Film Love: Classics of the Avant-Garde, Part Two: Line Describing a Cone

Name: Film Love: Classics of the Avant-Garde, Part Two: Line Describing a Cone
Genre: Experimental, Avant-Garde, 16mm
Released: 2025-12-11
Duration: 1 h 37 min

*Please note: due to the interactive nature of Line Describing a Cone, tickets are limited. A one-night-only program of three historic films that rethink public space and rewire the cinema – featuring a projection of Anthony McCall’s landmark Line Describing a Cone, which can only be experienced in person. It begins with a small white dot at the top of the black frame. By the film’s end thirty minutes later, a full circle has slowly, silently been drawn to fill the frame. This is all that happens onscreen in Anthony McCall’s 1973 film Line Describing a Cone. But as the title indicates, the drama is in the space between the projector and screen, because the screening room is filled with a light haze from a fog machine. As the circle progresses onscreen, a cone of light and fog is gradually formed in the room, with the base of the cone at the screen and the apex at the projector lens. Line Describing a Cone is a unique viewing experience, for viewers are encouraged to interact directly with the cone of light. On December 11, 2025, the Plaza Theatre and Film Love will host this elegant, beautiful work of cinema, which can only be experienced as a live projection. Line Describing a Cone requires a projection area free of fixed seating, and will be projected in an unusual configuration inside the theater. We’ll also screen Gordon Matta-Clark’s Conical Intersect, made after the artist viewed Line Describing a Cone. Matta-Clark was known for large-scale “cuts” and alterations made to buildings, like splitting a house in two from roof to ground. Directly inspired by McCall’s film, Matta-Clark made a giant cone-shaped cut through a 17th-century Paris apartment house due for demolition. A remarkable document, Conical Intersect progresses from showing the artist’s physical labor of cutting through thick walls to the fascinating process of exposing the interior space of the apartments and finally to mesmerizing and disorienting views of the completed work from inside and out – before the inevitable arrival of the bulldozer. The program begins with Pendulum, a rediscovered 1976 film by the artist Jamie Nares. In the middle of a Manhattan block (near the intersection of Staple and Jay Streets), Nares hung a heavy ball from a long rope attached to a pedestrian walkway three stories above the street. The resulting pendulum was swung up and down the block and filmed by Nares from every possible angle – sometimes running alongside the ball, other times calmly watching it swing out into the intersection, and sometimes with the camera attached to the ball itself. Filmed by the artist in evocative Super 8-mm, Pendulum is many films: a poetic meditation on physics, a visually addictive DIY thrill ride, and a striking record of a long-gone New York City of eerily deserted streets and massive spaces available for play. Matta-Clark’s and Nares’ films both document art works and are formally compelling films in their own right, while McCall’s film opens out into other art forms: sculpture, installation, even performance. All three films dramatically reconfigure spaces: Matta-Clark’s building cut, Nares’ transformation of a virtually abandoned Manhattan block into the setting for a kinetic installation, and McCall’s film, which encourages viewer interaction with the projected light beam and thus requires an adjustment of the cinema space of the Plaza Theatre. None of these three films is available on consumer video, so this screening represents a rare opportunity for experiencing them. Pendulum (Jamie Nares, 1976) 17 min, digital video from Super-8mm Conical Intersect (Gordon Matta-Clark, 1975) 20 min, digital video from 16mm Line Describing a Cone (Anthony McCall, 1973), 30 min, 16mm This program contains one intermission. CLASSICS OF THE AVANT-GARDE PART TWO: MORE FILMS ABOUT BUILDINGS AND SPACE is a Film Love event. The Film Love series provides access to great but rarely seen films, especially important works unavailable on consumer video. Programs are curated and introduced by Andy Ditzler, and feature lively discussion. Through public screenings and events, Film Love preserves the communal viewing experience, provides space for the discussion of film as art, and explores diverse forms of moving image projection and viewing. Facebook group: Film Love Atlanta www.filmlove.org Join the Film Love mailing list: https://btn.ymlp.com/xgybbhqqgmgjExperimental, Avant-Garde, 16mmPT1H37MNot Rated2025-12-11

Jamie Nares

Gordon Matta-Clark

Anthony McCall

Film Love

Film Love: Classics of the Avant-Garde, Part Two: Line Describing a Cone"Film Love: Classics of the Avant-Garde, Part Two: Line Describing a Cone"

Showtimes

December 11, 7:00 pm