Video work with an illegal “motor-head” twist

New video work with an illegal “motor-head” twist turns cinematic moment on its head

You could be forgiven for adding ‘petrol-head’ to a list of descriptors for Auckland-based experimental film artist, documentary maker and academic Alex Monteith.

Recognised as “one of New Zealand’s most prolific experimental film-makers” (NZIFF catalogue 2001) her latest exhibition which opens at the New Zealand Film Archive mediagallery on Friday 31 August, has enough wheel spins, illegal manoeuvers and motorcycle footage to stop a carload of boy racers at the lights.

The exhibition titled 996cctv aims however to expose and re-examine two iconic moments in cinema: the ‘classic chase scene’ and the ‘spinning wheel’ of a vehicle either at high speed or crashed and lying prone, still spinning.

One of the most iconic images in action movies the spinning wheel has its secrets cheekily exposed as nothing less than a child’s toy and a few camera tricks. With the work, titled A/V scenario, to imitate the ‘spoke-backwards effect’ generated during car-chase scenes, Monteith projects a large image of a spinning car wheel. It could be a close-up shot filmed by a Hollywood camera crew but instead Monteith has created the image by training three closed circuit TV cameras on a toy. In an age of digitally-created armies, hobbits and period sets, the piece recreates cinematic excitement using cheap technology.

Monteith calls the work “a scaled down imitation stunt-scene.” By filming from three different angles and using a video mixer to split two angles to a monitor and one to the projector, it appears as if one wheel is spinning within another in a thrilling combination of suspended animation and blinding speed.

The second work, titlted 996cctv: passing manouevre for two motorcycles and 749 vehicles takes the imitation stunt-scene to a new level using close circuit television (CCTV). In this dual monitor video work created in 2007, two CCTV cameras were mounted to two motorcycles simultaneously recording during rush hour traffic. One image is shot from the rear of an RF900 super-commuter motorcycle and one from the front of a following, perhaps chasing, Ducati 996S. Filmed on a large section of Auckland's North Western motorway the two motorcycles perform a continuous “semi-illegal” passing manoeuvre, in imitation of the classic Hollywood chase scene.

Monteith says ”the distinguishing feature of CCTV technology is its minute scale and it's disposability due to its cheapness... the camera meeting its doom or getting stone-chipped from the bike-cam point-of-view are worth the risk for the types of images it can gather.”

With 996cctv the passing manoeuvre the bikes perform is deemed illegal due to the "undertaking" the bikes make in the fast-lane, but due to the tiny size of the CCTV cams, even if the riders were stopped by police it is doubtful if the cameras would have even been noticed. The rear rider of the two chases the rider in front, but luckily the police didn't chase either of them.

Monteith is well acquainted with the mechanics of cinema having received numerous awards for her film making. Two of her films will be screened in the Film Archive cinema during the exhibition period on Thursday 6th (Pause the Rising Tide) and Thursday 13th September (Chapter & Verse) at 7pm.

Her 2001 surrealist short film Pause the Rising Tide premiered at the NZ International Film Festival and went on to win the Breton award as overall Festival Winner at the International Surrealist Film Festival (USA) in 2004. A surreal collage of texture, sound and image Pause the Rising Tide revealed fragments of popular history (Bubonic Plague, The Iron Curtain) in surrealist minimalism and has screened in thirteen international film festivals. As Monteith says, “I loved the classic surrealist makers Bunuel & Dali, but Pause was also influenced by early Russian films, especially those made before audio, particularly those with intertitles.”

Born in Belfast, Monteith moved to New Zealand with her family in the late 1980s “at the height of the troubles,” returning in 1998 while an Elam photography undergrad to shoot images which were the precursor to her experimental documentary feature film Chapter & Verse. “I returned for a year in 2001 ... and every year for three years following this to keep shooting for the film in order to map certain sites in Northern Ireland over time. In this period there was a marked change in the political climate and also there were particular changes in the famous Northern Irish wall paintings, or murals. The film incorporates material shot in all six counties of Northern Ireland including Castlederg, Co Tyrone, one of the most bombed villages in Western Europe during the 1970's and 1980's.”

In 2006 the director of the New Zealand Film Festival Bill Gosden summed up Chapter & Verse as a “haunting and haunted experimental documentary. Some (images) are composed with limpid formal beauty, others in the hand-held style of news coverage, some in colour, others in black and white, and most of them are related only obliquely to the eloquent expressions of personal and political perspective heard on the soundtrack”. The film premiered in 2005 at the New Zealand International Film Festival and was recently featured as part of the public programmes screenings for Turbulence the 3rd Auckland Triennial at the Auckland City Art Gallery 2007.

But does she consider herself an Irish girl racer? You’ll have to ask her yourself….
Monteith will be arriving via Ducati 996S motorcycle to the opening event at 5:30pm, Thursday 30 August and the motorbike will be on display in the Film Archive mediaplex during the course of the exhibition.

Alongside the exhibition at the Film Archive TV Lounge a compilation of motoring items will be screening, hand-picked from the Archive collection. One particular highlight includes ‘Chrysler Hell Drivers’ where The Hell Drivers demonstrate the strength and safety of Chrysler, Plymouth and DeSoto cars with some daring stunts around a circuit. These include crashing through a burning wall, rolling cars and going over jumps. Officials in white coats and firemen supervise the action, which is enjoyed by a large crowd in a city understood to be Wellington.

The TV Lounge and mediagallery are situated within the New Zealand Film Archive, cnr Taranaki and Ghuznee Sts, Wellington.

EXHIBITION DETAILS:
Opening Function 5:30pm Thursday 30 August at the Film Archive mediagallery.
The exhibition runs until Saturday 15 September. FREE

SCREENING DETAILS:
Thursday 6 September
Pause the Rising Tide (33 mins) 7pm with a collection of her short works.

Thursday 13 September
Chapter & Verse (91 mins) 7pm

Both movie screenings are $8 ($6 concession) and start at 7pm.

ENDS

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