Low-Budget Film Technologies and New York’s Downtown Punk Aesthetic: A Special Presentation by Eric Marciano

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Held on Sat, Feb 3, 2018, 4:15 p.m.

Introduced by the filmmaker

MoMA, Floor T2, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2

Productions still from Narrowcast. 1996. USA. Directed by Eric Marciano. Courtesy the artist

This program explores the unique, transitional era of filmmaking in New York from the 1980s through the late 1990s by looking at the diverse range of technologies used to make low-budget films, and the influence of East Village aesthetics on storytelling and character. Eric Marciano, whose moving-image career spans film, video, and digital formats, describes it as the period “when film married video and had a baby called digital.” The presentation is organized around three works that demonstrate the rapid evolution of moving-image technology: The Age of Insects, a sci-fi horror story (“Timothy Leary meets the Boy Scouts”) shot primarily in Super8 with a Beaulieu 5008 camera, edited and mastered in 3/4 and standard definition video; Spin Cycle, a clash of fantasy and reality in a supernatural East Village laundromat, shot in 16mm with an Arri SR camera with effects done in-camera using double exposures and special mounts; and Narrowcast, a music video satire of HBO and the birth of reality TV shot primarily in 35mm with an Arri camera and edited on an early version of Avid.

The Age of Insects. 1990. USA. Directed by Eric Marciano. Screenplay by Marciano, Andy Rees, Peter Christian Hall. Cinematography by Ignacio Valero. With Jack Ramey, Dallas Monroe, Louis Homyak, Lisa Zane, K. C. Townsend. Score by Art Labriola. Video from Super8mm, 16mm, and 35mm. 75 min.

Spin Cycle. 1986. USA. Directed by Eric Marciano. Cinematography by Frank Linkoff. With Chris Tanner, Nick Wolf, Jacqueline Ramel. Score by Art Labriola. 16mm. 16 min.

Narrowcast. 1996. USA. Directed by Eric Marciano. Cinematography by Frank Linkoff. With Chris Tanner, Mary Lou Wittmer, Gilbert Adams. Score by Art Labriola. 35mm. 20 min.

This film accompanies New York Film and Video: No Wave–Transgressive.

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