Pip Chodorov, born April 13, 1965 in New York, has been making films and composing music since 1972.
He studied cognitive science at the University of Rochester, NY and film semiotics at the University of Paris, France.
Work in film distribution - previously Orion Classics, NYC; UGC, Paris; Light Cone, Paris; and, currently, Re:Voir Video, Paris, which he founded in 1994 (www.
re-voir.
com) and The Film Gallery, the first art gallery devoted exclusively to experimental film (www.
re-voir.
com/gallery).
He is also co-founder of L'Abominable, a cooperative do-it-yourself film lab in Paris, and the moderator of the internet-based forum on experimental film, FrameWorks.
Director Jonas Mekas travels through New York nights, through apartments, studios, backstage rooms, galleries, bars, and clubs. Encountering old acquaintances like Ken and Flo Jacobs, Yoko Ono, friends, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters. Mr. Mekas begins the film with the words 'I can't sleep.' Who hasn't been in this situation? Sleepy and yet wide awake at the same time, you find yourself in the world of those exhausted from the day's exertions, the drunk, the relaxed, the dancing, the brooding, the mourning, and the pensive.
Experimental filmmaker Pip Chodorov traces the course of experimental film in America, taking the very personal point of view of someone who grew up as part of the experimental film community.
A founding member of the Lettrist movement with Isidore Isou, Maurice Lemaître describes here the genesis of the movement, his friendship with Isou, their discoveries in filmmaking and their inventions of infinitesimal and supertemporal art. Shot in his studio in Montmartre, we see him at work and showing his paintings, sculptures and films.
- "The Spells of Kenneth Anger" was shot in Hollywood in July, 2003. Anger gives an overview of his life and we see clips of his many films. He touches on his run-in with Charles Manson, being influenced by Alistair Crowley, working with Marianne Faithful, and he shows us his favorite place in LA: the Hollywood cemetary.
A short portrait of Jonas Mekas on the occasion of his 2002 retrospective in Paris (for his 80th birthday). Through film clips and interviews, Mekas recounts his arrival in America, his early life in New York and his first filmmaking experiences. An introduction to his life and work.
Portrait, alternating interviews and extracted from Pip Chodorov's films who evokes its conception of the experimental movies, the links of some of his films with photography. Their character, sometimes improvised, sometimes composed. He’s and editor's activities of videocassettes Re: Voir.