Experiments in Cinema

Bryan Konefsky brings experimental cinematic arts to the UNM community and beyond..

by Valerie Roybal

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Bryan Konefsky, tireless and long-time educator of video art, filmmaking, and other media, does not consider himself an artist, but rather a “cultural worker.” Making this distinction is natural for him: It involves transferring the focus of creating from a self-oriented point of view to creating for and with others. It also involves making a connection and creating more than just art, but a community through collaboration and the encouragement of shared viewpoints. Konefsky believes in the importance of supporting self-expression far and wide. “Everyone has a story to tell,” he says, “And I’m interested in finding it, drawing it out of people, and then putting it out there.”

One of Konefsky’s many modes of actualizing this idea is by presenting Experiments in Cinema, a three-day film festival in collaboration with Basement Films, local non-profit supporters and presenters of under-represented cinema. The primary goal of Experiments is to provide an alternative cinematic experience to the UNM and Albuquerque community. With strong local interest and funding from the McCune Foundation, the UNM Department of Cinematic Arts, and the UNM PLACE (Partnership Learning for Arts and Community Engagement) Program, April 2008 will be the third run of the fledgling festival, which has expanded each year with additional programming.

The festival is unique in a number of ways. The planning of the festival is offered as a Cinematic Arts course at UNM, providing students an academic opportunity to collaborate, coordinate, and present a cultural event. Students form and join committees that are charged with various aspects of planning and production. Additionally, students from local Amy Biehl High School can intern with the festival, serving as valuable assistants, gaining experience, and obtaining the mentorship of UNM students and Basement Films.

The program, curated by Konefsky, students, and guest curators, aims to go beyond Hollywood and present the best in experimental and under-represented forms of filmmaking selected from a pool of short films submitted through an international open call. “We receive entries from all over the world; it puts us in a role of being social scientists in a way. We look forward to receiving work that is challenging, thoughtful, and goes beyond traditional notions of ‘the cinematic,’” he says. “We want to support moving image artists who are making movies in ways that we have never imagined possible.” Konefsky believes that these visionary experimentalists are vital to our cultural health and that their work informs other modes of movie making.

Experiments in Cinema screens films on campus at the Southwest Film Center and at the nearby independent theater, the Guild. In addition to film (including 35mm, 16mm, and digital video), the festival presents special events, such as panel discussions and scholarly presentations from visiting filmmakers and experts. The 2007 festival presented “Secession From the Broadcast,” featuring Gene Youngblood, renowned scholar on experimental film and media, as well as a talk on the history of amateur filmmaking given by Dwight Swanson and the founders of Home Movie Day. Eventually, Konefsky would like to include more film showings and multi-media presentations, including live performance with film. In 2008, he has plans to publish a DVD of the festival program. He would also like to expand collaboration by “taking the festival to the streets” and involving local galleries and presenting at more locations, especially alternative spaces, out-of-the-way places, and out of town. To this end, one of Konefsky’s students, Noel Fernando, received a UNM PLACE Grant to take Experiments in Cinema around the state in the coming year.

In the bigger scheme of things, Experiments in Cinema fits right into New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s Media Industries Strategic Plan, a priority that has been adopted by UNM on a number of levels. The UNM ARTS Lab hosts the annual New Mexico Media Industries Conference. And, under the guidance of College of Fine Arts Associate Dean Jim Linnell, UNM has crafted the Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media Program in association with Sony Pictures Imageworks IPAX. This new program provides education and research opportunities aiming to support growth and innovation in, among other things, areas of digital media, animation, and visualization. Additionally, the Cinematic Arts department offers students the opportunity to study a wide range of cinematic histories in addition to production courses, in which burgeoning filmmakers develop skills and create films that respond to the histories and theoretical concepts explored in other courses.

“I’ve had a not-so-secret mission to keep experimental film included in the larger New Mexico filmmaking conversation,” says Konefsky. “So far, so good!”