Le soleil, la mer, le cœur et les étoiles

To describe the events spreading out in Aurore, in Royaume and in Bleu, suitable tools still have to be found ; up until now, nothing much has been said or done about a cinema that quite specifically deals with picture as a sensation. Then one can always attempt, as plainly as possible, to draw a few lines, trying to single out a few dimensions, a few questions, a few perspectives that run through these films and relate them to the history of pictures and cinema.

Light, colour, abstraction, perception, hallucination: a few concerns closely akin to those of ETANT DONNÉS which, however, do not amount to them. The most fruitful feature of such closeness lies in the tension of the many differences, and mainly, for ETANT DONNÉS, the issue of the primacy of the visible and the real, which does not exclude the pursuit of sensation.

Like a leap into the abyss of your flesh / Like a cry in the fire / Like a shattering mirror / Like a leap into the light.

An 8mm short film directed by Marc Hurtado.

To describe the events spreading out in Aurore, in Royaume and in Bleu, suitable tools still have to be found ; up until now, nothing much has been said or done about a cinema that quite specifically deals with picture as a sensation. Then one can always attempt, as plainly as possible, to draw a few lines, trying to single out a few dimensions, a few questions, a few perspectives that run through these films and relate them to the history of pictures and cinema.

In Jajouka, a village nestled in Morocco’s Rif mountains, magic rites accompanied by a peculiar music performed by “the Master Musicians of Jajouka” (a brotherhood of musicians) are commonplace. Acclaimed musicians Eric and Marc Hurtado, founders of the group Etant Donnés, explore these rituals and legends in fascinating complicity with the master musicians and other villagers of Jajouka. Weaving documentary and fiction, the Hurtados eschew an investigation of the healing power and spiritual transcendence of Jajouka; instead, they have created a film so riveting and poetic that it transposes the experience of trance and emotional release onto the viewer. In Arabic, French; English subtitles. 59 min.

A portrait of Alan Vega as painter, drawer and sculptor of light

The confrontation of reality and dream.

Malga Kubiak stars in her exploration of sex and self. One woman's love to her own body interlaced with maggots; mixes x-rated porn. Voyeuristically titillating this avant-garde study of horrors of sex.

Total force, total speed, to caress infinity, to transcend flesh.

Directed early 2018 in the south of France with young woodworkers

My Lover the Killer is the former title of the album by Lydia Lunch & Marc Hurtado released in 2016. The music, first languorous then abrasive, accompanies the verbal flow of the transgressive poetess who comes back to an intimate and violently tragic episode of her own life: her love and death story with Johnny O’Kane. With her long-time collaborator, Lydia Lunch, face to face with the camera, transforms this naked scene full of troubled anger into a deep dark confession. Hurtado’s images are saturated, grainy, willingly experimental and clash with those of an archive of furious performances. Just like the one who seeks to avoid taking part in her own prophecy.

"From Me to Me / There / Up / One in the Other / I ride / I aspire" (M.H.)

A poignant testimony of Alan Vega filmed in a New York Hospital

A hallucinatory trip in the mysterious apocalyptic Suicide visions of Alan Vega & Martin Rev