As the materials and processes of filmmaking have risen in cost and equipment has been discarded by institutions, filmmaking tools have fallen into the hands of artists who are exploring and reimagining the roles of chemist, colorist, technician, machinist…
In partnership with Balagan and Handcranked Film, AgX is part of a global community of artist-run film collectives and laboratories who share resources, equipment, knowledge and a physical space focused on the creation and appreciation of photochemical filmmaking. Combining the variety and scope of AgX members' individual skills, the group realizes otherwise complicated or expensive undertakings, such as screenings and performances; classes and workshops; chemistry and film stock orders; and equipment rescue and repair. Collaborating with an array of artists, students and organizations, AgX supports a diverse community of filmmakers, photographers and interdisciplinary artists—both novice and experienced. At our space, members can engage in shooting film, processing, contact printing, optical printing, animation, analogue and digital editing, and recording optical soundtracks, as well as a variety of screenings, workshops, skill shares and discussions.
MISSION STATEMENT
Embedded within the emulsion of photochemical film, silver halides are crystals composed of silver and one of the halogens (Br, Cl or I), often given the notation AgX.
AgX members screen their films regularly in festivals and venues around the world, occasionally participating as a group in screenings—including those at Pix Film Gallery in Toronto; Echo Park Film Center in Los Angeles; Peking University in Beijing; Estudios Churubusco in Mexico City; L’Abominable in Paris; Kino Palais in Buenos Aires; Northamption Film Festival; Sleeping Giant Fest in Jacksonville, Florida; RPM Film Festival in Boston; as well as in Boston’s HUBweek. Collectively and individually, members have also helped stage collaborative installations such as Temporal Currents: Experimental Film + Sound at the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum and Mixed Use: A Night of Expanded Cinema with the AgX Film Collective at Tufts University. In various capacities, AgX has worked with Somerville Community Media Center, Harvard Art Museums, Harvard Film Archive, UMass Boston Art Department, Emerson College, School of the Museum of Fine Arts and Montserrat College of Art, among many other organizations. AgX has received grants from the Collective Futures Fund, the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture in Boston, the Somerville Arts Council and the Waltham Cultural Council.