Courtney Hoskins
2021The Galilean Satellites- Io
Courtney Hoskins
The second film in The Galilean Satellites series which explores the terrain of Jupiter's moon Io. The soundtrack consists of recordings made by several probes that visited Io and reveals its ionosphere. The sounds are stretched and warped, along with the substances that are being filmed, to highlight Io's active techtonic life. It is the most techtonically active body in our solar system.
The Galilean Satellites- Io
The Galilean Satellites- Callisto
Courtney Hoskins
This film is the fourth of a four-part series dedicated to filmmaker Stan Brakhage. The inspiration for these films come from the incredible images and sounds coming from the Galileo space probe. The four large moons of Jupiter were thought to be nothing more interesting than our own moon- barren balls of rock. As optical technology advanced, we began to get a more interesting view of these bodies. The Voyager space probes sent back images that suggested that these worlds may be highly complex. The Galileo space probe images we have received of Callisto reveals a pumice-like moon. In the tradition of its Jupiter and its moons, this moon, receives the superlative of "most heavliy cratered body in the solar system." Jupiter's gravitational attraction frequently shields us from being bombarded by comets and meteors, but poor Callisto is right in the path!
The Galilean Satellites- Callisto
Ether Twist
Courtney Hoskins
Ether Twist, my first sound film, is a meditation on various properties of light. The soundtrack consists of Natural VLF radio recordings. (Natural VLF (Very-Low-Frequency) Radio - also called Natural Radio - is audio-frequency radio signals of Earth in the approximate range of 200 Hz to beyond 10,000 Hz (10 kHz). They are not man-made but occur naturally in nature.) Their origins vary but include lightning storms, the Earth's magnetic field, and the Aurora Borealis and Australis (Northern & Southern Lights). All of these sources produce an amazing variety of sounds, such as sferics (lightning-stroke static), tweeks, whistlers, choruses (chirping, barking and squawking radio sounds produced by the Sun's solar-wind hitting the Earth's magnetic-field), various kinds of hiss, bizarre wavering-tone emissions, and an endless variety of fascinating radio sounds.
Ether Twist
Polymer
Courtney Hoskins
Polymer is a collaborative film project. For about a year, Carl Fuermann and I would send each other individual digital images across the country, intending each one to serve as a single frame. Once received, each filmmaker would adjust the image and send it back to the other. The result was an organic chain of images. The final collection of images was recorded out onto 16mm film, thereby combining the digital with the physical.
Polymer
The Galilean Satellites - Europa
Courtney Hoskins
An abstract film that imagines the icy hatched-marked world of Jupiter's moon, Europa. This is the first in a four-part series dedicated to filmmaker Stan Brakhage. The soundtrack consists of recordings from several probes that visited the moon, as well as whale songs- an imagining of the possible life beneath the icy surface. The imagery combines hand-painted liquid crystals and footage from a local aquarium.
The Galilean Satellites - Europa
Snow Flukes
Courtney Hoskins
“In the evening when little Kay was at home and half undressed, he crept up onto the chair by the window and peeped out of the little hole. A few snowflakes were falling, and one of these, the biggest, remained on the edge of the window box. It grew bigger and bigger, till it became the figure of a woman dressed in the finest white gauze, which, appeared to be made of millions of starry flakes. She was delicately lovely, but all ice- glittering, dazzling ice.” -Stan Brakhage from Film Biographies (quoting from the Hans Christian Anderson Story “The Snow Queen”)
Snow Flukes
The Galilean Satellites- Ganymede
Courtney Hoskins
Ganymede is the cup-bearer of the gods. Though he shows some superficial signs of age, the protection of Jupiter and his distance from the sun keep him in a state of eternal youth- his younger, liquid self cross-hatched with a cracked and ageing skin.
The Galilean Satellites- Ganymede
In the House of Equal and Opposite Reaction
Courtney Hoskins
In The House of Equal and Opposite Reaction was a gift that I was reluctant to accept and even more reluctant to share until I did so accidentally, calming somewhat my mind and the minds of my unwitting audience. The majority of the footage was filmed from my rooftop on September 11th, 2001 with my super-8 camera, which was already loaded with film from my home movies (my dog, Myairo, whom I filmed in my home over a month prior.)
In the House of Equal and Opposite Reaction
The Light Touch Dust Nebula
Courtney Hoskins
The Light Touch Dust Nebula is a hand-painted film, optically printed with carefully controlled temperature and lighting. Thermotropic (temperature sensitive) liquid crystal paint applied to decayed film changes from red to blue with heat. In-camera optical effects expose the contrast between the two extremes. This film exposes the warmth of light and its birth to form and motion in cinema.
The Light Touch Dust Nebula
Gossamer Conglomerate
Courtney Hoskins
Gossamer Conglomerate consists of hand-manipulated material, optically printed under closely controlled and monitored lighting situations. The film explores the delicate nature of film by placing the fluttering colors of "fresh" film materials upon a colorless base of film destroyed by the molecular breakdown associated with "vinegar syndrome." The film represents the life cycle of film and its rebirth as a new and personal work and is suggestive of a butterfly's flight from the darkness of the chrysalis.
Gossamer Conglomerate
Sweet Intuition
Courtney Hoskins
This film was made by cutting and pasting individual frames of 16mm film onto flashed 35mm print stock. This was made as a wedding gift to my then husband and outlines the giddiness and fright of flirtation and courtship (and the use of appropriated images). The use of the footage I chose reflects a romanticized view of courtship: a forced identification with a Hollywood-style ideal of relationship and space (namely, Paris) juxtaposed against my own Super-8 footage of Paris.
Sweet Intuition
Munkphilm
Courtney Hoskins
Munkphilm explores meditation and inspiration in the cinematic medium. Carefully timed, animated fades set a rhythm that is interrupted and overlapped by moments of luminescence. These moments come and go, but in the end we are left with the original breath
Munkphilm
