Genevieve Yue Presents:
Implicit Movies 
(Part 1: MARCH 23 & Part 2: MARCH 30)

There is more to a film than what we typically see. Behind every image lurks an implicit world of backgrounds, bit parts, and fragmented memories: a secret cinema. To view it requires a different kind of looking. This means looking into a film, rather than just watching one. The films in this program unlock this secret, each in their own way. They peer into the moments before the cameras start rolling, mine the surface of the image in animated and chemical reworkings, stare into the cracks of public spaces, and listen for the strains of music that carry from one place to another. They tell us about the people appear in front of the camera, and those who never get a chance to.

I wrote a book on the bodies and labor that go into the shaping of the film image before and beyond what appears on-screen. I titled the book Girl Head (30% off with code GIRL30, through 12/31/21), one of the crasser nicknames for the China Girl, an image of an enigmatic woman used in film laboratories and that sometimes appears on film leader. For the avant-garde filmmaker Bruce Conner, the China Girl was the symbol of all that cinema keeps hidden, an “image normally kept hidden but is there, an implicit part of the movies.” This program is about making explicit all such hidden images. Look closely and you’ll see the China Girl here, too.—Genevieve Yue