Close Up

29 October 2017: Untold Stories

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Two films which bring to life the artists searching for the meaning between frames.

Si J'avais 4 Dromadaires
Chris Marker
1966 | 49 min | B/W | DCP

Composed entirely of still photographs shot by Marker himself over the course of his restless travel through twenty-six countries, Si J'avais 4 Dromadaires (If I Had Four Dromedaries) stages a probing, at times agitated, search for the meanings of the photographic image, in the form of an extended voiceover conversation and debate between the “amateur photographer” credited with the images and two of his colleagues. Anticipating later writings by Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag (who professed her admiration for the film) If I Had Four Dromedaries reveals Marker’s instinctual understanding of the secret rapport between still and moving image.

Double-Blind (No Sex Last Night)
Sophie Calle & Gregory Shephard
1992 | 76 min | Colour | Digital

In her premiere video project, French conceptual artist Sophie Calle joins with Gregory Shephard to create a voyeuristic tour de force. Armed with camcorders, Calle and her collaborator/partner Shephard head West in his Cadillac convertible to produce and document a real-life narrative of their journey and their relationship. With America as the backdrop for this unconventional coast-to-coast road movie, Calle and Shephard each narrates and records a personal diary, presenting strikingly different versions of the narrative/relationship. 

Aiming their duelling camcorders, the protagonists chronicle the elusive landscapes of human relations, wrestling to reconcile self, sexuality, and desire. The viewer is challenged to reconsider the subjective and cultural roles imposed by gender, sexuality, power, and tradition. Throughout, Calle seeks to redefine through personal investigation the terms and parameters of subject/object, public/private, truth, fiction, and role-playing. The quasi-documentary style evokes the films of Chris Marker, to whom Double-Blind is dedicated.


Part of pic.london festival 2017