It's what happens in the gaps between images, in the moments between moments. So goes the opening blurb for Flicker , a home page dealing with films and videos that transgress the boundaries of traditional viewing experience. The human brain retains an image for about one-12th of a second longer than the eye actually sees it, so when you watch a film in a cinema you are in fact seeing individual still frames projected at 24 frames per second. Each of these is separated by darkness, which means that the four hours of Titanic consisted of two hours of darkness.
Television is an altogether different ball game.
This is what makes film such a powerful medium, and why avant-garde and experimental movies can literally get under one's skin when watched in a darkened movie house. Many underground and visionary films are short, non-narrative pieces that are structurally idiosyncratic and frequently push the boundaries of censorship and audience taste. South Africa's experimental film industry is strictly limited to student films, animated movies like the works of artist William Kentridge, and the work of music-video makers and insert directors for TV art programmes. Which is why it is a treat that Johannesburg-born experimental filmmaker Ian Kerkhof is back in South Africa and working on a new film. Kerkhof studied political science at the University of Natal but dropped out after a year.