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Tribeca Buzz: A Talk with Filmpiece for Bartlett’s Scott Nyerges

Published on April 14, 2011

by Mary Iannone

“When we’re learning, we emulate those who teach and inspire us. That can be good, but it can also trap you into doing work that isn’t always truly yours, truly original. I needed to move on.”

This mentality is what pushed filmmaker Scott Nyerges into exploring a new chapter in his artistic and professional life. After completing several short films focused on an environmental universe, whether grounded or extraterrestrial, Nyerges “spent all of 2010 on a photo documentary of Brooklyn’s Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, and I didn’t miss filmmaking one bit.”

After the year’s hiatus, Nyerges decided to return to filmmaking in a way he hadn’t yet experienced. Instead of a nature-based approach to the subject of his next film, he decided to do something he felt wouldn’t “bear the stamp of an anxiety of influence” from his days in film school. Nyerges decided to honor a major influence on his own experimental style (seen in previous works like Autumnal, Polar, and Flow).

“[Scott Bartlett] has been largely forgotten by younger experimental filmmakers,” Nyerges says. “His films are visual poetry and he deserves to be remembered.”

Filmpiece for Bartlett maintains this style, one that Nyerges thinks is understood and embraced by few film festivals. It’s a mark of Tribeca’s far-reaching selection that 2011 will be Nyerges’ fourth time as a participant.

Clocking in at 5:14, Filmpiece suspends viewers over a rippling fountain while hand-painted images rapidly flash on the wall containing it. Much like the rising and falling crest of a wave, haunting white noise slowly crescendos in the background before fading along with the film. All the while, a Bartlett quote splits the images:

“There’s a pattern in my film work that could be the pattern of a hundred thousand movies. It simply is: repeat and purify, repeat and synthesize, abstract, abstract, abstract.”

Filmpiece for Bartlett screens as part of the “Shorts: Impressions of Memory” Program at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.

To view this and other works by Scott Nyerges, visit his website.

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