Noir, Dir. Mirko Martin, 2008, USA, 8 mins

WHO

German filmmaker and artist Mirko Martin.

PROPOSAL

A (imageless) film of nothing but a sound recording and its transcription.

WHY

During his stay in Los Angeles in 2008, Mirko constantly wandered the streets, occasionally recording the sounds he heard. Noir is an objectless film charged with everyday narrative that forces us to reconstruct an image (of a shooting) from what we hear, the document of people talking in the street who themselves didn’t actually see the shooting, only heard it.

An excerpt is available to view here.

Perfect Film, Dir. Ken Jacobs, 1986, USA, 21 mins

WHO

Father of film-as-performance, raconteur and compassionate worrier, Ken Jacobs.

PROPOSAL

Focus on other people’s (everyday, creative) labour, not your own. Find something (in this case news interviews about Malcolm X’s assasination) and add nothing to it, except our attention.

WHY

A gently polemical plea from Ken: “A lot of film is perfect left alone…I wish more stuff was available in its raw state, as primary source material for anyone to consider, and to leave for others in just that way, the evidence uncontaminated by compulsive proprietary misapplied artistry, ‘editing,’ the purposeful ‘pointing things out’…O, for a Museum of Found Footage, or cable channel, library, a shit-museum of telling discards accessible to all talented viewers/auditors. A wilderness haven salvaged from Entertainment.”

Below is an online link which you can use for reference. To see the film in its original glory, check with the distributor of the film for their terms and conditions.