Bruce Conner’s 1958 film A MOVIE screening as part of Kompilerade katastrofer: Svenstedt, Jacobs, Conner & Fisher [Compiled Disasters: Svenstedt, Jacobs, Conner & Fisher] at the Svenska Filminstitutet in Stockholm, this Saturday, 10 February 2024.

With A MOVIE, Conner launched a lifelong celebration of moving images alongside his other artistic practices of collage, assemblage, drawing and photography. Comprised of discarded 16mm films purchased at flea markets or scavenged from camera shops, the work has been described by many as the first contemporary “found footage film.” A MOVIE orchestrates a virtual symphony of disasters, car crashes, explosions, war, famine, as well as serene moments of grace—a tightrope act, a plane floating through clouds, light reflected on water. Although seemingly random in its sequence of imagery, the film abstractly yet deftly moves the viewer through a wide range of human experience and emotion. With Respighi’s ‘Pines of Rome’ as the soundtrack, Conner established a visual poetry that combines music and image. He would refine this marriage of sight and sound over the next several decades in other films and lay the groundwork for the music video we know today.

Kompilerade katastrofer: Svenstedt, Jacobs, Conner & Fisher
Saturday 10 February 2024, 6pm

Filmhuset
Borgvägen 1 and 3
Stockholm