Mesmerizing
After getting a hand-written treatment / manifesto and a complementary set of earplugs for his work Are We Fairly Represented, I couldn't help seeing projection artist Bruce McLure as a cinematic Ted Kaczynski.
In his live performance with 16mm projectors and a table filled with mixers and sound-effect pedals, McClure explodes cinema like the Unabomber.
He blows movies apart into repeating images playing on multiple film loops and distorted sound from the audio tracks. The result is a loud, flickering, hypnotic experience: part movie, part lightshow, and part concert.
I wasn't sure I'd enjoy the performance, though I knew it would be unusual.
I made a mental note: how long would I stay interested? At what point during the 45-minute performance would I feel like leaving?
At the 20-minute mark I still was caught up in the sound (mostly) and images. When everything went silent 25 minutes later I was shocked. Not ready for it to end.
So, yet another amazing experience brought to town by the Cleveland Cinemateque. If you aren't yet a fan, do yourself a favor and go to their website to see their schedule of films (and related events). If there's nothing that looks interesting I'd say you just don't like movies.
