Parameters of Abstraction: Tuohy and Barrie's Ginza Strip
A consideration of viewing strategies for abstract films and a discussion of Ginza Strip, which screens at Mills Folly Microcinema, Wednesday, March 26, 7pm
Now Playing In Madison, week of March 24, 2025, click here
Experimental Films by Richard Tuohy and Dianna Barrie | Australia | Program running time 94 minutes
Mills Folly Microcinema, Arts + Literature Laboratory, 111 S. Livingston Street, Suite 100, Wednesday, March 26, 7pm. $5 suggested donation. Curated by Blake Barit.
Parameters of abstraction (part one)
One obstacle to watching experimental films for the first time is simply knowing what you’re supposed to be doing. There is a lot of theorizing out there about what we do when we watch narrative films. And there is some work out there about different “viewing strategies” for watching experimental films.1 This is a big topic. I’ll only be able to start the discussion here. But I’ll keep coming back to it in future posts about upcoming experimental film screenings. (So below there is no part two . . . that will have to wait for a future screening.)
One way to think about watching abstract experimental films is to think about what the filmmaker is doing when they created the film. And before you do that, it is worth considering what can a filmmaker do with a moving image?
Again, that’s a big topic. But for now, just know that some film theorists like Noël Burch (in his earlier work like Theory of Film Practice, 1969) tried to itemize what a filmmaker can do by breaking down stylistic choices into sets of parameters. There are choices that filmmakers make related to framing, shot scale, camera movement, film stocks, lenses, lighting, and so forth. There are even choices beyond the frame when staging a scene, such as using off-screen space instead of on-screen space, which means that screen space has its own set of parameters.
Typically, narrative filmmakers do not want you to think about these choices (or the range of other choices not made within stylistic parameters) when watching a film. They want you to be engaged with the story. But there are some exceptions to this. In Narration and the Fiction Film, David Bordwell identified films like Pickpocket (1959) and Last Year in Marienbad (1961) as examples of “parametric narration.”
Parametric narration establishes a distinctive intrinsic norm, often involving an unusually limited range of stylistic options . . . The spectator is cued to construct a prominent stylistic norm, recognizing style as motivated neither realistically nor compositionally nor trans-textually. The viewer must also form assumptions and hypotheses about the stylistic development of the film.2
There are parallels here with experimental music. Certain composers break down “what they can do” into parameters such as pitch, duration, loudness, and so forth. Serial composition organizes such parameters into specific series, and then can repeat or transform that series throughout the course of the piece. Using twelve–tone technique, for example, a composer creates a sequence using all twelve notes of the chromatic scale; no note is repeated until all twelve have been played.
Viewing strategies for many abstract experimental films, or listening strategies for experimental music, can parallel what Bordwell describes as forming assumptions and hypotheses about stylistic development. See, that was easy! See you at Mills Folly on Wednesday night!
Oh, wait. Yes, maybe I should attempt to apply these ideas to at least one of the films on Wednesday.
Ginza Strip | 2014 | 9 minutes
Some filmmakers explore cinematographic parameters beyond the conventional correct exposure of a shot, as explained in the Mills Folly event page for Wednesday night:
Australian filmmakers Richard Tuohy and Dianna Barrie are internationally renowned for their inventive 16mm filmmaking techniques, both in the camera and in the darkroom. Their films combine creativity, chemistry, invention and experimentation to culminate in a visceral synchronicity of form and content. In Australia, the pair founded and run Nanolab--part commercial Super8 lab, part alchemical artist playground. They also established the Artist Film Workshop, a cooperative, members-run lab in Melbourne.
In addition to traditional filmmaking technologies and techniques, Tuohy and Barrie can introduce techniques associated with contact printing, optical printing, or altering the procedures of normal film processing. Let’s consider this image from Ginza Strip:
Darker strips of film (or translucent material) divide up the screen into different sections. Why do I say that the darker strips are dividing the brighter parts of the frame instead of saying that bright strips divide the darker parts of the frame? Well, what we’re missing in a single frame is, of course, movement. The darker strips move across the brighter material, and you can still see the imagery though the dark strips.
By making the claim that the darker strips are moving across the frame, I’m already starting to make hypotheses about what I’m seeing and how it was made. Since I can see through the darker strips and see the imagery behind them, I’m concluding that the darker strips are "on top” of the brighter images. (Or, the dark strips are the “top layer.”) Therefore, there is a degree of depth (admittedly not much) in the image, with the darker strips in the “foreground” and the brighter images in the “background.”
Edit 03/29/25: During the Mills Folly screening on Wednesday, I was able to view this sequence much larger, brighter, and clearer than the monitor I used when writing above description above. I discovered, to my horror, that I described this sequence incorrectly.
In a sense, this does connect with the larger point of the post: part of the viewing process is thinking about how the image was made, and how filmmakers plays with the options available to them. A first hypothesis might be incorrect, and can be revised as the film goes on (or on subsequent viewings).
My first hypothesis was not completely unreasonable. I thought I was seeing something like the cut up strips of film taped on clear leader in Lewis Klahr’s Her Fragrant Emulsion, or like the experiments by Luis Recoder involving parts of the emulsion that have been ripped from the original base and stuck on clear leader. Something like that could be “bi-packed” with the background imagery into an optical printer. Reflecting on it now, I should have realized this was unlikely. We see too much detail in the dark areas if the optical printer light were to go through two layers.
At the Mills Folly screening, I realized that what was going on was more like a traveling matte, with the darker areas appearing to negatives of the brighter imagery. I intentionally did not look for interviews with Tuohy and Barrie before writing the post, because the point was for me to engage with the images in the way that I was suggesting that new experimental film viewers could at Mills Folly. Subsequently I have discovered a Senses of Cinema article (March 2016) in which Tuohy goes into detail about the process he invented, named “Chromaflex,” “whereby colour-positive, colour-negative, and black-and-white are developed as to be apparent within the same frame.”
The way the procedure works is that you do an initial black and white process on a piece of print stock. It’s a very partial development that you’ve done, but it’s enough to lock down the pattern of the thing that was on the film. The images on the film are now safe. Once you’ve washed off all the chemistry you can handle the film in the light. Now you can do things to do it in the light, you can place material with your hands on the film surface which will block or will allow chemistry through in subsequent chemical processing”3
So my initial description of some kind of bi-packed film strip was incorrect. Note, this was not just “my reading” of the film, and everyone sees films differently, so it’s okay. It is an error because the claim is not supported by the evidence of the film. The hypothesis was not correct.
That said, it is still possible to recover some of the conclusions with this new information. After a few more viewings of same sequence using the exhibition file, it is not exactly accurate to suggest that the dark areas are in front of the brighter images. There are white lines separating the areas, similar to matte lines. But because of the movement of the dark areas, and the optical phenomenon that dark colors appear to advance while brighter colors appear to recede, there is still a sense of foreground and background within the frame.
I’ll leave the original text untouched for this next bit, before one more brief addition.
It’s less important to literally know how the image was made. I’m suspecting an optical printer was used, due to the degree of control of the dark strip movement, but some variation on contact printing is also a possibility. The important thing is to consider the parameters that Tuohy and Barrie are already playing with, and how they may repeat or vary those parameters through the course of the film.
Here are some of the parameters at play:
Movement, strips move left or right across the screen.
Shape, strips are of varying widths, so the distance between strips also determines visibility of the brighter images behind them. the brighter images also feature square frames and circles.
Luminance, an alternation of lighter and darker areas of the frame.
Color, the darker strips add a blue cast to the brighter images which have reds and yellows.
Speed, the speed with which the strips move varies, as well as the speed of movement in the brighter imagery.
Depth, there are separate planes of movement, foreground and background.
In these revisions and notes, I add to the list of parameters:
Photochemical properties, as Tuohy chooses between the color-negative, color-positive, and black-and-white options available in the Chromaflex process.
I could keep going. Much like an experimental music composer, Tuohy and Barrie could also keep going, introducing variations on what we have seen so far, and maintaining a relatively simple structure for the film. But eventually we get imagery like this:
A degree of complexity is added to the parameters at play. Frames are still divided into cut-up strips, but not just a strip placed on top of another strip. The movements and boundaries of these areas within frame also become more complex. Perhaps most importantly, Tuohy and Barrie start to play with representational images, rather than just strips of film. While the abstract properties of the images are still foregrounded, the images are also recognized as things recorded in front of a camera: street lights, business signs, and crowds of people walking. The same criss-cross movement of the early strips returns, but this time with a much different effect. Now we have a much firmer sense of place, not just the shallow depth of two strips of film stacked on top of each other. So the moving strips function as a matte, moving across the screen, concealing or revealing different filmed spaces. Sometimes the moving mattes are in the same direction as the movement within these representational images, other times they provide a counterpoint.
From here, one could continue a purely formal analysis of the graphic qualities of the film. But at some point I think most viewers will want to make an interpretive leap, and suggest what they think the film might be saying about the experience of what we see. Most of the representational images appear to be urban spaces. Are Tuohy and Barrie suggesting a parallel between the sensory overload of the film viewing experience and the sensory overload of urban life? Or does the music (which I haven’t even touched on) suggest a more meditative way of looking at urban life?
Join us for the Mills Folly Microcinema screening on Wednesday, 7pm, and let me know what you think.
Final notes for the 3/29/25 update:
This has taught me a lesson. The error suggests to me that I will need to treat film reviews and film analyses very differently when preparing posts for this Substack newsletter. I want Moving Image Madison to be a place for both, but reviews and analyses take very different time commitments. I prepared and wrote the Ginza Strip analysis too quickly, trying to meet a self-imposed deadline for posting on a Monday along with the Now Playing in Madison list.
At the same time, these revisions have been fun to do. The process reminds me of the convention on YouTube videos of not editing out mistakes, but instead simply adding on-screen words with the corrections that appear at the same time that the mistake is made. I’m going to leave the door open to the possibility of adding revisions to future posts. Knowing that I can do so will leave me feel less handcuffed and reluctant to post anything unless it is perfect (or as close as I can get).
Now Playing In Madison: User’s Guide
Check the venue’s website, especially after Wednesday for weekend openings.
Brief notes under titles of interest to me are not endorsements unless noted.
At least one title each week is completely made up.
UW-Cinematheque
Programming on pause leading up to next week’s Wisconsin Film Festival.
WUD Film
Programming on pause leading up to next week’s Wisconsin Film Festival.
AMC Fitchburg
A WORKING MAN
No one realizes that Levon Cade (Jason Statham) can kick ass, until he starts kicking ass.
ASH
THE ALTO KNIGHTS
AUDREY'S CHILDREN
Story of pioneering Dr. Audrey Evans (Natalie Dormer), co-founder of Ronald McDonald House.
BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN
BLACK BAG
CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD
THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER (SEASON 5) PART 1
THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE
DEATH OF A UNICORN
Jenna Ortega gets to be moody-spooky again, this time with Paul Rudd and a vengeful unicorn.
DISNEY'S SNOW WHITE
DOG MAN
LAST BREATH
LOCKED
MAD SQUARE (also known as MAD2)
Telugu-language coming-of-age comedy/drama, sequel to MAD (2023).
MICKEY 17
THE MONKEY
NE ZHA 2
NOVOCAINE
ONE OF THEM DAYS
OPUS
PADDINGTON IN PERU
THE PENGUIN LESSONS
Looks like Steve Coogan is in “earnest-Philomena-mode” again in this story about a British teacher in Argentina who rescues a penguin.
PRINCESS MONONOKE 4K IMAX EXCLUSIVE
I know, I was just complaining last week about too many Miyazaki films too frequently at Madison’s theaters. This is different, man! Wednesday, March 26 conflicts with Mills Folly, so I have tickets for Thursday, March 27.
RULE BREAKERS
SIKANDAR
The big holiday Hindi-language romantic action film blockbuster with superstar Salman Kahn in the title role. The release coincides with Eid al-Fitr. Director A.R. Murugadoss has worked in both the Telugu-language and Hindi-language industries (he made versions of Ghajini in each language). After screenings on Saturday and Sunday at AMC Fitchburg, additional screenings are limited to one per evening through Wednesday, April 2 (as of this writing). Even if it is extended, you’ll want to catch this before the Wisconsin Film Festival starts.
THIRTEEN PLUS THE VEGAN
THE ASSESSMENT
Read Rob Thomas’s review at Not That Rob Thomas.
THE LAST SUPPER
THE WOMAN IN THE YARD
More Blumhouse horror. To be fair, I was singing praises of the 90-minute genre film, and this clocks in at 88, so it has that going for it.
Marcus Point Cinema or Marcus Palace Cinema
A WORKING MAN
ASH
BLACK BAG
CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD
THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER PART 1
CYPRESS HILL & LSO - BLACK SUNDAY LIVE AT THE ROYA
THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE
DEATH OF A UNICORN
DEATH OF A UNICORN EARLY ACCESS
DISNEY'S SNOW WHITE
DOG MAN
THE GODFATHER
GREASE
IMAGINE DRAGONS: LIVE FROM THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL
LOCKED
MAD SQUARE
Marcus Point. Telugu-language, also playing AMC Fitchburg.
MAGAZINE DREAMS
MICKEY 17
THE MONKEY
NATIONAL THEATRE: DOCTOR STRANGELOVE
If you’re going to see something with Steve Coogan this week, I’m guessing that this would be a better choice than The Penguin Lessons.
NATIONAL THEATRE: NYE
NIGHT OF THE ZOOPOCALYPSE
NOVOCAINE
ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL
Returns to Madison (Marcus Point) after UW-Cinematheque screening.
OPUS
PADDINGTON IN PERU
THE ASSESSMENT
THE ALTO KNIGHTS
THE LAST SUPPER
THE WOMAN IN THE YARD
Flix Brewhouse
A WORKING MAN
THE ALTO KNIGHTS
THE BAD GUYS
THE BIG LEBOWSKI
The dude abides, Saturday, March 29.
BLACK BAG
THE BOY AND THE HERON
Miyazaki #2 of the week.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD
THE CHOSEN: LAST SUPPER PART 1
THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP: A LOONEY TUNES MOVIE
DISNEY'S SNOW WHITE
INTERSTELLAR
LAST BREATH
MICKEY 17
NOVOCAINE
OPUS
SPIRITED AWAY - STUDIO GHIBLI FEST 2023
Miyazaki #3 for the week.
Looking Ahead
Mills Folly Microcinema
The Death Spiral Tour: Body Prop by M. Woods, Wednesday, April 23, 7pm, Arts + Literature Laboratory
Project Projection Spring 2025: Local Film and Video, Wednesday, April 30, 7pm, Arts + Literature Laboratory. (Filmmakers: early submission deadline Friday, April 4.)
Duck Soup Cinema
The Dragon Painter (1919), Saturday, May 3, 2pm and 7pm
For example, James Peterson, Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order: Understanding the American Avant-garde Cinema, Wayne State University Press, 1994.
David Bordwell, Narration and the Fiction Film, University of Wisconsin Press, 1985, p 288-289.