PRESS

Posted on September 8, 2009 - Filed Under | Leave a Comment

wlow2

THIERRY MERANGER, CAHIERS DU CINEMA

“The LAB section of the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival contained the most beautiful discovery, the first film by American director Marina Lutz, eighteen extraordinary and exciting minutes. One is reminded of Yoko Ono’s sad and famous documentary Rape. Marina Lutz presents us with no holds barred Trauma Cinema, reusing the existing nauseating and toxic material (left behind by her father) to give birth to the artist within her…Rarely has found footage revealed so many intimate issues.”

FULL TRANSLATION HERE

GLENN LOVELL, FILM CRITIC/AUTHOR (“Escape Artist: The Life and Films of John Sturges”)

“The Marina Experiment” redefines the notion of ‘home movie’ … Marina Lutz has combed through the family archives and created a brave and provocative short about parental voyeurism … disturbing echoes of “Capturing the Friedmans” and Michael Powell’s “Peeping Tom.”

JOHN GINN, DAVINCI FILM FESTIVAL

“Following her father’s death, Marina Lutz began sorting through and cataloging more than 10,000 photographs, Super 8 home movies, and reel to reel audio tape. As the evidence in the archive slowly mounts, she uncovers a childhood defined by her father’s aggressively obsessive voyeurism and her mother’s passive complicity. Using the footage once gathered to humiliate her, Marina turns the table on her father to create a chilling document of psychological abuse and fractured survival while also serving as a reminder that many bruises are deep, unseen, but no less damaging.”

MADS MIKKELSEN, CPH:DOX COPENHAGEN INT’L DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

“The Marina Experiment is the result of over 10,000 photos and hours of home footage that Marina Lutz’s father made of the director during her upper class upbringing in 1960s and 1970s Manhattan. A both eerie and infinitely fascinating archive that she herself has now sorted out and reassembled. Her father’s transgressive voyeurism is turned against himself, while a courageous self portrait simultaneously grows out of the almost incestuously intimate ‘home movies’. The result is a family exposé that can’t be shaken off that easily, and which in an intelligent and absolutely unique way raises the question about the right to not be seen – a question that has become even more relevant in the meantime.”

JASON BUCHANAN, ALL MOVIE GUIDE

“As a young girl, Marina Lutz was the object of her father’s obsession. Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, Abbot Lutz snapped more than 10,000 photographs of his daughter, shot endless reels of Super 8 footage of her playing around the house, and recorded hours upon hours of tape in which he verbally probed every aspect of her existence – yet through it all, he remained emotionally distant. In this documentary short, Marina looks back on the archives of her life while recalling just how it felt to be greeted by a camera lens or a microphone at the most inopportune moments.”

J.R., LOVEDOX

“A violently honest shortdoc featuring home video footage taken by the director’s late father, a man who had a few things to hide. Although the editing is very rough and has a distinct “home made” feel to it, the effect of the film is nonetheless haunting.”

ERNESTO ZELAYA, URBANCINEFILE

“Many of the filmmakers at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival are passionate about their projects, films made on low budgets and on very personal levels. And they don’t get more personal than The Marina Experiment. Made up entirely of photos and home movies, the film documents the unhealthy obsession of Abbot Lutz with his daughter, director Marina Lutz. For 16 years, she endured psychological abuse from her father, and the wounds apparently have yet to heal; her emotional response during the post-screening Q&A was every bit as harrowing as the film itself.”

GUY NEAL WILLIAMS, BRINK.COM

“…a subtle view of non-physical child abuse. I remain convinced that her work is of great import and her rendering superb. I believe she seeks to fearlessly confront the subtle nature of abuse and the mercilessly complex blood trail that leads to the victims. Everyone should view this work.”


Comments

Comments are closed.