Chromaflex
16 mm Colour Workshop
Facilitated by Richard Tuohy and Dianna Barrie
Create your own hand-made films through a 16 mm film developing technique!
Date: 11 September, 2025
Time: 10 AM- 3 PM
Venue: Fourth Floor, Emami Art
About the Workshop
This workshop will take the participants step by step through a new colour DIY 16 mm film developing technique. This technique, which is called ‘Chromaflex’, allows selectively controlled negative and positive colour and black and white images on the same strip of film. What’s more, the technique allows is to make these selection decisions in full light with the images visible right there in front of you. You can have areas of black, areas of clear, colour negative areas, colour positive areas, and glorious black and white images all within a single frame of an ordinary camera captured image. We then get to watch the colour chemistry working its magic – again, in full light. Apart from engaging with a cool experimental film technique, this workshop is a great opportunity to learn in detail how colour developing works.
The Chromaflex Workshop is a part of the Emami Art Experimental Film Festival 2025. The workshop is supported by KCC and Emami Foundation.
Who can apply?
No prior experience in filmmaking is needed. Anyone with a passion for cinema can apply.
Requirements
The participants need to carry a pair of scissors. All the other materials required for the workshop will be provided.
Biography
Richard Tuohy (b. 1969, Melbourne, Aus.) began making works on super 8 in the late nineteen eighties. After a brief hiatus from cinema (including formal study in philosophy for seven years) he returned to film-making in 2004. Initially working exclusively in Super 8, the next five years saw an extremely productive period with dozens of experiments and works finished in the small gauge. In 2006 he, along with his partner Dianna Barrie, launched nanolab, a super 8 film processing laboratory based at their home in Daylesford Victoria. The establishment of this lab afforded the opportunity to set up darkrooms and install 16mm film processing and most importantly printing and sound recording equipment. Since 2009 he has been an active and vocal member of the international artist run film lab scene. In 2011 Richard and Dianna started the Artist Film Workshop which in 2012 became a membership based artist-run film lab, itself also part of the international labs network. AFW has become the center of experimental film practice on film in Australia, being the focus for regular experimental film screenings, touring artists programs, workshops and supporting numerous artists in their personal film practice. As of the end of 2019, AFW has held more than 150 screening events among other activities. Tuohy's own works are firmly in the 'hand-made' film tradition. An advocate for the possibilities of hand made cinema, Tuohy has devoted much time and effort in sharing his knowledge through workshops and classes both in his native Australia and internationally (last count was 70 international workshops). His films and film based performances have screened at venues including the Melbourne IFF, EMAF (Osnabruck), Rotterdam IFF, New York FF, Ann Arbor, Recontres Internationales (Louvre) and Media City and he has repeatedly toured Europe, North America, South America and Asia presenting solo programs of his work and conducting experimental film-making workshops. He is the instigator of the AFW magazine Film Is and, along with Dianna Barrie and Sue K, was also a co-founder of the AIEFF experimental film festival in Melbourne.
Dianna Barrie (b. 1972, Melbourne) found her way into filmmaking as a middle ground between the pursuit of abstract music and philosophy, both of which she has studied formally at the post graduate level. Ever pushing the limits of the hand processing of super 8 led to the establishment of nanolab with Richard Tuohy in 2006. Nanolab is a commercial super 8 film processing laboratory, the only such lab in Australia. Dianna's film work could perhaps be characterised as 'direct chemical' filmmaking. Works generally begin with some form of camera image capture. This is followed by interventions during hand processing and exacting editing and/or printing processes; they are then completed with simple layered sound constructions. This exploration has spread beyond individual work to her joint establishment in 2012 of Artist Film Workshop, where celluloid is embraced and advocated by a community of practitioners in Melbourne. Dianna has emerged as a noticeable feature in the international artist-run film labs movement. She and her partner spend a significant amount of time each year touring their joint film programs and conducting workshops and masterclasses in hand-made film practice. Dianna was also a founding director of the Australian International Experimental Film Festival.
