The New American Cinema Group in Europe.

May 23

Framework is co-sponsoring the symposium, "Transatlantic Experimental Film Connections and Influences: New American Cinema and Europe in the 1960s and Afterwards," held May 26, 2022 in Turin Italy. The symposium is organized by Giaime Alonge, writer and associate professor of Film History at the University of Turin, Ronald Gregg, Senior Lecturer in the Discipline in Film and Media Studies at the School of the Arts at Columbia University, Sabrina Negri, film scholar, archivist, and preservationist, and Faye Corthésy doctoral student, completing a thesis on the transnational circulation of New American Cinema films in the 1960s, and a teacher in film history at the University of Lausanne. The symposium brings together scholars, archivists and writers to discuss the occasion of the momentous introduction of the New American Cinema (NAC) at Spoleto in 1961 and the longevity of its impact. The symposium's talks will include a focus on the traveling exhibitions throughout Europe of these NAC films between 1962 and 1966, as well as Jerome Hill's Cassis festivals in the 1950s and 60s (with emphasis on the 1966 festival that brought together the Living Theater, experimental film, and the Cultural Union), the 1967 ten day program organized by Turin's Cultural Union, the screening of this more experimental work throughout Europe in 1967 and after, and the influence of the experimental film screenings on European filmmakers.

HERE is a link to ten films that screened in the 1960s tours, courtesy of The Film-Maker's Co-operative.

Framework will archive the symposium's day of sessions in full: the morning panels are in Italian and the afternoon panels are in English. The archive will be available HERE shortly after the live symposium.

Warren Sonbert's film, Where Did Our Love Go?, was also on the tour.

Framework's special issue on Sonbert is HERE.

Gartenberg Media Enterprises, where the film is available, is HERE.

The 1960s Grand Tour and its Afterlife

May 24-26, 2022

Cinema Massimo, via Verdi 18

Auditorium “Guido Quazza”, Palazzo Nuovo, via S. Ottavio 20

Torino

symposium Schedule of events

Screenings: Cinema Massimo, via Verdi 18

May 24

h. 15.45

Chumlum, Ron Rice (1964, 26’)
Castro Street, Bruce Baillie (1966, 10’)
The Circus Notebook, Jonas Mekas (1966, 13’)
The Brig, Jonas Mekas (1964, 68’)

h.18.00

Vinyl, Andy Warhol (1965, 70’)

h.19.15

Hallelujah the Hills, Adolfas Mekas (1963, 82’)

May 25

h. 20.00

Text of Light (1974, 67’) and Dog Star Man (1961-64, 80’), Stan Brakhage

Screenings information

Conference: May 26: Cinema Massimo, via Verdi 18

Morning session (in Italian)

h. 9:30 – 13:00

Opening remarks: Giaime Alonge, vice-rector for research in the humanities (Università di Torino)
Keynote lecture: Paolo Bertetto (Università Roma “La Sapienza”), The Art of Vision. Cinema del visibile e dell'invisibile.
Screening of Jonas Mekas: Cinema Is Not Everything (Italy, 2022, 48’), introduced by Alessandro Amaducci (Università di Torino).
Presentation of Giulia Simi’s monograph Jonas Mekas: cinema e vita (ETS, Pisa 2022)
The author (Università di Sassari) will discuss her book with prof. Sandra Lischi (Università di Pisa).

Lunch

Auditorium “Guido Quazza”, Palazzo Nuovo, via S. Ottavio 20, floor -1

Afternoon session

h. 15:00-16:30

Chair: Giaime Alonge
Faye Corthésy (Université de Lausanne, Swiss): Beyond the United States: New American Cinema’s Multiplicity of Sites in the 1960s
Ronald Gregg (Columbia University, USA): “Without Jerome”: The Patronage of Jerome Hill and the Curating of 1960s American Experimental Work in Europe
Miguel Fernández Labayen (Universidad Carlos III, Madrid, Spain) and John Sundholm (Stockholm University, Sweden): The Western American Experimental Film 1963

Coffee break

h. 16:45 – 18:30

Chair: Ronald Gregg
Giaime Alonge (Università di Torino, Italy): Underground Films in Factory Town: The New American Cinema Group Travels to Turin, Italy, 1967
Claudio Panella and Silvia Nugara (Università di Torino / Unione culturale): (Re)Discovering the Italian reception of NAC through the archives of the Unione culturale.
Sabrina Negri (University of Colorado Boulder, USA): The Afterlife of New American Cinema: An Archival Perspective

Conference organization

Giaime Alonge, Faye Corthésy, Ronald Gregg, Sabrina Negri.

Scientific board

Silvio Alovisio (Unito), Alessandro Amaducci (Unito), Paolo Bertetto (Università di Roma La Sapienza), Giulia Carluccio (Unito), Sandra Lischi (Università di Pisa).