Edel Robinson tells how her aim to understand film led her to a unique resource for cinephiles and experimental filmmakers.

When I decided to make a film for the first time in 1990, there were some basic things that I initially did not understand about the cinematic apparatus, like what is the difference between 16mm and 35mm filmmaking, and what is it that sets them apart. Most experimental/independent filmmakers work primarily in 16mm, but what is Super8? It can be difficult to find answers to questions like these in a film culture that struggles to emulate the industrial model of feature length drama and documentary. One book that expanded on these questions theoretically, economically, and politically, as well as opening up the arena of experimental and independent filmmakers, was A Critical Cinema by Scott McDonald. It is one of a series of interviews and discussions with 'critical' filmmakers, in five volumes to date. While the focus is mostly North American, the later volumes are more consciously international and multi-ethnic.

More recently, using 16mm and a Bolex camera for the first time, I went back to the books – this time to A Critical Cinema 3. I was looking for something more about the camera mechanism and further possibilities for the filmstrip. That's when I read the interview with Rose Lowder. I read it several times and very closely. I also read with interest that she and her partner Alain-Alcide Sudre founded Les Archives du Film Expérimental d'Avignon (AFEA), and have run this experimental film archive for almost thirty years. In July of last year with the help of an Arts Council travel grant I journeyed to AFEA in Avignon, a medieval walled city in the south of France.

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 110.