CARACAS FESTIVAL:
feat ures of today' s sou nd -on-fi lm cameras. espec iall y s uch recent advances as e lectronic sound and picture fa des. Another of his film s compared t he quality of variou s S uper-8 print stoc ks. A test film printed by Kodak on Kodac hrome stock fared well in com parison to print s made on E kt ac hrome a nd G evachro me print stock by two different labs.
OFSUPER-8
Mikolas s tressed t hat the futu re of Super-S li es in its strengths as a doc um e ntary me dium. "With s ingle system nearly foo lproor. cameras s ma ll a nd unobtrus ive and fi lm inexpen sive. Super-8 is a system ideal fo r perso na l documentary fi lmmaking." Super-8 films can' t com pe te wit h Ho llywood o r TV. he be lie ves . e ven though man y fi lmma ke rs sti ll purs ue sta ndard ca tegories of filmmaking. Many wou ld probab ly di sagree w ith Ma rk: mos t of the film s a t the Caracas fe stival were dramatic rat her th an doc umentary subje ct s.
THE CANNES
BRUCE ANDERSON
It was Bast ill e Oay- Venezuelan style. Th rongs of young film en
thus ias ts lite rally stormed the gales o fl he C in emateca Nuc iooa] in Caracas, August 13-21.10 view two nightl y sc reenings ofSu pcr-B
film s. The A vam Garde Interna t ional Fi lm Fes tiva l Supc r-H is so popu lar in V enezuela that many who showed up at the theater
neve r gal a seat. Wh ile fe sti va l en tries were n' t al ways "avantgarde:' they were ce rtainly int e rn at ional. Films came from as far away as the Sovie t U nion and Au stra lia. with the major portion from South and North America . Mo st of the fi lm s we re homegrown. and partisan fans wearing T -sh irts emblazoned with the lil ies o f Venezue lan product ion s applau ded an d chee red th e works of th ei r feHo w filmmaker s.
Another hig hlight o f the fe stival was a pres en ta tion by Arnold Schiema n ofthe Nat ional Film Board of Canada. ex plai ning his process for e lec tronicall y blowing up t he Super-8 image 10 l6mm. 35mm and eve n 70mm. The re sult seem s to prod uce a s harper image with beller color rendition than ca n be achieved by conventional ., Filmcraft·· co lumni st and aut hor blow-up method s. Wi th Mr. Schiema n· s me thod, a Super-8 of Tile SlIper-8 B ook. and Mark Mikolas . <luthorof.,.IIl' H amJbook image is translated into an e lec tronic s ignal. T his s ignal is the n The grand impresario and OfSIIIJl'r-8 ProdllcTiol1. Lenn y used to reprod uce a fi lm image on. originator of the Caracas festival is came to Ca racas laden with pairs say. 35mm stock. Some image Julio Neri, a young Venezue lan of polari zed glasses and ca n isters fi lmmaker who se film Erase //lUI of his late st experiments in th ree q uality is invariab ly lost in the process . but the blow-up to 35mm V l ' ':: ('11 V (,1I(, <:IIe{tI (Once U pon a dimen s ional fi lm ma king. One sc ree ned a t the Ci ne mateca was prick ly fe a ture of hi s talk o n how Time in Venezue la) premiered o n to make stereoscopic movies was a astoni shing ly good. th e o pening night. Forobv ious 3- D film of cactu s b lo sso ms. which reasons. it was not part of the Wh at drew the capac it y crowds to included what Le nny proud ly compet ition . S haring the vas t the seco nd A va nt Garde Interna proclaimed is the firs t stereoscopic amou nt of work that went into tional Fil m Fes ti va l S uper-8 we re organ izing the festival was zoom s hot. Lenn y explained the the film s themselves . While not in o perat ion of hi s stereocamera a nd J ulio·s wife, Mercedes. Both the festi va l, J ulio N e ri's 90-m inute hi s 3-D projection sys tem. (See J ulio and Mercede s de serve a lot o pus dese rves a mention. U s ing a page 30 this iss ue for his article o n ofc red it fo r the success of this ble nd of live act io n, a nimation a nd ·' HowTo Make Your Own 3- D fe s ti val. a nd the s mooth way in montage. Erase 1111(1 Vez ell Vell w hich it was run. There were imag Movie s . ") Although a box ofJ-O a .lIda took a highl y personal look inative touches like the gra phics of glasses was lost in the unfathom at the history of Venezuela from able workings o f Vias a Airline s . this year' s progra m, des ig ned in Bolivar's overt hrow ofthe there were e nough glasses 10 ac the s ha pe ofa Super-8 cartridge. S pa nis h to the prese nt. A s pages of commodate se ve ral grou ps o f en In add ition to the publ ic sc ree ning a his tory book turned in imitation thusiastic viewers. of so me 34 films. the fe sti va l fea of early Ho ll ywood c lassics, the tured se vera l spec ial pre sen tatio ns Mark Mik olas gave a state-of fi lm dra matize d the ex ploits ofa by luminaries in the Super-8 worl d the-art tal k on Super-8 and s howed series of Ve nezuelan leaders s uch as Lenny Lipton. o ur two film s illu strating so ph is ticated most of w hom purs ued their own
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SUPER·S FILMAXER