Cell Project Space

Jeff Preiss’ Orchard Documents are a series of experimental film collaborations the filmmaker made with other members of Orchard, a cooperatively run gallery that operated on New York City’s Lower East Side between 2005 and 2008. Filmed within the context of exhibitions organised by the gallery’s members, each document employs different cinematographic techniques and formats to represent artworks and exhibitions. The films do more than record an exhibition history: the Orchard Documents posit that documentation can be generative rather than purely representative.

 

For Preiss the gallery was a studio, and contained within it, the raw material from which to generate moving image works that fall somewhere between experimental film and documentary. Already a seasoned filmmaker and cinematographer by the time Orchard Gallery was founded, he was one of twelve members who co-ran the space; the others included artists, academics, and one anonymous member. Together they operated and organised the gallery, with each member eventually curating one exhibition of their choosing and another framing their own work. The programme reflected the members’ diverse interests, encompassing post-conceptual practices, painting, and film history. To some extent, Orchard’s collective structure has a direct and intentional lineage to historic film cooperatives, such as The Film-Makers’ Cooperative and The Collective for Living Cinema.