The PDX Fest, Day 2.2

7:15pm Screening: "A Quest of Origins - Films by Larry Gottheim"
Included: "Our Television Traveler," 16mm, 17'00, and "Tree of Knowledge (Elective Affinities IV)," 16mm, 58'00

This program got off to a rocky start with projection problems, but Larry handled them with grace and great humor. This proved to be fortuitous as his humor probably helped to defuse potential over-serious analysis as well as open the viewing experience to the amount of play going on in his mind and the films we ended up seeing.

The first piece shown, "Our Television Traveler," appeared to be made up of loops of specific lengths. These loops built on top of themselves with each repeat. For instance, the first loop seemed comprised of footage showing second and third stage rocket separations in outer space. This visual loop was combined with an audio loop of a Spanish conversation. When these two loops repeated for the second time, a third loop was added in, and so on for perhaps five total loops. This is very dense work, so multiple viewings are in order and I can't attest to the accuracy of my breakdown of the film's structure.

The second piece, "Tree of Knowledge (Elective Affinities IV)," also appeared to be structured in a loop pattern, but a much more extended pattern that appeared to also loop back on itself, repeating the opening scene as the ending scene. As to whether there was an actual fulcrum point in the film, I am uncertain. This piece was far more complex than the first and, based upon its construction I would guess that repeat viewings would reveal new subtleties each time. Part of that comes from our brain's struggle to make connections between what is being seen, what is being heard, what is remembered from earlier moments, and what is anticipated from upcoming moments. I feel Larry affirmed this experience when he spoke about returning to these works himself as a result of the restoration they recently underwent. Having not watched his older work for some time, he implied that he was discovering (rediscovering?) connections and layers he had not seen before or forgotten about.

It was quite interesting to hear direct responses from other people after viewing another of Larry's films ("Harmonica") in the workshop sponsored by the Cinema Project which took place at the Northwest Film Center. Consisting of one continuous take of a man improvising on harmonica in the back seat of a moving vehicle, I was very pleased to hear people talking about breaking away from the performance to notice the surrounding events such as loose fabric in the vehicle flapping in the wind, houses or guard rails passing by, hills in the distance prominent at one point but then the harmonica player's hand slapping his knee taking prominence at another. I think one of the great strengths of Larry's work is the space it allows for film audiences to learn to observe on an experiential level rather than pursue or be fed specific objectives. Some people will discover this in his work and others won't. That will probably also determine whether they like his work or not.

The complexity of Larry's work perhaps explains why I find myself being so vague on what was actually going on within his films. They are so open that one finds personal points of relation (personal justification of relations?) that are consistently shifting. At the same time, because of the finite material included, the pieces feel very closed. I found myself shifting between those two states of mind, finding connection and drifting from connection. In his workshop Larry said "I am a mass of contradictions." That was a very revealing comment which helped me better understand how the work was affecting me personally--besides reminding me of my own mass of contradictions. I expect I would react to his work differently with every viewing, not only because of the new connections I make with each viewing but also as a result of whatever emotional condition I happened to be in at the time. Though I've seen hundreds, if not thousands, of films by now, I've not experienced that many films, experimental, avant-garde, narrative or otherwise, about which I would make that claim.