Entering the Frame is the first complete study of the cinema of
Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi, pioneers of archival and
found-footage films that testify to war, genocide and colonialism in the
twentieth century. It explores their early performance-based «scented
films» of the 1970s, before focusing on the historical films, such as
From the Pole to the Equator, for which they are best known. The book
analyses how Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi manipulate rare footage through
re-photographing, hand-tinting and altering film speeds, to produce work
of an other-worldly quality.
Retrospectives of the films of Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi at the Jeu de
Paume in Paris (2006) and at MoMA in New York (2009) have signalled
international recognition at the highest level, as have appraisals by
leading scholars of cinema such as Scott MacDonald and Raymond Bellour.
Their work is unusual in attracting different audiences, and in relating
art practices to wider ethical, historical and political issues.
Gianikian and Ricci Lucchi have transformed old documentary footage into
works that resonate in debates about postcolonialism as well as about
the documentary form, the corporeality of the viewing experience and the
metamorphoses of cinema.
The volume includes a preface by the cultural historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat,
Professor of Italian and History at New York University.