Peter Herwitz in Person New York filmmaker Peter Herwitz premieres a selection of his newest works, beautiful, lyrical films, often inspired by musical compositions. "In the Shape of Waking, Parts 2, 3 and 4 (1989-90, 18 mins): The film represents a luminous waking from the darker dream world of the past portrayed in my earlier films. 2 Motets (1990, 7 mins): Music is becoming increasingly more important in my films, representation less so, as images echo and reverberate with one another; complex interweavings and layerings convey passions (in the baroque sense of the description of different affections). Short Musical Pieces: Windows (1990, 11 mins): Brief epiphanies of looking through and at transparent structures in the surrounding world. 2 Poems (1990, 4 mins, Sound on cassette): Inspired by short poems by Louis Zukofsky, the film uses two of his poems on the soundtrack, layered with musical phrases and other sounds in counterpoint with equally dense images from daily life. Winter Days (1991, 8 mins): Although the film is not terribly long, it conveys a sense of long passages of time spent indoors against the backdrop of winter days. Structured in five parts, each takes a time of day and appropriate state of mind as its theme-twilight, morning snow, etc. The Painted Light (1991, 2 mins): A painted film which takes as its premise "there can be no pure black on film" since unevenness of surface and projection causes holes, flashes of light, and color against black. The Painted Night is a sleepless night in which these flashes interrupt the dark-pure sleep I'm seeking. Our Luminous (1991, 10 mins, Sound on cassette): The first part is a collaboration with the poet Sharon Shively. Her words interweave with arias by Pergolesi and Cavalli, as well as with tender images of light, hands caressing, someone going out into the world, flashes of night, and silhouettes. The second part, in two sections, includes a "mystery sonata" which consists of elaborate sound mixings counterpointed with mystery images...In the last section...sounds of water and a Monteverdi madrigal accompany a silhouetted woman as she contemplates specks of light, her own nakedness, and her unwitting transformation into light itself." --Peter Herwitz