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NATHANIEL DORSKY Nathaniel Dorsky is a poetic filmmaker whose delicate works meditate on the intangible wonder of everyday life. His astute cinematography in Arbor Vitae<\/i> and The Visitation<\/i> recognises subtle moments of beauty that might otherwise go unnoticed. The films are woven together in a crisp montage, creating synaptic connections between shots and opening up a space for quiet reflection. Alaya<\/i>, a film that Stan Brakhage declared was \u201clittle short of a miracle\u201d, is a more abstract work that uncovers worlds within the movement of grains of sand.<\/p>\n Dorsky, who has been a filmmaker since 1964, makes his first appearances in London this Autumn. His reflections on the spiritual qualities of film were recently published in the book Devotional Cinema<\/i> (Tuumba Press).<\/p>\n The Visitation, 2002, colour, silent, 18 mins<\/strong> Nathaniel Dorsky was born in New York, 1943, and has been making and exhibiting films within the avant-garde tradition since 1964. He now lives in San Francisco, where he makes a living as a film editor. His personal films have been shown internationally in museums, festivals and cinematheques and are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Pacific Film Archives (Berkeley), Image Forum (Tokyo) and Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris). Amongst his most celebrated works are Hours for Jerome <\/i>(1966-82), Pneuma<\/i> (1976-83), Alaya<\/i> (1976-87), Variations <\/i>(1992-98), Arbor Vitae<\/i> (2000) Love\u2019s Refrain<\/i> (2001) and The Visitation <\/i>(2002). A shot of a plastic bag floating in a city street from his film Variations<\/i> is widely acknowledged as the inspiration for the \u2018most beautiful image in the world\u2019 sequence of the Oscar winning feature film American Beauty<\/i> (2000). Devotional Cinema<\/i>, Dorsky\u2019s discussion of themes and ideas concerning the spiritual qualities of film was published in 2003 by Tuumba Press. His new film Threnody<\/i> (2004) will be the centrepiece of his lecture screening at The Times bfi<\/i> 48th London Film Festival at the National Film Theatre on 31 October 2004.<\/p>\nPROGRAMME NOTES<\/a> THE VISITATION ALAYA LOVE’S REFRAIN
\nTuesday 9 November 2004, at 6:30pm<\/strong>
\nLondon Tate Modern<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nAlaya, 1976-87, colour, silent, 28 mins<\/strong>
\nArbor Vitae, 1999-2000, colour, silent, 28 mins<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n2002, 16mm, colour, silent, 18fps, 18 mins
\n<\/strong>Part one of a set of Two Devotional Songs. The Visitation<\/em> is a gradual unfolding, an arrival so to speak. I felt the necessity to describe an occurrence, not one specifically of time and place, but one of revelation in one\u2019s own psyche. The place of articulation is not so much in the realm of images as information, but in the response of the heart to the poignancy of the cuts.<\/p>\n
\n1976-87, 16mm, colour, silent, 18fps, 20 mins
\n<\/strong>\u201cAlaya<\/em> manages a perfection of \u2018musical\u2019 light across a space of time greater in length than would seem possible…and with minimal means of line and tone \u2026 After about three minutes I began to be aware of the subtlety of rhythm, within each shot and shot-to-shot, which carried each cut, causing each new image to sit in-the-light of these several previous. \u2026 A little short of a miracle.\u201d (Stan Brakhage)<\/p>\n
\n2000-01, 16mm, colour, silent, 18fps. 22.5 mins
\n<\/strong>Perhaps the most delicately tactile in this series, Love\u2019s Refrain<\/em> rests moment to moment on its own surface. It is a coda in twilight, a soft-spoken conclusion to a set of four cinematic songs.<\/p>\n