French experimental filmmaker Rose Lowder will bring new and older films to the USA in
February 7‐19th, 2011. This will be her first trip to the US since 1989.
Lowder will hold a US premiere of 3 new films in Boston at Massachusetts College of Art and
Design on February 9th and the Paramount Theater on February 11th, before continuing on
to Milwaukee, Chicago and New York City. She will also deliver a free lecture at MassArt on
February 7th.
Lowder has made over 50 avant‐garde and experimental films since the 1970’s, influencing
generations of filmmakers and enthusiasts worldwide. Her 16mm films are composed
frame‐by‐frame, and feature profound investigations of rural Europe and its inhabitants
with an undercurrent of ecological concerns. She was originally trained as a painter and
sculptor in Lima and London, turning to filmmaking as both an artistic practice and method
for research in photographic and visual perception. Lowder is 70 years old.
This tour is curated by MassArt film graduate student Tara Nelson and funded in part by
MassArt Curatorial and the Cine 2000 program of the French Cultural Embassy. Screenings
are co‐sponsored by and presented at MassArt Film Society; School of the Museum of Fine
Arts; ArtsEmerson's Paramount Center; University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee’s Union
Theater; the Gene Siskel Arts Center and Anthology Film Archives.
Description of 2010 film, Fleur de sel (Sea Salt Flower) from Rose Lowder
“In Sea Salt Flower I tried to penetrate the Guérande Salt Marshes cinematographically
; thisis a land of birds and salt, recently designated a « Grand Site National » to protect it from the
devastations of modern life. Far from the reverberations of contemporary society, the place
has a rhythm of its own throughout the year. After winter restoration work, the mosaic of
shallow salt pans are prepared, which by means of minute skilful adjustments, enable the
water to circulate; combined with the effects of the sun and the wind, these allow the salt to
crystallize. By the end of the process, as at the end of the film, the fine salt flower crystals
float on the surface above the bigger crystals on the bottom in all directions at once.” –Rose
Lowder
