It has become something of a tradition to close out our festival with a special kind of program: one that reconfigures not only our senses, but also our understanding of what cinema can be. This year, we have chosen one of the most emblematic works to showcase the infinite possibilities that can be opened up by a 16mm projector: Anthony McCall's Line Describing a Cone. On his “film-sculpture”, McCall writes:

Line Describing a Cone is what I term a solid light film. It deals with the projected light beam itself, rather than treating the light beam as a mere carrier of coded information, which is decoded when it strikes a flat surface. (…) Line Describing a Cone deals with one of the irreducible, necessary conditions of film: projected light. It deals with this phenomenon directly, independently of any other consideration. It is the first film to exist in real, three-dimensional space.

Over fifty years later, Line Describing a Cone has lost none of its radical potential. Thus, to close out and celebrate exf f. 2023 with us, we invite you to engulf yourself in the light of the projector and to experience McCall's “haptic cinema” for yourself. Smoking explicitly required.


Thanks to Light Cone (Paris, Miguel Armas) for providing the analogue prints of this program. Festival closing with drinks after the program.