Artists: Ben Rivers, Carlos Reygadas and San Brakhage
Curator: Gawan Fagard

Dog Star Man: Prelude
Stan Brakhage
United States, 1962. 16 mm. 25 min.
Silent film

Prelude is the opening statement, complete in itself, of Brakhage’s epic drama of the creation of the universe. It is a declaration both of the unity of the world and love for a woman, expressed in transcendent, cosmic terms. His images here include both the microscopic and telescopic, and range from solar explosions to brief glimpses of the beloved’s body. This Prelude to the film in four parts evokes both the birth of the universe and the formation of the individual consciousness.

The Creation As We Saw It
Ben Rivers
UK, Vanautu, 2012. 16 mm. 14 min.
OV English

Three mythical stories from the Republic of Vanuatu, an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean, concerning the origin of humans, why pigs walk on all fours, and why a volcano sits where it does.

Post Tenebras Lux (Light after Darkness)
Carlos Reygadas
Mexico, France, Netherlands, Germany, 2012. 35 mm. 115. min.

Carlos Reygadas juxtaposes computer-generated images of a fiery red devil moving like the Pink Panther with B-film horror (a man who pulls off his own head); group sex in a sauna with fairy tale-like, slightly distorted images of a young girl pacing through a majestic landscape; and an affluent man and his stunningly beautiful wife having existential discussions about their relationship(s) with shots of a junior rugby team. Reygadas compares the rough, associative and instinctive Post tenebras lux with an expressionist painting in which he makes room for his deepest feelings, his memories, dreams, desires and fears.

Language English