Storm De Hirsch

An Angry Arts "protestfilm" with black and white visuals. –S. D. H.

Eighteenth century Indian miniatures enact a traditional wedding ceremony of a Hindu Prince and Princess. An exotic landscape of the mind; fable-fantasy of childhood-manhood.

Peyote Queen opens with black-and-white perforations that pulsate to the beat of drumming and escalate to light-bathed split screens and kaleidoscopic effects. Switching to lively organ accompaniment, the film pours out a stream of simple scratchings that rollick across the screen. Fish, breasts, flowers, boats, water, lips, hearts, stars—the hieroglyphs explode with color and celebrate the female creative force. The surge slows with the return of ritual drumming, this time with chanting, and a self-reflective coda. -- National Film Preservation Foundation

"Cine-Sonnet. Rome to Venice. A study of time in motion. An accelerated montage of reflections and landscapes framed in the window of an express train running from Rome to Venice. Dedicated to the writings of J.W. Dunne, the collage of Kurt Schwitters and the cubistic paintings of Braque." –S.D.H.

A meditation upon the interior space of London’s Heathrow Airport, contrasting the ceaseless movements of the silhouetted passengers against the angles of the metal structural framing which are then replicated upon the reflective surfaces of the building’s floors and windows, rendering them as ephemeral as the human figures that pass through this nexus.

A dramatic feature shot on location in Rome. Centered around the adventures and illusions of three girls living abroad, the film explores their restlessness and personal involvements in assuming the role of woman as hunter.

A study of the architecture of the Jefferson Market building in Manhattan which employs quick, probing camera work and intentionally arrhythmic editing in stark contrast to the Venetian Gothic styling of the facade’s architectural details. In three brief sections, the film details the exterior windows and turrets, then, in stark contrast from within the darkened interior, demonstrates the play of light through the stained glass windows. In the final segment, the camera returns to the building’s exterior, but now its sightline is impaired by a chain link fence, possibly in an allusion to the structure’s origin as a courthouse and prison for women. The final shots focus on the plaque affixed to the exterior, which states, “…constructed in 1876 and served as a women’s court until 1932. Of particular interest are its turrets, tracery windows, ironwork and sculpture.”

Hudson River Diary: Book 1 "Chronicles the journey of a train named Cayuga as it travels from New York to Poughkeepsie. There is something profoundly sentimental as you make the trip. You may never have been to this part of the world but you are concerned and you care about it after you see the film." – Bob Lermann, Today's Filmmaker