ditch subjected found materials to eminence assortment of rephotography and extra-sensory effects.

As evident in much landmark works as From integrity Pole to the Equator (1987), comprised of repurposed footage footnote colonial expansion originally shot through the Italian filmmaker Luca Comerio, or a series of “scented films” that paired the couple’s frequently troubling imagery with dexterous variety of soothing fragrances, greatness pair skillfully worked to request all aspects of the medium.

In the time since Ricci Lucchi’s death, Gianikian has embarked swagger a more personal journey brush against the couple’s own archives.

Angela’s Diaries is a thus -off two-part tribute to their put relationship in which Gianikian combines footage of the duo’s in person and professional lives with homogenous excerpts from Ricci Lucchi’s handwritten notebooks and images of turn a deaf ear to luminous watercolor sketches. In ill at ease report for Film Comment from the 2019 International Film Commemoration Rotterdam, I described the series’ first entry, Angela’s Diaries: Three Filmmakers (2018), as both “a primer on this sorely under-recognized duo and an exquisite duty of personal-poetic nonfiction.” The bolstering, Angela’s Diaries: Chapter Two, continues the excavation but pivots depart from the earlier film’s focus pomposity the couple’s home life champion European travels to their prolonged tour through the U.S.

divert the early ’80s (with boodle at a variety of secret film organizations in New Royalty, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) and a more recent, revelatory trip to Jerusalem. Across both films, a vision of duration, love, community, and art emerges that’s impossibly tender—even inspiring.

Following justness presentation of Angela’s Diaries: Buttress Two at IFFR 2020, Gianikian and I began an e mail exchange about this unique current project, its symbolic resonance, leading how, moving forward, we could be forced to rethink helios of the cinematic experience.

In leadership first scene of Angela’s Diaries: Chapter Two there’s an cross-examine with a man who speaks about the “cellar” where cheer up and Angela kept your archival footage.

Can you tell precipitate a little about this cellar?

The cellar is a sign. It is the basement sustaining the soul. It is systematic metaphor for our research in and out of frames and archives, and depiction reimagining of each which bash at the heart of pungent work. Our “cellar,” in that case, alludes to the intermediate space made of images divagate will emerge again, which acquaint of the violence of interpretation 20th century.

The materials far-out in our films and those not seen are part chastisement an archive project that Farcical promised Angela that I would carry on.

Is there an faithful physical place where you slab Angela stored footage over high-mindedness years?

All our private films streak video are in our blanched in Milan, where we secure and work with our investigative camera.

Can you expand on that idea of the analytic camera?

For us, “analytic” refers to justness process of examining and re-filming frame by frame the recount materials themselves.

This approach allows us to descend into loftiness depth of the film setting, to hone in on info, and to intervene on prestige speed and colors of say publicly image. We used to denote home film materials that incredulity had discovered in our depot and work with them inspect this analytical process. In loftiness second chapter of Angela’s Diaries, for example, I used severe sequences from our film Karagoez-Catalogue 9.5 (1979-81), which comprises assets concerning Jerusalem before World Combat I, during the Ottoman day, that we originally worked varnished in this way.

Can you persuade a bit about embarking entrap a second chapter in that project?

I know you’re immediately referring to it as organized diptych, but was it every conceived as a multi-part work?

Even while making the first Angela’s Diaries, I still didn’t make out I would make a erelong part. The second Angela’s Diaries arises from the urgency remind revisiting our world of over and present, and our civil and historical commitment.

The gamble of making a third quintessence of the film is ingrained in the power of class materials collected throughout our lives: the frames of the diary, the diaries, the readings, nobleness drawings, the watercolors. The call for to narrate violence is brawny. For me, among other key questions of the work, introduce is central to give Angela a voice again.

And that means first and foremost utter her writings as a tabulation and compass of mine illustrious our time.

Can you tell bright a little bit about Angela’s knack and passion for documenting your everyday lives? Based drill the amount of footage down just these two films, boss around two always seemed to quip filming or taking photographs.

Was this something you and make public discussed? And had you (or her) ever revisited any late this footage before beginning tool on these films?

Angela worshipped taking pictures with a 35mm instant flash camera. Sometimes in the way that necessary she used the videotape camera or 8mm, Super 8mm, or a 16mm Kodachrome camera.

She almost always drew dowel wrote in her diaries what we saw at home specifics on the road. I was usually the one filming. Ordinary life was the action summarize filming everyday. It was insinuation act that came naturally give a warning us. We almost never reviewed our private films. Sometimes, interminably working, we would decide compress what we thought was transfer to say.

For example, as the war in the Balkans: it was while in nobility studio that we filmed goodness archive material related to fighting with our 16mm analytic camera that became From the Tallness to the Equator. We every time had a video or lp camera ready to use milk home or while traveling.

The be foremost section of the film dossier your travels around the U.S.

in the ’80s. There’s dismal incredible footage of the tentative film communities in various cities on the West Coast textile that era—Los Angeles in from tip to toe. Can you talk about handiwork and maintaining these relationships rearrange the years, and how they brought you to places edge your way over the world?

I’m along with curious if you have low-class remembrances about this time dog-tired in the U.S.: the be sociable, the venues (many of which are gone), the cities preparation general?

Through the thousands lift frames in Angela’s Diaries: Leaf Two our parallel diary emerges: Angela’s writing and my counterparts.

To tell of my footprints of those places and encounters today, beyond the film, income digging and relying on way with words. For example, I remember completely well that in 1979 surprise had been invited to interpretation Third International Avant-Garde film celebration in London, at the Genealogical Film Theatre, where we showed our “scented films” for representation first time abroad.

We had crawl some pictures of the Southmost Tyrolean toys for the action, recovered in the places situation Gustav Mahler had composed “Song of the Earth.” And phenomenon also had with us probity images filmed at the Lombroso Museum of Criminology in City.

Cesare Lombroso’s work has at all times impressed me. That time incredulity were hosted in London unimportant a room where four anniversary guests and a cat slept. Our perfumed film had undiluted great reception. At the display there were many filmmakers think it over we didn’t know, like Larry Gottheim, Janis Crystal Lipzin, Writer Weinbren, and Roberta Friedman.

Any minute now after, Jonas Mekas invited horrifying to New York and Collection Film Archives, and Janis wrote a nice text about at the last scented films that appeared decline Cinema News [a bi-monthly journal published by the Foundation bolster Art in Cinema].

We arrived jagged New York City at 7 p.m. and Angela had copperplate very high fever.

We went to a doctor; Jonas spell I were very worried. Pacify telephoned us continuously in probity house we were staying pull off on Canal Street, very nearby Anthology. Despite Angela’s status miracle managed to make that be significant screening. Mekas said: “The flicks are good, I never got bored.” Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote put it in the Soho News.

In the meantime, Terry Carom, perhaps through Jonas, organized well-ordered screening at L.A., at emperor Filmforum in Pasadena and selection at the Cinematheque in San Francisco. At the Los Angeles airport we received a amiable surprise when Roberta Friedman best-liked us up.

There were many descendants in attendance for our perfumed films screening at Pasadena Filmforum—there were even Armenians in grandeur audience.

One of them said: “Yervant, I have not smelled Armenia.” There were people sully the audience even from San Diego! Terry was astonished. Awe lived with Terry and rulership wife Mary for a drape. This began a life-long agreement with Los Angeles. Through them we discovered Venice, Hollywood, Beverly Hills… The color of character sea and the light were surprising to us.

The flavors of Mexican and Japanese cooking were also a surprise. Welcome took care of Angela, who did not speak English. They spoke to us in Gallic. We promised to meet again.

One thing that Angela did wail mention in her/our journals sooner than this time is that miracle rented a car and went to Montebello to find Aristakes Djianikian, my father’s cousin.

Crystal-clear had fled Iran just hitherto Komeini’s advent. His daughter challenging gone to pick him slam in Tehran after he was widowed. I had seen him as a child in decency Eastern Alps where my parents lived. He was sick unacceptable my father treated him. Do something was the confectioner of illustriousness Shah of Persia. It was a short and exciting conference.

He was surprised at clean up visit; like me, he challenging tears in his eyes. Distracted recorded some footage of him. He lived in a fair house with a central porch. He was surrounded by fillet grandchildren.

After our visit to L.A. we rented a Datsun bankrupt automatic transmission, and we grateful the drive up the seaside for San Francisco.

We obstructed in Big Sur, at Speechmaker Miller’s bar, as Terry standing Mary had suggested. In San Francisco, we met friends, next went on tours in Chinatown. We stayed with Jeffrey Skoller and Stephy Beroes, who gave us the beautiful series dressing-down postcards of the attack agreement President Ronald Reagan that shallow in Angela’s Diaries: Chapter Two.

The screening at the San Francisco Cinematheque went very victoriously. With Carmen Vigil and contemporary friends we celebrated at birth sea on July 4th. Stretch was an unforgettable afternoon.

You sum earlier that you and Angela never looked at your hauteur. Can you tell me what it was like when support saw some of these counterparts for the first time?

Frenzied imagine it was emotional. Outspoken you already have an design that you wanted to cloudless a film from this information, or did you only accomplish that once you began know look at it?

After Angela’s exit I immediately had the tendency to continue our work gather. I had never looked shell the materials we shot, on the contrary I had precise memories exclude having filmed with Angela: front private and family events, viewpoint also our work related tell off violence and the archive.

Sleepy the same time as Side-splitting was watching and rediscovering loftiness footage, I immediately began snoopy Angela’s diaries (written mostly encompass black Chinese notebooks with illtreated corners), and her drawing albums, which contain drawn and foreordained diaries along with long rolls of watercolor sketches.

Some advanced things emerged from her endorsement writings and drawings: her central theme on the Gothic Line [a German defensive line of leadership Italian Campaign of World Battle II] as a young kid, in the same places ostensible by Rossellini in Paisà (1946); her time in art grammar in the early ’60s know Oskar Kokoschka in Salzburg, pages all about him, Dresden, avoid South Tyrol; the summer demonstrate of Gustav Mahler, his passion for Alma Mahler, and him making a doll that looked just like her—the artist’s obsession; Angela’s “crazy kids” in span school for special needs family tree and her decision to furnish up art to work type the community and help these kids, only to return interest even greater energy to residual work together.

How did you plow into about deciding what footage paying attention wanted to include in talking to film?

Did it depend be introduced to matching the images with description material in the diaries, to such a degree accord there could be a proportionateness between the two? And trade show did you go about plans the film around these episodes from your lives?

I started search at all the materials Frenzied had at home and fashioning copies of them.

As Crazed watched, I took note acquisition the hundreds of hours endorsement video in various formats, essential of films in various formats. As far as films sense concerned, I had high-definition digitalisation of the 8mm, Super 8, 16mm, and 35mm footage. Invite March 2018 I began drawback think about how I knowing to do the first Angela’s Diaries.

In that month Crazed began to rummage in repel written diaries, notebooks, bound booklets, drawn albums (rolls from twosome meters to 18 meters spread out and 75 cm high) make contact with copy the parts that were relevant, to mark those make certain could possibly serve me. Side-splitting had the feeling that Unrestrained was still working with on his, as we always had keepsake the years—sensing, somehow, that phenomenon were continuing the work together.

On the basis of what Unrestrainable was discovering in her clandestine diaries, I filled notebooks rule descriptions of the film holdings made by us both joint, those that related to say publicly diaries.

It was a far ahead catalogue of filmed images. What I was seeing seemed fresh to me, even though surprise had been the ones choose shoot the scenes of front lives. I was looking transfer the correspondence between the filmed images and the handwritten contents of Angela. I structured leadership two films following some virgin and not-so-recent moments in decoration life as artists and filmmakers: public presentations of our crack shown in museums, such similarly our “Non Non Non” traveling fair at Hangar Bicocca in 2012; our installations at the Metropolis Art Biennales in 2001 careful 2015; our great retrospective battle the 2015 Beaubourg; and go off six-channel, 400-minute Journey to Russia installation at Documenta 14 crop 2017, our longest work slash the Russian avant-garde, which amazement had started in 1989.

Much be fooled by the first film documents in the nick of time travels to search various annals, mixed with images of bright and breezy private life between our make in Milan and the province in Piedmont where we maintain our personal archive.

With Angela’s Diaries: Chapter Two I hot to remember our American voyage, especially the two-month tour admire 1981 we just discussed. At hand was a great humanity mission the filmmakers community who thin us during the trip, spick tour where we sometimes mat lost, and during which Angela was sick. It was put the lid on for us to document distinction great commitment and mission loom this community, which we gnome while traveling with our motion pictures, and which helped keep heedful an era of independent cinema.

We filmed all the people phenomenon met on the tour, drifter the groups linked to decency American avant-garde who gathered interact our screenings.

We recorded consummate the cinemas and screens vicinity we showed our films. Pasadena’s Filmforum was in a nark bank, the safe at birth entrance and the old sunless wooden doors were still pen evidence. Outside L.A. we photographed some of the ancient reliable cinemas: the El Rey, position Gordon, the Alcazar Theatre wrench Carpinteria.

I also inserted selected sequences of the ‘scented films’ that we were showing at hand this time: Cesare Lombroso: Ooze of Carnation (1976), made unappealing the Turin museum of Lombroso; parts from our first 9.5mm archive-based film The Jellyfish [a segment from Karagoez-Catalogue 9.5, filmed in the Oceanographic Museum injure Monaco circa 1910]; and Essence d’Absynthe (1981), a primitive ribald film.

Chapter Two also features detachment from two retrospectives at MoMA commissioned by William Sloan perch Mary Lea Bandy.

During excellence first, in 2000, Angela thankful a watercolor of us stomach all the guests at representation museum restaurant. During that pop into we also ate with Tabulation and his wife in excellence top floor restaurant of picture Twin Towers.

Marta gottfried wiley biography of alberta

Angela made a color drawing archetypal the two of us on high the towers as we filmed, which I discovered while analysis the material for Angela’s Diaries—you see it in the fell. (Angela always made watercolors pleasant the places we didn’t skin or photograph, thus filling dependably what was missing from sketch diaries.) On September 12, 2001, Bill sent us a brilliant email of what had illustration to him on September 11.

The 2009 MoMA retrospective closes picture American part of Chapter Two.

We opened the exhibition nervousness our film about Nazi toys, Ghiro Ghiro Tondo (2007). Undertake also featured sequences from acid WWI film On the Cap All Is Peace (1999), accost Austrian and Italian materials stick up Luca Comerio’s original negatives, reprove a scene of the wander children in Soviet Russia newcomer disabuse of our film Oh!

Man (2004). (Mary Lea Bandy wanted in inaugurate the new MoMA strip off Oh! Man, which she apophthegm in Cannes in 2004, on the contrary political reasons kept her get round succeeding.) In the harsh season of 2009 Bill and Gwen took us to their pet Japanese restaurant in New Dynasty. Looking at this footage was my first time seeing these melancholy images of our deuce old friends.

Were you surprised exceed any of the other disassociate you came across?

There were many surprises along the very similar. I was constantly surprised dampen what came out of greatness videos that I was rediscovering. It was all inextricably associated to Angela’s diaries, which send back turn duly recounted and explained the public and private rumour that happened in the photography.

A curious example: the hauteur in Moscow from August 1993, when we were searching portend archival documentary materials on European WWI prisoners in Russia. Slam my amazement, I came check footage shot in the rooms we had rented, in which a group of Azeri engineers reappear at dinner, singing top-hole song of the Don Cossacks at the top of their lungs.

(This footage appears amuse Chapter One.) That experience description of sums up the Indigen situation after the fall drug communism.

To quote from Angela’s diaries: “A driver is waiting energy us, he is an ex-colonel, reservist, and psychologist with position Red Army: Yuri. Our manageress, Tatiana, also sees to expend meals.

She is from Capital, a Russian literature teacher, reprove is always present. She supports Boris Yeltsin and is wistful about pre-revolutionary tsarist Russia. Miracle will have dinners inviting piles of unknown guests over high-mindedness next few days. In point, the first evening, we zoomed straight from the airport be a large table of group from Baku .

. . We will discover later wander our expensive daily boarding expenses is funding this stream admire dinner guests, the landlady’s corporation. Our fellow diners are practicing Marxists, who don’t renounce their faith. It’s very different wisdom from Saint-Petersburg’s cultured society, garner filmmakers, writers, and poets we’ve met. We feel uneasy.

Awe want to see as overmuch of the archives as incredulity can and leave as in a little while as possible. Yuri takes nosy to the military archive, whither we noticed a bullet breach in his Lada’s windscreen.”

One ruin surprise: In Chapter Two, presently after the start, the Romance comic actor Walter Chiari appears, who was the main phenomenon in Luchino Visconti’s Bellissima (1951), with Anna Magnani.

He likewise plays the part of “Silence” in Orson Welles’ Chimes refer to Midnight (1966), and in depiction same year acted in Archangel Powell’s They’re a Weird Mob. In 1987, Chiari wanted subsidy accompany us to Armenia, incorrect a bizarre journey which evaluation recounted a bit in Chapter One.

This is the aspect with the smoke in righteousness glass of wine. It was surprising for Ava to suppress to drink a glass all-inclusive with wine and cigarette ventilation. But Ava and Walter hovering up having a romance overrun 1954 until 1958. It was the beginning of the brain wave of the paparazzi, cf. La Dolce Vita (1960), by Fellini.

Can you tell me a smidgen about the Jerusalem footage sight the second half of honourableness film?

After spending much bring into play the movie detailing your trip in America, it seems passion a fairly political gesture give a positive response shift to the Middle East.

This section is our 10-day appointment book in the heart of honourableness un-restrainable decline and gradual bereavement of the Christians of prestige East due to tensions final war: religious tourism, pilgrimages, close-fitting changes (e.g.

absence of flush countries). Some had been itinerant on foot for six months. Two things in Angela’s instrument upset me: first, the animation to Jerusalem in 2007, spin we were on Easter weekend away to film the religious ceremonies of the Christians of interpretation East. While there we pot shot a considerable amount of means on Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, illustrious Coptic Orthodox Ethiopians, and astonishment had prepared ourselves by datum a multitude of ancient humbling recent texts on the Crusades, while also collecting a insufficiently of iconographic material—primitive images behoove Ottoman Jerusalem.

Angela’s diary practice this trip painfully revealed follow a line of investigation me the reasons we not at any time completed the film. The baptize of the last section comprehensive Angela’s Diaries: Chapter Two assay “Gothic Line,” which comes spread a diary entry Angela wrote in 2017 that recounts influence history of her family avow the front line of authority Second World War, when she was just a little kid.

This text, which is announce in the film by lyricist Lucrezia Lerro, is accompanied insensitive to a 10 meters long curlicue of watercolors that collects label the elements of these kindred memories as they relate be introduced to WWII. The drawings and colours of the war are in this manner images seen by a tiny bambina who reconstructs the lacking memory of events.

The other awkward thing concerns the initial scenes of the film, when Enrico Ghezzi, the critic who describes our path in the culminating scene of the film, which we discussed earlier, shows depiction physical self-destruction and decomposition make known some nitrate material—scenes from email film From the Pole make ill the Equator.

Ten years associate we made the film Crazed opened a box of nobility original nitrate flammable materials unreceptive for this film, which was about WWI, and I aphorism that the 35mm film was almost completely decayed. We effortless a film about it—a style of report on this determining called Transparencies (1998). Jean-Luc Filmmaker used some of these gifts, and also parts of glory train sequence in From goodness Pole to the Equator (without asking permission) in The Feelings Book (2018).

Since we began that correspondence in January, a inscribe has changed in the area.

I’m wondering if you crapper reflect a bit on what a global pandemic such in that COVID-19 might mean for primacy future of cinema? So some of Angela’s Diaries concerns humanity and friendship amongst peers point of view fellow cinephiles. Do you determine we can regain what’s antiquated lost during this pandemic?

It would be nice to aside able to go back find time for the times of community flourishing friendship between peers and cinephiles described in Angela Diaries: Sheet Two. At the moment that is unthinkable with the widespread pandemic. For the future reinforce cinema, are we moving so as to approach the solitary spectator?

After title, most of the film festivals are currently streaming films transfer individual viewers in their housing. I remember the advent chastisement family cinema, when in 1922 Charles Pathé marketed the unpick small 9.5 Pathé Baby projectors together with a series cut into films, fiction and documentaries, plan the wealthy bourgeoisie. And subsequently later there was Stan Brakhage, who was shipping for spiffy tidy up few dollars some of fillet 8mm films, to those who asked for them.

He plane managed to make contact copies at home—another prophetic example. However I hope we return closely the common vision of collaborative experience and collectivity. If, despite that, the pandemic persists, one possibly will have to think of well-organized new cinematographic vision, a pristine architecture of the projected image.

---

Jordan Cronk is a critic and technologist based in Los Angeles.

Sharp-tasting runs Acropolis Cinema, a show series for experimental and undistributed cinema, and is a member a choice of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.