Moving Statics: The Films of Arthur and Corinne Cantrill

Starting 18 May, Art Cinema OFFoff, in collaboration with Courtisane, Cinema Parenthèse and iMal, presents a four-part film programme dedicated to the experimental cinema of Arthur and Corinne Cantrill. The programme in Ghent and Brussels tracks their travels and movements as filmmakers – the development of their innovative practice at the cross-section of cinema, photography, sound design, and performance. The series is curated by Keegan O’Connor, Audrey Lam and Daniel A. Swarthnas.

“Over a period of fifty years, Australian filmmaking couple Arthur (1938) and Corinne Cantrill (1928-2025) sought to discover new visual languages and new ways of accessing and rendering landscape through the medium of 16mm film. Their vast body of work – encompassing documentary and experimental film, multi-screen installation, performance, and sound art – repeatedly stages ‘journeys’ into unfamiliar terrain, investigating the creative feedback between environment and art, landform and film-form, shape and light. Having met while working in children’s education in Brisbane in the late 1950s, the Cantrills moved to London with their young sons in 1965, where Arthur worked as a film editor and a sound producer for the BBC. During the couple’s time in Europe, they made a number of formally inventive documentaries about children and artists, and (after attending the famed EXPRMNTL 4 festival of 1967/68 in Knokke-le-Zoute, Belgium) determinedly took up an experimental film practice. Upon returning to Australia, they commenced a period of vital collaborative output, making seminal works about the Australian scene and the native landscape. They also started publishing their legendary film magazine, Cantrills Filmnotes, which they produced independently for some thirty years (1971-2000).” – Courtisane programme notes

On Wednesday, Sabzian will publish a primer by Arindam Sen on the duo, offering insight into their trajectory and the (political) stakes of their work. As he writes: “[T]he Cantrills’ absolute commitment to experimental over descriptive forms does not mean that their relationship to the world is closed off. Quite the opposite, they define this relationship on their own terms.”

You can find more information on the website of iMal.