Into the Mothlight Podcast

In 2021 Andrew was the recipient of the Margaret Tait Award, this is Scotland’s most prestigious moving image prize for artists, and inspired by the pioneering Orcadian filmmaker and poet Margaret Tait. The film that Andrew made from the award was On Clogger Lane, and this is the focus of this Episode of Into the Mothlight Podcast. Links and images on our website at www.intothemothlight.com Would...

With Steve Polta, Artistic Director of San Francisco Cinematheque and co-founder and current curator of Cinematheque’s annual Crossroads film festival. We chat about his journey into experimental film, the alternative film and video scene in San Francisco in the 1990's, his approach to curating Crossroads and the significance of artist-run film labs. Images and links on the website at www.intothem...

This time, an interview with artist filmmaker Julia Parks. Julia’s practice encompasses film, animation and photography, often using series of photographs and projected 16mm film. Through this medium, she explores the different relationships between landscape, place and people, often focusing on the west-coast of Cumbria. ​ Julia is currently living in Hawick as part of a 6-month residency with Al...

In our first face to face interview in a long time, we talk to New York based filmmaker Mark Street. In his artist statement Mark says, “My work ranges from abstract hand-manipulated pieces to work that involves found footage, to feature length improvised narratives. Each film attempts to investigate new terrain, and avoids being confined by a specific look or mood.” The idea of not being confined...

Since the 1980s, Lynne Sachs has created cinematic works that defy genre through the use of hybrid forms and collaboration, incorporating elements of the essay film, collage, performance, documentary and poetry. Her films explore the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences. Her latest feature ‘Film about a Father Who’ is being screened on the Criteri...

This time on Into the Mothlight Podcast an in-depth interview with the London based artist filmmaker Sarah Pucill. Her films have been shown in galleries and won awards at Festivals internationally. The majority of her films take place within the confinements of domestic space, where the grounded reality of the house itself becomes a portal to a complex and multi layered psychical realm. In her ex...

Our guest on this episode is the American filmmaker Nathanial Dorsky, a prolific and poetic filmmaker who has been making short experimental films since the mid 1960’s. His book Devotional Cinema is essential reading for anyone interested in the transformative nature of film. We discuss shooting the light on a plant, his approach to open form editing and why he only shows work at 18 fps. We also t...

We are delighted that The Film and Video Poetry Society, host to the annual Film and Video Poetry Symposium, has become the principle financial sponsor to Into The Mothlight Podcast. As we exceeds ten thousand listens, and prepare to release our 30th episode, we look back at the last three years, and hear from Jesse Russell Brooks, Managing Director of The Film and Video Poetry Society.

The Artists’ Moving Image Festival (AMIF) was established in 2012 to provide a platform for the discussion and presentation of artists’ moving image, showcasing forms of production and research alongside screenings and discursive events. This year the festival has been co-programmed by artists and writers Tako Taal and Adam Benmakhlouf and includes a series of screenings and events scheduled to fo...

LUX is an international arts agency that supports and promotes artists’ moving image practices and the ideas that surround them. Founded in 2002 the organisation builds on a long lineage of predecessors including The London Film-Makers’ Co-operative, London Video Arts and The Lux Centre. Benjamin Cook is the founder director of LUX and LUX Scotland. He has been professionally involved in the indep...

Kim Knowles has been writing and teaching about experimental film for over 15 years and currently lectures in Alternative and Experimental Film at Aberystwyth University in Wales. She curates the Black Box strand of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. A programme described as “Daring, challenging, uncompromising and thought-provoking” with short and feature-length experimental and artists’...

MM Serra is an experimental filmmaker, curator, author, educator and the Executive Director of Film-Makers' Cooperative, the world's oldest and largest archive of independent media. She has produced, directed, and edited more than fourteen works. Her own work, as well as her curated programs, have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of the Moving Image in New York; The Centre...

Transit Arts have been organising the exhibition of artists moving image since 2015, through public screening programmes and experimental publishing. It is run by the Glasgow based curator and writer Marcus Jack, who is also currently researching histories of artists’ moving image in Scotland. His first exhibition of artists moving image came from the back of a transit van and a series of popup sc...

The filmmaker Mark Jenkin is best known for the film Bait from 2019, which earned him a BAFTA. However as you will hear in this episode of Into the Mothlight Podcast, the journey that led to him creating this outstanding film is a long and interesting one. You’ll find links, information and images, plus a list of some of the people and films mentioned in the interview, on our website at www.intoth...

This time we are in discussion with independent artist, filmmaker and researcher Karel Doing. Karel is a prolific filmmaker, his films, performances and installations have been shown widely. In recent years his work has revolved around experimenting with a new organic process he calls Phytography - a technique that uses the internal chemistry of plants for the creation of images on photographic em...

Artist filmmakers Mark Lyken (films, video installations and sound works) and Emma Dove (film, installation and photography) live and work together in rural Dumfriesshire, Scotland. Together they combine their experience as individual artists to produce immersive films and moving image installations. See our website for images and links to some of the films featured in the interview. https://www.i...

Demelza Kooij is an artist, filmmaker, and lecturer. Her work is presented at film festivals, museums, art exhibitions, and conferences. Her latest film 'Wolves From Above' won the Jury Prize at the 57th Ann Arbor Film Festival. She has previously taught at Edinburgh College of Art and worked at the Scottish Documentary Institute. I talked to Demelza about a few of her films, including her latest...

San Francisco filmmaker and visual artist Emma Penaz Eisner on her love for the work of Jan Švankmajer, the importance of meeting with like minded people, her passion for sharing and discussing her work and how she represents dream scapes and dream logic through animation.

This time we have been in London to talk to members of the Exploding Cinema, a volunteer collective of filmmakers and film lovers who run an open access film show where anyone can show any film under 20 minutes.

Los Angeles based artist and filmmaker Madison Brookshire on helping us re-engage with "lived time", experiments in matching the flickering light of a projector to the frequencies of a harmonium, and the thinking behind his long form, self-performing works. Images and links on our website at https://www.intothemothlight.com

This time we talk to Rotterdam based artist Esther Urlus on her analogue filmmaking practice, experiments in hand made silver gelatin emulsion, repurposing analogue filmmaking equipment from commercial cinema, her DIY approach and the importance of her filmmaking community at Filmwerkplaats Rotterdam and beyond.

We visit Bristol and meet up with members of BEEF - Bristol Experimental Expanded Film. They are a film and sound collective that have been supporting experimental practice in the city since 2015. We talk about what led to the formation of the collective, the importance of collaboration within a collective and some of the events and workshops they run and produce. Fine out more at our website www....

We talk to Canadian filmmaker Stephen Broomer about his passion for found footage, the creative and chemical processes he applied to his recent work 'Tondal's Vision' and his own journey through this particular style of experimental film. We also discuss the history of found footage and the distinct trends he identifies in the genre, referencing work from among others Jack Chambers, Joseph Cornell...

We go behind the scenes at the Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, preview the 2019 edition and talk to the team that make this event happen.

A conversation with moving image artist Tereza Stehlíková where, amongst other things, we discuss her recent work From You to Me: 4 Generations of Women, her 2016 impressionistic documentary Trieste : In-between states and her relationship with Jan Švankmajer.