Still Light Presents Two by Stan Brakhage

Still Light is proud to present two films by pioneering experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, Anticipation of the Night (1958) followed by Commingled Containers (1997), both projected on 16mm.

Friday February 27th @ CineCycle

Doors at 7:00, Films at 7:30

In Anticipation of the Night (1958)—Stan Brakhage’s early career masterwork—a man awakes and sees the world in flashes of light, nondescript objects, and blurred motion. Brakhage eschews visual representation in favour of rhythm and metaphor, establishing a poetic vision of the camera’s eye. Objects are no different than formations of light, the morning sun gives way to the illuminated night of an amusement park, and the non-associative editing makes perception into a playground—suggested by the imagery of a baby crawling through the grass. In 1997, on the cusp of his cancer surgeries, Brakhage made Commingled Containers, a return to photographic cinema. The film captures the chaotic swirl of a river’s surface, then dives underneath to find forms unseeable to the eye. What could have been Brakhage’s final film, the dark images animated by luminescent shapes suggest a vision degraded to a formless flow. The film suggests a cinematic perception not unlike Anticipation of the Night—an act of seeing that seeks the poetic center of an object concealed by the appearance of its surface.

Thanks to CFMDC for their help in providing the prints and the venue, and Filip Pupovac for the great graphic design.

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