FILMMAKER & SOUND ARTIST
BIOGRAPHY
Rachael Guma is a filmmaker and sound artist currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Through her experiments with Super 8 film and analog sound, Rachael strives to create an engaging live viewing experience that embraces the idiosyncratic qualities of technology, while maintaining a hand-crafted approach to her output. Since graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute, her films have screened at the San Francisco Cinematheque, RX Gallery, Mono No Aware, Northern Flickers, UnionDocs, AXWFF, Black Maria, Echo Park Film Center and Microscope Gallery where she was invited to present her first solo show in 2013. In 2016-2017, Rachael participated in Dreamlands: Expanded, a series of expanded cinema events organized by Microscope Gallery in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the exhibition “Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema & Art, 1905-2016”. In this series, she premiered a film, light, and sound composition REDNOWWONDER and provided live sound and additional visual support for a re-staging of Kurt Schwerdtfeger's 1922 “Reflektorische Farblichtspiele” (Reflecting Color-Light-Play). The latter of which she performed in 2019 at HKG in Berlin, Germany and the Paul Klee Museum in Bern, Switzerland for the traveling exhibition, Bauhaus Imaginista.
Collaboration is integral to Rachael's creative process. As a member of Optipus Film Collective, she has performed live foley and record manipulations at the Kitchen, Participant Gallery, 2011 Index Festival, Roulette, the Museum of Art and Design (MAD), Morbid Anatomy Museum, Transient Visions, and Unseen Cinema. Rachael plays theremin for the sound collective, Underworld Oscillator Corporation, most recently performing a live score for the silent film version of The Phantom of the Opera (1925). She is also a founding member of the liquid light projection group, A Clockface Orange, who most recently performed Deliquescence for a live fvirtual audience for Orphans 2020.
Her teaching experience includes introducing avant-garde film to at-risk teens at Reel Works, artist visits at Brooklyn College, University of Colorado, Boulder, Pratt Institute and Sarah Lawrence, animation, sound for film and theremin workshops at the Children's Museum of the Arts, stop motion animation workshops at BRIC, and analog film workshops for Mono No Aware.
Photo by filmmaker, teacher, and friend Jeanne Liotta
SCREENINGS & EXHIBITIONS
YES: RACHAEL GUMA / GRACE SLOANE
Microscope Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2018
Premiere of Walosi (The Frog) (16mm Animation, live sound, 2018)
ART+WORK Staff Exhibition
Columbia University, New York, NY, 2018
BOXING FILMS PROGRAM II
Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY.
Premiere of BAM! (Super 8, 2016)
DREAMLANDS: EXPANDED: SLIDES & MIRRORS PLAYS
Microscope Gallery, in collaboration with the Whitney Museum, NY, 2016
Premiere of REDNOWWONDER (Expanded Cinema performance, Super 8, mirrors, glass organ, 2016)
MONO X: MONO MADE 2009-2016
BRIC Media Arts Center, 2016
Premiere of Hidden Planet (RG3091) (Super 8, live sound, 2016)
NON-DANCE DANCE FILMS
Judson Memorial, as part of Movement Research's Fall Festival, 2016
\venice/ /florence\ |rome| (video, 2014)
A CLOCKFACE ORANGE
Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn, NY, 2015
Liquid light projections for 10 year anniversary of Secret Project Robot.
BONJOUR NEW YORK: FILMS WITH MARIE LOSIER & FRIENDS
Picture Show, NY, 2014
Premiere of \venice/ /florence\ |rome| (video, 2014)
MODS GO TO THE MOVIES
Anthology Film Archives, NY, 2013
Curated mulit-day screening on 60s mod music, Scopitones, and cinema
(IM)MOVABLE OBJECTS
Microscope Gallery, NY, 2013
Solo show of Super 8mm and sound film works.
MILLENNIUM GOES POP!
Millennium Film Workshop, NY, 2012
Curator for group screening of films inspired by pop culture.
INDEX OF MALADJUSTMENTS
Presented by CCNY/Union Docs, NY, 2012
18fps, 45rpm, 3spi (Super 8mm, 2005)
OPTIPUS FILM GROUP SHOW
Participant Gallery, NY, 2011
Waste #1 (Super 8mm, 2005)
ANOTHER EXPERIMENT BY WOMEN FILM FEST
Millennium Film Workshop, NY, 2011
18fps, 45rpm, 3spi (Super 8mm, 2005)
BRING YOUR OWN KODACHROME
Microscope Cinema, NY, 2011
Waste #1 (Super 8mm, 2005)
NORTHERN FLICKERS SCREENING
Olympia, WA, 2010
18fps, 45rpm, 3spi (Super 8mm, 2005)
MONO NO AWARE FESTIVAL
Lumenhouse, NY, 2009
Safe & Sound (Super 8mm, 2006)
SECOND FESTIVAL DE ARTISTAS ARRIESGADOS
Saltillo, Mexico, 2009
Waste #2 (Super 8mm, 2005)
SHOW/PLAY!
YELM Forum RX Gallery San Francisco, CA, 2005
18fps, 45rpm, 3spi (Super 8mm, 2005)
HANDS-ON THE HANDS-OFF
San Francisco Cinematheque, CA, 2005
18fps, 45rpm, 3spi (Super 8mm, 2005)
PERFORMANCES
ORPHANS 2020: DELIQUESCENCE
Live virtual performance of Deliquescence by A Clockface Orange (Genevieve HK & Rachael Guma, liquid projection) with Lea Bertucci (sound) and Bradley Eros (light). May 28, 2020
BAUHAUS IMAGINISTA: KURT SCHWERDTFEGER'S
“Reflektorische Farblichtspiele” (Reflecting Color-Light-Play, 1922)
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, 2019
Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland, 2019
Re-staging performed by Lary 7, Bradley Eros, Rachael Guma, Joel Schlemowitz. Reconstruction by Daniel Wapner in collaboration with Microscope Gallery.
DREAMLANDS: EXPANDED: KURT SCHWERDTFEGER'S
“Reflektorische Farblichtspiele” (Reflecting Color-Light-Play, 1922)
Microscope Gallery, in collaboration with the Whitney Museum, NY, 2016
Re-staging performed by Lary 7, Bradley Eros, Rachael Guma, Joel Schlemowitz. Reconstruction by Daniel Wapner in collaboration with the gallery.
LIVE SCORE FOR PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925)
Morbid Anatomy Museum, NY, 2016
Live score for silent film version of The Phantom of the Opera composed & performed by Underworld Oscillator Corporation (Richard Sylvarnes, Rachael Guma, & Gabriel Guma)
Spool Mfg., Johnson City, NY, 2016
Live theremin, foley, and record manipulation for Space OOUT! The Outer Space Trilogy” by Optipus (Bradley Eros & Kenneth Zoran Curwood) and Underworld Oscillator Corporation (Richard Sylvarnes, Rachael Guma, & Gabriel Guma)
OPTIPUS + A CLOCKFACE ORANGE + UOC
Secret Project Robot, Brooklyn, NY, 2016
Liquid light projections and live soundtrack performance with theremin, synthesizers, and sound effects records.
OPTIPUS + UNDERWORLD OSCILLATOR CORPORATION
Filmmakers Coop Benefit, NY, 2015
Live theremin, foley, and record manipulation for multiple projection cinema event.
SUPER 8MM POETICS: FILMS OF STEPHANIE GRAY
Anthology Film Archives, NY, 2015
Live soundtrack performance with theremin, synthesizers, and sound effects records.
ARCANE PROJECT
Morbid Anatomy Museum, NY, 2015
Foley and vinyl manipulation to films of Bradley Eros, Joel Schlemowitz, and Lary 7.
OPTIPUS + ZERO TIMES EVERYTHING
Filmmakers Coop Benefit, NY, 2014
Live foley and record manipulation for multiple projection cinema event.
SIGHT UNSEEN PRESENTS OPTIPUS LABORATORY
Red Room, Baltimore, 2013
Expanded celluloid, foley & vinyl.
OPTIPUS + ESP LAB
Filmmakers Coop Benefit, NY, 2013
Live foley and record manipulation for multiple projection cinema event.
Museum of Art and Design, NY, 2013
Live foley and record manipulation for multiple projection cinema event.
NARCOLEPSY CINEMA
Roulette, NY, 2013
Expanded celluloid, foley & vinyl.
The Kitchen, NY, 2012
Live foley and record manipulation performace for multiple projection cinema event.