The Film-Makers' Collective

TBD

Professor Matt Shaw’s “Contemporary Film and the City” class was graced with a visit to The Film-Makers' Cooperative, a non-profit organization founded in 1961 dedicated to the collection, preservation, and distribution of experimental film in New York City. Julia Petrocelli, from Cooper’s Film and Video Department, works at the Coop and led us on a tour of the office, culminating in a screening of various 16mm films. Among them were Rudy Burckhardt’s Square Times (1967), Jack Waters’ Berlin / New York (1984), Richard Tuohy’s Seoul Electric (2012), and Jonas Mekas’ Williamsburg, Brooklyn (2003). Julia has been a friend of mine for a while, and I was delighted when she greeted us at the door of the office, which is unassumingly nestled inside a ritzy glass and marble tower on Park Ave. It was even more delightful to see her expertise as she explained how film can develop ‘vinegar syndrome,’ an irreversible process of chemical decay that is triggered by humidity, causing film to shrink and emit an acid with a distinct odor of vinegar. The Co-op’s archive is made of shelves storing rolls upon rolls of 16mm film, each canister labeled with a collage of typewriter labels and tape notations denoting damage, names, and makers—it felt like a frozen moment in time, projected ever forward onto the darkroom screening wall.