Speaker: Theo Stojanov (Concordia University, Canada).

Restored releases of classic films are often accompanied by statements that the new version is, somehow, closer to the original idea than what audiences may have already come to know. What motivates such claims to recovered authenticity? What is the meaning of authorial intent? Restorations, re-edits, and post-produced transfers are met with misgivings by some archivists and scholars and welcomed by others, but in either case the result is acknowledged to be a new film altogether, a creation of our time. Media artists and filmmakers have used the nexus between restoration and re-creation to establish (the nowadays somewhat obsessive) found footage practice, which draws attention the passage of time itself, as well as to the process of re-activating and experiencing the cinematic past as a current event. This presentation addresses some of the questions associated with what may be considered proper or improper uses of found footage, and proposes a creative attitude of speculative restoration as we examine works by experimental filmmakers working in this tradition.

Date: Monday, November 7th