Spotlight on Imperfect Cinema
15 August 2024
Imperfect Cinema is a socially engaged collective for film, sound and moving image. They’ve produced and facilitated the creation of over 700 films, micro-cinema events, festivals, symposia and screenings, and produced and facilitated filmmaking workshops and screenings across the UK and internationally. They’ve also produced 'RE/POSIT/ORY', the new five-screen film currently showing on the screens in The Box’s Media Lab gallery, which examines the role of the archive. We caught up with co-founders Allister and Dan to ask them some questions.
Has working with the film archive impacted your practice?
It’s been a revelation and has absolutely impacted our practice! The project has given us real pause for thought, particularly in terms of how important the description of archival content is to its retrieval. Historical ideological, cultural and subjective bias has resulted in often narrow descriptions of archival materials, making it problematic for certain subjects to be located. This realisation, although incredibly problematic, exposes some of the biases at play by the institutions who’ve created and described the footage and the stories within, and brings to the fore issues which must be addressed if we’re to move forward and learn from the past.
What would you add or take away from the development process?
We’d certainly have liked more time! We originally agreed to produce three workshops, but quite quickly realised this wouldn’t be nearly enough, so expanded it to five. We would have loved to have run more to further interrogate the issues and ideas that emerged. In terms of editing, it’s been a very different process to our previous film work, with far more time spent on editing pre-production, particularly due to the sheer amount of footage we’ve been working with, and of course the film’s eventual form as a five-screen piece. It’s been a steep learning curve, but one which we’ve absolutely relished!
While observing the development of this commission, something that struck me was Imperfect Cinema’s focus on the human quality of film. Their beautifully imaginative approach to filmmaking has provided us with numerous opportunities for introspection, contributing massively to our awareness of the significance of these collections.
Stacey Anderson, Media Archivist
Were there any concerns or challenges you faced?
When exploring sensitive subjects with such passionate people in our workshops, facilitating the range of voices and opinions was at times incredibly challenging. Our production methods were organic and emerged as a direct result of the contributions and concerns of the participants. We don’t work with conventional notions of what a film should be, so at times it was hard to align our personal ambitions for extending our own practice as experimental filmmakers, with the more conventional expectations of film form and practice expressed during the workshops. This was amplified by the challenging nature of the subject matter, and our feelings of obligation towards our workshop members. Although it would be impossible to include all the issues that were raised, we hope we’ve given voice to the key themes that did emerge.
What advice would you give future creatives or collectives who are interested in working with the film archive at The Box?
In terms of the film archive staff, more kind, knowledgeable and willing partners would be difficult to find! We’d advise people to be as specific as possible about they’re looking for and be prepared to use a wide range of search terms to locate the material. Embrace every opportunity and be prepared to sift through miles of material to find the nuggets that are there! Be prepared to be surprised, sometimes shocked, often frustrated and occasionally astonished. We’d absolutely recommend it!
RE/POSIT/ORY will be screened throughout the summer of 2024 in The Box's Media Lab gallery. Find out more about it.
• Learn more about Imperfect Cinema.
• Find out more about the Reimagining the Film Archive project.