|
Friends,
Thank you for another amazing year at AgX! As we near the end of 2017, we are grateful for all we've learned, shared, and built together, with your support.
The AgX Film Collective is the only non-profit, artist-run film lab in New England - and it's also a passionate and inspiring group of local artists in film and video who make up our membership. We value openness and experimentation, and we regularly use the AgX space to share resources and equipment, to make work, and to teach one another and the public about the unique qualities and enduring rewards of working with photochemical film.
We're very excited to share that the Boston Society of Film Critics has just awarded AgX a special commendation for "creating a space dedicated to fostering skill-building and interest in photochemical-based moving images through workshops, events and collaborative experimentation." We are honored to receive this recognition for our collective work, and look forward to continuing to foster this community in support of our mission in 2018. Read on for more on what we did in 2017!
We believe that art and community arts organizations like AgX are crucial for encouraging critical thought and lifting spirits in these uncertain times. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us continue to nurture this collaborative space for film and filmmaking in Boston.
Yours,
AgX
|
|
| We shared our love and knowledge of filmmaking |
|
 |
| Workshop participants at this year's public Film Foraging workshop, offered in collaboration with the Waltham Land Trust. |
|
| In 2017, AgX organized workshops on 16mm and Super 8 production basics, black-and-white hand-processing, cameraless filmmaking / direct animation, editing on 16mm, analog projector repair and digital projection mapping.
Special events have included a Super 8 film workshop in partnership with the Somerville Community Media Center, a "film foraging" 16mm workshop in partnership with the Waltham Land Trust, a field day film shoot for AgX members on Peddock's Island in Boston Harbor, and three hand-made film workshops in partnership with the student chapter of the Association of Moving Image Archivists at Simmons College, the Dedham Youth Commission, and the Harvard Art Museums, respectively.
Workshops were led by AgX members Anto Astudillo, Janet Benn, Sarah Bliss, Susan DeLeo, Stefan Grabowski, Christina Hunt, Mike Piso, David Reeder, Wenhua Shi, Robert Todd, and guest instructor Stuart Cody. Over 80 participants took part in our workshops throughout the year.
AgX was a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Local Cultural Councils grant program, which funded two of our workshops in the past year. A grant from the Somerville Arts Council made our Super 8 workshop possible and a grant from the Waltham Arts Council made our Film Foraging workshop possible. Thank you so much to our funders, and to all who participated! |
|
| We presented intimate and awe-inspiring screenings of film and video |
|
 |
| Temporal Currents || was an expanded cinema event featuring AgX film installations and experimental music sets by Victoria Shen and Asha Tamirisa, co-presented with the Balagan Film Series and Non-Event at the Waterworks Museum in Boston. |
|
|
In 2017, we presented public screenings of AgX member works at Emerson College, Aeronaut Brewery, Keene State College, Tufts University, the Northampton Film Festival, and at the AgX space in Waltham during Open Studios and throughout the year. We also hosted several screenings from outside filmmakers, including a program of two films by Manila-based filmmaker Shireen Seno when she was in town. Screenings were curated by Anto Astudillo, Sarah Bliss, Genevieve Carmel, Stefan Grabowski, Natalie Minik, and Mike Piso.
In September, we collaborated for a second year with the experimental music series Non-Event, the Balagan Film Series, and WZBC to present Temporal Currents ||, a site-specific live film installation featuring work by AgX members, paired by experimental music sets by local sound artists Victoria Shen and Asha Tamirisa, at the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum. The event brought roughly 200 people out for an unforgettable evening of shadow, light and sound. Participating AgX members included Janet Benn, Ethan Berry, Susan DeLeo, Janeann Dill, Peaches Goodrich, Stefan Grabowski, Brittany Gravely, Evan Greene, Morgan Hoyle-Combs, Alex Miklowski, Natalie Minik, Mike Piso, Douglas Urbank, and Wenhua Shi. You can see some video documentation of the event here, taken by AgX member Deniz Tortum.
In October, AgX took part in Immersion, a live, nighttime arts experience taking place over the course of several days on Boston City Hall Plaza as part of HUBWeek. AgX taught visitors about direct animation while projecting a diverse selection of member works directly onto the walls of City Hall, using both live-manipulated video and film, for a moving exhibition of light in conversation with the city's brutalist architecture. This exhibition and partnership was conceived of and organized by AgX member Ethan Berry.
|
|
| We fostered community at home and abroad |
|
|
This past October, five AgX members took part in "Film in the Present Tense", an international gathering of filmmakers, artists, programmers, technicians and representatives from museums, independent film labs and cinemas to collectively address questions of how film remains a vital format for new work, and how it can be better supported in a hybrid film and digital era of filmmaking.
Following the event, a group of projectionists, filmmakers, programmers and archivists created "Reel to Reel", an international mailing list to discuss, interact and organize in order to deal with current issues facing photochemical filmprojection and to imagine its future. Additionally, you can now find AgX listed on the International Film Labs website! We're excited to continue to contribute to building this international community of labs and filmmakers devoted to experimentation with and access to photochemical film processes.
Back home in the Greater Boston area, we remain involved in the city-wide Boston Film Potlucks, which have a goal of encouraging more regular cross-cutting conversations among filmmakers and filmmaking groups in Boston. We also took part in the 41st Annual Waltham Mills Open Studios, celebrating the role of all kinds of artists in our city and sharing our films and space with all of the curious and creative minds we met that weekend.
Within the AgX space, we got together for regular work-in-progress screenings nearly every month, providing vital opportunities for us to view and provide constructive feedback on one another’s work, allowing us to grow and strengthen our creative output through the sharing of ideas in a supportive yet critically minded environment. We also continue to host an active, weekly AgX darkroom session for members to hand-process their Super 8 and 16mm films. These sessions also serve as experimental labs for discovering our DIY tools for production.
|
|
|
