Where is She Now?

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Chainletter Filmmakers:

The Newborn Chainletter

Joanne Nucho, Gigi (from 9 to 5)
March 14, 2013

How did you find out about Joanie 4 Jackie and how old were you at the time?
I found out about Joanie 4 Jackie when I was 17 or 18 and in high school. 1996 or 1997. It was called Big Miss Moviola back then.

What interested you about the project?
I was interested in the idea of creating this alternative network where filmmakers could share their films with each other. This was, of course, before vimeo or youtube, and the idea was really interesting to me, as I was already making short videos with my friends as a teenager. I was excited about the prospect of sharing them with other people and watching the films that they made without access to expensive equipment.

At the time you participated in Joanie 4 Jackie did you consider yourself a filmmaker? What was your relationship to making movies?
I did consider myself a filmmaker at that time (and I still do). At the time I participated, I had graduated from NYU and had been working with 16mm film and video for a few years. I had just started editing television shows professionally.

Do you have any specific anecdotes or memories associated with the project?
The film was basically my senior thesis project. I was really into musicals and situationists both, and was really excited to make something absurd and fun, and sort of along the lines of Vera Chytilova’s “Daisies.” I didn’t come close to the brilliance of “Daisies,” but I had such a great time making this film with the help of my friend, musician Kelly Kawar, who wrote all of the music, and my friends who did all the singing. The star, Gina Young, is an amazing musician too and she appeared in many of my student films at NYU.

One thing I remember very clearly about the shoot was the moment when I said “action” and the dancers started doing their choreographed dance and everything was happening. It was almost overwhelming how crazy it felt to have been orchestrating this whole scene, to have imagined something and then gotten all of these people to participate in staging it! Lots of fun and a very positive experience.

What did you think/feel about the Joanie 4 Jackie at the time? And now, in retrospect?
I thought it was a wonderful and much needed space for people to share their work. In retrospect, I still think it’s wonderful and I wish that something like this existed in an online format. There seems to be so much space for sharing your work via the internet and the potential seems unlimited. And yet… most of what is available to “independent” filmmakers is pretty limited in terms of who actually has access and what kinds of films are screened.

What institutions, groups, people, publications and movements were inspiring you at the time of your participation in J4J?
In 2004, I felt pretty inspired by my friends who were making films and videos, or editing, or making music for films and videos. I’m still inspired by people who make amazing, challenging work that doesn’t fit neatly into a commercial genre. I also admire those friends of mine who have achieved great commercial success and maintained their integrity.

What do you do now – professionally and otherwise? Are you still involved in filmmaking?
I am still involved in filmmaking and post-production, but I am also an anthropologist. I was always much more interested in documentary film, and was drawn to ethnographic filmmaking techniques mainly because of the serious attention given to time, to allowing things to unfold over time and not feeling the need to script or drive action. So I decided to pursue my PhD in Anthropology, which I am finishing up now. I just received a grant to establish a filmmaking workshop for young women in Lebanon where I conducted my PhD research. Learning how to use a video camera and edit my own movies was a very formative experience in my life. I look forward to sharing that with my students. I hope to produce a documentary of the workshop and the films that emerge from it.

Anything you would like to see on the J4J site?
I think it would be great to see more of these films online.

Marietta Kesting, Photo Roman

How did you find out about Joanie 4 Jackie and how old were you at the time?
When I moved to New York after college, a friend told me about it. I was 22.

What interested you about the project?
I was interested in seeing other women’s work and it reminded me of making mixed-music tapes for friends in my teenage years. Also there were not many venues to get work shown or see others’ work after college.

At the time you participated in Joanie 4 Jackie did you consider yourself a filmmaker? What was your relationship to making movies?
I was primarily a photographer, but I wanted to become a filmmaker.

Do you have any specific anecdotes or memories associated with your movie?
The film is shot with a still photo camera on black and white analogue film in Berlin, due to the fact that we didn’t have a video camera. But then it worked out quite well with the stills and became its own aesthetic device. (and of course I had always been an admirer of Marker’s La Jetée). My boyfriend at the time and another good friend acted in it.

What did you think/feel about the Joanie 4 Jackie at the time? And now, in retrospect?
I thought it was a kind of obscure but interesting project, but because my visa was denied and I had to leave the USA, I never actually received the chainletter tapes, I don’t think.

What institutions, groups, people, publications and movements were inspiring you at the time of your participation in J4J?
I was working at Magnum Photos as an editorial assistant and that was a visual education in itself. In Williamsburg, there was the Ocularis open zone screening that my college friend Sarah Reynolds was associated with and where people could screen their own works. It was an exciting place.

What do you do now – professionally and otherwise? Are you still involved in filmmaking?
I am a junior professor for media theory at the cx center for interdisciplinary studies at the academy of fine arts Munich and I work in a research project on “The Matter of Historicity: Material Practices in Audiovisual Art” at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. So I am still very much involved with film, media, and art, even if now more from the theoretical side, But I have completed several film projects (with Aljoscha Weskott: Sunny Land, premiere at Berlinale 2010) after my first film and would like to do so as well in the future.

Penny Lane, The Waiting Room

How did you find out about Joanie 4 Jackie and how old were you at the time?
I can’t recall how I found out about it. Maybe from a fellow student? I was an MFA student at the time. I was probably 24 or 25 years old.

What interested you about the project?
I remember thinking that it was cool that all I had to do was send in a tape and it would be circulated. I hadn’t really made anything that had circulated at that point. I barely knew anything about how distribution of video art / experimental film might even work. Also it seemed kinda cool in a punk-rock way.

At the time you participated in Joanie 4 Jackie did you consider yourself a filmmaker? What was your relationship to making movies?
I was a very insecure beginner, a student, and I didn’t have any faith at all that anything I was doing was worth doing, but somehow I was doing it.

Do you have any specific anecdotes or memories associated with your movie?
Ugh, I hate that movie. It is not very good. I have more or less pretended it doesn’t exist for many years. 🙂

What did you think/feel about the Joanie 4 Jackie at the time? And now, in retrospect?
Just that it was such a cool and empowering idea.

What do you do now – professionally and otherwise? Are you still involved in filmmaking?
I am a filmmaker and professor of video art.

Sarah Hanssen, Sarah Nye
March 14, 2013

How did you find out about Joanie 4 Jackie and how old were you at the time?
I don’t know! I think a friend, Jackie Goss, told me about it.

What interested you about the project?
Duh! Ladies making movies!

At the time you participated in Joanie 4 Jackie did you consider yourself a filmmaker? What was your relationship to making movies?
I had finished my MFA in experimental film and video but I really hadn’t exhibited my films much.

Do you have any specific anecdotes or memories associated with the project?
I was teaching in Ohio last year and a student who was really into Miranda’s work some how found out that I was on this chainletter video and he was super excited to see it. Alas, I only have the old VHS tapes and no one could watch it on that format so our hands were tied.

What did you think/feel about the Joanie 4 Jackie at the time? And now, in retrospect?
I thought it was an honor and something special to be part of but now I realize that it was even more special than I knew. No one has kept that flame alive today. You are making me miss good old fashioned mail and VHS tapes!

What do you do now – professionally and otherwise? Are you still involved in filmmaking?
I teach filmmaking!

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