About

LIGHTSTRUCK is a Los Angeles based experimental film screening series curated by Zena Grey and Mark Toscano (me) and info on all of our screenings (and more) can be found on this site. We’re also on IG @lightstruckfilm.

But LIGHTSTRUCK is also a website meant to function as a growing home for info and resources related to experimental film, archiving and archival whatnot, and other related stuff, including film programs, texts, anecdotal and tech info, artist filmographies, and even the film stocks database I’ve been working on for many years (and which will be in a perpetual state of being updated and added to).

I realize that a regular website as a useful repository of info is a notion that has become a bit antiquated for some, but I decided to commit to this approach because not only is it by far a more effective and flexible way to host and share lots of weird data and information about a specific esoteric topic, but I also like the idea that it acts as a virtual space that people can hopefully visit and dig around in. I also hope that the extremely basic nature of the site will make it easier to use and engage with its information, because I don’t know about you, but I find the contemporary tendency of vastly overdesigned and visually busy sites to be exhausting.

Please note that all text on this site is written by me (Mark Toscano) unless otherwise attributed, so please do credit me (and/or other authors attributed) if you quote or use it anywhere (if for no other reason than I’d love for people to know that this resource is here for them to use as well!)

I also have a blog/site called Preservation Insanity, which ideally I’d like to get back to contributing to, but which regardless still has a bunch of fun stuff about experimental film and archiving, including anecdotal tidbits and some longer-form articles I’ve written on this subject over the years.