Nathaniel Dorsky: Devotional Cinema

Date: 31 October 2004 | Season: London Film Festival 2004 | Tags:

NATHANIEL DORSKY: DEVOTIONAL CINEMA
Sunday 31 October 2004, at 4pm
London National Film Theatre NFT3

A LECTURE SCREENING

As an antidote to the frenetic pace and complexity of modern life, Nathaniel Dorsky’s films invite an audience to connect at a precious level of intimacy, nourishing both mind and spirit. His camera is drawn towards those transient moments of wonder that often pass unnoticed in daily life: jewelled refractions of sunlight on water, dappled shadows cast along the ground.

The films are photographed, non-narrative and have none of the visual trickery we might associate with the avant-garde. Dorsky’s work achieves a sensitive balance between humanity, nature and the ethereal, weaving together lyrical statements in a rhythmic cadence that creates space for private reflection. The world floods through the lens, onto the screen and into our minds.

In this lecture-screening of Variations (which provided the inspiration for the ‘most beautiful image’ sequence of American Beauty) and his new film Threnody, Dorsky discusses the qualities of cinema that attracted him to use the medium in such a poetic way, and will read from his recently published book ‘Devotional Cinema’. This is his first public appearance in the UK.

Nathaniel Dorsky, Variations, USA, 1992-98, 24 min
Nathaniel Dorsky, Threnody, USA, 2004, 20 min

PROGRAMME NOTES