Nathaniel Dorsky served on Canyon’s board several times, most recently for twelve years, until Canyon was restructured as a nonprofit in 2013. He has been making films since 1963; his move to San Francisco in 1971 figures in one. Most are 16mm, silent, and projected at 18 frames per second. With his new films, he has begun to shift away from his unique polyvalent editing to explore long sequences of light on plants, or, as he wrote in relation to Elohim, “the energy of light as creation.” His two new films are screened with two hand-painted films by Stan Brakhage, making for a silent evening, or, as Dorsky described Abaton, “a sanctuary for dreaming and healing.”

Dorsky elaborates, "For the past several years California experienced an extreme drought. Several winter rainy seasons with barely any rainfall. But this past winter good fortune brought a bountiful amount of storms and liquid refreshment. The spring that followed took on magical and celebratory qualities of energy, joy, fullness, and rebirth.

In walking distance from my apartment is San Francisco’s Arboretum located in Golden Gate Park. I decided that I would make a film now on a single subject and that subject would be the light, not the objects, but the sacredness of the light itself in this splendid garden.

Elohim was photographed in early spring, the week of the lunar new year, the very spirit of Creation. Abaton was photographed a few weeks later in the full ripeness of spring, the very purity and passion of the Garden."