Gariné Torossian’s films have often been framed around diaspora, memory, and the search for identity, articulating these themes through found and heavily distressed footage, direct-to-the-film-strip lacerated collage, interruptions of photographic negative, and the reworking of rhythms through an optical printer. Born in Beirut in 1970 to an Armenian family, Torossian moved to Canada in 1979.

Since 2006, Amy Dickson, Jennifer Nightingale and Mary Stark have been creating new links between experimental cinema and textile practices through their individual practice-based research projects. The selection of films and expanded cinema performances that they will show at Close-Up look to generate a dialogue around themes of craft, community, technology and the way different media measure time. Unique processes and artistic networks are central to their shared interests.

Please join us for the inaugural screening and meet-up of the East London Experimental Film Club at Good Shepherd Studios, a new forum for encountering alternative cinema in all of its forms in a friendly and welcoming environment. We are thrilled to be sharing a rare screening Welsh artist Scott Barley's acclaimed debut feature Sleep Has Her House. Through a series of painterly, static shots of the natural world and a haunting soundscape, the film asks you to look at the world--and your place in it--in an entirely new way.

Ben Van Meter among Lawrence Jordan, Robert Nelson and Lenny Lipton is one of the co-founders of notable distributor of Avant Garde Cinema Canyon Cinema Inc. in 1967. Canyon Cinema is located in San Francisco. His work is understated and has often been ignored in the history of experimental cinema. Tonight’s program is a tribute to Ben Van Meter and his contributions to the avant scene of San Francisco during the 60s. Ben passed away in August 2019.