Bringing the work of master collagist Lewis Klahr to New Zealand for the first time, this new collection of short films offers a terrific introduction to his eye-zapping assemblages of 60s pop culture ephemera.
A pulp serial that shimmers with potent emotions and fragmented memories.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2016
Sixty Six 2015
This dazzling compilation of 12 short films from American avant-gardist Lewis Klahr, 14 years in the making, uses stop-motion collage to refashion pop culture from the 60s into elliptical tales of sunshine noir and classic Greek mythology.
“Set at the intersection of mass culture and myth, right at the hazardous corner of desire and dread, Sixty Six offers a dizzying display of largely found images and sounds – culled from old comics, ads, magazine layouts, songs and noises – that together form a kind of cinematic archaeology of the American unconscious… Sixty Six is one of the finest cinematic achievements of the year and a terrific introduction to Mr Klahr’s work… At once accessible and ambiguous, his work draws deeply from the collective narrative storehouse – from the myths of ancient Greece to those created by MGM and DC Comics – which he merges with images of midcentury modern interiors, poignantly generic women and bland men who, with their corrugated brows and clenched fists, struggle with villainy and masculinity both…
A few of the sections in Sixty Six share imagery and a character from one may show up in another, but each discrete part also has its own integrity, pulse, associations and configurations. The sections work equally well individually; taken together, though, they form a strange and beautiful, quietly powerful and affecting exploration of the pop cultural world that we make and share… There’s a great deal of heart in this work and not a trace of condescension; Mr Klahr knows that in the end we are in this dream together.” — Manohla Dargis, NY Times