Films by Jean Sousa now distributed by Canyon Cinema

Posted May 18th, 2016 in Announcements, New Acquisitions, New Films

We’re pleased to announce that the 16mm films of Chicago-based filmmaker and photographer Jean Sousa are now distributed by Canyon Cinema. Excellent 16mm prints of films made from 1977-1987 received from the filmmaker are for the first time available from Canyon, Sousa’s films are a welcome addition to the Canyon Cinema catalog.

Seven of Sousa’s films are now available on 16mm for rental. See individual catalog pages for complete descriptions.

Today Is Sunday  (1987) “…both a still life and a landscape film in which the characters are described by nature. The relationship of the man and woman is articulated in dialogue with the external environment of clouds, wind, and waves. ”

Spent Moments (1984) “…richly halated black and white, takes on haunting power through the juxtaposition of terse title slides with beautifully composed, languorous passages. In this film the light, the space, the weather, even the woman herself, together with the staccato passages of text, become a haunting evocation of a season, a world of intense personal introspection.”

Swish (1982) “The subject of the film is motion, and it is an attempt to get inside of it. It was made with a moving subject and a moving camera with an open shutter, the result being that each frame is unique, without the smooth continuity that is expected in film.”

Ellen on the Rope (1978) “Sousa’s film studies Fisher’s strenuous activity from a series of vantage points, creating a strobing rhythm by crossing the camera’s shutter speed with the rate of the rope traversing its frame. Unlike other athletic film studies, usually focused on body properties or close-ups of muscular exertion, Ellen on the Rope directs our attention more towards physics, tracing the dynamics and energy of Ellen’s patterns through space with a camera that progresses from tripod stillness to sympathetic motion.”

The Circus (1977)  “…Concern with physicality divides its targets equally between the performing bodies and the film within which they are activated. The Circus flattens the flamboyant action into graphic details,dissolving those details further into mere traces, striations of color, and the pure movement of film grain.”

What Am I Doing Here (1978) “…Through images of sexuality as a battleground of the woman’s mounting sense of dislocations and explosion, and through the breaks and thwartings of the narrative, the locus of discontent is directed toward sexuality and her relation to her own body. The film suggests the turmoil of a woman unable to deal with the sexuality provoked by her beauty.”

Summer Medley (1977) “Summer Medley uses realistic footage to create an organic pattern of bold colors, horizontal movements, and simplified forms. Inspired by Steve Reich’s tape loops, the film is constructed from four out-of-sync film loops that combine and recombine to form variations of changing images.