Refractions and reflections shot in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery: the half-life of death’s advance. Stained glass invokes the sublime in its filtering of light energy, a pre-cinematic cipher announcing a crack between worlds. “All the stars in heaven” radiate before expiring; the passing moment of a moment’s passing is the most elusive and hence the most beautiful. Part of Ross Lipman’s experimental documentary compilation, “the perfect heart of flux,” also available for distribution through CFMDC.
Filter Films
-
Filmed in Berlin, Portugal and Switzerland, “Eastern Avenue” is an experiment in approach for the maker of “Scissere.” In an attempt to explore the nature of intuition, the filmmaker traveled through familiar and foreign landscapes, using impulsive reactions as the motivation for guiding the camera through the different environments. The result is a sensuous, lyrical trip ranging from the ruins and walls of a freak civilization called Berlin, to the former edge of the earth and its endless sea beaches, Portugal. The structure and innate “story” of the film are dictated by the chronology of the experiences and the perceptions that accompanied them.
Eastern Avenue
-
A requiem for a cathedral of light, built entirely of glass bottles, pencils, and industrial detritus by legendary California outsider artist Grandma Prisbrey from 1956 to 1981. The Village has long since fallen into decay, and is accessible by hopping a small fence. The spirit of Grandma Prisbrey is conjured from the ruins with an improv on broken piano by Jodie Baltazar (aka Monotrona). Part of Ross Lipman’s experimental documentary compilation, “the perfect heart of flux,” also available through CFMDC.
Afternoon in Bottle Village
-
A short sketch in tide, wind, and spray paint. Part of Ross Lipman’s experimental documentary compilation, “the perfect heart of flux,” also available through CFMDC.
Ocean Beach / Point Lobos I, II, III
-
Optically printed collage of found and archival footage, with audio collage by John Shaw. (Chicago) “You are never alone, because you are full of all the memories, all the conditioning, all the mutterings of yesterday; your mind is never clear of all the rubbish it has accumulated. To be alone you must die to the past. When you are alone, totally alone, not belonging to any family, any nation, any culture, any particular continent, there is that sense of being an outsider. The man who is completely alone in this way is innocent, and it is this innocence that frees the mind from sorrow.” — Krishnamurti
10-17-88
-
“The Cropping of the Spectacle” began as a live cinema performance investigating the birth of the Television Spectacle in 1954 McCarthy’s America. Based loosely on the classic anarchist documentary “Point of Order” (Emile de Antonio/Dan Talbot, 1964); a film which at once deconstructed the hearings and re-invented documentary strategies – “The Cropping of the Spectacle” integrates archival movie and audio clips in chronicling the strange temporal evolution of our understandings of recent history. The original film and its many revisions ultimately reveal an odd continuation of a hegemonic framing process begun with the original Army-McCarthy hearings, which continues to the present day. This single-channel version includes footage of a live performance at Redcat, Los Angeles.
Cropping of the Spectacle, The
-
A cinematic self-portrait in two parts. In the first half, a half-silvered mirror was placed between the filmmaker and the camera. In the second, the mirror was removed. “Know that the complete secret of prophecy for the prophet is that he suddenly sees the form of his self standing before him, and his self forgets and becomes transported from him, and he sees the form of himself before him speaking with him and proclaiming the future.” – Rabbi Nathan, as related by Moses ben Jacob of Kiev in the Shushan Sodot, 1509.
Kino-i
-
Filmed in a decaying housing estate in east London, “Rhythm 06” renders the outer trappings of internal collapse, a choreography of layers of the real. This new reworking of “Rhythm 93” transposes Michael Whitmore’s ethereal score for 10-string guitar and overtones on Carolyn Roy’s original riveting hypernaturalist performance.
Rhythm 06
-
“The square is the sign of a new humanity. It is something like the cross of the early Christians.” — Theo van Doesburg, upon greeting Hans Richter and Viking Eggeling in Klein Kolzig, 1920 Today’s visual imagery is split body from soul, images employed expressly for their representational value in a linguistic manner; form an afterthought. “Rhythm 92” reverses this, intermingling camera images with light, flare and color in an orchestration of pure form, foregoing meaning. (San Francisco)
Rhythm 92
-
A Pre-Raphaelite portrait of the visionary state as arising from nervous breakdown. Filmed in bitter winter in England’s bleak post-Thatcher years, using only natural light, the camera’s focus and exposure shift continually in a subversive riff on classical cinematic match-cutting. Perhaps something occurs, but what? Winner, Director’s Choice, Black Maria Film Festival (1994).
Rhythm 93
