Takahiko Iimura

Monday, March 9, 2009

Takahiko Iimura: On Time in Film

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"To review all of Iimura's work is an important occasion for all who are concerned with the development and pleasures of cinema as an art." Jonas Mekas

Jack H. Skirball Series

Co-presented as part of a multivenue retrospective of Iimura's work organized by Adam Hyman of Los Angeles Filmforum. Full program info at lafilmforum.org.

Takahiko Iimura is one of the most celebrated experimental filmmakers of our time. During the 1960s' explosion of underground cinema in the United States, Iimura, almost alone among his peers in Japan, began making experimental films after reading the news from abroad. His work explores a wide range of subjects and sources, from poetic cinema with Dadaist and Surrealist influences and Absurdist filmic play in the '60s through more formal and conceptual inquiries in the '70s and later years. His sustained exploration of light, space, time, nature and technology has since continued across multiple media-including recent CD-ROMs and DVDs that combine film, video, graphics, text and animation. This selection from Iimura's oeuvre focuses mostly on his output in the '70s: 24 Frames Per Second (1975, 12 min.), Timed 1, 2, 3 (1972, from Models, Reel 1, 11 min.), One Frame Duration (1977, 12 min.), + & - (Plus and Minus) (1973, 26 min.), and I Am (Not) Seen (2003, 5 min., DVD).

In person: Takahiko Iimura

Curated by Adam Hyman, Taka Iimura and Steve Anker.

Made possible by a grant from the Japan Foundation and with generous support from Wendy Keys and Donald Pels.