Running In O&R

Running In O&R occupies the conjunction of three crucial arts of the 1970s: performance art, experimental dance, and independent filmmaking. Running In O&R started as a performance piece for Missing Associates, Dudar’s partnership with dancer/choreographer Lily Eng. This film was shot at the original location of the Centre for Experimental Art and Communication (CEAC), the city’s ”largest and most avant-garde” international art gallery. In Running In O&R, the performers run laps around the gallery space, keeping in step and using their natural strides. Consequently they go in and out of phase visually, as other complexities emerge. The establishing wide shot is stationary. But the camera progressively zooms in, eventually becoming part of the choreography, switching from one performer to the other as they pass each other in the tightest shots. Peter Dudar’s films have been linked to structural filmmaking, in which ”the shape of the film is crucial, the content peripheral.” However, Dudar’s camera engages the performers and to an extent is actually controlled by the performers: structural performance schematics coalesce with structural film schematics. Running In O&R initiated Dudar’s transition from performance artist to filmmaker. Concepts introduced here culminated in his internationally lauded Crash Points films.