Black Sun Cinema: A Programme of Lithuanian Experimental Film

Pictured at our recent programme of experimental Lithuanian cinema at Triskel Arts Centre, 20th October:

(L-R) Alan Lambert, Vicky Langan, Ambassador of Lithuania Vidmantas Purlys, Max Le Cain, Julius Ziz.

New Black Sun Cinema trailer on Vimeo

Black Sun Cinema from Black Sun Cinema on Vimeo.

Black Sun Cinema is Cork's platform for experimental, underground and far-out cinema.

For details of past and upcoming events: blacksuncork.tumblr.com/

Black Sun Cinema launched at the Triskel, Cork

The Wire - Global Ear - Cork - August 2011

The Wire's Global Ear visits Cork in their August 2011 issue. Daniel Spicer takes a look at the Quiet Club, Strange Attractor, Black Sun (Cork), Wölflinge, SAFE, Vomit Nest, The Guesthouse, National Sculpture Factory, Sonic Vigil and the Crawford Art Gallery.

Bolide visit Cork

Black Sun Cinema: A Day of Experimental Film at Triskel Christchurch

Presented in association with Triskel Christchurch, Black Sun, Cork’s weirdo/outer limits music/film event, is presenting a day of unsettling experimental film, a host of rare cinematic shadows flickering mysteriously at the darker fringes of the mind. On a Sunday afternoon this August (date will be confirmed next week), adventurous souls seeking haven from the harsh summer light will find sanctuary in Triskel’s Christchurch Cinema as three programmes of hauntingly dreamlike avant-garde visions fall through the church’s muffled darkness to take possession of all present:

- American underground legend James Fotopoulos’ feature The Nest (2003) “offers up a bleak and cryptically funny assault on suburban anomie… Fotopoulos creeps around the edges of character and drama, conjuring moods of paranoia and dread that suggest the carefully ordered routines of daily life are a kind of opiate administered by sinister forces. Shooting in harsh 16mm color, Fotopoulos renders The Nest in a typically Spartan, forbidding style that makes it seem as though he is some extraterrestrial visitor photographing humans for the first time.” (Scott Foundas, Variety) Ideal mind-warping viewing for admirers of David Lynch who think they’ve seen everything...

- Frans Zwartjes is arguably Holland’s preeminent experimental filmmaker. His highly stylised, poetically claustrophobic films achieve a unique level of sensual intimacy in their renditions of sexual and domestic tension, and voyeurism. These wordless works draw on performance art but are equally distinguished by their oneiric visuals, disconcerting editing rhythms and hypnotically minimal sound design. Once Zwartjes has caressed the surface of your eyeballs, you will never see cinema in the same way again. Black Sun will present a mini-retrospective of five of his most accomplished short films from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.

 - And three of Ireland’s most uncompromising contemporary experimental filmmakers, Rouzbeh Rashidi, Dean Kavanagh and Black Sun film programmer Maximilian Le Cain, will be on hand to present a series of their more disturbing short films. Strange atmospheres, tense self-portraits, troubled meditations on the ghostly power of cinema itself… Filmmaking at its most eerie and obliquely personal.

 Although best known as an experimental music event, Black Sun is also Cork’s only year-round platform for screening experimental film. For over two years, Black Sun’s film programmes have given Cork an all-too-rare taste of the more far-out side of cinema. It has established an impressive track record of world-class film programming, introducing Irish audiences to the work of several major underground filmmakers for the first time. This is the first of what will become regular Black Sun events devoted exclusively to film.

This Saturday - June 2nd

Black Sun presents John Wiese & guests/screening -Sat March 31st, TDC.

Black Sun returns to the Triskel on Saturday 31st March for a night of powerful intensity. We welcome artist and composer John Wiese (USA), Wölfbait, the Irish premiere of 80’s Serbian underground film 'Personal Discipline' and a performance from First Blood Part II & Wölflinge. Doors 8pm.

John Wiese (www.john-wiese.com) is an artist and composer from Los Angeles, California. He works primarily in recorded and performed sound with a focus on installation and multi-channel diffusions, as well as scoring for large ensembles. His ongoing projects include LHD and Sissy Spacek, but is known for his collaborations with many artists as diverse as Sunn O))), Wolf Eyes, Merzbow, Thurston Moore, Bastard Noise, No Age, Smegma, Kevin Drumm, Cattle Decapitation, and C. Spencer Yeh as well as his work as a solo artist. He has toured extensively throughout the world, covering Europe, Scandinavia and Australia as a member of Sunn O))), the UK as part of the Free Noise tour (a tentet including Evan Parker, C. Spencer Yeh, Yellow Swans, etc.), the United States alongside Wolf Eyes, and recently performed in the 52nd Venice Biennale with artist Nico Vascellari. While releasing albums on a variety of international labels, Wiese often releases work on his own label, Helicopter.

You've no doubt heard the rave reports regarding John's recent album for the great PAN label, Seven Of Wands and know his astounding back catalogue that finds itself filed under noise but isn't done justice by that narrow pigeonhole, with a technique more akin to the scientific precision of the late and legendary Maryanne Amacher, combined with tape collage, bloodyminded humour and a raft of sublime collaborations. Live, there's a deft artistry to John's work that sets him ahead of most others working in his area, his live shows as searing and explosive as they are intricately constructed.

This upcoming Black Sun will be shaken by a piercing cry of defiance swelling up from an astonishing and all-but-unknown zone of film history. Miroslav-Bata Petrović and Julijana Terek’s Personal Discipline (1983), without doubt the rarest film Black Sun has yet presented, is a product of the early ‘80s Serbian underground. Throbbing with punk attitude, it details a private ritual enacted by writer/performer Terek spilling onto the street in an irresistible upsurge of self-assertion in the face of repressive societal indifference. The pounding rhythms of Petrović’s aggressive editing combine with Terek’s beguiling concentration to create an experience liable to leave the viewer gasping for breath... We are delighted to be giving Personal Discipline its Irish premiere!

Also lined up is the debut Cork appearance from Wölfbait. I saw these guys in Dublin back in January and my eyes were rolling in their sockets it was so good. Delivering total UNGH! with perfect vocals.

First Blood Part II & Wölflinge return again for bewildering and raw, intimate action.