Luke Fowler

In praise of margins

Invited to compete in 2021 (Being in a Place – Portrait of Margaret Tait) and 2023 (Patrick), Scottish filmmaker and musician Luke Fowler is both a portrait filmmaker and prolific biographer.  As he proposed his two latest films for this new edition of the festival (Being Blue, shot in Derek Jarman’s former residence, and On Weaving, focused on Scottish textile design), we thought it a fine opportunity to invite our festivalgoers to become more involved with his work. A sensitive, almost organic involvement with which he embraces the world, whilst also revealing himself.

In fact, while his work intertwines the contemporary history of the Left with underground and artistic movements in Great Britain, his fragmented films seem to be pervaded by mirror effects where impressionistic sound and visual elements and the editing work speak as much about others as about himself. Fond of 16 mm – a modest and artisanal form that disconnects image and sound – Luc Fowler plays on narrative constraints to highlight gesture. His cinema is an immersive experience that unfolds in waves, by accumulation, but also in fragments, which as if suspended remain and persist for an instant on the retina.