Between 1958 and his death in 1987, Will Hindle (b. Shreveport, LA, 1929) created ten defiantly personal and formally rigorous 16mm films that challenge the limits of cinematic form and gesture towards what writer Gene Youngblood, borrowing from Freud, termed “Oceanic Consciousness” in his landmark text Expanded Cinema:
“The oceanic effect of synaesthetic cinema is similar to the mystical allure of the natural elements: we stare in mindless wonder at the ocean or a lake or river. We are drawn almost hypnotically to fire, gazing as though spellbound. We see cathedrals in clouds, not thinking anything in particular but feeling somehow secure and content” (Youngblood, 1970, p. 92).
A key figure of the New American Cinema movement, Hindle's use of homemade devices for optical printing and rear projection allowed him to manipulate texture and rhythm in ways that feel both intimate and transcendent, inviting viewers to experience cinema not as narrative, but as a personal and sensory journey.
“Will Hindle was a passionate proponent of the ‘personal’ film. The term ‘personal’ meant that the artist was fully responsible for the making of the film: responsible for the subject matter, for the direction and for the choice of image, for the camerawork and for the editing. His films would be about his life and perceptions, he wanted to express what he knew best and what he cared most about. Haunted and exalted by turns, his work is truly marked by genius.”
(“Will Hindle and the Personal Film”, Lyman, 2007)
Artist Christian Flemm visits Silver City Grocery with three 16mm prints of Hindle’s rarely-seen work, including his southern gothic masterpiece Later That Same Night.
Screening begins at 7:00pm. Suggested screening fee of $10.
WATERSMITH (1968, 32")
“Perhaps Hindle's magnum opus to date. New York Times critic Vincent Canby calls WATERSMITH "beautiful abstract patterns of lines of energy. A kind of ode to physical grace." A deceptively "calm" film requiring an equally calm audience and a superior soundtrack reproduction system, WATERSMITH weaves its lone visual threads closer and closer until the screen is awash with multiple levels of artistic achievement, technical supremacy, physical and mental demands and rewards ... for the relaxed and receptive viewer. Not a flash and funk work. A film to be seen again and again.” - Canyon Cinema
SAINT FLOURNOY LOBOS-LOGOS AND THE EASTERN EUROPE FETUS TAXING JAPAN BRIDES IN WEST COAST PLACES SUCKING ALABAMA AIR (1970, 12”)
“Presaging details and intent of the Charles Manson’s cult and actions was not meant to be one of this film’s greater attributes. It was, however, filmed uncannily months before the facts were known. The resemblance is oblique. The film: the mysticism of a “calling,” a journey to be made, a vision in mid-desert to behold and oneness with it all. Filmed in Death Valley.” - The Film-Makers’ Cooperative
LATER THAT SAME NIGHT (1971, 10”)
“Hindle's first all-southern-made work, filmed shortly after moving his studio from San Francisco to the lower Appalachians. Jackie Dicie sings the song in disruptive out-of-synchronization. It is Hindle's first-water attempt to express the southern country mode of existence ... the alone woman and the lonesome land.” - The Film-Makers’ Cooperative
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