The preservation of small, experimental and avant garde films is as urgent as the restoration of commercial cinema classics. These eight personal and imaginative works showcase the creative ways that artists can change the way we see the world around us.

Special guests include filmmakers Frank and Caroline Mouris, Jeanne Liotta, Bill Morrison, and Lisa Crafts; and archivists/preservationists Pamela Vizner (BB Optics), Heather Linville (Academy Film Archive), Andrew Lampert (Anthology Film Archive), and John Klacsmann (Anthology Film Archive); and violinist Todd Reynolds.

There is a number of filmmakers worldwide who have the distinction of making themselves the emulsion which they then use to shoot. From October 27 to November 2, L'Abominable has invited a few of them to spend a week together in La Courneuve for the "Maddox Seminar", a time together for exchange and experimentation, sharing and transmission.

On this occasion, we propose a session with films by Will Rifer from Mire in Nantes, Robert Schaller from the Handmade Film Institute in Colorado, Lindsay McIntyre from Montréal, Kevin Rice from Process Reversal (Colorado & NY), Esther Urlus from Filmwerkplaats in Rotterdam and a 30-minute 16mm live performance by Alex MacKenzie.

The diversity of thought with cinema. Thus the text as an image, the relations between image and sound, are part of personal films with an autobiographical dimension. Themes such as the contemporary consumer society, advertising, representation of women and neocolonialism are the focus of several sessions. While others show the film in a situation where celluloid and video speak their differences through the film as sculpture. The issue of the media, placing film and video in different sites, ranging from theater to the gallery, will also be addressed in the sessions. The films will be screened with subtitles in Portuguese and those will be available for filmmakers, and / or distributors.