AFW + NFSA #74: Light Smith — films by Will Hindle

8pm Tuesday 27 January 2025
The Brunswick Green, 313/315 Sydney Rd, Brunswick
$10 on the door. 16mm projection.

Artist Film Workshop is pleased to present a rare screening of films by Will Hindle (1929–1987), an important yet often overlooked figure in the American avant-garde. While West Coast experimental film is most strongly associated with filmmakers like Bruce Baillie, Robert Nelson, and Pat O’Neill, Hindle’s work played an equally significant role in shaping the distinctive style of that scene. Yet with only eleven completed films, many of which are poorly represented in distribution, his contributions are apparently more spoken of than actually seen. Indeed, the relative scarcity of good exhibition materials has pushed his work toward a kind of mythic obscurity.

Hindle’s films continue to stand out for their inventive use of technique as well as their direct, engaging impact on the viewer. During the 60s, Hindle made himself an optical printer – a feat largely unheard of by his contemporaries. To quote New York’s Light Industry, Hindle ‘...became legendary amongst his contemporaries for both the technical ingenuity of his films, as well as their richly sensuous psychedelism.’ AFW recently located an excellent print of Watersmith in the NFSA collection. This screening provides a rare chance to experience these works as intended: on film, in projection and alive with light!

Films:

FFFTCM, 1967, 5 min
A film poem by Will Hindle of a figure awakening, reaching into the landscape towards the sun. Uses lap dissolves with interesting light and colour effects.

Billabong, 1968, 10 min
A smooth flow of filtered images of young men inside a confined barracks, idly playing pool or cards or doing nothing at all but unable to leave, despite the fact that outside the window is the cool blue of the Pacific Ocean.

Chinese Fire Drill, 1968, 24 min
An intense and personal film poem by American artist Will Hindle. A voice on the soundtrack expresses the loneliness of his life, from childhood memories to the present, while images of a man in a claustrophobic room recreate his anguish and his haunted dream.

Watersmith, 1969, 32 min
A sustained and intense film 'poem' by American film-maker, Will Hindle, based on images of swimmers in training for the Olympic Games. Water is the real star of this film: the effect of light upon it and its effect in turn on lightbending rays, distorting images and serving as a complex 'lens' for the camera. The sound track is a dense collage of water sounds, mechanical noises and organ music.

All film blurbs and prints courtesy of NFSA.