Out of Focus emerged from the initiative of Kilkenny-based artists Juana Robles and Michael Higgins, aiming to showcase alternative cinema works often overlooked by conventional cinemas and mainstream avenues. This initiative strives to create a platform for artists, providing them with the opportunity to exhibit their work in a large, professional cinema setting.
The first series of screenings will take place on three Wednesdays this September at the Watergate Theatre in Kilkenny, each starting at 7:30 PM. During these screenings, Out of Focus will present a collection of works by Irish or Ireland-based artists producing experimental, innovative, and unconventional films and videos that blur the line between visual art and cinema.
Each screening will focus on a specific theme, showcasing both old and new productions, including short and feature films. Following each screening, there will be moderated discussions with the filmmakers in attendance, offering a unique insight into their creative processes.
Wed 4 Sep 2024
7.30pm
# 1 Youth Lens
'Youth Lens' showcases the innovative spirit of young people’s filmmaking that celebrates the transformative potential of filmmaking as a platform for self-expression, creativity, storytelling and community connection.
Films:
'Smiley Wiley' by 4th class students from Askeaton Senior National School and
'SMOLT' by Michael Higgins
Duration - 75mins
There will be a post screening moderated Q&A with filmmakers.
Book tickets
Smiley Wiley
Smolt by Michael Higgins
Smiley Wiley emerges from the creative collaboration of young talents at Askeaton National School, Co. Limerick under the guidance of Michael Higgins and Juana Robles in association with Askeaton Contemporary Arts. Created on 16mm film, this project allowed children to directly interact with the medium, scratching, painting, and drawing patterns onto its surface. The resulting film is a captivating exploration of mood and atmosphere, demonstrating the power of community engagement in shaping cinematic art.
16mm-2K DCP, 10mins, 2022
Twisting from cinema vérité to improvisation to pre-scripted lines SMOLT offers an intimate visceral slice-of-life of two kids in their concrete playground that is Dublin City. Conceived in the style of a bootleg VHS, the film captures the underground hustle where the boys encounter unexpected challenges involving counterfeit football jerseys, girls, guns, and drugs. Director Michael Higgins' experimental approach blurs the line between observer and participant, delivering an authentic portrayal of youthful urban exploration.
Multi-formats-2K DCP, 65mins, 2013
Wed 11 Sep 2024
7.30pm
# 2 I See a Darkness
Duration - 135mins
There will be a post screening moderated Q&A by Daniel Fitzpatrick (aemi) with filmmakers Katherine Waugh and Fergus Daly.
I See a Darkness
by Katherine Waugh and Fergus Daly
I See a Darkness is a film essay probing the complex historical relationship between photography, cinema and science. The film builds on Katherine Waugh and Fergus Daly’s previous films which have screened internationally, drawing on material often overlooked or hidden: shadow archives, neglected cultural narratives in film, art and literature, disappeared or challenging areas of knowledge.
Shot in Paris, Death Valley, MIT and the Nevada nuclear test site, the film explores how new technologies of vision were from the outset aggressively instrumentalised by the military-industrial complex for its own ends. A mapping of the often contentious fusion of artistic and technological representational models of our world emerges, pivoting on three iconic figures whose lives and work intersected in compelling ways: Irish-born chrono-photographer Lucien Bull, Harold E. Edgerton (MIT Professor and Atomic test photographer), and oceanographer and conservationist Jacques Cousteau.
I See A Darkness ultimately questions what was disappeared in the ‘progressive’ narrative of image-capture technologies, especially considerations of the non-human and animal, and gestures towards what Jean-Christophe Bailly reminds us of when he writes: “the world in which we live is gazed upon by other beings, that the visible is shared among creatures, and that a politics should be invented on this basis, if it is not too late.
DCP, 135mins, 2023
Wed 25 Sep 2024
7.30pm
# 3 Drifting scapes
Utilising satellite imagery, Super 8, 16mm, digital and structural filmmaking, these experimental films explore the interconnectedness of nature, memory, environmental changes and human impact through innovative visual and storytelling techniques using water as the main element.
Films:
Man of Aral by Helena Gouveia Monteiro
Passage Migrants by Aoife Desmond
Mountain-Field, Field-Mountain by Anja Mahler
Estrangement by Sandra Johnston
Curraghinalt by Emily McFarland
FL. oz by Julie Murray
Duration - 112mins
There will be a post screening moderated Q&A with filmmakers.
Man of Aral by Helena Gouveia Monteiro
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Man of Aral by Helena Gouveia Monteiro presents an experimental narrative crafted from satellite imagery of the shrinking Sea of Aral in Central Asia, showcasing the profound geological and human changes to the region. This film combines digital time-lapse sequences with hand-manipulated 16mm film, accompanied by a soundtrack by Nicolas Clair.
16mm, 6mins, 2023
Mountain-Field, Field-Mountain by Anja Mahler
Mountain-Field, Field-Mountain by Anja Mahler experiments with structural filmmaking techniques, incorporating feedback systems and unique frame sequencing inspired by Marshall McLuhan's concept of nonlinear history.
DCP, 20mins, 2020
Curraghinalt by Emily McFarland
Curraghinalt by Emily McFarland is the first in a three-part video series exploring the changing ecology of the Sperrin Mountains in West Tyrone, North of Ireland. This single-channel video weaves documentary forms, dislocated sound, and testimonies from the Greencastle Peoples Office, a small rural community resisting Dalradian Gold Limited's mining plans. The film captures conversations from day 387 of the community's occupation, addressing themes of solidarity, political representation, and the legacies of historical colonialism.
DCP, 26mins, 2019
Passage Migrants by Aoife Desmond
In Passage Migrants by Aoife Desmond, the Poolbeg Peninsula in Dublin Bay becomes the canvas for a poetic exploration of transitory landscapes and personal narratives. Utilising Super 8 film and immersive sound design, the film captures the essence of movement and ephemeral nature within the physical environment.
Super 8mm-DCP, 30mins, 2020
Estrangement by Sandra Johnston
Estrangement explores the ambivalent emotions that are sensed in the gap between enchantment and alienation in moments of raw encountering within nature. It acts as a meditation on the hypnotic qualities of light, shadow and reflection as embodied experiences, also extending outwards as an experiment into the materiality of light as a filmic phenomenon that exists upon the limits of photographic technologies.
The process of making this film involved successive daily performative actions in the Borders region of Scotland improvising alternately and collaboratively with artist Alastair MacLennan, and with filmmaker Richard Ashrowan and family members Bridie and Lily Ashrowan. What emerged was a subtle experiential approach to working within a specific landscape, and the sense of becoming increasingly attuned to both the wild and domestic creatures living there.
DCP, 24mins, 2023
FL. oz by Julie Murray
FL. oz by Julie Murray explores Niagara Falls and an Atlantic City motel pool, juxtaposing these contrasting landscapes to evoke themes of scale and visual contrast.
16mm-DCP, 6mins, 2003