Blank city is an "absorbing snapshot of a daring time" (LA Times) when a disparate crew of renegade filmmakers emerged from an economically bankrupt and dangerous moment in New York history. From the late 1970's through the mid 80's, when the East Village was still a wasteland of cheap rent and cheap drugs, these directors created bold works that would go on to profoundly influence the development of independent film as we know it today. Made on DIY...

Canadian Institute for Exploratory Cinemas presents this transgressive short film compilation. Conceived by the underground film society Cinema Abattoir, the A Rebours short film anthology convey the spectator side of experimental and avant-garde cinema.

This collection brings together a unique group of avant-garde film works. Tearing apart the barriers between eras, borders and mediums, the viewing experience encompass a total experience of the unstrapped brain of subterranean luminosity and high voltage experimentations.

'Damned If You Don't' is Friedrichs subversive and ecstatic response to her Catholic upbringing. Blending conventional narrative technique with impressionistic camerawork, symbols and voice-overs, this film creates an intimate study of sexual expression and repression. Featuring Peggy Healey as a young nun tormented by her desire for the sultry irresistible Ela Troyano. --Kanopy.

35mm enlarged from 16mm with 2K digital insert from 16mm 1.37:1 black & white sound, 12:27 minutes; production assistance Miriam Arsham, Alexander Hammid; with Chao-li Chi; music a mix of Chinese classical flute and drums recorded in Haiti by Maya Deren; preserved by Bruce Posner and Anthology Film Archives at Cineric, Inc. and Trackwise from camera original, optical negative and composite prints with funding provided by the Women's Film Preservation...

35mm 1.33:1 black & white silent 20fps, 6:40 minutes; production assistance Man Ray, Marc Allégret; new music by Gustavo Matamoros; preserved by Det Danske Filminstitut. Thought provoking and offensive are possible ways to interpret the ten optical discs and corresponding puns displayed in the film. The word play fo French syllogisms gleefully collides with the protruding-receding optical illusions of the rotating spheres. Julien Levy called the...

16mm 1.37:1 black & white sound, 8:26 minutes; courtesy of the filmmaker._- George Landow_

35mm 1.33:1 black & white silent 24fps, 8:53 minutes; new music by Donald Sosin; preserved by Gosfilmofond of Russia. The most fantastic effects were secured in shooting sheer heights ... It was partly the architectural wonder of New York that made the film so stirring, but, really, it was the artist's touch that moved one, the catching of mood, line, color, and feeling in the strange, walled city.-_Marguerite Tazelaar_

35mm 1.33:1 color sound, 7:02 minutes; production assistance John Cage; music_Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2_by Franz Liszt; courtesy Warner Bros.,Turner Entertainment Co. A milestone in object animation, Fischinger manipulated hundreds of paper cutouts hung on invisible wires and shot a frame-at-a-time in close synchronization to Liszt's rhapsody. The dance of shapes resembles a voyage through an imaginary space where "the keen sensation of depth becomes...

16mm 1.37:1 color sound, 6:40 minutes; music _Django_ by John Lewis, played by the Modern Jass Quartet; courtesy of Angeline Pike, Creative Film Society. _Gyromorphosis_ strives to bring into actuality the inherent kinetic qualities seen in the construction-sculpture of Constant Nieuwenhuys of Amsterdam. To realize [sic] this aim I have put into motion, one by one, pieces of this sculpture and, with colored lighting, filmed them in various detail,...