The films of Anne Charlotte Robertson (1949-2012), mostly filmed in super-8, document the effects of her bipolar disorder, nervous breakdowns and internment in psychiatric centres. As she films her feelings and experiences with an intimate, direct, raw approach that is not without humour, the different layers of sound—particularly the filmmaker’s voice—generate an emotive, introspective and essayistic reflection on her life, narrated in Five Years Diary (1981-1997). After seeing her films, Jonas Mekas wrote her a letter: “I was so overwhelmed with what I saw. I don’t think it’s me who is a film diarist: it’s you! It’s you! I was very very moved and I couldn’t sleep thinking about it.” The session is complemented by a film by Carole Schneemann, one of her great influences, and the final ode that Saul Levine, her tutor at the Massachusetts College of Arts, made after her funeral.
Plumb Line, Carole Schneemann, 1968-1972, 16 mm, 15 min; Talking to Myself, Anne Charlotte Robertson, 1985, video, 3 min; Locomotion, A. C. Robertson, 1981, video, 7 min; Five Year Diary, Reel 22: A Short Affair and Going Crazy, A. C. Robertson, 1982, video, 27 min; Five Year Diary, Reel 80 Emily Died (second edit), A. C. Robertson, 1994, video, 27 min; Falling Notes Unleaving, Saul Levine, 2013,16 mm, 13 min.
