Paul Tarrago

I’ve been making films with decidedly minimal budgets for the past fifteen years - performing all tasks (from camera operation to sound recording to edit) myself. I've shown recently at the Chicago Underground Film Festival, 5 Years Gallery, Kinofilm International Festival, Berks Filmmakers, and at a host of other venues around the US and the UK. Forthcoming festival screenings (confirmed so far) are to take place in Texas, Melbourne and Victoria (BC). One of my films features on the Lux touring package Animal Magic, another on Vacuum #1 - a compilation of British underground film and video, and anothers recently cropped up on the New York based Pink Pony compilation. A fourth can be seen in the recently released Anglo-German feature film maldoror (www.bak.spc.org/maldoror for more info).

I’m (south) London-based, and for the past nine years have combined my filmmaking with my activities as a member of the Exploding Cinema - a film and video maker run collective dedicated to originating alternative methods of exhibition (please see our website on www.explodingcinema.org for further details). Otherwise I spend my time - and earn my living - in the time honoured filmmakerly tradition with a couple of teaching contracts supplemented by various bits of dull dull temp work in between.

Filmography
How We Make Our Films (16mm, 2.5 mins, 2002)
Illustrated (and wholly fictional) lecture on the light threads methodology of filmmaking.
Moving Back From The Beyond (Super 8, 14mins, 2002)
Faced with the possibility of return, the dead consider their next move. Experimental/ narrative tale with live action, animation + pathos.
The Empty Film (Super 8, 4 mins, 2000)
Prelude to a cycling trip as a fracture line on reality - incorporating live action and single frame work (= animation + timed exposures).
Intro film* (a.k.a. The Swinging Twirling Camera Film)/End sequence
(Super 8 + slides/ Single 8, 5 mins/1.75 mins, 2000)
Doomed to fail kinetic Super 8 film experiment recorded live with slides, sound + the camera footage itself - strangely beguiling mayhem./ Multiply exposed personalities disordered.
Why the Canary Sings No More (Super 8, 14mins, 2000)
Live action and animation treatment of an episode from Lautréamont's 1868 anti-novel Maldoror. Part of an Anglo-German feature length collaboration.
Last Night Meant Nothing (Super 8, 20.5 mins, 1998/9)
Experimental narrative journeying through the good and bad dreams of an otherwise indifferent night.
Eratosthenes at Home (Super 8/performance, 5.5 mins, 1998)
Time-lapse film and live performance piece - fake biography and illustrated lecture on how the Earth's circumference was calculated.
Signs of Life (Super 8, 5.5 mins, 1997)
Found footage, offcuts and extraneous sequences reassemblage - a gesture to the pleasures of images that move.
Human Error in the Mechanical Age (Super 8, 11.5 mins, 1997)
More live action and animation, described in the Whitechapel Open screening notes by Andrew Kötting as: Glorious dreamscape and a dog connection, reminiscent of a bygone era at the dawning of the age of the answer machine.
Volcano Meets the Press (Super 8, 5 mins, 1996)
The film of the Press action - kinetic reworking of a publicity ploy for the Volcano Film Festival.
Stay in a Friendly Country (Super/Single 8, 14 mins, 1995)
Formally eclectic but heartfelt tribute to the holiday home movie heritage of low gauge formats.
Paint Sale (Super 8, 3.5 mins, 1994)
A documentary - of sorts - retinted, toned, sped up, slowed down.
Their Time Had Come (Super 8, 5.5 mins, 1993)
A documentary on animal mortality - live action and hand treated footage (bleach + inks).
Notebook (Super 8, 13.5 mins, 1993)
A tribute to Marie Menken's film of the same name - literally a notebook spanning several tomes worth of self-devised techniques - narrative, formal and attacking and sticking things to the film-wise.
Requiem for an Ice Baby (Super 8, 6.5 mins, 1992)
The fleeting memories of a melting infant - live action, animation and rephotography (through ice).
Home Town Reel (Standard 8, 5.5 mins, 1992)
Multiply exposed passage through local urban and domestic spaces.
Life And How To (16mm, 11 mins, 1990)
Experimental narrative exploring a therapist's relationship with her kleptomaniac patient.

Selected screenings
Nova Cinema, Melbourne, Australia August 2002
Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago August 2002
Moviate Montage Film Festival, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA May 2002
Films from the London Underground, Mel Hoppenheim School of Film, Montreal, Canada February + April 2002
The Difference Between You and Us, 5 Years Gallery, Underwood Street, London Nov/Jan 2001/2
Kinofilm International Festival of Short Film + Video, Manchester October 2001
Berks Filmmakers, Pennsylvania, USA September 2001
Balagan, The Coolidge Theatre, Boston, USA September 2001
Cinematexas International Short Film + Video Festival, Austin, Texas September 2001
Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago August 2001
Turf UK, Anthology Film Archives, New York, USA June 2001
Flicker, The Knitting Factory, New York, USA June 2001
Moviate Montage Film Festival, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA May 2001
The Beam of Plenty, 5 Years Gallery, Underwood Street, London May 2001
Beer Cannes Festival, London May 2001
Slide 8, Foster TVI Cinema Theatre, Preston March 2001
New York Underground Film Festival, New York March 2001
Slide 8, one person showcase at the Foster TVI Cinema Theatre, Preston March 2001
The Pleasure Dome, Toronto, Canada December 2000
Cinematexas International Short Film + Video Festival, Austin, Texas October 2000
The Lux, London October 2000
Antimatter Festival of Underground Film + Video, Victoria, BC, Canada Sept. 2000
Super 8 Sideshow, Denver, Colorado August 2000
Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago August 2000
Film Couch, one person showcase at The Lux July 2000
The Lab, film programme for Brighton Festival, Brighton Cinemathèque May 2000
Film Interrupted, De Balie, Amsterdam May 2000
Self Service, 5 Years Gallery, Underwood Street, London May 2000
Go To the Balcony: An Interdisciplinary Arts Festival, Wimbledon School of Art, May 2000
Citymorph 2000 Demo or Die Festival of New Media, Buffalo, NY March 2000
New York Underground Film Festival, New York March 2000
Centre d'Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona March 2000
artcinema OFF-OFF, Copenhagen February 2000
The Cabinet, The Lux January 2000
A Promise of Happiness, 5 Years Gallery, Underwood Street, London Nov/Dec 99
Half a Lager and a packet of crisps: British Underground Films of the late 90's, Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut November 99
Going Underground, accompanying film programme to Sensation exhibition, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York October 99
Kinofilm International Festival of Short Film + Video, Manchester October 99
Xeno International Film Festival: Cinema From the New Europe, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York October 99
Antimatter Festival of Underground Film + Video, Victoria, BC, Canada Sept. 99
Videarte Festival, Mexico City September 99
Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago August 99
Afflicktion, London and Edinburgh June/July/August 99
Ebensee Film Festival der Nationen, Austria June 99
Exploding Cinema, The Union Tavern, London May 99
Montage Film Festival, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA April 99
Transat Video, Heronville Saint-Clair, France April 99
Expo Destructo, London March 99
New York Underground Film Festival, New York March 99
Pick of Pandaemonium, The Lux January 99
Santa Volcana, Cine Club Benefit for Volcano 99 December 98
Meridian TV, Southampton December 98
Prague Indies Film Festival, Prague October 98
Pandaemonium, The Lux, London October 98
3rd Global Attic Video + Filmfestival, Rotterdam June 98
The Whitechapel Open, Whitechapel Gallery April/May 98
The Cine Shed, Kennington April 98
Gebaude 9, Cologne April 98
G werk-ost, Frankfurt April 98
* (Intro film is a split-screen video version of The Swinging Twirling......)

Title: Intro Film AKA the Swinging, Twirling Camera

Show: Have You Ever Tried It

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