Date: 24 October 2010 | Season: London Film Festival 2010 | Tags: London Film Festival
THREE FILMS BY NATHANIEL DORSKY
Sunday 24 October 2010, at 2pm
London BFI Southbank NFT3
Nathaniel Dorsky finds moments of profound beauty among the shadows, reflections and luminosity of city life and the natural world. His open form of filmmaking creates a space for the viewer’s contemplation amidst the subtle and astonishing images which radiate from the screen. This programme presents two new films together with a recent preservation of a formative early work.
Nathaniel Dorsky, Compline, USA, 2009, 19 min
“COMPLINE is a night devotion or prayer, the last of the canonical hours, the final act in a cycle. It is the last film I will be able to shoot in Kodachrome; a loving duet with and a fond farewell to this noble emulsion.” (ND)
Nathaniel Dorsky, Aubade, USA, 2010, 12 min
“An aubade is a morning song or poem evoking the first rays of the sun at daybreak. In some sense, it is a new beginning for me.” (ND)
Nathaniel Dorsky, Hours for Jerome, USA, 1966-70/82, 45 min
“An arrangement of images, energies, and illuminations from daily life. These fragments of light revolve around the four seasons and are very much a part of the youthful energy and poignant joy of my mid-20s. In medieval European Catholicism, a ‘Book of Hours’ was a series of prayers presented eight times every 24 hours. Each ‘hour’ had its own qualities, from pre-dawn till very late at night, and these qualities also changed through the progressing seasons of the year.” (ND)
Hours for Jerome has been preserved by Pacific Film Archive with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
PROGRAMME NOTES
THREE FILMS BY NATHANIEL DORSKY
Sunday 24 October 2010, at 2pm
London BFI Southbank NFT3
COMPLINE
Nathaniel Dorsky, USA, 2009, 16mm, colour, silent, 19 min
Compline is a night devotion or prayer, the last of the canonical hours, the final act in a cycle. This is also the last film I will be able to shoot in Kodachrome, a film stock I have used since I was 10 years old. It is a loving duet with and a fond farewell to this noble emulsion (Nathaniel Dorsky)
AUBADE
Nathaniel Dorsky, USA, 2010, 16mm, colour, silent, 12 min
An aubade is a morning song or poem evoking the first rays of the sun at daybreak. Often, it includes the atmosphere of lovers parting. This film is my first venture into shooting in colour negative after having spent a lifetime shooting Kodachrome. In some sense, it is a new beginning for me. (Nathaniel Dorsky)
HOURS FOR JEROME, PARTS 1 & 2
Nathaniel Dorsky, USA 1966-70/82, 16mm, colour, silent, 45 min (restoration print)
This footage was shot from 1966 to 1970 and edited over a two-year period ending in July 1982. Hours For Jerome is an arrangement of images, energies, and illuminations from daily life. These fragments of light revolve around the four seasons and are very much a part of the youthful energy and poignant joy of my mid-twenties. Part One is spring through summer; Part Two is fall and winter. The title of the film refers to a ‘Book of Hours’ which, in medieval European Catholicism, was a series of prayers presented eight times every 24 hours. Each ‘hour’ had its own qualities from pre-dawn till very late at night and these qualities also changed through the progressing seasons of the year. They were traditionally illustrated by luminous miniature paintings, and were often titled ‘Hours for …’. Saint Jerome was a favourite subject of these illuminations and he is often depicted at his studies accompanied by a lion. The Jerome in Hours for Jerome is a close friend and filmmaker who is seen at his work or studies, often with his cats. He is first seen reading the newspaper, then putting sugar in his coffee, contemplating a book of Mozart’s letters in a rain and lightening storm, swimming, and writing a letter in blue; and in Part Two picking an apple, editing film, standing under a tree, reading, watching television during a snow storm, and driving a car at twilight. So the title is a somewhat humorous reference to the medieval form, as this film is also a series of illuminations from different times of day and night progressing through the seasons. There is also the pun that so much of the film has to do with various kinds of time. (Nathaniel Dorsky)
Hours for Jerome has been preserved by Pacific Film Archive with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
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