Re: Circles and St Jude

From: Julia Knight (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Jan 09 2008 - 03:26:18 PST


Hi Freya,

Just catching up on email and only just seen this. There have been a
few short articles written about Circles (and the other women's
distributor from the 1980s, Cinema of Women) which I have copies of.
If you send me an address, I can send you photocopies tomorrow –
might just get to you in time! Hope the alt-fv-distribution.net info
site has been some help

Best
Julia

On 9 Jan 2008, at 02:15, Freya wrote:

> Thanks Steven!
>
> I'm up't North right now still but I may just do that!
> William Rose was suggesting this to me only a few
> months ago. It sounds like an exciting place if you
> will have me. :)
>
> I worked out about cinenova after Dr Wees told me the
> page numbers to read! *giggle* Lately I feel like I'm
> only half awake I'm so out of it. Oh well, I hope the
> other half is still having a good dream!
>
> love
>
> Freya
>
> --- Steven Ball <email suppressed> wrote:
>
>> Freya,
>>
>> If you're in London come and see us at the British
>> Artists' Film and
>> Video Study Collection (see
>> www.studycollection.org.uk) at Central St
>> Martins, we have a lot of material.
>>
>> Re Circles, you know it became Cinenova which is
>> still in existence,
>> see:
>> http://www.cinenova.org.uk
>>
>> Steven Ball
>>
>> On 8 Jan 2008, at 22:39, Freya wrote:
>>
>>> Danni I love you! Thanks! :)
>>>
>>> I've already learned some intresting things from
>> there
>>> too.
>>>
>>> This experimental film thing is certainly a
>>> complicated affair! I never thought when I started
>>> looking into it that I would find out so many
>> things.
>>> I feel a bit like I've fallen down the rabbit
>> hole.
>>>
>>> I found that with many things lately, theres
>> always
>>> such a wealth of things below the surface. Some of
>> the
>>> stuff I've stumbled into lately has really shocked
>> me
>>> to the core, so all the experimental film stuff
>>> shouldn't suprise me so much.
>>>
>>> I guess I've somehow over the years moved the
>> world
>>> that exists in my imagination, closer to the world
>> the
>>> way I would like it to be, as opposed to the way
>> that
>>> it really is. IYSWIM.
>>>
>>> Apart from the David Curtis book, I'm also finding
>>> "Experimental Cinema in the digital age"
>> incredibly
>>> useful. Malcolm Le Grice seems to have sort of
>>> accepted the role of Arch Villan in it all and
>> then
>>> goes about documenting it!
>>>
>>> It's really useful because you get all kinds of
>>> different views in one book. Sadly theres not a
>>> feminist critique of Malcolm in there ;) which is
>> why
>>> I'd like to track down some more information about
>>> circles. It seems from the stuff that David Curtis
>>> writes about that there was a whole bunch of stuff
>>> that arose from "Film as Film", it's a shame that
>>> there wasn't a documented debate of some sort.
>>> Obviously that would be out of the scope of
>> David's
>>> book but it would have been so good to have had
>>> something like that in Malcolms book. I imagine
>> that
>>> Malcolm feels like he has been fed to the lions
>> enough
>>> times already however! ;)
>>>
>>> I wish I had found Peter Gidal's book at the start
>> of
>>> my research because it's not an easy read (first
>> word
>>> I read was adumbrated) and I'm really feeling
>> booked
>>> out. I'm going to have to find a way to watch MTV
>> for
>>> a couple of days or something to recover! ;) He
>> seems
>>> to be the man to go to if you want a lot of
>> political
>>> theory however. He also seems to be quite a Pan
>> like
>>> figure. Very mischevious. Do you think he called
>> the
>>> book "Materialist film" to annoy the hell out of
>>> Malcolm? ;)
>>>
>>> Anyway, it's kind of nice to see all these
>> different
>>> viewpoints and it's really good that they are
>> being at
>>> least partly documented. It's a shame that
>> everyone
>>> can't work together more and make a diverse
>>> alternative cinematic space, (theres so few people
>>> into this stuff already) but maybe that is
>> something
>>> that just needs to evolve over time.
>>>
>>> I'm drifting into book reviews almost which I'll
>> save
>>> for another day.
>>>
>>> love
>>>
>>> Freya
>>>
>>>
>>> --- Danni Zuvela <email suppressed> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Freya
>>>>
>>>> Happily there's recently been some extensive
>>>> research into the history of
>>>> alternative film and video distribution in the UK
>> by
>>>> Julia Knight and Peter
>>>> Thomas. Check it out:
>>>>
>>>> http://alt-fv-distribution.net/papers.html
>>>>
>>>> Book will be too late for you but there are
>> papers
>>>> aplenty here - good luck
>>>> writing yours
>>>>
>>>> danni
>>>>
>>>> On Jan 9, 2008 3:41 AM, Freya
>> <email suppressed>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I'm presently working on my dissertation which I
>>>> now
>>>>> have less than a week to write! Yay! ;)
>>>>>
>>>>> While reasearching I have frequently come across
>>>>> referances to "circles". The group is mentioned
>> a
>>>> few
>>>>> times in the David Curtis book "A history of..."
>>>> and
>>>>> I've just opened the Peter Gidal book
>> "Materialist
>>>>> Film" for the first time and seen a referance
>>>> there
>>>>> too.
>>>>>
>>>>> From what I can tell neither book seems to have
>>>> any
>>>>> details about the group and so far I havn't
>>>> managed to
>>>>> find any information. Does anyone here know
>> more,
>>>>> either suggested books where I might read about
>>>> the
>>>>> group or even personal experiences of anyone who
>>>> knew
>>>>> anything about the group, or even failing that
>> if
>>>>> anyone who knows of someone who might have been
>>>>> involved who I could contact briefly to chat
>> about
>>>> it?
>>>>>
>>>>> Perhaps if anyone even knows how I could contact
>>>> Lis
>>>>> Rhodes who was apparently a founder according to
>>>> the
>>>>> Lux website?
>>>>>
>>>>> Any information would be welcome. I know
>> virtually
>>>>> nothing about the group, including even if it is
>>>> still
>>>>> going or if not what happened to it. It's
>>>> intresting
>>>>> because I knew quite a bit about the film co-op
>>>> and
>>>>> even a tiny bit about the free cinema movement
>> but
>>>> I'd
>>>>> not even heard about circles till it was
>> mentioned
>>>> in
>>>>> these books.
>>>>>
>>>>> I've come across some amazing and wonderful
>> books
>>>> in
>>>>> my reasearch and will be telling you more about
>>>> them
>>>>> soon when I have a bit of a moment (er now is
>> not
>>>> a
>>>>> good time!) ;) but if I had one big criticism of
>>>> the
>>>>> David Curtis book (which I'm loving actually!)
>>>> it's
>>>>> that it seems to stress the importance of
>> circles
>>>> a
>>>>> few times but then doesn't really tell us
>> anything
>>>>> about it or its history.
>>>>>
>>>>> Also if it's not being too greedy, if anyone
>> wants
>>>> to
>>>>> tell me more about London Video Arts, I'd love
>> to
>>>> hear
>>>>> about it. I know a little but would love to know
>>>> more!
>>>>> That's less important tho, although I guess it
>>>> might
>>>>> also be useful but I'm mostly just really,
>> really
>>>>> curious about it. ;)
>>>>>
>>>>> Hope someone can help in any way. I might just
>> not
>>>> be
>>>>> looking in the right places!
>>>>>
>>>>> love
>>>>>
>>>>> Freya
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
> ______________________________________________________________________
>>
>>> ______________
>>>>> Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page.
>>>>> http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
> __________________________________________________________________
>>>>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
>>>> <email suppressed>.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
> __________________________________________________________________
>>>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
>>>> <email suppressed>.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
> ______________________________________________________________________
>>
>>> ______________
>>> Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page.
>>> http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
> __________________________________________________________________
>>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
>> <email suppressed>.
>>
>>
>>
> __________________________________________________________________
>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
>> <email suppressed>.
>>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> ______________
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> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.

----------------
Julia Knight
Reader in Moving Image/Co-editor, Convergence
School of Arts, Design, Media & Culture
University of Sunderland
Media Building
The Sir Tom Cowie Campus at St Peter's
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email: email suppressed
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Convergence: The Journal of Research into New Media Technologies
Editors: Julia Knight and Alexis Weedon
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Associate editors: Jeanette Steemers (Europe), Rebecca Coyle (Western
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__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.