This program is guaranteed to be catnip for Marker maniacs-a sampler that spans thirty years and many modes of moviemaking. The earliest entry is the rarely seen Les astronautes, a collaboration with stop-motion master Walerian Borowczyk that anticipates the farcical collage of Monty Python. The timeless La jetée has a postapocalyptic time-traveler caught in the agonizing stillness of still images. While sojourning in the Bay Area, Marker espied the Emeryville mudflats, where local artists furtively constructed sculptures. Junkopia is his artful rendering. The owl, the wisest of birds, oversees a six-hour philosophical essay about the unsettled legacy of Greek culture; we present just one half-hour episode, “The Symposium,” to sharpen your beak. Drawing heavily upon scholars and artists from Berkeley, The Owl's Legacy covers such things as Hellenic democracy, the creation of the Self, the persistence of language-Marker's magnum (opus) bubbles over.

Les astronautes France/Poland, 1959, 12 mins, Color, 35mm, PFA Collection
La jetée France, 1963, 29 mins, In French with English titles, B&W, 35mm, PFA Collection, permission New Yorker Films
Junkopia U.S., 1981, 6 mins, Color, 35mm, PFA Collection, permission Tom Luddy
The Owl's Legacy France, 1988, excerpt (one chapter of 13), 26 mins, Color, ¾” PAL video, PFA Collection

Total running time: 73 mins