ABOUT JOHN: Upcoming Shows - New Films - 300 Films Since 1968 - "Top 25" - Biography
John's new super 8 performance - burning film live in the projector!
Beauty: Film, Death.
Beauty: Film, Death. (John Porter, 2006, super 8, variable length, film performance)
John burns every frame of a specially-made film,
live in the projector gate using the heat of the lamp, while the audience
watches the burning images projected on the screen. He
controls the burns for dramatic effect and surprise visual effects,
by over-riding the projector lamp heat-shield with a hand-made device,
and hand-cranking the film advance.
It's scary, but beautiful. Each performance is unique
and a new film rises like the phoenix from the firey death of the old
film. And it can be done only with film, not with video.
This first version was commissioned, along with
24 other artists' films, videos,
installations and performances, by film production co-op the Liaison
of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT)
for its 25th ("silver") anniversary celebration -
Film
is Dead. Long Live Film! (Nov. 22 - Dec. 20, 2006),
which was a series of events and exhibits dealing with the false
forecasts of film's death.
Film is Dead. Long Live Film! was inspired
by the article Video
2005: Three texts on video by Tom Sherman
on the cover of Canadian Art Magazine (Spring,
2005).
Tom
Sherman, celebrated veteran video artist, teacher and
advocate, wrote "Fuck film. The dead ideas of film
are being heaped onto video. Cinematic history is like a ball and chain.".
This provoked Roberto
Ariganello - film artist, passionate advocate of film,
and
LIFT's long-serving Executive Director - to call for proposals
for "25 film manifestos for the rebirth of film as an
art form".
Paradoxically, after securing all of the funding for the
immense project, Roberto drowned while swimming, in Halifax,
Nova Scotia after driving half-way across Canada to deliver a
big, old, 16mm, flat-bed film editing table to the needy Atlantic
Filmmakers Co-op
(the "eastern front"). LIFT's shaken staff, board
and Film is Dead. Long Live Film! artists (chosen by Roberto),
all struggled and rallied to complete the project in his memory,
but without his unique and founding vision and guidance.
In John's first version of Beauty: Film, Death. he talks about Film is Dead. Long Live Film! while burning images of beauty including Toronto film landmarks, members of LIFT's staff and board, the Film is Dead. Long Live Film! artists (himself included), Tom Sherman and Roberto Ariganello. It's an illustrated history of Film is Dead. Long Live Film!.
Beauty: Film, Death. premiered November 29, 2006
at an after-party at The Supermarket, Toronto, in the series
Film is Dead. Long Live Film!
(November 22 - December 20, 2006)
Premieres of 25 commissioned films, videos, performances and installations
presented by the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto LIFT
in celebration of its 25th ("silver") anniversary.
John's Upcoming Shows - New Films - 300 Films - "Top 25" - 70 Solo Shows - Biography
