ICA is closed from the 30 May – 3 June inclusive.
1 - 2 February 2025
A titan of experimental cinema, Michael Snow (1929-2023) produced a body of work that established entirely new ways of seeing.
A painter, sculptor, photographer and musician as well as a filmmaker, Snow used techniques from across the disciplines to challenge conventional cinematic notions of perception and representation. As part of the structural film movement in which form was prioritised over content, he saw framing, sound and duration as tools for reinventing the language of the medium, saying that “to shape time seems to me to be the quintessence of cinema”. Objecting to commercial cinema’s explicit attempts to prompt emotional responses, Snow didn’t try to predict the effect his work would have on audiences. Instead he stressed the bodily effect of viewership, emphasising that his films, while carefully structured, were “real experiences”. Noting that his 1971 work La Région Centrale had caused some viewers to faint, he said “I must be doing something right”. His work's ability to prompt both instinctive and analytical reactions has helped it endure across the decades.
With thanks to Dream of Light, a London-based film project that champions experimental and underseen cinema.
A titan of experimental cinema, Michael Snow (1929-2023) produced a body of work that established entirely new ways of seeing.
A painter, sculptor, photographer and musician as well as a filmmaker, Snow used techniques from across the disciplines to challenge conventional cinematic notions of perception and representation. As part of the structural film movement in which form was prioritised over content, he saw framing, sound and duration as tools for reinventing the language of the medium, saying that “to shape time seems to me to be the quintessence of cinema”. Objecting to commercial cinema’s explicit attempts to prompt emotional responses, Snow didn’t try to predict the effect his work would have on audiences. Instead he stressed the bodily effect of viewership, emphasising that his films, while carefully structured, were “real experiences”. Noting that his 1971 work La Région Centrale had caused some viewers to faint, he said “I must be doing something right”. His work's ability to prompt both instinctive and analytical reactions has helped it endure across the decades.
With thanks to Dream of Light, a London-based film project that champions experimental and underseen cinema.
Programme
Sat 1 February, 4pm
Wavelength + So Is This on 16mm
Michael Snow’s landmark 1967 work Wavelength established his reputation, upended ideas of what a film could be and influenced a generation of filmmakers from Akerman to Antonioni. Screening alongside Snow's playful investigation of how language and image-making act together and against one another.
Sun 2 February, 12.15pm
La Région Centrale on 16mm
In 1970 Snow, his partner Joyce Wieland and two colleagues were flown by helicopter to the wildernesses of northern Quebec and left there for several days. They set up a remote controlled device on a mountaintop to film the surrounding area, and the end result was La Région Centrale, a landscape study free of human life.
Sun 2 February, 3.40pm
Sshtoorrty on 35mm + *Corpus Callosum on 16mm
A double bill of Snow's only foray into narrative cinema, alongside his final feature-length film, a hallucinatory riff on early 21st century existence which incorporates aspects from his entire body of work.
Sat 1 February, 4pm
Wavelength + So Is This on 16mm
Michael Snow’s landmark 1967 work Wavelength established his reputation, upended ideas of what a film could be and influenced a generation of filmmakers from Akerman to Antonioni. Screening alongside Snow's playful investigation of how language and image-making act together and against one another.
Sun 2 February, 12.15pm
La Région Centrale on 16mm
In 1970 Snow, his partner Joyce Wieland and two colleagues were flown by helicopter to the wildernesses of northern Quebec and left there for several days. They set up a remote controlled device on a mountaintop to film the surrounding area, and the end result was La Région Centrale, a landscape study free of human life.
Sun 2 February, 3.40pm
Sshtoorrty on 35mm + *Corpus Callosum on 16mm
A double bill of Snow's only foray into narrative cinema, alongside his final feature-length film, a hallucinatory riff on early 21st century existence which incorporates aspects from his entire body of work.
no. 236848.