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23RD PSALM BRANCH: A MEDITATION ON WAR BY STAN BRAKHAGE For the 23rd in his series of 8mm Songs<\/em>, Stan Brakhage assembled a meditation on the nature of war. The film, which was blown up to 16mm in 1978, is an intricate montage in which the material is manipulated to depict his personal response to the horrific events in Vietnam. \u201cA study of war, created in the imagination in the wake of newsreel death and destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n Stan Brakhage, 23rd Psalm Branch: Part I, USA, 1966\/78, colour, silent, 44 min (18fps)<\/strong> \u201cThe furthest that Brakhage came in extending the language of 8mm cinema was his editing of the 23rd Psalm Branch<\/em> … The phenomenal and painstaking craftsmanship of this film reflects the intensity of the obsession with which its theme grasped his mind. In 1966, out of confusion about the Vietnam War and the American reaction to it, Brakhage began to meditate on the nature of war. He amassed a collection of war documentaries and diligently studied newsreels and political speeches on television to the point of speculating on the significance of recurring clusters and shapes of the dots on the television screen. The fruit of his studies and thoughts was the longest and most important of the \u201cSongs<\/em>\u201d; 23rd Psalm Branch<\/em> is an apocalypse of the imagination. The conscience of the filmmaker moves between his idea of home and the self and his vision of war. At times the montage of horrors pursues its own split-second dynamic as if forgetting to relocate itself in the passing American landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong> Wednesday 4 December 2002, at 7:30pm<\/strong>
\n London The Photographers’ Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nStan Brakhage, 23rd Psalm Branch: Part II, USA, 1966\/78, colour, silent, 41 min (18fps)<\/strong><\/p>\n