Unrolling Event c. late 1960s

Curator: Seeing Paul Sharits' "Unrolling Event" is like catching a glimpse into the very soul of cinema, a filmstrip presented as a delicate object. Editor: It feels incredibly fragile and looped, almost like a filmic ouroboros eating its own tail, promising both beginning and ending simultaneously. Curator: Sharits was fascinated by the materiality of film, exploring its physical properties rather than using it purely for narrative. Here, the individual frames are almost like cells, each containing a moment of potential movement. Editor: True, but it also reminds us that even movement and story are grounded in these little rectangles—these slices of time, really—that someone has curated or captured. Curator: And within this context, the placement in a museum reframes its entire purpose. Sharits removes it from the projector, subverting cinematic norms. Editor: Which, in turn, prompts us to consider the politics embedded in how we consume moving images, no? After all, who decides what gets projected, and what ends up like this, preserved in stillness? Curator: Precisely. His work invites us to actively interrogate the apparatus of film, shifting our viewing habits from passive observers to active participants. Editor: An event indeed, unrolling or not. It’s oddly moving to see film stripped bare this way, inviting questions instead of delivering easy answers.