Maria Magnusson has gathered thoughts from internationally active female filmmakers in her book Five Fabulous Female Filmmakers. Together with Lisa Marr, she has also created the short film Peace—a commentary in a time when voices for peace have been overshadowed by ongoing militarization around the world. Live at Galleri Konstepidemin invites you to an evening of film screening, book release, and conversation!

Book: Five Fabulous Female Filmmakers

In 2018, Maria Magnusson met with Gunvor Nelson on several occasions at her home and studio in Kristinehamn. They had much to discuss, and these meetings culminated in a longer conversation about processes and thoughts on art and experimental film. Maria was then inspired to invite internationally active female filmmakers and artists working in this tradition to share their thoughts on the subject.

The individuals she selected represent different generations and share a love for the analog cinematic format and experimental film, which has inspired Maria in various ways. She has also met and collaborated with these filmmakers. In 2013, Maria participated in the Independent Imaging Retreat, also known as Film Farm, in Mount Forest, Canada, founded by Philip Hoffman and Marian McMahon. It was there she fell in love with analog experimental film processes and first met Lisa Marr, Terra Long, and Caroline Monnet. Kai Ephron was an artist-in-residence at Konstepidemin in 2023, working on the film project The Wheelbarrow. He introduced Maria to his mother, Olga Spiegel.

Gunvor Nelson, a pioneering experimental filmmaker, is one of the most influential female directors in the ”New American Cinema.” She moved to the U.S. in the 1950s and taught film at the legendary San Francisco Art Institute until 1992, later returning to Sweden, where she now resides. Lisa Marr is a musician, songwriter, filmmaker, photographer, and educator from Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, and a member of the EPFC Collective in Los Angeles and EPFC North in Vancouver. Terra Long is a Canadian filmmaker and a member of the Independent Imaging Retreat (Film Farm) and the F4A Collective. Caroline Monnet is an Anishinaabe-French Canadian visual artist and filmmaker. Olga Spiegel is a psychedelic painter and filmmaker. She trained in Europe before establishing her career in New York and was an original member of the Women Artist Filmmakers (WAF 1974-1981 in N.Y.).

Film screening: PEACE

03:00 min • 2024 • Found footage • Sound/Voice: Lisa Marr • Super 8 film, digital video

Peace is based on found Super 8 footage and is a collaboration between Maria and Lisa Marr. Maria asked Lisa to record the word ”peace” in 17 different languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Greek, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Hindi, and Urdu. The film can be seen as a commentary on a time when peace voices have been sidelined amidst global rearmament.

(Premiere screening at the group exhibition Embers and Stars / Stjärnor och Glöd, Bohusläns Museum 27/1–21/4 2024, Uddevalla, 03:00 min loop.)

BIO: Maria Magnusson

Maria Magnusson is a Gothenburg-based artist and experimental filmmaker whose work explores the relationship between sound and moving images in experimental videos and short films. She works with found footage, archival material, 16mm, and Super 8, combining analog and digital filmmaking techniques. Her themes include impressions, moods, memories, dreams, and the reuse of photographs. She has created several site-specific works, focusing on landscapes and Process Cinema, often drawing from her upbringing on a farm in Norra Björke. Maria earned a Master’s degree in Photography (1999) and a Bachelor’s degree in Art History from the University of Gothenburg.

Magnusson has participated in artist residencies in Canada, Mexico, and California to study and work with various analog photographic and cinematic ecological processes and methods. She conducted two experimental analog 16mm film workshops at FilmForm (January 2023) and was a guest lecturer at the Royal Institute of Art in the course A Nontoxic Image? – Biological Film Processing Methods for Analog Film (Stockholm, October 2023). Her experimental films have been shown at festivals, galleries, and micro-cinemas, including the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, LA FilmForum, Echo Park Film Center, The Alchemy Film Festival, Antimatter Film Festival, the Images Festival, and Experiment in Cinema. She also participated in the Acid-Free Los Angeles Art Book Market at Blum & Poe Gallery and Group Show – Echo Park Film Center Extravaganza.