Luther Price (films)

Luther Price: In the past decade what I’ve been working on pretty much as a constant thing is found footage.

Narrator: Filmmaker Luther Price.

Luther Price: Found footage because of the nature of the different aspects of content and issues that I can work with—the manipulation of the found footage, whether it be burying it, painting it, manipulating its content all together, just creating these original, hand-made, sixteen millimeter, say ten-minute films, that are their own, original, one-of-a-kind pieces that are projection ready, that are crafted well.

I had buried film years ago, in vinegar, in different things, in just little baggies, just as an experiment. Just to bury them. Digged them up, and I loved the way everything became oxidized. Nothing was distinguishable. Everything became very much reduced down to beautiful colors. Gorgeous greens and purples.

You know, different stocks do different things, and then it became an archival process, where, well, what if I do it this way? What if I leave it in the sun? What if I just keep it in salt water for two weeks?

Sometimes you need to like—snip. If you see a section that’s really beautiful, snip it, you know, and then let the rest of it go. It’s a process. It’s a fun process. But it’s not as random as it seems. It might have started off random but I’ve realized that you have a lot of control with what can happen.