Mardi 15-04-08
Samedi, le cycle de projection de mes films a recommencé, cette au centre du festival, dans les salles du centre Abasto. J’étais assez impressionné, la salle était pleine (200 personnes ?) pour voir mes films abstraits des années 60, un public de jeunes complètement attentifs. La moitié sont restés pour poser des questions et une fois encore c’était passionnant et ça aurait pu continuer longtemps. Cela s’est poursuivi et hier je commençais à être un peu épuisé de m’entendre parler de mes films. Heureusement, les auditeurs ne semblaient pas être lassés. Aujourd’hui, il y a relâche, c’est la journée de la performance.
Fourth day in Buenos Aires
Bob finally got a plane ticket. He will arrive Monday morning after 24 hours of travelling. It is completely crazy but it seems that there is no other way (San Francisco ‘ Miami, a 6 hours wait then Miami-Buenos Aires). All day yesterday, I tried to get use to the idea that I would be doing Special Forces alone. I only got the information late last night and I was really relieved.
Yesterday, I had two programs to present, always at the MALBA Museum. It is a bit far away from the centerof the festival and it certainly puts a limit to the size of the aufiences. But there is a ittle group of faithfull who are always there. That makes the whole thing really enjoyable. From Saturday, all the screening will start again at the central theaters of the festival. I resent a little bit not having time to see films.
troisième jour à Buenos Aires
Mauvaise nouvelle : en rentrant hier soir j’ai trouvé un mail de Bob. Son vol d’aujourd’hui sur American Airlines a été annulé hier comme 1900 autres vols de A.A. pour raison de non respect des normes de sécurité. C’est la panique dans les aéroports américains. Pour l’instant il n’a plus de billet d’avion pour venir à Buenos Aires. Il y a deux semaines c’était Delta. Le système aérien américain semble au bord de l’effondrement. J’ai l’impression que c’est le cauchemard des passeports (voir Beyrouth, 26/03/07) qui recommence. Je me prépare à l’idée de faire la pefrormance en solo avec une musique téléchargée. Mais les choses n’en sont pas encore là.
First day in Buenos Aires
10 rather difficult hours of flight between Washington DC and Buenos Aires. After 5 hours, my back was really hurting and nothing I could do … Read More
On the way to Buenos Aires
I write from the Dulles Airport in Washington D.C.. I am heading rowards Buenos Aires. I have five hours to kill here before boarding for … Read More
Back from New York
I came back from New York last night. Bob and I performed “Special Forces” at Roulette, Thursday evening. A presentation of Harvestworks Inside. It worked really well, it was by far the best performance of Special Forces up to now. I was particularly touched to perform at Roulette, it is a sort of mythic place for me where I had never been but I had heard a lot about it. It was quite an important week. Harvestworks has lented us a space so that we can rehearse for two days.
Herqueville, a documentary?
JI had real problems writing this blog in English as I first decided to do. It was becomming an obstacle to the continuation of the blog. So, from now on, I will write in French and, when possible, I will add a more or less complete English translation.
This week I had quite a surprise looking up the Rendez vous du cinéma québécois site to check the programming of my film Herqueville. I first look in the “Art and experimentation” section where I believe it was originally submitted and could not find it. I finally found it in the “documentary” section.
the performance day
15H:30, October 17, it is today that the DVD set of my films is going to be launched. Coktail at 17H:00 and performance with Robert Marcel Lepage and René Lussier at 20H:00.
The beginning of the day was difficult. I arrived at La Société des arts technologiques at 10H:30 thinking that we were going to have all afternoon to quietly do a complete rehearsal of the piece and I found out that something else had been booked in the afternoon and that we were going to free the space at 13H:00. And Robert was to arrive just at 13H:00. so this meant no complete sound check before tonight after 18H:00 and no rehearsal.
Herqueville completed
I have not been writing in this blog for a long time but a lot have been happening over the last month and a half or so.
The main thing is that Herqueville is finished. I got the HD and Betacam transfers on tuesday this week. I must say it was a happy ending. The work with Claude Beaugrand on the sound was intense like all the previous time we worked together (La Plante humaine, the 50th anniversary clip for the Montreal Art Council). I think I mentioned it, but Claude had to face a situation similar to what I myself experienced when I started working on the animation. His judgment was that Fred Frith’s music was totally doing the job and that he could not see what he could add to it. The music track seemed enough.
Sound editing of Herqueville – 1
Last Monday, I went to Claude Beaugrand’s studio in Bedford to listen to what he had been doing during the week after our first meeting. Editing sound over the noise music of Fred Frith was quite a challenge. Dramatically, Fred’s music was absolutely doing the job. Actually, in the first place, the film was constructed according to the music so it was no surprise that there was a very strong organic connection between the music and the images and that it seemed that maybe nothing else was needed.