In the early 20s, the cinema screen exploded. The avant-garde took to the movie camera, overturning the codes and conventions of narrative discourse to establish the basis for a new language. The results of the “phenomenom” of electricity applied to cinema, in its technique and effects, thus contributed to the birth of personal expression: that of the plasticians of light.
Caught up in the upheavals and ferment of a rapidly changing environment, filmmakers responded by making a radical break with tradition going far beyond that of filmed theatre and serial fictions.
The acceleration of urban rhythms, inspired by the speed of modern machines and the use of new inventions such as electricity, in such diverse domains as street lighting, advertising and automation, created the conditions for such a reaction and a heightened awareness. Hence artists applied themselves to a critique of the present and premonitory as they set out to capture these shockwaves and imprint them onto film.

Programme I : Viking Eggeling/ Hans Richter/ Man Ray/ Marcel Duchamp/ Henri Chommette

Programme II : Peter Kubelka/ Paul Sharits/ Michael Snow

Programme III : Georges Rey/Vincent Grenier/ Kirk Tougas

Programme IV : Robert Breer/ Pierre Rovere/ Jenny Davidson/ Dominique Willoughby/Jean-Michel bouhours

ProgrammesV : Claudine Eizykman

Programme VI : Guy Fihman/ Lazlo Moholy-Nagy/ Bertold Bartosch/ Charles Blanc-Gatti/ Jean Mitry/ Henri Valensi