In layover, Renwick focuses on a flock of migrating Vaux’s swifts.
Vanessa Renwick’s DIY attitude is reflected on her website, where she calls herself the “founder and janitor of the Oregon Department of Kick Ass.”
The Portland, Ore.-based filmmaker’s tour, “Hidden Stories and Secret Lives: Films by Vanessa Renwick,” stops at UW’s Cinematheque at Vilas Hall on Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. Renwick will present 13 shorts, including layover (2014), 9 is a secret (2002) and her acclaimed found-footage film, Britton, South Dakota (2004).
Renwick uses an eclectic approach to filmmaking, drawing on found footage, personal diaries and landscape portraits. Her work is experimental, yet often deceptively simple. In The Yodeling Lesson (1998), Renwick shoots her camera from a car ahead of a young woman riding a bicycle up a particularly steep incline. The slow, tedious progress sets up an exhilarating payoff that far exceeds the sum of its parts: woman, bicycle, hill and camera. The result makes you want to grab a camera and go out and make something.
Over the years, Renwick has inspired several Portland-based filmmakers to do just that. “Vanessa Renwick was a powerful influence on me in my 20s,” writes Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone We Know, The Future) in a testimonial for Renwick’s DVD compilation, NSEW. “Here is a woman who has taught herself how to make movies, following her own rules about what movies can be and creating them in ways that are personal, organic and sometimes wildly risky.”
Renwick is especially drawn to the social component of public film screenings. One of her first Super 8mm films, Crowdog (shot in 1984, shown in 1998), evolved after she shared the raw footage at a screening with a live voice-over, explaining the personal story behind it. Britton, South Dakota and Red Stallion’s Revenge (2007), which both use found and archival footage, emerged from screenings that brought local musicians together to create live scores. Renwick’s work accesses her distinctive view of the Pacific Northwest (or Cascadia, Renwick’s preferred term), while also allowing the audience to feel like they are immersed in Portland’s vibrant arts community.
Beyond providing motivation to produce new art, her tours provide valuable material. “Otherwise, I’m just all by myself toiling away in my studio, and I can’t gauge how my work plays out in the world,” Renwick says. “I get to see all these different cities and meet new people. Seeing the amazing landscapes is such a bonus. I’m taking photos, shooting video and working on things while I’m touring.”
Renwick is not an academic, in disposition or employment, so her tours also provide financial support. “If I’m out on the road showing my work, I’m making money,” says Renwick. She brings her own projection equipment with her, so her films are screened at dedicated film venues as well as bars, cafes and other public spaces.
Renwick says aspiring filmmakers often approach her after an event to say they have been inspired by her work. “That’s such a great compliment,” she says. “What more could you want from life than to inspire somebody?”
When asked what she hoped the Cinematheque audience would take away from the screening, Renwick says, “Grab life by the balls and be more passionate to get done what you need to get done. You don’t need to go the conventional route.”
