Invocation

Chick Strand's SOFT FICTION is a personal documentary that brilliantly portrays the survival power of female sensuality. It combines the documentary approach with a sensuous lyrical expressionism. Strand focuses her camera on people talking about their own experience, capturing subtle nuances in facial expressions and gestures that are rarely seen in cinema. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 2015.

Abstract music notation and something very obvious.

with Adnan Ibrahim "Stand up and use your ears like a man" - Charles Ives

A rhythmic montage of almost 200 faces, human and animals, that Halpern pans vertically, creating a cascade of visages suggesting that while individuals express a range of emotions they remain ultimately enigmas.

The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles serves as the backdrop of Pat O’Neill’s artfully-crafted film. Shot in the classic Hollywood style, the movie follows various mysterious characters as they move through the haunted halls of the hotel, exploring along the way the secrets that are held within.

The dilapidated former house/headquarters of South Central LA's Black Panthers is at the center of a clash between radical ideals of the past, and 1980s Buppie efforts to use white-owned platforms (banks, media) to uplift the community.

A private toast. Inspired by a random encounter with this Wikipedia entry, while looking up “Chabrol, Claude” for a full listing of his films: “Faire chabrot or faire chabròl is an ancient Occitanian custom whereby at the end of a or broth, one adds red wine to the bowl to dilute the remnants and brings it to the lips to drink in big gulps.” – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Following Gage-like skull trauma, a woman’s body unravels in dissolving textures and neuronal visions.

A portrait of Jane Wodening (Brakhage). “A person who was the subject of the camera for many years looks back at us with an interrogating stare.” (Amy Halpern)

Two palindromes. One resurrection. No happy ending.

Illusions of surface, abstract to pictorial. Initially the grain of the film emulsion, complete with scratches, variations in framing – the meat of film – are the most apparent elements of all. The object shown is revealed to be a bowl of canned peaches. But even with identification, the visual illusions return – e. g., a concave surface becomes convex, the flat bottom of the bowl becomes an egg.

My mother, now 94. Filmed more than 30 years ago. (Amy Halpern)