The Waiting Sands

The Waiting Sands

2013 · 5 min · ★ 8.0

My grandfather, Harry Bennett was a huge influence on me as a young artist and thinker. He was a painter and had made a living as an illustrator for gothic and romance novels in the 1960s. In the last month of his life, he was omitted to the hospital with terminal conditions. Unable to film him, I began to capture the harvest moon outside his bedroom window as a way to cope with the emotions I was experiencing. A few hours after the footage had been shot, my grandfather passed away. This footage serves as a document of his last breaths.

Directed by Margaret Rorison

Your Rating

More from Margaret RorisonSee all →

vindmøller

vindmøller · 2014

A study of the monolithic wind turbines along the shores of Amager, Copenhagen, Denmark. Triple exposed on one roll of color film, then finding four generations of grain. The soundtrack is a recorded live-improvisation by artist Mario de Vega using unstable media and acoustic resonators.

DER SPAZIERGANG

DER SPAZIERGANG · 2013

DER SPAZIERGANG

This film documents long walks throughout Berlin, Germany during the cold days of April, 2013. The film is edited in camera and composed of single frame snapshots along with longer moments of glance, captured on one 100’ roll of film. The title comes from a story by Robert Walser.

Baltimore

Baltimore · 2021

A montage of the underpopulated streets, shuddered storefronts, and crumbling cornices of Baltimore City suggests a disturbed, mind’s eye recollection of social neglect and physical decay.

Gowanus Haze

Gowanus Haze · 2012

The filmmaker returns to her old neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. The footage captures a landscape known as The Gowanus Canal, an area of Brooklyn, which was once inhabited by a productive port and industrial compound. The area is now overly polluted and is officially registered as a superfund site by the US environmental protection agency. Using the Gowanus Canal and surrounding landscape as a moment for reflection on the past, this film addresses the role of landscape and how it can work to incite memory and exercise reflection.

understory

understory · 2019

This film is an ode to navigation, an adaptation to silences, deafening cries. A personal navigation through four seasons of loss. A series of memory frames shot on expired and donated 16mm film. Shot during the years of 2012-2016 in Los Angeles, Gettysburg, and Baltimore.

Dark Logic

Dark Logic · 2015

An ode to the restricted space and surveillance in the skies.

SCANSION

SCANSION · 2012

SCANSION is a short 16mm film composed of extensive walks through various Baltimore landscapes. The film has been hand edited like a poem, where cuts function like line breaks, working to establish inherent rhythm and meter.

Gedanken aus der Luft

Gedanken aus der Luft · 2017

Gedanken aus der Luft

Polluted clouds of burning coal dominate the skies. Meditations on a shifting landscape of what once was former East Berlin.

The Road to Kalmar

The Road to Kalmar · 2015

The Road to Kalmar

She moved to Vårdinge, then to Kalmar in 1908. She left on May 8, 1909 for North America to meet a man who never showed up to greet her. She came from a family of poor farmers and made a new life when she settled in Connecticut. Her house always smelled of clean, fresh laundry. She baked sweet goods for her relatives, donuts, cakes and Swedish tortes.

Funes el memorioso

Funes el memorioso · 2014

Funes el memorioso

534 frames of Regular 8mm blown up to 16mm using the JK Optical Printer.

Memory of August

Memory of August · 2017

Memory of August

A series of moments captured in room 139. Intimate spaces of time spent with my grandmother, Margaret during a month long recovery in a rehabilitation center in Baltimore, Maryland.

PULL/DRIFT

PULL/DRIFT · 2013

This film documents a unique choreographed performance that took place one late summer afternoon in Patapsco State Park in Baltimore, Maryland. Choreographed by Clarissa Stowell Gregory and performed by The Effervescent Collective. Soundtrack composed by Josh Millrod.

The Birds of Chernobyl

The Birds of Chernobyl · 2012

The Birds of Chernobyl

MovieDocumentary

An ode to Rorison's grandfather Harry Bennett who made a living as a painter for Gothic and Romance novels in the 60s and 70s. He spent much of his life as a solitary man, committing himself to walking, philosophizing and creating.

One Document for Hope

One Document for Hope · 2015

One Document for Hope

MovieDocumentary

The sterile and procedural narrative of the Baltimore City Police Scanner recorded on Monday April 27 against precious moments of gathering, celebration and protest in Baltimore from April 28 – May 3, 2015.

emergence

emergence · 2024

A series of summer occurrences, an observation of life cycles. Shot on 16mm BW Reversal film and hand-processed by the artist.

Was It a Dream or a Memory

Was It a Dream or a Memory · 2024

Was It a Dream or a Memory

Filmed during the performance of "The Return" at CPM Gallery in Baltimore, MD on September 16, 2022. Sound, looped: "The Fields Would Slowly Overtake You" a site-specific sound and animation installation consisting of piano strings, steel channels, cold rolled steel, Arduino, motors, custom circuit boards, and animated projections by Luba Drozd.

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter