One of the world's great filmmakers, Stan Brakhage is nonetheless not well known outside of the avant–garde, where he is a legendary figure. In almost fifty years, Brakhage has made over 340 films. In his 1963 Metaphors on Vision, he made a call for a radical shift in seeing: "Imagine an eye unruled by man–made laws of perspective, an eye unprejudiced by compositional logic, an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but which must know each object encountered in life through an adventure of perception." His own films are often made without a camera-painting and scratching directly on film-but also include lyrical landscape portraits and "home movies" of his family and friends. Almost all Brakhage's films are silent, further directing our attention to his beautiful visuals which are often abstract and about the qualities of light. With their transitory compositions, stunning camera movements, and nuanced associative editing, Brakhage's films often "move away from showing pictures of things in order to capture the processes that undergird the world-or that underlie thought itself" (Fred Camper). The recent films selected by the artist for tonight's program provide exquisite challenges to our learned ways of seeing and thinking.-Kathy Geritz

Worm and Web Love (1999, 4.5 mins, Silent, Color). Ellipsis (...) #5 (1998, 18 mins, Color, Music by James Tenney). Dance (2000, 6.5 mins, Silent Color). Rounds (2001, 5 mins, Silent Color). The Jesus Trilogy and Coda (2001, 20 mins, Silent, Color). Love Song #1 (2001, 12 mins, Silent, Color). Love Song #2 (2001, 13 mins, Silent, Color).