Extremotions

Directed by Paolo Gioli

A film completely excavated by rephotographing rolls of 35mm negative containing images made with the photo-finish (slit scan) technique, the so-called foto-lunga which has no frame line and therefore no individual frames. This sort of proto-film was born not as a film, but as a photograph; I caused it to transmigrate—using a horizontal scanning motion of the filmstrip typical of photo-finish—into a film, thus betraying its natural verticality. I rephotographed the photofinish negative through the gate of an old 35mm moviecamera causing it to advance using the crank handle at a velocity interpolated between the crank handle [of the old 35mm moviecamera] and that of my own [16mm] movie camera. I was interested in seeing figures transformed which had been destined to remain motionless and to see them reanimated.