Minute Movies daily videos

daily video process // 2011-present
collection of 100+ Minute Movies on my vimeo page

“Perini’s shorts are meant to process the present. But when Perini looks back years later on these clips, they transform into a meaningful representation of that time in her life.” - Lauren Yoshiko about Minute Movies in “Diary of a Filmmaker,” for Willamette Week, January 16, 2019

Daily Video (08.13.12). New York, New York

Minute Movie (01.24.16). Portland, Oregon

Minute Movie (04.13.16). Portland, Oregon

Minute Movie (09.19.17). Trastevere, Rome, Italy

Since April 1, 2011, at least once per day, using a small handheld camera, I compose and record a 60-second, single-take video of what is going on around me. This practice began during a time in my life when I was preoccupied with job searching, job doing, finding friends in a new city, moving around shared housing situations, and just generally learning how to take care of myself. I felt creatively frustrated, I was unable to find time for my own artwork. So I committed to dipping into my creative self for at least 60 seconds each day to create a Minute Movie. I remember thinking: “I must be able to be an artist for one minute a day.”

What began as an exercise in creativity has developed into a daily ritual, a mindfulness practice, a way to accumulate memories. Minute Movies have become a background rhythm to my life, a place to create freely without pressure to make a finished product. Most videos are meditative with minimal compositions, taking a long look at the present moment. The videos almost always document moments of solitude and occasionally involve me doing a performance for the camera. Some videos resemble home movies, capturing intimate moments with friends, family, and pets. As it turns out, 60 seconds is a long time to hold a shot, or look at a flower, or stand on a busy street corner - feeling the full 60 seconds pass has become a major aspect of this process. Each month I label the month’s videos with the date and tuck them away into a hard drive. This first stage of organizing shots is gentle; I briefly review these life fragments and bid them farewell for awhile. The entire Minute Movies process is a slow, savored cinematic practice for me, a way to intentionally be with my present experience.

Over the years I have used my collection of Minute Movies to create a few video art works. However, it wasn’t until 2021-2023 that I cataloged the first decade of Minute Movies into a huge searchable database and I have been using the database as a generative pallette, a place of inspiration and content for new work. These video fragments, captured in moments of presence and creativity, feel like notes to myself, time capsules I buried years ago. My first videos were shot on a Flip camera and in recent years I have been using an iPhone to create Minute Movies. In one way or another, I have been carrying small cameras with me and playing with video/film material from my own life since I was a teenager; where I am in my practice now feels like an extension of that early impulse to have a camera as a companion. You can peruse a collection of more than 100 Minute Movies on my vimeo page, feel them in their unedited state.

“Diary of a Filmmaker,” by Lauren Yoshiko, full-page interview for Willamette Week, January 16, 2019

Julie Perini making a Minute Movie with a Flip camera at Djerassi Artist Residency, 2014

press
2019: “Diary of a Filmmaker,” by Lauren Yoshiko, full-page interview for Willamette Week, January 16, 2019

selected screenings & exhibitions
2019: Extra Ordinary: Short Films & Videos About Everyday Life by Julie Perini, Northwest Film Center at Portland Art Museum, curated by Ben Popp

Julie Perini is a filmmaker and artist in Portland, Oregon.