Janie Geiser Program 1: The Nervous Films + The Red Book and The Fourth Watch

With Janie Geiser in person

This program features The Nervous Films (2009–12), a series of five collage-based films made of found and natural objects, medical illustrations, photographs, extant footage, and other elements. They center on the body, childhood, memory, war, illness, and loss. Also included are The Red Book (1994) an elliptical, pictographic animated film that uses flat, painted figures and collage elements to explore the realms of memory, language, and identity from the point of view of a woman amnesiac; and The Fourth Watch (2000), set in the hours before dawn, when an endless succession of rooms is inhabited by silent film figures occupying flickering space in a midcentury house made of printed tin.

Featuring:
The Red Book
1994, 11 mins, 16mm
This elliptical, pictographic animated film uses flat, painted figures and collage elements in both two and three-dimensional settings to explore the realms of memory, language, and identity from the point of view of a woman amnesiac. Sound design by Beo Morales, engineered at Harmonic Ranch.

The Fourth Watch  
2000, 10 mins, 16mm
The ancient Greeks divided the night into four sections; the last section before morning was called the fourth watch. In these hours before dawn, an endless succession of rooms is inhabited by silent film figures occupying flickering space in a midcentury house made of printed tin. Their presence is at once inevitable and uncanny. Music by Tom Recchion.

The Nervous Films (2009–12)
This series of five collage-based films center on the body, childhood, memory, war, illness, and loss, using found and natural objects, medical illustrations, photographs, found footage, and other collage elements. Geiser’s films evoke rather than tell; they expose the materiality of the image and the fragility of the body for what they are: ephemeral, liquid, a battlefield of nervous dreams. Most of these frame-based films were shot in 16mm with a Bolex camera (Ricky was shot digitally), rewinding and double exposing the film to create layered superimpositions that heighten the sense of depth and disturb the sense of time in the films. The resulting fleeting images cannot be replicated—they are chance collisions of images and time. The films are edited digitally, with Geiser simultaneously creating their intricate sound collage-scores as she creates the visual montage. 

Ghost Algebra
2009, 7 mins, 16mm-to-digital; sound collage: Janie Geiser; sound mix: Kari Rae Seekins

Kindless Villain
2010, 5 mins, 16mm-to-digital; sound collage: Janie Geiser; sound mix: Kari Rae Seekins

The Floor of the World
2010, 9 mins, 16mm-to-digital; sound collage: Janie Geiser; sound mix: Kari Rae Seekins

Ricky
2011, 11 mins, digital projection; sound collage: Janie Geiser; sound Mix: Kari Rae Seekins

Arbor
2012, 8 mins, 16mm-to-digital; sound collage: Janie Geiser; sound mix: Kari Rae Seekins

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / free for MoMI members at the Senior/Student level and above. Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. Review safety protocols before your visit.