As a prelude to our evening with Stan Brakhage on November 13 and his November 14 workshop, we present one of his major contributions to experimental cinema. Dog Star Man, Brakhage's epic drama of the creation of the universe, is a brilliant instance of cinematic form creating and articulating content. A woodsman climbs a mountain, struggles with a tree, has a sexual daydream, continues to struggle with the tree, falls back down the mountain. Brakhage expands the narrative via a synthesis of all his techniques: multiple superimposition, colored filters, distorting lenses, painting–on–film, etc. The themes are as diverse as the subject matter and cinematic renderings: the relationship of man and environment, of the personal and general, of seeing and perceiving. Michael McClure wrote in Art Forum: "Dog Star Man is the most self–sufficient and innocent film.... (The) film itself becomes a dance of editing and moves as the best silent actors do....The film breathes and is an organic and surging thing...a colossal lyrical adventure dance of image in every variation of color."