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The freedom of working with very little money is the freedom from having to sell, it is the freedom of working at home and by hand, without big crews or sets. Nor any time constraints. One shot is taken per day, or one per year. Each one chooses their time and space. For that reason, and for everything else, experimental film is a subversive art, more so than documentary or political cinema. More subversive than intellectual or conceptual cinema. Which is why so few go into it, and even fewer stay. —Narcisa Hirsch
Narcisa Hirsch (1928–2024) was a German/Argentine filmmaker—based in Buenos Aires since 1935—who haunted the margins of international underground film culture for seven decades, during which she also created elaborate happenings and performative interventions into urban culture. Hirsch worked primarily in film however and, in both Super-8 and 16mm formats, produced a staggering body or over sixty individual works—which explored intertwined themes of eroticism, female identity, Argentine culture and politics while engaging with avant-garde film traditions, working collectively with a small group of Buenos Aires artists while engaging in collaborations and artistic dialog with artists including Werner Nekes, Claudio Caldini, Horacio Valleregio, Marie Louise Alemann, Michael Snow and the dissident documentary filmmaker Raymundo Gleyzer. An avid film collector, Hirsch shared prints by Carolee Schneemann, Stan Brakhage and Will Hindel (among others) at screenings in Buenos Aires underground spaces, further influencing that city’s independent film culture. Hirsch’s own work is currently being preserved by the Filmoteca Narcisa Hirsch. Having been recognized in major retrospectives at venues including Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (2010), Viennale (2012) and Documenta Athens (2017), Hirsch’s work has been very rarely screened in the US. In celebration of the life of Narcisa Hirsch, Cinematheque proudly presents a retrospective sampler of the filmmaker’s works, 1969–1984.
Special thanks in support of this program is extended to Media City Film Festival and also to Tomas Rautenstrauch, Director of Filmoteca Narcisa Hirsch.
SCREENING:
Taller/Workshop (1974) by Narcisa Hirsch; color, sound, 11 minutes.
Manzanas (1969) by Narcisa Hirsch; color, sound, 5 minutes.
A Dios (1989) by Narcisa Hirsch; color, sound, 26 minutes.
Canciones Napolitanas (1971) by Narcisa Hirsch; color, sound, 10 minutes.
Rafael, Agosto de 1984 (1984) by Narcisa Hirsch; color, sound, 12 minutes.
Orfeo y Euridice (1976) by Narcisa Hirsch; color, sound, 12 minutes.
All films 16mm screened as digital video. All exhibition files courtesy of Filmoteca Narcisa Hirsch.