Flowers of the Sky
Very Short Films
•
9m 15s
Directed by Janie Geiser • Documentary • 2016 • 9 minutes
Flowers of the Sky (a medieval term for comets) draws on two panoramic photographs, found in a Los Angeles thrift shop, that depict a gathering of members of the Eastern Star, a Masonic order. From the Double Vision series.
“In Flowers of the Sky, Janie Geiser elegantly submits two thrifted photographs to superimpositions and masking techniques in order to trouble and recast histories of the early 20th century.” — Andrea Picard, TIFF
“Geiser’s frequent use of dissolves and superimpositions in the film gradually wears down our awareness of the visual distinctiveness between the black-and-white photographs she is re-photographing (and tinting in the process) and the close-ups on halftone illustrations. As Geiser ups the pace of movement in the video, introducing plays with mirror and lens effects that look like they’re straight out of the silent avant-garde, distinguishing between these two once-distinct visual forms becomes less of a pressing perceptual issue.” —Ian Bryce Jones, Intermittent Mechanism
Up Next in Very Short Films
-
Anthem
Directed by Marlon Riggs • Documentary • 1991 • 8 minutes
Marlon Riggs' experimental music video politicizes the homoeroticism of African-American men. With images—sensual, sexual, and defiant—and words intended to provoke, Anthem reasserts the self-evident right to life and liberty in an era of...
-
Visit to Bernadette Mayer's Childhood...
Directed by Lynne Sachs • Documentary • 2020 • 3 minutes
In July 1971, language poet Bernadette Mayer decided to document an entire month of her life. She called the project Memory. Each day, Mayer exposed a roll of 35 mm slide film and wrote in her journal. The result was 1,100 snapshots and a ...
-
Starfish Aorta Colossus
Directed by Lynne Sachs • Documentary • 2015 • 5 minutes
Poetry watches film. Film reads poetry. Paolo Javier’s text is a catalyst for the digital sculpting of an 8mm Kodachrome canvas. Syntactical ruptures and the celebration of nouns illuminate twenty-five years of rediscovered film journeys. ...