Migration

Migration

1969 · 11 min · ★ 6.0 · Documentary

"Whereas SQUARE INCH FIELD was composed largely in the camera, Rimmer's next film, MIGRATION, made full use of rear-projection rephotography, stop-framing, and slow motion. The migration of the title is interpreted as the flight of a ghost bird through aeons of space/time, through the micro-macro universe, through a myriad of complex realities. A seagull is seen flying gracefully in slow motion against a grainy green sky; suddenly the frame stops, warps and burns, as though caught in the gate of the projector. Now begins an alternation of fast and slow sequences in which the bird flies through time-lapse clouds and fog and, in a stroboscopic crescendo, hurtles into the sun's corona. Successive movements of the film develop rhythmic, organic counterpoints in which cosmic transformations send jelly fish into the sky and ocean waves into the sun." - Gene Youngblood. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.

Directed by David Rimmer

Your Rating

Make it a double feature

2h 3m together

Migration

Hearts and Minds

A close match in mood and era.

More from David RimmerSee all →

Local Knowledge

Local Knowledge · 1992

Local Knowledge

"David Rimmer's film is at once a somber and celebratory meditation on time and place. Its title, 'Local Knowledge', is marine terminology for what a skipper must know when navigating dangerous waters. Rimmer is an experienced sailor and the film's spiritual and geographical center is aptly named Storm Bay, where he spends his summers. But it's a troubled site. The camera, moving with tide and swell, seems to strain anxiously at its anchor and it becomes clear from here on in nothing will ever be at rest. Local Knowledge won't save anyone anymore. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2015.

Along the Road to Altamira

Along the Road to Altamira · 1986

Along the Road to Altamira

"The lateral movement of the title "Along the Road to Altamira" signals that we are about to embark on a journey through Spain. Our final destination is Altamira, where the first forms of representation by Paleolithic man still remain. These images, a narrator tells us in German, would have remained undiscovered if not for the childish curiosity and unconditioned vision of the young girl who noticed the ancient paintings of bison on the cave ceiling.

Bricolage

Bricolage · 1984

A TV movie sequence is repeated in slow motion: the sound gradually gets out of sync with the image. The point moves on the soundtrack while the viewer anticipates the meeting of the image and sound.

Watching for the Queen

Watching for the Queen · 1973

Watching for the Queen

Watching for the Queen continued Rimmer's investigations of minimal narrative and the anonymous/autonomous shot. Pattern recognition, saccadic eye movement and feature rings are well known phenomena in the behavioral sciences. However, in Watching for the Queen, Rimmer has succeeded in employing these mechanisms in the telling of a story, by employing mathematical ordering in an aesthetic manner. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.

Narrows Inlet

Narrows Inlet · 1980

Starting with a boat swaying on its anchor at the head of an inlet, a landscape of pilings, shore, and forest is slowly revealed by time-lapse photography as the morning fog lifts. While the deep space of the landscape evolves out of the fog-enshrouded flatness of early morning, the camera skips from fixed point to fixed point - suggesting the motion of the human eye while reading.

Seashore

Seashore · 1971

The basic image derives from a shot of women in (Edwardian era) dresses standing along the edge of the ocean. Within this eight-second loop, [Rimmer] cuts shorter ones. For example, the activity of a central group of three women is cut so that the figures repeat certain motions over and over and over again... Rimmer also chose to use the forms of surface imperfections, the scratches and dirt patterns, as bases for his loops... Although working in a disciplined style of re-structuring cinematic forms, his highly orchestrated creations have inspired great admiration both from cineastes and the more general public. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.

Treefall

Treefall · 1970

"Treefall" was originally made for a dance performance at the Vancouver Art Gallery, April, 1970. Structured in the form of two loops of high-contrast images of trees falling, reprinted and overlapped. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.

As Seen on TV

As Seen on TV · 1986

The structure of the film alternates between looped, processed stock TV imagery and a blank, static blue screen. This formal motif - a blank frame or screen onto which the artist projects imagery which expresses inner emotions and anxieties - is a motif which recurs throughout Rimmer's filmic oeuvre. As Seen on TV is a moving film which conveys a deep-seated human experience.

Fracture

Fracture · 1973

Variously relaxed, apprehensive, or relieved, the fractured gestures of a woman and a baby are played backward and forward, frame by frame, like a musical phrase. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.

An Eye for an Eye

An Eye for an Eye · 2003

An Eye for an Eye

An experimental film by David Rimmer (2003) which was influenced by or done to be performed at 'Rave' concerts which Rimmer was fond of attending in the 2000's. The relationship / resemblance of this film to 'light shows' (live projections) of the 1960's is unmistakable as an influence." -Al Razutis

Blue Movie

Blue Movie · 1970

Blue Movie was made for the international Dome Show where it was projected down onto the muslin surface of David Rimmer's geodesic dome. The audience lay on the floor looking up at it, the inside of each eye finishing the globe. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

Canadian Pacific I

Canadian Pacific I · 1974

Canadian Pacific I

MovieDocumentary

Canadian Pacific I is made up of a series of slowly dissolved shots done from the same framing over several months. The camera frames a window with a railway yard in the foreground, a bay in the space behind it, and misty mountains in the extreme distance. Trains occasionally pass by in the foreground. Huge ships move across the bay. Blue mists hover over the mountain heads.

The Dance

The Dance · 1970

With an irresistible humour, Rimmer speculates in The Dance on the nature of the film loop. We see a (1920s) couple whilring around a dance floor at a dizzying pace... Uncanny in its ability to evoke complexity of responses from a simplicity of means. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2015.

Gathering Storm

Gathering Storm · 2003

Gathering Storm

A hauntingly beautiful film about the world's flight into chaos. Rimmer has taken McLaren's camera-less technique to new heights. He paints directly on clear 35mm leader, using odd materials such as household cleaners, varnish, inks and sometimes fish scales and ferns. He feeds the loops through a film editing machine, overlays them with music and records the result with a mini DV camera. A production of the National Film Board of Canada.

Know Place

Know Place · 1967

MovieDocumentary

Short documentary on the alternative, open education of 'Know Place', seemingly some kind of rural arts school retreat.

Collective

Collective · 2008

MovieAnimationMusic

Animated music video featuring montage of various performers overlaid by psychedelic/trance visuals.

More Like This

Hoop Dreams

Hoop Dreams · 1994

MovieDocumentary

Every school day, African-American teenagers William Gates and Arthur Agee travel 90 minutes each way from inner-city Chicago to St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominately white suburban school well-known for the excellence of its basketball program. Gates and Agee dream of NBA stardom, and with the support of their close-knit families, they battle the social and physical obstacles that stand in their way. This acclaimed documentary was shot over the course of five years.

Hearts and Minds

Hearts and Minds · 1974

Hearts and Minds

MovieDocumentaryWar

Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.

Harlan County U.S.A.

Harlan County U.S.A. · 1976

Harlan County U.S.A.

MovieDocumentary

A heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.

Burden of Dreams

Burden of Dreams · 1982

Burden of Dreams

MovieDocumentary

The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter