Retrospective of Vivian Ostrovsky: Program 3

Losing The Tread 

Director: Vivian Ostrovsky
USA, 2014, 8', HDD, color
English with Turkish subtitles 

Super 8 reels of Paris catwalks I shot in 1979/1980 were supposed to become an experimental short meditation on couture culture. Its authority has unraveled some since and Deleuze’s definition of style: “creating a foreign language in one’s own language,” encouraged me to loosen the threads of this pursuit. To ponder how fashion and style are interwoven but also influenced by individual flare and whimsy, I stitched together Coco Chanel, Courrèges, Cole Porter and Kaiser Karl with vintage film moments. Then, as now, to grasp the whole cloth of this interface involves finding, but also Losing the Thread…

But Elsewhere Is Always Better

Director: Vivian Ostrovsky
USA, 2016, 5', HDD, color
English with Turkish subtitles

A new short film by Vivian Ostrovsky remembering Chantal Akerman, beginning withtheir first meeting in the early 1970s. Using her own footage of Chantal Akerman, thefilmmaker remembers a few moments that illustrate Chantal’s personality. Forty yearsof friendship condensed into four minutes… 

Wherever Was Never There

Director: Vivian Ostrovsky
USA, 2011, 6', HDD, color
English with Turkish subtitles 

An intimate film made on the occasion of the 30th anniversary  of my father, Rehor Ostrovsky’s death.Re-collecting snippets of my first 8m and super 8 films, old photos, letters, and other memorabilia.A slow pan through my adolescent years, family trips, holidays and everyday scènes.Listening for lost accents, impromptu songs at the dinner table, and bits of conversation.A landscape of flickering memories somewhere between home movies and photo albums. - Vivian Ostrovsky

SON CHANT

Director: Vivian Ostrovsky
USA, 2020, 12', HDD, B&W
English with Turkish subtitles

Going through my mini DVs shot over the past decade, I rediscovered a forgotten night sequence of Chantal Akerman and Sonia Wieder-Atherton leaving a brasserie where we had dined together in Montparnasse. The excerpt stayed with me for a while.This prompted me to focus on Chantal’s sound work in her films and her very close collaboration with cellist, Sonia Wieder-Atherton with whom she made more than 20 films.And, since New York, Paris and Moscow were places the three of us had in common, I intertwined some of my images with hers. - Vivian Ostrovsky

THE TITLE WAS SHOT 

Director: Vivian Ostrovsky
USA, 2009, 9', HDD, B&W
English with Turkish subtitles 

The Title Was Shot was commissioned for a conference of film theoreticians in Berlin in 2009 entitled: The Cinematic Configurations of ‘I’ and ‘We’. Composed of fragments from over 25 films dating from the 1920s to the 90s, this mischievous short features cowboys, Indians and damsels in distress.

Tarzan, Jane, a transgender gorilla, and a menacing lion tango from frame to frame, prodded by Wittgenstein, Gilles Deleuze and Slavoj Zizek’s philosophical considerations. A fast-paced, heart-pounding cinephilic farce. 

CORrespondência e REcorDAÇÕES

Director: Vivian Ostrovsky
USA, 2013, 11', HDD, B&W
English with Turkish subtitles

Based on a correspondence between Brazilian artist Ione Saldanha and the filmmaker, this portrait was made for an exhibition at the MAM (Museum of Modern Art) in Rio de Janeiro.Ione Saldanha (1919-2001) was a contemporary of Lygia Clark, Sonia Delaunay, and Vieira da Silva, all of who were her friends. She abandoned painting on canvas for more sculptural supports like batten and bamboos which she shaped with color. Matisse was constantly present in her mind and work for inspiration.This vignette was meant to give an idea of the artist as a person and of her work.