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Chris Stults, Associate Curator, Film/Video
Mar 22, 2021
Jennifer Reeder's Crystal Lake; image courtesy of the filmmaker
Quietly, the Criterion Channel has been redefining what a streaming platform can be. Whereas Netflix or Hulu or Disney+ are warehouses that try to keep a little of everything in stock and seem to buy based on volume rather than quality, the Criterion Channel has created a cinematheque of delights that upends any expectations. Sure, there are the world cinema, art house, and auteurist classics that you’d expect from Janus Films and the Criterion Collection. But the channel goes into areas that no other streaming service has. The series Tell Me: Women’s Filmmakers, Women’s Stories encompasses decades of experimental, educational, and activist films from various stages of the women’s moment—mainly in 16mm or lo-fi video! Other recent series have covered Black Westerns, Japanese Noir, and Afrofuturism.
But it’s also so exciting and satisfying to see so many films supported by the Wexner Center’s Film/Video Studio featured on the collection. This month, the channel just added two films by Rodney Evans, Brother to Brother (2004) and Vision Portraits (2019), along with a conversation with Evans. Evans borrowed the Wexner Center’s 16mm Aaton camera to shoot Brother and had an extensive post-production residency to complete Portraits (often alongside editor Alexis McCrimmon, who, coincidentally, studied under Evans at Temple University) and also did public screenings and conversations around both films.
We’ve been proud to support Mansfield, Ohio native Kevin J. Everson’s work going back to the late 1990s. The Criterion Channel is spotlighting five films that he made with fellow University of Virginia professor Claudrena N. Harold for their ongoing Black Fire project. Recreating Black student life at UVA over the decades, Black Fire features several Wex-supported films.
Rodney Evans' Vision Portraits; image courtesy of the filmmaker
Another Ohio native, Jennifer Reeder’s ties to the Wex go back even further to when she worked at the Wex as an Ohio State student. It’s hard to quantify the number of projects of Reeder’s that the Center has supported in a variety of ways and her collaboration with former Studio editor Mike Olenick has been a particularly valuable one. Along with an entertaining interview with Reeder, the Criterion Channel’s spotlight on Reeder features many of her singular (yet sometimes interconnected) short films. Winnipeg’s Guy Maddin might be the only filmmaker to rival Reeder for the most visits to the Wex. His Criterion Channel spotlight is a cabinet of curiosities and overstuffed with oddities. Guy has come to Columbus to present a good number of these films but there are a generous amount of rarities included, too. It’s especially wonderful to see Maddin’s Wex-supported The Forbidden Room featured in the line-up.
Guy Maddin's The Forbidden Room; image courtesy of the filmmaker
Marie Losier might be a familiar name to Wexner Center patrons and has brought so much joy and energy to our theater over the years. We were so happy to give her a Residency Award for her first feature film The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye, one of the most distinctive love stories in cinema history. The rest of Losier’s Criterion retrospective features drag-queen luchadors, mermaids, UFOs, and numerous portraits of counterculture icons (including the previously mentioned Maddin). So many past visiting filmmakers to the Wex also have spotlights available on the Channel including current Oscar nominee Ramin Bahrani (the last visiting filmmaker to visit before the COVID shutdown), Alan Berliner, Catherine Breillat, Charles Burnett, Pedro Costa, Julie Dash, Claire Denis, Barbara Kopple, Mike Leigh, Nina Menkes (who gave a virtual masterclass last October), and Kelly Reichardt.
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