Altered States: Recent Experimental Cinema

Varied in their approaches and concerns, these recent experimental films and videos share an interest in altered states, whether a city reflected in a variety of distorting surfaces in Jim Jennings's Fashion Avenue or trances induced by pulsating music in Ben Russell's Black and White Trypps Number Three. In local filmmaker Vanessa O'Neill's two-projector film Suspension, an ocean horizon becomes an exquisitely abstract, shimmering color field. Jonathan Schwartz also explores transformation and impermanence in his miniature In a Year With 13 Deaths. A beautiful color study, Vincent Grenier's Les Chaises engages with the physical phenomena of a backyard while exploring the possibilities of the digital medium. Drawing on found images, way fare by Sylvia Schedelbauer depicts a psychic journey, accompanied by a powerful soundscape. Fred Worden manipulates images taken from popular culture in his playful sci-fi thriller When Worlds Collude.

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