Early French avant-garde film explored visual abstraction, lyricism, futurism and surrealism. French filmmakers today reveal their legacy and the influence of American counterparts in the collective practice of “hands-on,” hand-painted and direct manipulation of surface, lyrical personal forms, echoes from French filmic philosophic essay, as well as direct engagement with culture and politics. Others reflect a generation moving easily between European and North African influences, exposing internal conflicts that such meetings imply. This program of recent works includes Patrick Bokanowski’s Éclats d’Orphée, Frédérique Devaux’s K (Rêves/Berbères), Cécile Fontaine’s Holy Woods, Olivier Fouchard’s Nûr: Cosmos Spiritus/Nûr Version 1, Rose Lowder’s Cote Jardin, Vivian Ostrovsky’s Fone Für Follies, Marc Plas’ Peribole, Martine Rousset’s Mer, Marcelle Thirache’s Fenice and Jean Painlevé’s 1978 crystal-growth classic Cristaux Liquides. (Sandra Davis)

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