OFFoff presents a unique double bill dedicated to the work of American filmmakers and life partners Will Hindle and Michele ‘Shellie’ Fleming. On two consecutive evenings, we will screen seven 16mm films by Hindle and four 16mm films by Fleming. This marks the first time the work of these two pioneering filmmakers is presented together.
The story of Will Hindle and Shellie Fleming as life partners and creative collaborators unfolds in several stages and begins when Fleming, at a young age, sees Hindle’s Chinese Firedrill (1968), a central work in his oeuvre. The film won first prize at the renowned Ann Arbor Film Festival, an accolade that lifted Hindle out of the obscurity of a small circle of filmmaker friends and established him as a prominent figure in the “personal film” movement in the United States. Fleming hated the film, but couldn’t get the images out of her head: “I dreamed these images… I thought about them out of nowhere. Why had I been split open by the ‘honesty’ of the darkness rendered on the screen?” Fleming went on to study under Hindle at the University of South Florida. They later became life partners, but their time together was cut short. In 1987, Hindle died unexpectedly at the age of 57.
Program 1 - May 4th, 20h: Will Hindle
The first evening of this two-part series focuses on the work of Will Hindle. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1929, he studied English at Stanford University before moving to Casablanca for two years to edit an English-language newspaper. Back in the United States, he worked as a ghostwriter for several authors in California while creating his own drawings, paintings and sculptures. He also briefly served as the youngest member of Disney’s animation team. From 1958 onwards, he became drawn to film as a way to combine his artistic and literary practices. He went on to make eleven films, seven of which are screening this evening – the first presentation of this scale in Europa.
- Pastorale D’Ete (US, 1958, 9', colour, 16mm)
- FFFTCM (US, 1967, 5', colour, 16mm)
- Billabong (US, 1969, 9', colour, 16mm)
- Watersmith (US, 1969, 32', colour, 16mm)
- Later That Same Night (US, 1976, 22', colour, 16mm)
- Pasteur³ (US, 1976, 22', colour, 16mm)
- Trekkerriff (US, 1987, 9', colour, 16mm)
Program 2 - May 5th, 20h: Shellie Fleming
Shellie Fleming was a filmmaker and artist whose work spanned a wide range of forms: films, installations, street art, books and photography. Much of her work had an ephemeral and time-bound character, leaving only remnants today. For Fleming, her life was her art, and the physical objects she created were not always intended to be preserved or, by extension, shared with a wider audience.
“The fact is I have worked every day as an artist for many, many years. Most of the ‘material’ work I created has never been seen. That wasn’t the point in my making it. My insistence on living creatively was because it gave me access to a creative flow or ‘zone’. It gave me peace.”
Fleming made more than four films in her lifetime, but chose to allow only the four in the current program to be distributed after her death in December 2012. For Fleming, her life’s work was her teaching. She was one of the most beloved and inspiring teachers of an entire generation of filmmakers, including David Gatten, Amie Siegel, Jodie Mack, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Lee Jang-wook and Lawrence Brose, all of whom studied under Fleming and cite her as an important mentor and formative influence.
- Left Handed Memories (US, 1989, 15', colour, 16mm)
- Private Property (Public Domain) (US, 1991, 12', colour, 16mm)
- Devotio Moderna (US, 1993, 10', colour, 16mm)
- Life/Expectancy (US, 1999, 30', b&w, 16mm)
Film prints courtesy of the Academy Film Archive
In collaboration with Courtisane