Taiwanese experimental film collective ReaRflex presents work from members Johan Chang, Erica Sheu, and Tzuan Wu. This selection of films is tender diaries, and alternative world-building inspired by transitions, reflections from everyday life, and familial anecdotes. These films involve hand-made experiments with super 8, 16mm film, from hand processing, to direct filmmaking (sticking, drawing, and scratching directly on film.) and in-camera editing techniques.
After the screening, there will be a workshop on direct filmmaking on 16mm. Participants are encouraged to learn more about 16mm film with hands-on experience.
In addition, Keitaro Oshima, who has been creating cutting-edge film works in Sapporo for many years by reusing found footage and using experimental methods, will come as a special guest and screen his work!
Open 18:30
Start 19:00
End 21:00
reserve 2,000JPY
at the door 2,500JPY
incl. 1 drink
後照鏡 ReaRflex is a Taiwanese experimental filmmaker collective focusing on artist-self-organized micro-cinema events in Taipei since 2021.
Making Kin(o) Manifestation:
https://rearflexpfilm.cargo.site/manifesto
Tzu-An Wu
Tzu-An Wu works between experimental cinema and its expansions. his works present as screening, exhibition, and performance. He holds an MA in Media Studies from The New School, New York, and a BA in Gender and Cultural Studies from NTHU, Taiwan. His works have been shown internationally, including BFI Flare (London), IFFR (Netherland), XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin,Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Golden Horse film festival, etc. Awarded the Jury Prize at the Festival of Different and Experimental Cinema in Paris and Taipei fine art award. Exhibitions include Taiwan Biennial, Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, etc. He also does programming of experimental cinema. Previously,he presents two aspects of experimental cinema under the collectives "Bak-Nih Audiovisual Lab Ltd." and "ЯeaRflex.” Based in Taiwan and reach out to the world, held over 50 screenings and counting.
Erica Sheu
Moved to New York in 2016[q] and worked with cinematic art organization MONO NO AWARE. Makes short films, expanded cinema and installation with celluloid film. Her work is tactile, abstract, and poignant expression in poetic filmmaking. Often about diary film, handmade film, screen and projections, cross-generational memories, Taiwanese identity politics.[Her experimental short films have been shown at NYFF Currents,TIFF Wavelengths, IFFR Bright Future, EXiS,TIDF, and Taiwan Biennial in 2018. Sheu holds an MFA in Film/Video from CalArts.She works and lives in Los Angeles.
Johan Chang
Born 1990 in Tainan, Taiwan. She also works as a coordinator for the Taiwan Documentary Film Festival and the Taiwan Film and Audivisual Institute. Currently she also does programming of independent experimental cinema collective
“Ground Level Cinema at Taiwan venue and plays a central role in the organization. She started to make her personal projects in 2019 at Image Forum’s courses in Tokyo, Japan. Her work explores the expression of moving images to address memory, image-making, hand-made process, and diary films. Her works have been shown at the EXiS Film Festival,Taiwan International Women's Film Festival, Kaohsiung Film Festival, Image Forum Festival, among others. Awarded the Best New Filmmaker award in South Taiwan Film Festival. In 2023, she held a exhibition, “Jouhatsu Letters” at Shinjuku Ganka Gallery in Tokyo.
Special guest Keitaro Oshima
Graduated from the Graduate School of Hokkaido University of Education in 2004. In 2012, served as a Special Research Fellow at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Currently based in Sapporo, the artist focuses on producing films and conducting research under the theme of "Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Moving Image Structures." In recent years, they have been exploring contemporary developments in found footage while using visual materials such as old photographs and postcards as source material. Additionally, they organize film screenings and lead workshops centered on primitive filmmaking techniques. Their works have been screened and exhibited at various international venues, including the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Moscow International Experimental Film Festival, Dresden International Short Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival, Image Forum Festival, Tomakomai City Museum of Art, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art. The films are part of the collection at Light Cone. Currently, He is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Hokkaido Information University.
Program notes (Runtime: 35 min)
“The Sentimentalists” - re/visit 濫情者 再/訪
handmade films from ReaRflex
1.
Birthday Song by Erica SHEU
2021 | 3 min | color | silent | 16mm projection
I wanted to make a film for my birthday / I wrote down as many notes as I could / until I couldn't keep up / I started to film but nothing interested me / I decided to print and cut my journal / and thought of Interior Scroll / I pulled a long strip out / and used it as a bookmark
2.
Fur Film Vol.1: I don’t own a cat by Erica SHEU & Tzuan WU
2021 | 7 min | color + b&w | super 8, 16mm | sound | digital projection
The cat I don't own runs through windows between different spaces and times, and it disappears before finishing a sentence.
Using outtakes and rushes (what "fur film" means in Mandarin) to redeem the affects in these images we produced for. The film is the first volume of an ongoing exchange diary project between Erica SHEU and Tzuan WU. From the filming exercises and hand processing from the very beginning, we collaborate and experiment with different workflows of audio and visual between Taiwan and USA.
3.
Flight and Frame 1/5400コマの独歩 by Johan CHANG
2022 | 10 min | color + b/w | super 8, 16mm, digital video | sound | digital projection
An 8mm & 16mm film experiment made during the year of Covid-19 around the time I moved back to Taiwan from Japan. I shot 8mm footage during the state of emergency in Japan and just after moving back to Taiwan. I then spent several months cutting and pasting each 8mm frame onto 16mm film. Sometimes the daily fragments were too sentimental, but the film gave me shelter.
4.
It follows It passes on by Erica SHEU
2023 | 6 min | color + b/w | silent | 16mm projection
Incense yielded a little light and led the way to hide from bomb. Broken dishes time travel.
Imaginations of a post-war island, Kinmen, from familial anecdotes. Tracing the roots of cross-generational sentiments behind the glare of glasses, the display of a self-made museum. Lights reveal and conceal the stories.
5.
Siren's Lullaby by Tzuan WU
2023 | 3 min | b/w | sound (digital) | 16mm projection
The Mermaid exchanged her songs for walking on land. Perhaps, the sound of infants who have not yet learned a language, are like the foam that has not yet floated to the surface of sea. Imagine that this world, which we cannot sense, may eventually turn into a bubble. This film is a repeated exposure experiment of a roll of 16mm film, combining digital and analog image, and using predetermined graphics to structure the synchronization of the sound and image.
6.
The Silence of Sirens by Tzuan WU
2023 | 6 min | color | sound | digital projection
The Silence of Sirens, in a Kafkaian way, might transit a sound underwater.
A certain embryology of imagery:
Sirens sing behind an obvious screen while the city sinks.
Beneath of the sparkling waves. below the obscure light,
an enormous clam breathing out bubbles, bubble burst out mirages, and mermaids turn into foam.
Then the world gets darker and darker, rotating in a sphere.
Special guest screening / Keitaro Oshima
Debris
HD/color/sound/11;26/2018
Film fragments severed from the main reel due to a projection accident. These torn frames are unprojectable in their original state. However, I extracted both the images and physical damage from the accumulation of these fragments, reconstructing them into a new film. This work is an experiment that questions whether the remnants of film and photographs will decay as waste or can once again become elements of visual expression.