Experimental filmmaker Ernie Gehr has been touring Europe recently, since his show "Bon Voyage"is currently on at Centre d'Art Contemporain in Geneva. My friend and colleague Jonathan Pouthier has invited him for a series of screening at Centre Pompidou in Paris, in which he has shown both his classics from the 1970s (such as Reverberation, 1969, or Serene Velocity, 1970). I made this portrait of him on February 14, while he was delivering a lecture on cinema, with films from the collections of the museum. His Greenbergian approach to film lead an analysis of the works presented: a Danse Serpentine from the Lumière catalogue (1897), Helen Levitt's In the Street (1948-1952), Stan Brakhage's The Wonder Ring (1955) and his own beautiful Field (1970).
(February 2015)