Beckman began making films in the mid-1970s using Super-8 sound film. Neither documentaries nor narratives, these works, as Jim Hoberman puts it, are "like primitive cartoons ... enigmatic allegories filled with nervous activity and comic violence, sexual imagery ... perceptual game­ playing and ingenious optical effects."

This first anthology brings together three pieces from 1978-1980: We Imitate; We Break Up (1978); The Broken Rule (1979); and Out of Hand (1980), made after her CalArts studies and featuring many other artists as actors.

From surrealist refractions to punk and dissident factions, the CONTRE-OEIL anthology brings together a unique collection of avant-garde film works. Tearing apart the barriers between eras, borders and mediums, the viewing experience encompass a total experience of the unstrapped brain of subterranean luminosity and high voltage experimentations.

Paul de Nooijer (* 1943) has been making films for 40 years now – an incredible achievement in a field not exactly showered by public interest and funding. His reputation is solidly based on works displaying mostly ‘illusionism’ – the interdependency of film and photography. Since son Menno (*1967) joined in this ‘family business of art’ as a full-fledged partner in 1989, the films became faster and more colourful. But more importantly, the focus of their artistic efforts slightly shifted from just photography and film to a combination with theatre and performance.