In film's very materials experimental filmmakers have found limitless possibilities for creating new images.

The filmmaking avant-garde have always been interested in the possibilities of film beyond its ability to record images through the eye of the camera. Often filmmakers have turned their attention to the technical apparatus and processes usually invisible during feature film production. Unconventional use of the optical soundtrack strip, experimental printing techniques, a different focus on the role of the film projector, these are just some of the different ways that experimental filmmakers have worked with the moving image.

Some filmmakers have done away with the camera entirely. Found scraps of film footage or slides are edited together instead of pointing the camera. The actual surface of the film strip has also provided a fertile ground for experiments with direct mark-making, from scratching into the surface to painting onto it.

This theme presents some of the different ways that artists have explored the very nature of film; as a found material, a surface for drawing and scratching on or for it's transformative properties through the application of experimental printing processes.