Rose Lowder

Reel 1 of Gérard Courant's on-going Cinematon series.

Fugitive images of the northwestern city of France.

Cinématon is a 156-hour long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It was the longest film ever released until 2011. Composed over 36 years from 1978 until 2006, it consists of a series of over 2,821 silent vignettes (cinématons), each 3 minutes and 25 seconds long, of various celebrities, artists, journalists and friends of the director, each doing whatever they want for the allotted time. Subjects of the film include directors Barbet Schroeder, Nagisa Oshima, Volker Schlöndorff, Ken Loach, Benjamin Cuq, Youssef Chahine, Wim Wenders, Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Samuel Fuller and Terry Gilliam, chess grandmaster Joël Lautier, and actors Roberto Benigni, Stéphane Audran, Julie Delpy and Lesley Chatterley. Gilliam is featured eating a 100-franc note, while Fuller smokes a cigar. Courant's favourite subject was a 7-month-old baby. The film was screened in its then-entirety in Avignon in November 2009 and was screened in Redondo Beach, CA on April 9, 2010.

"Turbulence was filmed in the medieval town of Alet les Bains [...] In the middle of the peaceful city, with a warm and relaxing climate, known for its thermal baths, one can see [...] a small waterfall, the images of which, as well as the title of the film refer to the present state of the world today." - Light Cone

A multi-projector, single-screen work superimposedshot a positive and negative print.

Filmed around the famous circular medieval wash house built on an equally famous spring, the Fosse Dionne, in the medieval town of Tonnerre, Yonne. It is surrounded by wild flowers from abandoned terraces, plants in the St. Pierre gardens, cultivated by the disabled and the injured, which lead up to the church on the hill, flowers hanging down from pots, their reflections and others growing in or around the water's edges.

"Turbulence was filmed in the medieval town of Alet les Bains [...] In the middle of the peaceful city, with a warm and relaxing climate, known for its thermal baths, one can see [...] a small waterfall, the images of which, as well as the title of the film refer to the present state of the world today." - Light Cone

A multi-projector, single-screen work superimposedshot a positive and negative print.

Filmed around the famous circular medieval wash house built on an equally famous spring, the Fosse Dionne, in the medieval town of Tonnerre, Yonne. It is surrounded by wild flowers from abandoned terraces, plants in the St. Pierre gardens, cultivated by the disabled and the injured, which lead up to the church on the hill, flowers hanging down from pots, their reflections and others growing in or around the water's edges.

Couleurs mécaniques presents, in the order they were filmed, six different viewpoints of a merry-go-round. In each case the focus is adjusted so as to select, isolate and inscribe parts of the filmed scene onto the film strip in a way that allows elements of color in movement to be recombined in a particular manner during the projection of the film.

Canada's king of visual alchemy teams up with France's mistress of minimalism to fashion a photo-based work of cinematic abstraction. Tactile and textured, luscious and luminescent, Two Pictures is a singular statement embodying a powerful dichotomy. This is a film that is simultaneously about nothing and about everything.

The film presents a field of sunflowers. The focus is adjusted frame by frame in succession according to a series of patterns on particular plants situated in different parts of the field. The diverse configurations placed on separate frames of the film strip appear, when projected successively, simultaneously on the screen. Thus, filmed one after another at different focal lengths, the sunflowers combine during projection to form one spatiotemporal image. LES TOURNESOLS COLORES is a capricious version of the film. - Film Makers' Coop

Bouquets 1-10 is Lowder’s first collection in an ongoing series of one minute episodes, each composed of footage shot around a general geographic location that has been alternately woven, frame by frame, into a single film reel and connected through the interstitial still life image of a flower that cues the beginning of each integrated film Bouquet. Each bouquet of flowers is also a bouquet of frames mingling the plants to be found in a given place with the activities that happen to be there at the time. Lowder uses the film strip as a canvas with the freedom to film frames on any part of the strip in any order, running the film through the camera as many times as needed.

In this film Lowder moves away from the notion of a work based on a preconceived filming procedure, adjusting the visual characteristics of the image in order to approach the temporal dimension of a pond full of frogs. In front of creatures that tend to be elusive, how can one record moments that are meaningful? How can one render a living moment visible and connect different recorded moments together?

BOUQUETS 31-40 continues, like the previous Bouquets, to explore different places, which for various reasons, are ecological. For 31-40 they are in France, in Ardèche, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Tarn and Vaucluse and also in Piemont, Italy. 

No synopsis available yet.

Worn out by the sea, the Sète fishing boats decide to spend a day in the country amongst the poppies surrounding Arles, Bédarrides and the Thouzon Grottos.

the fishing boats are out in the water the fish are caught. brought into shore the men haul the catch off the boat. the boat once again goes out to catch and the cycle continues. for centuries this pattern has repeated it's cycle like the tides which roll in and out a story which draws its energy from the sun the moon draws the tides the men work and die and it continues take a moment stretch your eyes and imagine just imagine all stories are true. (CB)

Alternating frames combine footage of Parisian landmarks taken at different times of day or in different seasons.

No synopsis available yet.

The title of “Impromptu” reflects both its creating process and the trait of life taking an unexpected course. This film intertwines time and space by being filmed frame on frame, in surprising locations, during a surprising time… but exactly this was the idea of the creator: contingency and visual improvisation. —Kaunas International Film Festival

Champ Provençal presents a frame by frame construction of a peach orchard at three different periods from a single viewpoint : with pink blossom (April 1), with green leaves (April 16) and with red-yellow peaches (June 24). Although the filming procedure is similar to that of Rue des Teinturiers, the recording processes controlling the organization the material in Champ Provençal are adapted to specific characteristics of the location with the aim of setting up another visual experience.

The procedure of separating and extracting certain aspects of a scene by adjusting the focus of a series of frames in succession according to various organizational patterns is developed in Retour d'un repère. While the filmic operations are structured in relation to a limited space (a branch over a 19c duck pond), the filmic process rests on a visual transformation of a pantoun, a verse form borrowed from literary rhetorics, which characteristically transforms itself gradually and continuously in a precise manner. - Lightcone

A quick view of three remarkable organic gardens: Le Tomple, Le jardin du Mas d’Abri in the department of Gard and Le jardin des Sambucs in the department of Hérault. The film goes over their general layout along pathways amongst the vegetation, ponds and people or animals that happen to be there at the time.

Quiproquo is a dialogue on the balance to be found between nature and social-industrial technology. As the film refers to the economy of the means involved in relation to what is expressed, it is both a reflection on the potentialities of the medium and an enquiry concerning the implications of the reality portrayed. It is a question of limits and possibilities, the beauty and tragedy of the world, with a critique of contemporary society’s dominant choices constantly in the background. Filmed in Berre l’Etang, Bouches du Rhône, in the villages of Orgon, Bouches du Rhône and La Coucourde, Drôme, on the roads to Beaumont-du-Ventoux and Carpentras, Vaucluse, and Tarascon, Bouches du Rhône.—Canyon Cinema

Sources originated from Thomas the Gardener’s wish to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his making vegetable pâté. Leaving urban life behind him in order to renew a relationship with the land, Thomas started up an organic garden in the beautiful area of hot and cold springs, lakes and rivers, in the upper Aude Valley. In the middle of making his pâté, the gardener is surrounded, as the water sources of the Aude river rush by, by one of the sources for his recipies, the flowers and spices from his garden.

With this film I wanted to pay homage to Yann Beauvais for his having, on top of his own work as an artist, against all odds, lack of funds or recognition concerning the field in question, made an important contribution to make known, as much by his writing as by his presenting and distributing, works by other authors. In hurrying and neglecting an infection on my right thumb, I had to film more or less with one hand and then spend two days in hospital. I can only think that the making of this little film reflects all the difficulties previously faced by Yann himself.

Composed frame by frame in the camera, Parcelle (fragment, particle or bit) rests upon the alternate appearance and variable duration of tiny colored squares or circles placed on black backgrounds and inserted in series between plain white or colored images, creating optical superimpositions on the screen.

China seen from Beijing May 1988, a year before the Spring 1989 Tiananmen rebellion, where the ancient traditional philosophies and social practices confront the political and economical ideological ambitions of the State.

The film starts in the Department of Ardèche with the Mont Gerbier de Jonc (1551 m) from where emerges the "true" source, the official, most distant one from the mouth of the Loire (1012 km), the longest wild river in France. The work looks closely time-wise on the first kilometers of the river's water flow. The scene's sound meets up with us at the end.

A glimpse of a spot around the Hôtel-Pension Beau-Site on the Chemin sur Martigny, Switzerland, situated in a hamlet surrounded by snow-capped mountains.

A glimpse of a spot around the Hôtel-Pension Beau-Site on the Chemin sur Martigny, Switzerland, situated in a hamlet surrounded by snow-capped mountains.

Footage of beachgoers and boats in harbor, shown in alternating frames taken at different times and shown with different tints.

"The town of Asti, Piemonte, in Italy, has in its park a very small pond in which there are a great number of turtles, a species 'Trachemys scripta and Trachemys scripta elegans' protected by the 'Movimento Nationale U.N.A. Onlus Uorno-Natura_Animal'”. In spite of the very limited space in the pond, a spirit of well-being prevails, all is calm while each turtle tries to find its place even if it means falling into the water every now and then." - Light Cone

The magnificent garden we see in the film is part of the Brière Regional Nature Park, in the heart of the Guérande peninsula (in Loire-Atlantique), and covers over a hectare. Comprising a vegetable garden, an ornamental garden, a copse and two ponds, it is a space in constant flux, but also a visual melting pot that invites cinematic exploration. The film was shot as a tribute to the creators of this beautiful place, Annick Bertrand-Gillen and Yves Gillen.

Based on natural light, an element that has played a fundamental role in the development of cinema, the film's subject revolves around solar panels in two locations, Cascina Piola, in Capriglio, and Le Vieil Eclis, in Asserac, in the Loire-Atlantique. As we watch, we also find ourselves in the midst of the sparkling light, exposed to the wind like butterflies, bees and clouds.

BOUQUET 25 (2002) was shot in Cantal, around Le Tahoul, the Falgoux Valley and the Aulac Pass. This reel mingles the few flowers uneaten by the Salers cows with the village residents going about their affairs. BOUQUET 26 (2003) was filmed in the middle of the animals of a small farm, La Terra di Mezzo, perched on hillside terraces of Liguria, Italy. BOUQUET 27 (2003) moves around a macrobiotic centre in St. Gaudens, Haute-Garonne. Amongst glimpses of the surrounding countryside leading to the village of St. Béat, it shows its residents working on the land, repairing items or making rice biscuits.

Six poetic pictures, five based on the sun, the wind and the sea, while the last lingers on a small park left fallow.

Little is necessary for everything to appear differently. The date, the hour, the weather, the space's layout, one's glance or presence of mind . . . can make everything change. The boats sail out of the Vieux port in Marseille to be amongst the poppy fields.

Les tournesols colorés is derived from the same footage used in Les tournesols, but with candy colors, giving other modulations to movie movements. The two versions can be shown one after the other, although they were designed to be played separately.

In Retour d'un repère composé the same material is presented successively in three different versions : the first third is a straight single print which corresponds exactly to Retour d'un repère. The second third is a combined picture printed twice onto the same film strip (the second printing being in another tone and shifted back one frame) and the third section is a combined image printed in a similar way thrice. The length of Retour d'un repère composé is necessary : in the process of viewing the film the work gathers momentum thus giving access to a more intricate visual experience. "Composed recurrence" is a rough translation of Retour d'un repère composé as one loses the "point of reference" aspect concerning "repère".

BOUQUETS 21-30 is a part of the ecological BOUQUETS series, consisting of one-minute films composed in the camera by weaving the characteristics of different environments with the activities there at the time. The filming basically entails using the film strip as a canvas with the freedom to film frames on any part of the strip in any order, running the film through the camera as many times as needed. Thus each bouquet of flowers is also a unique bouquet of film frames.

Footage of public spaces around Avignon, shown in alternating frames captured at different times.

Looping carnival rides slow, stutter, and stop in the first film of Lowder's series disrupting the flow of time in quotidian French life.

This reel consists of three short films, two in black and white and one in color, that treat of a water wheel on the Sorgue. The essence of the work rests on a series of cross-references that are set up between the operational mechanisms of the filmed object and the recorded characteristics foregrounded by the choice of film stocks and filming circumstances. The title reflects the process involved. Roulement = rotation, rouerie = wiliness, aubage = paddle wheel unit. - Film Makers' Coop

An entry, filmed in Italy, Switzerland and France, in Rose Lowder's series collecting one minute episodes, each composed of footage shot around a general geographic location that has been alternately woven, frame by frame, into a single film reel. In spite of its numbering, this collection was completed later than Bouquets 21-30 (delayed, Lowder explains, "by the weather and a series of related technical/aesthetics incidents").