Everyday Exercise: Tomonari Nishikawa

About This Screening

Cinema Project is excited to welcome Japanese filmmaker and installation artist Tomonari Nishikawa in collaboration with Disjecta, Portland's contemporary art center, marking Cinema Project’s first venture outside of the traditional theater and into the gallery setting. Nishikawa’s approach  may seem scientific—a search for organic patterns, a critical examination through single-framing techniques, multiple lenses, or dual projection—and yet the resulting images are more playful and lyrical. “As a painter carries a sketchbook, I carry a Super-8 camera and do single-framing as an everyday exercise to sharpen my filmmaker's eye, thinking about apparent shapes and movements.” Extending from the screen, Nishikawa also creates installation pieces, often using pinhole cameras as his starting point to bring attention to spatial arrangements. This three-day event includes a screening of Nishikawa’s films, an artist lecture, and the opening of his newest installation, Yamanote Loop, which explores everyday views around one of Japan’s busiest railway lines coming full circle. For more information about Disjecta, gallery hours and location, please visit www.disjecta.org NWFC School of Film workshop with Tomonari Nishikawa FRAME BY FRAME: COMPOSING VISUAL RHYTHM IN CINEMA ART
Sunday November 21, 11AM-2PM
934 SW Salmon St. Portland Oregon 97205
Tuition: $35 (includes free admission to the Artist Lecture)

As a music composer orders and combines the harmonic scale into sound impressions, the cinema artist layers and sequences shapes, colors and textures into a purposefully devised viewing experience. This workshop strips away the distractions of contemporary digital technologies to examine cinematic visual rhythm and pacing in its barest, most essential form: on celluloid.  After some short screenings and discussion to introduce such key concepts of metamorphosis, juxtaposition and tension, participants will roll up their sleeves and experiment by using felt tip markers, inks and sharp instruments to paint, draw and scratch colors and textures directly onto 16mm filmstock, clear and opaque.  The sequences will be played back via 16mm projection and analysed for their effectivness on the big screen. Further "direct filmmaking" experiments will explore more complex rhythmic forms.  The workshop will conclude with a screening of the compiled workshop films and a final discussion about what participants have learned.  The goal is for participants to have an expanded understanding of how the notion of cinematic rhythm can enhance their own work.  Equipment and supplies provided. No filmmaking experience necessary. Open to artists of all disciplines and backgrounds. For more information about the Northwest Film Center, please visit www.nwfilm.org. To register for the class, please visit https://www.nwfilm.org/account/signin