Sight Unseen and The SNF Parkway are thrilled to welcome Paolo Davanzo and Lisa Marr of the Echo Park Film Center in Los Angeles to Baltimore for a special collaborative program.

The Sound We See: A Baltimore City Symphony invites students to create an analog film over an intensive one-week period with support and mentorship from Paolo and Lisa. Working collaboratively, participating students will learn about the city symphony genre, examining the joys and challenges of the urban environment while exploring techniques for filming with vintage Super 8 cameras and developing black and white film stock. Together, they will produce a 24-minute film that envisions a spring day in the life of Baltimore, starting at the moment many residents wake up, building into the bustle of the work day, and moving into the vibrant folds of the night.

Each student will be responsible for recording and telling the story of one hour of the day, guided by their own intuitions, personal styles and perspectives. Analog filmmaking techniques and iconic works produced by Walter Ruttmann and Dziga Vertov in the 1920’s will serve as starting points for this exploration into the communal creative process and contemporary environment.

Students will choose the site and subject of their hour and learn how to edit the footage into a one-minute film. Adding to the excitement of the “Slow Film” movement, the visiting artists will introduce students to eco-processing techniques, which replace harsh chemicals with locally sourced organic ingredients, and engender the film with a signature tone and mood. These 24 one-minute segments will be stitched together to form a single 24-minute film and set to music. The students will take an active role in the creation of the soundtrack, working with local musicians to create a score which may range from orchestral music to spoken word, gospel, or experiments in hip hop, acoustic, synth and jazz.

The Sound We See: A Baltimore City Symphony will premiere with live musical accompaniment at the end of the week-long workshop.

For more on The Sound We See project and a link to all the films in the series, please visit

http://www.echoparkfilmcenter.org/blog/sound-we-see/

Paolo Davanzo and Lisa Marr are filmmakers, educators and community cinema activists whose work is a catalyst for creative collaboration and positive social change. For the past twenty years, they have been helping to run the Echo Park Film Center, a non-profit neighborhood media arts center with a focus on analog film education and resources. In addition to their work in Los Angeles, Lisa and Paolo travel the world, sharing handmade movies and music with local communities.

https://sellyourtvandcometothecinema.org/

Sight Unseen is supported by a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

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Add to Calendar 20220526 America/New_York 5 West North Avenue Baltimore MD 21201 SIGHT UNSEEN – THE SOUND WE SEE