Directed by Chris Marker • Documentary • 1989 • 26 minutes
“Harmony can only be divine and it is Man... who makes it go berserk.” -- Iannis Xenakis
This episode is classic Chris Marker, tying together an abandoned Athenian power plant turned cultural center, ancient Greek statuary, a department store in Japan, young men destroyed by armored warfare during WWI, and a comparison between Plato’s parable of the cave and contemporary cinema.
From the beautiful enigmatic statues of Cycladic art to classic Greek statuary and on to the big bang theory, COSMOGONY explores the mysteries of creation—on the human, divine, and physical levels. It is no accident that in ancient Greek, the words for “poet” and “creator” are the same.
Up Next in Season 1
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The Owl's Legacy: Mythology, or Lies ...
Directed by Chris Marker • Documentary • 1989 • 26 minutes
“Myths fuel history.” --Mario Ploratis
A small number of Greek myths—Oedipus, Antigone, the Gorgon who turns people who gaze on her to stone—have fed our understandings of ourselves and each other through literature, religion, philosoph...
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The Owl's Legacy: Misogyny, or the Sn...
Directed by Chris Marker • Documentary • 1989 • 26 minutes
“Greek love, Greek eroticism, is a paradigm for us. But it’s something about which we are very hypocritical.” --John Winkler
Classicist Giulia Sissa takes center stage in this episode, which explores desire in ancient Greece (primarily ...
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The Owl's Legacy: Tragedy, or the Ill...
Directed by Chris Marker • Documentary • 1989 • 26 minutes
“The institution of tragedy plays a fundamental role in a democracy.” --Cornelius Castoriadis
Greek tragedies were originally like TV shows before the age of streaming. They were performed once, and only once says scholar Oswyn Murray. ...
