Bingo.
The art-collective, not the game.
It’s where twenty-five to thirty people gathered—in an industrial section of Albuquerque, New Mexico, just south of the railyards—to watch and listen to two experimental film projects: Observance of Absence and Glass (with a live performance by Flute Loops, three flautists playing over the 1958 Dutch documentary film).
Arriving early, I was able to talk with the film maker, Pennsylvania native, Jason Pappariella, and Virginia composer, Adam Parks (who goes by the name Lightening White Bison) about the work.
Filmmaker Jason Pappariella. Photo by Brian C. Nixon
Filmed in both Central Pennsylvania and Eastern Europe, Observance of Absence is a thirty-seven-minute film that highlights the “interior and exterior spaces left vacant and dilapidated by the abandonment of Central Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal-mining region, juxtaposing them against similarly neglected sites in industrial Eastern Europe.” With live music-mixing by Parks, the work was beautifully stark, highlighting isolation and deterioration.
Observance of Absence began in a lonely, cold natural landscape. No people are present. With haunting ambient music in the background, the film transitioned to interior spaces, diminishing and decrepit. Seats and benches with no individuals are seen, echoes of life. The interior sections remain until the last few minutes when the film transitions to a foggy, dew-filled window, with raindrops and circles of light. The final transformation shifts back to nature, a moon over brown grass.
"Observance of Absence" from the window. Photo by Brian C. Nixton
Pappariella’s work “documents and explores the topics of decay, the discarded, and abandoned or scarcely used spaces.” Parks sonic landscape focuses on “minimal, abstract and experimental sound compositions using field recordings, incidental improvisations and other collected source materials and sound-generating objects.”
It was a lovely, melancholy collaboration, exquisitely rendered.
The second film Glass is a 1958 short documentary by Bert Haanstra (with additional projections by Chandler Wigton), highlighting industrial glass production in the Netherlands. Beth Hansen, Jenette Isaacson, Lacey Chrisco performed flutes over the silent movie, providing a live score to the artistically produced film. And, of course, the film was screened using a reel-to-reel 16mm projector provided by Basement Films.
Beth Hansen of Basement Films and Flute Loops. Photo by Brian C. Nixton
Pappariella and Adams are on a film tour, taking the experimental experience on the road, with a few more stops in the Southwest.
For more information about experimental film in New Mexico, go to https://www.basementfilms.org.
Brian C. Nixon, Ph.D., is Chief Academic Officer and professor at Veritas International University in Albuquerque. As a writer, musician, and artist, his interests surround the philosophical transcendentals: truth, beauty, and goodness. You can contact Brian via his Bandcamp email address: https://briancharlesnixon.bandcamp.com
