Chanel Aqualumiere lipstick in Acapulco. NARS blush in Angelica (cotton candy). L'Oreal Voluminous Full Definition mascara in black. And the bottles and bottles of OPI and Essie nail polishes in every hue of pink and red, with names like Trust Fund Baby, Wicked, and Italian Love Affair . . . I get a head rush just thinking about it!
Courtney Hoskins, our fellow cinema blogger and filmmaker, is premiering her new film, The Counter Girl Trilogy at the NYFF, Bits and Pieces (Make Up to Break Up) program on Sunday, Oct. 7, 6:15.
This film was created using lipgloss, acquired from a certain cosmetics company (okay, I'll tell you -- Estee Lauder!), where she had worked as a make-up counter girl. Oh, it doesn't stop there! Courtney also is the expert on making liquid crystal films, and she captures the images though an optical technique called cross-polarization. (Read about the technique here from our A.G. Blog-a-thon, 2006.) Courtney studied with Stan Brakhage, and her films are influenced by a painterly application of materials to the filmstrip. Her imagery is difficult to rival today. Just look at it!:)
I've exhibited Courtney's films in several of my film programs, and this new work will be of the most radiant beauty. But it's so much more than that too. I truly believe that what is most subversive about cinema today is simply poetry, especially the homemade variety, which celebrates and even questions the most simple experiences of every day life. If you want to see the new Abel Ferrara film, whatevs, but when you attend an experimental cinema screening you can see films that women make with their own bare hands! Courtney describes it the best:
“Over the years, makeup has turned into a
multi-billion-dollar industry that, for the most part, stays within the
realms of the superficial and homogenized. The same could be said for
film. A break from the traditional look in either medium places an
artist in the realms of the “avant-garde.”
For a brief period
of time, I worked as a makeup artist and learned the art of
making people look “the same”—and convincing them that they were
inadequate
without some product. It was the most unsatisfying job I'd ever had
until I discovered three unique shades of lip gloss that utilize liquid
crystals. These were materials that I had sought for years but could
never acquire because they are “industry secrets”—used by the cosmetics
and technology industry. I used them as paint.
These three films were stop-motion animated on an optical printer using cross-polarized and front-lighting techniques.”—C.H.
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