Kim Knowles: Materialist Action Films – Online Lecture

This online lecture expands on a section of Kim Knowles‘ recently published book Experimental Film and Photochemical Practices. It explores the ways in which gesture and performance are woven into a self-reflexive use of photochemical film in a range of works by female filmmakers from the UK. Contrary to its emphasis on hypermasculine big budget Hollywood, the term ‘action film’ is harnessed here to describe the various interactions between bodies, materials and mechanics in the works of Vicky Smith, Bea Haut and Jenny Baines in particular. Running, climbing, jumping and negotiating interior and exterior spaces, these films draw attention to the interconnected physicalities at work in the artistic process and open up new avenues for thinking about materiality as a form of both protest and play.