ACMI presents in association with Center for Visual Music
ART+FILM: Optical Poetry | Oskar Fischinger Retrospective
Tickets
When
Tue 28 Jun 2022
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Explore a curated selection of short films by Oskar Fischinger – creator of Raumlichtkunst (1926–2012) featured in The Story of the Moving Image exhibition – revealing how experimentation with form and physical media have always been a part of cinema history.
Oskar Fischinger (1900–67) was a pioneer of abstract animation and visual music. Working in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Los Angeles, he is known as the Father of Visual Music and the Grandfather of Motion Graphics. Fischinger made some of the first music videos in the early 1930s, and influenced John Cage’s theories of percussion and the style of Disney’s Fantasia (1940). He has influenced generations of animators and filmmakers and continues to do so today. This is the new HD digital version of CVM’s Retrospective programme featuring his classic visual music films, many from restored 35mm prints. The films include some of his ground-breaking 1930s Studies series synchronizing animation and music, which screened in first-run theatres worldwide.
Fischinger made commercials in his Berlin animation studio, and the Muratti cigarette commercial made him famous worldwide. Paramount Studios brought him to Los Angeles in 1936, where he had several unsuccessful encounters with Hollywood studios. In his later years he could not find support for his films and focused on painting, drawing and a light-play instrument.
– Cindy Keefer, Curator, Center for Visual Music
This is the first of two events exploring the work and legacy of Oskar Fischinger, whose seminal work Raumlichtkunst is currently on display at ACMI, thanks to the generous support of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation.
Tickets include a drink on arrival.
Major Philanthropic Partner
Films
Spirals
1926 | Germany, black/white, silent, 2 min | restored by CVM
Wax Experiments
1921–26 | Germany, silent, 4 min | restored by CVM
Spiritual Constructions
1927 | Germany, b/w, silent, 6:16 min
Studie Nr. 5
1930 | Germany, b/w, sound, 3:15 | restored by CVM
Studie Nr. 6
1930 | Germany, b/w, sound, 2.5 min
Studie Nr. 7
1931 | Germany, b/w, sound, 2.5 min | restored by CVM
Studie Nr. 8
1931 | Germany, b/w, sound, 5 min
Coloratura
1932 | Germany, b/w, sound, 1:30 min
Kreise (Ad Version)
1933-34 | Germany, color, sound, 2 min
Muratti greift ein!
1934 | Germany, color, sound, 4 min
Swiss Trip
1934 | Germany, b/w, sound, 11 min
Composition in Blue
1935 | Germany, color, sound, 4 min
Allegretto (Late Version)
1936–43 | US, color, sound, 2:30 min | restored by CVM
Radio Dynamics
1942 | US, color, intentionally silent, 4:30 min | restored by CVM
An American March
1941 | US, color, sound, 3:45 min
Motion Painting No. 1
1947 | US, color, sound, 11 min
END PROGRAM
TRT: approx. 73 mins
CVM thanks Barbara Fischinger, William Moritz, Cinemaculture and Tim Finn. Wax Experiments was restored with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation. Studie nr 5 was restored by CVM with funding from EYE Filmmuseum.
About Centre for Visual Music
Center for Visual Music (CVM) is a nonprofit film archive dedicated to visual music, experimental animation and abstract media.
CVM is committed to preservation, curation, education, scholarship, and dissemination of the film, performances and other media of this tradition, together with related historical documentation and artwork.
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