Expanded Cinema/Film

EXPANDED CINEMA/FILM

Re-scoring Movies, Playing Live, Making Movies

Unconformity Festival 2023

Banks/Kirby/Ward presented a new version of Discontinued Space - The Cinema of Maya Deren at the award winning Unconformity Festival in Queenstown on the West Coast of Tasmania. The performance was part of UNTV who this festival took over the old courthouse in Queenstown to do live broadcasts of Art, news and community based discussions throughout the festival.

Unconformity Website here

Discontinued Space -The Cinema of Maya Deren

Dani Kirby Piano/Voice

Mat Ward Bass/Intonarumori/Percussion

Dylan Banks Intonarumori

A live Expand Cinema event as part of The Clarence City Council’s Winter Concert Series held in august 2021. Live at The Rosny Barn 26/08/21

Maya Deren (1917 - 1961) is considered one of true pioneers of experimental film yet unlike many of the film makers she influenced ( Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch) her work is rarely experienced outside of academic and film school environments. As part of Kirby and Ward’s continuing investigation into the important (and often overlooked) role of women in the history of Contemporary Art Discontinued Space: The Cinema of Maya Deren will present several of Deren’s short movies with original live scores written by Kirby, Ward and Banks.

Deren employed a vast array of cinematic devices (looping, reversing, overlaying and time manipulation) to create vignettes that focused on graphic and kinetic form rather than straightforward narrative. Conceptually the work examines rhythm, isolation, social constructs, movement and ritual, all of which is underpinned by the notion of the inner world and its disconnection from the space of everyday life.

It is the conceptual framework of Deren’s cinema that informs the scores produced for this project. Rather than compositions that ‘soundtrack’ the action and the visual imagery the music reflects and explores Deren’s philosophical beliefs and her desire to immerse her audience in a world that is barely hinted at in everyday life yet sits just under the skin of reality.

The performance by Kirby, Ward and Banks showcases the 7 major short films Deren produced from 1943 to 1958.Make it stand out.

The Smiling Madame Beudet

New Expanded Cinema performance from Dani Kirby/Mat Ward. Premiered 22nd January 2021 at MONA FOMA festival Hobart, Tasmania.

Kirby/Ward present the the latest chapter in their ongoing investigation both the history of sound in the era of silent cinema and the pioneering role female artists played (most often overlooked) in the avant garde.

The Smiling Madame Beudet is credited as the first Feminist movie. The protagonist Madame Beudet is trapped in a suffocating marriage with her only escape being music and the fantasy that she lives in a different world. Her husband is domineering, boorish and frequently pretends to shoot himself (sometimes in front of guests) to taunt and belittle her. Far from portraying Madame Beudet as a victim it casts her as a heroine who, rather than submitting to a life of cruelty, seeks to assert her desires and free herself from the bonds of domestic misogyny.

Dulac uses groundbreaking cinematic artistry to embellish and add detail to both the narrative and the investigation of sexism and gendered roles through techniques such as super-imposition, ultra contrasting of focus, slow-motion, repetition of shots, abstraction and extreme camera angles. These techniques powerfully enforce the Dulac’s desire to show both the oppressiveness of the situation and the absolute need for an imagining of a better life.

The compositional approach focuses on highlighting the sub-text and philosophical underpinnings of the film with emphasis on the meta-narrative behind the protoganist’s story - which is a timeless critique of marriage, gender and sexism. Cinematically this is expressed through Dulac’s focus on Madame Beduet’s internal world as she moves between the disparity of escapism and reality. It is her complex voice and thoughts, as a metaphor for the broader issues of the film that Kirby/Ward bring to life through a dynamic score that incorporates multiple genres ranging from ultra minimalist melody all the way to deafening sub-bass drone.

Comme la marée montait, nous demeurons assis

A short collaborative experimental film using footage and sound captured in the 19th arrondissement Paris 2020 and the poetic writing of Marseille based artist Antonella Eye Porcelluzzi.

Antonella is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses film, acting, writing and the visual arts. Examples of her work can been found below.

Bandcamp

The Shaman

You Tube

Comme la marée montait, nous demeurons assis 2020.

Mat Ward - Visuals/Sound Antonella Eye Porcelluzzi - Text/Voice

A Trip To The Moon 1926

Mat Ward - Bass Dani Kirby - Piano/Vocals 2020

A Trip to the Moon

As part of the 2020 Unconformity Festival based in Queenstown Tasmania Dani Kirby and I, along with 8 artists from around the globe were asked to re-score a collection of old Sci-Fi movies as part of Unconformity's UNTV live night. Naturally enough all festival activities were via the Internet this year and the show was broadcast on October 17th 2020 There is almost no info about the 1926 film Dani and I were given other than the year it was made. I cant even find any info on the production company etc. Its called Trip to the Moon and is an animated/ modelled 12 minute movie that goes through a fictional history of people’s attempts over the centuries to reach the moon culminating in a successful 1999 voyage. The unconformity festival is a wonderful arts festival held in the remote town of Queenstown on Tasmania’s west coast every two years. You can find out more about the festival below.

The Unconformity Festival

Man With a Movie Camera 1929 Dziga Vertov/Music 2017 Mat Ward recorded Live at MONA FOMA

Dylan Banks -Intonarumori/Dani Kirby-Keyboards, Vocals /Mat Ward-Bass Guitar, Slide Bass, Percussion/Matt Warren-Drums

Man With A Movie Camera

Premiered at MONA FOMA in January 2017 Mat Ward’s new live score for the 1929 classic Soviet silent movie Man With the Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov brings to life Vertov’s dual aspirations to celebrate both the life of the common people and his fascination with modernity and the experimental possibilities of cinema and sound. Prior to his career as a film maker Vertov studied music and aligned himself with the Futurist concept that contemporary music should embrace the sounds and noise of the industrial landscape to truly represent modern life. Ward’s score features reconstructed Futurist sound intoners ( Intonarumori ) that mimic the sound of factories, automobiles and other machines to produce a soundscape that embellishes the stunning visual documentation of Russia’s transition from an agricultural based society to a industrial super power. Reflecting Vertov’s powerful imagination and focus on experimental art forms the score also features a variety of unusual percussive and melodic instruments, sound machines , found objects and factory detritus. Where as many past scores for Man With the Movie Camera have focused on Vertov’s vision of a Socialist utopia built upon the modernisation of the workforce Ward’s music also pays homage to the empathy and respect Vertov showed for the Soviet people as evidenced through many personal and emotional sequences in the film. Post- classical piano, pitched percussion and bass guitars are brought into the score to provide timbre, melody and harmony to accompany the softer and more introspective moments on screen. The combination of experimental and traditional instruments, played by a talented stripped back version of Ward’s band No Mates Ensemble has resulted in a multi-genre dynamic and sensitive score that brings a new reading to this truly unique piece of cinema.

Dziga Vertov

Dziga Vertov was an early master of experimental and documentary film making active from 1917 through to his death in 1954. Born in Ukraine in 1896 he rose to promise ( and often fell from grace) in post-revolution Russia. He pioneered many of cinemas most familiar effects and tropes and is an eternal influence on the art of film.

More about Dziga Vertov here