Lawrence.com

For Jon Allen, the best part of watching an experimental film is the "A-ha!" moment.

"There's a moment of clarity; a moment where you realize what the filmmaker is actually doing," he says. "Something just clicks, and it's an amazing experience."

Allen is hoping that viewers will have those types of experiences at Saturday's Open Cinema Screening at the Olive Gallery. The free, three-hour event will mark the debut of the Open Cinema film society, a new group founded by Allen and Kansas City-based filmmaker Tyler Alfrey.

"These are films that have an entirely different structure from what you're used to seeing in the movie theater," Allen says. "You can get some pretty boring ones, but there are a lot of experimental films that are really exciting...

"We know that these are going to be films that people are going to enjoy," Allen says.

"It's like sushi: you could start with the wrong thing and be like, 'Oh, sushi is terrible.' But if you know somebody that knows sushi, they can tell you where to start."

In addition to screening 16mm experimental films, Open Cinema will serve as a forum for local filmmakers to screen their work. The only stipulations for submitting a film are that it must be less than 30 minutes and be cued up on VHS, DVD, VCD, mini-DV or 16mm format. Submissions will be accepted the night of the event.

"A huge part of the event is to give the film department kids a place to validate their films outside of the film department," says Allen, a 2002 graduate of the KU film program.

"Since there's no ongoing monthly local filmmakers showcase (in Lawrence), we're counting on there being quite a few people."

The idea for Open Cinema sprang from Allen and Alfrey's mutual interest in obscure experimental films. Since these films aren't typically available on commercial DVD, the group will be renting 16mm prints from a San Francisco-based distributor called Canyon Cinema. Such rentals typically cost $30-50 for short films and upwards of $100 for feature-length films.

"There's just no way I as an individual can pay for that, so we decided that we would try to start an organization so that we could pool resources," Allen says. "I don't know how long (Canyon Cinema) is going to be around, just because I don't know how much of a demand there is for experimental films."

Such films are generally non-narrative, abstract and intellectually challenging. On the far end of the spectrum are borderline prank pieces like Andy Warhol's "Empire," an eight-hour static shot of the Empire State Building. Other recognizable names include 1930s avant-garde artists like Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp; fans of the genre would more commonly recognize names like Stan Brakhage and Maya Deren.

"Most of these filmmakers are being screened in art galleries," Allen says. "You can get glimpses in certain narrative directors like David Lynch ... sometimes his movies will put the narrative on hold while it goes into some more strict visual sequences."

Allen and Alfrey have mapped out selections for Open Cinema's first five events in hopes of choosing films that will appeal to experimental neophytes. Many of these films are favorites of KU professor and experimental filmmaker Ed Small, who helped introduce Allen to the genre.

The goal, Allen says, is to pique the interest of enough people to keep Open Cinema bankrolled and be able to afford 3-4 new films each month. Though the group's events will always be free and open to the public, a $25 annual membership will allow hardcore fans to vote for which films to rent.

"Once we get going and people develop an interest in it, we'll start to be able to see stuff that we haven't seen before," Allen says. "That's what I'm really excited about - getting to that point where people are turning me onto stuff that I wasn't aware of."

The group is also applying for a grant from the Lawrence Arts Commission to enable them to host an all-day experimental film festival. Future meetings will most likely be held at the Lawrence Public Library instead of the Olive Gallery.

Allen and Alfrey are currently co-directing a full-length film titled "No Outlet." Both will contribute their original short works to the local portion of the event.

"I'm not exactly sure (what I'll show) yet because a lot of the stuff I've been doing lately has the potential to send people into seizures," Allen says. "It's stuff that I would never show in public because I think it would be immoral. But if my friends are interested in dreaming while they're awake, I've got just the thing."