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11.
EXPRMNTL 4. Catalogue for the 4th Knokke Experimental Film Festival, held in Knokke-le-Zoute, Belgium, December 25th, 1967-January 2nd, 1968.
12mo. Wrps., 90pp. + 25pp. index and appendix, along with two copies of the two-part printed programme. Texts in English, French and German. Front cover reproduces the poster designed for the event by Pierre Alechinsky.
EXPRMNTL 4 played a significant role in disseminating the ideas of expanded cinema and lightshows in Europe, as well as being influential on the London Film-Makers Co-op and the London scene in general, especially David Curtis, who reported on the festival for International Times and whose film programming for the Arts Lab changed as a result of it.
The catalogue’s contents include details of the films in competition, with brief synopses and capsule biographies of the filmmakers, and details of the winning films from the previous three events.
The festival originated as a showcase for experimental film in 1947 as part of the World Festival of Film in Brussels, followed by a second, more specifically experimental film festival in 1958, part of the Brussels World’s Fair. The third (1963), fourth (1967) and fifth (1974) festivals were all held in an empty casino in Knokke-le-Zoute under the EXPRMNTL name, the first of these being notorious for the clandestine screenings of Jack Smith’s ‘Flaming Creatures’ by Jonas Mekas, P. Adams Sitney and Barbara Rubin in their hotel rooms.
59 films were submitted to the selection jury of EXPRMNTL 4, among them works by Martin Scorsese (‘The Big Shave’), Piero Heliczer (‘Joan of Arc’), Storm De Hirsch, Stephen Dwoskin, Paul Sharits, Charles Henri Ford, Robert Nelson (‘Grateful Dead’), George Kuchar, Joyce Wieland, Gregory Markopoulos, James Broughton, Stan Vanderbeek, Ben Van Meter, Michael Snow (‘Wavelength’, winner of the Grand Prize), and Jud Yalkut (with Yayoi Kusama), from which 24 were chosen and 66 others added. A number of other films were shown, though not in competition, including ‘Le Corbeau et le renard’ (1967) by Marcel Broodthaers, and ‘Speak’ (1962) by John Latham. Famously, during a debate about the films in the competition, Jean-Jacques Lebel announced the selection of Miss Expérimentation 1967 and was joined onstage by a naked Yoko Ono.
A tight, Very Good plus copy, with the programmes loosely inserted. Illustrated in London’s Arts Labs, p.62.
