Date: Thursday, November 6th 2014 & Friday, November 7th 2014
Workshop: first day 12:00 – 18:00, second day 10:00 – 17:00
Location: LaborBerlin e.V., Gerichtstr. 65, 13347 Berlin
This workshop is open to non-LaborBerlin members. Previous processing experience is recommended, but not necessary.
Alex MacKenzie will be visiting LaborBerlin to teach the workshop Handmade Emulsion: creating black and white film stock from scratch.
The alchemical nature and serendipity of the handmade image are explored in this immersive how-to of hand-brewed emulsion. In this workshop a simple, raw, and extremely low ISO black and white film stock suitable for contact printing will be created, using three key ingredients in the production of a silver based emulsion: gelatin, potassium bromide, and silver nitrate. A basic chemistry lesson will be provided to introduce the essential make-up of film emulsion, followed by a discussion of technique including a contextual screening of examples, and the creation of the emulsion in a darkroom.
The mixture is then literally painted on to clear transparent acetate, followed by contact printing a film strip onto the raw stock, hand processing, and assessing the results. The workshop is aimed at both experienced practitioners and beginners, and includes all film stock, chemistry, and supplies. It is also recommended that you bring small objects of 16mm width or less for photogramming onto the filmstrips and/or film strips.
Instructor: Alex MacKenzie is an experimental film artist working primarily with analog equipment and hand processed imagery. He creates works of expanded cinema, light projection installation, and projector performance. His work has screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, the EXiS Experimental Film Festival in Seoul, Lightcone in Paris, Kino Arsenal in Berlin and others. Alex was the founder and curator of the Edison Electric Gallery of Moving Images, the Blinding Light!! Cinema and the Vancouver Underground Film Festival.
Pre-registration is required. To register for the workshop please send an email to
Workshop fee for non-members: 60 €