GME Streamline Presents a Free Stream of Vivian Ostrovsky's COPACABANA BEACH

Trailer

GME is pleased to announce the a special free stream for the month of July of this humorous glimpse at what happens every morning on the wavy sidewalks of Copacabana beach. Physical fitness Brazilian style, with a dash of soccer and hints of Carmen Miranda, as conceived by Vivian Ostrovsky, a citizen of the world who has made films in Brazil, France, Israel, Japan, the Soviet Union and the United States.

“As a constant traveler, I always have some kind of distance from the places I go to that makes me more aware of their peculiarities…without regard to geography or chronology.  I was looking for visual logic that was independent of time and place.”

COPACABANA BEACH (1983, 10 Minutes) FROM OSTROVSKY’S COLLECTION PLUNGE.

Conversant in the experimental filmmaking practices of such artists as Jonas Mekas (DIARIES, NOTES, AND SKETCHES) and Jim McBride (DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY), Ostrovsky was inspired to create her own film diaries.  She developed a filmmaking technique that initially involved shooting with a silent Super 8 camera; she loved the “gritty…indefinition” of the images that were exposed on the film’s emulsion.   She continued with an intuitive editing process, adding in sound originating from vinyl records.  (Later, she filmed in MiniDV so as to simultaneously be able to record image and sound together).

Filmmaker Vivian Ostrovksy

As her filmmaking adventures progressed -- combined with her extensive knowledge of other avant-garde filmmakers’ works (including Bruce Conner and Jack Smith, as well as Jacques Tati and Jean-Luc Godard) -- she incorporated the cinematic forms of the film diary, found footage, collage, essay film, personal memoir, and political tract to create her own distinct filmic language.  As Federico Rossin has written so succinctly in the booklet accompanying this DVD edition:
 
"This indeterminacy, or mixing of genres, provokes a reconsideration of the language of control, of all aspects of “Cinematic machismo”; it indicates the militant and feminist roots of Ostrovsky’s practice; her ethical and political commitment.  Combining great humility with breathtakingly precise audiovisual montage, Ostrovsky creates a field of artistic expression that escapes and expands beyond its boundaries…her hybrid cinema refuses to be limited by format or convention; with each new film, she liberates powerful new forms and expands her burgeoning creative process."

This DVD edition (published by Re:Voir) is accompanied by an illustrated sixty page monograph (in French and English), with contributions by Amy Taubin, Federico Rossin, Scott Hammen, and the filmmaker. 

GME distributes this double DVD Edition and downloadable 1080p .mp4 DSL file of PLUNGE to the North American University market.