Towards the Death of Cinema (2014)
Image: Malic Amalya
Original Score: Nathan Hill
16mm performance with a live musical score
30 minutes
2014
Cinema is the art of destroying moving images.
Paulo Cherchi Usai, 2000
Accompanied by a live synthesizer score, projected 16mm film melt and burn from the heat of a film projector. Cutting off the sprocket holes located on the edge of the film frames, the projector’s forward momentum is bypassed. In the path of the bulb for longer than 1/24th of a second, the film warps, smokes, and bursts.
Individual film frames document cycles of destruction, resilience, and transformation within the Bay Area. Shots include the abandoned Parkway Theater in Oakland, closed in 2009; filmmaker Mary Helena Clark in her Berkeley studio; the Black Hole Cinematheque in Oakland, founded by Tooth; historical images of the 1906 San Francisco fire; pool tides in the remaining structure of the Sutro Baths, first built in 1896 and knocked down by arson in 1966; and the dormant Woodminster amphitheater, built in the late 1930’s under Roosevelt’s New Deal project.
If, as Paulo Cherchi Usai argues, “cinema is the art of destroying moving images,” Towards the Death of Cinema expedites this inherent process of destruction for the viewing audience to witness in real time.
Image………………….….Malic Amalya
Sound……………………..Nathan Hill
Special Thanks to…..Greg Youmans, Steve Polta, Mary Helena Clark, Tooth, & the Black Hole Cinematheque
EXHIBITIONS:
SAN FRANCISCO CINEMATHEQUE: Bridging the Divide: Archive as Exhibition — UNTITLED ART FAIR — San Francisco: 2017
LIVE PERFORMANCES:
DIRTY LOOKS — Los Angeles Filmforum — Los Angeles, CA: 2020
FOLKWANG UNIVERSITAT DER KUNSTE — Essen, German: 2020
COLLECTIF JEUNE CINEMA — L’Etna — Paris, France: 2020
PERPETUAL MOTION — SAN FRANCISCO CINEMATHEQUE — Gray Area — San Francisco, CA: 2016
MIX NYC: THE NEW YORK QUEER EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL — The MIX Factory — Brooklyn, NY: 2015
TOWARDS THE DEATH OF CINEMA: FILMS BY MALIC AMALYA — Curated by Ben Balcom — Microlights — Milwaukee, WI: 2015
I THINK YOU DESERVE EVERYTHING: FILMS BY MALIC AMALYA — Curated by Patrick Friel — The Nightingale — Chicago, IL: 2014
