Welcome to Crosscuts! As a publishing platform of the Walker’s Moving Image department, this vertical aims to centralize artists’ voices, archival material, and share new scholarship across the field of moving image. In film, a “cross cut” is a transition from one shot to another, often from a different angle, or literally a cut between two different characters weaving the connection between storylines. Writing featured on this site aims to explore different angles and perspectives, from interviews with artists and filmmakers and links to post-screening discussions to discourse on contemporary moving image.
The Walker Moving Image department has a year-round Cinema program screening a full range of formats from 16mm film to 4K digital video. This allows us to offer a vast range of programming while exploring the depths of film history along with new releases and premieres. As an integral part of the cinema program, filmmakers are regularly invited to present their works and engage the audience through the Walker Dialogue & Retrospective series and Filmmakers-in-Conversation. Our academic partners from local colleges and universities work closely with the Walker on historical series and retrospectives to connect new scholarship to significant works or artists. The Walker’s mission is to mark shifts in artistic practices and programmatic experimentation. From this directive the annual series Expanding the Frame began in 2007 for artists and directors breaking the boundaries of moving image. These distinctive programs cross cut between time and space, opening up new areas of conversation.
The recently renovated Bentson Mediatheque provides access to the Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection via an ingenious self-select cinema that is always free and open during gallery hours. In addition, curated playlists are available to explore thematic links to the works in this collection that ranges from the silent era through the American and European avant-garde, to the leading experimental film artists from the 1960s to the present. Ruth Hodgins, Archivist and Programmer, regularly adds her voice to Crosscuts as she presents new ways to use and explore the Mediatheque.
Watch Crosscuts for essays about the new Moving Image Commissions launching this summer written by Glasgow-based Bentson Scholar, Mason Leaver-Yap. So far nine artists from around the world have made web-based, online works that respond to inspiration by historical films in our Collection.
With the power of moving image as part of our daily cultural dialogue, check out the frequent filmmaker interviews by Kelsey Bosch.
I invite you to visit regularly and see the latest!
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