Preceded by Wold Shadow and Dante Quartet It may come as a surprise to see the formal abstractions of Stan Brakhage programmed with Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors but Brakhage's two films are as painterly and sensual as Shadows... Wold Shadow (Stan Brakhage, 1972, 3 mins) burns with luminosity, like the forest primeval, a magical, sensual moment. And Dante Quartet (Brakhage, 1987, 8 mins), originally hand-painted on IMAX, 70mm and 35mm 'scope film, has the exuberant gesture of the artist's hand, as emotionally charged as the color washing over the screen like spilled paint in Shadows.... These are passionate films, all, yet lyrical. (EK) (Both silent, Color, 16mm, From PFA, Canyon Cinema) "Paradzhanov was the first to indicate the degree to which folklore and local artistic tradition could once again become a source of visual wealth in Soviet national cinema....Set in the beautiful but fierce Carpathian mountains...in an environment of overwhelming Christian-pagan rituals, demonology, and constant struggle with the overpowering elements, where life is but 'a lightning in the sky, a cherry blossom...,' a story of love unfolds. Sensitive, perhaps over-sensitive for his environment, Ivanko is in search of happiness. Nature kills his brother and takes his loved one; man kills his father and sends Ivanko himself to the world beyond, perhaps to realize his wish to be with his beloved forever. Paradzhanov succeeded in creating a highly poetic film in the tradition of Dovzhenko. Adopting the great master's use of symbolism and metaphor, and his lyric photography, the director adds cinematographer Ilyenko's dynamically active camera suited to the requirements of his energetic and temperamental character." -Yvette Biro