Gerard Caris: Unfolding from Pentagons
by Azadeh Emadi and Laura U. Marks (2020; 24 minutes)
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Nonagenarian Dutch artist Gerard Caris has devoted his life to exploring the pentagon—iterating, inverting, multiplying the polygon in a dazzling array of two- and three-dimensional works in many mediums. Under Caris’ tender and obsessive scrutiny, pentagons give rise to an infinite variety of forms that, though geometrical, are intimately connected to the natural world. When I met Caris, I was astounded to see that his lifelong practice expresses my concept of enfolding-unfolding aesthetics, in which a single point of view can yield the whole universe. The sense of an intimate encounter with the infinite this heightened by Stefan Smulovitz’ beautiful score performed on the Dvina. This short film gives a taste of Caris’s fascinating practice and aesthetic journey, in light of the warm encounter between artist and philosopher.
Laura Marks’ Affections
by Grahame Weinbren and Laura U. Marks (2016; 24 minutes)
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Grahame Weinbren, eminent experimental filmmaker and dear friend, made this movie with me about my 2015 book Hanan al-Cinema: Affections for the Moving Image. An aggressive Laura poses the cheeky questions that everyone is thinking but nobody asks—“This topic is so obscure. Why do you care? Are you an Orientalist? Are you anti-Semitic?”—and a friendly Laura responds.
Extracts from works by Ammar Bouras, Sherif El Azma, Nadia El Fani, Mounir Fatmi, Mounira Al Solh, Mohamad Soueid, and Rania Stefan give a hint of the enormous creativity among media artists in the Arabic-speaking world.
A Corky Day
by Laura U. Marks (2016; 3 minutes)
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Invited by Vancouver's Iris Film Collective to take part in the One Take Super 8 film festival in 2016, I made this low-tech cutie. One reel of super-8 film, in-camera editing. A modest yet durable material accompanies our protagonist's journey through a day. For the long takes, inspired by Pasolini, I attempted to reframe within the shot. The intervals are inspired by flicker films. Compressed to just 27 MB for Vimeo, the film loses some of that beautiful grain and becomes more legible. Starring my spouse, with Ali Haghoghazian and Willem Oleksijczuk.
