AD HOC #82: Halloween Double-Bill

AD HOC presents Eaux d’Artifice and The Cage

Note: this is a free, unticketed event. Seating will be on a first-come first-served basis.

As part of our annual spooky-season programming, Ad Hoc presents two uncanny experimental films: Kenneth Anger’s Eaux d’Artifice (1953) and Sidney Peterson’s The Cage (1947). In Anger’s film, the water gardens at the Villa d'Este in Tivoli are transformed into dream space by composition and tint, as we’re guided by the diminutive figure of Carmilla Salvatorelli, who tours the grounds in a decadent eighteenth-century gown, eventually disappearing in the spout of the fountain, vanishing into the scene. In Peterson’s surreal film, made with students of his Workshop 20 course at the San Francisco Art Institute, the freed eye of the modern artist rolls on its own journey, accompanied by the workshop’s own performers, shakily marching through a retreating crowd.

PROGRAMME:

Eaux d’Artifice (1953, 13 mins., 16mm, sound)

The Cage (1947, 28 mins., 16mm, silent)
TRT: 41 mins.

AD HOC aims to rethink what an experience of cinema can be. We seek to reposition historical landmarks and buried treasures within the on-going tradition of experimental and other non- commercial modes of filmmaking, drawing on work from Toronto, throughout Canada, and internationally. Within these parameters, we aspire to diversity in programming, as well as to multimedia and interdisciplinary screening events that bring together varied communities.

AD HOC = Stephen Broomer, Madi Piller, Jim Shedden, Bart Testa.

AD HOC would like to thank Alberto Zambenedetti, Denise Ing, Charlie Keil, and the staff of Innis College and the Cinema Studies Institute.