We welcome Stan Brakhage, who was unable to join us in November when his artist residency was originally scheduled. Tonight he will present a program of his hand–painted films and talk about some of the ideas "behind his experiments." Stan Brakhage is one of the greatest living filmmakers, and in fifty years has made an astounding 350 radically innovative films. An artist who is deeply involved in every step of creating his films, Brakhage largely eschews sound and language to explore a first–person cinema that aspires to pure vision. In his writings Brakhage talks of unlearning vision, to see again with fresh eyes, unruled by the laws of man–made perspective. He is intrigued by inner subjective visions, but also by the phenomena of closed–eye vision-the colors and light streaks you see when you close your eyes. In attempts to capture this, as well as to explore color and light, from his earliest films Brakhage has painted and scratched onto the film strip itself. He has created a unique cinematic language which has redefined personal, poetic expression through cinema.